Welcome to Auto Factoids (#AutoFactoids) for April 14, 2020
April 14th, 1927 Jakob’s Birthday
Jakob’s parents were Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larson, oh and Jakob was a car. Specifically, the Volvo produced.
It was produced in the Gothenburg factory as designated as OV4 and then properly named Jakob.
It was constructed of a wooden frame made of ash and beech wood. The body was sheet metal and you could it only in dark blue. I was powered by 28 hp inline 4 cylinder with side valves displacing 1,944 cc, with 275 produced from 1927 to 1929.
You could also get the truck version.
On a sad note!
William Ernest Carter bought his 1912 luxury Type CB Coupe de Ville Renault during his Grand Tour in Europe to ship back to the US. Unfortunately, he chose to book the car a place on the Titanic’s fateful trip. The doomed car was powered by 12 CV, 2,614 cc L-head four-cylinder engine 12 French horsepower (about 40-50 hp today), four-speed manual transmission, solid front axle and live rear axle with semi-elliptic leaf springs, driveshaft brake and two-wheel mechanical brakes. It was almost 12 feet long – wheelbase: 143″
On this date the Cadillac company (not part of GM/Chevrolet) was heavily damaged by a fire.
1904 Caddy
Caddy Assembly Plant
Cadillac produced 2457 cars that year of the Model B variety. It used a one cylinder “Little Hercules” Leland & Faulconer engine and two speed transmission. It made 8.25 hp and displaced 98 cubic inches.
In 1965 Pontiac produced it’s 10-millionth on this day.
We love taking road trips. There’s is some beautiful country between Tucson, AZ and Silver City, NM and a lot of cars!! That is one of my favorite reasons for road tripping, grabbing pics the cars spotted along the way.
On this trip I checked in on a place we stumbled about ten years ago in Bowie, AZ.
At the very end of the video you see the current “stock pile” of cars. Now below is the same “stock pile” 10 years prior.
10 years go
10 years go
As we drove on to Silver City we can across a few backyard projects.
59-60 Chevy
Chevelle in the backyard
Dodge Swinger – bright color had to drive around to take a look.
Of course there’s the cars just sitting out in the open. Like these beauties.
Mercedes 200
Mercedes SL – soft top on, hard top hanging at the right.
I read an account, on Facebook siting TMZ as the source (yes there are 3 problem there, first it’s on Facebook, second it’s TMZ and third it’s TMZ), that the guy driving Kevin Hart’s Cuda is suing Kevin and in turn Kevin is suing SpeedKore for not having enough/proper safety equipment. Specifically, that the car didn’t have airbags or safety harnesses.
The post goes on to lament the concern that this case may lead California to require that all classic cars be outfitted with current safety equipment. Should that be the case then classic car collecting and driving would become affordable to just about everyone. Unfortunately, that might not be that much of a stretch.
This brought several thoughts to mind that I’ll share.
I’ve raced my cars, my 1970 Mustang appeared in several charity drag races. Both of my Corvettes were auto crossed informally (car club sponsored and in SCCA events. ) One of the keys is understanding the ability and power of the car and your driving ability!!!
At one event a fellow car club member had just purchased a C6 Z06 Corvette with 600 plus hp. He was a newbie when it came to Corvettes and horse power. In his first auto cross he lost control of his Corvette and drove through a fence at a well known race course/school here in Arizona. He had no idea the power of the car and turned off the traction control, something newbies should never do.
Now, I don’t know the driving experience of the guy driving Kevin’s Cuda, nor do I know what driving skills Kevin Hart has for such a powerful car, but I guessing very little for both. At least not enough to request a proper harness be installed. Of course, if you have the money, you can spend it on anything your “heart” desires, but should you? Should you by a powerful device without the proper skill set to operate it? I’ve owned and fired weapons before, I guess purchasing an armored personnel carrier with a .50 caliber M2 machine gun and a 40 mm Mk 19 automatic grenade launcher should be fine. I can drive a truck and have fired M16s….ya…I’m good.
Point is you must understand the car’s capabilities as well your skill level and respect it’s power and what that can do.
My second thought is related to regulations restricting the equipment and driving for classic cars. There is a continued eroding of protections for the hobby and the industry. With knuckleheads like Kevin and his friends we could be doomed.
There are small organizations out there lobbying to protect/preserve the rights to own, collected and drive this cars. But I fear that they are too small and under funded to mount a long term fight.
Kevin, you are very funny guy and I enjoy your shows, but this is not funny.
After taking the #ProjectSportsRoof out for a power test and having the distributor die, I discovered that the head gasket on the left side did not hold.
So in this video I’m attempted to re-torque and see where that takes me. Oh and then there was a small issue upon restarting.
I’m trying to wrap my head around this. Maybe a reader can help.
I reading an article in Car and Driver entitled “Gravity Wins – The Final Moments of Flight 570S.”
This article lays out a crash of a McLaren 570S Spider on Route 33 in California. Car was driving by a journalist and the author of the piece is not listed but does state he was in the passenger seat. The passenger was was Sean Evans
The article goes on to chronicle the event. The author goes into great detail explaining the crash labeling the sections as “Launch”, “Flight” and “Impact”. He even gone as far as enlisting the help of a NASA JPL engineer to explain all the forces and speed etc., with cool phrases such as “…our flight time….about 3 seconds” and “…Priellis last touched asphalt.” He states “We started the right-hand turn a 78 mph…”
I’m just going to stop there. You can read an even more dramatic article here: https://www.menshealth.com/technology-gear/a26990660/mclaren-supercar-crash-safety/?src=socialflowFBCAD&utm_campaign=socialflowFBCD&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social-media&fbclid=IwAR1LWwzl9L5vxppBsZg9-v55eP6fE3uU9mg8o2AEgzqC-JFz8vSXQgib3RQ
I can’t decide what annoys me more. The fact that an journalist was driving a car he did not have the skills with nor the respect the for it’s power necessary or the fact that the speed limit on Route 33 in California is only 55 mph an these knuckleheads we traveling at 78 miles an hour!
Let’s not mention the fact that Car and Driver published the article at all. Oh and the kicker, it include a pic of the wrecked 570s with caption – “My old man is television repairman. He’s got the ultimate set of tools. I can fix it.” This show a total disrespect for the public, those of us that drive sports car safely on public streets/roads and real journalism.
One more example of the stupidity of a writing thinking his journalistic skills with writing about sports cars, actually mean he can drive one.
Shame on Car and Driver for giving these knuckleheads space in their…cough…cough…”Intelligence, Independence, Irreverence” periodical (that’s from their cover).
Valve gasket installed, zinc added and now it’s time for quick power test. I have yet to get the pedal to the floor and now it’s time and I took the captured the fun….and…well…take a look:
You can hear how awesome the SR73 sounds and power was substantial. Of course the quick trip ended in a less than optimal way. The first effort of the power test was successful, that wasn’t captured. I turned the phone on for the second and you can hear that. I had intended a third power sprint but SportsRoof had a different idea. I could feel it start to surge and then nothing. There was no noise, a brief sputter, like perhaps it flooded (entirely possible as the carb is a bit bigger then it should be). I coasted it to the side of the street.
A quick troubleshooting proved that the car was still getting fuel but would not start. After setting for a bit still not firing up. I suspect distributor. When I have time I’ll dig into.
Maybe one of the worse task to tackle on a car is the heater core. In particular on some older cars. In most cases you have to remove the entire dash. I know this because when the heater core sprung a leak in my 1974 Cobra Jet Torino, I didn’t …
This is the last post related to prepping the 351 Cleveland in #ProjectSportRoof for removal. Originally, I had planned to lift the engine out with the carb still attached. However, after the first test fit to see how the Duralast leveler (I’ve never used one before – last engine I pulled …
Welcome back to Project Sports Roof (#ProjectSportsRoof). The struggle is real!!! You saw in the last video my replacement of the linkage that was lost by the repair shop (along with my new battery and started). This repair shone the light (as often happens with older cars) on a previous …
In the two videos below I talk about valve cover gaskets, the current lack of experts at your local parts store, and online “No Help” clerk and a recommendation for the Mustangs regular dosage of Zinc – not in table form for the Mustang’s 351 Cleveland!!!
If you look back at #ProjectSportsRoof post you’ll see the condition engine bay. During those videos I mentioned that I was going to clean it up and hit it with a rattle can. Again this isn’t going to be a concours restoration, it’s going to look nice and it’s going …
Thanks for checking on #ProjectSportsRoof. So here is the last set of initial questions. Here is an image of the current set up: Any diagram I find has the hose vacuum from the Distr going to the Valve assy. The Valve assy has nothing attached which is located on the front …
