Raymond's Site

CycleKarting is one of those motorsports that isn’t supposed to be about all-out competition, but nevertheless there’s an annual CycleKart Grand Prix in Tieton, Washington, every year, and the Chicane recently posted a couple videos of the action from this year’s races.

The last time we saw one of these crop up was about four years ago, and this 1956 SILA Bimboracer V-12 for sale on Hemmings.com has come along at an opportune time for anybody not sure what to put under the tree for their budding classic car aficionado. Particularly a little one who’s already been instructed in the appreciation and care of original, unrestored cars, ones with some patina for distinguishment and je ne sais quoi. From the seller’s description:

The fiberglass body is 66” long and supported by a strong steel chassis. The support is needed, as even without a battery the car weighs almost 100 lbs. It is 27” wide and 26” tall. The car has a range of about 3.5 hours at a maximum speed of 5-7 mph. The battery, placed behind the seats, provides 120 watts of power and can be recharged in about 10 hours. On the dashboard, there is a light switch that controls both the front and rear lights. The horn is placed at the center of an impressive and beautiful steering wheel. In the middle of the floorboard, there is a gearshift lever that can be set for three positions: forward, reverse or neutral. In addition, there is always a second lever that acts as a handbrake. The comfortable seat easily provides enough room for two children. In its operation, the driver always has the control and choice of two pedals, the accelerator on the right and brake on the left.

This hard-to-find example is very original and complete running condition, finished in Ferrari red over cream interior and has it original windscreen and floor mats. The car has had longtime ownership for the past 20+ years

To a certain group of British motorists, Christmas doesn’t so much hold the promise of holiday cheer, drinking eggnog, and unwrapping presents. Rather, the holiday – specifically Boxing Day – brings with it the Exeter Trial, better known as the London to Exeter and Back Winter Club Run, which the folks at Engine Punk are rather excited about this year.

* We all know by now that airbags were conceived of as a safety restraint before the Seventies, so why did it take almost 20 years for them to appear in American cars? The New York Times this week explored that question.

* These days, Marmons are known more as a luxury competitor for Cadillac and Packard, but Marmon’s legacy also includes many a technological innovation, such as the air-cooled engines the company experimented with in the 1900s. The Old Motor has more on the engines.

* One of the best pieces of automotive journalism this past week came from Raph at Jalopnik, who decided to track down the rumors and inconsistencies surrounding the genesis of the Saleen S7 supercar.

* Finally, Silodrome took a look at a fairly rare Brough motorcycle that added not just an inline four, adapted from the Austin four-cylinder engine, but also a third rear wheel.

U.S. Route 90. Photo by jbparrott.

It seems that everybody has either a plan to travel Route 66 one day or a story from a trip down the fabled Mother Road, given the number of responses to our recent story on the 90th anniversary of that ribbon of asphalt. But Route 66 is just one of many – dozens, if not hundreds – of roads that made up the original, pre-interstate U.S. highway system.

Take, for instance, U.S. Route 90, pictured above, which runs from Jacksonville to Van Horn, Texas; or U.S. Route 99, which runs up and down the Pacific Coast, and its Atlantic Coast counterpart, U.S. Route 1. Some of the original routes remain in use these days, but others have gone the way of Route 66 – replaced by interstates, decommissioned, and oftentimes forgotten.

But some of them can also make for road trips as epic as one on Route 66. Just ask frequent reader Don Homuth, who told us about his preferred Route 66 alternative:

Another much less well known old transcontinental highway is old US 10 from Chicago to Seattle. That had been pushed through and then finally paved all the way during WW2. It became The major route from industrial centers to the port areas that served the Pacific battles.

When I-94 came alone, much of it was sidelined and decommissioned. But the pavement is still there, as are the small towns the old highway went through en route. They are now mostly several miles off I-94, but are visible now and again from the superslab.

A bunch of it was dug up and paved over, and the original route is now the same as I-94.

Some of the segments are fairly long, and rather fun to drive. Used to be that was the only place where the old State Farm “Think” signs with the red X on them (to indicate past traffic fatalities) still stood. Last time I saw one of those still in place was about thirty years ago.

There are a bunch of old motels along the old route too, but most of them have either disappeared, been left to rot or have become low income housing for oil field workers. That won’t last long.

The longest stretches are in North Dakota, usually several miles to the south of the superslab. They are fun to drive on with a period-correct (think 50’s and 60’s — the last stretch of paved superslab in ND opened in the early 70’s a tad west of Tower City. ) Speaking of Tower City, that used to feature a 30 ft tower made of discarded oil cans, and on the old highway was a nice place to stop and take a photo on a family trip.

Two-lane, obviously. Lots of turns and twists, and few slopes save the ones down into river valleys.

There used to be another old highway in Minnyusoda — Old US 52 from Minneapolis to Fargo. Haven’t driven that one in years, but it still had the same two-lane road through towns that appear not to have changed much at all from the late 40’s and 50’s. (Well, maybe there’s a McDonald’s shows up now and then. Progress.)

Old roads are great, especially with old cars.

When my wife and I drove the partially restored 59 Cadillac across country from the Left Coast to northern MN in May 2012, we routed almost completely on old two-lane highways. Got to visit timeless towns, experience a long road trip the way it was then. (Blasting down the superslab is, to put it bluntly, boring any more.) It seemed somehow more appropriate to do it that way — that’s when the car was made, Before there were long superslabs going near everywhere. (And taking a sleeper on the train coming back was a great way to finish the trip.)

Kudos to those who are trying to keep Route 66 alive, and Kudos to those who would make the trip in period cars.

That said, what are your preferred non-Route 66 road trip highways? Which do you feel Route 66 overshadows, in terms of both popular culture representation and preservation efforts? Which ones offer just as many stunning vistas and authentic American experiences?

test

Continuing our dip into the Historic American Engineering Records overview of the Bronx’s Third Avenue El, we’ve got a look at either side of the 180th Street station, with cars parked on both sides and a couple buses providing that last mile and a film of road salt starting to eat away at everything in sight. Aside from the station that is no longer, what do you see here?

One fine candidate for driveable dream status is this 1973 Imperial LeBaron four-door hardtop for sale on Hemmings.com. It’s got a few cosmetic issues, a little rust, and a handful of power accessories to fix, but it’s also pretty solid throughout, complete, and was recently treated to a warmed-over 440. Looks to be roadworthy as-is, though it could easily benefit from a rolling restoration. From the seller’s description:

I have this car since 2010. A friend of mine bought it from an old lady (first owner) in Utah. He kept it for a couple of months and sold it to me. I’ve brought this car to life, but as I am moving from Utah I’ll have to sell it. The car runs strong a drives like a dream. This is a rare model called fuselage body. It’s hard to find this body in good condition. The car was never restored.

I’ve had the engine rebuilt following the 1969 440 specs, 375 HP. It has 9.8 CR, aluminum heads, Howard Cam (copy of 1969 OEM specs), new Holley 770 CFM vac sec carb, aluminum intake manifold and Roller rocker arms. Everything is new in the engine.

The A/C is working although the control in the dash is not. There’s a bypass switch to turn it on and off. New exhaust. New engine and transmission mounts, balanced driveshaft. New front suspension, new alternator, new battery, hideaway headlights fixed and working fine.

The clock is not working. The right mirror is not working. The left rear power window is not working. There’s some minor rust on back fenders and some very minor in the right front fender. There is some small tears on driver’s seat. I have tons of HD Pics that I can send through email. I’ll enclose 1 spare Hubcap, the original intake manifold and carburetor and the original valve covers.

Photos courtesy Mecum Auctions.

As lore has it, Dale Earnhardt was just about ready to hang up his helmet in 1974 and turn his back on racing for good when he got the opportunity to test a factory-built kit car Chrysler was developing. Encouragement from the Chrysler engineer on hand led Earnhardt to reconsider and go on to race professionally. The car he drove that day may very well be the kit car prototype headed to auction next month.

While Chrysler folded its factory stock car program after the 1972 season, it still had plenty of track tuning experience to capitalize on in the form of Larry Rathgeb. The engineer in charge of Chrysler’s race car development and one of the leads in the wing car program thus began work on an unusual proposition: a short track race car that customers could buy pretty much direct from Chrysler either in pieces or as a whole.

As with any short track car, getting the chassis right was of paramount importance, but to make the project feasible it needed to use as many off-the-shelf Mopar parts as possible, so Rathgeb specified an E-body front chassis section – with subframe rails spaced wider apart to allow a greater selection of engines – an A-body rear section, and plenty of tubing to tie the two together in either a 108-inch or 112-inch wheelbase. Slightly modified E-body torsion-bar front suspensions and A-body parallel leaf rear suspensions would then bolt directly to the chassis.

The kit would come in one of a handful of configurations, from basic chassis all the way up to a whole car, complete with wheels, tires, seat, sheetmetal, and Chrysler’s W2-head 650hp 355-cu.in. V-8. Prices ranged from $2,800 for the chassis to $10,000 for the turnkey car.

“It’s called a ‘kit car’ because anyone can purchase the packaged components and assemble them, just as youngsters put together scale models from a hobby shop kit,” Rathgeb said in a 1974 press release announcing the car. “All the right parts are in the kit, and directions are explained very simply in black and white. The buyer will be responsible for welding the parts and most will assemble their own engines. But, the beauty of the program is that we have taken the mystery out of building a stock car.”

At least one of the prototypes – including the one that Earnhardt drove during that testing session, according to SuperbirdClub.com – used a Dodge Challenger body. Some references to the kit car program claim that E-body sheetmetal was available for the production versions as well, but period ads and the catalog for the program only show Dodge Dart Swinger, Dodge Dart Sport, Plymouth Valiant Scamp, and Plymouth Duster sheetmetal. Chrysler tapped Richard Petty’s Petty Enterprises to distribute the kit cars – also known as Saturday Night Specials – and in that same press release Rathgeb noted that Chrysler hoped to supply the “thousands” of short track racers across the country, but the program fell flat: After Chrysler sold about 30 entire cars and about 100 kits, it pulled the plug.

According to an article from Circle Track magazine, the car headed to auction popped up for sale about 30 years ago wearing Dodge Mirada sheetmetal and had earlier worn Dart sheetmetal, but the restorer believed it had been one of the Challenger-bodied prototypes and thus chose to restore it as such. Mecum’s auction description notes that it comes equipped with a W2 355, four-speed, and Petty Enterprises 8-3/4-inch floater rear axle. The pre-auction estimate for the car ranges from $40,000 to $80,000.

Mecum’s Kissimmee auction takes place January 15-24. For more information, visit Mecum.com.