SIA Flashback – A Half-Hour History of Turbochargers

Funny how history repeats itself. During the fuel crises of the 1970s, many automotive engineers latched on to turbochargers as a means of reducing weight and thus saving fuel while maintaining the power outputs we’re used to. During the fuel crisis of the last couple years, turbochargers suddenly became en vogue again. But as Jan P. Norbye wrote for SIA #53, October 1979, turbochargers have been around for much longer than that, mostly in planes, but also in diesel-powered trucks and automobiles of the 1960s.

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Four-Links – rotting J-tin, Hertz AMX, Bloody Mary, crushing a Jaguar

* Apparently, Japan has its rednecks too. Japanese Nostalgic Car recently pointed us over to the Kusahiro Exploration Corps blog, which travels the Japanese countryside photographing old cars as they slowly rust away. I’m betting if I run the site through a translator, I’ll eventually come across some variation of “I’m gonna fix that up someday.”

* When we think of Hertz and muscle cars, we naturally think of the Shelby Mustang, but Hertz apparently also let out some AMXs, including this one, according to the owner of this 1968 AMX, currently undergoing restoration.

* Single-seater motorcycle-engined race cars are cool. Doubling up the number of motorcycle engines in your single-seater race car is mind-blowing. Adding two more? Achingly awesome. John Vary Bolster did just that with his Bloody Mary race special and raced it from the time he built it in 1929 until after World War II. I think I need to replicate it.

* Cash for clunkers officially took effect this week, but dealers have been accepting so-called clunkers all month. David Clarke, over at the CarDomain blog, decided to see what people have been trading in as part of the program so far at a dealer close to him, and found the above Jaguar sedan, along with a Land Rover and a Vanagon/Westfalia. Good thing, because these vehicles would never ever be considered collectible.

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Bill and Connor in the Pacific Northwest

Our friend Bill Miles decided last year that, as much traveling as he and his son Connor have done around the Northeast in Bill’s ‘53 GMC (Model 102-22 with Hydramatic), they were ready for a grand adventure: Take an entire month to traverse the country, taking in the scenery and the experience. Rather than a round-trip, however, they decided to ship the GMC to their friend Ken – a fellow old GMC truck nut – out in Vancouver, Washington, then meander back toward their home in Massachusetts. So, after prepping the truck with a larger fuel tank and sound deadener in the cab, the trip started with shipping the truck a month ago.

Ken and his son Curtis (on the left) decided to join Bill and Connor for a portion of the trip, which actually got rolling yesterday. Bill and Connor are keeping a travel log of their trip, which so far includes their first views of the Pacific as well as a visit to see the Spruce Goose at the Evergreen Air and Space Museum. They’ve promised updates whenever they have an Internet connection, so we’re looking forward to their progress.

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Six Degrees of Automotive Separation – Checker!

We’re going to leave this week’s Hemmings Six Degrees of Automotive Separation Challenge a little open-ended, inspired by a connection that commenter Dave made in last week’s challenge between Checker and Reo. We weren’t previously aware of that connection, and we had to wonder what other Checker connections we weren’t aware of, so this week, we’re asking: What other automotive companies can Checker be connected to, in six degrees or less?

Commenter Dave even gave you a head start with his suggestion from last week. Now, if you’re tempted to use the GM connection (Checker used Chevrolet engines for its last dozen or so years), the easy way out is to use GM to link Checker to everything else, so we’re putting the kibosh on that connection right away unless you can come up with something really obscure.

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.

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Nuts. Cash for clunkers passes Senate.

Just heard that cash for clunkers is all set to pass the Senate as part of the wartime spending bill. The good: It got cut from $4 billion to $1 billion. The bad: It’s almost certain to become law now. Still looking for a bill number so we can get the exact wording to see if the 25-year exemption made it through the Senate.

Also, thanks to Consumer Reports, we have a list of vehicles most likely to be turned in and crushed as part of this program. Some might say so what to the Ford Aerostar and Isuzu Rodeo, but a number of those on the list (Jeep Wrangler, Pontiac Firebird) can already be considered collectible cars, and many more can be considered potential collector cars. This right here is why we oppose any cash for clunkers scheme, regardless of how much bite it promises.

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