Tag Archives: Automobile

Mustang Project Guy’s Slice of Heaven

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“Honey…I found our next vacation spot..hear they got a  nice Motel 6 nearby!!!”  “Honey…can we  go now?!!! The Turkey will keep until next week!!!”

Photos: World’s Largest Ford Mustang Salvage Yard

Posted by on November 21, 2011 – 2 Comments

salvage 8

Everybody knows that saying “I’ve died and gone to heaven”, and this applies to most enthusiasts in this junkyard full of old decrepit Ford Mustangs. Especially, the project guy that has an old classic sitting in the garage. I’m sure it could go either way, though, as some might consider this a sore sight with so many wrecked and rusted ponies. This is the Colorado Mustang Salvage Yard.

Soooo, anybody down for some campin’?!

Colorado Mustang Specialists, Inc. began in a two-car garage in 1972. Mustangs were as numerous as hippies on a Boulder park lawn, easy to buy, fix and sell. So, a would be University of Colorado student found a lucrative way to pay his rent and tuition. After graduation the diploma went in a drawer and the horsing around got serious. Wrecked, junked and abandoned Mustangs were cheap and plentiful, so the collection started that eventually led to the worlds largest Mustang salvage yard.

Most recent and exciting to us is the addition of modern fuel injection conversions, for 64-1/2 to 85 models. These conversions and related parts let the novice enthusiast bring his early Mustang into the new millennium with a computer driven, fuel-injected, V-8 power train, meeting todays standards without changing the Mustangs classic design. We predict these conversions will open a fun and exciting new era of Mustang enthusiasm.

More on Story of the Plymouth Cricket

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Bill Burdette submitted this great information:

There is a bit more to the story of the Cricket. Chrysler thought that since GM had purchased Holden and Adam Opel, they should do a ‘me too’ and buy the Rootes group. This consisted of Talbot, Hillman, Simca, and Sunbeam.

The reality is Chrysler was left with a Dog of a car company. They thought the Cricket might catch on due to its image as a gas miser, but it really wasn’t too great on MPG. The build quality was awful, and customers found that the other MOPAR ‘captive import’, the Dodge Colt built by Mitsubishi, was a terrific car with great MPG, and priced a bit cheaper.

One great thing did evolve from the Rootes group for Chrysler; the Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon. These were billed as America’s first FWD 4 cylinder car that could compete with imports. Basically, it was a Talbot Horizon that had been on the market in the UK for many years. Chrysler did do dome re-engineering for the US market by adding a FWD version of the bullet proof Torque Flite auto trans (A413), and used VW Rabbit 1.7l 4 cylinder engines rather than the ‘shake and bake’ Peugeot motor in the UK version. Omni and Horizons were a hit, and reasonably reliable (my first new car was a 1982 Horizon TC3 that was reliable to 120K miles and then fell apart).

Lee Iacocca ended up giving the Rootes group away to Peugeot in the late 1970s in exchange for some stock and 4 cylinder engines for the Europe marketed MOPARs.

I’ll stop here so I do not go onto the era of the great K CARs HA HA.

 

 THANKS BILL!

Terrible Transportation – Plymouth Cricket

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Oh yes this will be an interesting series.

We are going to start of with a well-meant attempt by Chrysler to meet the oil crises  from 1973 to 1980.  Introducing the Cricket!!!!

1973 Cricket

This car was actually  a US spec’ed Hillman Avenger.

It featured the Avenger’s 1.6 liter pushrod engine.  This car’s top speed was 84 mph and took a merely 19.8 seconds to get to 60 mph (I bet you were thinking 100 mph!!).

The car was horrible slow and because it was detuned for as part of the US requirements it ran poorly.

Here some of it features:

– Quick Rust fenders and body parts

– PVC coated foam interior for safety

You are going to want one after you see this ad:

[vodpod id=Video.15696452&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]

The Plymouth Cricket, posted withvodpod
s

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Engine Line-UP: Chevy Engines 1971

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If you read any of my pieces on Engines, you’ll know that I enjoy learning all I can about the various makers’ details on their features.  I thought that I might start a series that took a year by year approach to what the US automaker build and used in the cars they produced.

So here is the engine line up for the 1971 Chevys.

 

Of course Chevy had the V8’s in 1971, not yet strangled by smog control, as well as 6 cylinders and 4 cylinders.

All of the 6’s were inline (often referred to as straight 6 – for the pistons all being in a straight line configuration) these were 250 cubic inch displacements – (very similar to the Ford 250, with the exception of the Blue upping the compression to 9.1:1 vs Chevy’s 8.5:1).  These were cast iron with hp running about 145 with hydraulic lifter,  and normally topped with a Rochester one barrel carb.  Any car that had a 6 in it had this engine and it was an option with most any Chevy model.

 

1971 Chev Inline Six (this one is in a Chevy Nova)

Next up is the 4 cylinder used exclusively in the Vega (remember those?). They were inline 4’s with Over head Cams, aluminum block (not iron) and managed to displace 140 cubic inches.  The compression ratio was less than they 6 at 8.0:1 with hydraulic lifters and a one barrel carb.

Vega Four Cylinder

There were 3 basic V8 that year the 350, 400 and the 307.

The 350 cid was cast iron with overhead valves and compression ratio of 8.5:1 with an hp of 245 hp when it was topped with a 2 barrel Rochester carb.  These were widely used in the Biscayne, Bel Air, Impala, and Monte Carlo.

The 400 was cast iron as well with matching stats.  However due to the larger bore  (4.125 vs the 4.00 for the 350) and longer stroke (3.75 inches compare to the 350’s 3.48) it was able to push the hp’s up to 255 (umm..seems like a lot of work for 5 hps) when it was topped with the same 2 barrel carb.

The 307 rounds this out  with its cast iron block and over head valves, it to had the compression ratio of 8.5:1 but with a smaller bore and shorter stroke  (3.875 and 3.5 inch)it bu down roughly 200 hp.  The 307 was used in Chevelle, Malibu, Nova and the Camaro.

 

Thanks for reading.

Tim

New for 2003 Fords Model T-100!

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All new for 2003...almost.

Yes that’s correct for the 100th year of production Ford build a total of 6 Model T-100 to commemorate the year.

These weren’t restored cars, they were all new parts.  The bodies were made in Sweden, coupled with available aftermarket.  The engine, suspension parts, transmissions were created from the original drawings.

Model T Reproduction Engine

 

The T's transmission - could replace the original unit, however the gear pattern is not the same so the internal will not match up.

For more check out the PDF below.

http://www.mtfca.com/encyclo/T-100.pdf

Thanks for Reading.

Tim

Car Production Numbers. They Made How Many? 1911

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1911 oh… that was a great year!  Well I don’t actually have any proof of that, but there sure were a lot of new car makes that year.  Here the list:

Alpena; ArBenz; Atterbury; Carhartt, Case, Chevrolet; Colby, Crow-Elkhart, Dalton, Gaylord, Havers, Hupp-Yeats; King; Lenox; Mighty Michigan; Motorette; Nyberg: Penn; Rayfield; R.C.H.; Roader; Rogers; S.G.V.; Standard Electric (yes electric); Stutz; Stuyvesant; Virginian; W.F.S.

So who were the leaders for that year?

Ford out-paced all with 69,762 Cars.

Second up was Studebaker/EMF with 26,827.

1911 Studebaker...you can't use just '11 any longer - someone might think this was a 2011 Studebaker

Willys-Overland up next with 18,745 and Maxwell about 2,000 less at 16,000.

One of the 16,000 Maxwells

Buick came in at fifth with 13,389, beating out Cadillac with 10,071 cars.

Hudson and Chalmers finish up the list with 6,486 and 6,250 respectively.

The 1911 Chalmers - look at that stance!!!!

1911 Milestones:

–  International Motor Company was formed (MACK)

– Buick sets a speed record, running 20 miles in just over 13 minutes.

– First Indianapolis 500 was held and won by Ray Harroun in a six-cylinder Marmon Wasp – 6 hours, 42 minutes and 8 seconds of drive time.

The Marmon Wasp

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Automakers World War II Efforts- Crosley

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As you know, the US government asked and eventually forced the auto industry to contribute to the war effort.  This series is to highlight some of the major contributions and first up is Crosley.

Crosley produced cars from the 1930s until the 1950s.  Interestingly, before Powell Crosley produced cars, he was the owner of the Cincinnati Reds.  Their first car, what we would call a subcompact these days, was a convertible.

1939 Crosley Convertible

For the war effort Crosley supplied its power plant the four-cylinder CoBra.  CoBra was short for  Copper Brazed and often refered to as the “The Might Tin” it was used aboard PT boats  and  and the B-17 Flying Fortress bombers  mainly to power generators, refrigeration compressors, etc., and were widely praised for their successes in the war effort. The engine was made from sheet metal rather than cast iron like most other engines.

CoBra Block – the thin walls reduced hot spots.

Crosley CoBra this one was set up for vehicle use

Crosley stayed in business after WWII and eventually closed up in 1952.  Their last attempt to save the company was to production a utility vehicle called the  Farm-O-Road which was used on farm and ranches.

1950 Farm-O-Road Utility

Their last car was in 1952:

Last year of production for Crosley

 

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Auto Factoids for Week of Oct 9 2011

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O.K.  These are back, enjoy.

 

10/12/1950  Kaiser-Frazer Built their 500, oooth car.

There ya go...the 500, 000 th

 

On 10/13/ in 1902 Packard Motor Car Co. was formed from the Ohio Automobile Co.  Of interest: In September, 1900, the Ohio Automobile Company was founded as the manufacturer, while the cars were always sold as Packards. Since these automobiles quickly gained an excellent reputation, and there were more automobile makers that produced — or at least planned to — under the label “Ohio”, the name was changed soon: On October 13, 1902, it became the Packard Motor Car Company.

 

1902 Packard Model F

 

An Ohio

 

The very next day 63 years later Oldsmobile debuts the Toronado (10/14/1965).

1965 Toronado I want one of these

 

On 10/15/1945 Oldsmobile began creating producing per war cars.

And  1924 on the 15th of October, one of my hero’s was born.  The proud Poppa  of the Mustang and savior of Chrysler Lee Iococca was born in Allentown, PA.

 

Thanks for reading.

Tim

 

 

Car Production Numbers. They Made How Many? 1901

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This is it. The beginning of it all.     What were they making in 1901?

The top producer was the Locomobile car company with a total out put for the year 1,500 cars.

Winton was second with 700 cars.

Oldsmobile (ahh one we’ve heard of!!) was third with 425.

White came in fourth with 193.

Autocar was next with 140.

Knox was sixth with 100.

Rounding out the bottom was Packard and Stanley with 81 and 80 respectively.

 

This is a 1901 Winton Racer..what's the guy in the front doing?

 

 

1901 Autocar

 

The 1901 Autocar has a shaft-drive engine, powered with a water-cooled, two-cylinder, horizontal-opposed engine in the front of the car. The gasoline tank and battery box were under the front seat.

Thanks  reading,

Tim