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.
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.
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.
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.
The local Fourth of July parade is always a good place to kick things off on the most red, white, and blue of American holidays. Thanks to the Redwood City staging its parade participants nearby to the Clunkbucket estate, we got to catch the action up close even before the show even started. Waking up to the opening theme from the Flintstones being played on a trombone and the sound of Shriners cars being run up and down the street is something that should happen every morning. The Fourth of July parade is the one place to find a pipe organ pulled by a sixties-era lawn tractor and a machine that flips compact donut goodness into a delicious snack right before your eyes all on the same great day. There’s no better way to celebrate our nation’s independence than finding out just what makes wherever you are famous.
The genuine possibility of more rear-drive muscle returning to the race tracks of America is certainly welcome, but without AMC Javelins slipping through the apexes, things just won’t ever be completely right again. Mark Donohue forever etched the red, white, and blue into American Motors when he took the Trans-Am series in 1971 and 1972 behind the wheel Roger Penske-prepared AMC Javelins. The good news is all is not lost. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the Historic Trans-Am Group, the legend of American Motors Corporation Trans-Am history lives on not static in a museum, but moving around the race track – complete with high octane gasoline, side exit exhaust, and an overabundance of chin and deck spoilers. Getting up close to these beasts in action is immensely entertaining, and makes it easy to gain respect for the driving and engineering skills required to muscle one of these long nose monsters out in front at the finish.
