CLUNKBUCKET

In a time before nuts and bolts were packaged into useless plastic bags in never correct quantities, gathering fasteners was as easy as heading down to your auto parts or hardware store and just asking for a dozen M8 45 millimeter exhaust studs with a 1.25 thread pitch and matching copper pinch nuts. While there are some auto parts joints and fastener suppliers that still operate this way, many more have gone down the dark path of plastic bags and blister packs. As knowing is half the battle when it comes to finding the right fastener, the nut and bolt measuring gauge or screw checker is an indispensable item to have in the garage or pocket. The nut and bolt gauge also comes in handy when aluminum treads unscrew right along with the with the stud or bolt. After swearing up a storm and peeling away the aluminum, knowing exactly which Heli-Coil® or screw thread insert to get is foolproof thanks to the nut and bolt gauge. The good news is that some of the places that will still give you a brown paper lunch bag full of nuts and bolts will usually supply a gratis nut and bolt gauge with purchase. Measure it twice. Fasten it once. Or at least until it breaks again.

It’s that time of summer when the diffuse light and crisp sea air of the Monterey, California will play host to the viewing of the world’s finest automobiles pristine Mercury Bobcats and Chevrolet Citations. The seersucker and old-fashioned sipping bunch down at Pebble Beach could suffer an aneurysm if they ventured up the road from their storied event to the collection of cars and contraptions known as the Concours d’Lemons. A new feature for the second annual Monterey running of the event is the added enjoyment of a swap meet, or autojumble for the tweed cap and Triumph TR7 crowd. Minivans and the SUV are featured vehicles this time around. At last you no longer have to wonder where to go on August 14th in that mint 1990 Pontiac Trans Sport while dressed in full Lieutenant Commander Worf Klingon regalia. Stuff the cargo compartments full of Citroën 2CV parts and head to Toro Park in Monterey with great dispatch.

The Concours d’Lemons is scheduled for August 14th, 2010 at Toro Regional Park in Monterey. For more information head over to the Concours d’Lemons web site.

A day or two before any modern motorsports racing event, lumbering mega-trucks pull in and unfold into human-assisted race support giant robots. Empty parking lots are transformed in mere hours into a sea of trailers with satellite uplinks, spare parts, and very deep pockets to keep it all humming. This was not always the case. Phil Burgess over at NHRA Insider has assembled an excellent history of drag racer and master showman TV Tommy Ivo’s towing rigs, featuring words and photos from none other than TV Tommy Ivo himself. Before dreaming up and building the glass-sided rolling display trailers he made famous, Ivo towed his dragsters behind his own cars, which included a few sweet Cadillacs, a stylish Buick wagon, and a Buick Riviera! Head on over to NHRA Insider for the trailers that helped make the Ivo famous, the storied adventures of Tarzan, and how Don “The Snake” Prudhomme once washed his hair with motor oil.

MORE: Tommy’s Towing Toys and Ramp Truck Ramblings at NHRA Insider.

From the captive import department of our long-term corporate relationships division comes this Dodge Colt four-door sedan. Under a mild job of Dodge re-branding, this compact sedan is a purebred Mitsubishi Colt, and an early example of a corporate manufacturing partnership that lasted for over thirty years. As has, evidently, this Dodge Colt. Rally-equipped Mitsubishi versions of the Colt were famously driven to victory by Joginder “The Flying Sikh” Singh and his brother Jaswant in 1974 and 1976 East African Safari Rally, proving the mighty Colt did indeed possess maximum durability.

A rear-drive Dodge Colt is rarely seen on the road today at all, let alone one that looks as if it drove off the showroom floor at the Chrysler Dodge Plymouth Import Center only a few weeks earlier. Rust does not sleep, which made the oddest thing about this well-preserved Dodge Colt sedan not the Chihuahua-sized sombrero on the dashboard, but the Michigan plates it was wearing. Not a single spot of the usual road-salt induced rust common to old buckets from the rust belt and north eastern states was visible on this Colt. Roll on rust-free captive import Colt. Roll on.

Because the mighty Starlet often gets mistaken for a Tercel, we bring you this first generation Toyota Corolla Tercel sedan. Not one but two generations of Tercel were sold alongside the Starlet’s four short years in the USA, with the second generation three-door hatchback version appearing to be the primary source of model confusion. The Starlet is not a Tercel for many reasons, the single most important of which is the Starlet employs rear-wheel drive for propulsion. This is important. As Hamilton said to Spicoli and pals in Fast Times at Ridgemont High: Learn it. Know it. Live it. Starlet.

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A 413 cubic inch big block Mopar wedge and modern aerodynamics are two good things to have when it comes time to hit the road behind the wheel of a house. This Travco 270 has not just one, but both these attributes. The Travco was originally marketed as a self-powered, self-contained, complete home-on-wheels. The sixties-era Travcos were indeed a groundbreaking vehicles, incorporating now commonplace recreational vehicle features such as central air conditioning, on board electrical generation, and Space Age fiberglass construction. All of this and more was molded into a modern design and set atop readily available Dodge truck chassis, with one version of the Travco easily holding the best name ever title for a mopowered motorhome. The Dodge Mahal.

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This is not the the first time for rear engine air-cooled Czechoslovakian automobiles and contraptions around here. First there was the Tatra. For motoring across the vast snow-covered plains of Mother Russia, a purpose-built Tatra snowmobile. Ham and eggs for breakfast near Chinatown in Los Angeles? Time for yet another, modern Tatra 603. This is, however, a first for authentic Czech goulash and Tatra-shaped cookies in celebration of Tatra. With the exception of the Tatra snowmobile, the aforementioned Tatras and more were in attendance at a party in honor of Los Angeles Tatra historians and restorers Paul Greenstein and Dydia DeLyser taking the coveted New York Times Collectible Car of the Year Contest win with the Tatra – their gorgeous 1941 Tatra T87. The Blue Star Cafe played host to the party, served up the authentic Czech food, a T87 shaped cake, a Tatra motorcycle and sidecar that never was, and saw the surprise appearance of a Tatraplan. The four-cylinder beauty motored down from Hrad Von Greenstein under its own power for the big celebration by burning a combination of antique gasoline and distilled spiders. Fun was had by all.

A special thanks to Paul, Dydia, Harpo the wonder dog, the mighty Tatra T87, and the Blue Star Cafe for making all this fun possible.

This 1937 Delahaye Type 145 V12 Grand Prix racer is also known by its more famous moniker – The Million Franc! In an an effort to best records set by German and Italian Grand Prix machines, French leadership and the Automobile Club of France announced The Prix du Million, with a grand prize of one million Francs to the first French race car to best the standing track record at the Montlhery. The car had to use the 1938 Grand Prix rulebook in order to to take the win. With Rene Dreyfus behind the wheel the Delahaye 145 set the record, averaging 90 mph and change over two hours, and wearing the Dunlops down the the cords in the process. Alfa Romeo, Auto Union, and Mercedes Benz were no longer riding the top of the Grand Prix heap. Dreyfus the Delahaye 145 became the focus of French nationalistic fervor after setting the new the record. The Million Franc didn’t stop there.
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