Category: Cars

I am a “car guy”… I love old cars.

Car Photo of the Day… Quebec!

This shot has a sort of “je ne sais quoi, eh.” 😉

Taken at the 2003 New England 1000 vintage rally as we lined up for a start from the Chateau Frontenac. That space in front of the Aston-Martin became ours shortly afterwards when the official rally photog wanted to shoot the impressive facade of the Chateau looming above the equally impressive nose of the Jaguar XK 120.

I took some other shots that day, as the location was awesome, so look for the scene again in the future in this “CPOTD” location. I picked this one as it has a wonderful “Summer” feel to it.

That day started wonderfully as you can see, but a few hours later we missed a checkpoint and earned a 1 second penalty (after running a perfect rally up to that point) and then to add injury to insult, threw a fan belt, and ended up blowing ourselves completely off the competitive scale. It became a tour after that… but we did stop at a racetrack and had some fun.

–chuck

Car Photo of the Day.

OK, so technically it isn’t a car photo. This is the Seattle Cossacks Motorcycle Stunt Drill Team at an appearance at the Arlington 4th of July parade many years ago. These guys are amazing and this photo does not capture how amazing they really are. They are just beginning their performance in this shot, which much much more to come. I like the photo though for the composition.

If you ever get a chance to see them perform, I highly recommend it. They used to be a fixture in the Arlington 4th of July parade, but I haven’t seen them for a few years. They are appearing this weekend at the Evel Knievel Days in Butte, MT. So if you’re in Butte, go.

Here are some more photos of the Cossacks:

Check out their website for more.

Who is 4321GEO and why does he hate me?

eBay Motors: Jaguar XKE Air Cleaner Canister Air Intake Box Series 1 (item 140009373419 end time Jul-24-06 21:36:14 PDT)

“All Of Your XKE Air Cleaner Cannisters Are Belong To 4321Geo”

I’ve been looking for this particular part. It is the last hurdle between me and a stock S1 air cleaner setup for the E-type. I have an eBay search that finds them. I have a BUNCH of people that email me whenever one comes up on eBay.

But EVERY time one comes up, I get out-bid by the 4321Geo person. They have bought literally EVERY one that has come up on eBay in the past several months… except this one for obvious reasons.

Why? Why must you dash my hopes over and over?

This one is probably the grottiest one in a while, but it was hanging in the sub-$30 range up until tonight. Given the latest jump, it should finish above what should be reasonable for such a trashed part. Oh well… I’ll just have to keep looking.

Answers to earlier questions.

A nice full-on view of the answers to a previous “name that car” quiz. Thanks to Roger & Kevin for playing.

Those French sure do make funny looking voitures, non?

The BMW looks a LOT like a Lancia and Maserati mated and produced a Bavarian. Odd I know. In fact when I posted the original, I thought it was a Lancia. You guys are smarter than I obviously!

Off to the archives to pull something weird out… I’ve got to stump Roger at something other than Japanese Keicars – though the though of him spending hours sifting through Google image searches on such ugly machines did warm my heart… too bad it is so hot out! 😉

Dr. Livingston I presume?

In every group there is one of these guys. They are great to have around but they are very easy to take the wrong way, and many are irritated by their very presence. I don’t really understand that latter perspective, because “that guy” is usually right.

I love to hang out in a virtual community called the “E-type forum” on Jag-Lovers.org. I don’t use the forum, but instead receive the traffic from it via a mailing list. I realize mailing lists are very “retro” but that is how I prefer it. The smart geeks at Jag-Lovers have built a great system that works both ways, so web people can do a forum, mail people can get mail. Anyway, the group is a wealth of information, and camaraderie. I have made it a point to do my best to meet these people in person, both here in my area, and whenever I travel. The benefits of making human contact with people you know electronically are wonderful.

Whenever one of “those guys” rattles off a pronouncement of learned fact in a seemingly (because via email, you can never really know!) tone of know-it-all-ness… I just mentally picture something like the above and smile.

Lighten up guys. Don’t take anything personally.

(Apologies to Matt Groening and Ray Livingston!)