CLUNKBUCKET

Pedro Ramirez bought this yellow 1968 Javelin in 1978. Over thirty years later the AMX rolls as a time capsule of how a car owner would mod out a pony car ten years after it rolled off the assembly line. While the engine and mechanicals have been gone through a few times over the years, the car remains largely as it was purchased from a co-worker in late seventies. Pedro first saw the Javelin while working for Manuel’s Auto Body in Bakersfield, California. The car was driven into work everyday by one of the painters at the shop, and Pedro had his eye trained on the louver-backed four-speed Javelin from day one.
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Driving along Vermont state highways one is likely to witness the majesty of the Green Mountains while curving down around rivers and creeks into bucolic small towns. Either that or a giant gorilla holding up a Volkswagen beetle. This particular Gorilla guards the used car lot at Pioneer Auto Sales on State Route 7 in Brandon, Vermont. While inflatable gorillas are a common site at automobile and mattress dealers alike, this ape is made of reinforced concrete. The primate has been standing at this very spot since being sculpted from an idea into bug-hoisting existence by T.J. Neil in 1987. Read the rest of this entry »

The Champion Speed Shop 1934 Ford pickup truck is a running legend of hot rod history. Champion Speed Shop founder Jim “The Smiling Irishman” McLennan built the truck for his son Bob McLennan, who now owns and frequently operates the supercharged Chevy powered truck. Not so long ago an opportunity arose to drive this piece of history from South San Francisco to Bakersfield and back again. The mission was clear. Get the truck to Bakersfield for use as a tow vehicle for the Champion Speed Shop top fuel dragster at Dragfest. What’s it like to drive a 1934 Ford truck with a 400 horsepower blown small block Chevy under the bonnet? Soulful, fast, and hot. Read the rest of this entry »

No matter how fancy or expensive a car is in the beginning, the good majority of the production run will almost always end up as junk. This is a good thing. Those that continue to drive any sort of aging classic will need parts, so the wheels don’t fly off and the engine won’t catch fire. For these and many more reasons the automobiles is one of the most recycled consumer products on the planet. Some of these parts are more desirable than others. Self-service junkyards are not often stocked with rows of Porsches, so when we spied a lineup of partially dismantled 928 and 944 shells while driving about in the Starion we had to stop and investigate. Where do Porsches go to get recycled into other Porsches? Parts Heaven of course. The guys in the showroom were cool enough to give us a walk through of the collected results of being in the Porsche parts business since 1984. We now know who to call when it comes time to get a front engine rear-drive German progenitor of the Mitsubishi specialty sports coupe.

More: Parts Heaven in Hayward, California

From the flagship of the fleet department is this Chrysler Newport seen on the side of the road with an asking price of a mere four hundred dollars. The 1971 Newport heavy has a 383 big block connected to a an apparently blown up TorqueFlite automatic transmission. The scrawled message on the side glass says the big block does indeed run. Even with a toasted transmission, that’s still only one hundred bucks per door, and just pennies over a dollar per cubic inch of V8 mopower! Those Newport fans traveling along West Winton avenue in Hayward, California are advised to keep their eyes peeled for acres of beige sheet metal complete with rust. The Ministry and Iron Maiden decals on the rear window are either an indication of previous owners musical preferences, or a telling omen that this Newport shall rock once more.

When it comes to getting it right forever, there are few machines more awesome then the 1971 Ford Bronco known as Big Oly. Marshall Madruga certainly agrees. It took him two years to put this truck together as as a passionate tribute to the original Bill Stroppe Big Oly, driven by Parnelli Jones to greatness in the Baja 1000. Marshall started with a piece of a 1971 Ford Bronco and built this trophy truck around it. The section of frame is still there somewhere. Thanks to the original Bronco bit and corresponding VIN, the truck is street legal and registered in the state of California! The rest of the truck is ready to for display at this year’s Baja 1000, right after hanging out at the Bilstein booth here at SEMA. Marshall plans on running the truck in the upcoming National Off Road Association 1000, which begins on April 28 2010, and is set to run a rally the original 1968 route. Parnelli Jones himself is ready to drive with Marshall off the starting line in Mexicali. Welcome back Big Oly.

More: Big Oly from BajaBronco.com

Long before the Car Allowance Rebate System prematurely doled out billions for OK and used up automobiles alike, cars and trucks that outlasted their useful purposes met a natural dismantled end at the junkyard. A few chosen junkers of the highest order sidestep this recycling time line for a last go in the name of entertainment. Any automobile that makes a final pre-junkyard appearance at a thrill show, rollover contest, or smash-up derby, forever holds a unique slot in the pantheon of great automotive achievements. In this case a Ford Econoline van is shown doing its best to entertain a cheering crowd while chained to the back of a jet-powered dragster. Victory, Econoline.

More: 40th Annual Governor’s Cup Championship at Sacramento Raceway Park

Technology and modernism were to have saved us all from mundane toil a long time ago. Postmodernism brought with it ongoing complications, leaving many pipe smokers sitting in their Eames lounge chairs puzzled, and wondering what the hell happened. Back in the time of supersonic thinking, automakers embraced a modern direction not only in design and engineering, but also in marketing. Copywriters and ad men tasked with naming these great leaps forward in technology came up with names like Twilight Sentinel, or Autronic Eye. Shown here is a still operating Autronic Eye in a 1967 Cadillac. The photon sensing eye peered forward, and dropped the headlamps to a low-beam setting as an automated courtesy to oncoming motorists, leaving the Cadillac driver to embrace a motoring experience of fully modern luxury.

There are few places on earth to see a 1971 Ferrari Dino and a 1973 GMC Canyon Lands Edition 23-foot Motorhome hanging out together in their natural habitat. The Monterey Historics is evidently one of those places. The Oldsmobile Toronado-powered GMC motors out to two race events per year, and serves as mobile living quarters for the motor racing efforts of Tom and Verna Griffiths. The two-tone Pineapple Yellow paint scheme was a standard color choice for 1973. Optional colors included Parrot Green and Bittersweet. The Canyon Lands was a naming convention used by GMC to honor our National Parks and the all new for 1973 motorhomes. The Giallo FLY yellow Dino belongs to pals, and is also an example of an automaker forging ahead with modernity while holding onto tradition. Add a little racing green into the mix and it all makes perfect sense that the Griffiths run a Lotus 23 in the Classic Sports Racing Group.

More: The Classic Sports Racing Group – Since 1968

On this day in the year of 1969, Apollo 11 Astronaut Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon. A few short years later in 1971, Apollo 15 Commander David Randolph Scott became the first man to drive on the moon. The Lunar Roving Vehicle, or LRV, went the distance folded up under the Lunar Module. The LRV was deployed and loaded up with tools by the Astronauts on the moon. The LRV was fully electric, with 10,000 RPM wheel mounted motors for motivation, and a set of silver-zinc potassium hydroxide batteries providing the juice. LRV development spawned more than a few different prototypes and configurations on the way to the final and famous lunar going version we know today. In honor of the legendary achievements of the Apollo Space Program, and Apollo 16 Commander and LRV driver John Young getting the moon buggy moonborne off the edge of a crater at eight miles per hour, we present just a few examples of Apollo Space Program LRV history from at the NASA photo archives. All NASA images courtesy of nasaimages.org.

More: The Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle [NASA]