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Just another place to look at car stuff.
Today is Independence Day. A day where commemorate a very brave group of men who stood up for self-evident truths and boldly cut the ties that bound them to antiquated notions of leadership and government. So today I’ll show photos of only American cars. However, no ’57 Chevy’s here – they’ll be unique in some way, and if you’re up for the task you’ll identify them in the comments.
Continue reading “Car Photo(s) of the^X^X^X Independance Day”
Speaking of Buicks… this one was spotted at the Arlington Show & Shine last year.
I learned to drive in a 1979 Buick Le Sabre. It was enormous, but being a smogged late 70s Detroit gutless wonder it’s V-8 probably had less real-world power:weight than my 2002 VW jetta TDI, which while only having 90 HP, moves the little sedan around just fine, while getting ~50 MPG. That old Buick sucked gas like there was no tomorrow and seemed like it weighed 6,000 lbs! When you floored it the engine would make a lot of noise, but nothing beyond that ever really happened. Just noise. It had fake plastic holes on the fenders that were barely noticeable. It looked like this, except it was blue. We called it “The Blue-ick” in my family.
One seventies oddity I remember about it was the gasoline filler hidden behind the license plate. You never see those anymore.
I’m not a huge fan of the lumbering machines of mid-20th Century Detroit, but this one caught my eye at a show last year. Can you name the car?
…
Boy, that was fast!
Here’s a photo of my friend Dan shooting the Buick:
No need for guessing games today… I just really like this photo. 😉
I’m working on the final page of the write-up from the last rain-soaked day of the Northwest Passage Rally and found this photo. It illustrates something I love about events like this: The fact that you get to see cars being USED as they are designed. In the natural habitats: ON THE ROAD. All too often cars deemed “valuable” are mollycoddled and treated as if they are made of precious metals and eggshells. In reality they are multi-thousand pound manufactured objects made of steel, rubber, tempered glass, and in the case of many newer machines composite materials that are even stronger than steel. Driving them does not “hurt” them.
The image above is case in point. That dirt will wash right off.
Can you name the car?
More NWPassage rally pages up soon!
Day one say us all wake up to miserable wet weather, and two planned “Monte Carlo” style TSD segments, two long transits, and a border crossing into Canada.
I had a business-related phone call scheduled for 8:30 am, so I was up very early to eat and prep the car. The Rally start was open between 8 and 9 am, so I had the car waiting at the start and stood out of the rain under a tree to take the call… which ironically never came! Oh well. We grabbed the last available start time of 8:57. Between 8 and 8:30 though I was able to shoot a few start-line shots for you:
Chris & I were cramped inside the 65E for our start:
The first segment was long, and very wet. The navigation was pretty minimal, with very long stretches of SR20 in Washington state. Chris even took a brief nap at one point (my twitter followers may have seen my post about that.) Being at the extreme back of the back made for a very UNdramatic checkpoint scene. We zeroed the segment (arrived at the precise second scheduled) thanks to Chris’ excellent navigation and last-run countdown for me. We then topped up with the last of the cheap American gasoline and crossed the border into Canada, bound for lunch in Castlegar.
As we arrived in Castlegar the sun came out! Right after a quick lunch Chris & I dropped the top on the 65E so we could sit upright once again. Our backs rejoiced muchly! (yeaaah.)
Unfortunately we did hit a few spots of rain in the mountains but stayed MOSTLY dry. Chris once again did an excellent job getting me to the right place at the right time, and we zeroed the second TSD segment of the day. This meant we were finished with the work part of the day and could cruise easy into Kelowna.
It was supposed to be easy, but it wasn’t. Well, the navigation was simple, but the weather was hard. Not long after we left the checkpoint I stopped to put on my jacket (thankfully!) and we ended up behind a group of Ferraris and a Porsche Carrera GT. At first I thought it was fun to run with these guys, until I realized that the droning wail of the 10-cylinder GT was driving me nuts. Oh man does that car have an annoying exhaust note! It literally is the aural equivalent of a mild electric shock. Very unpleasant. I eased off and let him run away, then the rain started falling. At first it was just a few drops, but eventually it transformed into an absolute downpour. BOTH sides of the windscreen and my glasses were splattered with water droplets and the wipers, AND Rain-X could not cope with the deluge. I could barely see, and had to slow way down, which of course just means more water on us (the Jag is shaped so that mild rain never gets in the car at speed, but as soon as you slow down you start getting wet.) I would have gladly pulled over and raised the top IF a sheltered place such as a gas station appeared. Unfortunately no such shelter was anywhere nearby. We just gutted it out, and I dreamed of engineering a cross between a Tonneau Cover and a Kayak Skirt (I swear, this is my next project!)
As we dropped into the Okanagan valley the sky lightened, the rain trailed off, and eventually the sun came out. By the time we arrived in Kelowna, we were dried out and very happy.
Tomorrow we drive east towards Alberta. As of today, we are tied for 1st Place (with who knows how many other teams!) as we know we’ve accumulated NO penalties. So far, so good.
To tide you all over until I can get online here is a “Car Photo of the Day” for you. This was shot at lunch today in Castlegar – and is a car I’ve heard of, but until today have never seen in the flesh. Can you identify it? (BTW: I’ve p’shopped a badge off it to take away a big hint.)
Here’s the view from our amazing hotel room:
This big car wafted by me as I was shooting a car that is out of frame to the left at the start of the Tulip Rallye last year. It was smooth, silent, and so very British in its manner. Can you ID this Queen of the Road?
How about the rest of the cars in frame?
(yes, this is a sort of easy one after you guys struggled with the last CPotD car-spotting challenge. Kudos to all who picked out the oddities.)