World Car Review: December 2007

Monday, December 31, 2007

http://flickr.com/photos/50486801@N00/ Rob Conaway is a San Diego chef who has a lot of websites going on, and takes great photos with a Nikon d50. Amazing what you can learn without leaving your laptop and just reading other peoples "About" pages. http://robconaway.com/blog/

Trains and Automobiles... .both have horns, but putting a train air horn in your SUV shocks the hell out of pedestrians! Funny video!

How many times have you wished you could have a real train horn, or marinefog horn secretly mounted beneath your Mercury Marauder? HornBlasters has the full kits including air compressors and horns for you to make people go deaf. The DVD is equally as hilarious, wait till you see when they do it to a cop that pulled them over!

http://www.dubdaily.com/?p=995

Unique Plymouth Sport wagon that was taken to Mr Norms for the works, and Mr Norm always came through

If you look to the upper left corner of this website, and find the "search" function, enter Mr Norms and it will take you to the previous posts I've made about Mr Norms. Same goes for this wagon http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/07/cars-are-meant-to-be-enjoyed-so-if-you.html#links . I first came across it at the 2007 San Diego Mopar Club car show (my club) that we put on in Oceanside.

This wagon started life as a 68 wagon, with a 383. But the '69 and 1/2 Roar Runners and 440 6 pack Super Bee's came along and the factory hoods, Edelbrock carbs, etc got the owners attention.

So an immediate upgrade via Mr Norms Gran Spaulding Dodge dealership (and factory technicians) who did dynotuning and installed hi performance parts for customers.

Frequently seen at the El Cajon wednesday night car cruise

If I recall correctly the owner told me this started out as a 318 plain jane Challenger, and then got a new life after everything was upgraded.

San Diego is home to Legoland... and they put a display in the auto show this year.... there's a real car under those blocks

Subaru's have a small problem at the auto shows... the knobs get stolen

A relective inner firewall on a '32.... sure makes it look like a lot of leg room!

Friday, December 28, 2007

Meter maids ticket stolen car 29 times, so there's your tax dollars at work, no stolen car database check procedure

Meter maids and police in San Francisco, California are more interested in issuing parking and traffic tickets than attempting to solve the crime of vehicle theft.

Michelle Vuckovich, 37, learned this when her 2000 Honda Civic was stolen on September 26. She filed a police report and ensured it would be listed as stolen on police databases. Within an hour, a meter maid issued the car a ticket on Union Street without noticing that it had just been reported stolen, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The handheld computers that meter maids used to issue parking tickets failed to check the stolen car database, as Vuckovich's stolen Honda received a total of twenty-nine citations without any effort on the part of police or the meter maids to track down and recover the vehicle.

Vuckovich called the police immediately after she received the first batch of tickets in the mail. When law enforcement was not interested in helping to find the car, she set out to follow the trail of tickets to locate her car on her own. Vuckovich found it just two blocks from the police station. Officers arriving on the scene an hour later declined to make any attempt to search for evidence to lead them to the thieves responsible.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/24/BAS8U31UA.DTL

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Happy Holidays where ever you are, an Airstream Trailer light display of the Trans Siberian Orchestra's "Wizards in Winter" light display

I hope you like this piece of music as much as I do...

http://presurfer.blogspot.com/2007/12/airstream-trailer-light-show_25.html

Good ad

Background on the Lil Redd Wrecker, Hard Hat Hauler, and Voxmobile

http://www.rockinboard.com/showthread.php?t=54&page=10

A gallery of steam trucks, buses, and road trains after the link

1898-1935 was a trasistion period, and testing time for the different methods of transportation when it wasn't clear what was going to be the winner in the auto wars. This was a time when some still used horses, pedal bikes were getting a lot of sales, motorbikes were really making progress, and yet steam power wasn't out of consideration for some more industrial applications. Tractors were generally huge expensive things that most family farms wouldn't be able to afford unitl the 40's and 50's... and trains were mostly steam until the 50's.
http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2007/12/steam-buses-trucks.html

Strange and varied time in the US transportation industry, my other post about the great depression dooming most of the independants is a good bit to read for more if you like to learn this kind of stuff like I do.
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/07/interesting-thoughts-on-automobiles.html#links
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/07/changing-times-in-auto-industry.html#links
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/07/how-cadillac-was-only-profitable-auto.html#links
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/07/prior-to-great-depression-there-were.html#links

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Video of a Subaru with snow tracks instead of tires

http://www.break.com/index/sweet-subaru-with-snow-tracks.html

http://musclecars.howstuffworks.com/

I think the website name says it all...

The Muscle Cars Information section details some of the histories and manufacturers of high-performance vehicles such AMC, Dodge, Plymouth, Buick, Pontiac and Chevy.

Classic Muscle Cars are typically defined as high-performance vehicles with powerful engines, most made between 1964 and 1975. Learn about more than 100 of our favorites, including Chevelles, Chargers, Mustangs, Road Runners and GTOs.

http://musclecars.howstuffworks.com/

part of the website are these links:
Video: School Bus Technology How Car Engines Work
Video: GM's Car of the Future How Superchargers Work
Video: Cars Without Drivers
Video: Neighborhood Electric Cars How the Caparo T1 Works
How the Bugatti Veyron Works How Hybrid Cars Work
How Fuel Cells Work
How Automatic Transmissions Work
How Rotary Engines Work
How Differentials Work
How Diesel Engines Work
How Manual Transmissions Work

Respect to Tadao Kadate of Japan, for he invented the clay bar, cleaner of car paint!

"To this day, Detailing Clay is the only product that takes off stubborn over spray with a single, swipe of the hand."

http://www.topoftheline.com/auto-detail-clay.html"

A website on interior and exterior detailing products, and how to use them.

top 5 ‘deserted city’ scenes in film

http://deputy-dog.com/2007/11/28/top-5-deserted-city-scenes-in-film/
with Youtube clips of the scenes

5. philadelphia - twelve monkeys, 1995
4. los angeles - omega man, 1971
3. madrid - abre los ojos, 1997
2. manhattan - vanilla sky, 2001
1. london - 28 days later, 2002

Off the beaten path for me, good but different than my usual fare

http://www.thecoolhunter.net/transportation/ A view of the latest in the transportation world from a website you might not happen across, think of a GQ view of the latest in car stuff. Interesting, but not my usual line of thought.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Click on all pictures to enlarge them,

email me at jbohjkl@yahoo.com to comment

The development of gasoline, or, how and why it became leaded, extremely poisonous, and finally switched back to unleaded over the protests of GM

In the easiest to understand article I've read about octane, knock, pinging, and in the process the author gives you a understanding of how it was all profit driven over the basic interests of the health of all humankind.

" ...one decisive drawback, however, which was its tendency to cause harmful deposits in human blood, bones, and brains. Lead poisoning had long been known to cause such alarming maladies as spasms, hallucinations, seizures, blindness, kidney failure, brain damage, madness, coma, and death. "

" To manufacture and market their incredible new engine-enhancing additive– which had been dubbed Ethyl– General Motors partnered with Standard Oil and Du Pont to form the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation.

Consumers showed interest, particularly after the Indianapolis 500 motorcar race on Memorial Day 1923, where the first, second, and third-place cars were all fueled by Ethyl gasoline. After that, the fortified fuel enjoyed rapid widespread adoption, and indeed it lived up to its mechanical claims. In a note to Kettering, Midgley estimated that Ethyl would eventually be adopted by at least 20% of the nation's fuel supply, providing an annual gross profit of about $36 million. "

" ... results showed that airborne lead had been negligible before 1923, and that it had climbed precipitously ever since. In 1965, when the tests were conducted, lead levels were roughly 1,000 times higher than they had been in the pre-Ethyl era.

He also compared modern bone samples to that of older human remains, and found that modern humans' lead levels were hundreds of times higher. "

" The Ethyl corporation had powerful friends, including a Supreme Court justice, members of the US Public Health Service, and the mighty American Petroleum Institute. Nevertheless, Patterson was unrelenting, and the resulting rise in scientific and public awareness eventually led to the Clean Air Act of 1970, and a staged phaseout of leaded gasoline.

Ethyl and Du Pont sued the Environmental Protection Agency, claiming that "actual harm" must be demonstrated rather than just "significant risk," an effort which successfully prolonged lead additives' life by another decade.
By 1986, Ethyl and its ilk were virtually eliminated in the United States, and Americans' blood-borne lead levels have since dropped by 78%. "

" Some historians have argued that Midgley's tetra-ethyl lead was a necessary evil; one which hastened the progress of efficient engines, thereby advancing the economy and contributing to victory in World War II.

It is worth noting, however, that in the early years of Ethyl's availability, basic refinery advances boosted the base octane of fuel by 20-30 points, whereas Ethyl additive only boosted it by about nine points.

In retrospect, Ethyl's octane improvements were somewhat overstated, and the product owed most of its success to crafty marketing, misleading research, and chronic government incompetence. Whatever Ethyl's benefits, it saturated the planet with an insidious poison, and the true magnitude of its past, present, and future harm are yet to be known."

http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=932#more-932

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Jalopnik, good site, I recommend it highly, here's a couple reasons why

http://jalopnik.com/336930/39-percent-of-atlantas-parking-meters-stolen-during-past-year ,
A story on how over a third of Atlanta's parking meters were stolen this year... I find that interesting.

http://consumerist.com/337072/the-6-mph-crash-that-costs-8000-to-repair
And how a slow collision is incredibly expensive to repair for a minivan's bumper. Real day to day stuff, but impressively hard impacting when your car is the subject! Not news on expensive dream cars, but the things that affect us regular types.

Thread on the Jalopy Journal of snow machines, conversions of trucks, or topfuelers to ski steering, cat track powered

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=229248&showall=1

Via Dan at http://blog.hemmings.com/

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Gallery of Motorcycle wipeouts

For many more see: http://www.widelec.org/motorowe_fikolki,id,1646.html

Collectible cars, the worst choices, via NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/automobiles/collectibles/28WORST.html?_r=1&ref=collectibles&oref=slogin for the full article, good reading.

1963-64 STUDEBAKER AVANTI
1976 CADILLAC ELDORADO CONVERTIBLE
1975-76 CHEVROLET COSWORTH VEGA
1975-76 BRICKLIN SV-1
1981-82 DELOREAN DMC-12
1985-91 FERRARI TESTAROSSA
1988 35TH ANNIVERSARY CHEVROLET CORVETTE
1982-91 PORSCHE 944

No surprises for me in this list. Late 70's and early 80's cars as collectibles? Not such a good idea. With the very rare exception, late 70's and early 80's weren't very desireable cars, or bikes, or trucks. But it seems that there must have been a big enough demand for these as collectibles that the NY Times wrote the article... wouldn't a better subject be the collectibles that really paid out huge?

If you've seen this '33 candy red Ford Pheaton, please call Don at (562) 803-9484, some rat stole his trailer and car

Best luck Don!

Oil, who has it, who uses it

From the BP statistical year of 2004, and the Energy Information Administration

Amazing computer modeling website

http://www.eevamoritz.com/images.html

via : http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2007/12/12/photochoppers-aint-got-nothing-on-niko/

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

How far your car will go, once the light or gauge indicates empty

http://tankonempty.com/

How far can you go after the gas light in your car has gone on?

Via http://www.neatorama.com/page/2/

Car company logo rip off's, 11 of 13 from Chinese companies

For the full gallery of 11 more: http://www.cartype.com/page.cfm?id=1497&alph=ALL&dec=ALL

via http://swissmiss.typepad.com/weblog/2007/11/index.html

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

The last Mercury dealership is closed.

http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/18/last-mercury-stand-alone-dealership-closes/

Community Motor Company in Canonsburg, PA has sold only new Mercurys for 57 years.

I predicted this 2 months ago, http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/10/is-mercury-ready-to-have-its-plug.html#links

Maybe I should start predicting things?

Be careful of what you park under, 'cause unexpected things happen under tv towers that are shedding ice-cicles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfBp2QYOIbc&eurl=http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2007_12_09_archive.html

This is an amateur video taken during an Oklahoma ice storm this year. The huge pieces of ice falling down are actually from a TV tower. At the end of the video, you can see the damage that they caused to someone’s car that was (unfortunately) parked right under the tower.

This is an amateur video taken during an Oklahoma ice storm this year. The huge pieces of ice falling down are actually from a TV tower. At the end of the video, you can see the damage that they caused to someone’s car that was (unfortunately) parked right under the tower.

This is an amateur video taken during an Oklahoma ice storm this year. The huge pieces of ice falling down are actually from a TV tower. At the end of the video, you can see the damage that they caused to someone’s car that was (unfortunately) parked right under the tower.

Via http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2007/12/huge-ice-chunks-destroy-vehicle.html

For pictures of the Wright Brothers flights (104 yrs ago yesterday!)

http://www.old-picture.com/airplanes-index-001.htm

This website also has a huge collection of amazing photos, I recommend the "American Life 1900-1909" for famous people, early automobiles, trains, planes, and blimps.