Where are the Flying Cars?

If you grew up in the 1950’s and 1960’s you might remember all the predictions of just how our future would turn out.  It may have been the euphoria of winning the second World War, or just because, at the time, we were the most prosperous country in the world.  At the end of WW II the US had $26 billion worth of factories itching to convert from building war material and a surplus of $140 billion, no bomb craters and just about no competition.

In 1954 the 7.5 million new cars we bought were almost exclusively made in the US by US workers.  Americans made up about 5% of the worlds population and had more wealth than the rest of the world combined.

It was natural for Americans to focus on the future.  Theirs looked so bright and limitless. Reading the magazines of the era our future would consist of underwater cites off our coasts, and colonies in space stations orbiting our planet.  Atomic power would be the engine of choice for just about every mass transit conveyance.  From atomic powered trains, ships, and planes.  Just about everyone could look forward to having their own helicopter.  There would be jet-packs to commute locally with and our cars would morph into boats, submarines, and flying cars.

President Eisenhower created an Interstate Highway system that we can take for granted today.  At least until the older bridges collapse or we discover that our highway taxes are being used for something other than repaving the old roads.

The automobile was a huge factor in the lives of people of those decades as families went from the standard of a single car to a two-car family.

And the car companies wanted to show us just what the future had in store for us in terms of exciting new cars.

Cars would be like our own personal jet plane.

They would have cockpits instead of a bench seat.

This past week I visited Heritage Plantation in Sandwich, Massachusetts, where there was a special exhibit featuring prototype cars that the car companies would develop to whet our appetites and inspire us to think to a possible future.

Here are several examples:

When Hudson and Nash merged they looked to an Italian designer to create a stunning design exercise to let the American public know that the new company would be at the forefront of the automotive future.

The 1954 Plymouth Explorer used the Ghia design house to execute this car of the future with a distinctive European look.  There are elements in the rear that are very much the same as the VW Karman Ghia.  That VW started out in the late 50’s and continued to be VW’s sports car through the 1970’s.

The 1956 Buick Centurion above even used a TV camera to replace the rear view mirror function.

GM stylists went wild with the above future version of the Corvair.  Unfortunately this excellent car was targeted as a “death trap” by the non-driving Ralph Nader and was doomed to extinction.  It is a shame since it was an excellent design that was completely undeserving of the criticisms heaped upon it.

There was even a flying car:

As an example of how our view of the future has dramatically changed there was also a solar powered car.

If you are on Cape Cod, or anywhere near it this summer you should take advantage of this special exhibit and see these dramatic statements of the future yourself.

Road Trip Gems

There are times when you are interested in locating a top automotive museum to see some classic cars on display in probably better shape than they left the assembly line when they were manufactured.  It is amazing to see how beautiful these older cars can be.

Then there are the times when you are just in the middle of your journey and you come across some automotive gems in the rough, so to speak.

These cars are not restored, although you might wish they were.  But even so they bring back memories of an era when their design brought people alive with dreams of driving them everywhere and anywhere.  This Cadillac had to have been considered quite the epitome of luxury and stylish in a very futuristic way.

There was a Triumph TR4A slowly corroding away, yet it still had plenty to say to anyone who came across it about the English sports car era.  These were the kinds of cars that sparked imaginations of middle aged and young drivers alike.  Sure they were finicky and had electrical systems that could drive a person crazy, but they also had a top-down soul that begged for a warm spring day and a tree lined country road where a driver and his girl could feel the breeze and catch the sparkle of the sun as they were lulled into a blissful movie of life to the tune of a four cylinder motor with a muffler that allowed it to rhythmically complement the road.

A rusted frame that once supported a body that not only kept people out of the weather, but allowed them to mark miles and travel in time that would never had been possible before the automobile.  A frame that once had an engine and transmission – pushing tires along a rod with a humming sound that signaled to the passengers that they were going somewhere.  And it really didn’t matter at all where.

Cars & Coffee

It can have many names, but quite often it is called simply: Cars & Coffee.  It might be the first weekend of the month or the second, or it could be a weekday night, but it is a chance for local (and some not-so-local) car owners a chance to come to a common location and show off their car or truck. 

It might be a classic Kaman Ghia or it might be an

expensive exotic.  It could be anything in between.

There are no entry fees and no trophies.  People just know when and where to show up. 

 

There are no roped off sections and you can talk to the owners of these great vehicles.

There are no special categories, but there are certainly some special vehicles:

You can never be sure what kind of car you will see next:

Even rust can be beautiful:

So ask around, check for a local “cars and coffee” near you and let yourself be amazed by what you can get to see with no ticket to buy and not ropes around the cars.  Often the owner is right there (if they are not out ogling the other cars) to talk to.  They love questions and will provide insights into their “baby” that no museum can hope to provide.

What is Engineering and What is Art

After breakfast on Tuesday I hit the road in the P71 anxious to get some real highway miles on it.  Come June when the Big Road Trip starts it will be a long time before this car sees the inside of my garage again and I want to find out now what things I need to fix before that long trip.

I was anxious for another reason.  I was going to meet up with Dick Bear in Winston-Salem.  It has been several years since I had been able to spend some time with Dick and I had a lot of catching up to do.

I first ran into Dick back in about 2007 when he arrived at Performance Chassis (PC) to get his car tech inspected for an event at Virginia International Raceway (VIR).  PC always had several cars come by for tech inspections as the owner of the shop was the Chief Technical Steward for Tar Heel Sports Car Club.  This time it was a little different though.  Dick’s car was his own design and had been built by his own hands.

This was no kit car either.  It was a McBearen.  Dick’s interpretation of the McLaren Can-Am car.  Can-am started in 1966 as a class of racers whose only requirement was a full body,two seats and that it pass safety standards.  This resulted in a series of six races, two in Canada and the rest in the US where monster race cars thrilled the fans and challenged the drivers.  The cars designed by and driven by Bruce McLaren were powered by monster Chevy V8 engines and were the cars to beat until Penske campaigned turbocharged Porsche 917 variants that were said to put out 1500 hp in qualifying trim.

Dick had been impressed when he had a chance to see the McLaren at a race in Bridgehampton, NY, in 1969; and stepped up to the challenge of building his own version of this historic race car.

So in 2007 I didn’t see this orange car come rolling off a trailer.  No, Dick’s creation, the McBearen, was fully licensed and registered for road use and he drove it to the shop from Winston-Salem.

It had a big wing on the back and was so very – well, orange.  It was amazing to see such a unique car.

His car was inspected and declared track worthy.  There was plenty of time for conversation and Dick shared with us all his project and his experiences with his creation.  He had never been an automotive engineer and had never done body work, but that didn’t stop him.  He found a site called MetalMeet.com and as he learned he shared his experiences with this friendly group of metal shapers that not only provided a great environment for learning the craft but later in the McBearen’s life showed just how great a group of skilled craftspeople they were.

Dick chose a Honda 2.0 liter VTEC engine to power his creation.  He felt that he had found a power plant that was affordable and practical that also had plenty of options for power mods.  He also used the Honda transaxle and the front suspension was from a Mustang II (does anyone remember them?).  The rear started with coil-overs mounted in a somewhat vertical mode and later moved to a horizontal configuration and actuated by rocker arms.

So who is this guy that is not an automotive engineer and yet builds a tribute race car?

Dick has had a varied career that has provided him with a rich background of experiences. From college he went into the Army and spent his time working at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds.  From there he taught photography and some cinematography in a private school.  A brief stint as a real estate broker allowed him to move on to a become Event and Operations Director at a marketing company involved in racing and NASCAR in particular.

He also has a passion for art and design that has resulted in some profitable inventions.  For the Mazda Miata he designed the BacPac which attaches to the rear of a Miata and provides much needed, weather-protected, storage space so that two people can take a road trip in that fun roadster.  Then came the TCK, of Tire Change Kiosk.  It is a NASCAR inspired game where you can use a half-inch impact gun to remove the five lug nuts on a race car hub and then quickly reinstall the wheel all while being timed.  The best part of it is that the heaviest part a participant has to deal with is the impact gun.  The wheel that comes loose is held on a telescoping shaft that supports the weight of the tire/wheel assembly and facilitates the reinstallation of the wheel.  This allows children and even wheelchair bound folks to join in on the fun.

In another NASCAR inspired development he designed a lug nut attachment device that greatly improved things in the pits.  Typically lug nuts on the race wheels of NASCAR race cars (and trucks) are “glued” on to the wheels so that when they are changed the installed doesn’t have to waste any time picking up lug nuts and putting them in place to be secured with an air wrench, they are already on the wheel.  The “glue” that was used was most often window seal such as you might pick up at a hardware store.  This worked okay, but had its limitations.  There was a curing period where a weight needed to be placed on the horizontal wheel to hold the lug nuts in place until the adhesive was ready to do its job.  This adhesive was also temperature sensitive and over time would lose its elasticity and harden.  This would lead to lug nuts falling off the wheels at the worst times.  Dicks invention was a foam ring with adhesive on both sides that is not affected by swings in temperature and did not need to be held in place to cure.  You just place one side on the nut and then press it onto the wheel and you were done.

So what else has Dick done?  He put over 42,000 miles on the McBearen.  That’s right, forty-two thousand.  Remember, this is fully registered and street legal and in 2010 he took it on a coast-to-coast journey to support the Prostate Cancer Foundation.  It was an adventure that only an open cockpit car can provide.  In most states he was stopped by the law to ensure that he was really driving a registered and licensed motor vehicle.  He actually got to enjoy the stops as opportunities to get out and stretch his legs as well as get to know the local state police.

His twenty-one day trip resulted in contributions for the foundation as well as a great appreciation for how interesting and varied this country is.  I know from my own adventure in 2007, just how enlightening an extended road trip of America can be.

Dick’s adventures with car building did not stop with the McBearen though.  In his mind was the idea of an open wheeled creation based on the style of the Lola.  The Mabaan.

This car would be the culmination of all that he learned from building the McBearen and incorporate a mid-engine V8 in an  aluminum body that was far more complex.

This car had everything.  The underside was designed for ground effects and aerodynamics mattered in every part of the body and chassis.  Don’t forget, this is a fully licensed and registered motor vehicle as well.

Dick had a blast taking this open wheeled wonder to track events and other shows.  Weighing in the neighborhood of 1500 pounds and using an LT1 as a power plant gave it tremendous power combined with a chassis that really did its job.

Dick and I had plenty of time to talk about his creations that day as well as what he plans to do in the future.  For a time it looks like he will give up on his focus on the tarmac and will now move on to the ocean as he would like to spend his time on the ocean around Florida and the Caribbean. Somehow I expect that Dick’s creativity won’t just slumber to the rhythm of the sea.  There is more to come from this artist.

Cars Without Oil? Is this guy dealing with a full deck?

In his wish for cars that will “go coast to coast without using s drop of oil” President Obama may as well ask for cold fusion and perpetual energy.  He is asking for the laws of physics to be suspended.

Okay, it’s not that this isn’t a laudable idea in a basic sense, but it is posed in a reality that just doesn’t exist.

When the automobile first appeared it was not long before about half the cars were powered by batteries and the rest by gasoline or steam.  Electric cars were popular because they were quiet, and not dirty, nor temperamental.  But their flaw was the battery.  It severely limited range and took a long time to recharge.  Thomas Edison was optimistic that “in another year” he would be able to perfect the kind of battery that would make electric cars far more practical than gasoline powered cars.  Try as he might that year never came.

Even today, with the help of some very advanced battery technology, the range of  electric cars is pitiful.  In a BBC test drive of the Nissan Leaf, with only a 73 mile range, took so long between charges that its average speed was 6 miles per hour.

A lot of oil is required to manufacture a car, electric or not.  The lithium ion batteries demand environmentally destructive processes to mine and process the material into usable batteries.  Batteries also loose their capacity over time, as anyone who has lived with a laptop has discovered.  Over about five years the leaf’s range is reduced to about 55 miles.  The more they are used the more they lose.

And just how is the electricity generated that is charged into these cars?  Coal, oil, gas, wind, nuclear?  You have a 97% chance that it is one of the first three.  If the electricity happens to come from a coal powered electric plant there will be 15 ounces of carbon-dioxide produced to charge it up (per mile) compared to 3 ounces for a gasoline powered car.

A life-cycle analysis in the Journal of Industrial Ecology calculated that about half the lifetime carbon-dioxide emissions from and electric car comes from the energy needed to produce it.  In a gasoline powered car this figure is 17%.

I like new ideas.  I like it when people stretch to think “out of the box”.  I am frustrated by political types that advance technology without doing the math.  Then they find a way to tax us whether it is a sound idea or not.  The reality is that it is going to be very hard to find a replacement energy source that can compare with the capacity of gasoline.  Wishing doesn’t make it so.

P71 Road Trip Car–Freeing up the exhaust

The Crown Vic recently had its suspension massaged to the point that it is now a flat cornering machine in search of more horsepower.

Realizing that the upcoming road trip would be covering thousands of miles, and consequently, consuming quantities of hydrocarbon fuel, something should be done to maximize its fuel economy – oh yes, and give it a nice sound.

Once again we consulted Chris at ADTR.net, and he offered up a set of headers from Stainless Works along with a 2.5” exhaust system also from Stainless Works.  A few quick swipes of my credit card and both were on their way along with a set of Stage 8 locking header bolt kit from Ford Racing, and a set of Mr. Gasket Ultra-Seal exhaust gaskets, also from ADTR.net.  Then a trip to Auto Zone for four new O2 sensors.

In a couple of weeks the folks would crank out the headers and exhaust system, but there would be a hitch.  The ‘06 and later models of the P71 have the Watts linkage in the rear and Stainless Works has yet to make a complete system to fit my 2008 model.  I went to a local shop that does some of the nicest custom exhaust work on the east coast and consulted with them on my dilemma.  Not a problem, they said.  They had the 2.5” stainless steel tubing and would be willing and able to fabricate the rest of the system as well as include a set of Vibrant Ultra-Quiet resonators that I had purchased through Amazon.com.

There was one additional thing that I needed to have done.  The Stainless Works headers are a work of art and ADTR.net offered and option to have them ceramic thermal coated for an additional $400.  This is a very important option that is close to being a necessity.  In my trip to Indianapolis and last year’s IMIS I had a chance to stop by the Nitro Plate booth and talk with their sales & marketing manager, Cody Jones.  Now, I have to admit that I would rather talk to an engineer and technician that someone with Cody’s tittle, but Cody also knows much more than the typical sales rep about Nitro Plate’s products.  With the Stainless Works headers on their way I gave Cody a call.  He and I talked about what I wanted to accomplish and he let me know that Nitro Plate would be able to provide me with an excellent coating that would provide the kind of thermal properties that I was looking for far less than $300 – shipped.

When the box from Stainless works showed up I unpacked the headers and then packed them up and sent them to Nitro Plate.  Within ten days I had them back with their aluminum ceramic coating in a bright finish that withstands 1300 degrees F.  The coating was inside and out.  It looked fantastic.

With everything at hand I let RJ’s Custom Piping know that I was ready and they told me to show up in the morning.  Who could ask for more than that.

Soon the car was on the lift and the hood was open.

While I had a chance I looked over the stock two and a quarter inch system.  The exhaust manifolds were log-style castings leading into two sets of two catalytic converters.

Then travel along the driveshaft to an H-pipe and the dual mufflers.

Finally the bumps over the rear end and a straight shot to the turn-down tips.

The first thing was to cut off the tail pipes and then the bends over the rear were cut off.  These would be used as rough templates for the replacement stainless pipes.

Then the rest of the system was unbolted from the headers and set aside.

The headers were removed next.  But a lot of time was spent doing that.  The dip stick oil tube had to be removed, the steering joint had to be unhitched, and the engine mounts were unbolted at the bottom so that the motor could be jacked up for clearance.  Oh, yeah, before all that the battery was disconnected.

Each of the cast iron manifolds were unbolted and then the original exhaust manifold studs had to be removed since they would be replaced by the new Ford Racing bolts.

In the meantime work was begun on fabricating the new stainless steel pieces that would complete the system.

RJ’s has an amazing mandrel bending machine that can reproduce the most complex bends that you might wish for in tubing, including stainless steel.

Getting in the new headers was not too bad.  They actually pretty much slipped into place.  The only real challenges was ensuring that the EGR connector on the driver’s side of the car was threaded before the whole header was bolted in place.  The passenger side mounted quite easily except for a bit of a tight fit at the air conditioning pump and tubing.  The installer ended up taking off the serpentine belt and loosening the AC pump.

With both headers in place and bolts tightened it was time to put the system together starting with the high flow cats.  These things really flow, too.  Their diameter is huge and while they perform their intended function flawlessly, they do little to impede the exhaust flow.

The other pieces included the new O2 sensors, the piping to connect to the cats, and the x-pipe that continued on to the Stainless Works mufflers.  Now, again I had a choice of muffler styles and chose the chambered-type to keep the noise level from becoming obnoxious.

All the pieces were fitted together and clamped tight enough to get them aligned correctly before continuing with the fabrication of the tubing that went over the rear end and connect to the resonators.

RJ’s work is truly artistic.  As the pieces were fitted and aligned they were marked, taken down and then beautifully TIG welded together so that only one clamp was needed.  The clamp they used was a wide Easy Seal band clamp that completely conformed to the joint and ensured that they would never leak.

This was an all-day project and they needed it all.  By the time the sun was going down it was complete and I was excited to fire up the 4.6 V8 and see just how it sounded.

It was great.  A nice deep tone that converted to a free breathing sound when the car was wound up to 3000 rpm and beyond.

In the morning I checked the exhaust manifold bolts and was surprised that they were all pretty much tight.  I would be going through three or four heat cycles and checking their tightness before I would install the locks that would ensure they would never back out.

I had an opportunity for several car buddies to listen to the system and everyone felt that it was not in the least bit obnoxious.  It has a nice tone and yet breathes well.

Another surprise was the insulating properties of the Nitro Plate coating.  I drove twenty miles, stopped the car, immediately opened the hood and placed my ungloved hands directly on the headers without being burned.  They were warm, but definitely not hot.  It was amazing.  All that thermal containment had to be assisting the exhaust out of the system and releasing a good deal of power and efficiency.

Wow.

‘55 Buick–Rat Rod

Rat rods can be very interesting cars.  Not meant to show off fancy paint jobs or even special parts.  They harken back to the early days of hot rods when budgets were tight and speed parts were most often something you fabricated yourself.

I came across this interesting example of a rat rod in Raleigh as it was being prepared for a trip across the Atlantic.  A couple of engineers that worked together, one in the US and the other in Germany, had found a ready market for rat rods in Germany.  This 1955 Buick is an example of what German collectors are willing to part with big Euros to own.

This was quite an example.  I took my time walking around this time machine seeing just how it had been put together.

There were some really classic elements working here.  It had been a long time since I had seen Moon Eyes on a hot rod.

This was a supplier that was famous not only for its spun aluminum gas tanks, but its brand identifier, as well.

Inside the engine compartment was a classic Chevy big block with a very classic supercharger.

From underneath you could gaze upon the bottom of the engine and see the transmission.

The headers snaked their way to a turn-down and then out a dump just in front of the rear wheels.

The frame had been extensively modified in front and now sported a coil-over set up.

And the rear had a similar treatment.

The wheels were incredible.  I haven’t seen Cragar wire wheels in I don’t know how long.  They just might be worth more than the car itself.

There was Big Daddy Ed Roth’s Rat Fink on the rear window…

No bucket seats for this baby.  Bench seats are made for drive-ins.

You won’t be coming across one of these anytime soon so enjoy the visual treat.