Brilliant. Please read, and if you don't already drive this way, change. This is wisdom

found on http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/can-we-please-stop-hotlinking-pics/20411

Henry Ford had a Model T truck made from aluminum

Ford in 1925 initiated Ford Air Transport Service - the world's first regularly scheduled commercial cargo airline.

Ford Air Transport Service started with Stout 2-AT Pullman aircraft in 1925. Henry and Edsel Ford had a investment in Stout Engineering that became the Stout Metal Airplane Division of the Ford Motor Company later that year in August.

The first 2-AT was built at the Stout factory in Dearborn and called the "Maiden Detroit". The other aircraft in the fleet were also 2-AT's, named "Maiden Dearbon I, II, III and IV". Initially the aircraft were for Ford's company use. The first scheduled commercial flights in America were begun when The "Maiden Detroit" flew 1,000 lbs. of freight between factories in Detroit and Chicago on April 14, 1925. Ford Air Transport served routes between Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland.

The aircraft operated out of Ford Airport off of two grass runways with night lighting.

The safety and predicability of the first cargo flights were used to advantage in securing the first airmail contracts under the Kelly Act. The "Maiden Detroit" entered Contract Air Mail service on February 15, 1926 with Henry and Edsel Ford loading the first bag of mail. The aircraft flew from Detroit to Cleveland under fighter escort to become the first commercial transport of air mail.

In 1928 Ford sold the airmail routes to Stout who also was operating his own airline with Stout-Ford built aircraft. The last official flight was in 1932.
Photo from http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428585 information from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Air_Transport_Service

Racing stripes

invented by the Briggs Cunningham team in 1950, according to Automobile Magazine's Robert Cumberford, Feb 2011 issue, Jay Leno Bugatti feature

Largest auto recalls in history

from http://autozine.com.br/seguranca/os-maiores-recalls-da-historia

I often get solicited to post someones article, list, or link to their site, but don't. Here are some I'm interested in if you want my attention

10 best websites for what ever... especially how you rank your top 10 favorite blogs
10 worst mechanics,
10 worst ripoffs in the auto world (besides Bernie Madoff),
10 hardest repairs due to engineering shortsightedness,
10 most difficult to diagnose problems with your car,
10 easiest things you can troubleshoot your self (battery dead? Voltage regulator? or Starter? is the most common problem) ,
10 cheapest insurance companies (did that myself a couple years ago),
10 insurance companies to avoid,
10 women that broke a mechaincs heart,
10 women that will destroy your mechanics ego by knowing his job better than he does,
10 best jobs in the mechanics world,
10 best auto related companies to work for (pep boys, sears, discount tire, AAA, or what?)
10 coolest bosses you've worked for,
10 best fringe benefits from working at your shop,
10 nicest people you've met while getting a quote on your repair
10 coolest conversations while waiting for your car to get fixed (mine was a WW2 Battleship gunner telling me about the USS Iowa)
10 best trades for work (spare engine for a repair on your truck?)
10 ways insurance companies screwed you out of your claim, even if it was because you weren't fluent in insurance lingo and missed the thing you could have done to save your self a headache
10 cheapest places to get new tires

Finally, a compressed air car is built

French enterprise MDI backed by Cater SA, a Swiss business have taken the concept to the roads, naminf a four wheel vehicle Airpod —to reflect on its engine powered by nothing but compressed air.

The fact that Geneva airport and a few French-speaking Swiss towns have already shown keen interest in Airpod augurs well for the project; not to mention that EU countries have already approved of the project.

It holds that initial production will kick off on Swiss grounds (in Reconvilier) where the first unit should roll out by March 2011

News from http://www.thecartimes.com/

Here's a simple idea why the US automakers are doomed to never be great and profitable again, 3X more retirees than employees

The Detroit Three's 267,000 hourly retirees and 72,000 surviving spouses
GM has 53,000 hourly employees and Ford has 41,000.

Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101214/OEM01/101219920/1424#ixzz1A1Yy1Inf

So, if you're curious why a new car costs 6 times more now than in the 60's, 2wice as much as in the 80's... you might draw the connection between the increase in # of retirees and the increase in the cost of a car, I bet that would chart a straight line, lower left to upper right.

Old fashioned spam came on a post card, from Ford, and tried to sell Model T owners new fenders, pistons, and axle overhauls

Found on http://www.bookofjoe.com/2010/12/1928-car-repair-mailer-sent-on-a-penny-postcard.html

The Camelback locomotive design, used in conjunction with the exceptionally wide Wooten firebox, not safe though

The "Camelback" design, which straddled the cab over the center of the boiler, allowed the exceptional width of the Wooten firebox, which burned lower BTU anthracite coal from Eastern Pennsylvania.

The Locomotives in the picture were also called "Mother Hubbards" among other names. They were discontinued from freight service because if a side rod broke, it would wipe out the cab and if on the engineer's side, the engineer also. In yard service they were much safer because of the lower speed which was not so likely to break a rod and sling it through the cab.
photo from http://www.shorpy.com/node/9335?size=_original

Reasons horses towed cars... cars got stuck easy, horses pulled them out... but did you know Nantucket outlawed cars from 1900 to 1918?

This is an interesting example of another reason on Wikipedia: "Clinton Folger's "Horsemobile" delivering mail, on South Beach Street, at Hayden's Hot Sea Bathhouse entrance.

For nearly twenty years, from 1900 to 1918, Nantucket was the only place in the nation that successfully fought encroachment of the automobile within its limits. Opposing politicians on the mainland and large property owners, mostly non-residents, Nantucketers kept the island free of the "gasoline buggy" until the final vote of the town on May 15, 1918. By the narrow margin of forty - 326 to 286 - the automobile was allowed entry.

Clinton Folger was the mail carrier for Nantucket. Because cars were forbidden by the town, he towed his car to the state highway for driving to Siasconset: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Horse_drawn_US_Mail_car.jpg

But why do the next two cars appear to have been changed to make a seat for the horse driver where the radiator should be?

Brilliant and wise reader angyl_roper (if your email was available on your profile or any of your 3 blogs, I'd email to thank you!) used the comment feature to tell me that: "During the Depression, Ford sold a conversion kit so that you could use a horse to pull your car since fuel was too expensive. I believe this was for the Model A primarily, but also for the Model T. (so why work your horse so hard, instead of just riding the horse and leaving the car at home?)

However, I'll also note that the top two pictures are snowy and it could just be that hitching up horses (and a sled, in the second one) was an easier way to get your car where you needed it than driving it there.

from http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428585&page=920

the 1903 Oldsmobile runabout, usually called the curved dash Olds...

Was first to be put together on an assembly line, predating the Ford vehicles, and never getting proper mention in the history books for that.

Also, first automobile to outsell electric and steam powered machines.

7 Hp Duryea was the first automobile attempt to drive from coast to coast, in 1899

Above are a couple of guys with a REO Mountaineer, 1906... and have nothing but the similar cross country in an early car rlevance, to this story that follows (photo from http://www.shorpy.com/node/8903?size=_original )

after the Louise and John Davis car with the backing of two newspapers left New York City they had about made it to Syracuse, and were passed by a one armed bicyclist that had left new York City 10 days after the car had.

Winton tried it 2 years later in May of 1901, but only made it 530 miles from San Fran in route to New York when he was hopelessly stuck in a sand drift

In the movie "The Great Race" you may have liked the "Leslie Special" ... but did you think they'd ever put it in another movie? I'm 1st to notice

above photo via: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428585&page=733

There are differences, but the grill, hood ornament, and distictive doors are the same. The Leslie Special was made for the movie "The Great Race" and is not a vintage real car, it's a custom built to look like the Thomas Flyer that won the 1907 Paris to Peking race http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/winner-of-1907-paris-to-peking.html .

Both movies are Warner Brothers Pictures, and that makes it more possible that its the same car... what else would a movie company do with a movie car after the publicity is over for the first movie it was featured in?

http://www.imcdb.org/movie_65446-The-Ballad-of-Cable-Hogue.html demonstrates that no one has identified the car yet on the IMCDB site

Gotta love old movies for cool unusual cars

( http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/couple-of-brass-era-vehicles-from-movie.html and http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/couple-of-brass-era-vehicles-from-movie.html and http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/biggest-wagon-ive-ever-seen-might-only.html ),

and I was really surprised to discover this famous car isn't mentioned to have been in a 2nd movie anywhere on the internet. But it is undeniably the same car painted green, and until now, nothing was on the internet about it.

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."

Read the entire interview, "The Life and Rocket Powered Times of Capt Jack McClure "
http://www.bangshift.com/blog/The-Life-and-Rocket-Propelled-Times-of-Captain-Jack-McClure-One-of-Drag-Racing-s-Most-Incredible-Performers.html

Did you know a 71 Barrcuda body will slip over an '01 Viper without it's body? Don't know why you'd not be happy with either, and want both in one car

They made them at http://www.timemachinesinc.com/pastcustoms/71vipercuda/ 6 years ago, just an extra floor structure, wheel tub work, and add a couple inches to the Viper frame rails to extend the wheel base for the cuda wheel locations.

Wrecked Vipers are the speciality of X2 Collision in Maryville Illinois http://www.x2builders.com/default.asp

Snow chains useful for more than traction...

they were used as percussion in the song Nowhere to Run by Martha and the Vandellas
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=11398



Heard at the 9 second mark, and every 2 seconds after. Learned about this on KRTH Los Angeles Fm radio

California lawmakers can't pass or balance a budget, but get 5 million dollars worth of new cars annually for their personal use

Don't sweat it... it's the only state that wastes money on rich politicians automotive needs. Well, unless you count free gas and insurance... I bet your lawmakers and politicians don't pay for gas or insurance. I bet they get chauffered limos as a way around your state purchasing cars for them. You likely know they get a lifelong pension better than double your annual income, free medical care you can't afford, and you'd scream to be told the free overseas flights on "fact finding missions" and subsequent luxury hotel accomodations and vacation in overseas countries.

Wankers as the Brits would call them (in polite company)

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2010/12/03/free-luxury-cars-for-lawmakers-amid-calif-budget-mess/ has the following to report about it: (I'm summarizing to avoid copyright BS)

California is the only state to provide rank-and-file lawmakers a luxury perk as the state has a 6 billion dollar deficit.
The state buys cars for lawmakers unlimited use under a decades-old program.
It spent more than $5 million for the latest suite of vehicles, including a $55,000 Cadillac and a $52,000 Lexus.


I listened to this today on KNX am 1070 Los Angeles

Think all of this is nuts? Heard of Speaker of the House Pelosi?
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=231461
"Since 2007, we U.S. taxpayers have paid $2,100,745 for now-outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to make 85 flights aboard a 42-seat Air Force C-32 – which is the size of a Boeing 757"

If you ever run out of gas, beware. The Shell gas station at Laurel and Pacific Coast hwy (San Diego) charges 15 bucks for a 2 gallon gas can

why is it marked up so much at the Shell station? To make an obscene profit off your misery and desperation. That pisses me off.

This gas can costs 8 bucks online http://www.drillspot.com/products/573120/midwest_can_company_2300_2gal6oz_red_plasgascan so I recommend not giving your patronage to Shell to protest this outrage.

I was there to grab a coke. Those are priced the same as everywhere else, because we'd never put up with paying 2wice the normal price for a Coke, we aren't desperate for a 200%marked up Coke.

Hope you don't mind me venting, I'll have something entertaining posted soon, but every now and then a public service message to help you all out is not a bad thing.

Instead of paying 15 for the gas can, and then 30 cents a gallon more than all the other gas stations in town that aren't located next to the airport, car a friend for help. Your friends like to help you out when you are in a jam, and you'd like to owe them a favor anyway.

The person in the gold colored Honda fled the scene. Let that sink in a moment. After causing deaths and devastating lives, they cut out

http://www.sandiegoharley.com/event_detail.asp?event=473746

It was this past Sunday morning in California . Four bikers died in a brutal accident, five others are hospitalized. Those who lived have now lost their friends, and those who died left behind kids, brothers and sisters, parents and friends. They were members of the Saddle Tramps Motorcycle Club. It was the clubs 10th anniversary ride.

The club members were riding about 80 miles East of San Diego when a Gold Honda Accord came up from behind them and tried to pass them . Another car was in the oncoming lane, the driver tried to avoid the Honda by swerving off to his right, he lost control when overcorrecting when he hit the shoulder on his side of the road and crashed with the group of motorcycles. The driver of the Accord fled the scene.

Two memorial services are planned for this weekend, and several fundraising events are in the works to help the affected families, one is tomorrow (Saturday Nov 20th) at San Diego Harley, on the East side of freeway 163 between Clairemont and Balboa Avenue

Saturday: Blood drive in the name of the injured survivors, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., San Diego Harley-Davidson, 5600 Kearny Mesa Road.

Nov. 28: Pat & Oscar’s in Parkway Plaza, El Cajon, 2 to 9 p.m. Twenty percent of sales will be donated to a Heath family trust.

Dec. 4: Cut-a-thon at Studio B salon, 1347 Tavern Road, Alpine.

To help out: People wishing to donate to the Saddletramps can send contributions in care of the Smiths, 16204 Alpine Blvd., Alpine, CA 91901.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/nov/19/a-path-to-tragedy/

Be careful out there biker friends http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search?q=careful

Blogging, Facebook, Youtube... now more accessed on the internet than porn... Generation Y now outnumbers the baby boomers