One of our (myself and my better half) favorite things to do is road trip to out of the way places. Once there, I have a limit to how many shops, art galleries and “antique” stores I can handle. So we’ve taken to the back streets to look at the local neighborhoods. My wife is an interior designer and she loves architecture so we are always keeping eye out for interesting homes and buildings and I love cars so I’m always on the lookout for what’s in the backyard.
So that is what led us to this unique discovery outside of Bisbee, Az. The next few blog entries will be what we discovered in the area.
Lowell, Az is nearly a ghost town, surrounded by the mining town of Bisbee. The story goes like this: there is this fellow who had something to do with starting and promoting one of the largest motorcycle events in the world… The Sturgis, South Dakota motorcycle event!!
Some call it a ghost town, but it is not. There is a food co-op, a small cafe and a working motorcycle restoration shop. The rest is really a very cool set up.
Here is the town:
Downtown Lowell, Az
Coming up we’ll explore this town and find some interesting details.
The second-generation Corvette is widely regarded as one of, if not the best-looking Corvette, and they fetch a high premium on the auction circuit. But not every Corvette has benefited from a full restoration, and even fewer can claim to be true “survivor” cars.
Thankfully, it looks like one long-languishing 1967 Corvette coupe will get a second chance at life, reports Old Cars Weekly writer Al Rogers. The couple who owns this ‘Vette has vowed to restore it, citing their long history with the car.
Lee and Amanda Sloppy (not making that name up, by the way) have a long history with this ‘67, buying it from the original owner in 1973. Amanda used it as her daily driver to her two-mile commute until 1981, and then after the mufflers, brakes, and other bits needed replacing, the Corvette was eventually parked. Parked, but not forgotten.
They almost always went hand in hand with GM, at least during my formidable days. Then came the Trans-Am. Pontiac was over took the Camaro arguably in performance but uncontested in folklore, I offer up Burt Reynolds & “Smoky and the Bandit” for support (you can count the Rockford Files, the Camaro there was not much more than a prop –cool no doubt but mostly a prop.
Camaro’s back (in case you’ve been living under a discarded intake manifold) with the Z28 soon to return and the SS and LT1 already burning up the streets. But the when the axe fell on Pontiac it took with it any chance to bring back the Firebird in any kind of configuration. So we are forced to back in time and watch old super 8 movies of Firebird/Trans-Am in motion. Or do we?
What if (and it’s a BIG IF) some where, someone started producing that iconic version of the Firebird – not a pre-made body – al-la Dynacores’ Mustang offering, but an up to date platform, like Mother Mopar did with the Challenger.
What if (BIG IF – again), they placed it on a new 2012 Camaro platform and soup-ed it up a bit? Something like this:
Awesome!
Yes , that is just what those innovative folks did at Lingenfelters. This is the 455 TA “lightly” (snicker) Camaro.
It sports a the Tran-Am trade mark split grille and honey comb wheels and blue and white paint schema. But under the hood is a power plant will make the hardest Camaro shake in it’s engine bay.
Oh…BTW…comes in drop top…love the wheels
The engine is a custom RHS Aluminum engine block at displaces 455 cubic inches. It has a 4.155” bore Diamond 11.5:1 compression ratio pistons, 4.200” stroke, Lunati forged crankshaft, LPE CNC ported and polished LS7 heads. Pair this up with LSX Fast 102 intake and Lingenfelter’s 6 bolt LS9 twin disk fly whee/clutch assembly and you get a 655 horse powered monster that can lay down 610 ft-lbs of torque to the 20×11 rear tires (front are 20×10),
MONSTER!!!!
OK…you can exhale now, but when the 455 TA does it uses a custom Corsa stainless exhaust and it sounds AWESOME!!!!
I caught this version at the Barrett Jackson Auction this past January.
The LPE concept body mods include front air dam and rear Firebird like spoiler and taillights.
963 horsepower from a combined combustion/electric engine?!!! Yes!!
Farrari Combo Combustion-Electric
It has been long-awaited for the day we see the successor to the mighty Enzo supercar. After its debut this morning at the 2013 Geneva auto show, the automotive world is in uproar over the new Ferrari icon, LaFerrari. Producing a combined 963 horsepower through a 800 horsepower combustion engine and a 163 horsepower electric motor, the new LaFerrari is the most powerful and efficient Ferrari built to-date. 0-62 in under 3 seconds and achieving 205 mph top speed. Body & chassis structure is similar to the multi-material used to in the Scuderia F1 racecar. Like its predecessors, LaFerrari will be a limited production vehicle. Though just 499 copies will be made, that’s much more than the Enzo 24 copies. Price has yet to be announced, but expect it to be north of the $1 million dollar mark.
A really light week this week. It includes a government bailout, corporate take over, iconic debut, a tragedy and record falls. Yeah…not much going on!!!
Lets start with the government bailout it was 1971, but it wasn’t a US auto company but Rolls-Royce got a $144 million loan from the British government March 5th 1971.
1971 Rolls Royce
On the same day in 1952 Willys rolled out its Aero-Ace.
Willys Aero Ace
In 1929 on March 7th General Motors buys Opel. I was not aware that this occurred that early.
The iconic car released by Pontiac on March 8, 1969 was a variation of the Firebird – the Trans Am – amazing car.
1969 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am
Did you know there is a company that is making the a Trans Am out of the new 2012 Camaro? More coming on that!!!
Automotive tragedy occurred in Detroit in 1901. The Oldsmobile plant burned down.
A few days later (plus) twenty-seven years Sir Henry Seagrave broke the 200 mph land speed barrier. Here is his beast.
