Car Sangarz

The above light is made for quick easy identification by anyone who can see shapes, or colors. Particularly in the case of color blind people.

The 1st traffic light ever made exploded, killing the cop that was operating the lever to direct it's light in the right direction. Jan 2nd 1869 was the day, and natural gas vapor was the source of the flame that made the lights visible... no electricity, nothing but a torch behind a colored lens.

The first traffic light in Ireland (1890's) was placed near the oldest pub in Europe (900 AD) because the first car in Ireland was owned by the pubs frequent patron, and he was Ireland's first drunk driver.

Photo and much more info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_light

But the best idea in traffic lights is a light that has a time indication of when it will switch to green http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/04/two-good-ideas-id-like-to-see-in-world.html

found on http://corvettebrasil.blogspot.com/2011/04/test-driver-de-zora-arkus-duntov.html

But as Paul Harvey told us, you haven't heard the rest of the story!

Betty was fascinated with flying since childhood, and strove with incredible focus to be a pilot since age 12, getting her Civilian Air Authority private pilots license at age 16. In the next two years she was certified single and multi engine, land and sea, and at 18 got her Commercial Pilots License and in the next year was an instructor and the year after that, at age 20 was a major in the Civil Air Patrol and began her professional acrobatic career, also as a test pilot, and flew blimps, gliders, jets, and helicopters.

In '48, 49 and '50 she was the US Female aerobatic champion, and retired because there was no longer any challenge and she was exhausted from the constant touring, her plane "Li'l Stinker" is now part of the Smithsonian.

She set the high altitude record in 1950, and the speed record in a racing p51 Mustang.

In 1953 she was flying people around, and met Bill France who was having some racers flown to Daytona Beach, they became friends, and she drove a pace car in Feb 1954, then climbed into a Dodge and set the stock car speed record, which must not have been hard, she is likely the only woman at that time to drive one, and AAA certified her the first race drivers license for a woman

The National Aviation Hall of Fame reports that "Betty earned a total of four Feminine World Land Speed Records and set a transcontinental speed record."She competed in races across the Andes mountains in South America and drove the length of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. Betty set records at the Chelsea Proving Grounds and was the first woman to drive a jet car over 300 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats. She also set three women’s land speed records at the Daytona Beach Road Course, the last one being 156.99 mph in 1956. That same year, she broke Cannonball Baker's 40-year record for the Transcontinental Auto Race from New York to Los Angeles.

In 1956, she became an advertising executive with Campbell-Ewald and worked with General Motors on and in their TV and print ads. She was GM's first woman technical narrator at major auto shows, where she would talk about and demonstrate automobile features, later becoming official spokeswoman for Chevrolet. While Skelton was working with Chevrolet, she set numerous records with Corvettes, and owned a total of 10 models.

Between 1956 and 1957, Harley Earl and Bill Mitchell designed a special, translucent gold Corvette for Betty, which she drove to Daytona in 1957 to serve as the NASCAR pace car.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Skelton_Erde

found on http://www.paxtonauto.com/article.php?id=3

Click on the image for the full size to read the writing, but basically it's a publicity-press release shot in the event that the GT 350 S were put into production, like the GT 350 H (Hertz rent a racer program)

first series was 1902 to 1914 and then the 1950-1969 was the last

The first series is credited with introducing the spare tire

Mr K. renamed the Fairlady to the masculine number for the American market. If you have no idea who Mr K is... I'll post about him one of these days as I greatly respect him. But to do the biography justice and respect will take more time than I have right now, and what is worth doing... is worth doing right.

about 5000 were made, according to Bob Cumberford of Automobile Magazine design feature, from 1935 to 1965 and the last one was made for George Barris

Vinny Gambini: Maybe you didn't twist it hard enough.
Lisa: I twisted it just right.
Vinny Gambini: How could you be so sure?
Lisa: [sighs] If you will look in the manual, you will see that this particular model faucet requires a range of 10 to 16 foot-pounds of torque. I routinely twist the maximum allowable torquage.
Vinny Gambini: Well, how could you be sure you used 16 foot-pounds of torque?
Lisa: Because I used a Craftsman model 1019 Laboratory Edition Signature Series torque wrench. The kind used by Caltech high energy physicists. And NASA engineers.
Vinny Gambini: Well, in that case, how can you be sure THAT's accurate?
Lisa: Because a split second before the torque wrench was applied to the faucet handle, it had been calibrated by top members of the state AND federal Department of Weights and Measures... to be dead on balls accurate!
[She rips a page out of a magazine and hands it to him]
Lisa: Here's the certificate of validation.
Vinny Gambini: Dead on balls accurate?
Lisa: It's an industry term.
Vinny Gambini: [tosses paper away] I guess the fucking thing is broken.


Lisa: The car that made these two, equal-length tire marks had positraction. You can't make those marks without positraction, which was not available on the '64 Buick Skylark!
Vinny Gambini: And why not? What is positraction?
Lisa: It's a limited slip differential which distributes power equally to both the right and left tires. The '64 Skylark had a regular differential, which, anyone who's been stuck in the mud in Alabama knows, you step on the gas, one tire spins, the other tire does nothing.
[the jury members nod, with murmurs of "yes," "that's right," etc]
Vinny Gambini: Is that it?
Lisa: No, there's more! You see? When the left tire mark goes up on the curb and the right tire mark stays flat and even? Well, the '64 Skylark had a solid rear axle, so when the left tire would go up on the curb, the right tire would tilt out and ride along its edge. But that didn't happen here. The tire mark stayed flat and even. This car had an independent rear suspension. Now, in the '60's, there were only two other cars made in America that had positraction, and independent rear suspension, and enough power to make these marks. One was the Corvette, which could never be confused with the Buick Skylark. The other had the same body length, height, width, weight, wheel base, and wheel track as the '64 Skylark, and that was the 1963 Pontiac Tempest.
Vinny Gambini: And because both cars were made by GM, were both cars available in metallic mint green paint?
Lisa: They were!

found on http://steampunkvehicles.tumblr.com

the 66 GTO holds the record for single year highest production with 96,946 made, and here is the odd thing. That was only 10 percent of Pontiac's sales that year. That is an example of how few real muscle cars were made.

The 409 engine was put into less that one percent of the cars it could have been ordered for in it's entire run.

the 1956 Chrysler 300B could have been optioned with a 6.17:1 axle

the 57 Nash Ambassador got the new 327, and in the light Rambler body was only 2nd to the Corvette int he zero to 60 time according to Motor Trend

in 1960 the Chrysler 300 could have been ordered with a french built 4 speed manual, but only 7 were ordered this way for the 300F

Goofy advertising nomenclature for car options in the 1961 Dodge D-500 Polara: Safe t Matic door locks, Hi Way Hi Fi record player (16 2/3rds rpm) and the Astrophonic radio, and the Mirromatic rear-view

According to an article in Cruisin' Style magazine,

there are 6 known original owner 289 Shelby AC Cobras

Lexus was still making the SC430 with a tape deck in 2010... shocking isn't it? !

News and photo from the Hooniverse
http://hooniverse.com/2011/02/11/and-now-a-moment-of-silence-for-the-cassette-player/#more-42689

it's all written up, from Dan at Hemmings http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2008/12/24/seeing-really-is-believing-a-tucker-did-indeed-race-in-nascar-and-we-found-the-photo-to-prove-it/

This, you have to click on for full size
found on http://fireballtim.com/blog