classic car: October 2008

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Chicago knows the right cars

Here's a partial list of the cars I saw driving down the highway during my 2-day stay in the city of Chicago:

Porsche (countless, but I guess about 125)

Ferrari 430 Scuderia (1)

BMW Z3/Z4 (17)

other BMWs (264)

Bentley Continental GT (2)

Jaguar XK (14)

Jaguar XKR (4)

other Jaguars (147)

Infiniti G35 (20)

Mosler (1)

and last but not least...

Traffic Jams That Caused All These Fine Cars To Not Be Able To Reach Potential (somewhere in the millions)

I saw many more cars that I would have put in here, but I can't remember them all. The one thing I noticed that I felt was odd was that the only classic cars I saw were sitting at the Volo Auto Museum 50 mles North of Chicago! That is, until I had left the outskirts of the city for the last time, making for home. That was when I was pleasantly surprised by a '69 Charger and a '71 Mustang went by within one minute of each other. The photo is of a mosler like the one I saw fom topspeed.com

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Chicago

We're heading to Chicago this weekend in search of a perfect project car. We're looking for VWs, fieros, '65-'66 mustangs, MGs, and basically any smallish car from 1910 to 1979 that will be relatively easy to restore. I've compiled a list of under-$2500 craigslst Chicago ads that interest me, and we will also stop at some auto museums and stuff like that along the way, just for fun. Wish me luck!

Friday, October 17, 2008

Smart Odd

I just got my new edition of Hot Rod magazine, and a guy was thinking of making some kind of 20's rod I can't recall out of a smart car. Hot Rod Magazine directed him towards the videos of a Smart car with a Hayabusa engine that are numbering in the dozens on YouTube (I like the one by Nightmare2005, it has good picture quality and isn't a shaky video). I knew the moment I heard of the realease of this tiny car in the U.S., there would be many waiting to make there own cars out of them. These are just a few of those odd creations. photos from marklanyon.com, worldpress.com, and somewhere else I can't remember.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Lotus Seven Miata

I just stumbled upon a book at my local library a little while ago that gives step-by-step instructions to build a Lotus Seven replica out of a junk Mazda MX-5 Miata. It's very comprehensive and says it costs about 10k less than a kit from Caterham Cars, which owns rights to the Seven. It turns a Miata into a somewhat practical head-turner good for the track and street (I think it's street legal). I couldn't find ant photos of a Seven replica made from a Mazda, but I settled for this photo of a real Seven from rrideout.com

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Trailer Restoring!!!!

I recently did a father-son project on our rusty sailboat trailer from the 80s. When we bought the boat and trailer about a year ago, we affectionately called the boat "Ripple". The trailer had been sitting behind a barn, so it was the perfect barn find for restoration! We had not done much work and only replaced a tire up until a month ago, when we decided to do a good old restoration/hot rodding on our old Shoreline trailer. We stripped all the pin striping and logos off, then sanded off the rust. We then primered it in rust-resistant red and painted it green, matching the stripe on our boat, an S2 6.9 (6.9 refers to how many meters long the boat is). Matching the rest of the boat, we proceeded to put white pin striping, and white flames on the fenders on the trailer. We replaced most of the lights, and voila! A hot rod Ripple transporter!

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Yugo

It sucks.

Photo from carforums.net

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Corvette Wagon

Okay, a short history. From the late '60s to the mid '70s there were only a few factory-made versions of these, but countless companies converted Corvettes for rich buyers with kids or who just wanted to stand out. Recently, I read a sad article about somebody who had a rare '68 wagon that he let his son use when his car broke. The Corvette blew out a tire on the highway, it's gas tank blowing up just before it hit a semi. That priceless jewel is now a pile of scrap metal in a junk yard somewhere. Too bad...

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Okay. enough said. Spoilers go too far and nobody ever needs to use them unless they cruise at over 200MPH I'm surprised this car doesn't tip over! Stupid photo from www.matt-d.com .