12/11/2020 0 Comments Merry Christmas Everyone!It has been a rough year for car shows. Don't let the past turn you into the Grinch. Be thankful for what you have and look forward to a prosperous 2021. Hope to see you all at a show in the coming year! Merry Christmas!
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You'll be happy to know that there is an answer to that question! You see, Patrick Stewart, the actor that played Captain Picard, is an avid car collector. In fact, he owns over 20 vehicles, and has raced some of them. Below are pics of some of the cars that he owns. See how many you can name! Remember, if you click on the pic, you will be able to see the full photograph and not just the thumbnail pic.
11/17/2018 0 Comments Super Star CarsJohn Lennon's Rolls Royce Ever wonder what kind of car your music or TV idol drives? I have! To make it easy, I have collected pics of some of my favorite stars and their cars. The picture above is of John Lennon and his son Julian standing in front of his Rolls Royce in 1967. The pictures in this post are not of all of the cars these stars owned... just some pictures of cars they were known to have owned. Enjoy! Ringo Starr's '57 Bel Air
Chuck Berry and his '59 Cadillac
Jimi Hendrix and his '69 Corvette Stingray Johnny Cash's Cadillac
Janis Joplin and her psychedelic Porsche
Jim Morrison and his Shelby Mustang Farrah Fawcett and her Ford Mustang Tommy Lee and his Chevy Impala
This Final pic is Ann Margaret on a chopper. I don't know if she owned it,
but man does she look good on it!
The above picture is of a 1973 Corvette Stingray that shows up at our local car show fairly regularly. 1973 was a transitional year for the Corvette, Chevy made subtle changes to the car to make it quieter, an its ride smoother and less like a race-inspired muscle car. The front chrome bumper was dropped from this model year and replaced with a light-weight front bumper system, which met the federally-mandated 5 mph standard. Three different engine choices were available in 1973. The base-model L-48 engine produced 190 hp, while the L-82, high-performance small-block engine, produced 250 horse power. Meanwhile, the big-block 454 generated 275 horsepower. Note all of these horsepower ratings are net numbers, and not gross horse power, which were reported in years past. About 15% of the Corvettes ordered in 1973 had a 454 engine. 454 emblems were on the hood of these cars, so its likely that the car we have pictured does not have a 454, since it has no emblem. To be safe, I'll ask the owner then next time I see him at a cruise night. 6/14/2018 1 Comment 1972 Volkswagen Westfalia Camper
Good news! My daughter Maddie has joined the ranks of Classic car owners. Earlier this week, we traveled to Candia, New Hampshire to look at a 1972 VW bus. Millions of these buses were made since the 1950's and The one Maddie looked at had the Westfalia camper conversion. Just 66,000 buses were produced in 1972. The bus has the typical rust patterns found on the VWs of this era as well as a number of dents and dings that have accumulated over the years. The engine was bad in this bus, and the owners had included another motor in its place. After making a list of all of the projects we will need to do to restore the bus, our first priority will be to overhaul the engine and reinstall it in the back of the van. Maddie is currently finishing up high school and her first two years of college, so we expect to work slowly on the van. With any luck, we will have it on the road in early 2020 and totally restored by 2022. We will both learn as we go, and hopefully, many of the things we learn will carry over and teach me tricks to help me with my restoration of my car, a 1972 Buick Centurion convertible. 5/10/2018 1 Comment My 1972 Buick Centurion
The Buick Centurion is one of the last great land cruisers of its era. In late 1973, the price of gas skyrocketed from $3 a barrel to well over $12 a barrel due to the OPEC oil embargo. The embargo was targeted at countries who supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War. It ended in March,1974. By that time, the end of the muscle-car era was already at hand. Starting in 1974, cars started to be designed to to be smaller, and more fuel efficient. The Centurion is anything but fuel efficient! I was warned, by people who have never driven the car, and didn't actually know that Centurions existed until after I showed them mine, that I could expect to get eight or nine miles to the gallon. This ended up being an exaggeration, however. On longer trips, where we were driving for at least an hour nonstop, I usually get between 12 to 15 miles per gallon. I usually use premium gasoline in my car, and that could make a difference in the results I achieve, since Centurions were manufactured at a time when leaded gasoline was the norm. Using lead in gas can raise the octane level by about twenty, and thus the older cars work best with higher-octane fuels. My Centurion is not my everyday ride. I store it in my garage over the winter months, and only back it out of the garage about once every three weeks to run the engine. During the late Spring and into the late Fall, I use the car for cruises on the weekends, and to go to karate on really nice days. I also take it to car shows when I can. When the weather is nice, and the top is down, there is no other car I would rather be driving than my Centurion! |