Many of us watched the Discovery Channel’s show American Hot Rod as his dysfunctional crew produced fantastic vehicles that Boyd designed and always in less time than humanly possible.
As fantastic creations rolled out of the shop there always seemed to be collateral damage in the form of staff leaving or being fired. While it was fascinating to watch the creative process it was often agonizing to watch the destruction of people’s dreams as they left Boyd’s shop.
Two of the most notable former employees of Boyd’s were Jesse James (Monster Garage) and Chip Foose (Overhaulin’).
Boyd was known for some artistic custom versions of classic muscle cars as well as completely hand built hot rods. At one point his business was growing dramatically as he had a custom wheel business as well as custom car business. For a brief period he had a line of car care products that were sold through Auto Zone and a few other parts outlets. I liked the wax and shampoo so much that I snatched up every item I could find when I heard that it was coming to an end. At one point I even contacted someone about the possibility of buying the product line. Unfortunately the follow through from the seller wasn’t there.
What ever you thought of Boyd’s management style you had to be impressed by his design sense and the remarkable vehicles that his shop produced. Boyd and his Hawaiian shirts will certainly be missed.
This could be it folks. CART teams have been told to stop working on their Panoz chassis and prepare for their new chassis, the Dallaras. Expect an official announcement of the marriage of CART and IRL soon.
Will this bring back open wheeled racing to what it was decades ago? Well, not really. It is still a spec series, not that being a spec series has hurt NASCAR, but it won’t be the same as it was when there was real creativity and technology change in open wheeled racing.
Is it too late? That is probably the most important question and only time will tell. This is a great start in any case. They don’t need to compete against each other. They have been losing drivers to NASCAR (like many other forms of racing, for that matter) and don’t generate the kind of excitement that this level of the sport requires.
It probably won’t make a lot of difference the first year, but if Tony George plays this right it could be another NASCAR only open wheeled.
This could certainly make this year’s Indianapolis 500 a lot more exciting. This is the kind of change that could attract and retain drivers. This is the kind of change that will mean that teams will be made up of the best personnel and other crew members will be scrambling for a new team to work for.
It will be key to watch how the tire companies and engine suppliers deal with this change. It would be nice if this change would create some brand name competition. With NASCAR they at least pretend to have different brand cars based on the engines, but CART and IRL have pretty much one engine, one chassis, and one tire. Ho hum.
It will be interesting to watch how the sponsors deal with all this. Unless this is organized into three tiers of competition the real estate available to showcase a product on a race car will shrink dramatically. Yes, time to look at the NASCAR formula of having different professional series.
This won’t fix things, but it certainly could be a good start.
If you have ever watched the early episodes of Overhaulin’ or Spike TV’s Power Block on the weekends you have undoubtedly seen Courtney Hansen. She is a pretty face, is photogenic, and knows how to look good on TV.
Aside from all that she comes from a car family and knows a lot more about cars, racing, and mechanics than you would assume from the pretty face. Sorry, but the reality is that men don’t expect mechanical knowledge from a pretty face. In fact, most women realize that they are at a distinct disadvantage when getting their car serviced or buying parts, just because they are women.
So in comes Courtney with her own book called “The Garage Girl’s Guide to Everything You Need to Know About Your Car”.
Her father was an SCCA champion and she grew up around, in, and driving cars. She knows what she is talking about and has done a pretty good job of putting it in a book.
I don’t know if she expected this to be just for women, but it works for guys, too. If you are a guy or gal who has been around cars for a while and twisted wrenches some, then you might find it a bit elementary, but keep looking and you will find a section or two that will teach you something new.
If you do know a girl, or woman that wants to learn more about cars without being humiliated or taken advantage of, point them to this book. Better yet, give it to them as a present.
The only thing I wish Courtney would do is put up a web site where people can learn more from her in a conversational medium.
Larry the Cable Guy is selling his truck and you have a chance to buy it for yourself. The proceeds will go to benefit Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Yesterday I traveled just across the NC border to Virginia International Raceway (VIR) where the Tar Heel Sports Car Club (THSCC) was holding its first track event of 2008.
It was a beautiful day, weather wise. Nice and sunny and relatively warm, hitting about 75 degrees by mid-day.
Perhaps the nicest part was coming to the entrance of VIR and driving to the pit area. The rolling hills of this 3.27 mile course make you feel more like the track is a country road with plenty of elevation changes and lots of hillsides covered with grass.
It was nice to meet a few old friends as well as get to know some new faces. These events provide a wide variety of cars, but everyone is sociable and friendly. This is not a competition event so people share information and advice.
There are several run groups that are divided up by levels of experience and it is a busy day for beginners and experienced drivers alike. Instructors ride with all but the advanced level drivers to help the others learn the course and how best to improve their driving technique. There are class activities where many aspects of driving are discussed as well as opportunities for questions on what the drivers have discovered about VIR.
There will be other track days put on this year at VIR and other clubs will be sponsoring the events, but it is nice to get to the first one and have such great weather.
I wish the facts were different, but the latest analysis of biofuels is not encouraging. There was already concern as regards using food crops to produce ethanol. It meant that the food prices for that crop would increase (it has), that land use for crop production would increase (it has), and that fresh water usage would increase to support those crops (it has).
Now the latest issue of Science has published a study that says that the production of corn-based ethanol will effectively double the output of greenhouse gas emissions. This contradicts the earlier belief that it would reduce them by 15%.
It appears that a big contributor to the greenhouse gas output is the clearing of native forests and growth to grow the corn crops. The result: impacts on food crops and reductions in biodiversity.
A second study found that in Brazil more undeveloped land is being converted to produce sugarcane that is used to produce ethanol. This conversion releases huge amounts of CO2. So much that they estimate it would take 17 years of ethanol use to counter the effect.
A more dramatic example is where Malaysian and Indonesian peatlands are drained and cleared for the production of palm oil dumps so much CO2 into the atmosphere that the palm biodiesel produced would have to be burned for 450 years to counteract the CO2 release.
But all is not lost. We are early in our exploration of biofuels and what crops are used to generate those fuels. Researchers are looking for nonfood crops as well as refining waste products into biofuel. We just need to look carefully before we declare a free lunch.
Mitsubishi has given us a peek behind the curtain with their concept car the RA. Is RA a name based on the ancient Egyptian sun god, or is it an acronym for RalliArt? The first guess might mean that it is the replacement for the Eclipse that DSMers have been waiting for since the second generation Eclipse ended in 1999.
What is so great about this concept car? It uses lightweight plastic on an aluminum space frame chassis and it incorporates the latest in Mitsubishi’s all wheel drive technology that includes SAWC (Super All Wheel Control) off the latest iteration of the Evolution.
The real eye opener is the engine that puts out 201 hp and 310 lbs of torque. That second number should give you a clue. Yes, it is powered by a turbocharged diesel engine.
While I see electric cars as being the end game in motor transportation, it is the diesel that will bridge the gap to when electrics are ready for prime time. Performance diesel cars are not new to Europe, but they are in this country.
Fortunately diesel fuel standards in this country have resulted in a much cleaner fuel than was previously available at our pumps. This, along with cleaner burning diesel engines, means that performance diesels will be quieter, provide more performance, not be soot generators, and provide a 30% fuel economy advantage over gasoline powered vehicles.
It is nice to see Mitsubishi provide this concept. The word is that we could be seeing something very much like it shortly in the showrooms.
Posted by jimsgarage 
Posted by jimsgarage 
Posted by jimsgarage 
