Saturday, September 27, 2014

phantom 240Z sport wagon






some pretty amazing cool old stuff is still out there in cars, but you aren't likely to find it unless you look through a lot of vintage cars at car shows. An early car phone for example


wow, this is cool and rare


I found a time capsule at a car show. Seriously.


I get a kick out of goofy stuff like this

quite unusual, with no information about it. It's astonishing what shows up on Facebook (Panhard Dynamic)

I stumbled across an old 1940's hearse today in Long Beach







Optima news... for SEMA attendees and anyone who is buying a ticket to the Optima Street Car Invitational Finals



· OPTIMA BATTERY COMPLIMENTARY GIVEAWAY and INSTALL (11/1 - 11/2) OPTIMA will be installing its batteries during feature vehicle check-in the weekend before the SEMA Show. Any feature vehicle owner that would like to have an OPTIMA battery can get one and have it installed by experienced OPTIMA team members at no cost! (They did this last year too!)

· NEW vehicle display to check out: OPTIMA STREET CAR ALLEY For the first time, this one-of-a-kind vehicle display will be located between the Westgate Hotel and Casino (formerly the Las Vegas Hotel) and the Las Vegas Convention Center North Hall. Many of the 100 OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational vehicle contenders will be on display here for the duration of the SEMA show.
(If you recall, last year a lot of the Optima Street Car Invitational cars were over in the tire and rims area on the west end of the parking lot)

· Attend to hear the FINAL Announcements: OPTIMA INVITATIONAL PRESS CONFERENCE (Thursday, November 6 at 1:30 p.m.  11/6 @ 1:30pm PT) The seventh annual OPTIMA Invitational Press Conference will be held at the OPTIMA BATTERIES booth (22755) in the Central Hall on.  Join us to hear the exciting announcements about final participants, new event activities, broadcast series updates, and more!



One qualifying event remains, the Ultimate Street Car Association event at the Pittsburgh International Race Complex on October 3-5. http://driveusca.com/events/wampum-pa-october-3-5/

OPTIMA® Batteries is proud to announce the first round of participants for the highly-anticipated 2014 OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational, taking place the weekend of November 8-9. For the first time in its seven year history the OPTIMA Invitational will occur at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and will feature approximately 100 vehicles making it the largest field to ever compete for the prestigious title of Ultimate Street Car.

“The vehicles participating in this year’s event is phenomenal. We’ve got some brand new 2014 models and some vintage cars from the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s, too. There’s a wide range of American cars, but plenty of European and Japanese entries are also competing. We are very proud of the diversity here,” says Cam Douglass, director of product development and marketing for OPTIMA Batteries. “It’s impossible to pick a favorite to win as we head into the 2014 SEMA show. Surely, the Golden Ticket winners selected from the show floor will be contenders to win as well.”

 Spectator tickets to the seventh annual OPTIMA Invitational will be available for purchase online. The cost is $30 per person, which includes a free event T-shirt.

 The first 37 qualified drivers and their vehicles are listed below: (3 new Camaros, 3 1st gen Camaros,  5 new Corvettes and 4 2nd gen Corvettes, 2 GT-Rs) 
Surprises new to the event, a Fairmont, a Neon, a Volvo, and a Conquest
· Ken Thwaits (2014 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28)
· Danny Popp (2003 Chevrolet Corvette)
· Kyle Tucker (1970 Chevrolet Camaro)
· Dan Howe (1984 Chevrolet Monte Carlo)
· Ronnie Soliman (2006 Mitsubishi Evo IX)
· Bob Bertelsen (1969 Chevrolet C-10)
· AJ Santiago (2011 Nissan GT-R)
· Andy Smedegard (2001 Honda S2000)
· Dan Livezy (1964 Chevrolet Corvette)
· Betim Berisha (2011 Porsche 911 TT)
· John Lazorack III (1988 Chrysler Conquest)
· Ricky Kwan (2012 Nissan GT-R)
· Bryan Johnson (2013 Chevrolet Camaro)
· Jane Thurmond (1964 Chevrolet Corvette)
· Robert Jackson (1967 Volvo Amazon)
· Mark Frazier (1971 Datsun 240Z)
· Jeff Montgomery (1963 Chevrolet Corvette)
· Karl Dunn (2002 Chevrolet Corvette)
· Martin Pond (1980 Ford Fairmont)
· Duke Langley (2012 Chevrolet Corvette)
· Jake Rozelle (1969 Chevrolet Camaro)
· Casey Wallace (2011 Nissan GT-R)
· Todd Earsley (2003 Mitsubishi Evo VIII)
· Rodney Prouty (1968 Chevrolet Camaro)
· Michael “Junior” Johnson (2006 Chevrolet Corvette)
· Steve Kepler (2013 Nissan GT-R)
· Jakey Sampson (2010 Chevrolet Camaro)
· Brandon Ranvek (2006 Mitsubishi Evo RS)
· Terry Fair (2011 Ford Mustang)
· Mike Maier (1966 Ford Mustang)
· Wes Drelleshak (1959 Chevrolet Apache)
· Michael Werner (2008 Mercedes CLK63)
· Dieter-Heinz Kijora (2014 Mercedes AMG CLA250)
· Debbie Farrington (1964 Chevrolet Chevelle Wagon)
· Todd Rumpke (2006 Chevrolet Corvette)
· Douglas Wind (2004 Dodge Neon SRT-4)
· Matt Alcala (2012 Shelby Mustang)
· Defending 2013 Champion Bryan Hobaugh will also be competing with his 1965 Chevrolet Corvette.

https://www.youtube.com/user/optimabatteries
https://www.facebook.com/optimabatteries?fref=ts
http://www.optimabatteries.com/en-us/experience/optima-invitational/

the beauty in the details

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Detroit cops shut down a chop shop

( "the greatest home of freedom in history" Ronald Reagan ) is littered with scam cameras, and the people are fed up with bullshit tickets


Spirit of '76: land of liberty, land of the free, home of the brave (nowhere in the patriotic songs does it say police state)





Found on http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/09/09/this-is-what-happens-when-citizens-get-fed-up-over-speed-cameras/#

I hereby declare today, "Kyle DeMattia day!" for serving this jackass Corvette owner some street justice for parking across 2 spots... Kyle drove up on the sidewalk to invade the vette's doorspace


Norra Mexican 1000 vintage race cars from the Oct 2014 issue of Hot Rod Magazine (they do




Ain't it cool that people are still Baja racing with cool old cars!

Photos from http://www.hotrod.com/feature_stories/1410_dust_and_glory_1000/

the stolen Cannonball Harley's and trailer have been found, one bike and all the tools are missing though



Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Coolest use of a speedlimit sign, Gene Fulton's Willys


that's just cool.

November 2014 issue of Hot Rod Magazine

How Craig Breedlove got Shell to sponsor him...

Hot Rod Magazine:
 You’ve had a long relationship with Shell Oil. How did that begin?

Craig Breedlove:
 When I was building the car at my dad’s house, I got to a point where I was more broke than when I started and was really down to brass tacks.

 When I was in a car club in Culver City, there was a Shell station at the corner of Venice and Sepulveda owned by Andy Anderson. We all used to hang out there and work for him sometimes, and he was kind of a mentor to us.

The Shell district office was right next door to the station, and when I was completely against the wall with the car, I asked Andy who was in charge of that office. It was a real tough guy named Bill Lawler, an ex Marine.

"I’m here to talk to you about the Spirit of America, which I think will be great for our country and also for Shell Oil Company, and I’d like to have a little of your time to present it to you.’ He gave me 10 minutes.

 I set the model down in front of the desk and set up the flip chart. He saw this big mahogany box but didn’t know what was in it, so after he saw the flip chart presentation he said, ‘Alright goddammit, what’s in the box?’ I handed him the model and said, ‘This is the Spirit of America.’

He got real excited and jumped up and showed everyone the model, telling all the Shell people about it. He asked me, ‘You really think you’re going to break the record don’t you?’ I said, ‘Mr. Lawler, I don’t think I’m going to break the record, I know I’m going to break it,’ and he pounded the table and said ‘That’s what I like to hear! I’m going to do anything in my power to see that Shell Oil backs you.” And that was the start.

We got turned down three times by the director of marketing in New York until one trip he was in Los Angeles for something, and they got him cornered in a bar and fed him martinis until he approved the project.

from the November 2014 issue of Hot Rod and their website
http://blogs.hotrod.com/craig-breedlove-americas-600-mph-man-129183.html

It's not often a 72 or 73 Road Runner gets photographed well, damn shame, it's got a cool design in some ways

car leather variety and info

Nappa leather is a kind of full-grain leather. It was first made by Emanuel Manasse in the year 1875. Manasse worked for a tanning company in Napa, California. That is how the leather gets its name. As stated previously, Nappa leather is a full-grain leather. The leather is made from kid, lamb or sheep skin, and it is 'unsplit'. The tanning process for this leather makes us of artificial tannins such as aluminum sulfate, chromium sulfate and other such salts. Nappa leather is typically dyed so as to obtain various colors.  http://www.buzzle.com/articles/all-about-nappa-leather.html

Connelly LeatherLtd is a British company supplying highly finished leather primarily to car manufacturers, founded in 1878. The term is also used to describe the particular brand of leather itself, when fitted in a car interior. Connolly leather gained such prominence in the world of luxury travel including private jets and yachts, that it was selected for such high profile projects as Concorde and the luxury liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, as well as the benches in Britain's Houses of Parliament together with many other parliaments around the world. http://www.wikipedia.org/

Alcantara a tradename given to a composite material used to cover surfaces and forms in a variety of applications. It can be described as an artificial substitute for suede leather. The material was developed in the early 1970s, produced by combining an advanced spinning process (producing very low denier bi-component "islands in the sea" fibre) and chemical and textile production processes (needle punching, buffing, impregnation, extraction, finishing, dyeing, etc.) http://www.wikipedia.org/

Laguna Leather is from Swedish company Elmo Leather, who is known for sourcing its leather exclusively from Scandinavian cows, where barbed-wire is not used on ranches. Interesting historic note about the Swedish company with a factory in Germany: The company supplies the cutting plant in Germany with whole hides from Elmo Leather's plant in Sweden, where it's cut, packed, and transported to the car manufacturer or subcontractor for sewing.
 * Wismar is a port town on the southern Baltic coast of Germany, where in the late middle ages it was an important Hanseatic town. Following the 30-year war, Wismar became Swedish territory via the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 and between 1653-1802 was the seat of the Superior Court for Sweden's German occupation and the Wismar Tribunal. Wismar was leased to Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1803 and Sweden relinquished its rights on the town 100 years later. http://www.leathermag.com/features/featureelmo-start-cutting-automotive-leather/

The automotive industry sees an opportunity to reduce its costs by buying ready-cut leather directly from the supplier for its car upholstery, instead of whole hides which, via other subcontractors, are cut and sewed together to become finished upholstery items.

I will play you the music of my people. trumpets or calliope, your choice

Aero Morgan and fitted luggage and custom fitted luggage















Lesson to learn from, 4 vintage Harley Davidson bikes all in one trailer, in a hotel parking garage, stolen but soon recovered. Don't walk away from your trailer full of valuable racing stuff. If you don't guard it, the thieves will take it






 4-Motorcycle Cannonball bikes, their support truck and trailer were stolen from the parking lot of the Hotel Murano in Tacoma, Washington Monday night 

UPDATE Sept 24th 10pm, the Truck has been found http://www.aimag.com/2014/09/update-stolen-truck-recovered-but-not-motorcycle-cannonball-harleys/

UPDATE Sept 25th 8 am http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Stolen-trailer-full-of-vintage-motorcycles-found-in-Seattle-277001631.html?mobile=y&clmob=y&c=n

Touch the Sky, Alex Zanardi, directed y Tim Hahne

69 Super Bee... somewhere under the vegetation (kudzu?)