Noticing a theme here? The previous CPOTD had a Type 57SC Atlantic, can you name this species of genus Bugatti?
A few bonus points can be earned by identifying the other cars, but there all pretty easy.
Month: April 2008
Car Photo of the Day: Name that car.
Ok I know I’m bugging you with an easy one, but man… isn’t that beautiful?
Here’s another shot of the Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic
Car Photo of the Day.
The last place you would expect to see a 450sl… doing well on a racetrack. That’s yours truly smiling like the Cheshire Cat (in the car my parents are currently driving across the continent with a gremlin in the electrical system.) I’m smiling because I just turned in the second fastest time of the day on the road course at Gainesville Speedway in Florida at the 2004 Forza Amelia. Dad & I also won that event with a Perfect Zero score.
The modern Ferrari you see in the background later trounced us all and dropped me to third place on the track day. Oh well. The real victory was beating a bunch of better cars (and experienced drivers!) in a slush-box equipped boulevard cruiser! I don’t claim to be a great track driver, I have very little experience “driving in anger”, I just happened to take the right line and be very lucky that day.
We’ll be rallying again soon, which is the reason he’s ferrying the car to Vermont. We’ll be once again trying to win the New England 1000, and event that we have done together four other times over the past eleven years. As always I’ll post nightly updates once the rally begins in late May. Hopefully the demons infesting the Bosch bits will be flushed out by then!
Exhaust Update.
Today was a spectacular Spring day in the Pacific Northwest. Temps in the mid-70s(!), sunshine, and clear blue skies. It was really our first sunny and warm day of 2008. The air was filled with … the symphonic roar of a thousand Briggs & Stratton and two-stroke “weedeater” engines as everyone went out and cut their grass for the first time in 2008.
The Goolsbee’s joined the chorus and added to the roar. I only mowed the area around the barn. Chris & Sue did the rest of the property. I was focussed on barn-related tasks, namely oil processing, a bit of Spring Cleaning, and getting the resonators onto my new exhaust. I did the latter job first, as I wanted the Jaguar out of the barn to do some cleaning in there. It was an epic wrestling match, but I finally managed to get the resonators onto the pipes. Unfortunately they are completely cock-eyed:
If Marty Feldman had exhaust pipes, they’d look just like this.
The cock-eyed nature of the pipe on the left is due to the position of the exhaust components upstream. Jerry Mouton provided me with some guidance on keeping all the upstream attachment points loose until I had the resonators positioned just right… but working in the tight confines here just isn’t conducive to getting these adjustments made. I really need to get the car up on a proper lift that allows full access to the exhaust front-to-back. Unfortunately I don’t have such a lift, or access to one. Hrmmmm.
Yes, that is a chunk of wood wedged between the pipe and the body. That allowed me to take the car for a drive this evening and not damage my paint.
I will say that it was WONDERFUL to get the car out on the road again, especially on such a warm, wonderful evening. It felt like August, not April. The car ran perfectly, and sounded GREAT… so quiet and smooth. In fact it is so quiet now, especially at idle, that I thought the engine had died a couple of times as I waited at lights or stop signs. When I pressed the loud pedal it still had a great tune, just not as raucous and dissonant as before. Now it purrs just like a big cat should.
Need an Alternator for a ’79 M-B 450sl!
My father is driving his 1979 Mercedes-Benz 450sl from Colorado to Vermont roughly along that route above. He just called me from western Nebraska with a dead alternator. 🙁
Needless to say, the parts stores in Nebraska don’t carry a suitable alternator, so he’s doing the logical gearhead thing: He bought two spare batteries and a charger and he’s going to keep driving until he can find one.
Here is where you come in dear reader: Anyone know what sort of alternator he needs? I assume it is a Bosch, but googling so far is just getting me link farms. A Lester/Rebuilders number would be great! If you don’t know that, how about a hint of reasonably honest Mercedes service locations (dealers or independents) anywhere from Elkhart, Indiana to Cleveland, Ohio. That is where he’ll be Monday morning.
Thanks in Advance!
Update, 11 PM PDT: I posted this to a couple of car-related mailing lists, and received a ton of useful information, part numbers, potential sources, and a good selection of service operations along his route. I’ve passed it along to my Dad. He & my mom made it to their hotel before dark, and have their battery on the charger. He said the car ran great all day.
Thanks to all who provided information!
Grown in Washington(?)
As I work towards my own energy independence I thought about planting the spare acre or two of my property with rapeseed aka “canola”. That way I could not only make my own BioDiesel, but also grow my own feedstock. I assume rape will grow in Washington since it also grows in the UK and our climates are very similar.
Then I read about this tree. Copaifera langsdorfii is also known as “the Diesel tree” because you can tap it like a Maple and oil flows out. Pretty cool huh?
The wiki entry says though:
Despite its vigorous production of oil the tree does not grow well outside of the tropics and does not show promise as a reliable source of biodiesel.
Oh well. I guess the canola idea might still fly. 😉
Car Photo Of The Day… itching to be on the road again!
Springtime is here in the Pacific Northwest. Do you know how we know? The rain gets warmer! 😉
I’m itching to get out on the road again. I still have to complete the exhaust installation, and get my new OP gauge working correctly. But that just gets the car ready. I long to answer the call of the open road again… set off with just a companion, a road atlas, and a vague idea of a destination. That has to wait for the rain to stop however.
The above shot was taken on the Oregon Coast in October of 2004, as my father and I were headed south for the Mille Autunno.