Welcome back to Average Guy’s Car Restoration. I’m still on the hunt for my C3 (I almost bought a 1971 Mach I – the price was right, but it has some ownership issues – they couldn’t prove who owned it!!)
Most of you know that I don’t have sponsors for Average Guy’s work. But I do not mind plugging something I enjoy or a product that works great.
You’ve seen a couple of posts on PetrolBox before. It’s no surprise that I’d present another.
They have multiple levels. This box is medium-priced. Check them out at mypetrolbox.com.
Enjoy the video.
I’ll have more coming up including bringing back some old favorites.
It’s always cool to catch a car show when you are traveling.
This past week (Super Bowl Sunday) while visiting family in Alpharetta, Ga, (just outside of Atlanta) I got the chance to ride into the ‘big’ city and take in the event – Thanks Brian!!
There often more than 1500 cars on the first Sunday of every month and even though it was cold and damp (and it being Super Bowl Sunday and the home town team was playing) there were a lot of cars!!!
We got there as it was starting to break up but there were still a lot of cars. Here’s a few pics.
Take a look at this awesome creation. Built on a C4 Corvette body to best look like a 1957 Chevy!
Check out this Nissan!!! It’s power plant is in the next pic.
Nice straight six!!!!
Nice custom ride!!
Here is a great look for a Road Runner.
No one standing around new anything about the car.
I wasn’t even able to scratch the surface. There were rows of Mustangs and Corvettes, long with 100’s of European and Japanese high-end rides and not all of them ‘stock’.
If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the video of the Jalopnik journalist hitting the wall with a 2016 mule Camaro. Enjoy and then check below for my commentary.
Clearly the guy felt bad and a little shaken up, but the reality is, he shouldn’t have driven the car. If you just look at the beginning frame of the video or notice the position of his arms just before he hit the wall, you can tell there the skill set just isn’t there.
I auto cross my cars – my C4 when I had it and my C6 now (not to mention my drag racing stint with my Mustang). I’ve attended my SCCA Solo courses and even attended some training with Bondurant at Phoenix International Raceway with Formula 1 cars. And what I’ve learned is that you must have more than just enthusiasm over a new car, especially a powerful one. You have to have some driving skills and you must have respect for the car’s abilities and know yours.
Here is a parallel event I was part of with my corvette club. We rented a part of the Bondurant facility to have an auto cross event. It included all generations of Corvettes as well as a few other non-Corvette vehicles. One of our members just purchased a brand new C6 and was very eager to run the course. Short version of the story is – he lost it on his second run, went through the chain-linked fence at a post and got the car hung up on the concrete footing. We had to dig him out and the Bondurant crew weren’t all that happy. Clearly he wasn’t ready for the abilities/power of his C6 even though he had the enthusiasm (and for pete’s sake keep the traction control on until you are used to the car).
Don’t get me wrong, accidents happen, just watch any F1, drag or NASCAR race and you’ll see professional skilled driver hit the wall. It happens.
Now back to the Jalopnik incident. If you watch the video you can tell the journalist seems pretty excited. However his driving skills seem a bit off in a number of ways. For instance, his sitting position is off, especially for track driving (maybe he’s just super tall or the mule car is not equipped with adjustable seats) for one. You can tell by his expression in a corner, prior to his last corner and the contact with the wall, that he was at he edge of his abilities with that particular car. As he goes into the now famous turn his arms cross – I didn’t realize a human could contort himself that much!!
I also found interesting was some of his commentary leading up to the crash with words like “rolly-poely”, “composed”, “nimble” especially in light of his comments that he was there to discuss the how it handles at the track. You must have the ability to test those things to give your readers a comparison and the proper (or more familiar) terminology helps e.g., replace “rolly-polly” with “body roll”. Wouldn’t GM want that too or at least his publisher?
There was a comment in his piece where he gave full disclosure, stating that GM wanted him to drive so badly, that they flew him out and paid for food and booze. Don’t know if that’s ‘special’ or standard fare. I also didn’t understand his comment – “GM asked me to leave the track” and they had to continued the video out in the street – seems a tough way to deal with someone, you really wanted there. Hopefully, GM doesn’t want their money back for the airfare or bill him for the damage to the mule.
Now I’m not a great blogger nor the greatest driver, but I do have car guy experience (including testing new models in a small auto cross scenario) and a fair grasp of the my native language. I’m not sure what all of his credentials are, he did say he had some track time, and I did look over some of his other entries and gained my own opinions.
It suffices to say that I much prefer a “car guy turned journalist” vs. “journalist turned car guy”, especially when to reading ‘car guy’ stuff and certainly for reviews like this one.
I do feel badly for him and GM and but I’m also sure it wasn’t the first time on media day that a writer dented one of the cars. He just had his published. And thank the auto gods that he wasn’t driving a Z28!!! I would have wept opening.
The 2016 Camaro SS is powered by a Corvette Stingray-sourced 6.2-liter V8 that produces 455 horsepower and 455 pound-feet of torque. By comparison, the 2015 Camaro SS has 426 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of torque. No matter the engine, the …
There are some areas of your drag, oval or road course beast that are weak areas for the stress of 420 hp and 400 ft-lbs of torque. Here is a great way to eliminate one. Chase the link at the bottom for the complete story from Chevy Hardcore!!
When considering the essential parts list for a race car build, we tend to think of exhaust headers, cylinder heads, turbochargers and so on. While it might not be the most glamorous piece of the puzzle, the starter is an absolutely vital component in your build – if it kicks the bucket, you’re dead in the water. And though it may not see the same sort of prolonged stresses that a driveshaft or set of tires sees on race day, it’s still contending with plenty of abuse from heat exposure and demands of high performance components which typically operate far outside the design specifications of an OEM starter.
But it was Dreyer’s government which plumped for an unlikely Nürburgring buyer: auto racing parts company Capricorn with a head office not far north of the circuit in Düsseldorf. Her transport minister, Roger Lewentz, said at the time that it was …
Roo Motorsports, the new Aussie NASCAR team based in Salisbury, plans to enter the truck-racing series next year and perhaps the Nationwide series in the future. Roo held an event, complete with satellite link to owners in Australia, earlier this month …
Here are your Auto Factoids (#AutoFactoids) for the last full week of May 2015.
May 26, 1906 Mauri Rose was born in Columbus, Ohio. Rose still holds the 2nd spot for the most Indiana 500 wins. His first win was in 1941 but he didn’t finish in the car he left the starting line in. The first car was a Maserati and developed mechanical issues and he moved to a Wetteroth/Offenhauser car. He managed two back-to-back wins in 1947 and 1948, driving one of a Deidt/Offenhauser Blue Crown Spark Plug Specials.
Mauri in the Maserati were he started in pole position in his first win.
Muari in Wetteroth/Offenhauser car
Mauri in the Blue Spark car!
May 29, 1946 Kaiser-Frazer produced its first vehicles. Kaiser-Frazer’s plant was located in Willow Run Ypsilanti, Michigan. The company was formed when the two purchased the defunct Graham-Paige (of which Frazer was once Present, prior to WWII). There first cars were called the Frazer and Kaiser, one a mid-level luxury car and the other an innovative front wheel drive model.
The two parted ways in 1951 and the company name was changed to Kaiser. They went on to design some fantastic cars like the Darrin (named after one of the designer – Dutch Darrin. Bill Tritt was the other part of the team.) and on to the Jeep fame with Willys-Overland.
1950 — Johnnie Parsons. 1949 — Bill Holland. 1948 — Mauri Rose. 1947 — Mauri Rose. 1946 — George Robson. 1942-45 — No races, World War II. 1941 — Floyd Davis and Mauri Rose. 1940 — Wilbur Shaw. 1939 — Wilbur Shaw. 1938 — Floyd Roberts.
The Manhattan has been honored by the community and is the first hot rod to win the people’s choice award two years in a row at the annual Kaiser Frazer Club National Convention. Share This Article. Facebook Twitter Google+ Email. Author: Christopher …
Members of the Binghamton Kaiser Frazer Club will bring vehicles, Reilley said. The Seward House Museum, at 33 South St., will showcase several cars, including the Seward family’s own Packard. There will be automotive memorabilia for sale and, if you …
Emulation is probably one of the most commons things in the car hobby. We see a car at a show or race and are instantly entranced by its siren song of looks, performance, and imagination-stimulating allure. And after enough exposure, commitment to building a duplicate becomes irresistible.
Ron Scott Jr. had always loved the vintage race look on classic Corvettes. Wide wheel flares, spoilers, race-style wheels and brakes, the growl of a powerful V-8 through headers and race exhaust, they all had him entranced to the point he wanted to build one of his own. He wanted a car he could not only show, but also take to track days and autocross events as well. After searching online, he found a suitable candidate on eBay to start his build with.
“I found the car on eBay for $35K. It was rough, with some bodywork completed and a second-gen LT1 out of an early fourth-gen Camaro sitting in the frame. It was pretty much a roller with no interior, wiring, or anything special. It was perfect for what I was looking to do, as we didn’t want to modify anything that was nice.”
Here are your Auto Factoids (#AutoFactoids) to finish out March and kick off April 2015.
March 29, 1980 – Audi introduced their all wheel drive
1980 Quattro – Not a bad-looking car at that!!!
Here are some specs for the Quattro:
Engine 2.1 L I5 SOHC 10v
Transmission 5-speed manual Dimensions Wheelbase 99.4 in Length 173.4 in Width 67.8 in Height 53.0 in Curb weight 2,844 to 2,976 lb
April 1, 1970 AMC debuts the Gremlin.
1970 Gremlin. Fastback or ‘no back“
I bet AMC never envisioned this:
OH…MAN!!!!
Or this:
BTW..this doesn’t end well for the suspension.
April 1, 1964 Plymouth shows off the Barracuda – There were 23,443 Barracuda produced (called Glassback) and was based on Plymouth’s Valiant platform.
1964 Barracuda – Glassback.
April 1, 1961 the very collectable Amphicar debuted – I saw my first Amphicar when I was about 9 or 10. Grew up on the Great Sacandaga Lake in the Adirondack of upstate New York. The car drove down the beach and right into the water. Coolest thing I’d seen up to then!!
The Quandt Group made only 4000 between ’61-’68
April 2, 1879 Walter P. Chrysler was Born in Kansas.
Walter P with a Chrysler Six
April 2, 1889 Charles Hall patent Aluminum. – It was actually a process made extracting Aluminum less expensive. It involved passing an electric current through a bath of alumina dissolved in cryolite, which results in a puddle of aluminum forming in the bottom of the retort. (Come on…tell me you didn’t want to know that!!!!) Unfortunately a French guy – Paul Héroult was working on the same process. (No way?!!?! Way!!!) so the named the process after both “Hall-Heroult process’.
From a puddle in the bottom of a retort to the Ford F150….that’s progress!!! Thanks Mr. Hall and French guy!!!
Inexpensive method for producing aluminum
Thanks for reading. If you like #AutoFactoids – share them!!
Put on the top of the list the Walter P. Chrysler museum in Auburn Hills, which houses three floors of classic and concept vehicles. Currently, it is open only to employees of Fiat-Chrysler, and occasional special events. The Piquette Plant in Detroit …
David Nicoll purchased his car collection with the blood of others – literally. During his time as president of BLS, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office maintain that Nicoll received $33 million in payments from a medical blood test bribery scheme that he personally ran for seven years, and which netted more than $100 million in total revenue. Per prosecutors, BLS would bribe physicians to send their patients for medical tests which were oftentimes unnecessary, to be paid for by insurers. Far from being sly and frugal with his ill-gotten profits, Nicoll was an extravagant spender. It’s on record that he spent $154,000 at a gentleman’s club, over $400,000 on sports tickets, $700,000 on an apartment for his “female companion,” and, most importantly, over five million dollars on cars.
National Corvette Museum’s effort to remove the eight cars swallowed by a sinkhole last month got off to a triumphant start: The 2009 Corvette ZR1 “Blue Devil” pulled from the hole earlier this week drove away from the scene of the disaster under its …
I can go on for more ‘Parts’ than there were Rambo or Rock movies, but I’ll stop with what I think was the star of the car show. It was only on display, so it wouldn’t be taking any trophies home.
It wasn’t this Ferrari
Or this guy in the matching Ferrari hat. (Hey Ryan)
Nor was it this original Shelby Aluminum bodied racer
