Bang Shift finds really cool drag racing, here's a trio of awesome

Hayden Proffitt and the funny car Rebel. Ya gotta hand it to anyone who looks at the brick aerodynamics and says they'll make it win.

EJ Potter, that madman

Turbo Stang, powered by a drag axle from Turbonique and this is the first time I've seen this photo.. awesome

For lots of dragracing photos and videos, go see the tremendous coverage at Bang Shift http://www.bangshift.com/blog/

The Wagonmaster

from the gallery at http://zelastchancegaragedu78.blogspot.com/2010/06/tommys-wagon-master.html

Karl and Veda Orr, keepers of the hot rod faith and spreading the word with their hot rod publication while the guys were fighting in WW2

Veda set the Full Fendered Roadster record at 104.40 mph and later upped that to 114.24 in 1937. She ran 131-plus mph at the wheel of the Taylor-Blair modified and became the first woman to race in the SCTA.

Veda published the SCTA News, and later started her own newsletter as a means of communicating with other racers; however, it wasn't long after its inception that WWII began and many of the racers found themselves in the military and on their way overseas. To keep spirits up, Veda distributed her publication to more than 750 service men all around the world for free and personally corresponded with hundreds as well.

http://www.streetrodderweb.com/features/0802sr_veda_orrs_1932_ford_roadster/index.html

Karl was a fortunate guy to land a wife this good looking, a magazine phenomenon, and a land speed racer.

I often come across photos that I add to posts with similar items... but this time I'll just post the new stuff and links to where they would go

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search?q=weasel

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/12/photos-of-unusual-from-days-gone-by.html

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2009/11/inspection-cars-for-railroad-inspectors.html

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2009/03/few-more-from-shorpy.html

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search/label/Disney

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/10/chuck-yeager-american-hero-drove-hot.html

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2006/11/only-time-super-sport-was-ever-applied.html

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4kPFQxex71c5yzV0yBhOlIbHWl27v0AeF4Q3SFqHxwHz3BcQLZv9Tel7SsJ-i5Nb9zLYmxdPwZipnyM0JICTRq4abXL7NlIIjURYiVrY79GBGdFppwXv8UUBBTNbOhre2wfRhwHMzaxM/s1600/1.jpg

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/10/one-wheel-trailer-trailcar-by-allstate.html

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/01/ms-linda-and-damn-big-shifter.html and http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2009/05/ms-hurst-linda-vaughn-and-chrysler-300.html

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2009/02/dealership-photos-from-20s-through-60s.html

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2008/11/rare-historical-automotive-jem.html

All those labels under these posts, and in the long column (about 1000) are there to help me, and you, find the stuff you are looking for. They sure help me find the things I recall having posted before, so I can add photos like these to the posts I want them in, or want to let you know where you can find similar things.

photos from http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428585&page=270

The Lawman, Boss 429 Mustang that AL Eckstrand brought to the USO tours during Vietnam to take the troops mind off the war for a moment

Tribute recreation of the "California Kid" was at SEMA

Tribute built to look like the 1934 Ford by Pete Chapouris of Pete and Jake fame...

http://66.154.44.164/forum/showthread.php?t=529856&page=3 has the details of how and why is obvious

the car was made famous in 1973 when Martin Sheen (Charlie Sheen's dad) drove the cops into submission in a movie named "California Kid" (good movie, but slow)
The story takes place in 1958, and involves a town, Clarksburg, California, with a famous speed trap, in which a disturbed Sheriff Roy Childress (Vic Morrow), whose wife and daughter were killed by a speeder, turns bad, with a habit of deliberately punishing speeders by pushing their cars off the mountain highway in his 1957 Plymouth Belvedere.

Challenging the sheriff, who tries to run him off the road. McCord is ready, knowing his car's limits for the curve, and the sherriff is a victim of his own obsession, going too fast to make the deadly turn. He drives off the cliff, while McCord manages to stop. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_California_Kid
Read all about the car: http://auto.howstuffworks.com/the-california-kid-hot-rod.htm

Jungle Jim

Found on http://elcistebravado.blogspot.com/

Chuck Yeager, american hero... drove a hot rod!

The first pilot ever to fly faster than the speed of sound, but that is only one of the remarkable feats this pilot performed in service to his country.

Shot down over enemy territory only one day after his first kill in 1943, Yeager evaded capture, and with the aid of the French resistance, made his way across the Pyrenees to neutral Spain. In all, he flew 64 combat missions in World War II.

On one occasion he shot down a German jet from a prop plane. By war's end he had downed 13 enemy aircraft, five in a single day.

Yeager commanded the Air Force Aerospace Research Pilots School to train pilots for the space program. In this capacity, Yeager supervised development of the space simulator and the introduction of advanced computers to Air Force pilots. Although Yeager himself was passed over for service in space, nearly half of the astronauts who served in the Gemini, Mercury and Apollo programs were graduates of Yeager's school.

In 1968, Yeager was promoted to brigadier general. He is one of a very few who have risen from enlisted man to general in the Air Force
Biography info editted from http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/yea0bio-1

via: http://speedseekers.blogspot.com/ where there is always something cool and unusual going on

Fangio (5 time world champ) racing Brabham (3 time champ) in a 4 lap demonstration, and Fangio was driving the legendary W196 Mercedes!

from http://thechicaneblog.com/

A galley of photos of the Blitzen Benz

the engine was a 12.5 liter, 763 cu in

Eddie Rickenbacker... you may recall who he was, WW1 flying ace awarded the Medal of Honor in the 94th Aero Squadron, head of Eastern Airlines, owner of the Indy 500 racetrack, race car driver, and set a speed record in the Blitzen Benz of 134 mph... with a chain drive I want to point out. http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/07/eddie-rickenbacker.html for a full biography of a remarkable icon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Rickenbacker

Barney Oldfield at Ormond Beach in 1910... Barney was the first to drive a car at 60 mph, and in 1910
he broke all existing speed records for the mile, two miles, and the kilometer in special runs at Ormond Beach, Fla. in the Blitzen Benz
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/02/barney-oldfield-american-icon-record.html

Photos are mostly from http://thechicaneblog.com/2010/07/26/art-appreciation-blitzen-benz/

one astonishing comment on the Chicane blog is " as some poor guy found out on the Pendine Sands of Wales, chain drive has a structural limit. Pass that limit and the chains decapitate you when they break."

Beach racing might have died with the whimper of 1909 except for Barney Oldfield. He was the most famous race driver in America. The Stanley Steamer’s 127 mph in 1906 remained the fastest any automobile had thus far traveled, and Oldfield wanted to set a new speed record and so bought the Blitzen Benz.
Scarcely had it been announced there would be no beach racing in 1910 than the statement was retracted and the Speed Carnival was reinstated in March “chiefly to give Barney Oldfield an opportunity to attack world’s straightaway records.”

Oldfield’s name was sufficient to ensure the success of the carnival (and draw a big crowd with lots of money) but to spice the proceedings, competing cars were encouraged to enter.

Oldfield put on a spectacular show and set a speed record of 131.724 mph. “As near to the absolute limit of speed as humanity will ever travel,” said Barney loftily. The Florida Times-Union declared that only a bullet had traveled faster, making a superb advertising line for the Benz importer in New York.

Kaiser Wilhelm II cabled congratulations from Germany.

Thereafter Oldfield barnstormed the nation with the Benz, until that fall, when he engineered a match race against the heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson—a fine gimmick but illegal because Johnson was not an accredited race driver. Suspended by the AAA for a year, Oldfield raced in Mexico for a while, then sold the Benz to his manager, Ernie Moross, announced his retirement, and opened a saloon in Los Angeles.

To Oldfield’s considerable chagrin, Moross returned the Benz to the beach at Daytona in April 1911. His driver was Bob Burman, and there were no challengers to the car this time, but still, a large crowd gathered along the measured mile to watch Burman try for a new record.

“‘Here he comes—there he goes!’ summed up the story of the ride in a nutshell,” reported The Horseless Age after the run. Burman’s speed was 141.732 mph—a full ten miles an hour faster than Oldfield’s. Barney had typically held back during his Benz run so he could promote another “go-for-the-record” exhibition. Needless to say, Oldfield was furious and came out of retirement to seek vengeance. But the “fastest speed at which man has ever traveled over the earth’s surface” belonged to Burman for eight years. So phenomenal was 141-plus mph that automobile makers throughout the world were loath to consider building a car to attempt to top it.

http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1987/7/1987_7_92.shtml

Max Balchowsky, creator of the "Old Yaller" series of handbuilt spare parts racecars that won in races against all the exotic European race cars

Max built the Old Yeller cars that defined this era (1958-1964) of California racing.

The Old Yeller legend began when Max and partner Eric Hauser acquired a Special built by Dick Morgensen of Phoenix, Arizona. Max applied his skills, modifying and upgrading almost every part of the car, and created a potent threat for overall wins.

Old Yeller, an assortment of junkyard debris powered by one of Max's killer Buick nailheads, embarrassed many an expensive European sports car and inspired a generation of hot rodders to go road racing... http://www.britannica.com/bps/additionalcontent/18/27709714/95-MAX-BALCHOWSKYS-OLD-YELLER-I

Max pulled the engine, and put it into Old Yeller II, which he'd just built.

Dan Gurney and Carroll Shelby also drove Old Yeller II. Gurney declared it "The best handling car I've ever driven". ... http://www.tamsoldracecarsite.net/MaxBalchowsky1.html
Old Yaller 1 was made from the Morgensen Special and all the work Max did to make it better, but Old Yellar II was all Max.

Max Balchowsky who took on the best in the business with his motoring equivalent of a mutt. From their outward appearance, cars like Old Yeller II appeared crude, but all of the Yellers were well engineered and usually competed for overall victory with much more expensive competition... http://www.supercars.net/cars/608.html

"Built from derelict freeway signs, a Coca Cola sign, Chevy truck parts, whitewall tires, and junkyard parts" .. " winning 8 of 13 outings in 1963-64" .. the engine was built with "special pistons, six Stromberg 97 carburetors on two Crower log manifolds, and an exotic camshaft from Ed Winfield" .... Vintage American Road Racing Cars 1950-1969 By Harold Pace

"Max became good friends with Buddy Hackett and did the setups for the VW known as Herbie for the movie 'Love Bug.' Max is most legendary for the movie stunt work he did for the movie Bullit with Steve McQueen, and he knew Steve well. Max worked with Elvis Presley in several movies, and for Viva Las Vegas, Max used two Old Yeller race cars in the movie (one crashed)."
http://www.ada.org/news/3511.aspx

The ladies love a racing legend

Sir Stirling Moss and the Maserati 250F feel the love at Donington Park http://motormodels.tumblr.com/

Beautiful Audrey Hepburn riding a bike

Via: http://voiture-jaune.tumblr.com

the choice selections from voiture-jaune.tumblr so far, James Dean scene from Hud, and Steve McQueen on the set of Great Escape before the bike jump

These two images are enduring.

I've read but can't recall the story with Dean Jefferies and the woman... maybe it was her car? Anyway, cool artists paint box, I've photographed all the pinstripers paint boxes that I've come across so far, and it's very interesting to me to see how each puts their name / logo on them with a bit of lettering and pinstripping

from http://voiture-jaune.tumblr.com/

the inventor of the mobile (hanging art piece of many balanced parts) Alexander Calder

from http://voiture-jaune.tumblr.com/



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Calder has a brief but unenlightening description, and doesn't hit the innovative genius key that a documentary I watched did. Alexander Calder had a roll of wire in his pocket and a pair of pliers, and when inspiration hit he would create, anywhere and anytime, and made masterpieces like this circus of minitures

For a gallery of Alex in his studio: http://lecontainer.blogspot.com/2010/06/calder-in-his-studio-dav.html

New photos of Burt Munro and his first time at Bonneville have been found

above and below are the images that show Burt having just been given the sack of money that everybody donated to (love the comraderie of racers) that was a scene in World's Fastest Indian and the above moment was captured by another camera http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/01/they-passed-hat-for-burt-just-like.html

From http://www.jockeyjournal.com/?p=710 . The photos were taken by Jack Brady, and are in the Kellogg collection, and I came across them at http://chromjuwelen.tumblr.com/post/789278888/the-jockey-journal-blog-archive-the-passion-of

For all the other information and photos of Burt I've come across: