Pnuematic (compressed air) locomotives were needed in highly flammable environments like coal mines

found on http://steampunkvehicles.tumblr.com

Musclecar trivia

the 66 GTO holds the record for single year highest production with 96,946 made, and here is the odd thing. That was only 10 percent of Pontiac's sales that year. That is an example of how few real muscle cars were made.

The 409 engine was put into less that one percent of the cars it could have been ordered for in it's entire run.

the 1956 Chrysler 300B could have been optioned with a 6.17:1 axle

the 57 Nash Ambassador got the new 327, and in the light Rambler body was only 2nd to the Corvette int he zero to 60 time according to Motor Trend

in 1960 the Chrysler 300 could have been ordered with a french built 4 speed manual, but only 7 were ordered this way for the 300F

Goofy advertising nomenclature for car options in the 1961 Dodge D-500 Polara: Safe t Matic door locks, Hi Way Hi Fi record player (16 2/3rds rpm) and the Astrophonic radio, and the Mirromatic rear-view

AC Cobra trivia

According to an article in Cruisin' Style magazine,

there are 6 known original owner 289 Shelby AC Cobras

The cassette player died this year, 2010 was the last year a manufacturer installed one in a car

Lexus was still making the SC430 with a tape deck in 2010... shocking isn't it? !

News and photo from the Hooniverse
http://hooniverse.com/2011/02/11/and-now-a-moment-of-silence-for-the-cassette-player/#more-42689

Possibly the only tucker to race is NASCAR

it's all written up, from Dan at Hemmings http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2008/12/24/seeing-really-is-believing-a-tucker-did-indeed-race-in-nascar-and-we-found-the-photo-to-prove-it/  helmed by Joe Merola of Braddock, Pennsylvania, at the 1950 Poor Man’s 500 at Canfield Speedway in Ohio.

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2011/07/11/new-nascar-tucker-photo-surfaces/ for an update from July 2011

Evolution of the Batmobile, all 70 years of it

This, you have to click on for full size
found on http://fireballtim.com/blog

Challenging Mopar trivia masters, what unusual about this 1969 Dart?

Answers are here after the link: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/05/tokyo-plates-on-56-nomad-bitchin-ride.html

Racing stripes

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

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

above image from http://steampunkvehicles.tumblr.com/

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

Cedar Knoll Farms commented:
Angyl Roper is right - during the Depression, fuel prices became so hard to keep up with that many people, particularly those in the deep south, were forced to "modify" their cars and trucks, sometimes completely cutting out the front end of the vehicle, and hooking horses and mules to them. These became known as "Hoover Carts", after the president who was blamed for the economic downfall.

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.

new car marketing quiz

http://www.cramersweeney.com/brandprix/ I got 13 out of 20... yeah, I made 2 mistakes, and 5 I didn't have any idea. New cars aren't my strong point

Trivia, how was a quarter mile chosen as the length of a dragstrip?

From Wally Parks:

We took some new (1949 model) cars down, and as part of the the regular Motor Trend road test, we ran these experimental runs. The purpose of the thing was to find out just how far you could race the average car that was available at the time before you had to start getting stopped. We had a runway down there that I think was 4700 feet long. We had probably 20 different cars running, of all types, including some dry lakes cars; and we found that if we extended the acceleration distance more than a quarter mile, some of them couldn't get stopped at the other end. It was on that basis that we (later) established the quarter-mile as the official (NHRA) competition distance.
Hot Rod Magazine Nov. 1978

The lunar rover, only wheeled vehicle off the planet

Above image via: http://www.greyhandgang.com/

there were actually 3 deployed: http://luminosis.blogspot.com/2009/07/for-sale-one-lunar-rover.html
Above image via: http://www.solarviews.com/raw/apo/as17-147-22526.jpg

Above image via: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Apollo15LunarRover.jpg

Below inage via: http://apolloanomalies.com/images/ALSJ/AS17-137-20979HR.jpg

They are still working on the next generaton of lunar rover tires: http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/08/06/goodyear-and-nasa-develop-the-next-gen-lunar-rover-tire-its-springy/

I don't consider the toys on mars to be vehicles, since they have no ability to transport people

What is rare? A 426 max wedge in a Dodge truck as a factory install

The 426 Wedge was part of the $1300 High Performance Package and could be ordered on its own from the separate and distinct $235 Custom Sports Special trim package.

The HP Package was only “officially” offered in 1964 and 1965 on D100 and D200 LWB trucks. The Custom Sports Special trim package was offered from 1964 thru 1967 and could be had on D or W 100, 200 Sweptline, Utiline or chassis cab in LWB or SWB trucks.

Dodge management only authorized 50 trucks could be built with the 426 Street Wedge High Performance Package — according to former Dodge truck engineer Bruce Thomas of the Walter P. Chrysler Museum, who said that far fewer than 50 examples were actually produced. Currently the registry recognizes 31 trucks with these packages or combinations of them.

Info via: http://www.allpar.com/model/ram/ram-history.html

For a great story about them, and a family restoration: http://www.cssregistry.com/css/stevebell.html

V8 Trivia

1st to be modified specifically to set a record (1956 Boneville Salt Flats, 187.992)
1st small block with a GMC blower

These are not yet verified, and may never be, but it's pretty certain that with no documentation from the 1930's through 1970's like the way everything is documented now, it'll never be proven wrong even if it's never proven correct.

The engine? A prototype 265 cu in given to Stu Hilborn by GM in 1954, then sold to Tom Cobbs and installed in his 29 Ford on 34 rails

A profound quote about racing safety

"Gentlemen, just remember... blood is slippery"
Nick Cyret, pres. BRSCC 1959

Walter Chrysler, a brief note about an amazing biography

For a full write up: http://www.chryslerclub.org/walterp.html

But briefly he started working at age 18, as a janitor, and started taking educational courses like a machinist apprentice program where he studied air brakes (this was about 1893) and steam heat. He worked for railroads until 1900, when he took an electrical engineering correspondence course. He was a foremen with about 90 guys working for him by 1902, and in the next two years became a master mechanic; only 29 years old, and was the boss of 1000 men.

He further rose up the corporate ladder, achieving promotions and becoming the supervisor of many more workers, and in 1908 bought a Locomobile and took it apart to study it

At 34 yrs old he was promoted to works manager at GM, and in charge of Buick production where he quickly turned around the slow production and brought it up to 200 from just 45 cars a day. That is improvement on a scale that is hard to imagine, because it was simple things anyone could have seen and implemented.

In 1916 Walter was general manager of Buick, he resigned in 1920 due to not liking the direction Durant took producing frames.

At 45 years old Walter was retired when asked to save Willys-Overland which was $50 million in debt, but the risk of not pulling this off was so great that Chyrsler asked for 2 years at $1 million per year. He was concerned that failure to save Willys would reflect on his abilities. In two years the debt was reduced to $18 million and he left when Willys executives wouldn't go with development in a new engine.

At this time Maxwell Motors was $26 million in debt and Chrysler was asked to help out, and he did at a salary of $100,000 a year and a stock option. He secured a loan of $15 million for Maxwell and sold cars out of existing inventory for $995 -- a profit of $5 per car.

in 1925, MaxwelI Motor Corporation was re-organized into the Chrysler Corporation after 32, 000 Chryslers were built in 1924 and sold for $1595 — the same as Buick. This car was a true 70 mph performer with four wheel hydraulic brakes and a replaceable oil filter. On $5 million debt the company had a net profit of $4,115,000!

in 1926 the Chrysler 50 replaced the Maxwell and competed with Dodge. The model numbers indicated top speeds - 50, 60, 70 and 80 mph -- and later models used 62 and 72 designations to indicate improved models.

After putting together the Chrysler Corporation from the remnants of Maxwell-Chalmers in 1925, acquiring the Dodge Brothers Company in 1928 and introducing both the Plymouth and DeSoto the same year, thus becoming the number 3 position automaker, Walter Chrysler decided to wind down a little and do something different.

He built an office building, you've already guessed it's the Chrysler Building in New York, and it was a private business matter and not corporate relating to the car business. His sons weren't interested in the auto manufacturing business, so Walter had this, the tallest of its day, skyscraper built to be given as a business venture for his sons Walter Jr. and Jack Chrysler who were not interested in the automobile business

It was surpassed in height (but not beauty) by the Empire State Building in 1931, and today reamins the finest Art Deco building in the world. Walter Chrysler had his personal office here for a number of years. The tower culminates in a beautiful, tapered stainless steel crown that supports the famous spire at its peak.

The building has a lot of ornamentation that is based on features that were being used on Chrysler cars of the day, the thirty first floor corner ornamentations are replicas of 1929 Chrysler radiator caps, and the corners of the sixty first floor are graced with eagles, replicas of the 1929 Chrysler hood ornaments.

Via: http://www.chryslerclub.org/walterp.html

trivia answer that I came across accidentally, why did the 1920 Locomobile have a scarfed and moustached guy as a factory (not resale) hood ornament?

In WWI, British infantry soldiers were referred to as Tommys because of the name used as example in the pay book- Tommy Atkins. British troops during the Great War were famous for their bravery, and for always keeping their heads when the action got hot. That’s why this Tommy is a fitting mascot for this 1920 Locomobile.

The reason a British soldier was the choice, well since this was just after WW1, and a lot of mutual respect was formed between Brish and American forces, I think that explains it. No one has such respect for allies anymore, unless maybe it is the respect between military guys in a unit. Crewmembers in a aricraft, submarine, tank unit etc have this kind of utter respect.

in 1908, George Robertson (wearing #16) took the win in this car, ahead of fellow Locomobile pilot Joe Florida in third, becoming the first United States-built car to win in international competition. This would be the high water mark for Locomobile racing, and they soon faded from the scene, though Orin Davis did score a win in the Los Angeles-Phoenix rally in 1913.. On the strength of this, Locomobile soon became known for well built and speedy luxury cars.

Via: http://hooniverse.com/blog/2009/11/03/last-call-tommy-keeps-his-cool/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locomobile_Company_of_America