Category: Guest Posts

A Tale Of Two White Wagons

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NOTE: Another article by my friend Tony LaHood. Republished here with his permission. -TK

There were those who considered Vernon O’Neal a cumbersome and plodding businessman; far more people admired his Texas pluck, which manifested itself in his cheeky exuberance to shake things up. His instincts had paid off quite well; he owned the biggest-by-volume mortuary/ambulance service in the city, which included an all-white fleet of professional vehicles–white, since he believed that while death should be treated seriously, it should not be thought of as something depressing. His newest vehicular acquisition was an Aspen White 1964 Miller-Meteor Cadillac hearse, purchased just three months earlier at a national funeral directors’ convention in Dallas.

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Cooper And Norton: How The Triton/Norvin Motorcycles Came To Be

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Note: Another motorcycle post by my friend, Lee Wilcox. -TK

A while back, I came across a little story that explained why Triton/Norvin motorcycles became so popular in the ’50s and what started the movement to rear-engined race cars.  If you are like me, you might have never thought much about what you would do to power a race car, especially when the engine size was limited to 500cc. It must be even harder if you are stuck in a situation where there are more shortages than anything else. Into this situation comes John Cooper in war ravaged post WW2 England.  He’s smart and he wants to go racing.  There is a major shortage of cars, but there are some choices.

Charles Cooper founded the Cooper Car Company.  He did this with his son, the aforementioned John and his son’s boyhood friend Eric Brandon.  They began building racing cars in 1946.  The first cars built by the Coopers were single seat 500cc Formula 3 cars that were driven by John and Eric.

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1941 Dodge Business Coupe: Giving America The Business

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Note: Another article by Lee Wilcox! Enjoy. -TK

Even though I am retired, I frequently find myself crossing the state for non-income producing reasons.  Now I carry a camera.  I was minding my own business doing just that when I came across this little attention grabber.  These coupes have always been favorites of mine despite having too many wheels.  Just honest workhorses.

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No Mr. Bond, I Expect You To Downsize

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Note: Another one from my buddy, Tony LaHood! -TK

History is replete with bad ideas from people who should have known better: “Trust me, New Coke will make America forget all about the original.” “Helium? Why not fill the Hindenburg with hydrogen?” And, of course, “Let’s tart up a Toyota iQ with an Aston Martin grille, special paint and better interior bits, and triple the price!”

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The Fitzpatrick

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Note: Today’s guest post is by a friend of mine, April Chadwick. In addition to being into cars as much as I am, she also owns an Excalibur Series 1 and 1976 Continental Mark IV. Please give her a warm welcome! -TK

If you are reading this site, you have likely owned your fair share of vehicles and I am sure that there is at least one that you wish you still had. The one car that you let slip through your fingers because of timing, finances or practicality. It’s often these considerations that conspire to separate us from our automotive one true love.

Phil Lacey, Sr. knows that feeling, perhaps even more than any of us. I am not talking about some jacked up Camaro or a Honda with aftermarket rims. Over half a century ago Phil helped design and build his own dream car. A true labor of love, he never saw his garage built custom (notice I didn’t spell it with a k) completed or even knew if it still existed.

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Diesel-Electric Submarines: World’s Biggest Hybrids

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-NOTE: Today’s post is another one by my friend Lee Wilcox. If you’ve been getting tired of all my ’70s-era luxocruisers, here’s something completely different. And very interesting. -TK

The Chevy Volt has gotten a lot of attention from its ability to run its electric propulsion motor from its internal combustion engine/generator, batteries, or both. Submarines having been doing that since the 1920s or so. I managed to spend some time on subs, and was always interested in what made them go. Apparently that interest is shared by a lot of folks.  Even during the cold war we had something called Visiting Ship Day.  Civilians were allowed to tour a designated boat.  The depth gauges were covered and some areas were off limits but they did tour.  There were three questions we could always count on:

1. Where is the picture window? (thanks to TV)

2. How many engines turn the propellers and how big are they?

3. How long until you start to run out of air to breathe?

Answers to them, and much more follow:

Graveside. Museum at Patriots Point, Charleston SC.

Let’s get those out of the way first:

1. There is no picture window regardless of what you saw on television.

2. There are no engines (directly) turning the screws.

3. It took about 10-12 hours until the guys couldn’t keep their cigarettes lit. Then we had to start managing the air.

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1966 Chrysler Windsor: The Best Bad Decision I Ever Made!

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ED: Another post by my friend up north, Mike Batch Kirouac! This car was recently completed. Maybe we can get him to do a new post on it. -TK

In 1966, the Chrysler Windsor was the Canadian-built equivalent of the Newport model in the US. Unsurprisingly, Windsors were built in the Windsor, Ontario plant. Unlike today where vehicles are assembled from components manufactured all over the world, these cars were substantially “Made in Canada” from Canadian-made parts. The ink was still fresh on the Canada-US auto pact, which would soon change that arrangement, and 1966 was the last year for the Windsor model name.

Canadian magazine ad featuring the Windsor two-door hardtop.

According to the original owner, my Windsor 2-door hardtop was a factory-ordered car, but the deal fell through, and so it wound up on the dealer’s lot. The colour was Saddle Bronze metallic, with matching interior. The drivetrain consisted of the base engine, a big block 383 2-barrel with 9.2:1 compression, rated at 270hp. This was mated to the venerable Torqueflite 727 3-speed automatic, and 2.76:1 “economy” gearing in the differential. Inside was the standard column shifter and bench seats.

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1967 Dodge Charger: Chrysler’s Marlin!

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Note: Today’s post was written by Lee Wilcox, a friend of mine in Texas. Enjoy. -TK

For Chrysler, just getting up off the canvas after the “plucked chicken” fiasco of 1962 was hard enough without Ford doing something crazy by dropping its Mustang bombshell on the market. What’s more, the personal-luxury coupe market was heating up by the day. So what was a beleaguered Chrysler to do? Fake it, that’s what. And do so with a memorable and venerable name.

The earliest Charger I remember (at least referring to something other than a hay-consuming equine) is this car, which a sporting band of Chrysler engineers campaigned on the drag strip. This car was the “High and Mighty” (actually a ’49 Plymouth). According to Alpar, it existed as seen above into late 1958. The original 354 truck engine, fitted with 392 heads, eventually gave way to an all-392 Hemi. Obviously, the car sacrificed aerodynamics on the altar of weight transfer and traction.

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Quick Look: 1965 Plymouth Belvedere – With 440 Power!

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Note: Another post from my friend, Mike Batch Kirouac! -TK

On the Saturday before Christmas of 2012, my son and I went into town to pick up some last minute items for supper at the grocery store. As we walked through the parking lot, a beautiful, shiny white ’65 Plymouth Satellite rolled in, drove past us, and parked at the back of the lot. The burble of the engine told me it had a hopped-up big block.

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The 1966 Chryslers: Sheer Perfection

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NOTE: A friend of mine, Mike Batch Kirouac, who penned the Olds Diesel article earlier this year, has given me the green light on running some of his other posts from the other site. His favorite car is the 1966 Chrysler, and he owns several-which you’ll see more of in the near future. Enjoy. -TK

Elwood Engel left Ford Motor Company in 1961 to succeed Virgil Exner as head of styling at Chrysler.  The 1965 Chrysler–which essentially evolved the Engel design language created for the 1961 Lincoln Continental–was his first “clean sheet” production car design for Chrysler.  The 1966 refresh was, in my opinion, an improvement on the ’65s that provided greater differentiation between the base Newport (Windsor, in Canada), sporty 300 and high-end New Yorker models, all of which shared most of their sheet metal.

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