https://www.instagram.com/p/DGvWo5Fxnse/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=fba4eb41-50ad-4cfb-99fc-4e24eb81788f&img_index=1
Friday, March 14, 2025
Just found a pin up Tumblr site
Here's the story all over Facebook today... a 69 Camaro was dropped off at Pop and Son Auto Body in Chesapeake VA by a guy in the military heading to Japan so it would be done when he gets back... but if things had went as planned, you'd never hear stories, would you?
Dropped off with enough brand new sheetmetal to replace literally everything on the car, thousands of dollars worth, a newly rebuilt 454, Muncie 4-speed, and $18,000 cash.
Buys a 6.0 LS engine from them for $1500.
He then goes on deployment to Japan because he's Navy.
They decide they don't want to fix this car so they tell him he needs to buy a donor car.
They tell him they found one for somewhere around 5k, he sends the money.
No car was bought, they say it was sold before they got to it.
Then they find a 68 Firebird that's been converted to a Camaro, they need another $2,300 so he sends it and they buy that car.
Plan is to convert it to a 69 Camaro with his new sheetmetal parts and swap vins.
A YEAR later they haven't touched it, refused to release the car to the point it took going to court.
Today, Ted went to get his cars and parts for him because he's still deployed and this is ALL he got.
No parts, no 68 Firebird, no engines
No parts, no 68 Firebird, no engines
Thursday, March 13, 2025
This is very strange, Ford maintained a collection in 3 other countries... but it didn't have one in the USA... must have been tax reasons is all I can figure. Anyway, the Ford CEO finally decided it was time to make a collection in Detroit, of 50 of them
Ford has around 500 vehicles in its Heritage Fleet, and prior to last year, these vehicles were scattered around different global locations, at least, until CEO Jim Farley requested that they be brought together.
In the UK, Ford opened a brand new Heritage and Innovation Center with 120 different models a few years ago
the team behind the Ford Heritage Fleet began working to identify what vehicles should be included, with historical significance remaining the key motivating factor here. Ultimately, it wound up amassing a rather impressive array of models from Blue Oval history, including a 1914 Model T replica built for Ford’s 100th anniversary, a 1938 V8 Ambulance, a 2000 Ford Ranger EV pickup truck, and the Ford F-150 Lightning driven by former President Joe Biden, all of which are part of the Archives Collection.
From the product development fleet, FoMoCo gathered up some Ford Bronco concepts, the Ford F-150 Atlas concept, and a Transit Connect Taxi concept. The communications fleet contains vehicles from various auto shows and the Ford Mustang that was placed top the Empire State Building years ago, as well as the 10 millionth pony car produced. Finally, the Ford Performance fleet contains vehicles such as the 2004 and 2017 Ford GT, the engineering bucks used to develop both, and a variety of Mustang Shelby GT350, GT500, and KR models
https://fordauthority.com/2025/03/ford-reveals-new-u-s-heritage-fleet/
While Ford has traditionally maintained heritage collections in England, Australia, and Germany, that wasn’t the case in North America, as many of those vehicles were either sold to the public or donated to the Henry Ford Museum.
From the product development fleet, FoMoCo gathered up some Ford Bronco concepts, the Ford F-150 Atlas concept, and a Transit Connect Taxi concept. The communications fleet contains vehicles from various auto shows and the Ford Mustang that was placed top the Empire State Building years ago, as well as the 10 millionth pony car produced. Finally, the Ford Performance fleet contains vehicles such as the 2004 and 2017 Ford GT, the engineering bucks used to develop both, and a variety of Mustang Shelby GT350, GT500, and KR models
https://fordauthority.com/2025/03/ford-reveals-new-u-s-heritage-fleet/
common sense finally prevails now that the intellectually impaired former president is out of office...
The US Environmental Protection Agency is throwing out fuel economy regulations that were planned to go into effect from 2026 through 2032. The new regulations would have required automakers to sell many more electric vehicles
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/03/the-epa-is-scrapping-fuel-economy-regs-claiming-it-will-bring-back-us-jobs/
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/03/the-epa-is-scrapping-fuel-economy-regs-claiming-it-will-bring-back-us-jobs/
most of you won't recall that California had some idiotic idea that no cars with less than 50 mpg would be sold in the state... and then the deadline for such lunacy came around 5 or 10 years later, and no surprise, the magic vehicle didn't get made by Detroit, and California repealed that stupid nonsense. That was like 15 or 20m years ago... no, I don't want to waste time looking that up to get the accurate info. If you need it, you look it up. I've got better things to do
The point is, stupid goals that make the incumbant's party voters happy are what they pass into law, just before election year, in hopes of paying off a campaign promise years after getting elected, just in hopes of getting re-elected. Or that's the way it seems to me.
An aircrew with the Alaska Army Guard pulled off a rare helo-to-train landing during a cold-weather medical exercise for special operations troops in February, balancing their HH-60M Black Hawk on a narrow flat car.
For some strange reason, someone with a lot of brass on thier shoulder though that testing the idea of a train used for evacuating wounded, with a helicopter delivering the wounded from the front lines, made sense. Who the hell has a medical facility/hospital train? That is stupid.
The Guard crew’s skill on the touchdown impressed their active duty counterparts during Special Operation Forces Arctic Medic 2025, a major exercise held in Alaska in February that brought together Guard, conventional, and special ops teams from active duty, Coast Guard elements, and federal law enforcement, as well as civilian medical teams. The train was stationary for the helicopter landing but then began moving again to continue with the simulated evacuation. “After the helicopter departed, the train returned to the station while follow-on medical training was happening aboard,” a guard spokesperson told Task & Purpose.
The flight, the Alaska Guard said in a release, was part of an exercise to evaluate how patients who are chemically or biologically contaminated might be moved via a hospital train. Soldiers on the train unloaded supplies from the helicopter while it was perched on the platform and Staff Sgt. Steven Gildersleeve, a critical care flight paramedic, was hoisted onto the train to medically evaluate and evacuate a simulated patient.I just learned how the Miata came about... it wasn't because Mazda wanted to make an incredible sports car to rival the previous generation of British sportscars. Nope. A Motor Trend journalist in the 70s had to convince a Mazda engineer to make it!
In the late ‘70s, Bob Hall embarked on a new career as an automotive journalist at Motor Trend.
As a teenager, he spent a lot of time in Japan, giving him the opportunity to learn and speak Japanese.
For his whole life, Hall was surrounded by interesting cars. His father was a ''car guy'' of the highest order, running European machines, including MG, Triumph, Austin-Healey and Alfa Romeo – the purest forms of the light and simple open-top sports car.
But the era Hall found himself in as a young writer was killing off these types of vehicles
Hall witnessed the shift in Japanese cars firsthand and came to admire the way Mazda persisted with developing sport models powered by the rotary engine. He couldn’t help but think how nice it would be to have a car that would blend Japanese technology and reliability with the fun experience that the British sports cars provided.
In April 1979, Hall had the opportunity to visit the Mazda headquarters in Hiroshima. He was able to tell Kenichi Yamamoto, then head of Mazda Research and Development, about his dream automobile, explaining how easy it would be to create a convertible 323 which had a front-engine, rear-wheel drive layout (which Ford made into the Probe)
Following the meeting, Hall had dinner with Yamamoto, but there was no mention of the lightweight sports car. He didn’t give up, though, and suggested Yamamoto should try driving a Triumph Spitfire one day. Eventually, the Japanese engineer drove the Spitfire on the picturesque roads around Hakone. The rest, as they say, is history...
In April 1979, Hall had the opportunity to visit the Mazda headquarters in Hiroshima. He was able to tell Kenichi Yamamoto, then head of Mazda Research and Development, about his dream automobile, explaining how easy it would be to create a convertible 323 which had a front-engine, rear-wheel drive layout (which Ford made into the Probe)
Following the meeting, Hall had dinner with Yamamoto, but there was no mention of the lightweight sports car. He didn’t give up, though, and suggested Yamamoto should try driving a Triumph Spitfire one day. Eventually, the Japanese engineer drove the Spitfire on the picturesque roads around Hakone. The rest, as they say, is history...
I was in RSF, so I had to look and see what the price of gas pump 100 octane is now... this is the only pump I know of in the whole county that sells the good stuff, Sunoco 100 octane
back in 2008 they sold VP brand, from a 3 hose pump https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2008/05/unique-gas-station-is-pumping-100.html
in 2019 the price was 5 for the cheap, and 10 for the 100 octane https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2019/03/i-just-discovered-that-there-is-new.html
OMFG, does Rancho Santa Fe really want to be that sort of snobby town that they fake post a cop cruiser on the edge of town? Geeez, what a revolting way to put your core traits out in public
Yes, empty. makes me want to put a big damn sign on the windshield.... it would either say "welcome to putzville" or "No Cop, No Stop!" or something similarly derogatory toward the town for such a stupid display of wasting money on doing NOTHING.... fix a pothole you mooks!
learning stuff every day... I saw APR 1 under the brake light, and had no idea what the hell that was... April Fools Day edition?
vanity plates cause me to wonder what they mean... and this one? Is sorta odd
We know Jag models start with an X.
XKR in this case... but CP50?
I looked that up and very strangely, Google returned with "Jaguar guitar distortion pedal". How crazy is that?
The CP50 is still a mystery, but the similarity to a model number of a guitar distortion pedal is just uncanny... that a CP510 is Jaguar guitar pedal, and this Jag license plate is CP50, whatever the hell that is
So, does anyone have a guess what the hell this plate is supposed to mean to the reader?
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
artist Joshua Vides, who recently applied his custom, hand-drawn wrap to this 911 as well as a couple other cars as part of a pop-up art installation he called Check Engine Light.
3 brand names in the car guy hall of fame... Hilborn, Hamburger (well, I doubt hamburger belongs in the hall of fame), and Goodyear, and they together made something that you ain't gonna believe without pictures, because there's nothing automotive or rubber about it.
.webp)
It's the leather carry case for a USN officers ceremonial sword, how nuts is that?!
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
In 1960, Camoradi was able to acquire two “competition optioned Corvettes plus spare parts, technical advice as needed and a financial testing contract” with a little help from Corvette engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov.
Delivered with 283-cubic-inch/290-hp fuel-injected engines, heavy-duty brakes and suspension, and larger fuel tanks.
The Corvettes started their racing career off right, with one cruising to an overall win at the Gran Premio de la Habana, then following up three days later with a GT class win at the Gran Premio de la Cuba finale.
A Porsche dealer in Seattle put their cars on the floor of a Costco, and they sold out in a week according to Costco's chairman Hamilton James, chairman of the company since 1988
Emma Ely bought her '70 Camaro SS in new from the dealer in 1970, and by July 2008, the 72-year-old had driven it more than 1,104,000 miles
In the 1990s, the Camaro was rear-ended at a stop sign. As a result of this accident and her extensive time on the road, Ely had the car repainted twice throughout her ownership.
She had the oil changed approximately 368 times
She averaged about 29k miles per year
The stock muffler lasted 13 years; the Midas muffler was going on 25-plus
1984 911 Turbo slant nose, custom built for the founder of Hawaiian Tropic by Porsche's most exclusive division, the Sonderwunsch /"Special Wishes" department
Hawaiian Tropic was also one of the sponsors on Paul Newman's red Porsche 935 that finished second at Le Mans in 1979
In the 1980s he grew his company to the point that he could afford to lend his Lamborghini Countach to the production of The Cannonball Run.
New lead in 1958 cold case of missing family prompts underwater search, confirms identity of the Martin family
Police initially speculated that the family's car may have crashed into the river, though the circumstances surrounding the event could not be fully explained. Complicating the case was the discovery of a stolen handgun and the arrest of two ex-convicts in the area the day after the family's disappearance. Investigators were unable to determine if the incidents were in any way connected.
The whereabouts of Kenneth, Barbara and Barbie remain undetermined. Their vehicle was discovered in 2024. The family's disappearance has been described as one of the "most baffling" mysteries in Oregon history, and it sparked the greatest manhunt the state had undertaken at the time.
During the search, a .38 Colt Commander handgun was found, which had been disposed of in the bushes and was covered in dried blood.
The handgun was turned over to law enforcement but never processed for evidence. The gun's serial number was traced to a Meier & Frank department store. It was discovered that the gun had been among several sporting good items that the Martins' son Donald had been accused of stealing while working at a Meier and Frank two years prior. Donald, aged 28 when his family disappeared, was a United States Navy veteran and graduate student at Columbia University in New York City at the time
In December 1966, Donald—the only surviving member of the family—inherited the family's "modest" estate, which had been in mandated probate for seven years. He later moved to Kapolei, Hawaii, and became a teacher at James Campbell High School, Ê»Ewa Beach. Donald died in October 2004, at the age of 73, leaving three children behind.
On May 1, 1959, three months after the tire tracks were reported, a river drilling rig near The Dalles reportedly hooked something of substantial weight to its anchor. It became dislodged before it could be pulled to the surface. In the early morning hours of May 2, a fisherman and his wife reported seeing what appeared to be two bodies floating downstream near Cascade Locks. They later encountered the bodies near Bonneville Dam.
On the afternoon of May 3, the body of Susan was discovered on the north bank of the Columbia River, near Camas, Washington, roughly 70 miles west of The Dalles. Her identity was positively confirmed via dental records. The next morning, the body of Virginia was discovered near Bonneville Dam, roughly 46 miles west of The Dalles
The vehicle was located approximately 50 feet below the water's surface, buried beneath rock, silt, and other debris, and was unearthed using a vacuum dredge. Several other vehicles were also found in the process.
Recovery efforts began last Thursday. Portions of the vehicle, including the chassis, rear axle and engine, were extracted and sent to the Oregon State crime laboratory for examination.
Four Tesla Cybertrucks caught fire in Seattle just after 11 p.m. on Sunday in a Tesla storage lot
Evan Sutton, an organizer with Tesla Takedown, said that the group is interested in lowering the stock price of Tesla to "send a clear message to Musk and to Donald Trump." However, he said the group is "not interested in damaging vehicles or harming people or property."
"One of my closest friends is a firefighter and putting out an electric vehicle fire is very dangerous. So, when you set fire to a Cybertruck, you're putting the firefighters that have to respond in danger and you're not doing Elon Musk any harm."
Marine Capt. Joshua C. Watson, student naval aviator, received the highest noncombat award for acts in fatal Osprey crash
The crash came Aug. 23, 2023, as Watson’s Lima Company prepared to practice seizing two airfields at once. Lima’s commander would lead a force of about 70 Marines on one airfield, while Watson, the company’s executive officer, would lead a smaller force of 38 to take Pickertaramoor Airfield on Melville Island, about 45 miles north of Darwin, Australia, during an exercise Aug. 23, 2023 when the air crew told their Marines that the Osprey was going down.
Watson shoved his radio operator into the brace position before protecting himself. Everything not strapped down became a projectile.
Then, the aircraft crashed. Fuel leaked out of its frame, which ignited and spread fire all around.
After the crash that day, Watson unstrapped and shook the unconscious radio operator awake.
“I could not see the Marine seated five feet across from me, nor could I see out of the rear ramp of the aircraft,” Watson wrote. “Heavy flames, thick smoke, spraying fluid, dirt, dust, gear, and aircraft wreckage made visibility extremely poor.”
Amid the wreckage, the captain freed the fellow Marine from his restraints and got him out of the aircraft.
“The heat from the fire was overwhelming,” Watson wrote. “The only light piercing through the smoke came from the rear of the aircraft and this soon became the primary exit.”
What he did next resulted in Watson receiving the Navy and Marine Corps Medal — the highest noncombat naval service award — in a ceremony at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida last month.
“After noticing that nobody was really moving, I directed the Marines to, ‘Leave everything and get out the back of the aircraft,’” Watson in a Marine release. “As I unstrapped and untangled myself, I handed off my radio operator to another Marine towards the rear exit, checking under seats as I went to ensure no one remained trapped.”
Once outside the aircraft, Watson did a head count, checking for all the individuals aboard.
He had one urgent casualty and several priority casualties. Three people were missing — two pilots and the crew chief.
“Once I realized we hadn’t gotten accountability of those three Marines, my first thought was to attempt to locate them,” said Watson. “Still standing at the rear of the aircraft from which the fire was rapidly spreading, I witnessed the rear member of the aircrew who was pinned underneath the fuselage of the plane and severely injured, being cut free and buddy-dragged to safety by my Marines who had come back to his rescue.”
A subsequent investigation stated that Cpl. Spencer Collart, one of the missing, survived the impact. However, Collart died while trying to reach the Osprey’s pilots who were trapped in the cockpit.
Investigators reported that the two pilots, Maj. Tobin J. Lewis, 37, and Capt. Eleanor V. LeBeau, 29, were likely already dead. Collart was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal posthumously.
Minutes after the crash, Watson radioed a section of AH-1Z Viper and UH-Y1 Venom helicopters overhead. The captain provided triage assessments, accountability and a casualty brief.
“Fortunately, we had those Marine helicopters above, because we wouldn’t have been able to start getting casualty resources to our position if that wasn’t the case,” Watson said. “They were our lifeline.”
Fighting through the pain of a broken ankle, Watson led his Marines through two kilometers of wooded terrain to the airfield. The captain continued directing the Marines in his command, providing real-time updates until they reached a point to hand off the casualties, which included one urgent surgical and four priority casualties, according to the release.
“Almost everyone was injured in the crash, but we didn’t realize the severity due to the shock, we kept checking on each other because we didn’t know the true conditions of everyone,” Watson said.
The reason so damn many Osprey's had catastrophic engine failures mid flight was answered in a post months ago https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2024/10/previous-crashes-osprey-had-were.html it was poor quality control and outdated equipment at the steel company behind the failed gears on the ill-fated CV-22 Osprey
Germany's leading defense industry group wants Germany’s car manufacturing to pivot to defense equipment as a major economic growth driver
The Federal Association of the German Security and Defense Industry (BDSV) pitched the idea last week while hailing the incoming government’s pledge to continue expanding the defense budget drastically.
The European Union has nevertheless unveiled a plan, dubbed “ReArm Europe,” that could funnel more than €800 billion ($868 billion) to defense spending across the Union’s 27 member states.
To overcome production bottlenecks, the argument goes, why not repurpose manufacturing capabilities of Germany’s famed, but ailing, automobile sector?
Last month Rheinmetall announced it would repurpose two factories in Berlin and Neuss that previously made car parts - to produce primarily military goods instead
The head of the German defense industry lobbying group said he expected “wholly new dimensions to the question of arms demand,” including the need for faster deliveries, not just higher volume.
German-French joint venture KNDS recently acquired a historic rail car plant in Görlitz from French train maker Alstom. The factory will be retooled to produce components for military vehicles, including the Leopard 2 battle tank and Puma infantry fighting vehicle.
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