Happy Earth Day!

How does Ford mark Earth Day.....by announcing that the 2015 Mustang will be a hybrid.  It will burn gas and rubber!  

Ford has announced that the 2015 Mustang GT will feature a standard electronic line-lock feature!  I love how the announcement and video released explain the practical aspect of line-lock for all the drag racers out there who need to heat up their tires for maximum traction at the drag strip.  Just like your buddy who swears he subscribes to Playboy for the articles......there is obviously an ulterior motive behind Ford's new feature.

Ford identified a marketing gimmick which will provide tons of press coverage and is inexpensive to package. Its not aimed at the science of drag racing, it aimed at the inner hoonigan in all of us. I guarantee you'll see more 2015 Mustangs doing brake-stands at your local cruise night than at the drag strip. I'm not even considering how many "Mustang line lock' videos that are going to flood YouTube! So what do I think about Ford's shady marketing move.....well done Ford!

Mustang Turns 50!

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Mustang debut at the 1964 World's Fair in New York!  Ford is doing its best to mark the occasion and is taking advantage of the fact that it coincides with the  New York Auto Show.....meaning the automotive media is already focused on New York.

Mustang display at the 1964 World's Fair

Ford has also placed a 2015 Mustang convertible on the observation deck of the Empire State Building to recreate one of many publicity stunts carried out half a century ago.

According to a statement released by Ford, the only way to get a car to the deck is to use the elevator of the 80-plus-year-old building. “No portable crane can reach the 86th floor observatory, and the spire towering above the relatively narrow deck makes helicopter delivery impossible," the statement says.

Since the building's elevator can't fit an entire Mustang, the car had to be cut into six elevator-friendly pieces. A team of workers then rebuilt the car on the building's observation deck; though, as the video below shows, the team did at least one practice run beforehand.

What is amazing is the amount of promotion Ford did back in 1964 to ensure the Mustang was a success (maybe the Edsel debacle was still fresh in everyone's mind).  I recently spoke to a friend who remembers when Ford loaned him a new Mustang for him to review and write about. He didn't work for Motor Trend or any other major trade magazine......he was a writer for his college paper. 

GM has even chimed in with a very fun press release:

So happy birthday Mustang.  We've had a few close calls (Ford Probe) but are happy you are here and looking forward to what the future holds.

How it all began:

The Comet was Sold!!!!!

Here's a very brief update.  The 1962 Comet has been sold!  I almost traded it for a 1967 Pontiac LeMans convertible project car but decided to sell it outright to free up space in the shop (and some cash) so I can finally start digging into the 1969 Mustang!

Loaded up and ready to go....

On her way....

The Comet is for Sale!

So I spent the weekend cleaning out the Comet and finishing a couple odds and ends it needed to make it drive-able.  I photographed it and listed it on Craigslist, the H.A.M.B, Grassroots Motorsports and Comet Central. So here are the details....

For sale in a '62 Comet project car. Car could be used for parts, restoration or with a little work could be a neat rat rod cruiser (it has loads of patina).


This Comet is a 4 door and was originally equipped with a 170 cid six cylinder engine. The engine has been upgraded with a 200 cid from 1967. The car has an automatic transmission and starts and moves. Car needs some mechanical work to be a driver. Namely, the brake line to the rear of the car needs to be replaced and the exhaust manifold is cracked (and very noisy).

The body has rust issues in the lower portions of the body panels (see photos). The leading edge of the hood is also badly rusted. The radiator support has rust and there is blistering on the rear frame rails behind the rear leaf spring mount.

Car also has a set of American Racing Outlaw II's in it which are hard to come by in the correct 4 lug bolt pattern . Rims are in great shape except one has minor curb rash. Tires are very good. Buyer can also have the original 13 inch steel wheels that came with the car (tires bad) if you want the traditional look.

Bill of Sale only! Window sticker shows that car appears to have last been registered in New York in 2003. Asking price is $1400

Please email me questions or set up a time to come take a look.

If it doesn't sell locally I will list it on eBay in a week or two.

My Detroit Autoshow Rant

Time for me to chime in on the 2014 North American International Auto Show. Honestly, I didn't feel that this year's show made for 'must see TV.'  There were some very significant debuts but I think that the trend of manufactures 'leaking' photos via social media outlets in the days and weeks leading up to the show somewhat takes the fun out of the event itself. Essentially, the overall anticipation is somewhat diminished as cars/concepts are really being debuted rather than revealed.

So lets start with the highlights....

I'm not a huge fan of concept cars. They tend to all look the same and rarely ever translate into something I'd actually want. For instance, this year Kia showed off a cool concept called the GT4 Stinger. As interesting as it is, its hard to get excited about it because at the end of the day you know Kia will never produce anything that remotely resembles the Stinger.

There was one concept car that was fantastic! The Toyota FT-1 Concept is what concept cars should be all about.  It sends a message that Toyota is not all about the Camry and Corolla.  It says that the stunning Lexus LFA is not the epitome of what they are capable of......its just the beginning.  This concept may never go into production but it makes you want to write letters and beg Toyota for the next Supra.

Now onto the debuts of 'real' cars. You know your car show is somewhat dull when the most significant reveal is the new Ford F-150. With that said, it may be the most important vehicle Ford launches this decade. The interesting thing here has been all the talk about the truck's aluminum body....which I think is cool. I actually find it bizarre when I read in blogs and forums filled with so-called truck enthusiasts complaints about the use of aluminum. The implication being that it is a weaker or inferior substitute for tried and true steel.......what a bunch of idiots. The biggest problem with the F-150 reveal was that Ford declined to reveal specific data about the F-150's power, towing or fuel economy...so who cares if you shaved 700 pounds by switching to aluminum if you cannot illustrate what that translates to in specs.

The C7 edition of the Corvette Z06 debuted. I'm not going to delve into the new Z06 since there are only two things you need to know about it:

1. The Corvette Z06 will have a 6.2-liter supercharged V8 producing at least 625 horsepower.

2. It looks like this....

There were other cool performance related cars like the Lexus RC F, the MK7 Volkswagen Golf R, the BMW M3/M4 and the Subaru WRX STI (it still has a big wing, blue paint and gold wheels).

I think the biggest news might be the big misses....

Porsche introduced a 911 Targa which seems way too complex. The way the rear glass lifts and the silver roof portion changes shape to make way for the retracting top just seems to be asking for mechanical problems.  It also seems heavy,appears to take up valuable space and ultimately I'm not even sure if it actually fits the official definition of a targa top. What's wrong with a couple of latches that you turn with your hand?

But the big winner (or loser) and honestly the only reason I wrote this post was the abomination known as the Equus Bass 770.

The Equus Bass 770 is touted as an American-made homage to iconic American muscle cars leveraging today's technology. The Americana motif even went as far as having three Bass 770's on display (a red one, a white one, and a blue one).  The designers claim that the car includes design elements influenced from all the icons such as Camaro, Challenger, Charger, GTO, and even Marlin.

When I look at the Bass I see a blatant act of automotive plagiarism that would be better suited as a Chinese made knock-off. You know what I'm talking about....like the  'high quality' Adadis sneakers and Calvim Klain clothes you find at your local flea market.

The designers can site all sorts of 'influences' but in reality the car is 90 percent 67/68 Mustang. It also features a Charger tail light panel and a Roadrunner grill.

Equus Bass770

67 Mustang in 'Eleanor' body kit

Equus Bass770

Charger

Equus Bass770

Roadrunner

The cheap imitation gets even worse. 

Next there is the 'Bass' name.....and obvious rip off of Ford's 'Boss' moniker.

Then take the contorting horse emblem.....out of the entire wild kingdom they had to pick a horse?

Then there is the 770 in the name.  770 what? It sure hell's ain't cubic inches (since the power plant  is sourced from GM) but rather 770 cubic centimeters per cylinder!  Meaning 770 times 8 = 6160 cc's....meaning 6.16 liters....which rounds up to 6.2 liters

But the real insult is the price! At least when you buy knockoffs at the flea market you are paying a quarter of what the real McCoy would sell for.  Equus plans of selling the Bass for a quarter of a million dollars!!!!!!!!

So let me close with this simple question. You have $250,000.00 burning a whole in your pocket. Do you buy a Ferrari 458 Italia, Lamborghini Gallardo LP640, Audi R8 V10, the newly shown Corvette Z06 or the next ZR1, the next Mustang Cobra, or a Equus Bass 770?  End of rant.

Night of the Comet

Previously on this blog I explained how I backed into my Mercury Cougar from my ownership of my Ford Mustang. I also explained how I love old Ford Falcons (especially the round body models).....so if I remember my least favorite portion of the SATs (which was analogies)....Ford Mustang is to Mercury Cougar as Ford Falcon is to....Mercury Comet! Enough with the nonsense.......I just bought a '62 Mercury Comet.  

Unfortunately, there is no need to get excited. Its crappy, rusty, a 4 door, and a 6 cylinder. It was destined for the junk yard and I felt that I couldn't let it go to the crusher without at least trying to salvage the car or at least some of its parts. So now it sits in the garage. I'm going to clean it up a tad bit, adjust the points and clean the carb so it runs.  I will vacuum out the filth the mice and God knows what have left in it and take some pics and list it for sale......if I don't get any takers, I will part it out and sell whatever I can and hopefully help out some other Comet owners out there. So if you're interested in a clapped out '62 Comet let me know.  It would make a sweet rat rod cruiser (can't fake the patina).  If you were really badass you'd slap some Gulf Racing colors on it and go LeMons racing.

So if you need some inspiration...

Pics coming soon

Snowkhana Two

Ford has again spoofed Ken Block's Ford Fiesta ST rampage film Gymkhana (latest is number 6) in order to create an awesome Christmas card.  Enjoy Snowkhana Two....

And just in case you missed Snowkhana One last year...

Happy Mustang Day

Autumn in New England

So things have been pretty hectic around here and I think its obvious with the lack of posts I've been generating.  November is here and the car scene in New England is about to shutter up for the winter......so this last weekend featured a final flurry of activity.

First off,  before the weekend even started I had an interesting week leading into it.  On Tuesday, I took my Cougar for a quick blast on a curvy road near my house in order to play with my GoPro....or should I say what was supposed to be a quick blast. At the end of the run there is a large parking lot (which happens to be where the state's Department of Public Safety is housed).  I turned into the lot and went to perform a 'K' turn in order to head back home.  While making the turn and turning the wheel lock to lock I heard a pop and then the steering wheel spun freely!  The aluminum u-joint that connects my column to my aftermarket rack and pinion setup broke! My car lost the ability to steer and I was in the middle of a crowded parking lot at an awkward angle. My mind jumped into problem solving mode as I had to figure out how to straighten the car out in order to park it in one of the lot spaces.  Then the realization of what would have happened if the u-joint broke 2 minutes earlier or later while I was driving like a madman on a sinuous tree-lined back road. Then I went back to problem solving mode. To get the wheels of the car to turn I employed a hunk of asphalt curb I found and placed it under one of the front tires and drove forward a tiny bit to force the wheels to turn to full lock.  Once the wheels turned I moved forward to the desired angle lined up with a parking spot and then re-used the curb chunk to force my wheels back into the straight position......and finished pulling into the space (a little before dark).

I happened that on Friday (November 1st) I was moving into a large storage unit which I was going to be converting into a  shop and storing the Cougar and Mustang.  I already had plans to rent a trailer Friday morning so I could tow my engine-less Mustang to the unit......I simply modified my plans to also tow the Cougar there.  So I left the Cougar in the lot for a couple days and hoped for the best (I think it may have helped that I was parked next to a couple state police cruisers).

On Friday I took my Discovery to get the Cougar......and of course it was pouring rain.  I used by curb chunk trick to back the Cougar our of its spot and turn it perpendicular to the parking spot and facing the trailer.  It was so easy I thought I'd have it loaded in minutes......then came my lesson on how hard it really is to load a steering-less car onto a trailer alone in the rain!  The amount of finagling it took to line up the trailer perfectly since I had to be able to drive the car up one-shot without any steering correction was ridiculous. Add in the fact that my Hankook Ventus R-S3's hated the wet steel ramps and I must have put on an entertaining display for the state workers in their cubicles.  Eventually, I persevered.

Round two was the opposite story.  The Mustang had steering.....just no drive train. This was much less of an ordeal...just some pushing and the creative use of a come-along to winch the car into the trailer and we were on our way.   

Cougar in its new home.....more to come.

Onto the weekend....

The weekend featured two of the area's biggest swap meets.  On Sunday my brother and I went to a semi-annual event organized by a local club and held in the parking lot of an amusement park.  The turn-out was fantastic.  There were all sorts of odd and interesting cars there. There were even more odd and interesting people.  With regards to deals, there were some to be had, but in general the prices on the cars in the car corral were inflated compared to other years.  There was a really nice Comet convertible for sale that was a deal.....there was also a beat 80's Monte Carlo with a built V8 in it that could have been had for about a grand that would have been fun to beat on.  We had quite a few conversations about what specific cars/trucks we owned in the past would be worth based on the asking prices we were seeing.  In general, the event wasn't productive from a great find point of view....it was just a nice time to get outside on a sunny day before the snow comes and look at cars and people-watch.

One event I missed on Sunday that I wish I attended (and will attend in the Spring when it starts up again) was the final gathering of Caffeine & Carburetors....check out their website.  Info on our new shop coming soon.    

Still have some fall foliage

This needs to be hanging on a wall in my house

Something about old Ford trucks - Part II

My posts have definitely been slowing down. Basically, I've really just been posting about past exploits with hopes to make it through the winter so that I can start a more 'real time' blog in the spring.  The problem is that it won't stop freakin' snowing here in Connecticut. Temperatures are still hovering around freezing and last year at this time spring had sprung and we were in the 70's.

So for now, here's another story about something dumb I did. Just a couple years back I came across a beat up old 64 Ford F-100 locally.  The truck was a mess, but relatively complete.  As I already posted, I have s weak spot for old Ford trucks.  So I made the deal. Rented a trailer and took the family SUV to drag the project home....did I mention I forget to tell my wife? Ultimately, to make a long story short, she went nuts when I brought it home.  I think a part of the reaction what based on the fact that the truck was heinous.   Anyways, I spent some time going down the 'rat rod' theme with the project just using rattle cans and junk already in my garage.  I think it started to shape up but then I received an offer on it and sold it......a very happy day for my wife. So here it is....

Before

After

Engine Before

Engine After

I'm sure there is a Something about old Ford trucks - Part III coming some day.

Something about old Ford trucks

I like old trucks.  Maybe it stems from my brother's old truck that got us started wrenching on stuff? So when a friend of mine wanted to get rid of his 67 F100 in a hurry I was more than happy to oblige.  I just purchased a piece of land in which I was going to build a house on....the perfect justification for a tough old truck. The problem was at the time I was living in a condo complex. 

Eventually, my wife's embarrassment of having it sit in the condo parking area for everyone to see reached a level in which she gave me enough hell to prompt me to unload it.....I should have never sold it.  It was very solid, someone already re-did the body at some point. The interior was mint. The engine ran smooth and the cab was really tight.

The only silver lining is that the guy who bought it was a really interesting car guy. He actually hosts a automotive themed radio show. He had a collection of old fords including a Torino, Ranchero, Falcon wagon, and Cougar.

So basically, I finagled into the 'deal' that I would personally deliver an extra windshield I had for the truck to his house....provided he showed me his other rides.  I spent a while at his house and he traded car stories for a bit. His pride and joy was his Torino (white with blue C-stripes if I remember correctly) and he was active in the Torino enthusiasts community. He bought the Torino on the west coast and attempted to drive it back to Connecticut via Route 66.....I think he said he ran into issues midway and let AAA take care of the rest of the trip.  

Anyways, I miss that truck and what could have been.  And since then (to my wife's dismay) I have dabbled in old ford trucks again...so stay tuned for "Something about old Ford trucks - Part 2"

Grandpa's Stainless Steel Car

My wife's grandfather loved to tell stories (usually the same ones over and over again).  To the surprise of my wife's family, I actually liked listening to them.  I think I was the lone participant in the story sessions for a combination of reasons. First and foremost, unlike the rest of the family, I hadn't been listening to the same tales for the last 30+ years. Secondly, my wife's grandfather (Gene) was a pretty interesting guy.  He was a technical guy who was an engineer at a local steel plant.  Many of his stories involved cars.

One time he told me about the stainless steel Fords his company produced and that he drove. Of course I questioned the validity of the story. When I think stainless steel car I think DeLorean (flux capacitor not included) made famous by the movie Back to the Future. But it turns out in 1935, officials at Allegheny Ludlum Steel Division (where Gene worked) and the Ford Motor Company collaborated on an interesting experiment.

Allegheny Ludlum, a pioneer producer of stainless steel, proposed the idea of creating a stainless steel car to Ford. The idea took shape in the form of a 1936 Deluxe Sedan. That car became the centerpiece of a campaign to expose the public to the new metal and its many uses. The stainless steel cars were perfect vehicles for increasing awareness of the quality of the metal. And over the years, this quality has been shown in its stainless performance.

Of the six stainless steel cars that rolled off the Ford assembly line in Detroit in 1936, four exist today as living proof of the durability of stainless steel.  Each of the original six logged at least 200,000 miles in the hands of Allegheny Ludlum officials before "retiring" to private ownership in 1946. Thousands of additional miles have been logged on the odometers since, and the shiny bodies have outlasted most of their non-stainless steel parts.

The idea was repeated at the end of the run of 1958 to1960 Thunderbirds, since those cars in stock form used a great deal of stainless steel for their trim. Two 1960 Thunderbirds were built in stainless steel. It was necessary to wait until the end of the production run, because the harder stainless steel would wipe out the stamping dies. With the exception of the body skin, bumpers and grille, which are made of T302 stainless steel, every other component is standard 1960 Thunderbird equipment. Also included is the first T409 solid stainless steel muffler released on a production vehicle. Both cars still have their original mufflers and T304 exhaust pipes after 25 years on the road!

Lastly, in 1966, the collaboration produced three amazing stainless steel 1966 Lincoln convertibles.

Of the 11 cars originally built, nine are still in use.  Interestingly, out of the 8600 DeLoreans produced, it is estimated that over 6400 still around today.  That says something about stainless steel.

Last note, only one of the four remaining '36 Fords is presently in road-worthy condition and was allegedly insured for 1.5 million dollars. This would have blown Gene's mind!

Gene's photo of the car in front of his plant:

Gene is the guy with the top hat:

Gene at the Indy 500 (I think):