Showing posts with label Chevelle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chevelle. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

A tale of the Tubonique racing cart from the great maniac that drove it! Capt Jack ( no better name could ever be thought of! )


Above two photos from http://zelastchancegaragedu78.blogspot.com/2010/05/draggokart.html

Jack McClure's go kart powered by twin Turbonique t-16 jets, it turns 152mph in the quarter. 400 lbs of thrust.

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search/label/turbonique for all the Turbonique info, advertising, and videos I've come across

1965 Z-16 Chevelle called, "The Sizzler", a name that would prove dangerously ironic less than a year after McClure took the driving assignment. Powered by one of Turbonique's "Rocket Drag Axles" the car was a true freak show and ran speed and times totally unheard of from stock appearing cars of the era.

"I ran the sizzler car for one season," McClure said. "I think I ran 25 or thirty dates with it. The car was a real Z16 Chevelle that had one of the Turbonique Rocket Axles in it. The big problem was that all the Turbonique stuff was shit and it didn't hold up. Middlebrooks had lots of ideas and designs but the stuff was always on the verge of breaking or blowing up. I had no idea how dangerous the Turbonique rocket kart was until a few years after the fact and I looked back on my time with it and thought about how lucky I was that the thing didn't blow up."

But back to the Chevelle.

"So the car was able to be driven around on the regular engine and transmission, but you didn't use that on the strip. On the track I would put the car in neutral, hit the button and drive the Chevelle down the track with the rocket axle providing the power and smoking the tires all the way down. The way the rocket axle worked was pretty simple. There was a rocket engine that was ignited when I hit the button. The exhaust (thrust) from the rocket engine would spin this big turbine wheel which was attached to some planetary gears that spun the axles and drove the car. The problem was that the gears and turbine wheels couldn't hold up to the abuse and I had a couple turbine wheels break and even melt on me. All this came to an end when I went through the lights at 162mph, the turbine wheel melted and locked the whole works up tight. I was told the car rolled 12 times. I was lucky not to be killed and I was done with anything that had to do with Turbonique."

Saturday, December 11, 2010

The Wisconsin stash of Don Schlag, 21 semitrailers full or rare parts and rare cars

21 semitrailers stuffed with parts and cars. Don locked the trailers, welded the doors shut himself and parked them tail-to-tail on flattened tires. No, he didn't just keep opeing the doors and looking at the cool collection he'd compiled.

He went to every swap meet. He took a trip to California every year in his RV and would return towing a trailer full of parts that would vanish into his stash. He bought whole cars that never seemed to show up on Wisconsin streets again.

Larry wound up paying Don's heirs a "mid-six-figure" sum for all the pieces. And except for a couple of cars he sold himself and two Corvettes kept by Don's nephews, he sold the entire lot to another collector, Scott Milestone, for half again as much money. As this is being written, Scott is in the process of uncrating and reshelving all the various components into an East Coast warehouse.

Here are just some of the jems in the collection of 14 nice, low-mileage cars more than 150 high-performance engines have been found that Don stored away
1. '57 Corvette-Original fuel injection. Big fuel tank and big brakes.
2. '57 Corvette-Original dual quads. Big fuel tank and big brakes.
3. '63 Corvette coupe-Original fuel injection. Production number 480.
4. '64 Corvette roadster-Original fuel injection. Four-speed. Both tops.
5. '67 Corvette roadster-427 with Tri-power. 37,000 miles.
6. '74 Corvette coupe-454 big-block. 14,000 miles.
7. '72 Camaro Z28-Four-speed.
8. '67 Camaro RS/SS coupe-350 and four-speed. Fair condition.
9. '69 Yenko Camaro-37,000 miles.
10. '70 Chevelle SS454-Automatic with bucket seats.
11. '70 Chevelle SS454-Four-speed, bench seat
http://www.hotrod.com/thehistoryof/hrdp_0608_don_schlag_chevy_car_collector/index.html

a complete engine for a 1969 Camaro Z/28 engine, a DZ-302 that’s complete down to the breather, one of approximately six such engines found, and the cast-iron COPO 427-cid engine block.
http://www.oldcarsweekly.com/article/Huge_muscle_car_stash_found/

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Damn good looking

The above photo is fixed thanks to Don http://prova275.tumblr.com/ ! Much appreciated!





Monday, November 15, 2010

New movie with muscle cars, action throughout, and Dwayne Johnson playing a tough guy for a change, think 80's action flick

http://www.fasterthemovie.com/#/splash/trailer loads a lot faster in Google Chrome than Internet Explorer (ridiculously slow)
or



After 10 years in prison, Driver (Dwayne Johnson) has a singular focus -­- to avenge the murder of his brother during the botched bank robbery that led to his imprisonment. Now a free man with a deadly to do list in hand, he’s finally on his mission, but with two men on his trail, a veteran cop (Billy Bob Thornton) just days from retirement and a young egocentric hitman with a flair for the art of killing and a newfound worthy opponent. The hunter is also the hunted. It’s a do or die race to the list’s finish as the mystery surrounding his brother’s murder deepens, and new details emerge along the way hinting that Driver’s list may be incomplete.

In theaters November 24th

Friday, October 15, 2010

svammelsurium a Swedish automotive blog has posted that I've never even heard of before, South African Chevy Sports Coupe (Australian Monaro)

Above and below a Chevelle, made in South Africa. The hood scoops are quite a intriguing look.

Damien emailed me to let me know more about this car I've never seen or read about before (Thanks a bunch!) "It was common in the late 60's early 70's for slightly modified oz cars to be sold in South Africa

See wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holden_Monaro

(South African market)
Some HT series Monaro 'GTS' coupes were exported to or assembled in South Africa from imported parts by General Motors South African (GMSA)at the Port Elizabeth assembly plant. Later the HG series Monaro was assembled and sold in SA badged as the Chevrolet SS.

(Suddenly I want one of these, it would be the only one around)

At this time GMSA had made a decision to market most of its products as Chevrolets. The Chev SS as it became known in SA was based on the HG Monaro with revised front styling unique to the SA model and incorporating four headlights and large turn indicators in the front edge of the fenders above the bumper. Most of the Monaro / Chevrolet SS Coupes assembled in SA were fitted with Holden 308 engines. The Chevrolet 350 in³ (5.7 L) engine was available as an option in the GMSA assembled Chevrolet SS.[

Some more info and brochures for the sa cars:
http://www.moby302.co.za/brochures/1970_holden/monaro_gts.html
http://www.moby302.co.za/brochures/1971_chevrolet/ss.html

cheers
Damien Haas

information from Damien ( Awesome! ) an Aussie with a great blog http://onfourwheels.blogspot.com/ that has lots of Australian car show photography (expect a follow up post on that!)

Saturday, July 10, 2010

North Park annual Cops and Rodders car show

I've never seen this on the trailer, it sure makes it look small

The whole side of the park had restored Police cars... great display, and I once got to take photos of the place they restore them http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2008/07/stumbled-across-restoration-and-repair.html

I don't recall seeing the center head light before, it's oval shape... unusual
San Diego SWAT vehicle... made me realize San Diego has a swat team, I didn't know we did
1969 bus






Twisted Minds bike club, that's Mike in the black jacket
why do this to a vette? yes, it's an ugly 70's vette, but looks even worse as a 4x4





Both the black cars are Dodges

this is the first time I've seen this Shriners truck








It's a 4 dr... and I didn't realize that til I walked around it




these guys are good!