Labor Day weekend on Cape Cod brings with it a host of car shows. Early last week I went to one close to the Bourne Bridge that connects this peninsula with the main land. It is a weekly show that will continue through September 9.
At around 4:30 in the afternoon the cars start showing up once they are certain that the weather will be in their favor. It was entertaining to see the different eras that each of the cars represented as well as the style of customizing.
Some were more along the lines of classic restoration while others were all about the art of hot rod customs.
The vast majority of the cars were typical American muscle cars with a few post-war beauties thrown in. The imports were mostly represented by some fantastic looking Porsche of the 911 variety where at least half were of them had air cooled engines.
One import was a post-war beauty that was right hand drive and in fantastic shape.
Here are a few photos of some of the different cars you could wander around. Anything from a genuine Cobra roadster to a 1955 VW Beetle with semaphore turn signals and no gas gauge.
There was even this Ford F-800. A rare truck to be sure.
Today I drove down to Falmouth where they had a car show known as the Falmouth Dream Cruise. They had three separate areas in the village where cars were displayed by their owners. There were the pre-war vintage cars, the muscle cars, and the imports and two-seater sports cars. I went to this last display area.
In the Japanese section there were a plethora of Miatas and my car. The Miata people were very cordial and since I know the car well and have worked on a few we had some great discussions on the Mazda.
In addition there were several Ferraris as well as some classic British cars.
Later a new Ford GT showed up only to be followed by a Fort GT40.
Here are some other shots of cars.
Unfortunately the weather was not cooperating and in the early afternoon we were treated to some downpours. After the second one I packed up and headed back to my home base.
I may have time this weekend to take in one or two more of these shows – we’ll see.
Yesterday I once again took the Evolution into the wilds of Interstate 95 and headed up to Cape Cod. This time it was a seventeen hour trip complete with two hours of clutch endurance testing to cross the George Washington Bridge with a record toll charge of $8. Connecticut took second place in the Interstate crawl with the first 25 miles taking a full hour.
Along the way I had the opportunity to watch an Amphicar towed by trailer make its way in the lane beside me. It was a cream colored example with New Jersey plates. I recalled seeing my first Amphicar back in the early 1960’s. It was a powder blue version that the owner tried out in North Bay in Osterville, MA. Since the two propellers both turned in the same direction the car could to great left turns in the water, but had only large, difficult ones when it turned to starboard. If the water wasn’t flat calm you were likely to get wet and if there were any waves to speak of you were likely to take on too much water and submerge.
As I transverse Maryland it became clear that the state police had pulled out all the stops and had everything out on the highway. I saw numerable marked cars as well as many unmarked. The new Dodge Charges seem to be a real favorite with state police everywhere whether marked or unmarked. I even saw an unmarked new Ford Mustang complete with five spoke alloy wheels.
This trip I was keeping to a speed that would not attract unwanted attention. As a result I did not have to stop and grovel while being chastised.
Sweden, known for its modern furniture and cars that can make the most inept mechanic fabulously rich has taken the latest tree hugger’s delight and turned it into a rice rocket.
What if you took a Ford Cougar (sold as a Mercury in the US), a WRC car and an F1 car and took them all to the same road course? What if you gave the street car a HUGE head start?
If I woke up one morning and found I had too much money I think I would put together a collection of movie cars. This collection would be cars that I saw in the movies that really impressed me both in terms of the car’s personality as well as how they fit into the context of the movie.
I have been putting together this list in my head from time to time, but I think now is the time for me to organize them in a list and describe why they would be on it as well as outline just what they would be when built.
1. The Blues Brother’s Bluesmobile
This would be a fun car not only to build, but to drive around in, especially around the streets of Chicago.
2. The Bullitt Mustang
Ford has two iterations of the Mustang that are called Bullitt Mustangs, but this one should be a look alike to the one Steve McQueen drove in the movie Bullitt.
3. Vanishing Point Challenger
Kowalski made it famous as he smashed it into the blades of a pair of the biggest Caterpillar tractors ever.
4. The supercharged car of Max as seen in the Road Warrior
The movie had police cars that were tagged with Pursuit, but Max drove the one labeled Interceptor!
5. James Dean’s Little Bastard
OK, this was not in any movie, but come on, James Dean made the mid-engined Porsche famous through his unfortunate death.
6. A Mini Cooper as seen in the Italian Job
What a cool car, even without it being in a move. I wouldn’t need to transport any gold either.
7. The ratty Porsche the Paul Newman drove in Harper
There were no memorable chase scenes in Harper, but the bathtub Porsche he drove with the half finished body work stole the movie for me.
The Bluesmobile – There is a lot of great information out there on the Internet if you want to build your own, or just want to read up on what takes to turn a 1974 Dodge Monaco into an ex-Mount Prospect police car. Mine would be as true to the movie car as I could manage along with faded paint and overspray. I would have junk strewn upon the dash but have the seats done with nice vinyl or maybe even nice leather that looked the same. I would enjoy picking people up at the airport in the car and having them enjoy all the attention the car would garner.
The Bullitt Mustang – Plenty of information exists on just what it takes to build a Mustang like Steve McQueen drove. Supposedly one still exists, but the owner isn’t making it public. The tough part would be finding a donor Mustang that wasn’t all rotted out, but the stipulation is that I have too much money, right? Dynacorn International now makes new 1967 Mustang fastback bodies so that you can cut the time (and spend more money) to bring a 1967 (or 1968 ) Bullitt Mustang to life. I think I would consider a small block version instead of the big block that Steve drove in the move. The power levels that can now be achieved are not that significant and the weight differential would improve handling immensely. The exhaust note would have to have the same throaty rumble that explodes into a roar though. While I would do everything to make the outside replicate the movie Mustang I would not hesitate to improve the suspension and brakes. Newer technology in those areas would be foolish to ignore and should not detract from the look one bit. One tough part here would be the wheel and tire sizes. The original wheels were smaller diameter than what is out there today but it would look silly to have 35 series tires on eighteen inch rims so it would take some research to find the right wheels that were not too large and some excellent rubber to complement the handling.
1970 Dodge Challenger – The Dodge Charger from Bullitt was a sinister car that blasted around with power and looked even better for the fact that Bill Hickman was driving, but Vanishing Point’s star was the Dodge Challenger driven by Kowalski. We never got a peek at the engine compartment during the movie, but the sound track gave it a fantastic rumble. Was it a 440 six-pack, or the hemi? Who knows? Kowalski said it was supercharged, but we never see the engine. I imagine it would be tough to find a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T that was restorable, but they are out there. With lots of money it could even be upgraded in the brakes and suspension, too. Again, tires and wheels would be a trick as they have changed greatly since 1970. What a fun car to take cruising though.
Mad Max Police Car – Right hand drive makes it a bit tough, but finding a 1973 XB-GT Ford Falcon would really take a lot of time and money. The effort could mean a fantastic car that was really unique. The front end of the original Falcon was replaced with what was called a Concorde by a guy who worked for Ford Australia and it really made the look of the car. This car was obviously supercharged as there were many great shots of it going into action during the movie. This might be fun to take out to the western parts of the US.
James Dean Porsche 550 Spyder – This was quite the sports car in its day. It was a two-seater, aluminum bodied, mid-engined car that was made to race. Bill Hickman (known as big bastard) was good friends with Jimmy and taught him about driving fast. The Porsche was something special all right and today there are a few kit car manufacturers that allow you to closely duplicate the car. The biggest challenge is providing enough cooling air to that air cooled engine placed amidships. It would be nice to have an aluminum body, but not a requirement. Nor would it be a requirement to have a Porsche engine. There are so many VW-based engines out there with plenty of power and reliability that it would be a better choice. While it might not burn up the track like it did in the fifties this would definitely be a fun car to put on a road course. It might also be fun to drive up in the mountains exploring the Blue Ridge Parkway. The body work could hide some very sophisticated suspension goodies, too.
The Italian Job’s Mini Cooper - This might just be one of the easiest to find. The Monte Carlo Rally version would certainly do and I believe Bill Putman has one of those in his collection. This would be such fun buzzing around city streets in although it would be tempting to go wild like Jason Bourne did in the second movie.
Bathtub Porsche from Harper - Paul Newman is not only an actor, but a talented race car driver. Back in 1966 he made a movie titled “Harper” in which he played a private detective of sorts. What was really cool was the Porsche “Speedster” convertible that he drove in the movie with one door in primer. This version of the Porsche was sometimes referred to as the “bathtub” Porsche because as a convertible it seemed that the driver was down so low it could have been a bathtub. Just finding one of these original Porsche would be very expensive, but there are replica kits out there. A replica I wouldn’t mind leaving the door in primer and having old looking paint on it. It would be fun to get the engine, suspension, and tires really hooked up and have the outside look as beat up as the movie version did.
Last weekend we brought in the Subaru Legacy Spec B into the shop for a suspension update. As you may recall from our previous entries, our adventures with this car started with swapping out the stock rear anti-roll bar with one from Perin. This helped to reduce the amount of body roll that was in the car as it came from Subaru. The Spec B came with Bilstein struts but the springs allowed for excessive body roll.
We were reluctant to swap out the spring for some shorter ones because their installation would result in lowering the car’s roll center as well. What happens then is that while the center of gravity is lowered the roll center gets too low and produces understeer to a higher degree.
Whiteline came out with a kit to compensate for the drop in the roll center when STi springs were installed. That consisted of revised lower ball joints and tie rod ends that brought the lower control arms and tie rod geometry up where is belongs.
While the car’s handling was sorted out by all these changes the rear bar was acting up by causing a bind as the suspension went through its full range of motion. So off we went to find a better solution for an anti-roll bar. We found the Cobb makes a set of bars for both the front and rear of the Spec B that were tubular in design. Tubular bars are particularly nice since they are lighter in weight, yet provide just about the same roll stiffness as a solid bar. Keeping weight off the car is a goal that should always be kept in mind especially unsprung weight. Since most of the work of an anti-roll bar is done at the outside diameter of the bar, making it out of tubing is the most efficient design.
The Cobb bars were a perfect fit, too. To get to the stock front bar the splash pan had to be un-bolted as well as a stamped metal brace. The front Cobb bar came with new bushings and brackets that had grease fittings installed. Synthetic grease was the only kind to use as regular grease would be flushed out with water.
The rear bar replaced the Perin bar and included reinforcements to ensure that the mounts wouldn’t flex as torsion was put on them during normal suspension movements. It also had grease fittings built in to the mounts.
The results was a noticeable improvement to the handling and feedback that a driver feels. The only downside was the noise from the bushings. Even though we applied a very liberal coating to the inside of the bushings they still squeaked. So we ordered up a synthetic grease gun kit from the folks at Green Grease. That should quiet things down.
With the warning about the noisy bushings the Spec B was returned to the owner who was very impressed with the handling improvements. He also found the bushings too noisy, but is willing to wait for the Green Grease to arrive and solve that problem.
Posted by jimsgarage 
Posted by jimsgarage 
Posted by jimsgarage 
