Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Ford will rename the 500, call it a Taurus, finally a bull looking car

Ford Reverses Stupid Decision, Brings Back Taurus Brand
In a reversal of one of the most idiotic brand decisions in decades, two un-named Ford execs said the Taurus name will return and be affixed to the two year old, poorly named Five Hundred. In 1992, 410,000 vehicles were sold. The Taurus brand resurrected Ford and outsold all other cars old in America for five years straight. The name as retired last October after 21 years.

New Ford Chief Executive Alan Malally has been high on the name since he joined Ford last year. Most assuredly, the ad campaign supporting this launch will be large and far-reaching. Whether or not the renamed Five Hundred will be remotely as popular as the original Taurus is an entirely different discussion.

From http://www.adrants.com/2007/02/ford-reverses-stupid-decision-brings-back.php

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Power to weight is the reason a musclecar thrills us






the drag pack, 1970 Torino




Nuts and bolts 101, or, what is a grade 8?




Dodge Super Bee info, from Wikipedia


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_Super_Bee
Pictured is the 69 440 six pack, a12 option. As close to a factory race car as they got at the factory with factory parts, without dealership add ons, or special shop work like the Hurst cars.
Non Functional dress up rear brake scoops, and a fiberglass lift off hood. The hood is unusally interesting, since my superbee looked like this one I'll wax eloquent for a minute.

The lift off hood had about 4 important features that were beneficial to the racers,
1) it was as lightweight as they could be,
2) not in the way at all when you needed to work in or around the engine,
3) had the biggest freaking scoop for lots of cold air to increase the air fuel mixture with denser colder air than would be around the hot engine. Cold air = dense air = more oxygen molecules per square inch = more combustion = more power without adding a dime to the ocst of the engine parts. Ramming cold outside air was determined to be good for 10-15 horsepower.
4) flat black, not glossy, paint on the hood has 10 to 15% more heat transfer than any other color. Ever wear a black cotton shirt in the sun, and notice it was hot to the touch? The heat transfer was important to keep the engine running cooler = more powerful. Similar heat transfer desire is the reason the rear axle housing is black, why radiators are black, and ususally, all the engine bay hoses, components, and inner fender wells next to the exhaust manifolds. Conversely, the white coating on headers helps through a resistance of heat transfer to keep the heat inside the headers, and flowing out of the engine bay, in order to help keep the engine cool.


I didn't know that the 71 Bee could be ordered with a 340, or that any came with 440 four barrels. Learn some thing new every day.

Classic 66-72 Charger


Nice photo of a
66 charger Dash at night, from the Wikipedia website that's a real good source of info. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_Charger_%28B-body%29