Wednesday, July 10, 2019

Pontiac’s Instant Aire tire pump, wasn't available with the Ram Air III or IV, or the 6 cylinder, but would pump up tires, or beach balls, etc to 32 psi. They sell on Ebay for around 600 dollars, NIB, NOS

How is it this is the first time I'm ever seeing the La Femme purse?


The 1955 Dodge La Femme (Custom Royal Lancer twin) had a custom purse, rain coat, rain bonnet and umbrella that fit in special holders on the back of the front seats

https://forums.hagerty.com/t/question-of-the-week-what-s-the-weirdest-automotive-feature-you-ve-ever-seen/23112/49

Incredible save, rotten track

Thie motorcycle was built as a result of economic solutions rather than engineering designs, with VW car engines, and Ford brakes



in 1977 Daniel F Rodrigues took notice, and advantage, of the police force and Army Harleys falling apart in Brazil, and promised a locally built replacement that would take advantage of the VW factory which could supply engines.

Rodrigues produced a claimed 450 of these motorcycles. Sold to the public in different configuration’s (sport, touring and such) to meet customer demands. They were also used as Highway Patrol, police and military bikes. This bike is a 1983 “Super Sport”.

The local San Paulo govt was so impressed they gave him a contact before he'd actually built one.

Because of the colossal debt incurred over the previous quarter-century, anything not made in Brazil, such as big motorcycles, were either not imported or were heavily taxed, often tripling the price

Rodrigues set up shop in his garage, and built bikes with the 1300 for cheap bikes, and, the 1600 for those who wanted 50 hp. He put an 8 gallon fuel tank on it for 300 miles of use before needing to find a gas station

But, instead of using the flat four as a stressed member of the chassis, the engineer chose to build a clumsy cradle frame and shoehorn the engine inside. There was a little trouble with the VW 4-speed transmission, which did not seem to take kindly to being altered to utilize a foot-shift, using a Brazilian-made drum. Reverse gear was included, shifted via a hand lever down behind the rider’s right heel.

Just as the chassis was an error caused by shadetree mechanics, so was the suspension, and it would have been fine for a small truck... but it wasn't right for a motorcycle of less than a 1000 pounds

https://ridermagazine.com/2015/06/01/retrospective-amazonas-1600-1977-1989/


of course, a Porsche engine would work too.

http://suprememotos.com/bsa/189618-amazonas-vw-powered-motorcycle-bmw-honda-harley-guzzi-triumph-bsa-bug-bus-ghia.html
https://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/model/Custom%20Bikes/amazonas_1600.htm

Tuesday, July 09, 2019

Coffee and donuts video, One of the best of these Barn Find Hunter videos of watching Tom Cotter wander through private junkyards and abandoned cars, with an amazing variety from tri power Olds, to 63 VW splitty vans, and VW bugs, to T birds, and Model As



This time he found a gold mine. A daughter shows Tom Cotter around her dad's junkyard, and garages, which have been sitting lost in time since the early 70s. Some of their family cars wound up here, and several cars that her dad scored, like a 53 Cadillac, Ford Victorias, Rancheros and station wagons, convertibles, that he parked in barns and garage stalls.

A must see video that explores a collection being sorted out and saved by family members, with the junk being sent to the scrap heaps, and the great stuff being saved.

Skip the first 12 minutes, though it's ok, it's wasting your time. Get right to the good stuff!

And the WONDERFUL shocking thing about it all? It's only 5 miles away from Hagerty headquarters in Traverse City Michigan! Why's that great? This collection can get extra love and attention from the people that care so damn much about cool old cars!

todays banners





the LA Times has just begun a podcast series on Big Willie


LA Times Studios launched “Larger Than Life,” a docu-series about Big Willie Robinson. Reported and hosted by Times staff writer Daniel Miller

There is a short video to introduce it on https://twitter.com/latimes/status/1147661506349346817

but NOT on youtube, Vimeo, or daily motion,... nothing I can use to embed the video here so you can check it out without clicking through. The podcast is available on Apple, Spotify and Stitcher, just not I Heart Radio

but you can read the LA Times article about Big Willie and the Street Racers: https://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-larger-than-life-street-racing-podcast-20190709-htmlstory.html

https://www.latimes.com/projects/larger-than-life-podcast/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/largerthanlifepodcast/

Some extremely expensive collection cars are going to auction this July 31 through August 3. Some for probably the dozenth time; Sox and Martin and Landy drag racers, but there are some cars you might not have seen before


there are a half dozen or more Landy dragsters


and a couple Baldwin Motion Phase 3 cars






https://www.mecum.com/auctions/harrisburg-2019/collections/todd-werner-collection/

Coming to Netflix on July 19th

A woman helicopter pilot who served in WWII and then opened Juneau’s first helicopter company celebrates her 100th birthday


Nancy Livingston Stratford, nee Miller,  started out studying psychology, with hopes of becoming a schoolteacher. But after her brother took her on her first flight in 1935, she was hooked.

She trained as an “aviatrix” — female aviator — at Oakland Airport and in 1942 was recruited for the Air Transport Auxiliary of the Royal Air Force in the U.K.

After the war she returned to California to find work as a commercial pilot, but the industry was dominated by men and finding a job was difficult. But she didn’t let that stop her flying. In 1947, she became the first woman on the west coast and the fourth woman in the world to receive her helicopter rating, according to the archives at Texas Woman’s University. She earned her seaplane rating that same year.

At that time she was the only helicopter pilot in Oregon and flew a Hiller 12B as flight instructor! Nancy was one of the first helicopter crop duster pilots. Also, she flew other missions such as air shows, photoflights and fighting wildfires.

After working as a commercial helicopter pilot in Oregon, she and her husband, Arlo Livingston, moved to Juneau and in 1960 founded Livingston Copters, at what is now NorthStar Helicopters on the Douglas Highway.

The Livingstons cleared trees for the landing pad and hangar, and lived in a small trailer on the property. As the business expanded, other homes were built for pilots to live in with their families, and after many years, sold their business in 1978 and moved to Anacortes, Washington. Nancy was forced to give up her pilot’s license in 1970 because of hearing loss caused by so many years of flying.

She gathered her memoirs and made a book with the help of her niece: https://www.amazon.com/Contact-Britain-Pilots-During-England/dp/1453787836


She flew over 100 types of aircraft over her career, she served in WWII, she owned and operated the first and for a long time, only helicopter company in Juneau. She recently celebrated her 100th birthday at her home in Carlsbad, California, and has remarkable total PIC time of 8500 flighttime hours.

https://www.juneauempire.com/news/juneaus-1st-woman-helicopter-pilot-turns-100
https://twudigital.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16283coll1/id/47
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/living-legend-nancy-livingston-stratford-renate-buchner

Wrangler vs Landcruiser sales ... it's a drumming

240,000 to 3200.

Editorial article in Hagerty magazine

Kleenex warning... might be needed, might not




 Hagerty magazine letters from readers and collector car insurance customers

looks stressful

A special Delorean was ordered by the guy who owned BMX and Mongoose, but worked up into looking great by adding graphics by Kenny Youngblood





This one-of-a-kind Delorean was built in ’82–83 for its original owner, Skip Hess, the founder of BMX Products, the Motomag Wheel and Mongoose Bicycles.

Gary Hall, who owned Hall Pantera in Los Angeles and Fat Jack Robinson formed a partnership called Ultra Cars and Components, they hired Kenny Youngblood as their graphic designer.  Hess had it shipped to them from the dealership for the tires, rims, paint, and engine upgrades

Hess sold it at auction in 1986, and it remained in the hands of a collector until 2017 when it was listed on Ebay, but didn't sell, and the current owner made a deal with the seller

https://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/articles/2019/04/19/custom-mongoose-bmx-inspired-delorean#

a 5th gold plated Delorean has been found, covered in dust in a Michigan warehouse, and it's not a 1981 American Express Xmas special edition, it's a 1983 customer funded gold plated car


The above 1983 Delorean just showed up in Hagerty magazine, it’s unclear exactly when (or why) the car was finished in 24-karat gold.


 Cooper Classics, a classic car dealership in New York, advertised the rare DeLorean as a "no mileage," "never registered" example. In June 2017, it showed up again at a court-ordered auction in Flint, Michigan, where it displayed its current 156 miles.

The 1983 DeLorean has reportedly been in the same collection for 27 years, and sold in 1990 for a whopping $100,000.


This 1981 Delorean was at  the Oblivion Car Show in Toronto in June 2019 and is probably the one from La Vale Maryland , or it's the one that disappeared into Canada in the 80s
https://twitter.com/oblivioncarshow/status/1143688765535338496


In September 2013, that third car (Banker got car one, entrepreneur got car two) featured on the cover of a color section of the British Sunday Times newspaper after it became a ‘barn find’ in the USA. It had surfaced in a remote part of the state of Maryland, owned by an octogenarian collector, named Carl Winters, who had kept it under a dust sheet in his garage since 1999.

He claimed he bought the car after seeing it advertised in a newspaper. Since buying it, apart from the occasional display at local shopping centres, the gold-plated DeLorean had not moved and was in mint condition. Winters planned to sell it and with gold prices at a then-all-time high, along with the car’s rarity, advertised it for sale at $250,000. It is thought to remain unsold and now resides in a private collection in La Vale, Maryland.


and the one in the Petersen museum

There is one in Reno as well, from the Harrah Museum, and I'm not aware yet where the 5th is.

https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-1979-christmas-delorean-in-gold.html

To plate such large panels, only one company was found to be capable based on equipment size,
the large German chemical conglomerate Degussa.

Degussa’s payment terms demanded the gold itself should be paid for up-front, $45,000 for the gold. Despite their impressive facilities, a larger purpose-built plating vat was required, estimated to cost $37,000. By comparison, the plating process itself represented a meagre $15,000. In view of the number of unknowns relating to the likelihood of success, Degussa went the whole hog and asked for a total (including ancillary costs) of $131,000 up front.

All for three sets of panels and door assemblies, one each for the two cars bearing a selling price premium of $60,000 each, and a third in case anything went wrong, and things did. In shipping, one door arrived damaged, and it's replacement was hand delivered, held up in customs, but made it to the plating in time, but not enough time for lacquering. No matter, it was damaged on the way to Ireland.

Then to add to everyone's stress, no trucks were allowed to travel in Germany on the weekend, except fruit trucks, so, one was hired, and the 3 sets of panels and doors were trucked immediately to Ireland.

The two cars were duly shipped to the USA and customs clearance and onward transportation went smoothly, and the two cars were delivered to the Texas banker, and the Californian entrepreneur. Both owners loaned the 1981 Deloreans to museums (Harrah and Petersen)

We had crazy high hopes for AMC after they made the American, the SC Rambler, the Machine, and the AMX... but they ran out of gas before they could impress us with another cool little car



they had a lot going for them, 2 seaters, or buckets and a rumble seat, cool wings/air foils, world records, and best of all, they weren't Chevys, Fords, or Foreign.

You could hope for amazing things from AMC for a year or two, after all, they made Hurst Super Stock cars too!

And other than the Hurst Barracuda and Hurst Dart, was there really any factory race car that you'd give a fortune for? Well, the Mopar factory altered wheelbase cars, sure... but nothing else was legit exciting except maybe the Shelby Cobra and Shelby Mustang.

stupid trivia - what vehicle is made and used in the USA that is right hand drive (steering and driver in the normal passenger side of the vehicle)

answer, US Postal delivery vans

spotted on the back of a Lexus coming back from lunch


argumentative

One of the MOST important lessons learned in the Northridge earthquake was the vulnerability of “soft story” bldgs. Built and popularized in the 1950s through the 1970s they have 1st story carports

the Ridgecrest 7.1 earthquake DID cause some damage I am finally now learning of (no clue what billion dollars worth the politicians are referring to though)

Road and Track used to be a cool magazine 50 years ago, and a fantastic photo was all it needed on the cover for a little while