You have probably heard by now that eight Corvettes were eaten up by a sinkhole which opened up in the Skydome room of the National Corvette Museum on February 12. The cars will eventually be restored by GM at the automaker’s Heritage Collection in …
Here are your Auto Factoids for this week in automotive history.
A very light week, but a couple of biggies.
First up is the debut of AMC’s AMX that happened back in 1968 on Feb 24th. Born to be muscle and destined to be a classic from the start.
They were sharp-looking and a curb weight of only about 3,000 lbs they weren’t heavy weights. Impressive engine configurations of 290, 383, 360, and 390 with nothing but a 4 barrel carb (and one twin 4 barrel) you got horse power from 225 (the 290) to 420 (390 with twin 4 barrel carbs). Impressive! Sadly only a two-year run.
1969 Hurst version…NICE!!!
Had to dig for this one. Found it on http://forums.cadillaclasalleclub.org. Back in 1905 a Cadillac was the first car to cross the Andes (the mountain range not Andes, New York) that happened on Feb 25th, but I don’t know why, nor does anyone else seem to know. I can tell you the Andes are in South American and average about 14,000 feet in altitude. The ’05 (that’s 1905 not 2005) Caddy was, well let’s say “airy”. That ‘brave’ (pronounced ‘Crazy’) soul was Jose Piquero. But wait, some sources say it wasn’t a Caddy at all, but a Oldsmobile.
So I would imagine either in either ride the trip was a tad bit chilly.
1905 Olds
1905 Caddy
Less we forget that Ralph Nader has a birthday this month, you can celebrate that (anyone? Bueller, Bueller…) if you absolutely can’t find another reason to have an adult beverage. That day was Feb 27 back in 1934. I wonder if he fell out of a car seat when he was young?
1962 Lakewood
As luck would have it Mother Nature tends to even the playing field, so a few years later Mario Andretti was born in February on the 28 back in 1940 in Montona, Italy.
There is always something leaking out of any automotive project. Oil, gas, power steering fluid or transmission fluid dripping out of something is a common event. The mess associated with is a pain to clean up.
Here is one way I help keep the mess to a minimum.
Yup that’s a turkey baster and a cat litter box contain with the top cut off.
You can use the turkey baster to extract the oil or other fluid and deposit into the litter.
In this case I’ve taken the oil tank for my DT 175 and let it drain into the litter.
This a beautiful car, especially if you like station wagons.
These were huge cars. Weighing well over 4K pounds. There were two stations wagons produced that year for Buick the 49 and the 49D. Total production for both was 13,020 units.
The engines in the Buick Special Estate Wagons were a V8 Overhead valve, cast iron block. The power plant displaced 364 cubic inches. The bore was 4.125″ and the stroke was 3.4″ giving the car 9.5:1 compression ratio. Top that will a 2 barrel Stromberg (model 7-106) or a Carter (2529 or 2536 model) carb and it could produce get about 250 hps.
Sorry let this slip a couple of days. Here are your Auto Factoids for this week.
2/16/1951 – Nash Healey debuts in US
This was a totally by change partnership. Healey was on his way back to England for the US after GM refused to sell him Cadillac engines for his cars, when he met George Mason of Nash-Kelvinator on the ship. For 1951 Nash-Kelvinator supplied the engines and drivetrain, specifically an inline six-cylinder OHV 234.8 cu in (3.85 L) engine and three-speed manual transmission with Borg-Warneroverdrive, plus torque tube and differential. Healey made a few mods to the engine like higher-compression aluminum cylinder head (replacing the cast-iron stock item) with twin 1.75-inch (44 mm) SU carburetors that were popular on British sports cars. This increased power from the stock 112 hp (84 kW; 114 PS) version to 125 hp (93 kW; 127 PS). The car was longer and heavier than most European cars and although the 125 hp helped, it fell short of the original expectations that included Cadillac’s 331 cu in (5.4 L).
This what we here in the US were able to purchase for the first time in 1951.
1951 Nash Healey
2/18/1952 – Studebaker 100 years
Studebaker turned 100-year-old this date in 1952 and it offered up a few beauties for their customers.
Like the Star Light, Land Cruiser and 1/2 ton Pickup.
52 Star Light – Love the ‘split 4 piece’ rear window.
This huge ’52 Land Cruiser would get across country with room for luggage!!
Workhorse 1/2 ton pickup. Hard to find one now that hasn’t been customized.
2/18/1898 – Enso Ferrari born in Modena, Italy
Would you by a car from this face?
What if they looked like this?
Hell Yeah!!!!
2/20/1954 – Detroit – Chicago Auto show saw Dodge’s Fire Arrow
Ghia Dodge Firearrow II Sports Coupe 1954
That is a nice looking car!!! If you visually mess around it a bit, you might see some resemblance to the Crossfire. Yes? No?
Maybe?? A little?
Or something from a different manufacture.
’64_Pininfarina Corvette
2/21/1948 – NASCAR’s first race – held in Daytona, FL
Historic First – a bit dusty…but awesome (no I wasn’t actually there!!).
And let’s go waaaaay back 2/22/1732 – George Washington was born in Virgina.
Well George didn’t actually own a car…but if he did, ask yourself “What would George Drive?” Post up what you think the father of our country would drive today.
Thought I toss out some details on the Dual Twin Bridgestone 175 that I am about to begin the restoration.
Bridgestone was a Japanese tire maker and desired to move in to manufacturing first bicycles and then motorcycles after World War II to compensate for the sagging tire market. So in 1946 Soichiro Ishibashi began production of bicycles and then looked to motorized them. So they partnered up with Fuji Seimitsu Kogyo (is now Fuji Precision Engineering Co., a subsidiary of Nissan) to produce clip on motors for bicycles. By the mid 1950’s they were developing and producing motorcycles and eventually separated from Fuji Seimitsu Kogyo and moving to their own plant. Bridgestone even had a racing department which, in part led to their development of the Dual Twin.
The 175 Dual Twin did well in racing and on the street, as did the other Bridgestone models. This lead to the exports to the U.K., other Asian countries and eventually to the U.S. by Rockford Motors in Rockford Illinois.
So what is the 175 Dual Twin?
It was the first motorcycle equipped with a dual rotary disc valves for fuel induction. It had (has) aluminum alloy cylinders, kick-start; dual transmission 4-speed rotary shift gear allowing the bike to be shifted to to a 5-speed gear while running or when stationary with the “sport shift lever’, large brakes hubs and totally enclosed carburetor for protection against water and dirt. It has a max speed of 80 miles per hours and can get to a ¼ mile from a standing start in 18 seconds (this is without the racing tune…oh yes…they were race-able!!).
So let me stop right here for a minute. I had no idea what a rotary valve was, ok let me be very honest I’ve never worked on a motorcycle before, lawn mowers – yes, motorcycles – nope. I have worked on bicycles and car engines, so how hard can it be? (Famous last words, usually spoken very early in the planning stages of such projects.)
So what is a rotary valve? It is where the intake opening is controlled by the spinning of a disc that has cutouts that allow air/fuel mixture in and then closes the opening. The discs attach to the crankshaft. The crankshaft disc is a close-clearance fit in the crankcase and there is a cutout which lines up with an inlet passage in the crankcase wall at the proper time. Here are a couple of images:
Intake Valve Disc
This a dual disc valve set up (a newer Suzuki Rg500 engine)
I have more coming up on the Bridgestone Project so stay tuned.
NOS Bridgestone Motorcycle 175 200 Ignition 12 Volt Coil Pack. Loading… d. h. m. s. day. hour. hours. FREE shipping. See item description. Calculate. Approximately: (Enter ##1## or more). (Enter more than ##1##). Your max bid: You’ve …
Keeping the proper prospective, (no humans were harmed) but it’s a shame to lose those beautiful one of a kind, historic cars.
So what’s next?
Apparently they believe the rest of the National Corvette Museum building it’s self is sound as is the rest of the grounds under the 184-acre Motorsports Park, which is opening in August.
But what should happened to the cars?
Should they be restored?
Should they stay as they are and preserved?
Let me know what you think.
Give me some feedback and I’ll send it on the Museum folks.
Having been there multiple times I’ve see each of these beautiful machines. Hope they are salvageable.
BOWLING GREEN, KY (WAVE) – Eight cars were swallowed by a sinkhole at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green Wednesday morning, according to the museum’s executive director.
A statement released by the museum said their security company alerted them at 5:45 a.m. that motion detectors were going off in the Skydome area. When officials arrived, they discovered the sinkhole.
Crap!!!
Wendell Strode, the executive director, said the hole is approximately 25 to 30 feet deep and about 40 feet wide. The Bowling Green Fire Department secured the area for the time being.
Strode said the one millionth Corvette, which was donated to the museum by Chevrolet, was among the cars that fell into the sinkhole.
The statement went on to say “it is with heavy hearts that we report that eight Corvettes were affected by this incident.”
Those cars include:
1993 ZR-1 Spyder on loan from General Motors
2009 ZR1 “Blue Devil” on loan from General Motors
Blue Devil
The other six vehicles were owned by the National Corvette Museum including:
1962 Black Corvette
1984 PPG Pace Car
1992 White 1 Millionth Corvette
1 Millionth Corvette
1993 Ruby Red 40th Anniversary Corvette
2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 Corvette
The Hammer
2009 White 1.5 Millionth Corvette
1 and Half Millionth Corvette
No one was injured as no one was in or around the museum at the time of the collapse.
None of the cars affected were on loan from individuals. The museum remains open, but the Skydome section will be closed until further notice.
Strode said structural engineers would assess the stability of the surrounding areas later today.
2014 is the museum’s 20th Anniversary and officials said they “look forward to re-opening the Skydome exhibit area very soon.”
Thanks for reading.
Tim
Sinkhole swallow eight cars in National Corvette Museum: Sinkhole collapses part of domed section of museum; d… http://t.co/bsPByrsnfy
(CNN) — Eight Corvettes fell into a sinkhole that opened up beneath a section of the National Corvette Museum in Kentucky on Wednesday. The sinkhole, about 40 feet wide and about 25 to 30 feet deep, appeared before dawn under the skydome section of …
UPDATED 7:40 AM — It has been confirmed that 8 vehicles were swallowed by a sinkhole at the Sky Dome at the National Corvette Museum. The sinkhole is estimated to be around 40 feet wide and 20-30 feet deep. The Museum is open for the day, although …
UPDATED 7:40 AM — It has been confirmed that 8 vehicles were swallowed by a sinkhole at the Sky Dome at the National Corvette Museum. The sinkhole is estimated to be around 40 feet wide and 20-30 feet deep. The Museum is open for the day, although …
here is the link for the live camera overlooking the hole in the floor of the Corvette museum.
