In this Issue:
Big Boys Toys
Tucker Torpedo |
Calendar Girl Contest!
$1000 Grand Prize |
|
Classic Car Community is looking for the next Classic Car Calendar Girl.
This contest is open to all members. Submit your poses with your favorite classic and you could be chosen to represent your community on the first of many calendars to com ... more
|
| Best Ride Contest!!! |
|
Think you have the best wheels on the road? Well put your classic car up to the test in the Community's
Best Ride Contest. Submit a story stating why you think your ride rules the rest and you'll be entered to win a $500 gas card.
Sign up here.
|
|
Big Boys Toys
The other day my uncle from the great white north sent me a link to a video of a pretty cool toy. You can check it out on the home page of my site. Basically, it is the best amphibious car that has ever been made. The company claims a 0 to 60 time of 4.5 seconds and the quarter mile is reached in 12 seconds. One word comes to mind…freaking awesome. Ok, two words. So, why did I choose to write about this vehicle? It’s not about the car, or the attention, or the lovely ladies that climbed into the car (watch the video). It’s about how this vehicle was built. In other words, builders in the past tried to make a car that floats, instead of making a boat that drives. What’s the difference? I’ll show you.
First a story. Years and years ago my family lived on the fourth floor of a building in Toronto. My brother and I were sick and tired of lugging my sister’s stroller up and down 4 stories. So, we decided to use a pulley that was mounted in the back of the building to haul the stroller up like a crane. We had to get a rope long enough to make it up to the fourth floor and then back down. Here’s the fun part.
My brother was 10 and I was 8, so we were still learning the intricacies of the world. We needed to get the rope up four stories of the building and then through the pulley and then back down. So, my brother went up to the first landing, I tied a rock to the end of the rope and threw it up to my brother. Almost putting his eye out, it took about 3 tries before he caught it. I then ran up to the second landing and he would toss the rock from the first to the second landing. Well, I missed the first toss and it went all the way back down to the first floor. After about an hour and a half of throwing this thing up and down the building, we finally got the rope up to the top of the fourth landing. Immediately when we made it to the top we realized that we could have just brought the entire rope up to the top floor and drop it down to the first floor. To sum up, we felt like idiots. We were going bottom up, when we should’ve been going top down. I know what you’re thinking, “Joseph, you’re drunk again!” I am, but let me explain.
All these years, man has been converting cars in to boats, when it looks like the smarter option was to convert a boat in to a car. The point of this article is to work smarter and not harder and that there is more than one way to skin a cat…whatever that means. Take a look at the site of this amphibious car, www.watercar.com and you will see what I’m talking about.
Here are five tips that I have learned over the years that might help you with your restoration. First, always finger tighten everything. Second, learn about templates and pilot holes. Third, the right tools DO make a difference. Fourth, stop, look, analyze and learn. And finally, it takes just as much time (and money) to do the job right than to do it wrong.
Remember, the glass can be half full or half empty. The choice is up to you. Me, I would drink the rest and fill that bad boy up to the rim!
Tucker Torpedo
Along the same line of working smarter and not harder, Preston Tucker built a pretty cool car back in 1948. I think I have only seen one in my life at a museum somewhere and rarely do we see one come up for auction. Well, Russo & Steele is auctioning off the only convertible (prototype) that Tucker made. According to their site, there were only 2 made, but were never completed. Years later somebody completed and is now one of the rarest cars in the world. If it is truly the Tucker convertible, my guess is $1,140,000. What’s your guess? Whoever guesses closest to the actual price without going over, wins their name in lights!
|
