11/10/14 – The first Dodge is produced and on the same day 11 years later Ford built its first Tri-Motor airplane.
Not the plane:
1914 - 4 Door Dodge Touring
This is the plane:
Fords 1925 Tri-Plane
11/11/1940 – The first Jeep
1940 Jeeps
11/12/1908 – GM takes over Oldsmobile.
11/25/1844 – Mr. Benz was more in Karlsruhe, Germany (Been there, the wine is excellent, the beer is better and the food is OUTSTANDING!)
11/26/1966 -The DeTomaso Mangusta debuts
1966 DeTomaso Mangusta
11/27/1870 – Joe Mach’s birthday. Yeah…the guy that started MAC trucks. The company started when Joe and his brothers purchased a carriage and wagon company in Brooklyn, N.Y. The first vehicle they produced was a tour bus. (1900) Next up was rail cars and locomotives. At the time they used the name Manhattan. Somewhere between 1910 and 1911 the name changed to Mack at about that time the Mack brothers bought a truck company. Oh..in case you are wonder the Bulldog became their logo in 1922 and the name was changed to MACK Truck. When I was a very young, we called all tractor-trailer Mack Trucks.
1910 Mack Hook and Latter firetrucks
New Auto Factoid format.
The Ford Mustang sold 419,000 cars in the its first 12 months on the marked. That number trumped the 417,000 cars set by the 1960………………Ford Falcon!!!!
Just recently I started comparing technology in cars that we own. A couple of months ago I purchased a 07 Corvette that has a lot more technology then the 84 Corvette I owned and a lot more than my 70 Mustang. We have also owned two newer vehicles a 2008 Lexus GS350 and now a 2011 Lexus RX 350. I’m not going to compare the technology between the two Corvettes nor would there be any reason to compare the Corvettes to the Mustang.
But what I have compared is the level of technology between U.S. cars and the two Lexus (Toyota) vehicles we’ve owned.
First up is the 2008 Lexus GS350. We purchase the car in late 2007, which, as far as a technology time line would be concerned, is smack in the middle of digital music, video and touch technology era. To better frame the time line 3 years ago while attending the Fords on 4th Ave Car Show, here in Tucson, I meet up with a couple of Microsoft guys (one of them I knew from a previous contract I worked) doing the first demo of Sync in a Lincoln. They gave me quick demo and it was excellent technology which is now about 3 years old. Yet this luxury Toyota only managed to have a horribly located, headphone port to headphone port connection for your IPOD or MP3 player. Compare this with the technology in my 2007 Corvette, it at least plays MP3 formatted CDs as well as standard CDs.
Next is the 2011 Lexus RX350, three years further into the mobile data revolution and it still seems lacking in technology. The GS350 had a touch screen information center, the RX350 does not. What replaced that is a joy stick/mouse type device.
From my wife's Rx
It seems a like a step backward. It’s much easier for you to touch the screen while driving. The RX’s device requires the moving around of a cursor, centering it on an icon and clicking the mouse-like buttons. ( Don’t get me started on distracted driving, phone calls vs. eating McDonald’s fries.) The RX is limited to a USB connection for music and that is it. Sure it has options for satellite and blue tooth (as did the GS) , but techno-backtracking from a touch screen is a bit odd and no music storage is nearly pre-historic.
Just comparing technologies for music availability the U.S. cars are ahead. Take the 2011 Buick Lucerne, it has a 60 Gig hard drive for storing music. This particular car can even record radio station you are on for playback. Ford has a host of technology to store music and using Microsoft’s Sync technology, their Fords and Lincolns brands (the dash of the new Lincoln MKX will blow you away) are far superior to the what I’ve found in the Japanese cars. Even a tone-downed Chevy Cobalt has tire air pressure sensors.
While we were test driving the RX a week ago, I asked the salesman about the missing technology and he agreed that Lexus does in fact lag behind in offering this type of technology.
Don’t you think that’s odd? Are American car manufacturers that advanced? Are our car companies just toss in everything, even the kitchen sink to sell cars? Hey..neither of those are a bad thing!!! I’m sold! Besides it a lot easier to eat fries while driving if you have a touch screen to change your music!!!
Your thoughts?
Thanks for reading and drop me a comment.
Tim
Comment from Bill
This reminds me of a co-worker who bought a new Chrysler minivan recently. He was excited to tell me about how big the harddrive was, the DVD system, the ‘info-tainment’ bus, the ability of the ‘my gig’ to link to the satiellite,and on and on. I asked what engine he had-he paused- gave me a dazed look-and said he didn’t really know?
I think Lexus does what US car manufacturers used to do; they build a car that will travel 100K miles with just a few oil changes and one set of tires, and a resale value that is 65% of the orignal sales price 10 years later. The lag of technology does not errode the MSRP sticker prices Lexus still demands for their products while Government Motors still discounts their Buicks $5,000 off MSRP to gain a sale. Then five years later that Buick has a market value of $2,200, and the poor upside down owner is looking for his own ‘bail out’.
Me personally, I’d like to see any car manufacturer ‘de-content’ their cars a bit. It not only reduces the sales price, the weight of the car (some cars have six miles of wire in them now days), but actually increases reliability (less to fail) and performance. That original formula of the Boss 302, or Plymouth Roadrunner where you got roll down windows, a bench seat, and for a few dollars you could get a tach, AC, or tinted glass as the only options is my dream come true. Don’t forget a LARGE V8 powering the rear wheels STANDARD! I’d buy a new 2011 car tomorrow if I could get a taxi cab interior with a 300HP V8 for under $25,000. I looked at the 2011 Boss 302, but it still is techno-overloaded for me to call it a true muscle car.
Can you tell now why I replaced our grocery-getter-always-repair-proned Impala with a Grand Marquis? It is (or was-Ford stopped production in September) the closest car out there that meets my formula: no navigation-no harddrive-no MP3-no Sirius-no 8 speed automatic. Bench seat-4.6l police V8-4 speed automatic-RWD; thanks, thats all I need! I’m used to the blue hair jokes and still happy with my taxi cab, hopefully for the next 20 years and 200K miles.
I have often wondered if Dodge introduced a Challenger with Hemi V8, roll up windows, AM FM radio, and the minimum government mandated equipment for around $25,000 if they would sell, or does our generation require several thousand microprocessors to be interested in their cars?
So I left off with perhaps one of the worse fears, breaking it yourself.
Having it broken by someone else is only slightly better, YOU didn’t do it, so you can be mad at someone and chances are the signification other will lighten up, especially when they find you sobbing uncontrollably, laying on the hood your classic.
I have had that experience with my Mustang. Since kids might run across this blog I won’t use the language I might normally, when relaying this next incident.
I had just gotten the engine conversion done and I was happy. Some work on my part and fair amount of money got me to where the car had the power it needed. I’ll talk more about the modification and conversion later on. I think I had the car back for a couple months and one day…a rainy day….errk………..I live in southern Arizona ….what manner of horrible luck can you have to deserve such crappy timing? I was only a mile from home and I stopped at a red light. 10 cars in front me and as I waiting with them, I glanced in my rear view mirror. There I see a small white pick-up in the distance coming my way. As I watched, I realized that he was coming pretty fast. A nano second later I was 100% sure he wasn’t going to stop. I shoved the clutch in, dropped her in to first, cranked the steering wheel to the right, hit the gas and popped the clutch. Well, the additional power I longed for, now realized…spun the rear wheels, in what normally would have been an enjoyable manner, but right that minute I was wishing for the straight 6 again…(well..maybe not exactly). I was just able to nose the Mustang’s front end way from the car in front of me when I looked up and saw…(this was all happening in extremely slow motion – right now just playing it in my head..it seems like ten minutes at least) this white pickup starting to stop and then I felt the slam from behind. The force pushed the Mustang past the car in front of me by 3/4 of a car length. If I had not gotten the few precious inches just before the tires began spinning, I would have destroyed my 3 month old bored out 302 and all the hard work that went into the engine bay, electrical, and new AC would have been for naught.
Ok I’m going to stop here for the now. More tomorrow.
One more day until Corvette Auto X day. Taking my son with me, he’ll be grabbing some vids and pics that I’ll share.
Thanks for reading and thanks for being able to read!!!!
So I’ve “blogged ya” some history, now it’s time for some current stuff. Of course my Dad is a car guy and my brother is pretty handy with a set of wrenches, but 24.2 years ago I married into a family that pretty much made most of the car guys I had known in my adult life (ok the adult part is debatable) mere tinkerers.
I have three brother-in-laws that were raised in the car business and not just a little bit of a car business, but a full-blown mechanic shop, engine building, stock car sponsoring, car show restoration, towing type business. These guys knew more about cars by the time they were teenagers, then I did when I was 30 (yeah..I’m over thirty..and not just a little). This guys know their stuff. I now have nephews (their kids) that are even giving me a run for my money.
So I’ve set this up, pretty well, and keep it in mind because when I get to the physiological hurdles of restoring a car, you are going to understand my particular issue and you might relate.
(I seem to start a lot of sentences with the word “So”. So I’ll try to limit the use of it. You might also notice that I use ‘…..’ between words. I do that for to give emphasis on a larger more dramatic pause the you get from the run of a mill comma. Nope not grammatically correct…but a habit I might break….if I get enough comments about it from the readers of this blog.)
So here is a quick introduction to my cars.
1. 1970 Ford Mustang Coupe. I’ve owned it for approximately 4 years and I love it. This is my first real restoration.
2. 1984 C4 Corvette. First year for that generation, everything is unique. Although not my dream generation of corvettes, I love this car. Ever since my uncle put me in his Corvette, I’ve wanted one. When I joined the Air Force my goal was to finish up by second degree become an officer and by a Corvette.
Ok enough for this evening. Tomorrow I’ll give you the run down on each. I have a great story on how I got the Corvette.
So some background coming your way. No not my life’s story, just a little car related history. Grew-up in up-state NY – way upstate. My Dad was a body man by profession, working for various dealerships and auto body shops as well as owning a couple of his own (moderately successful). He was a premier body man, the way he did it was artful. He also fancied himself a mechanic, he was pretty good at that, but not nearly reaching the level he achieved “working on fenders”.
You can see that I was brought up with cars. When we owned our own shops – (4 of them, I think) I worked weekends and summers in each one and learned the skill. I also learned that I didn’t want to work this hard for a living. But I got a very good respect for the craft. I also loved the Chilton Manuals and the body shop books. Each had depictions of front(bumpers/grills/headlights) and the rear (bumpers/tail lights). I memorized as many as possible and I could pick them out on the street and site the make, model and year.
In addition to the constant exposure there were four specific events that helped to set the seed for what would become my passion now.
The very first occurred when I must have been 3 or 4 at the time when my uncle owned a 1958 blue and white Corvette. I remember him puting me in the car and I remember the image of the steering wheel and the two-tone paint. Family legend has it, that I was the only nephew he allowed in the car…don’t know if that true or not, but it makes for a cool story.
The second was the a Chevy II Nova. My Dad often let folks use a garage bay sometimes when they wanted to do a little work on their own. I don’t recall the guy’s name but he used the garage for a couple months to work on this awesome drag car. I believe it had 396 engine with triple carbs and it sounded beautiful. I must have been 12 or 13 at the time and I remember hanging over the fender while he worked on it. I also recall helping him put out a gas fire when one of the gas lines sprang a leak while starting her up.
The next was going to the stock car races at Fond-Foultonville track. My Dad had a buddy who ran a car there and we got to go into the pits. I remember the smell of fuel, exhaust and burned oil. I remembered how hard that dirt track got at the end of a night of racing.
The final event was my first car. I was graduating from high school and my parents presented me with a fully restored (my father’s work) 1966 Chevy Impala Convertible. It was the prettiest car I had every seen and the 2nd coolest (the first coolest was my friend John DeLong’s 1972 (I think) Mach I Mustang..beautiful car and fast. The only way I ever beat him in a street race was by running a red light, when he slowed..I didn’t.
So you’d think I would continued to work on cars and I did for a bit while in college. I drove the Impala to death, wrecked it twice and sold it cheap. Bought a Plymouth Duster and did all the body work and sold that. Then I stopped.
I grew to dislike having to work on them. Maybe not that, as much as I was afraid that I’d be trapped in what was (in my thinking and at the time was) a depressed industry and family problems gave me the impression that it was best to leave that all behind. Which I did. For many years I wouldn’t touch a car, unless I was just jump starting someones or I need a quick repair of my own. During that time I did manage to own a 71 Chevelle and a Burlinetta Camaro, but those were short-term and at the time I was glad to get rid of them.
That’s it for ancient history. The next posting be a bit more recent and I’ll introduce you to some family members and my cars.
Thanks for reading. Please feel free to drop me a comment or note.
Tim
Post Script: We’ll get more into the cars and issues soon enough, but without this background you might not “get where I’m com’in from”. I’ve got some cool stuff to share and a feature where there will be a daily auto related ‘FACTOID’ and or some real auto news.
