The Chevy powered Cheetah is a less well known but really great looking car from the early 1960s. Built to compete with the AC Cobra, they produced less than a couple dozen before a factory fire destoyed the tooling. BTM LLC of Arizona has been authorized by Bill Thomas, original creator of the Cheetah, to build this continuation series.

A chrome moly chassis with a Chevy 350 for power and a curb weight of 1550 pounds promises superb performance, however, the car is not street legal but Cheetah Race Cars is ready to provide a track car that will bring a smile to your face.

Link: Cheetah via Autoblog

A Turbonique rocket powered go kart in fully restored running condition is for sale on eBay, one of only three remaining from the five or so known to have been built. These are rarely seen. Turbonique is almost a mythic name from the 1960s when a small company, Turbonique, Inc. of Orlando, Florida, created some of the most amazing rocket powered drive systems for anything you could think of. These devices were connected to cars, motorcycles, go carts, boats, practically anything with an engine that could use an extra 1000 horsepower or so.

Using a fuel called Thermolene rocket fuel, a combination of nitromethane, propane and oxygen, they were essentially a rocket powered turbine which, through the beauty of gear reduction, created monster torque for a fairly short duration. Could any company sell a product like this today? With all of the safety regulations today protecting everyone from themselves, probably not, but there was a time …

Photos, link and early ad below: Read the rest of this entry »

Professional racing teams need every bit of technology available to win races today and if what they need is not available, they build it. NASCAR team owner Gene Haas, also owns a company called WindShear, Inc. that decided they needed a rolling road wind tunnel for testing the aerodynamics of the their race cars. They hired Jacobs Engineering Group to build a wind tunnel with a 180 mph rolling road. Most wind tunnels have static surfaces which don’t reflect the reality of driving over the track at high speed, so what you need is something like you see here.

The car in the photo is no toy or scale model, that’s a full size race car! The “road” surface is a 1 millimeter thick steel belt, 11 feet wide and almost 30 feet long. The 40,000 square foot wind tunnel facility is being built in Concord, North Carolina at the Concord Regional Airport and is scheduled for completion later this year. Hopefully, there will be a floor around that belt when they’re done! Wow!

Larger photo for visual reference and links below: Read the rest of this entry »

The NHTSA has issued a recall affecting the Dodge Nitro and Jeep Wrangler from the 2007 model year. The issue involves software programming the TIPM. Details are listed below:

Manufacturer: Dodge, Jeep
Model Year: 2007
Models affected: Dodge Nitro, Jeep Wrangler
NHTSA Campaign Number: 07V291000
Potential Units Affected: 80894
Problem: On certain vehicles, the totally integrated power module (TIPM) was programmed with software that may allow the engine to stall under certain operating conditions. This could cause a crash without warning.

Corrective Action: Dealers will reprogram the TIPM. The recall began on July 5, 2007. Owners may contact DaimlerChrysler at 1-800-853-1403.

The neon sign above the Felix Chevrolet dealership at Figueroa and Jefferson Boulevard in Los Angeles has been lighting up the night since 1958 and was just declared an historic-cultural monument, surviving potential redevelopment of the corner property that would require the sign be torn down. It is a landmark familiar to thousands and makes up a part of the city’s character.

Designations like this are a tough call since they can stand in the way of development, making it very difficult to remove them in future situations when it makes little sense to keep them on that spot, but currently, it looks like the sign stands and the area around that corner will see the Felix Chevy sign for many years to come.

Link: LA Times (reg. required) via BoingBoing
Photo: LA Times

When most people hear the name, Carroll Shelby, they think AC Cobra or Shelby Mustang, but how many would think of 4 cylinder engines? All of the Hondas and Toyotas with 4 cylinder turbos and performance suspension are late to the game. High gas prices are nothing new. Getting lots of horsepower from small engines and beating the big V8s was Carroll Shelby’s mission when he worked with Chrysler to put some life in their line up back in the early 1980s. Dodge Omnis and Chargers were little cars with 4 cylinder engines and Shelby took the tried and true route of forced induction, stiff suspension and a few other bits for the engine to build 200 horsepower, high mileage performance cars. One big difference with today’s tuner cars was the fact that Shelby was all about performance, wild body kits and sound systems weren’t part of the package.

I thought it might be neat to bring back a few of these old ads to give the tuner crowd a chance to see at least one guy who was doing this decades ago. Pretty cool.

See the Chrysler Direct Connection ads below: Read the rest of this entry »