E N D L E S S R O A D
Road Chatter XLIII Shop: 304-274-5074 FAX: 304-274-5076 snipped-for-privacy@aol.com
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" IN THIS ISSUE
- Grammar Problems
- Car Trivia Questions
- Grand Prix in DVD
- Give Away
- Formula 1
- Bits and Pieces
- Car Trivia Answers
- 10% Off Purchases For Your Trivia Questions
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Grammar Problems Because of how various browsers treat special characters such as apostrophes and quote marks, dots, we use as few special characters as possible. We apologize for the grammatical errors this causes.
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Car Trivia (answers are later in this email)
1) Think Small was the 60s era slogan for what automaker?
2) The designers had finished the next model to be produced, when word came down that the engineers could not have it ready for production in time; the current model would have to be freshened up and used for one more year. The American giant knew their biggest competitor would have a completely new model of their own, but it was nothing they could do. The designers reluctantly dragged out the current model and worked it over. The headlights were hooded to give the impression of jet engine intakes, and holes were punched in the hood. The expensive model also got a slab of ribbed chrome on the side. To make the car look bigger, the headlights were pushed as far apart as possible. The grille was stretched to the edges of the car. Rear fenders were pulled back and tapered along the top to become low stylish fins, then stretched back as far as they dared. So, how did this poor tarted-up re-do fare in the market place?
3) Sam Hornish just won the Indy 500 at the age of 26. He beat out Marco Andretti by .0635 seconds. Who is the youngest winner of the Indianapolis
500?
4) The Big Three manufacturer had their new little sporty car all ready for production. It was sure to have every car lovers attention; it was under-powered, but sure a looker. They had named it EX 122. But, by the time it was introduced the name had been changed to . . . what?
5) STP, that omnipresent red, white and blue sticker, it does wonderful things in engines. I am sure it does; all those famous guys say it does. But, just what does STP mean?
--- Retreads --- These next three questions are from over two years ago. If you remember them from before, consider this a memory test.
6) In the 60s, everyone was cramming large engines in smaller cars, and this corporate mid-price arm had done the same. They knew Ford and Chevrolet were coming out with new versions of their own muscle cars, and they felt their entry was getting long in the tooth. They needed to do something. The solution was to use their existing car, add graphics and extra horsepower. It was decided the name would be ET, for Elapsed Time. But, at the last minute, the boss changed it. We all know it now as . . . what?
7) It was two buggy springs tied down with a freight chain for a shock absorber, a rough, crude thing. I never liked to drive em myself. Who said it, and what car was he talking about?
8) When Pontiac built a faster, more aggressive version of their Firebird, they named it the Trans Am. But, that was not their first choice. What was the Trans Am originally going to be named?
And the last two are from four years ago.
9) One of the best modifications for the Ford Model T was a Frontenac head; one variation had twin overhead chain-driven cams and four valves per cylinder. Frontenac is not a familiar name in racing now, but we all know the family name of the three brothers who created it. What is it?
10) How about an easy one? What GM automobile name translated from Spanish as Floating Bull?
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- Grand Prix in DVD
At last, Grand Prix is being released on DVD! This film was shot the right way. A crew followed the Grand Prix teams for an entire season, filming at every track. The story is good, the scenery is fantastic, and the racing is a mixture of realistic and real. John Frankenheimer directed; James Garner, Eva Marie Saint and Yves Montand are the main characters, with many driving greats also in the cast. The three hour film was so long that when it ran in theatres, there was an intermission.
This is real international racing in the mid-60s, just before wings and aerodynamics arrived. The enthusiast will recognize some of the best names in Formula 1 in the scenes, including Graham Hill, Jack Brabham, Dan Gurney, Phil Hill, even Fangio himself. You will taste real racing, the closest Hollywood has ever achieved. There are 22 real Formula 1 cars in action and in the pits, including Ferraris, BRMs, Lotuses, McLarens, Brabhams and an Eagle. A Ford GT40 and a 427 Cobra were modified for use as camera cars. If you know this movie, you know you want it on DVD. It is a Two-Disk set with many extras. Time: 2 Hours 59 Minutes.
It will retail at $20.95, but any pre-orders we receive before its release date of July 11th will be at $14.95. Order now and we will ship it to you the morning of July 11th.
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- Give Away
Our regulars know that last month, we were giving away a $30 Gift Certificate from Endless Road. We are happy to say the winner this month was Kris from Fort Worth.
Again this month, for every purchase our regular Road Chatter recipients make, we will put their names in our drawing, and the person whose name is drawn will receive a $30 Gift Certificate from Endless Road.
Good Luck.
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Formula 1
The new qualifying procedure in F1 forces the cars to start the race with the same amount of fuel as they qualified with. To meet this rule, the teams start the last qualifying session with up to full tanks, then, to lower the weight, they will run laps to burn off almost all of the fuel before putting in their hottest qualifying laps. Does anyone else see the irony in this? During the world fuel crisis, with the cost of oil at its highest, the most expensive cars in the world are forced to cruise around burning off gallons of very expensive fuel.
2006 Schedule
June 11 Great Britain, CBS taped June 25 Montreal July 2 Indianapolis July 16 France July 30 Germany August 6 Hungary August 27 Turkey Sept. 10 Italy Sept. 17 Belgium Oct. 1 China Oct. 8 Japan Oct. 22 Brazil
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- Bits and Pieces
Do not get rid of your VHS machines; there are many great racing videos that are available on VHS tape and not scheduled to be put on DVD.
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"There are only three true sports: mountain climbing, bull fighting and auto racing; the rest are just games."
Ernest Hemingway
Apparently, Ernest never watched a motorcycle race.
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The last few months, we have had a MY FAVORITE CAR story here. This month, our story is by our friend, Rodger. You may remember his story of racing his Dodge Charger 440. This month, Rodger recalls his Jaguar E-Type coupe.
In late winter of 1977, when gas was at the unheard-of price of about $0.70/gallon, I began looking for a Toy Car to replace my 7-mpg 1968 Dodge Charger R/T. I sold the Charger to a brother-in-law (who within two months resold it for $1000 more than it had cost him), and I went looking for another car.
I began looking for "classic" Sting-Ray 1963-1967 Corvettes. One evening, as my wife and I were driving, we spied an E-Type Jaguar cruising along. That started me looking for an E-Type.
A friend, Dave Best, had recently purchased an E-Type, a dark-green 1969 coupe with 4.2 liter DOHC (dual overhead cam) hemi (who knew?) six cylinder. Dave, being a very practical person, soon decided that he was not the Sportscar Type and asked if I wanted the car. That seemed like an excellent opportunity, and I was soon the owner of the E-Type.
Problems set in immediately. At a traffic light on the way home, a camper-truck backed into me. I took the car to a shop that did all the bodywork for the local Jag dealer. The original paint was stripped, and the body was redone in a dark green. At the time, I was too naïve in things Jaguar to know this was not British Racing Green (BRG), but some odd dark-green metallic paint.
Time passed, and, in 1978, we moved back to Rochester, NY. The Jag was shipped on the van, and arrived almost undamaged. We enjoyed the car during the spring, summer, and fall and put it to bed in the winters. You do not want to get salt into the boxwork of that body. Since we had always put the Charger to bed in the winter, that was not an issue.
The years went by, and driving the Jaguar to work began to take its toll. Eventually, I took the Jag to Dennys Coachwork in Macedon, NY, to see about a doll-up. I then learned that the paint was not BRG, and there was not any way that Denny could match the paint. We decided to go with a red paint from an early 70s Chevelle, richer looking than Jaguars red.
The car was finished just in time for a car show in Victor, NY, at that time the largest one-day show in the Northeast, and I was delighted with the job. An E-Type is a neat looking car to begin with, but the red car was so much more eye-catching than the green version; it was absolutely stunning.
The car-show bug bit hard very soon. Anyone who has ever tried to clean the engine compartment of an E-type Jag knows that the space-frame construction surrounding the engine is a major effort to clean and keep clean. The underhood area had been blasted with a rust-resistant black coating, which I ended up removing. Lots of work.
The stock E-Type exhaust manifold porcelain coating burns off relatively quickly. But, for shows, it needs to look NEW. Keeping the new look took quite a bit of time and money for a number of years. I eventually replaced the entire system with a stock-looking stainless steel system. Yearly, I would power polish it with Simichrome. That really made the system shine.
Over the years, we put the Jag in several shows in upstate NY: the Victor Classic Car show, Buffalo Jaguar club, Hilton Apple Festival show, Brockport show, and others. The car collected a variety of trophies, ranging from first place to third place, depending on the competition. I even judged a number of the shows, including the Victor show.
In 1994, my job sent us to Columbia, MD. Once again, we loaded the car onto the moving van. Getting the E-type back off the van was a challenge; they ended up bringing in a tilt-bed tow truck, transferring the Jag onto the bed of the tow truck, and then lowering the Jag onto the street.
Once in MD, I joined the local Jaguar club, the Nations Capital Jaguar Owners Club.
I regularly attended their meetings and concours, as well as a number of other shows (especially enjoying British Car Day in Bowie, MD).
And, that is where I finally put the Jag up for sale. It went to a gentleman whose wife wanted to give him an E-type for their wedding anniversary. I shed several tears on the way to the bank with that check. At the present time, the only Jaguars I own are diecast models in several scales. Some of those models I even bought at Endless Road.
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If you have fond memories of one of your fine machines and would like to tell us about it, send us your story, and, when we use it, you will have your pick of any one item we have on our web.
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Michael Turner is known by many auto-racing enthusiasts for his exciting automotive art. We had the honor of selling some of his Watkins Glen Formula
1 posters. Sadly, ours are all sold out. We have received this note from one of our readers:
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I have 1969-1977 Watkins Glen Posters. Nine in all. These were given to us about 15 years ago. We were told they were suppose to have been used for promotional purposes, yet were never given out. Each poster has a written description of what is going on in the poster. They are in mint condition. I believe 20"x28" in size.
...
If you are interested, send us an email and we will forward your note to him.
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Last issue, Jeff H sent this note:
I remember a movie way back in the early 70s that was almost all car-chase. I cannot remember the name, and I have been looking for years. I have asked several movie buffs and several motor heads and no one has been able to help. Your section in your latest newsletter sparked the interest again, and maybe you can tell me. As I remember, there was a white 70-73 Camaro, a 69 Road Runner with the vacuum hood scoop, and a wicked little Gremlin. I thought Steve McQueen was in it, but his web site mentions nothing of it. I really dont think it is a figment of my imagination, but who knows. Can You Help?
Within half an hour, two of our friends and customers, Brenda and Edwin, sent us notes telling us that the film is Brewster McCloud. Jeff, I am afraid that I can not find Brewster McCloud on the wholesale market. Hopefully, you can find it on Ebay. And Brenda and Edwin, remember the next time you order, you both will receive 10% off your complete order.
Thanks to both of you, and thanks to Jeff for asking.
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This month, Bob sent this note about a movie he is looking for. Does anyone remember the name of this?
.. Do you know the movie that was about a guy who had a Formula one car hidden under the floor because cars were forbidden? The story took place in the future. He had a pump, so that when he would go to an abandoned gas station, he would pump the gas out of the main tank. The movie came out in the 70s. Please help me identify this movie.
..
And, here is a note from another reader looking for a movie:
There is a movie I am trying to figure out. I want to get it. In the beginning of the movie, a guy builds a race car in his basement, bringing it up piece by piece. I think it was early 80s or late 70s; please let me know.
If you let us know the name of either movie, you will receive 10% off your next complete order.
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On June 17, an unprecedented number of unlicensed, underage drivers will race down Capitol Hill. The Washington Soap Box Derby, with the largest field in decades, will celebrate its 65th run on Saturday, June 17, beginning at 8:30 a.m.
More than 60 area racers between the ages of eight and 17 years of age, a 50 percent increase over last years field, will put their motorless machines to the test in one of Americas most enduring summer pastimes.
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Two of our favorite license tags this month:
A driver that wanted people behind him to know what they were following:
VOLVO
And a driver that wanted people in front of him to know what was following them:
ATOYOT
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Car Trivia Answers
1) Think Small was the 60s era slogan for Volkswagen.
2) The cobbled-up rush-job car did pretty well. What the designers produced was the 1957 Chevrolet; it has become an icon of the 50s, often selling for twice as much as its sister 1955 - 1956 models. This explains why the 1958 Chevy body style only lasted one year.
(Thanks to Robert Cumberford, July Automobile Magazine.)
3) Troy Ruttman was 22 years and 80 days old when he won the 36th Indy 500 on May 30, 1952.
4) GM changed their little cruiser from EX 122 to Corvette, and the rest is history.
(Thanks to Car and Drivers Car a Day calendar. Hey, I gotta get these questions where-ever I can find them!)
5) STP was originally a Studebaker product. When Studebaker folded in 1963, their product, Studebaker Top Performance went out on its own as STP.
(Thanks to my brother, Don, for this one.)
--- Retreads ---
6) In 1969, at the last minute, John Delorean decided to change the name on his updated GTO, not to ET, but to The Judge. Naming it after a popular phrase from TVs Laugh In. (From Speed Channels Dream Car Garage.)
7) In 1985, when Carroll Shelby told Road & Track magazine: It was two buggy springs tied down with a freight chain for a shock absorber, a rough, crude thing. I never liked to drive em myself. he was speaking of the Cobra. Of course, he was working for Chrysler when he said it. Now that he is tight with Ford again, he may not remember that statement.
8) The Firebird Trans Am was originally going to be called Sebring, but Chrysler / Plymouth already owned the rights to that name. However, they were not the first to name a car after the famous Florida track; Maserati had a beautiful coupe sporting the name Sebring from 1962 to 1966.
(Thanks to our friend, Patrick.)
9) The Frontenac heads that made Fords so fast were designed by Louis Chevrolet and his two brothers. This was the same Louis Chevrolet who was the namesake of one of Fords biggest competitors.
10) What GM automobile name translated from Spanish as Floating Bull? The Toronado. I don't think GM did that on purpose, but it is not as bad as their Chevy's model Nova, that can be loosely translated to mean will-not-go.
(I found the Olds part in a Trivial Pursuit game.)
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10% Off Purchases For Your Trivia Questions
To Patrick, thanks for the trivia question. Remember, you will receive a 10% discount on your next order.
Send us an interesting fact on just about anything on wheels: cars, trucks, F1, Drags, Muscle Cars, weird obsolete car thingies, whatever, and, if we use it, then you get 10% off all purchases on everything on your next order.
*** Thanks,
Dave Payne