What do you make of a magazines "all star" picks when 1/2 of the winners and runner ups are gone, on life support, or their manufacturing company is out of business

Brian Wright wrote a letter to the editor of Automobile magazine pointing out that 3 winners and 7 runner ups from 1991 to 2012 weren't enough to survive, or keep their companies in business

Saturn SC, Chrysler LH, Plymouth Neon, Saab 900, Oldsmobile Aurora and Mercury Mystique, Pontiac Solstice, Fisker Karma, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, Mazda RX 8, Lotus Elise

It's not that the "all star" pick is the same as the Madden Curse, or other famous winning problem, like the Heisman Trophy ( I'm no expert, but don't Heisman winners also have a big problem after winning?) but it seems like these 3 things are nothing but trouble.

a terrific article from Aaron Robinson in Car and Driver where he interviews the owner of Willow Springs Raceway, Bill Huth

As you can imagine, Huth knew pretty much everybody. 

“Shelby was running a driving school. One day he said, ‘Bill, do you care if I tell people that I own this racetrack?’ I said, ‘Carroll, I don’t give a shit, you can tell them whatever you want to.’ ”

 Movie stars? “James Garner wouldn’t fit in the car when they made Grand Prix. They brought the car up, and he couldn’t get in the son of a bitch. They said, ‘You’re going to have to lose some fucking weight.’ ” 

And, “Oh, Steve McQueen, one time the transaxle in his Porsche broke, and he ordered six of them. They flew them in, six fucking axles! I says, ‘You must have a lot of trouble with them.’ ”

Huth is also developing the low-buck Formula Pacific, a sort of super kart with a motorcycle engine that he’s hoping will break Willow’s current lap record: 1 minute, 6.05 seconds, set in 1987 by Michael Andretti in a Kraco March ­Cosworth Indy car.

http://www.caranddriver.com/columns/aaron-robinson-gambling-whiskey-and-willow-springs-raceway-column for the whole article.

Hill's Hot Rods and Customs Studebaker woody is featured in this months Hot Rod Magazine

For a gallery from last years SEMA coverage: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2013/11/hills-rod-and-custom-brought-this-cool.html

Birmingham Alabama has public art in the city underpasses, by Bill Fitzgibbons, installed in 2013

Photography by Tom Salt and Patrick M Hoey, and found in Automobile Magazine, June 2014 issue at http://www.automobilemag.com/features/awards/1404-2014-automobile-magazine-all-stars-road-trip/

Bernie Moreno, who started his working life as a gopher at Automobile Magazine, is an example of how to succeed in the car business

Here are the particular impressive things Bernie Moreno did, and they are what the best overachievers do, and make it to the top, written by Jean Jennings, president and editor-in-chief of Automobile Magazine

"He immediately made himself invaluable. No matter what we asked Bernie to do, he had already assigned it to himself and finished it. He moved the cars from our sixth-floor parking area to the first floor after the No Parking Before 10 a.m. curfew. How nice that the editors could jump into spotless, gassed cars!

How did the radio presets just happen to be on my favorite channels? Bernie somehow figured out what every single editor liked and would reprogram every test car’s radio every single day based on that evening’s driver.

Once, before I left on vacation to Mexico, I found a sheet of paper on my desk, with my favorite swear words translated into Spanish for my use.

At age twenty-six, he took on the running of a Saturn store in Boston despite no dealership experience. It took him one year to make it the most profitable store in its owner’s portfolio. In 2005 he bought a failing Mercedes-Benz dealership in Cleveland. He started with about twenty employees, twelve of whom had left Boston to work for him. Of course, he turned it around and began systematically buying more dealerships.

Today, Bernie has about 800 employees (including the original dozen) and more than twenty-five stores. “One of the Best Places to Work,” says the Cleveland Plain Dealer. His many awards include Midwest Region Entrepreneur of the Year, Time Magazine/Ally Financial Dealer of the Year, and Northeast Ohio Hispanic Entrepreneur of the Year. Honored by Mercedes-Benz (Best of the Best seven years in a row), Porsche, General Motors, and the city of Cleveland, which named him Business Executive of the Year.

http://www.automobilemag.com/features/columns/1405-vile-gossip-super-gophers-bernie-and-tom/

Automobile Magazines 2014 All Stars picks, vs typical cars... (how the best compare with new autos for sale in general)

13% of most cars have a manual transmission,
but 60% of the best do.

77% of most cars have 4 doors
but only 50% of the best do

73% of most cars are blah blah blah Silver, Gray, or Black
but only 30% of the best are that boring

Ezra Dyer took a new Range Rover Sport Supercharged to a redneck mud race event, and that sort of hooniganism is why I love to read his articles

Rockvember in North Carolina's Uwharrie... the 515 hp, 94 thousand dollar suv placed 2nd in the mud run
Photography by Jamie Dee Wilson

http://www.automobilemag.com/features/magazine/1406-his-royal-highness-king-george-iii-goes-muddin/

An amazing story, excerpted in Automobile Magazine, reminded me how damn good sports writers are

Black Noon: The Year They Stopped the Indy 500, by Art Garner

http://www.automobilemag.com/features/magazine/1406-black-noon-year-they-stopped-the-indy-500/

BMW M5, bad return on investment. Loses 70% of value in 3 years, 80% in 5

Autoweek, May 12, 2014 voulme 64 issue 10, page 20

Von Dutch is Still Alive and Living in Arizona, article from March 1972 Road Rider magazine, Volume 3, Number 3. Written by Bob Burns.

Found on http://www.chopcult.com/news/articles/von-dutch-circa-1972.html

Autoweek May 12th issue has a multipage article on Mary Barra and the congressional hearing about GM's

the article is called "General Motors CEO Mary Barra goes to Washington"

It's not online yet, so grab an issue of the magazine hardcopy,

but get this,

It's a really good read about how the congressional hearings do and don't work. Seems to the writer of the article that some of the congressional questioners were clueless, and couldn't ask intelligent questions, whiel others used the opportunity to get some face time in the news soundbites. 

A couple did a good job of trying to ascertain what the hell is wrong at GM, who has been sloganeering for decades that they are "Safety first" but obviously the number of dead proves they are unable or unwilling to live and work to that slogan. 

My post about the GM lack of responsibility http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2014/04/26-million-gm-vehicles-have-been.html

Hot Rod Magazine just did a good interview with Ed Pink, who has built more than 5000 racing engines

http://www.hotrod.com/feature_stories/1406_take_5_ed_pink/

in 2005 the did this http://www.hotrod.com/techfaq/hrdp_0509_ed_pink_racing_engines/

No other drag racer ever approached such lofty levels of success in so many other arenas; not even archrival Keith Black, who started out in boats and headed Chrysler's Trans-Am effort. In the quarter-mile world of the '60s and '70s, their rivalry was as intense as any in the sport. Lions Drag Strip and Irwindale Raceway fueled the fire by promoting Black-versus-Pink feature events. Both men made regular appearances in newspapers and magazines, including Pete Millar's satire-drenched Drag Cartoons comic book. Moreover, this was one rivalry that was real rather than contrived for the purpose of selling Hot Wheels models or military enlistments. There's never been anything like it, before or since.

Pink insisted to former Drag News editor Dave Wallace, "You had the Mongoose and the Snake, and you had the Greek and the Swamp Rat, but you needed something else. Maybe, if Keith's name wasn't Black and mine wasn't Pink, who knows? Keith did a fine job, and in later years, we became good friends. We used to run ads that said, 'No matter what color your elephant is, they're all Pink on the inside!' You don't see that today. In our day, it was more fun than it is now."

Meyers Manx has a new version, the Kickout S.S.

Car and Driver just did a full article about it... http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/meyers-manx-kick-out-ss-dune-buggy-tested-review and they wrote a very astute observation describing what sets the Manx apart: what separates the Meyers Manx from every other kit car: If you put a plastic body that looks like a Porsche 917 or MG TD atop a VW floorpan, the car doesn’t become a 917 or a TD. But no matter how ratty the donor Beetle may be, or how half-cocked the ­execution of the body installation is, when that Manx body goes on, the car is no ­longer a VW. It has become a Meyers Manx, a dune buggy. 

Christine Reed attended a Manx Meet recently and took the following photos:

Found on https://www.facebook.com/7Christine?fref=nf

Dunn Chevrolet dealership in Roanoke Ala was closed suddenly in 2008 (car dealership year of death), and all the stuff inside was just left. It's all still there, the parts department shelves are full.

 

All from this months issue of Hagerty magazine, from Hagerty car insurance  http://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/Articles/2014/04/21/Forgotten-Dealership

And check out the most astonishing comment cards:

In 1952 they were guessing that one day we'd have tv in the car.. about damn time! only 62 years later and you can actually live stream an internet feed.

Found on http://deadlycurves.blogspot.com/2014/01/1952-motoring-magazine-uk.html

Sure, for the past 30 years you could get an RV tv set, put up an antenna on the roof, and watch tv, but only if you tossed a lot of money at it, had a 120v outlet, sprung for the color set, and were close enough to a tv station antenna to get good reception

Bullshitters on a car show get called on the lie, by none other than Hot Rod magazine

HOT ROD likes to take people at their word. Last week we posted a story about Fast 'N Loud finding the first two Firebird prototypes in a barn. See it HERE.

The hot rod community is like a tribe, and you don’t jive your brother, right? So we are more than a little peeved that the hype the cable show Fast ‘N Loud fed everyone about the two “barn find” #1 and #2 1967 Pontiac Firebirds was not, shall we say, correct information. The problem comes from the show identifying things related to the two cars that could have only come from them, once you get the whole enchilada. So here’s what we really know about the two Firebirds:

1) The two cars weren't 'found in a barn' as the shows producers state, they have been stored.

2) They weren't prototypes or pilot cars, they were just the first two cars down the line, unlike what the producers state.

3) They weren't built in order to decide whether Pontiac wanted to build the Firebird, as the producers state. They are production line cars.

4) They aren't "worth" $325K as the producers state, they sold for $30K a couple years ago, that's probably close to their current value.

5) They're basic, bread and butter Birds, nothing unique about them except their VIN. No rare one-off parts, no super-rare Ram Air stuff, no hard to find trans or rear axle. Just a ’67 Firebird ragtop and hardtop, and a very expensive VIN and trim tag.

6) They were sold as a pair for $30K a couple years ago on eBay. The new owner was contacted by Fast N' Loud, and they decided to publicize the cars around their rather sensationalist blatherings.

If anyone from the show would like to contact HOT ROD to correct us or otherwise set the record straight, we will be more than happy to communicate your responses. As for now, it would seem that the show has lost what little cred they may have had up to this time, sorry to say. At least from HOT ROD’s perspective, we are disappointed that one of the public faces for the rewards of modifying cars would stoop this low just to hype a build that done legit would have been an honest portrayal of the joy and pride we all take in building our cars.

From  http://www.hotrod.com/news/did_fast_n_loud_make_this_up/

Car and Driver Magazine tried to interview John Force, a for effort, but they only got 8 words out, and John took the reins!

C/D: Well, um . . .

JF: I’m no young chicken. But I live in the gym every other day. Since that crash in ’07. That was the same year that we lost Eric [Medlen] when he died in a crash at Gainesville. And then we realized we have chassis problems. And I got into the business, building chassis. And here I am today. We got that up and running and our motor program is up and running and it’s time for us to get back to winning championships. I won in 2010. And right now Robert Hight and myself and Courtney are all fighting in the Countdown with four races left, and we’ve got a shot at that title.

C/D: So . . .

JF: Look at NASCAR: Those guys at my age, they all retired 10 years ago. And it’s not like I need to be on fire out there for three or four hours. I have to have the energy to react to that tree. That’s where the race is won or lost, on that start line. If you’ve got a good race car. And I always said I could drive these cars blindfolded. And nobody, in the history of this sport, has made as many runs as John Force has. I’m just starting to get good at it. I say I’m just getting started. It’s what I love to do. I’m a road warrior; I love the road. I don’t know how to go home. I’ve been gone so many years, and now my kids, my wife, everybody is out here with me. All my girls are part of John Force Racing.

See what I mean? It's a good read though, and fans of John Force will get a kick out of this. The full article at http://www.caranddriver.com/features/what-id-do-differently-john-force-interview

If you aren't reading every issue of Hot Rod Magazine, you're making a mistake, look at the cool stuff they dig up! A raced only Hemi Cuda barnfind

Parked since 1974. This guy has a couple hemi racers and has never, will never part with them. I'm shocked he let them be photographed and featured in a magazine 

Humor from Autoweek magazines back page

Hot Rod Magazine, getting better all the time

Seriously gets better every month and year