Mercedes S Class, a couple of firsts

First with electronic antilock brakes
first with 3 point seatbelts,
first with sat nav,
first with airbags

Source, Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson

Dan Gurney

The only American to win a Grand Prix in a car of his own design (Gurney Eagle in the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix)
Later that year he also won te Rex Mays 300 in Riverside, making him the first to win races in Indy Car, NASCAR, Formula One, and sports car racing. Only two guys have done it since

Nascar trivia... what did a yellow rear bumper mean?

That the driver was a rookie. Used in 1973 that I know of, maybe other years.

Mopar design trivia

the Demon tailights were origninally designed for the 71 Duster 340 to match the grill. I never noticed that before

Photo from Hemmings Muscle Machines, Nov 2011 issue

Today is brought to you by the letter G

GLHS
GN
GNX
GP
GS
GSS
GSX
GT
GT40
GTO
GTR
GTS
GTU
GTX
GTZ

How many do you know? Conversely, how many have you no idea what they were?
I wonder how many I forgot... Comments by Roadster2005 are proof I forgot 2.. the GTI for one, and the GLX by Ford... an Escort with the sporty look if I recall correctly

here is the link to what they are: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/04/click-on-all-pictures-to-enlarge-them_30.html 

1965 Chevelle Malibu SS, only 201 made... out of 70,000 Chevelles that year

Only one was covertible, built for Dan Blocker, because he played a rancher on the tv show Bonanza, and his cowboy hat was huge... and he wanted to drive in parades in character with that huge hat, and Chevrolet was a big sponser of the show.

When Chevrolet released the Chevelle Malibu SS in the summer of 1965 it produced only 201 of them out of a total of 70,000 Chevelles of various models. This muscle car had all the ingredients to be a hit; stunning good looks, power, and a very limited number. And it was a major hit. Chevrolets sponsorship of the hit tv show Bonanza helped push the brand with one of the stars, big Dan Blocker, who played Hoss, being an enthusiast of the Chevelle Malibu SS. Most of the car magazines ran some sort of article on the 65 Malibu SS that year and they pretty much waxed lyrical about this special sports car.

Thanks to this heavy promotion of the 65 Chevelle Malibu and the fact that only 201 of them were made meant that it was a runaway seller. Many Chevrolet dealerships never got to see one of these babies let along get the opportunity to sell one. Those that did get one on the car-yard had no trouble selling it.

Looking at the 65 Chevelle Malibu SS today, it is one of the most sought after classic muscle cars around. There are only around 60 to 70 of them left in good to pristine condition, so if you happen to come across one of these in a car graveyard then it is well worth the effort to bring it back to life.
info in italics from http://bruizer.hubpages.com/hub/The-1965-Chevelle-Malibu-SS

Fenderwell liners, red. Not just in GM's...

1966 and 67 were the years that you could get red fenderwell liners in GM a bodies,

66-71 had them with the W-30 442 Oldsmobile

These things you probably know... but had you ever heard of the rare option on 1968 Barracudas?
They were shipped in the trunk from the factory for dealership installtion on Fastback and hardtop-only option in '68

Read about it in the Nov 2011 Mopar Muscle magazine, page 64

Why is it called a dashboard?

What we know as dashboards, not the one on your computer, in cars- are evolved from the early dashes in horse carriages and buggys. The dash board was the boards or material dropcloth that kept the horses back feet from splashing mud and muck onto the driver and carriage... the carriages became motorized and the dashboards were the best place for the first gauges, so the dashboards became the instrument panels

from the above splash guard behind the horse, to

Sparked by an article http://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2011/02/why-is-it-called-dashboard.html

Belgium's part in the car world

Due to early industrialisation, and location at the very heart of the European Union, it provides easy access to all major European sales markets. The country also boasts an excellent infrastructure and logistics network and a well developed network of suppliers and service providers.

Belgium set out on the adventerous path of automobile production at a very early stage. In 1894, Vincke, the first car to be sold in Belgium was designed in a workshop in Malines, where railway carriages were upholstered.

1900-1914 The Golden Age

Several companies brought out cars and motorcycles of excellent quality at competitive prices. These cars made a hit abroad and three-fourths of the cars designed and manufactured in Belgium therefore were channelised towards export.

The major makes, of which models can be admired in the museum are Minerva, the most well-known Belgian make founded by Sylvain de Jong, F.N., which also specialised in motorcycles, Imperia and Miesse.

The HEMI name comes from the dome-shaped ceiling atop each cylinder inside some engines, since it was introduced by obscure Belgian car maker Pipe in 1905.

The shock of the Great War

In 1914, Belgium ranked first on the international automobile construction scene. But the War gets the better of this rapid development. Curiously, the determining factor was not the looting of factories but the end of "free trade" and the emergence of protectionist tendencies adopted by various countries after the War.

Minerva remained a major make. http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search/label/Minerva for a couple of different model year examples of Minervas

F.N., Excelsior and Imperia started making more elaborate cars which met with success on the market. Pipe decided to specialise exclusively in lorries.

The thirties: the decline

In most countries, the beginning of the thirties was marked by significant technological advancements. Free wheels, front-wheel drives and steel bodies appeared. But the Belgian industry, hard hit by the economic crisis, found itself short of resources needed to compete with these advancements.

The period from 1930 to 1940 witnessed a gradual transition of an entirely domestic industry into an assembly sector where foreign cars were built. Efforts on the research and development side were absent and production activity alone remained.

Not being able to renew its models, Imperia acquired a licence for an excellent ultra-modern German car with front-wheel drive, the Adler. Its name could therefore figure on beautiful cars until 1940.

F.N. gave up automobile construction in 1935 but continued to successfully produce excellent motorcycles and utility vehicles. In the field of utility vehicles, Belgium had a bit of a margin and continued to make excellent lorries and buses such as Brossel, Miesse and F.N. and Minerva jeeps for some years, up until the post-war period.

Memories of the Belgian automobile

After World War II, the few remaining Belgian car makers could not face the competition from abroad. The Belgian automobile construction left behind but memories of its glorious days.

above info from http://www.autoworld.be/en/5.asp

ADK (automobile)

Alatac

ALP (automobile)

Antoine (automobile)

Astra (1930 automobile)

Auto-Mixte

Compagnie Nationale Excelsior

De Wandre

Delecroix
Imperia (car)
Jeecy-Vea
Juwel

Meeussen

Métallurgique
Minerva (automobile)
Nagant
Pieper
Pipe (car)
Springuel
Vivinus

Trivia: Why red is Italy's racing color, and why green is Britain's

An interesting little story: Prince Scipione’s Itala, painted bright red for the race, fell into the harbour when it was being unloaded for the big event! To prevent rust, the car was repainted battleship grey…the only paint the harbour-workers had on hand at the time. If you’ve ever wondered why Italian race-cars are red today, it’s because after the Prince won the race all the way back in 1907, Italy adopted red as its official racing-colour and red remains that color to this day.
http://scheong.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/peking-to-paris-the-original-amazing-race/

This reminded me of the reason why green is the official racing color or British carshttp://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2006/11/british-racing-green.html
from 1903 when the British wouldn't allow the Gordon Bennett race to be held in Britain. Ireland was asked to hold the race on their roads, as a compliment to the Irish, all the English cars were painted a dark green.

Doung Nye wrote a good piece in 2005, with a different reason for the British cars green color, here is a part of it:
For decades, French racing cars were classically blue, German became silver, the Japanese were allocated white, and Italian racers wore red. At Montreal and Indianapolis, and in this country for the Goodwood Festival of Speed next weekend, the Renault campaigned by World Championship leader Fernando Alonso will be a pale blue flash, the challenging McLaren-Mercedes as driven by Kimi Raikonnen a streak of predominant silver, Jenson Button's re-emergent BAR-Honda is white, and the factory Ferraris will blaze by in fiery red.


The long years of national racing colours, with no overt advertising, crumbled in 1968 after motorsport's previous big-money backers - the international oil companies - slashed support. Non-motoring sponsors had to be found and the rule makers dropped opposition to on-car advertising. Colin Chapman immediately sold space on his Lotus cars to John Player for its Gold Leaf cigarette brand. Almost overnight, modern Grand Prix cars became mobile advertising hoardings.

Motor racing's first prescribed list of national colours had emerged for the 1900 Gordon Bennett Cup race. It was to be contested between teams of no more than three cars, representing each nation's motor industry.
This was outrageously unfair to the French, whose motor industry was by far the world's largest and most diverse, yet they were restricted to the same number as little Belgium... or emergent America. French discomfort led eventually to their replacing the Gordon Bennett Cup from 1906 with their own new race - the Grand Prix. Any manufacturer could race there, against the best.

In 1900 just four national colours were allocated: blue for France, yellow for Belgium, black for Germany, red for the United States. In 1901 the great capital-to-capital Paris-Berlin race saw wealthy British sportsman Charles Jarrott order a Panhard. The car was painted green... M. Clément gave me a reason for this. My number in the race was 13, because no one else would have it. But they had been struck with the happy idea of painting the car green (the French lucky colour) to nullify the unlucky number..."

The following year saw Jarrott's friend Selwyn Edge's Napier win the Gordon Bennett Cup for Britain. Napier had adopted green as its favoured livery, and between them British Racing Green became enshrined as this country's national racing colour.

French fortunes had collapsed under first the German racing colossus, then the Italians and British. After 1957 there were no French Grand Prix cars - until 40 years ago, in 1965, a young motorcyclist named Jean-Pierre Beltoise won the year's most important Formula 3 race, at Reims, driving a slender vehicle from a new French manufacturer, an offshoot of Matra aerospace. French blue Matra cars carried Jackie Stewart to his first World Championship in 1969, and later Graham Hill to Le Mans 24-Hours victory too.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/2735888/Colours-in-combat.html

Power in reserve

This is the gauge in the 8 yr old Rolls that moves counterclockwise from 100 to 0, the percent of what is left is the flip side of the RPM.

learned while watching Top Gear Season 2 Episode 2

Barracuda trivia stats, for the most desireable optioned ones, shaker hood, convertible, billboard stripes, 4 speed stick shift

in 1970 there were 29 convertibles with the 440 six pack, and 8 had the shaker hoodscoop
in 1971 there were 11 Hemi Cuda convertibles, and 5 had 4 speeds

least known way to score a Ferrari engine

Buy a Lancia Stratos. It had a 2.4 liter V6 Ferrari engine. Bertone coachbuilt the bodies.

It won the World Rally Championship 3 times.

They only made 500 for public sale

The Lancia 037 won the World Rally Championship, beating the Audi Quattro, and was the last 2 wheel drive to win the championship

The Lancia Fima 8.32 had the Ferrari V8 from the Ferrari Mondail and 308 . It was a 3.0 liter though, and he body was by PininFarina

Or if someone should stumble over a lost ASA 1000 Gt. Not going to happen, they were very very rare and were only built from 1963 to 1966. They cost 40% more than the nearest competitive car, the Alfa Giulia Sprint

334 manufacturers once made cars in New York

Nothing else to say about that. It's remarkable though.
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2010/12/20/just-another-garage-in-gotham

Finland

More rally champs (7) than any other country

more Formula One champions per capita than any other country
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/mar/10/formulaone17 and Top Gear Episode 74

same number of champions as Brazil, which has a population 40 times bigger. Even the UK, with eight champions, is four times less successful than Finland given its size

( Blue star mother / war mother ) flags proudly displayed by a Navy mom

I didn't know what it was for sure, but remember seeing something similar in old movies, so I looked it up to verify what I thought the blue star flag meant.

It's flown over the capitol building every Veterans day, and displayed in home front windows, and each blue star represents that a son or daughter is serving the country in the US military.

It was made during World War 1, and used a lot during WW2, but Korea and Vietnam weren't felt to be patriotic wars, and nothing military was quite as popular to associate with when the US went to war in foreign countries we hadn't been attacked by, so the flag became historic through disuse. Things change and public perception to the military reverted to patriotic after New York City was targetted on Sept 11th, 2001.

For history and more info on the blue star flag: http://www.homeofheroes.com/hallofheroes/1st_floor/flag/1bfb_disp9b.html

The first Ford exported from North America, went to South Africa

In September 1903 Mr Arthur Youldon of Johannesburg, an importer, was in New York where he saw Henry Ford demonstrate his new car. He immediately placed his order with
Henry Ford, who informed him that it would be the first Ford to be sold outside North America. The Ford Motor Company was founded earlier that year, on 16 June 1903.

The car only arrived in February 1904 in Port Elizabeth from where it had to be transported by train to Johannesburg. This car survived to this day and can be viewed at the Franschhoek Motor Museum in the Cape, which has a large display covering 100 years of motoring in SA

During July 1923 Mr Holmes and Mr H.F.A. Stockelbach visited the Ford factory
in Canada to investigate the possibility of starting an assembly plant in South Africa.

Due to preferential tax and duty applicable to Commonwealth Countries, it was
advantages to source the kits from the Canadian Ford factory rather than the USA.

This was realised in February 1924, when an old wool packing shed in Port
Elizabeth was used to start the assembly of the Ford Model Ts.

Info from http://www.dyna.co.za/cars.htm

The first car in the Southern Hemisphere

As early as 1896, in what is believed to have been the first car in the Southern
Hemisphere, Mr John Percy Hess of Pretoria made the decision to import
a Benz "Velo" from Benz & Co of Mannheim Germany to South Africa. During
the same year this car was shipped to Port Elizabeth and then transported to
Pretoria. It was the start of a business relationship which lead to Mr Hess
becoming the sole agent for Benz & Co in South Africa.

On Monday, January 4th at 4pm.1897 at Berea Park in Pretoria, in a widely
advertised event, Mr John Percy Hess first drove the car with a Mr A.E. Reno
(his business Partner and co-founder of the Pretoria News), and a Dr W.J. Leyds,
then State Secretary of the Transvaal, as passengers. President Paul Kruger
was also invited to ride on the car, but he preferred to just watch the event.

In honour of President Paul Kruger attendance a "vierkleur" flag was attached
to a pole on the carriage and a gold medal was minted to commemorate this
occasion. A large number of spectators who came to see this spectacle had to
pay an entrance fee of 2 shillings and 6 pennies.

The following week, the Benz was shown at the Wanderers in Johannesburg
and then sold to Mr A.H. Jacobs, a coffee importer. Every customer who
purchased 500g of coffee from his shop in Pritchard Street was allowed to see
his car. Unfortunately, some months later, this car was destroyed in a fire.

Info from http://www.dyna.co.za/cars.htm

Traffic lights, a brief bit of true but funny history

The above light is made for quick easy identification by anyone who can see shapes, or colors. Particularly in the case of color blind people.

The 1st traffic light ever made exploded, killing the cop that was operating the lever to direct it's light in the right direction. Jan 2nd 1869 was the day, and natural gas vapor was the source of the flame that made the lights visible... no electricity, nothing but a torch behind a colored lens.

The first traffic light in Ireland (1890's) was placed near the oldest pub in Europe (900 AD) because the first car in Ireland was owned by the pubs frequent patron, and he was Ireland's first drunk driver.

Photo and much more info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_light

But the best idea in traffic lights is a light that has a time indication of when it will switch to green http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/04/two-good-ideas-id-like-to-see-in-world.html

Betty Skelton, Duntov's test driver

found on http://corvettebrasil.blogspot.com/2011/04/test-driver-de-zora-arkus-duntov.html

But as Paul Harvey told us, you haven't heard the rest of the story!

Betty was fascinated with flying since childhood, and strove with incredible focus to be a pilot since age 12, getting her Civilian Air Authority private pilots license at age 16. In the next two years she was certified single and multi engine, land and sea, and at 18 got her Commercial Pilots License and in the next year was an instructor and the year after that, at age 20 was a major in the Civil Air Patrol and began her professional acrobatic career, also as a test pilot, and flew blimps, gliders, jets, and helicopters.

In '48, 49 and '50 she was the US Female aerobatic champion, and retired because there was no longer any challenge and she was exhausted from the constant touring, her plane "Li'l Stinker" is now part of the Smithsonian.

She set the high altitude record in 1950, and the speed record in a racing p51 Mustang.

In 1953 she was flying people around, and met Bill France who was having some racers flown to Daytona Beach, they became friends, and she drove a pace car in Feb 1954, then climbed into a Dodge and set the stock car speed record, which must not have been hard, she is likely the only woman at that time to drive one, and AAA certified her the first race drivers license for a woman

The National Aviation Hall of Fame reports that "Betty earned a total of four Feminine World Land Speed Records and set a transcontinental speed record."She competed in races across the Andes mountains in South America and drove the length of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. Betty set records at the Chelsea Proving Grounds and was the first woman to drive a jet car over 300 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats. She also set three women’s land speed records at the Daytona Beach Road Course, the last one being 156.99 mph in 1956. That same year, she broke Cannonball Baker's 40-year record for the Transcontinental Auto Race from New York to Los Angeles.

In 1956, she became an advertising executive with Campbell-Ewald and worked with General Motors on and in their TV and print ads. She was GM's first woman technical narrator at major auto shows, where she would talk about and demonstrate automobile features, later becoming official spokeswoman for Chevrolet. While Skelton was working with Chevrolet, she set numerous records with Corvettes, and owned a total of 10 models.

Between 1956 and 1957, Harley Earl and Bill Mitchell designed a special, translucent gold Corvette for Betty, which she drove to Daytona in 1957 to serve as the NASCAR pace car.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Skelton_Erde