The most notorious one race wonders

Bill Balough's "Batmobile"

The big DIRT race at Syracuse every Fall had become almost the Daytona 500 of dirt modified racing. Each year, the best of the New York, New Jersey, Vermont, and Pennsylvania dirt mod scene would convene at the New York State fairgrounds in Syracuse for a huge race on the mile track.

 Around 1980, Gary Balough and Greg Weld showed up at the event with the damnedest – looking rig ever seen – a Lincoln Continental roof over the most high-tech car that would ever grace the dirt mile in central New York.

Modifieds couldn't use sprint-car like top wings for downforce, so Weld and Balough put the flat Lincoln roof from a 60's continental on their car and angled it forward exactly like a wing.

 Its wide flat roof was canted to be a huge, controllable wing for the wide-bodied car. There were wind tunnels along both sides, the entry slats to which could be controlled by Balough while at speed.

Even the wheels were different. Weld, who had connections within the Indy car world, had installed Indy car knock-offs on the car, in contrast to everyone elses’ regular lug nuts. The driver sat in a contained compartment, with a curved cowl similar to a sprint car. By the time the race was lining up to begin, it was clear to all in attendance that Balough would win – the only question was either by how much or, if not, what broke on the car to stop him.

From what I have gathered, he was lapping the field of the best dirt modified racing had to offer before halfway. Nothing failed, and Balough was a big winner. I guess the pair of Weld and Balough were told never to show up at another DIRT race with the thing. It survived a strange chain of events thereafter and ended up on display at museums such as the Saratoga Automobile Museum.
http://www.catamountstadium.com/63rd_column_3troublesomecars.htm

More to come, definitely one of Smokey's cars... I just have to figure out if it's going to be the Chevelle or the Camaro, or the Mustang

Casler spare spark plug holder

Found on http://progress-is-fine.blogspot.com/

Some things change the world, like electricity and the internet... solar panel roads might be the next quantum breakthrough in road safety, construction, and power generation across a nation

above image from http://www.geekexchange.com/solar-roads-could-power-country-115023.html



A small US-based company called Solar Roadways are developing a solar road surface that, if installed nationwide, has the potential to produce more renewable energy than the entire country uses.

Hexagonal glass solar panels studded with LED lights that could be installed on a variety of surfaces such as roads, pavements and playgrounds. Energy generated from driveways and parking lots could be used to power buildings, and any excess can be sold back to the grid.

The panels also contain heating elements to melt ice and snow so are ideal in winter conditions, and LEDs to make road lines and signs which have been previously shown to reduce night time accidents. Amazingly, the team also found that car headlights can produce energy in the panels, so cars driving around at night would be producing some electricity.

Found on http://www.iflscience.com/technology/solar-roads-could-power-entire-country

in Sid Tracy's '69 Firebird doors is a cool door handle that gave me a good idea

you see the open lever in the upper right... but think about this idea, the big handle in the middle, sliding back and forth to open the door when pushed full forward, and slid back to lock

Found in Hot Rod Magazine or Popular Hot Rodding

Another reason Steve Strope and Pure Vision are so respected in car culture, the improvement of factory design and execution so flawless you don't realize it's been upgraded

Photo from http://www.purevisiondesign.com/rides/galleries/68-concept-charger.html

the factory design:

The car the top redesign went into? The 68 Charger http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2013/11/pure-visions-new-1968-charger.html

If you get pulled over for speeding...

and act deaf, what are the chances the cop will be fast and efficient and write you a ticket,
or.... decide you'll be too time consuming, and give you a warning?

If you end up getting the ticket, demand a bilingual court trial, in some unusual language for your area, and not a common foreign language. Hungarian for example... that ought to get the court to dismiss the case because they can't get a translator

Just some crazy ideas from Unethical Hacks.com
via http://www.viralnova.com/unethical-life-hacks/

Richard Leath deserves all the credit and applause for a terrific idea, hiding the fuel cell and pump with fake luggage in his 40 Ford

Found in the back pages of Rod and Custom magazine 

rag tops to hard tops

In 1921 Hudson first mass-produced a closed car.

Almost immediately after World War I, public demand increased dramatically for a closed car that would no longer be a seasonal pleasure vehicle, but rather all-weather transportation.

The few closed body cars built before WWI were extremely expensive and the work of custom coach builders.

 This rise in demand during the 1920s, coupled with a remarkable number of concurrent technical innovations in plate glass and steel manufacture, resulted in a revolution in production methods, productivity and economies of scale.

The transition away from rag tops (the word convertible was first used in 1927 and officially added to the Society of Automotive Engineers lexicon in 1928) was rapid and contributed to a venerable prodigy of production by the end of the 1920s,

 Transition from Open to Closed Cars
 Year    Open Cars (%)    Closed Cars (%)
 1919         90                         10
 1920         84                         16
 1921         78                         22
 1922         70                         30
 1923         66                         34
 1924         57                         43
 1925         44                         56
 1926         36                         74
 1927         15                         85

 Source: John Gunnell, Convertibles: The Complete Story (Blue Ridge Summit, PA: 1984), 129.
Found on http://automobileandamericanlife.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-transition-to-all-steel-automobile.html

rat rod of the year award goes to:

the above photo was the creation of PonyRojo / Glenn (Generator Photography) and more of his work can be seen at https://www.facebook.com/generatorphotography  
and http://www.generatorphotography.com/ 
and also http://500px.com/generatorphotography
or even www.generatorphotography.com/

photos by https://www.facebook.com/craig.lankki?fref=ufi and https://www.facebook.com/brad.mcneill2

Clever new bike lock... well designed

Found on http://gentlemint.com/tack/211850/

content created and posted on http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/ and if found anywhere else, you're just getting a poor copy of the original by a lazy bastard. Trailer Tail, fuel efficiency improvement through aerodynamics

seen while driving from Las Vegas to Barstow

Certified to deliver 6.6% fuel efficiency gains at 65 mph based on SAE Type II testing validated by the U.S. EPA, sufficient for standalone compliance with 2010 CARB regulations for trailer aerodynamics, and exempt from U.S. DOT length restrictions. http://www.atdynamics.com/trailertail.htm

Created and posted on http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/ ... accept no substitutes from adnascentia!

only in West Africa

Found on http://www.viralnova.com/west-africa-sights/