Redefining: The Burnout!

This is one hell of a BURNOUT.  This guy literally Lit Up The Tires!  Check it Out!

If it wasn’t for bad luck…

If it wasn’t for bad luck…I wouldn’t have any Luck at all!  Well I finally got everything I needed from Summit to install my Dual Quads on the ’71 Camaro Z28.  This has been going on for a year now and I’m still having problems getting it done.

Well first off I discovered when I tried to install my new Edlebrock Dual Quad breather that the Carbs were to far apart and it would not fit.  This discovery lead me to test fitting the Fuel Manifold.   SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! It will not work either.  This damn Weiand Manifold is my headache now.  Looks like I will have to go to individual bonnets on the carbs (finding 2 that will fit in the cowl induction opening of my hood will be another task all together) and extend the braided line on the Fuel Manifold.  I never knew that there was a difference in the two manifolds as far as the Carb placement.  I’m usually an Edlebrock man all the way but Dad bought this for me for a steal and all I thought I would have to do is rebuild the carbs.  Man was I wrong!  Seems here lately nothing is coming easy for me.

Check out the original post from when I received the Dual Quads here!

Stay tuned for the next not-so-exciting chapter of  Curse Of The Dual Quads!

Pinup!

Tool Box ‘Toons

Courtesy of my friend “the Troz” George Trosley.

On This Day In Automotive History…

April 22, 1970

First Earth Day is celebrated

The first Earth Day was held in communities all across the country. Earth Day was the creation of Senator Gaylord Nelson. As he describes it, a number of senators were concerned about the state of the country’s environment in the early 1960s. In a move intended to bring national visibility to the issue of environmental deterioration, the Senators persuaded President Kennedy to take on a nationwide conservation tour, “spelling out in dramatic language the serious and deteriorating condition of our environment.” The tour was a failure. Senators Hubert Humphrey, Gene McCarthy, Joe Clark, and Nelson himself accompanied Kennedy on the first leg of his trip to Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Though the tour failed to rouse interest of any significant level in the environment as a political issue, Nelson credits the mission with being the seed from which Earth Day would eventually flower. The idea for a grassroots effort gestated in Nelson’s head until July of 1969, when, according to Nelson, the anti-war teach-ins of the Vietnam era inspired him to conceive of a nationwide environmental “teach-in.” Nelson returned to Washington and began to raise funds for the event. In addition, he and his staff sent letters to 50 governors, and to the mayors of all major cities requesting them to make Earth Day proclamations. In a speech in Seattle in September of 1969, Nelson formally announced that a nationwide environmental teach-in would take place in the spring of the coming year. All of the major wire services ran the story, and the response was dramatic. From that point on, says Nelson, Earth Day was the product of the populace. By December, the response of inquiries had so overwhelmed Nelson’s Senate office that an Earth Day Clearing House was set up in Washington to plan for the event. In the end, an estimated 20 million people participated in Earth Day events of some kind. Ten thousand grade schools and high schools, 2,000 thousand colleges, and 1,000 thousand communities across the country held official events. Earth Day is responsible for establishing the efficacy of grassroots environmental advocacy. A by-product of Earth Day that directly effected the automobile industry was the public’s heightened awareness of the environmental dangers of gasoline exhaust emissions.

The Unicorn of Mustangs…

I ran across this while surfing through photos on Flicker.  I had to research this and see if it was a custom some hippy on acid (stay away from the brown acid dude it’s bad) conjured up or an actual prototype.

Well the later is what it actually is.  Yes, Ford took the then popular Mustang and butchered it up to try to grab more of the older consumer market.  Only a small number of the cars were produced but the idea was eventually abandoned.  The 1965 Mustang Estate Wagon never saw production and was commissioned by a company called Intermeccanica.

There have been several car show sightings of this car across the U.S. as well as some articles done on the car but nothing really indepth.  Car & Driver Magazine did a piece on the car but I have yet to see it other than the cover you see here.

Rumor has it that Ford was considering revisiting this idea with the current Mustang, citing the past popularity of the Dodge Magnum.  Let’s hope they don’t!  I’m a Chevy guy myself but I hate to see even Ford make a stupid mistake like that.

There is Something about Girls and Cars…

On This Day In Automotive History…

April 18, 1882

Daimler and Maybach reach agreement

Gottlieb Daimler and his protege Wilhelm Maybach reached an agreement to work towards the creation of a high-speed internal combustion engine for the purpose of propelling vehicles. Working in Daimler’s greenhouse, the two men finished their first gas-powered engine in 1883. Four years later the two men achieved a major breakthrough when they constructed the first water-cooled, gas-powered internal combustion engine

Easter Pinup!

On This Day In Automotive History…

April 10, 1944

Henry Ford II is promoted

Henry Ford II was named executive vice president of the Ford Motor Company. His promotion confirmed his bid to become the heir to his grandfather’s throne at Ford. Henry II despised his grandfather for tormenting his father, Edsel Ford. Nevertheless Henry II went on to display many of the leadership skills of his grandfather en route to becoming the head of the Ford Empire. After an unsatisfactory academic career at Yale University—where Henry spent four years without receiving a diploma—he returned to work at the River Rouge plant. There he familiarized himself with the operation of the company, and he witnessed the bitter struggle for the succession of Henry Ford’s title as president of the company. After his father Edsel Ford’s death– the result of “stomach cancer, undulant fever, and a broken heart”– Ford Lieutenants Harry Bennett and Charles Sorensen fought a silent battle for the Ford throne. Henry Ford Sr. had reassumed the title of president, although it was clear he was too old to stay in that position for long. The irritable Henry I wasn’t dead yet though, and he intervened on behalf of his violent pet Harry Bennet, who had gained power at Ford for his suppression of organized labor. After being passed up for the vice presidency of the company, Sorensen left the company after over 40 years of service. Many attributed Ford’s poor treatment of Sorensen to personal jealousy. Henry the Elder was reportedly even jealous of his grandson’s presence at the Rouge Plant. At the outbreak of World War II, Henry II left Ford for military service, which he carried out in Salt Lake City, Utah, until his father died on May 26, 1943. At that time he returned to Ford to take the reigns of the company at the urging of the U.S Government. His grandfather was finally too old to run the company; and if he didn’t name a successor, the company would fall out of the family’s control for the first time in its existence. Realizing that Henry’s presence would make his own accession to the company’s presidency impossible, strongman Harry Bennett attempted to bring Henry II under his influence. His efforts were of no avail, though, as Henry Ford II refused to be influenced by his tyrannical grandfather’s toady. His accession to the executive vice-presidency made him the inevitable successor to the presidency of the Ford Motor Company. Henry Ford II went on to lead his family’s company back to greatness from its dubious position behind both GM and Chrysler after the war.