Challenging Mopar trivia masters, what unusual about this 1969 Dart?

Answers are here after the link: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/05/tokyo-plates-on-56-nomad-bitchin-ride.html

Racing stripes

invented by the Briggs Cunningham team in 1950, according to Automobile Magazine's Robert Cumberford, Feb 2011 issue, Jay Leno Bugatti feature

Reasons horses towed cars... cars got stuck easy, horses pulled them out... but did you know Nantucket outlawed cars from 1900 to 1918?

This is an interesting example of another reason on Wikipedia: "Clinton Folger's "Horsemobile" delivering mail, on South Beach Street, at Hayden's Hot Sea Bathhouse entrance.

For nearly twenty years, from 1900 to 1918, Nantucket was the only place in the nation that successfully fought encroachment of the automobile within its limits. Opposing politicians on the mainland and large property owners, mostly non-residents, Nantucketers kept the island free of the "gasoline buggy" until the final vote of the town on May 15, 1918. By the narrow margin of forty - 326 to 286 - the automobile was allowed entry.

Clinton Folger was the mail carrier for Nantucket. Because cars were forbidden by the town, he towed his car to the state highway for driving to Siasconset: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Horse_drawn_US_Mail_car.jpg

But why do the next two cars appear to have been changed to make a seat for the horse driver where the radiator should be?

Brilliant and wise reader angyl_roper (if your email was available on your profile or any of your 3 blogs, I'd email to thank you!) used the comment feature to tell me that: "During the Depression, Ford sold a conversion kit so that you could use a horse to pull your car since fuel was too expensive. I believe this was for the Model A primarily, but also for the Model T. (so why work your horse so hard, instead of just riding the horse and leaving the car at home?)

However, I'll also note that the top two pictures are snowy and it could just be that hitching up horses (and a sled, in the second one) was an easier way to get your car where you needed it than driving it there.

from http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428585&page=920

the 1903 Oldsmobile runabout, usually called the curved dash Olds...

Was first to be put together on an assembly line, predating the Ford vehicles, and never getting proper mention in the history books for that.

Also, first automobile to outsell electric and steam powered machines.

7 Hp Duryea was the first automobile attempt to drive from coast to coast, in 1899

Above are a couple of guys with a REO Mountaineer, 1906... and have nothing but the similar cross country in an early car rlevance, to this story that follows (photo from http://www.shorpy.com/node/8903?size=_original )

after the Louise and John Davis car with the backing of two newspapers left New York City they had about made it to Syracuse, and were passed by a one armed bicyclist that had left new York City 10 days after the car had.

Winton tried it 2 years later in May of 1901, but only made it 530 miles from San Fran in route to New York when he was hopelessly stuck in a sand drift

In the movie "The Great Race" you may have liked the "Leslie Special" ... but did you think they'd ever put it in another movie? I'm 1st to notice

above photo via: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428585&page=733

There are differences, but the grill, hood ornament, and distictive doors are the same. The Leslie Special was made for the movie "The Great Race" and is not a vintage real car, it's a custom built to look like the Thomas Flyer that won the 1907 Paris to Peking race http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/winner-of-1907-paris-to-peking.html .

Both movies are Warner Brothers Pictures, and that makes it more possible that its the same car... what else would a movie company do with a movie car after the publicity is over for the first movie it was featured in?

http://www.imcdb.org/movie_65446-The-Ballad-of-Cable-Hogue.html demonstrates that no one has identified the car yet on the IMCDB site

Gotta love old movies for cool unusual cars

( http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/couple-of-brass-era-vehicles-from-movie.html and http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/couple-of-brass-era-vehicles-from-movie.html and http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/biggest-wagon-ive-ever-seen-might-only.html ),

and I was really surprised to discover this famous car isn't mentioned to have been in a 2nd movie anywhere on the internet. But it is undeniably the same car painted green, and until now, nothing was on the internet about it.

new car marketing quiz

http://www.cramersweeney.com/brandprix/ I got 13 out of 20... yeah, I made 2 mistakes, and 5 I didn't have any idea. New cars aren't my strong point

Monument to Emile Levassor

Emile Levassor; Pioneering car inventor, racer, and victor of the Paris-Bordeaux-Paris 1895 enduring 48 continuous hours of virtually nonstop driving, a feat possibly not yet repeated. Ok, it was at an average of 15 mph, but that was incredible for 1895.

This monument (raised in 1907) is likely the most grandious tributes ever erected to an automobilist.

Monument to the car

On November 26, 1907, a stone monument was inaugurated square Parodi, boulevard de l'Amiral Buix in Paris XVI °, in honor of Emile Levassor and pioneers of the industry and motorsport. The sculptor Jules Dalou represented Levassor driving the car on which he had won the race Paris-Bordeaux-Paris. This monument, funded by public subscription, was presented to the City of Paris.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89mile_Levassor

(StillOutThere commented contrary, disagreeing about the monument... fact check before you post a disagreement on facts, I'm always wrong in my opinion, just ask my girlfriend... but rarely about facts StillOutThere... )

Trivia

The 1931 Royale had 36 inch rims / wheels. So big, they had to have tires made specially by Michelin. According to "The Automobile" by Cheetham, they were the largest ever fitted to a road car.
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Citreon
The double chevron emblem represented meshing gears

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Cord 810/812
The headlights were from the Stinson aircraft, Cord/Auburn also owned Stinson

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Oldsmobile Starfire had a design of tailfins that were upside down, and below the rear bumper.. they were called "Skegs"

Earthquake when ever and where ever you need one, just light up a top fueler on Nitro, they'll nail 3.9 on the richter scale

As those watching took in the excitement of hearing and seeing a Top Fuel dragster in person, Dr. Doug Brittsan, of Brittsan CPT, measured the movement of the earth with a mobile seismograph.

Once the dragster had been shut off, Dr. Brittsan got to work evaluating the data. End results? The movement of the earth created by the Snap-on Tools Top Fuel dragster was equivalent to an astounding 3.9 on the Richter scale.

http://www.competitionplus.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3448&Itemid=6

I've been curious, how many Barracuda were built in 1971 with the gills, the shaker hood and the billboard stripes? Best looking non SS Barracuda

Image via: http://spiriteddrive.tumblr.com/
there were 11 Hemi Cuda convertibles, and 5 were 4 speeds

The definitive hick town speed trap, Boulogne Florida, popluation 50,

The 4 lane highway was a 55 zone, but the people of Boulogne posted a 45 zone, and cashed on. They won the lottery.

The speed trap was so effective, 60 %of the city income was from fines and forfeitures.

Of the 1008 arrests in 1961, 999 were for speeding. Accordingly 88% of the budget went to policing the zone, all 1.3 miles long and 2000 feet wide.

Greed was their downfall of course, so many complaints, etc caused the state road dept and a senator to get involved. They lost about 10 million dollars due to bad will, and people going out of the way to avoid the now nationally known, nasty little town that was a parasite on the highway and drivers just passing through. The few businesses and citizens left had their charter revoked 8 years after getting it, and 2 years after the senator took a side against them.

From a late 1960's Road and Track article by Richard Poe

Trivia

In 1923, if your Hays Hickory Hitter bumper broke, you'd get a new one free.

The Netherlands American Embassy used an Edsel, it was bought in the late 1960's by the London members of an Edsel club who intended to restore it.

The LA County Fair in 60 or 61 had a rod and custom show, and at it were the Grabowski Kookie Car, Ivo's Buick powered bucket T, Roth's Tweedy Pie T and his Outlaw were all entered in the street roadster class

California traffic ticket fines, they don't make sense relatively, but indicate that the state looks at these fines as revenue, not as a deterent

Traffic Tickets Fines (01/06/2010)

Failure to notify DMV of address change within 10 dayd..................................... $214

Failure to provide evidence of financial responsibility (insurance) ....................$796

Failure to stop at a red signal. ..................................$436
Failure to stop at a stop sign. ....................................$214


Unsafe Speed, 1 to 15 miles over the limit.................$214
Unsafe Speed, 16 to 25 miles over the limit...............$328

Passing a school bus with flashing red signals............$616

Drive using wireless phone not hands free, First offense ....................$148

Drive using wireless phone not hands free, For each subsequent offense. ...............$256

Drive while wireless device to send, read or write text.........................$148

Minor drive using wireless phone.....................................$148

Parking in a bus loading area ...................$976

Violation of disabled parking provisions, first offense................$976

Violation of disabled parking provisions, second offense...............................$1876

Unlawful material on vehicle windows...........................$178

Adequate muffler required ................................$178

Mandatory use of seat belts...............................$148

Mandatory use of child passenger restraints.....................$436

Headsets/Earplugs over both ears.....................$178

Motorcycle safety helmet requirements.......................................$178

No evidence of current registration...................................................$256

Vehicles named after weapons

Pierce arrow, Dodge magnum, AMC Javelin, Sunbeam Rapier, Buick La Sabre

Via: http://forums.acdclub.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=3711

Trivia, how was a quarter mile chosen as the length of a dragstrip?

From Wally Parks:

We took some new (1949 model) cars down, and as part of the the regular Motor Trend road test, we ran these experimental runs. The purpose of the thing was to find out just how far you could race the average car that was available at the time before you had to start getting stopped. We had a runway down there that I think was 4700 feet long. We had probably 20 different cars running, of all types, including some dry lakes cars; and we found that if we extended the acceleration distance more than a quarter mile, some of them couldn't get stopped at the other end. It was on that basis that we (later) established the quarter-mile as the official (NHRA) competition distance.
Hot Rod Magazine Nov. 1978

The lunar rover, only wheeled vehicle off the planet

Above image via: http://www.greyhandgang.com/

there were actually 3 deployed: http://luminosis.blogspot.com/2009/07/for-sale-one-lunar-rover.html
Above image via: http://www.solarviews.com/raw/apo/as17-147-22526.jpg

Above image via: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Apollo15LunarRover.jpg

Below inage via: http://apolloanomalies.com/images/ALSJ/AS17-137-20979HR.jpg

They are still working on the next generaton of lunar rover tires: http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/08/06/goodyear-and-nasa-develop-the-next-gen-lunar-rover-tire-its-springy/

I don't consider the toys on mars to be vehicles, since they have no ability to transport people

What is rare? A 426 max wedge in a Dodge truck as a factory install

The 426 Wedge was part of the $1300 High Performance Package and could be ordered on its own from the separate and distinct $235 Custom Sports Special trim package.

The HP Package was only “officially” offered in 1964 and 1965 on D100 and D200 LWB trucks. The Custom Sports Special trim package was offered from 1964 thru 1967 and could be had on D or W 100, 200 Sweptline, Utiline or chassis cab in LWB or SWB trucks.

Dodge management only authorized 50 trucks could be built with the 426 Street Wedge High Performance Package — according to former Dodge truck engineer Bruce Thomas of the Walter P. Chrysler Museum, who said that far fewer than 50 examples were actually produced. Currently the registry recognizes 31 trucks with these packages or combinations of them.

Info via: http://www.allpar.com/model/ram/ram-history.html

For a great story about them, and a family restoration: http://www.cssregistry.com/css/stevebell.html

V8 Trivia

1st to be modified specifically to set a record (1956 Boneville Salt Flats, 187.992)
1st small block with a GMC blower

These are not yet verified, and may never be, but it's pretty certain that with no documentation from the 1930's through 1970's like the way everything is documented now, it'll never be proven wrong even if it's never proven correct.

The engine? A prototype 265 cu in given to Stu Hilborn by GM in 1954, then sold to Tom Cobbs and installed in his 29 Ford on 34 rails

A profound quote about racing safety

"Gentlemen, just remember... blood is slippery"
Nick Cyret, pres. BRSCC 1959