The Falcon Fiasco

I've always had a soft spot for the Mustang's forgotten sibling.  The Ford Falcon to me has the same appeal as matchbox Novas.  They are small, simple, clean and when tastefully modded just scream purpose built street machine.

One day in my journey through cyberspace I came across a guy unloading two Falcons in upstate New York. So that weekend I hooked up a trailer to the family SUV and headed north. When I found the cars they were in the middle of nowhere!  It was rural farmland and the two cars sat in a field next to what looked like an abandoned schoolhouse.  My plan was to take one of the cars (the blue one in the photos below) and whatever parts I could from the other (the gold one).  As I inspected the cars I found shed snake skins almost everywhere I looked.  Seriously, fold the visor down, snake skins. Open the ashtray, snake skins. Open the air cleaner, snake skins! This should have been enough to make me second guess my plan, but I was determined.  After all, I had already spent days envisioning myself fixing and driving this car.

Both cars were full of boxes of junk, so I started to quickly move the junk from the blue car (the keeper) to the gold car.  As I started moving the stuff I kept finding more and more shed snake skins.  At this point it started to have a minor psychological impact as I started to itch for no apparent reason! I reached a point in the junk migration where I could start to see the car's floor and that's when it happened. It was like a scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom....live snakes everywhere!  I'm not scared of snakes, but the quantity of them, the fact that I couldn't identify them, and the uneasiness of not knowing where else they were became a deal breaker. I quickly shut the car. Once I regained composure I methodically stripped enough parts off the outside of the cars to make me feel like my trip was worthwhile and split.  

So my dream of building a sweet Ford Falcon is on hold, but I do have sheet metal and trim waiting in the garage for when a reptile free candidate presents itself.

How I found them...

The donor...

The keeper. Tons of potential!

The surprise!

Remember when NASCAR was cool?

The Daytona 500 kicks off the 2013 NASCAR season in a month....but I don't care! First some eye candy and then my rant....

I grew up as an avid follower of NASCAR in the 80's. However, I have zero interest in current day NASCAR. What happened? I firmly believe that in its efforts to broaden the appeal of the spectacle (which I cannot fault them for), NASCAR ultimately alienated car guys. 

"Two decades ago everybody had their own unique cars," said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president for competition and racing development. "Much of the sheet metal was out of the box from the factories and the dealerships, and you built them in a way to get your advantages however you could. You saw quite a menu of spoiler sizes and nose changes and a constant leapfrogging of technology to get an advantage. One car would run good at Michigan and then wouldn't run good at Daytona."

Everything Pemberton described in this quote is exactly why I used to like NASCAR....and it is missing from today's version of the sport.

Coupled with NASCAR's marketing machine keying in on the drivers (both their skills and personalities), the tragic death of Dale Earnhardt triggered a tremendous effort into improving driver safety (with amazing success). This ultimately culminated in the introduction of the generic race car dubbed the "Car of Tomorrow."  Without question, the COT accomplished many of NASCAR's safety goals, but it was also the final nail in the coffin in essentially removing the importance of the car, engineering and technology (all stuff I love) from the equation of determining a race's winner.

 

The crazy thing is I didn't even grow up in NASCAR's glory years (think winged warriors!). I picked it up in the mid 80's. But even then, the Monte Carlos and T-Birds were far more interesting than  today's sterile "Car of Tomorrow." Back then, we all knew people with a mid 80's G-body (Chevy Monte Carlo, Pontiac Grand Prix, Buick Regal, Olds Cutlass) and if you squinted when you looked at them they looked like their racing counterparts.  My brother's first car was a '83 Monte Carlo and we loved that it had race car DNA.  In the 80's we even got a taste of the homologation days as we saw quirky stuff hit the showroom like the Monte Carlo and Gram Prix Aerocoupes...

To me, the beginning of the end wasn't the "Car of Tomorrow."  The writing was on the wall with the introduction of the Chevy Lumina. The second a showroom product that was a unit body, front wheel drive, V6 (at best) automobile appeared on the track as a rear wheel drive, V8 powered race car I knew whatever remained of the illusion of 'stock car racing' was completely gone.  Then the Ford Taurus added insult to injury by proving the showroom variant didn't even have to have the same number of doors as the racing version.  At this point, manufactures don't even offer cars with push rod V8's (but they race them).

But there is a glimmer of hope (just a glimmer).  NASCAR has announced that it intends to reintroduce some diversity among the models being raced in 2013. Its a baby step but its just never going to be what it was. 

    

I will summarize my whole point in 5 words and 2 pictures:

This...

made this...

very cool.

Cal Look VW's - A Little History

I've always been a fan of the classic 'cal look' air-cooled VWs. Here is a great little film by Stephen Brooks about the story of the California Look. Started back in the 60's no other style was as influential or important to the Volkswagen scene.


OLDER N' FASTER // THE CALIFORNIA LOOK from Stephen Brooks FILMS on Vimeo.

Cougar Life

Stuck to the side of my toolbox are a couple old newspaper clippings advertising a few Mercury Cougars. The old yellow clippings were retrieved from the inside of a closet door. The closet happened to be in what was once my bedroom in my childhood home.  I was probably 13 or 14 years old when I clipped these from the 'Bargain News' and hung them in my room.  It was only a few years ago when helping my parents move from our old house that I found them and took them to put on display in my garage.

The Mercury Cougar was always one of my favorite muscle cars.  The electric razor inspired grill with hide away headlight was just plain cool.  The sequential taillights were even cooler.  If you asked me at that age what car I wanted when I grew up I would have said a Mercury Cougar with a 428 in it. My brother's truck had me in love with the Ford FE power plants.  In fact, in 8th grade, our English teacher made us right a letter to ourselves as seniors in high school.  The cool thing was that the school took the letters and gave them to us 4 years later. What was one of the first things I asked the older version of myself? What did I drive!!!  I even asked specifically if I had a Cougar with a 428 in it.  At the time I read the letter I was driving my 69 Mustang with a 302 in it....I think the prepubescent version of myself would have been satisfied with that answer.  So the point is I always wanted a Mercury Cougar.

As I mentioned in my post about my first car, the day came when I was ready to invest time and money to get the Mustang exactly where I wanted it.  This was going to involve updating the Mustang's chassis, suspension, brakes, and transmission.  While researching online (it was now the internet era) I came across a 1967 Mercury Cougar for sale.  It was an original S code car....meaning it came with a big block 390. While not the 428 I dreamed of, it was part of the FE family which I was always fond of.  It came with a 4 speed top-loader and had a complete Total Control Products front suspension on it.  It even had Wilwood disc brakes on all four corners. These were all the goodies I wanted for my Mustang and I couldn't even buy these parts for what the guy was selling the whole car for.  So my plans changed and my brother and I drove to Cleveland, Ohio pulling an empty U-haul trailer behind his V-10 powered  F-350.  We drove straight there, picked up the car, stopped for dinner with some relatives in the area and drove right back with this gem...

 

I still have the Cougar and you will be seeing many more posts featuring me doing dumb things with it as soon as the Spring arrives!!!

Super Troopers (Beater Vehicles are Fun)

It's obvious that there is a sense of pride a car guy has about his cherished ride.  However, only real car people can appreciate the satisfaction and enjoyment of owning a total beater vehicle.  I've had my share of beaters. My favorite probably being my '88 VW Fox that I bought for $100, drove to college regularly, road rallied, auto crossed, and then years later drove to the junk yard and was given $85 for the scrap value.
  
My brother's 'best' beater had to be his first generation Isuzu Trooper.  He scored it from a co-worker for about $125. It needed work before it could even be driven home so he spent some time getting it roadworthy in his friend's garage.  We were introduced to the obscure Isuzu SUV by my godfather. He purchased one of the early 80's models new and loved that thing.   He drove that truck for a very, very long time and liked it so much he ended up buying a third generation model.  We joked that we knew to only person in the US that was brand loyal to Isuzu.

The first generation of Trooper was produced between 1981 and 1991. It began production as a rather basic and somewhat under powered on-and-off road vehicle, offered initially only with 4-cylinder motor, 5-speed manual transmission, and part-time four-wheel drive. The first generation eventually evolved to add both amenities and luxuries, including optional air-conditioning, power windows, and a more powerful V6 engine.

Troopers were plain,  boxy and very utilitarian .  My brother embraced this simplicity and basically stripped the truck down even further.  He ripped out the carpeting and coated the floor in rubberized undercoating. He fixed the exterior rust and covered the lower portion of the body in undercoating. He blacked out the trim and then I surprised him with new tube bumpers.  The only mechanical upgrade was the addition of manual locking front hubs (the auto-locking ones didn't work). And that was it, that truck was abused from there on out as his daily commuter.

As I mentioned earlier, owning a beater can be fun. I think the fun only comes from having the proper expectations. I think the satisfaction comes from knowing you are operating and maintaining a vehicle that cost less than some people's shoes.  The enjoyment comes the fact that you are basically playing with house money and every additional mile you log in that car is pure profit.  My brother and I always joke about our beaters saying, "If it dies on the road, I'm just going to leave it there." Neither of us have followed through with this yet.

Another important factor is that as car guys, we tend to baby our rides. We park in the remote reaches of parking lots to avoid shopping carts and door dings. Tree sap and bird dropping are our mortal enemies in our quest to keep our cars shiny and new.  However, when you're in your beater....who cares.
 
Many years have gone by since my brother sold his Trooper.  Whenever we see one on the road (as infrequent as that is) we always pay homage to his beater.  However, an interesting thing happened in 2010.   I went to Haiti after the earthquake that leveled Port-au-Prince.  As we left the airport and walked to our ground transportation I noticed something.  Our 'rental' car was an old Trooper!  Not only that, almost every other vehicle in the parking lot was either an Isuzu Rodeo or Trooper!  It was surreal.  That Trooper had a tough week navigating the rubble that was still piled in the streets.  The first day the clutch cylinder went on it (which we repaired with the help of a rock). Later in the week the clutch let go in downtown Port-au-Prince. We abandoned that car on the side of the road and took a Tap Tap (a Haitian 'taxi') to our destination.  My point is....if you like Troopers like I do, go to Haiti!


Port-au-Prince Airport Lot (other than the Rav 4 I think everything is an Isuzu):

Our Trooper right where we left it after the clutch let go:

A day in the life of a Haitian Trooper:

Links:
The Isuzu Trooper Owners Guild Isuzu Trooper Owners Club

Dakar Rally 2013!

Tomorrow the 2013 version of the Dakar Rally begins. Started in in 1978, the races were from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal, but due to security threats in Mauritania, which led to the cancellation of the 2008 rally, the 2009 Dakar Rally was run in South America (Argentina and Chile). It was the first time the race took place outside of Europe and Africa. It has stayed in South America since 2009 and this years race spans Peru, Argentina and Chile.

Here is the official trailer for the 2013 Dakar!!!

The route:

The action:

Boys of Bonneville: Racing on a Ribbon of Salt

Every now and then I stumble across something good on Netflix that I had no idea about.

Last night, I watched Boys of Bonneville: Racing on a Ribbon of Salt which is presently streaming on Netflix.  It tells the story of Ab Jenkins and his quest to single-handedly break every existing land speed record on his beloved Bonneville Salt Flats of Utah. More than a century later, many of Ab's records remain unbroken. Its a great film about the early beginnings of American land speed racing at Bonneville and a couple American heroes.

The film also does a great job of  featuring Ab's purpose built 12-cylinder, 4800-pound "Mormon Meteor."

After watching the movie I looked up the details for this year's Bonneville Speedweek. Who wants to head to Utah in August with me?

Official Trailer:

Boys of Bonneville: Racing on a Ribbon of Salt (IMDB Link)

My 2 Minute Guide to 'Retro' Car Designs

As much as it boggles my mind, most Americans don’t really want unique, unusual, or special cars. Instead, people revert to the ordinary or the familiar when it’s time to buy a car. Just look at the blandness of the industry's top sellers.

In the late 90's, VW took a gamble (based on the reaction to their Concept One show car) and proposed that maybe another way to sell cars was to offer a product that reminds buyers of an automobile that they had owned, admired, or coveted, in the past. For the most part, they were right.

In my opinion, the most significant 'retro' car is the one that started the craze. The New Beetle:

After VW, other European commuter friendly icons followed suit with the Mini and Fiat 500:

Around the same time Ford jumped on the retro bandwagon with mixed results:

One raging success:

One not so much:

Then the rest of Detroit followed:

Even SUVs got into the mix (this is one of my favorite retro designs):

And once it appeared that 'retro' wasn't a fad the high end went retro:

There were even 'retro inspired' designs such as Plymouth Prowler, PT Cruiser, Chevy HHR and Chevy SSR

And lastly, not to be confused with the 'retro' craze. There are the retro designs that aren't really retro, they just haven't changed in 50 years.