Normally, I do a Auto Factoid piece and you’d find a entry that would say on May 14, 1969 the last Corvair rolled off the factory line.
Some folks loved the car and many collectors still do. There were a few that really disliked the car for various reasons and one guy in particular, Ralph Nader, believed they represented all that was wrong with the U.S. auto industry. Although he may not have single-handedly contributed the end of the Corvair’s production, many believe he was instrumental in it’s early demise.
That’s why in a border town car show in Nogales, AZ I found this humorous:
What’s funny about a 1966 Corvair?
How about the Ralph Nader for President bumper sticker?
There was a time in Ford history where the same car carried several names at one time. This was my favorite car at this show. The Ford Starliner also carried the name Galaxy (the Fairlane also carried the Galaxy name). This one is a beautiful 1960 Starline and I love it.
Just down the street is a new eating establishment. From the outside it looks odd, until you realize that the shape on the roof is a car air filter. On the inside it’s very unique.
While dinning you are sitting slightly above and do the West of a very large working garage. The glass walls allow patrons to view the projects that range from a built from scratch race platform (not yet a car but tube framed out), a Cobra body – mostly likely a kit, any early 1900 Ford, a 50’s Chevy and few other.
It has a great atmosphere with lots of car and racing memorabilia (with a complete Sprint and drag car) and lots of TVs tuned to all types of sports. Food is good and prices are reasonable.
Hot Rods
As you can guess in my two previous ‘almost live’ posts Hot Rods is a great place to hold a car show.
And what would a car show be without some classic corvettes? Well we weren’t able to explore that at this show.
Vettes
Hot Rods and Vette!!!
Classic Vettes
All this for FREE and only 1o bucks to enter these great cars!!
Well one thing we can count on for sure, is that things will always change.
For nearly 10 years my 1970 Mustang has been a great joy. I’ve taken it from a 6 cylinder lady’s car (I say that purely because it was first owned by a lady, who in turn, handed it down to her daughter and it had some dainty pin striping) to a proud muscle car.
We suffered a couple flat-bed trips, a problematic carb and leaking power steering, an AC unit that got less miles per oz of coolant then the engine did in miles per gallon and invented some new cuss words!
We survived a few charity drag races and won a bunch street light mini drags, took home a couple of car show trophies and placed a lot of smiles on passerby faces and kids when I let them sit behind the wheel.
But things change and I’ve enjoyed my Mustang thoroughly. But it’s time to move on so my Mustang is going to a new home, where it will enjoy the company of four other Mustangs.
I will miss the old steed but so proud of where it started and where it is now.
So fare well old friend…on to new adventures.
1970 Mustang Mods for 300 HP
So what’s next for me? Well there is my 1965 Bridgestone motorcycle and many more car shows and SCCA with the my C7 Vette and a surprise coming up….oh…no you are just going to have to wait to find out.
So stay tuned for some more mods, car shows, racing and classic/muscle car reading.
This is my latest segment. It will be a frequent blathering of car stuff – current and maybe some old stuff. I hope you enjoy it.
Bench seats started as the first front seats, clearly a hold over from the old ‘buck-wagon’. Over the years the bench was a stable, but has somewhat faded Well for American cars it comes to an end the last 2013 Impala, which is the last U.S. car and the 2014 Impala will have bucket seats.
’61 Chevy bench seat.
2012 Impala w/bbench seet and 2014 without
I was really excited to see C-X75 Super Car for Jaguar back in 2010 at the Paris Car show. The car was to sticker at about 1.1 million dollars. However, it has been killed after just 3 prototyped.
With names like Rogue, Rebel and Marlin you have to imagine some monster power plants moving these hunks of steels across the face of the earth. So where they? Here is the line up.
The body styles ranged from stately station wagons to slick fastbacks. Some of the names are iconic like Rebel SST and Marlin.
1967 Rebel SST
Both nice cars and you could get them with the following engines.
First up was the Inline (straight) Six. This engine was has a cast iron block and overhead valuve. Displacement was 199 cid with a bore and stroke of 3 3/4 “x 3″. The compression ratio was 8.5:1 and producing 128 hp. It sported seven main bearings and topped with one of two single barrels carbs a Cater Type RBS or a Holley Model 1931C-3705.
From there you could graduate to the next level Inline Six. This one mirrored but with 232 cid displacement and a bore and stroke of 3.75″ x 3.50”. Compression ratio stayed the same and so did the carb options. However it did manage to squeeze out 145 hp.
Now you could get both of these in the other models, including the wagons, but the engine you wanted in your Rebel or Marlin was the V8.
This was an overhead valve cast iron block engine. It displayed 287.2 cid and have a bore and stroke of 3.75″ x 3.25″ and had a compression of 8.7:1. Five main bearings and hydraulic lifters topped with either two barrel Carter WCD or Holley.
