Car Lust

The Original Mach 5 from Speed Racer: Mach GoGoGo

(Submitted by Car Lust reader and commenter Tigerstrypes)

Who of us born in the last 50 years doesn’t know who Speed Racer is? And who didn’t want a Mach 5?

Throughout any continuity of your choice that portrays the original silhouette of the trident-nosed homage to hypersonic speeds, the Mach 5 has been raced hard, stolen, sabotaged, shot at, imitated, damaged, crashed, rebuilt, has been in turbulent waters, crashed again, rebuilt hours before a big race, and traded paint with the best and the worst that international automotive racing and shady organizations and individuals could throw at it, among many other things. This two-tone (as it should be) machine is the embodiment of the never-give-up/never-say-die attitude of the Mifune/Racer family.

The Chandelier Tree

(A note from That Car Guy (Chuck): This post is dedicated to my Mother, who just left us recently. She loved all living things, especially plants, and would have been amazed at the sight of this magnificent tree.)

So when's the last time you've driven through a tree and did no damage whatsoever to your car, its occupants, or the tree itself? That's right, a tree, a big, growing, hard, wooden thing that gives you shade in the Summertime, usually drops its leaves in the Fall, and looks so grand in the Spring.

The Chandelier Tree in Leggett, California, offers just that opportunity. There's a small fee as you enter the grounds, where the "natural" potholes enforce a 5 mph park speed limit. And just in case you were wondering, the Tree gets its name from its limbs that resemble an ornate chandelier.

The Tree is a Giant Sequoia, stands 315 feet tall, and is estimated to be 2,400 years old. As a reference, it's the same height as the Old Post Office Pavillion in Washington, D.C. And to gain its claim to fame, an approximately 6-foot-wide by 6-foot, 9-inch-tall opening was cut into its base in the 1930s by Hazel and Charlie Underwood and some helpers.

It has branches so large that they support their own ecosystems with trees of other types growing on them. And though the Chandelier Tree is a spectacle itself, the tallest known living thing is another redwood tree, which is named named Hyperion, and is 379.1 feet tall.

Cyclekarts

Modern vehicles are increasingly sophisticated, with digital engine and suspension controls and ever more complex mechanical systems. This has given us a world where the humblest entry-level Hyundai hatchback boasts a level of efficiency, reliability, and safety that was once unimaginable in even the most prestigious high-dollar luxury battleship. This is, of course, a good thing--but as we've sometimes lamented here at Car Lust, all of this sophistication also means that there's not as much of a place for the do-it-yourself mechanic as there once was.

The same is true of motorsports. These days, racing is something it usually takes serious dollars to get into. NASCAR "stock car" racing, once the home of self-taught "good ol' boys" who race-prepared Hudson flathead straight sixes by the seat of their pants in corner garages, no longer has much (if anything) to do with "stock" cars--that is, cars you can actually buy at your local dealer and drive on the street. Today's NASCARs are purpose-built racing vehicles costing millions to design and build. Indy cars, F1, endurance racing--these are even less accessable to the non-professional. There's little room these days for the hot rod assembled from junkyard components, the dirt track racer built in someone's garage--hell, even Soap Box Derby cars have been commodified and standardized and come in easy-to-assemble kit form!

So what's left for the backyard automaker? Is there still such a thing as entry-level motorsports for people who design and build their own iron and don't have a degree in mechanical engineering or corporate sponsors writing checks for them? Is there a class of competition cars that can be built by motivated amateur craftsmen of average skill using ordinary materials, hand tools, and kitchen utensils found in the typical American home?

I'm happy to say that there is still such a thing, if you know where to look for it. One example is the sport of cyclekart racing.

The Most Famous Tractor In The World. Well, maybe.

You start it up, and pyrotechnics go off that would shame any fireworks display. Point to one of its wheels, and it falls off. Point to a second wheel, and it falls off too. So does the steering wheel. Grab the wiring harness and the gauges fall out, saying you're flying at 3,000 feet. Whatever you do, don't call it any names or it might chase you around the barnyard.

This is a typical day in the life of a Hoyt Clagwell tractor.

We Car Lusters now travel back in time to the mid 1960s, somewhat abandon our senses, voyage about 300 miles from "Chicargo," and take the Cannonball to the town of Hooterville, which is near Crabwell Corners and Pixley. Then let's take a drive down an unnamed dusty county road and enter "The Old Haney Place," home of Lisa and Oliver Wendell Douglas, which has now been renamed "Green Acres."

We find a ramshackled country farmhouse, filled with stylish, modern furniture that looks like it came out of a Park Avenue, New York, apartment, because that's exactly what it did. Out back is gorgeous Lisa feeding Eleanor the cow and Henrietta the hen and her chicks, who also have individual names. In the nearby barn, poor Oliver and hired hand Eb Dawson (No kin to Jack) are hopelessly trying to get their old tractor going. Mr. Douglas is in his plowing suit today, so we know many of his acres need to be tilled.

The GMC Motorhome (1973-1978 Model Years)

Say what you will about RVs. Some folks think they are modern, luxurious castles on wheels, while others blame them for all traffic gridlock, fuel shortages, and bad weather. The guys across the big pond at TopGear UK absolutely loathe them, and have presented their disgust on several hilarious occasions.

But let's time-travel again to, say, 1972, just before the first Arab Oil Embargo hit the Unites States. Recreational vehicle sales were booming, gas could be had for about twenty cents a gallon, and it was extremely plentiful. Large vehicles were the rule of the day, and many people thought that driving a small car was an unnecessary safety risk.

Built beginning in the 1972 calendar year, General Motors introduced what may be their most original, brilliant, and beautiful technical achievement of all time... and that's not a simple thing to say. While other motorhomes were just manufactured bodies dropped onto an existing truck frame, the GMC was designed from the ground up to act as a single component. Also unlike other RVs, this vehicle was not just built to be lived in, it was also designed to be driven.

The styling of the GMC Motorhome was and is elegant and futuristic. I think it has withstood the test of time and still looks good today. Maybe the grille area is a bit dated, but the body's organic curved shapes, like a Porsche 928, should never go out of style. Many of the design elements of the GMC Motorhome were used later in the production of the Vixen, but that beauty is another story and probably deserves a post of its own.

Great Rides of Summer Week: 1982 Honda Goldwing GL1100

As I’ve mentioned before, my family is a Honda motorcycle family.  My parents own 2 Honda cars, a Honda mower, and about a half dozen Honda motorcycles.  My brother rides a Honda ST1100 cycle and about a year ago sold his Honda Accord, and he's a CRX nut.  I own a Honda Civic and mower along with my cycle.  You can't get into my family's garages and not help but notice we are fond of Honda's.

This all stems fromt he fact that my dad is a Honda Gold Certified mechanic, though he only works on cycles now as a hobby.  So a few years ago when my dad called and offered me a 1982 Honda Goldwing, I didn’t think twice about saying yes.  I bummed a ride for the 3 hour trip to my hometown and then got to experience the wind in hair, sun on my back, and the thrill of the ride on my way back to my quiet Southern Minnesota home.

So what is a Goldwing you might be asking?  It is the 2 wheel equivalent of a Lincoln Towncar.  The Goldwing is Honda’s large touring motorcycle.  Introduced originally in late 1974, over time it became the benchmark for touring motorcycles in the United States.  Since the start of production, over 1 million Wings have hit the road. 

The Wienermobile

No, this isn't about that Weiner.

I live in a small, rural, farming community in Southern, Minnesota.  That means many of the locals talk a lot about $300,000+ vehicles with great regularlity - but most of those are made by John Deere or Case IH.  We don't have a lot of exciting vehciles here, most everything is functional, and most of it isn't all that remarkable on a day to day basis.

So when the Wienermobile was spotted in town a while back, it caused quite a stir.  Facebook
exploded with conversation (and photos!) of the famed Wienermobile.

Not familiar with the Wienermobile?  Imagine a motorhome sized vehicle shaped like an Oscar Meyer hot dog on a mustard colored base. You can't miss the thing, it's HUGE!  The Wienermobile measures 27 feet long and 11 feet high!

The original Wienermobile was created in 1936 by Carl G. Mayer - Oscar Mayer's nephew.  There have been ten total variants of the Wienermobile created over the years using various models and brands as the base chassis.  In the 50's a Wienermobile was constructed with a Willys Jeep chassis providing the support.  In the late 60's the Wienermobile platform moved to a Chevy motorhome base with Ford Thunderbird tailights.  Most recently the Wienermobile has found its motivation on top of a GMC-W platform.  As you read through the list of the transformation of the Wienermobile, there are parts from all sorts of vehicles over the year that have been grafted onto these sweet rides.

Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum

Alex and I visited the Crawford Museum in University Circle on Cleveland's east side (not far from the famed Cleveland Clinic) on a recent Saturday. The Museum is operated by the Western Reserve Historical Society.

My primary objective was to get some shots of the Museum's two Jordans to illustrate my last post, but as you'll see there's a lot more to the collection than that.

Aerocon Boa

Submitted for your consideration, the 1978 Aerocon Boa:

The Boa was sort of a kit car, but it wasn't the usual bundle of crude, unfinished fiberglass body parts and welded tubing that requires two years of nights and weekends and a first lien on your sanity before it even begins to resemble a working automobile. This particular "kit car" (if you can even properly call it one) was made from the finest aircraft-grade aluminum, it came mostly pre-assembled, and the reason you probably haven't heard of it until now is that it was the living embodiment of the phrase "batteries not included."

A Few AMC Concept Cars

Folks, please allow me to do a different kind of post this time. These cars were never sold, and there's just not enough information to do a detailed description on each one. So I guess this time it's more or less a slide show, hopefully a little more entertaining than that trip your aunt took to the quilt museum.

Some of these cars could have been built very easily. I think a couple were slightly ahead of their time and should have been built, and one is just awkward... maybe even drawn somewhat study hall-ish. But who knows? Maybe if some of these had made it to market in time, AMC could have survived.

First up, only two of these swoopy AMX\2 prototype coupes were built in 1969 for styling exercises and car shows. They had fake, plastic engines. Had the car made production, it would have had a longitudinally-mounted AMC V-8 engine and transaxle.

The styling reminds me of an early 1970s DeTomaso Pantera. Its clean lines are timeless, but they surely would have been spoiled by the invasion of 5-mile-per-hour bumpers that would have been fitted by 1974.