Tag: Cars

Vulcanizers In The Motor Age, Part I

Motor Age1919006

I spent last night, flipping through a 1919 Motor Age, browning and brittling as it nears the century mark. I wish I could post all 150 pages, as interesting as they are, but of course, you would fall asleep by page 20. As I am no Kerbey the Riveter, I know nothing about machines or cars in general, so most of these words my mouth had never spoken. Vulcanizers, carborundum valves, aloxite wheels?

Motor Age1919005

I don’t know what a “jobber” is, but the magazine is filled with the term. And who’s this Dutch girl?

Motor Age 1919Between the Velie Six and the Cleveland Six, I hadn’t heard of half the automobile manufacturers. See how many of these you recognize.

Motor Age1919002

Here’s the Cleveland Six. Ain’t she a beaut?

Motor Age1919010

Check out this handy luggage carrier. So convenient!

Motor Age1919008With “The War” having ended only the year prior, life was getting better and better.

Motor Age1919009

Stay tuned for Part II, as we discover more of the 95-yr-old Motor Age.

Bringing Back The Jim-Dandy

1960 Renault
1960 Renault

Back in the day, a lady stood inside a car to show off her assets to passers-by.

60Reveille011A lady could also sit in the back of a car and wave, “What’s up, peons?” like these Dixie Belle nominees, but 1963 wasn’t the best year for riding around in convertibles. I take it the day was humid.

1963 Float Parade
1963 Float Parade

Cars were great for going to the drive-in, as Guinn and Wanda would attest.

60Reveille010

Have you ever visited a Jim Dandy? I insist that we all strive to bring back the term “jim-dandy,” which means most excellent or a superior example. Ex: I did a jim-dandy job of writing this post today.

http://posttrib.suntimes.com/photos/galleries/index.html?story=25076164
http://posttrib.suntimes.com/photos/galleries/index.html?story=25076164

We’re Not Loading Up Our Woody Because Our Woody Is Ugly


MJ424

The June 2013 Men’s Journal included this picture of “Enduring Icons,” cars which have basically retained their shape and/or style. That’s nice, but:

  • Are these the only three examples that exist within the expanse of hideous styleless rectangles uglifying our neighbor’s driveways and our nation’s highways as we speak?
  • The older models still look better.
  • Fix it please. I will gladly pay good money to drive a vehicle that does not look like NOW.  2013 will never go down in the annals as the heyday of automobiles.
  • P.S. this pic was stuck at the end of a Range Rover review for times when you “need to ford three feet of water while getting a massage from your 20-way power seats.”  What I wouldn’t give to just BEHOLD three feet of water in this arid desert called Texas.
  • P.P.S. The Range Rover starts at $83,500, which will buy you a HOUSE on the east side in this neck of the woods.

And speaking of woodies…

http://www.oddballdaily.com/
http://www.oddballdaily.com/

That’s A Stretch

This new ad for the CX-5 (that’s the best name they could come up with?) declares, “When Thomas Edison threw the switch, it changed everything. SKYACTIV® TECHNOLOGY makes the Mazda CX-5 more fuel-efficient than any hybrid SUV.”

I believe this is called REACHING. Comparing Edison’s contributions to the world with Mazda’s ability to create an SUV that gets a WHOPPING (whoa–slow down, mister) 35 MPG? That is a mind-blower! What does a Prius get again? Oh, 51, that’s right. Can’t you make an SUV that gets close to that?

According to http://www.tomedison.org, among his over a thousand patents, Edison invented:

  •  the electrical vote recorder
  •  the automatic telegraph system
  • paraffin paper
  • the electric pen used for the first mimeographs
  • the carbon telephone transmitter, making telephony commercially practical, including the microphone used in radio
  • the phonograph
  • the incandescent light
Edison in the middle of inventing everything we've ever heard of
Edison in the middle of inventing everything we’ve ever heard of

In addition he discovered “Etheric Force,” an electric phenomenon that is the foundation of wireless telegraphy, as well as the “Edison Effect,” the fundamental principle of electronics.

After that, he invented the motion picture camera, the fluorescent electric lamp, the nickel-iron-alkaline storage battery, and the electric safety miner’s lamp. So, yeah, he and Mazda are in the same league, in the way that Schwarzenegger and DeVito are twins.

twins

So Edison invented the light bulb, which you’re probably using right now. Big deal. Mazda invented the GLC (yes, it really stands for Great Little Car).

http://hooniverse.com
http://hooniverse.com

Top THAT, Edison!