Don't forget the musical marketing.  Though the Deuce had been a hot-rodding favorite for some years, when "Little Deuce Coupe" came to the top forty, demand for it and hot rods based on it increased dramatically thereafter.    ... View more

The whole point of suspensions, brakes, drivelines and other major components is to manage four patches of rubber of roughly 70-80 square inches where "the rubber meets the road."  Why put thousands into changing and upgrading the major components for better handling, braking and acceleration only to pinch pennies on tires and wheels?  Makes just No damned sense! Buy the best tires and wheels you can buy.  ... View more

I wouldn't mind the big jack-up pickups so much if they weren't so often driven by a bunch of mindless jackasses.  Just fwiw, I have a 1995 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 with a 454.  It's a Big pickup.  I use it As a big pickup to haul and tow large loads.  I drive it sensibly with due regard for the other drivers that share the roads we all use.  It's not a symbol of my manliness, or a sign of rebellion against authority. It's just a big pickup.  Nothing more.  When it's not being used for what it is designed, I have other more sensible vehicles for those purposes. ... View more

I am just finishing a 1966 Corsa convertible -- the same car I bought in 1968 the night before I went to Viet Nam the second time. I wanted to make it concourse, and it's taken five years to do it. It's "affordable" only because it's my last special interest car, but more expensive than the ones on this list. ... View more

I had an AMC Eagle.  Solid car and quite reliable.  But when it was delivered, the trim on the sides differed left to right.  Most strange!  The one wagon I ever nearly had but missed by ten minutes was a 1949 Buick Roadmonster Woody.  Had I bought it, I'd probably still have it.  Now I drive a 1999 GMC Yukon SLT, and that's a pretty good ride. ... View more

None of the above.  I want the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile. ... View more

Not sure what the sideways diversion into a blue/red continuum was about.  When I lived in the city, I bought a pickup because I needed one during the remodeling of much of our house.  Never considered that I was making an ideological statement.  It just hauled Stuff -- to the landfill, from the appliance dealer, to friends who wanted to recycle some of the Stuff we had.  When the remodeling was done, we sold it to another guy who was building a new 6-stall garage/shop.  He put it to the same use.  If what I heard is correct, the third owner after that finally wore it out.  When we moved out to the country in 2013, the first vehicle we bought was a 1995 C2500 heavy 3/4.  4wd on demand, Big bed that can haul two yards of 3/4- gravel, 454 cid engine with more torque than I can sometimes believe.  It continues to be our Farm Truck -- and now the biggest thing it hauls is my 24 ft Haulmark enclosed car trailer for the car project.  It doesn't have a gun rack, I never fly Confederate traitor flags on it, and it's not jacked up to where it's unstable.  It's a flaming truck!  And a damned good one.  Every now and again I run across some of those who figure their gussied up pickup is some sort of ideological statement.  I just chuckle.  I remind them that no matter What they may be driving, mine is bigger, has a bigger engine, it's maintained properly and used for what it was designed for.  I figure to put the Veterans for Biden sticker on the tailgate when it arrives later this week.  Those who really Want their trucks to be some sort of ideologically significant matter will just have to live with that. ... View more

Contrary to popular belief, the Isetta in the US had two rear wheels, with a narrower track than the two front.  The UK version had one rear wheel, with no reverse gear.  That way it could be registered as a motorcycle, and not a car. ... View more

Proving once again that not everything that Can be done Should be done. ... View more

You might look up the Fargo pickups, which I believe were made by Chrysler and that marque still survives in Turkey. ... View more

Cars of that era could hit speeds in the 70's, and even higher.  But they couldn't be maintained for long without some modifications.  Generally the driving and road conditions then were far different than now.  With two-lane roads requiring slower speeds, the cars often being unstable at high speeds, and the frequent small towns that showed up every 20-30 miles or so, the higher speeds weren't maintained for long.  Compare that to now, where the conditions on the superslab allow for 70-80 mph for very long distances.  Earlier cars often had overheating problems at those sustained speeds, and vaporlock was a common occurrence when the cars slowed or stopped for through-town traffic.  An average speed of 40-50 mph over a long haul was considered making pretty good time at the time.   ... View more

In my current project, I needed a donor car -- a late model Corvair convertible.  The coupe was only minimally useful and some of the parts I needed were unique to the drop top model.  Found one in Nampa, Idaho two years ago, and a buddy and I borrowed a trailer and brought it back.  It came with boxes of parts -- some new, some from the car.  Enough to fill the entire box of a 3/4 ton pickup front to back and floor to ceiling.  Few were labeled, but some were.  In the ensuing two years, bits were cut off the body of the donor car, and used to replace corroded pieces on mine.  Some of the parts were useful only to the 1965 Corvairs.   I knew several guys in the club and just mostly gave them to them, no charge.  There remains some 3-4 boxes with parts in them that may or may not be useful as thing to forward.  But at this point, mostly not.   When this project is done, I do Not want to have boxes of "spare" parts sitting around cluttering up the shop or the barn, recycling themselves into the FeO(2) from which they came.  I have a few things I'm selling at about 60% of what they would cost if someone tried to buy them new.  Right now, a dual master cylinder with brake lines for someone wanting to upgrade a 65-66 to a dual system, or to replace the dual system in a 67-69.  Both are NIB.  Selling them cheap.   But I expect simply to give most of them away n/c, and build up some "personal credit" with other Corvair guys should I be in need of assistance in the future.  Today, for example, a well-known Corvair guy is coming over in a few minutes to discuss how to load my newly painted and pristine convertible body/shell into an enclosed trailer.  The usual sorts of tie-down points need special care to avoid any visible damage -- the car is being restored to concourse condition -- and I don't know the best way to do that.  That service is so valuable to me that he can pretty much pick anything he wants from what is left, and use it on his or someone else's project.  At this point, the money is no longer important. ... View more

It continues to surprise me that no one has apparently made a stronger more durable shaft for the oil pump.  That used to snap regularly in the cold months, when the oils used at the time became more viscous, because J-H owners were just too damned cheap to switch to a lighter oil for the winter.  So the cars got parked in Nov-Dec, and by the time Spring came around no one was going to bother to fix them because they'd already sourced a different car, so a lot of them just sat there and deteriorated.  As for the oil leaks, it's British ferpete'ssakes!  What did anyone expect? ... View more

What it needs is what the other supercars in the world have -- what Jeremy Clarkson used to call the "flappy paddle gearbox."  They shift faster and cleaner than any manual, and still allow gear selection control to be with the driver more than the usual automatic. ... View more

Other than perhaps the Yenko Stinger and the Fitch Sprint Corvair variants, I have yet to see any body modification that improves their looks.  And even those are arguable.  Happily neither of them was all that radical, and they left the basic body contours alone. ... View more

On Corvair sites, people bring this up constantly.  It was an annoying  problem, but there were several fixes that were comparatively easy. The keys are (1) to use the Correct fan belt, and not just any of the correct length, (2) to tension the belt properly, and not just estimate the proper adjustment.  Two aftermarket fixes:  (3) the factory installed a smallmetal keeper on the right hand side of the fan that served to keep the belt in place, and (4) there was a spring tensioner that was installed on the idler pulley that kept the proper tension on all the time.  Still, it was always wise to carry a 9/16 offset box end wrench and large screwdriver in the "frunk" (?) for those occasions when things might come adrift.  I only ever experienced it on the first drive I took after purchasing my 1966 convertible after it had been "restored" by a "mechanic" who had no idea that he had installed the wrong belt.  Otherwise, in well over 200,000 miles of driving several Corvairs, it never happened.  ... View more

I bought a 1978 Datsun 280Z Black Pearl with about 6,000 miles on it.  It still smelled new.  It was driven for a while as a daily driver, then an occasional driver.  The first refreshing was in 1987, before I moved to Oregon.  The second was a full resto-mod treatment, but still using mostly Nissan parts throughout.  The engine was a work of art - a 3.1 liter block from a ZX turbo, a single rail fuel injection, much machined head and other stuff to give 300 HP without a turbocharger.  The body was stripped, corrosion fixed, repainted in the original one-year only color, and suspension upgraded.  At the end of the process, it was simply The best car to drive I have ever owned.  Better than the E-type, the 635 CSi, the C2 Corvette.  Great performance, good mileage, and it fit just fine.  Then came That Day.  It was the end of October, and I had filled it with non-EtOH petrol and dosed it with StaBil, getting ready to store it over the coming winter.  On the last pleasure drive, it hit me -- there was Nothing I could do that would make this car better than it had been for the previous three years.  Sure -- I could screw around with appearance bits, but as a Car -- something to drive -- I was Done.  Finished.  It was at that point that I knew it had to be sold, so someone else could take it from that point onward.  As I finally did.  A good friend said I would be sorry and would miss it.  I wasn't, and I don't.  It was probably the Best Car I had or ever would own.  It just didn't matter.  After 39+ years of owning it, I was OK with it going to someone else.  I have No idea where it is now, what has happened to it, whether it has been changed, wrecked or maintained.  I don't think I care to know.  39 years of enjoyment was enough.  At the moment, I am rebuilding the car I first bought in January 1/68 in Fargonordakoda, the night before I went to Viet Nam the second time.  Of all the cars I have ever owned and enjoyed, and there have been some truly great ones, that's the one that has stuck foremost in my memory for over 50 years.  I will have it back again, as good or better than it was.  It will be my last special interest car.  I don't want any others.  Even If someone were to give me a different car -- doesn't matter the marque, price or value -- I'd just sell it as soon as I could be rid of it.  I am now building a memory, and getting ready to age out of the car hobby.  I will not leave my wife with a collection of cars that she has to deal with.  "To everything, there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven."  As it is with everything, it is so with cars.  Sometimes they just have to go, and their story continue with someone else. ... View more

In 1962, a college friend at ND State University had a Goggomobil at the same time I had an Isetta 300.  One night we drove them on a dozen or so laps around the quad.  The campus cops were frustrated because their sedans were too big to fit and couldn't chase us.  It was easy enough to find us, and we were properly lectured the next morning. ... View more

If the director spends more than maybe 20% of the time on irrelevant things like plot lines, character development and most especially romantic involvement of the drivers, I become uninterested pretty quickly.  On the television, I record the movies and fast forward through all that nonsense. ... View more

Some pickups are personal identification statements. Some suggest an identity the owner would like to have, but doesn't really. Some are mostly for show. Mine works.  Hard! 1995 white C2500 Silverado heavy 3/4, 4wd and a 454 cid engine. ... View more

Resto-mods aren't garbage.  As a frequent judge, including concourse events, I've seen a fair number of them.  They don't win or place in the restored or survivor classes - though some have been mistakenly entered in them. I had my own resto-mod -- 1978 Black Pearl 280Z -- that had Datsun/Nissan engine bits, but with a block from a turbo ZX, and a single rail FI setup that looked better, was less complicated and more reliable than the factory setup. The only others who considered it to be "garbage" were some old school hot rodders with lead sleds who showed up at a show and didn't want to park next to "Jap Scrap." Pretty much everyone else who saw it thought it was well done and a genuine upgrade to the original. Including but not limited to properly restored/original 280Z's.  Theirs were not Better -- just Different. I am now doing a proper concourse-quality restoration on a car I first owned 52 years ago.  Though there are many more recent parts available, some of which appear close to original,  nevertheless this one is being built to a different standard. I'm 100% down with Own What You Want, and Drive What You Own. I would only add, Don't Complain about what others want and drive.  There's room in this hobby for more than one preference. ... View more

In 1971, I hosted a half-hour weekly television show in Fargo, ND.  Moss came through on a trip to publicize an event at Brainerd International Raceway, 100 miles east in Minnesota. At the conclusion of the interview, I invited him for lunch and he accepted. We went out to the parking lot to get into my 1966 Corvette roadster, and he asked if he could drive it. Could Stirling Moss drive my car? Abso-**bleep**-Lutely! So I got to ride with Stirling Moss in my own car as we drove maybe 15 minutes to have lunch.  The meal lasted about 45 minutes, the conversation was great, and on leaving he said he would ride back with me driving. No --  I didn't do anything stupid, trying to impress him.  But I had Stirling Moss in the passenger seat. In 2010 or 2011, I was within several feet of him at the Goodwood Revival.  I thought of reintroducing myself, but let the moment go. The earlier memory was more than enough, and I figured there was no sense in eliciting a positive response for no reason. He remains one of the two English drivers on my all-time hero list, right beside Graham Hill. It's sad to know he's gone.  But I'm glad he was here and that I once met him. ... View more

I have followed a couple of general guidelines in my past projects: * If you really want that exact vehicle, n none other, then suck it up, spend what it takes and just get on with it. * If you want one just like it, maybe part it out, sell or keep the parts, and find another. * If you want to sell it to make a few bucks, think of selling it as a work in progress to someone else who wants one.  Be honest about its condition, though.  You may not profit, but you can minimize your loss. My current project went sideways well into five figures and coming up on three years.  But i want that exact vehicle, not one just like it, and have no intention of selling it any time soon. So I'll spend what is required to get it, and enjoy it afterwards. ... View more

To readers: There was No coordination between my comments on Jeff as a really good automotive writer who had previous Alcan experience, and today's story. Honest. ... View more

Zurschmiede Damned spellcheck anyway! ... View more

I'll start by tell you who isn't. The current online "zines" contain a lot of automotive writing that is largely garbage.  Especially the lists of 5 or 10 Good/Bad cars which have a two-sentence discussion that provides no useful information.  They are so illiterate that sometimes they are incomprehensible.  It's really sad to know that there are those who take it seriously. Most magazines do a reasonably good job of describing the technical and driving experiences of the cars under discussion.  Those stories resemble each other, and few actually stand out.  Of somewhat greater interest are those that discuss the people who own and build the cars.  It's the people who actually have stories to share more than the cars. For looking for creativity and great sense of humor, added to the technical and personal side of things, Bruce McCall is my all-time favorite.  His discussions of the Denbeigh (fictional) archetypical British car, and especially the Super Chauvinist model still rank among my favorite and timeless contributions to automotive journalism. I am also a fan of the late WRC Shedenhelm, who wrote for Sports Car Graphic back in the 60's.  His wry comments on the vagaries of the cars of the time (the discussion of the 8-cylinder Mini - one engine in front and one in back) was downright wonderful! For current but largely unrecognized automotive writers, I'd suggest Jeff Zurschmided of Tillamook, Oregon.  He has written short reviews, a couple of books (the one on restoring an early Miata and another on how to hotrod Subarus) suggest that unlike many, he spends considerable time wrenching on the cars he writes about.  His stories on driving adventures -- he's done the Al-Can rally (or whatever it's called now) twice -- suggest a broad experience with many different car-related activities. His command of the language is excellent, and now and again his humor sneaks through to great enjoyment. I am an automotive write on a small scale (Hemmings and Eckler's).  But I in no wise compare myself to those who can demonstrate a far greater competence and creativity with the genre than I can. Favoritism is largely idiosyncratic, and those who have been mentioned elsewhere are all good too. ... View more