Antique & Classic Cars Blog

If you grew up watching the cartoon and making the noises, e.g., chuk-yoong-yoong-yoong (automatic jack sound, puts the car in flight–oft heard at 24 Atterbury Drive, Malvern, PA in the 1970s), you’re gonna love this:

51 Episodes, free. Caught one last night.

The hardcore set will understand this tidbit:

“Melange still races…..”

(The show says the name comes from Napolean’s horse, but my 5 minutes of Googling indicates Napolean’s favorite horse was named Marengo. I’ll write that off as a translation error–perish the thought there are any factual errors in one of the defining shows of the 1970s.)

A reader emailed on the Marquis deSoto, ruminating on whether the complete Mercury was still under there. This prompted a little detective work on this cool car. The NYT piece describes it as a ‘98 Mercury Marquis blended with a ‘57 deSoto and 10 other classic cars.

Here’s what I see so far:  it looks like the interior, top, front doors, mirrors and rockers are (mostly) Mercury. The center of the hood looks Mercury too. Then what do we have?

‘58 Lincoln headlights

Dagmar portion of a ‘56 Caddy front bumper

‘57 DeSoto fins, lights, back bumper and trunk lid

‘57 Buick bodyside chrome trim and portals

Anything else stand out for anyone?

Humans are built funny. It’s hard to kick as high as someone else’s face. But it’s easy to put your foot in your own mouth.

My wife had a shoe-leather tasting opportunity yesterday on a roadtrip to St. James, Minn., in Watonwan County. There is a pork plant there whose unmistakable aroma permeates the air.

She’s working as a special assistant state public defender and was in the town, her first ever visit, for some hearings. As she parked and got out, the DOJ hearing officer and supervised release agent were on the sidewalk.

The first words from her mouth were, “Do you smell bacon?” They were standing directly in front of the sheriff’s office.

“It always smells like that,” one of them said. Good thing, too.

It’s such a distinctive smell, and therefore such an obvious remark, you can bet officers occasionally have fun messing with new visitors.

Officer Sternlook: “What did you just say?”

Hapless Visitor:  “Uh… never mind.”

Snow emergency!!!

If you live in the Twin Cities, don’t forget amid shoveling, ice removal, and finding any pets you may have left outside to PUT YOUR CAR ON THE PROPER SIDE OF THE STREET.

The last snow emergency from a few days ago (see post a few down) cost me–and lots and lots of others–money and time. The tickets on my wife’s and my car were time stamped 8:02 and 8:03.

Money’s tight and the cities are motivated! They’ll be inviting hundreds of people to the impound lot over the next 48 hours. Don’t let your name be on that list!

You gotta see it to believe it.

The Marquis deSoto (and other inventions from a New York artist). Check the slide show. Fun stuff.

A few posts down are some model cars from the World of Wheels. Models are fun because you can make them your own. The same applies to full-size cars and motorcycles–part of the reason enthusiasts love them and maybe something those who don’t understand the whole into-cars or into-bikes thing fail to grasp.

The fact that a car is a huge hunk of metal mostly built by multi-million or -billion dollar companies doesn’t mean there isn’t room for unique styling from one or two people with a garage, a torch, a welder, an air compressor, a spray gun.

Here are three totally unique takes on the basic car and motorcycle theme. They look like nothing else on the road and didn’t require Detroit or Japan to handle the details. These machines emerged from their builders’ minds.

For many people, a car or a motorcycle is a way to get to work. For these folks it’s an opportunity to express something unique. Not a bad hobby, eh?

Living in the Minneapolis city limits has many benefits–access to the beautiful parks and trails for one, views of the skyline, quick transit to any of the excellent food, music, beer, theater, comedy and art venues scattered throughout the place, plus short commutes for downtown work.

But snow emergencies go in the other column on the pros/cons sheet.

The city will make some money today because it’s lulled us into a sense of complacency by not declaring snow emergencies for several prior storms as big as yesterday’s.

Still, when your phone rings and the caller ID displays a neighbor’s name you’re not expecting to hear from at 8:15, you pick it up. And when he tells you a nice man is backing his flatbed up to your truck, action is the thing you spring into.

What you’re wearing, whether you’ve showered or combed your hair, who’s watching and what they’re going to say, all recede to the farthest reaches of significance.

When my ringing phone had my neighbor Don’s name displayed, and he provided the previous information, I bolted out the door sockless, jacketless, and 90% witless—but the ten percent I took was enough to convince Mr. Tow to let my Dakota go. Which is key because nothing–nothing at all–spoils a day like standing around the impound lot waiting to part with 200 bucks so you can have your vehicle back to stick it ten feet from where it was three hours earlier, pointing the other direction.

So another benefit of city living–neighbors who are up, alert, and ready to spare you a lot of wasted time and money. Thanks Don!

“Wouldn’t it be cool if….” How many inventions get underway with this simple inquiry?

Because most cars today are not handmade but mass produced by the thousands or millions, the car-loving driver is always on the lookout for ways to make the 89,452nd one produced look unique.

Wheels are one obvious way, with “big” being the operative term in recent years. The wider the rim, the lower the tire’s profile until eventually you can’t really tell one type of tire from another… until somebody at Michelin said, “wouldn’t it be cool if…”

Their see-through tires have a bit in common with a spoked wheel in that there is ample space to look through when the tire is still. Set it in motion and the open spaces blur together, all but erasing the supportive components from view.

Will also be cool when someone makes a tire the other sort of see-thru, where we look directly through a translucent material, rather than between tire components–i.e., a tire of translucent rubber. Tire chemists will no doubt come up with one, if they haven’t already. The trick will be making all of the tire’s components in look-through material.

These Michelin meats were developed several years ago. Haven’t seen any on the road yet, nor some searching on their site pull them up. More R&D must lie between “wouldn’t it be cool” and market release.

(Thanks to jb for bringing up these unusual tires.)

When the aisles get crowded, it’s nice at a big show like World of Wheels to duck into one of the smaller displays. Few in the gearhead camp didn’t build a few models before the bucks and the space came along to wrench full-size.

Here’s a few samples that were onhand in St. Paul. I like the road dust on the windshield of this tow truck…

The old-school design of this hot rod (reminds me of the hobby-store offerings from the 1970s)…

This collection because it’s got a number of nice models within…

And this assortment. (It’s a cool accident of the photograph that the vehicles in the background, left, look like real cars.)

In a prior post, we showed a Ural motorcycle and sidecar out for a cold winter spin. I had said it was a driven-wheel sidecar and Paul asked if I was sure.

This rider is rugged, so I found the bike again by Diamond’s Coffee Shop on Central Ave. This Ural is a powered-sidecar model. Pictured is the driveshaft arrangement from the motorcycle to the sidecar wheel.

There was another bike there this visit–a 1944 Harley Davidson WLA, stilled owned and ridden by its original buyer. Its sidecar is the typical non-powered kind.