Making changes

We have always found the evolution of
cars fascinating. The stylists of the
50s added bomb sights and rockets, and
later fins to the bodies.

The engineers went to overhead valve
V-8s that only grew in size and power,
and the accessories run the gamut.

In the 60s the bomb sights and fins
disappeared in favor of a sleeker
look. And engines just kept growing.

Today body styles look similar for
years and the engines are getting
smaller. Here are a few innovations
that are in our future.

In 2014, Honda is set to place a
composite engine block in their cars.
Blocks will be made of reinforced
resin.

Speaking of composites, in 2014 ZF is
going to introduce Composite chassis
components. Materials will be carbon
fiber and high-strength plastics.
Plastic struts?

In 2015, Nissan will introduce us
to the wheel hub electric drive. It i
s said this will combine propulsion,
brake, and suspension components
inside each wheel.

4 electric motors per car? Gives a
new meaning to All-Wheel-Drive.

More proof of how crazy its getting is
the GM release of the full windshield
head-up display in 2016.

GM claims this will fill the view ahead
with pertinent road information and
vehicle information. No word on if it
distracts your driving.

In 2018, several different car companies
are going to debut the car-to-car
communication system. Claims is each
vehicle profile is enhanced by radio
signals to lower the risk of collision.

We always thought you stop using
your smart phone to lower the risk of
collision.

That concludes our nickel tour through
the future of our driving.
Comments are always welcome.

A little W-block history

One would think that in 1955 Chevy engineers
would have been on top of the world. They had
just released the new 265 cubic inch V-8 and
the buying public loved it.

But even then they knew a bigger, more powerful
engine would be needed to power future trucks
and cars. So when company heads gave them the go
ahead, the engineers developed another famous
motor. The “W” block.

The 348 cubic inch “Turbo-Thrust” motor debuted
in 1958 and things were never the same. Where the
283 block decks were 90 degrees to the crankshaft,
the 348 was 74 degrees. This in effect made it a
wedge motor.

The 348 was originally designed as a truck
motor and was 1.7 inches longer than the 265,
3 inches wider, and 1 inch shorter due to a
flat intake manifold.

The new motor had bigger valves, a bigger
bore, a longer stroke, and the potential to
be bored a lot larger with higher compression
ratios.

Two versions were available in 1958. One had
a single four-barrel carburetor and the other
had tri-power.

Chevy came out with the posi-traction rear
end in 1958 also, being the only one on the
market at the time. The combination gave the
bowtie guys the edge at the track.

These torque monsters did have a weak spot,
the piston and wrist pin assembly weighed in
at 1.5 pounds. That is a lot of weight to
move around at high RPM.

In late 1958 the police-package 348s went
on sale with 315 hp and the tripower version
got kicked up to 300 hp.

In 1961 the horsepower went to 350 before
the release of the 409 with 360 horsepower.

1962 saw the horsepower jump again to 409
horsepower while a few racers were using
Z-11 equipped Chevys.

In 1963 the 425 horsepower versions hit the
streets and 409 sales hit 21,267.

In 1964 racers bored and stroked the Z-11
to 427 cubic inches until in mid 1965 the
409 was discontinued in favor of the 396.

If you owned, or raced, one of these cars
you know the potential they had.
Comments are always welcome.

It’s a what?

I recently saw this picture while cruising
the information highway and like some I
I had to wonder if the subject in the
photo was the product of Photoshop or an
overactive imagination.

Turns out the Colim (Colors of Life in
Motion) camper is indeed a concept
mobile home.

The front end separates and can take
two people away from the back living
area. I gues if you ran out of toilet
paper you could zip to town in the
funny looking front half.

German designer Christian Susana saw
the need for a more fuel efficient
motor home that could morph into two
seperate pieces.

Claim is the combined vehicle has a
top speed of 90 mph, and the designer
is looking for someone to manufacture
them.

To see more pictures of this strange
looking critter, go here.

Love it or hate it, you have to admit
it shows someone is thinking outside the
box.
Comments are always welcome.

We survived the meeting

Earlier today I said I wasn’t doing a post about
the meeting on the location of the Ferris wheel
at Modern Woodman park.

I wasn’t lying then, but I changed my mind now.
This is because that was 3 hours of my life I’ll
never get back.

We had a nice chat with Alderman Edmond and sat
at a table with Ghost and Average Joe. We would
assume that there were some world-famous people
there, but because we didn’t know any, it would
be a guess on part.

I failed to tell Ghost not to mention he had a
blog and he found out the hard way not to do
that in Davenport.

Admitting you are a conservative blogger at one
of these events is akin to proclaiming you are
a baby raper. Our city has to be close to our
Capital in D.C. with number of progressives per
capita.

It didn’t take long into the meeting to realize
that they didn’t really want options but to talk
those with different ideas to join the team.

Our table thought putting the wheel near right
field, where the Tiki Hut is would be best. Yes,
the bar would have to be moved a bit, but it
seemed everyone at our table liked it.

Instead we discovered the ferris wheel is going
near left field at the cost of at least 1 tree
and the horseshoe pits. And will stretch far
enough out to create a “midway”.

Average Joe argued our option while I remained
silent because I knew regardless of what a few
dissenters thought it was going outside of
left field.

We left after three hours, even after being
offered pizza if we stayed. No offense against
the intellectuals at the meeting but this
redneck can only handle so much.

Everybody in the room didn’t have brown eyes,
but they should have because the bull was that
deep. I’m hanging with the rednecks tomorrow.
Comments are always welcome.

Change of plans

We thought we knew where we were going to cruise
to in this post until we checked email. There are
times when our weird motor gene kicks in, and
this was the time.

A friend sent us an email about Burma-Shave
signs and we thought we had a destination. An
email from another friend changed that when we
opened an email with Vega in the subject line.

Since we had a Vega way back when, this post
will be about the Vert-A-Pac system that was
created just for the Vega.

The Vega, which began its run with the 1971
model year, was designed to be shipped
vertically. This was done because almost twice
as many cars would fit in one rail car on the
nose than lying flat.

Each rail car had nine doors per side which
opened from the top. When the doors were all
opened the Vegas were driven up nose first.

When all nine spots were filled, a huge fork
lift would raise the doors into place and
the cars were hanging like bats in a belfry.

This was possible because of the Vert-A-Pac
system and some basic precautions with the
cars.

The cars had to shipped ready to drive off
the doors when they got to their destination.
So GM installed a special baffle in the oil
pan to keep the oil from running out.

The batteries had their filler caps all
moved to rear edge of the case so they
wouldn’t leak, the carburetor float had a
tube that ran overflow to the vapor
canister, and the windshield washer bottle
was at a 45 degree angle.

Then plastic wedges were put in the powertrain
to prevent any damage or leakage. If this
seems like a lot of work to jam twice as
many cars into a railcar, it saved GM about
$150 per car to ship them to the west coast.

And at the time a new Vega sold for $2,000.
The Vega never really took off and by 1977
GM stopped making them and the neat Vert-A-Pac
systems were scrapped.

We’ll mention the Burma-Shave signs in another
post.
Comments are always welcome.

Different spokes

You ever sit around wondering what a
cannonball would do to a Saturn? Here’s
the answer.

Or wonder how Snap-On sockets are made?

Sometimes in the car hobby people go
just a little too far to be different.

A humorous look at problem solving, or
the V-8 rocking chair.

Need to test your starter and don’t
know how?

And a few pictures of different rides.

Comments are always welcome.

Having some weekend fun

The weekend is here and we just broke our
record for most consecutive days breathing,
so how about some distractions.

A friend sent a video for all those who
like the white stuff but think your
snowmobile doesn’t have enough class, or
room.

Here is a different set-up on a van.

From November comes the Auto Club NHRA
Finals in Pomona.

NASCAR now has its first female pit crew
member.

If you’re having trouble with your GMAW (Mig)
welder, this might be something to watch.

Too bad all hearses don’t look like this.

We couldn’t end this without a movie, so how
about “Tales from the Crypt”?

Enjoy the diversions and the weekend.
Comments are always welcome.

Bored farmer

What do you do when mix old tractor with
a turbo-charged Volvo engine? One fun
loving farmer with an amazing video!

Watching the video took this country boy
living in the city back to the country.
This tractor does it all; burnouts, donuts,
and drifting. All without front brakes.

It looks to still have the individual rear
brakes, which is why only one tire is
smoking doing donuts. We have to go now
because I want to watch this video again.
Comments are always welcome.

A one-wheeled what?

I had never heard of RYNO Motors before
this video. Even though top speed, price,
or licensing cost are not known, we want
one.

At first we thought it was labeled wrong.
A one-wheeled motorcycle? Really? But when
we thought about it, unicycle was already
taken.

Getting the email with this in it made
our day, we hope you enjoy it as much as
we do.
Comments are always welcome.

Technicality

We will do one more post on the comment
about if plans for a marijuana harvester
are somewhere within the confines of a
certain local agricultural company.

Most should know that marijuana comes from
the hemp plant. Hemp is also known for its
fibers which are used to make to make
everything from twine to sails.

Since John Deere Co. began in 1837 it is
entirely possible that they do have plans
for a harvester since marijuana was still
legal 100 years later.

We did find a reference to a “hemp harvester”
which is explained in the link under
the Harvesting header.
It also has small pictures of harvesting
with machines during an earlier era.

Another website has pictures of hemp
harvest in 2006. This one mentions a
Massey Ferguson 35 pull type combine.

About halfway down the webpage, the John
Deere 6600 combine is pictured during the
hemp harvesting.

So we would say, if the farmers can rig
something up to make hemp/marijuana harvest
easier, a team of engineers could also. And
someone would have to draw up plans for it.

So technically, if they are using a John
Deere combine to harvest hemp, the company
has plans for that.
Comments are always welcome.