CLUNKBUCKET

Mickey Thompson is a legend in American motorsport and hot rodding. The NHRA Wally Parks Motorsports Museum is currently exhibiting a collection of Thompson’s lifelong achievement through photographs, memorabilia, and the very machines that broke the records. To get an idea of who Mickey Thompson the man was, consider that while holding down a full-time job as a Pressman at the Los Angeles Times, he also founded the iconic Lion’s Drag Strip, started a successful speed equipment manufacturing business, and ran flat out on drag strips and dry lakes to the tune of 400 MPH in racing machines he assembled in his own home garage. And those were just a few of his accomplishments. A five-year involvement in Indy racing with the likes of Dan Gurney and the creation of indoor stadium off-road racing as we know it today are a few more of Thompson’s innovations in motorsport. Read the rest of this entry »

Start with a bunch of demolition derby-spec cars and station wagons. Add a 400-pound steel ball that was at one time a propane tank. Combine the two with the world’s most popular sport and you have Auto Soccer at Irwindale Speedway. Robert Rice hatched the idea to meld the previously disparate worlds of Demolition Derby and Soccer together about three years ago. “We used to play at Saugus with a 1000-pound ball. It was eight feet tall. It was an old water buoy. We brought it here to try it, and they’ve liked it ever since,” said Rice. Unlike actual soccer, this automotive version is a full-contact sport. With Led Zeppelin’s When the Levee Breaks crackling through the loudspeakers after a blistering infield session of Figure-8 racing, it was time to cap off the evening of action with the mechanical mayhem that is Auto Soccer.

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One of the great mysteries of modern motoring is why anyone would need a pickup truck the size of an Iowa or Yamato class battleship to carry around a circular saw and 20-foot extension cord. Marketing powers tell us that we desire a truck so heavy-duty that a guy with a bucket loader can drop boulders into the bed with such force that the pickup truck will bounce off the ground and still drive away. So awesome is this process of boulder loading that time slows down into epic slow motion, just like when Steve Austin started hurling boulders at Maskatron with his bionic arm in the Six Million Dollar Man. The reality for most of us is what we really need right now is a Toyota Hilux. This world famous compact pickup truck sprang from the Stout, was later known as Toyota Truck, and in turn begat the Tacoma. This particular Toyota Truck looks like it has been in full surf mode with ongoing punk rock involvement since 1977. Better still is the Hilux by any other name looks as if it has plenty of tasty waves and discordant yet anthemic hooks left in its future. Onward, Hilux. Find that perfect wave not once but twice.

A rusty old Volkswagen Beetle similar in condition and proximity to this Bug is where it all began. The machine that started our continuing saga of 500-dollar automobiles was a mostly oxidized Bug, just a few years younger this engineless 1968 model. The archetypal Clunkbucket was purchased just north of the Gulf station on Route 7 in Salsbury, Vermont where we saw this blue and white beauty for sale on a trailer late last year. Back in 1981, the new-to-us 1964 6-volt Bug barely rolled away under its own power from a snow covered parking lot. Dad trailed closely for safety in an equally if not more rusty yellow Ford Pinto MPG.

We eyed this 1968 gem on a holiday respite to the frozen state, almost thirty years after the fateful first car day. This VW was owned and raced by a former mini-stocker, and reportedly saw action at the torturous Devil’s Bowl Speedway. Perhaps the ’68 Bug and fellow mini-stockers warmed up the now defunct Catamount Speedway (aka Thunder Road) for the legendary Beaver Dragon. Price on both cars for 1981 and 2009? 500 bucks. This Bug’s location just down the road from the Concrete Ape, along with near proximity to spot of the original 500-dollar Bug seems to indicate a potentially dangerous vortex of 500-dollar Volkswagens in the general vicinity. Please be advised.

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