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Four-Links – Checkers, Cityrama, Clutch, collection (of Nissans)

Checkers in Times Square, 1943

* Old street scene photos tell us a lot about the way things used to be, and Shorpy, the old photo blog, is always good for a vintage street scene, such as this 1943 shot of a rainy day in Times Square by John Vachon. We immediately noticed the Checkers with their funky art deco grilles and landaulet bodies lined up along the street. Only one such example of that style of Checker remains in existence today.

Cityrama bus

* Spotted on Jesse’s blog, we had to find out more about the Citroën U55 Currus Cityrama from the film Zazie dans le métro. It seems Citroën built multiples of these stacked buses for sightseers and tourists in paris in the late 1950s and early 1960s, who didn’t mind being ushered about in such a typically post-war French vehicle.

Clutch, the movie

* Looking like a homebrew version of the Fast and the Furious with more muscle cars, Clutch the movie (as opposed to Clutch the band, from which the movie producers seem to have nabbed their logo) seems to be in post production and headed for a release this summer. We’ll try to get our hands on a copy to see if it’s any good. (via)

Nissan Heritage Collection

* I need to brush up on my Japanese (okay, I need to actually learn a bit of Japanese) because the Nissan Heritage Collection just put up a new website. (via)

Citrogarage in Italy

* And finally, not to subject you to too many Citroën-related links this week, but Garage Journal member lucajack2cv posted some incredible shots of the rebuild of his Citroën-housing garage, which is located in northern Italy, and the photos are worth seeing, if only to inspire dreams of your own old Europe-inspired garage.

Pork alert! Senate may vote on cash for clunkers as early as tonight

When discussing GM’s bankruptcy yesterday, Obama again mentioned that he wants to have a cash for clunkers program (though he used the pseudonym “fleet modernization program”) in place soon to help GM through their bankruptcy. So the Senate seems to be jumping all over itself trying to get a c4c program approved ASAP. In fact, CNN Money reported yesterday and the Detroit News reported today that the Senate may staple it to a tobacco regulation bill headed for the Senate floor as soon as tonight. CNN Money reports:

Attaching an auto provision to a bill giving new power to the FDA to regulate tobacco products may seem unusual. But aides and industry experts say Democratic leadership recognize the sense of urgency to passing the auto subsidy, and the tobacco bill is headed for a full Senate vote.

So, in other words, it’s pork, pushed through under the guise of expediency.

The one silver lining in this news is that, apparently, SEMA’s lobbying efforts have gotten through to Sens. Stabenow and Brownback, the proponents of the Senate legislation: They’ve included a 25-year age limit on the clunker being traded in.

Senators Stabenow and Brownback included the stipulation to help safeguard vehicles that may possess “historic or aesthetic value” and are irreplaceable to hobbyists as a source of restoration parts.

So good news to fans of cars from 1984 or earlier. Thanks, SEMA, for getting that provision wedged in there. Fans of cars newer than that (and I maintain that future car collectors fall into this category), well, you’re still SOL.

UPDATE (3.June 2009): Not to underscore my comments made yesterday, but this bill with SEMA’s 25-year provision might very well be the best we can hope for. Ideally, yes, we’d want to see cash for clunkers tabled and forgotten about entirely, but with Obama pushing for it, we can’t imagine that’ll happen. So a bill with a 25-year provision will be far far better than a bill without.

Also, the formal name of the Stabenow-Brownback bill is S.1135, the Drive America Forward Act. The passage pertinent to our interests is Sec. 2(i)(7)(C):

(7) the term ‘eligible trade-in vehicle’ means an automobile or a work truck (as such terms are defined in section 32901(a) of title 49, United States Code) that, at the time it is presented for trade-in under this section–
(A) is in drivable condition;
(B) has been continuously insured consistent with the applicable State law and registered to the same owner for a period of not less than 1 year immediately prior to such trade-in;
(C) was manufactured less than 25 years before the date of the trade-in; and
(D) in the case of an automobile, has a combined fuel economy value of 18 miles per gallon or less;

UPDATE (4.June 2009): Looks like Stabenow’s bill has stalled, due to some procedural wranglings. Also looks like Feinstein continues to promote her alternate bill.

Six Degrees of Automotive Separation: AMC and ZIL

AMC to ZIL - how many connections does it take to link the two?

In this week’s Hemmings Six Degrees of Automotive Separation Challenge, we present the battle of A to Z, of East versus West, as we challenge you to link American Motors (USA! USA! USA!) to Zavod Imeni Likhachev. It’s like the 1980 Winter Olympics Miracle on Ice, but with cars and trucks, and with a common link between the two companies – in six connections or less, that is.

We can actually think of a couple ways to do this, so, of course, no answer is wrong.

The rules, as before, are simple: A connection consists of one company owning another, merging with another or sharing another’s parts. Explain your connections, and as before, the point isn’t necessarily to do it in the least number of connections, but to do it with style and with obscure connections. If you need examples, check out our previous Hemmings Six Degrees of Automotive Separation Challenges.

Lost and Found overflow – DeSotOlds?

Reader jimfathome recently posted a photo of his father with an unidentified car on the Hemmings Forum and was hoping we could help him pin down the year, make and model of the car. Responses on the forum have included 1938 DeSoto and 1937 GM something. The former seems closer to the mark, but ‘37 DeSotos had a series of slats down the center of the grille, along with a small beak to the hood at the top of the slats, so maybe Jim’s father was showing off his customizing work in the photo? The 1937 Oldsmobile Six also had a barrel-shaped grille and chevrons underneath, but a two-piece windshield; other 1937-1938 GMs don’t even come close. Anybody want to take a stab at it?

The time for housekeeping has come for General Motors.

One-track gold mine: Huge collection of old National Trail Raceway photos

While not as prominent in automotive history as Detroit or South Bend, Columbus, Ohio, has had a few claims to fame, especially in the drag and performance world, and they all raced at Columbus’s own National Trail Raceway, which was (and still is) actually located on Route 40 (the National Trail, thus the name of the track) about a dozen miles east of Columbus, in the little town of Hebron.

Sports photographer Chance Brockway of Hebron served as the track’s photographer, and he recently let H.A.M.B. member 56 Royal Lancer scan and post his collection of pictures from National Trail throughout the years. Not only is the collection fantastic for the people and the cars it captures, but also for the quality of the photography - Chance had an eye for drag racing, and he got many atypical and often downright gorgeous shots.

With permission from 56 Royal Lancer, we grabbed a few of those shots, but plenty more are on the H.A.M.B., with more on the way.

The track formally opened here in 1964, and below, a group shot of the original track crew.

If you noticed the Ford pickup in the previous photo, that’s there because Ford sponsored National Trail, a sponsorship that continued through 1968 or 1969, when this group shot was taken with the track’s new Ranchero and Torino wagon.

In fact, the sponsorship continued until 1971, when GM began offering track vehicles, including this 1972 El Camino, which ferried Wally Parks and Miss Springnationals at the 1972 Springnats.

The Rs in the circles that you see in many of the photos are not to denote that National Trails Raceway is some sort of registered trademark. Instead, it’s the brand of the Circle R Farm, owned by the Rader family, which built the track. In the photo above, the man on the left is Clark Rader Sr., the patriarch of the Rader family.

Both aerials are undated, but the top one appears to be older. Compare to a current view at Google Maps.

One of those claims to fame mentioned above is Jeg’s, now headquartered north of Columbus in Delaware, Ohio. I had the privilege of speaking with Jeg Coughlin Sr. for the Hot Rod Hero column in the August 2007 issue of Hemmings Muscle Machines and was impressed at how he remains a pretty humble guy despite founding a huge mail-order parts business and despite his family’s great racing successes. Below, a shot of Jeg Sr. on the left and Troy Coughlin in the lower right corner. Also, check out the Cincinnati Reds ballcap in the background. Nobody in the Columbus area rooted for the Indians back then.

I like this photo not only for the lineup of cars, but also for the Jack Maxton sign in the background. Home of the best dog-gone deals.

Another area dealership well represented in Chance’s photos was Chesrown Olds, which, as pointed out in the thread, was actually two different Olds-Cadillac dealers - one in Newark, one in Columbus. Chesrown remains in business today, selling the remaining GM brands and Kia.

And finally, nobody seems to know exactly who this guy is or why he’s wearing a moon suit and has a huge engine cover over his blower. Or why his axle’s bent. Or why he has fenders and headlamps.

Color us stunned: Big-time media turning their backs on cash for clunkers

an early cash for clunkers attempt gone awry?

We could hardly believe our eyes while catching up on the news from over the weekend. No less than four major news sources wrote negatively about cash for clunkers, and on varying rationales.

* First, Brian J. O’Connor of the Detroit News writes about how he’d be the perfect potential cash for clunkers customer, with his deer-magnet 1995 Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon, but decides against taking Uncle Sugar up on his offer, should it become reality.

But it’s not that simple, according to Jeff Bartlett, the deputy online editor for autos at Consumer Reports. You have to buy a new car with 4 mpg to 10 mpg better mileage to get the clunker coupon, which means a new car loan, too.
“Who’s going to be eligible for this?” Bartlett asks. “Chances are it’s someone using an old car because they’ve elected to live frugally or is doing it out of necessity. That type of person would typically gravitate toward a used car.”
Financial planners say a low-mileage 2- or 3-year-old car gives the most reliable service at the best price, since you don’t take the big depreciation hit that comes the second you drive a new car off the lot. The Clunker cash mostly covers that depreciation.
…
When it comes to Clunker bucks, “The person who benefits the most is the person who can pay cash,” Bartlett says, “but that person doesn’t drive a clunker.”

Well said, Brian and Jeff.

* The Guardian offered some criticism of c4c, though their main thrust is that the current proposed legislation isn’t strict enoug.

It should be clear that improving the fuel efficiency of one’s SUV from 15 to 20 mpg isn’t going to do much to deflect the damaging effects of expensive oil. What we want to do, then, is to encourage fuel efficiency without encouraging unnecessary automobile purchases or a shift away from transit.

And they proposed an alternative of raising the gas tax slowly over a period of years. Might be a hard medicine to swallow, but would we rather have crushing?

* The Huffington Post also criticized c4c in much the same vein, with more analysis on the MPG Illusion argument. Their solution - make c4c dependent on carbon emissions rather than miles per gallon. Noble, but that would require a federal emissions testing program or some means of measuring individual automobile emissions.

* Finally, Time’s David von Drehle writes on how he could take advantage of cash for clunkers to get rid of his family’s 2001 Honda Odyssey, but after considering it, finds himself strangely attracted to the van and its sentimental value. And isn’t that the root of car collecting and why we shouldn’t scrap vehicles willy-nilly?

* Of course, we’re far from out of the woods as far as this legislation goes. Apparently a group of U.S. senators, unhappy with cash for clunkers being rolled up into the Waxman energy bill, intend to introduce their own c4c legislation this week. And the AP reports that cash for clunkers may even jump to an emergency spending bill, though I haven’t seen that news elsewhere, so that may be a misunderstanding.

* It seems there’s a new site out there cheerleading for c4c at cashforguzzlers.net. We’re still trying to figure out who exactly is behind it and why. The WHOIS shows the site registered to Pasch Consulting Group, which has had several auto dealer clients in the past.

* Finally, we’d like to welcome theDailyGreen, an environment blog, to the c4c opposition. They object to the plan largely on the basis that it bails out SUV drivers, the greenies’ mortal enemy.

HMX - checking fuel pressure

shiny new fuel pressure gauge from Summit

So ever since I woke the HMX from its slumber this spring, it’s been bucking and popping when I stomp on the throttle. Unacceptable. I knew I needed to double-check my fuel pressure anyway, and I hypothesized that erratic fuel pressure was causing the bucking, so I ordered up a cheap Summit fuel pressure gauge.

ah, the threads don't match. Brilliant.

Unfortunately, when I went to mount it to my fuel rail, I discovered that the fuel rail has a flare fitting, while the gauge has a pipe thread fitting.

all this to adapt the gauge to the rail

So off to the hardware store I went. And, of course, I shouldn’t have expected to find a simple female-to-female pipe thread-to-flare, 90-degree elbow. Noooooooo. Instead, I needed a female-to-female pipe thread-to-pipe thread, a pipe thread 90-degree elbow, a male-to-male pipe thread-to-flare, and then a pair of flare nuts.

looking much more steampunky now

Used the flare nuts and a short length of tube to create a female-to-female flare adapter.

oh, yes, very steampunk

And with it all mocked up, it looks a bit ungainly, but it clears obstacles and provides an unobstructed view of my fuel pressure.

valve coring tool. Like an apple coring tool, but not

Next, I had to remove the Schrader valve from the fuel rail. The local bike shop sold me a core removal tool for a buck, and I placed it on the valve stem of an old bike inner tube for some leverage.

not a lot of pressure released. hmmmm...

Depressed the Scraeder valve to release the fuel rail pressure.

decored

Removed the core.

silvery adapters and gauge installed

Then installed the gauge and its adapters. Note that I painted the adapters silver to avoid leaving it looking like a steampunk’s wet dream. Fortunately, no leaks, and I was able to run a few tests with the engine running. Looks like it’s 3 psi below spec, and the fuel rail bleeds down immediately after shutdown, which it’s not supposed to do. Next up, I need to figure out how to read the pressure while it’s running and while it’s bucking to see if the fuel system’s the cause.

UPDATE (12.May 2009): McGean had a fuel pressure gauge on a hose that we clipped under the windshield wiper so we could monitor the pressure while driving. Recreated the stumble, and we saw no drop in pressure. So that probably means my ailment isn’t in the fuel pressure system, but in the ignition. Maybe I stabbed the distributor one tooth off? Wouldn’t hurt to stab it again, I suppose.

SIA Flashback - George Lawson, Designer

George Lawson's Tucker clay

Aside from the Tucker, which in the end only used parts of his original design, you’ve never seen a George Lawson-designed vehicle come to fruition. Lawson imagined vehicles so space-agey and futuristic that he was actually kicked out of the Buick design studio when working for GM’s Art and Colour. But Lawson influenced the auto design field in a myriad of minor ways, and designers as high profile as Bill Mitchell and Alex Tremulis admired Lawson. For SIA #44, March-April 1978, Michael Lamm take a look at this visionary artist and designer.

The time for housekeeping has come for General Motors.

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Four-Links – Checkers, Cityrama, Clutch, collection (of Nissans)

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HMX - checking fuel pressure

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