All posts by Route 66 Pub Co

Memorial Day -Thanks to our Veterans

Memorial Day

In honor of Memorial Day and to honor our veterans from all our Armed Forces  of all ages and through all combat theaters, we suspend our normal articles on classic cars and salute our veterans!

Veterans

Thanks to all our veterans, Americans can enjoy the freedoms and rights that we have and cherish. Without their service and yes, especially their losses, America would not be the same today

Sacrifice

Thanks to modern technology, things our different. But can you imagine the service men and women in WW I and WW II waiting weeks and months for the next tear-stained letter from their loved ones. And even one photograph would be symbolic and a rare keepsake.

US Marine Corp War Memorial

Here is a set of pictures from the US Marine Corp War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia and next to the Arlington National Cemetery.

It is a constant reminder that freedom is never free!

Thanks to all our veterans,

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31 Ford Truck – Goodguys Finalist

31 Ford Truck 1931 Ford – Early Truck of the Year

At the Goodguys show in Del Mar, California, they selected this 1931 Ford Truck as a finalist for Early Truck of the Year.  We previously commented on the Del Mar show here.

Early Truck of the Year

At other venues during this year, Goodguys will select some more finalists before awarding one truck the coveted title of “Early Truck of the Year” at the Goodguys finale in Scottsdale, Arizona in November, 2014.  In fact at this final show of their year, several Yearly Awards are selected.

31 Ford Truck

This 31 Ford truck kept a stock looking exterior but freshened up the engine and drive train.  The paint had a color flake to add a little sparkle.  31 Ford Truck

Henry Ford would not recognize the power plant under this hood but I guarantee you it’ll move out from the traffic lights.  I especially like the wheel treatment with the white walls and maroon rims and chrome centers.  How about you?

Goodguys

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The Goodguys Rod and Custom show crosses the country with shows spread across numerous venues.  Although their name says “rod and custom”, in truth all sorts of cars and trucks show up at these three-day weekend events.  Plus on All American Sunday, modern muscle cars are welcome to join the party, so you get the opportunity to see a little of everything at one of their shows.

Entrants pay a modest fee for all three days of the show and the public pay at the admission gate for a chance to see some awesome classic cars and trucks.  Mots site even do a road course so cars can drive a timed cone outlined course to strut their car and their driving skills.

 

Here is a short video we created on the 31 Ford Truck.  Enjoy

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USS Coronado Commissioning

Don’t often get a chance to see a US navy ship commissioned, so had to snap up this invite to attend the commissioning of the USS Coronado.Invite

USS Coronado

The USS Coronado is the fourth littoral combat ship in the US fleet.  It has a unique tri-hull that looks positively ominous when you see it bearing down.  It can proceed at 40 knots when it fires up all four of their diesel and gas turbine engines to power the powerful four water jets.

It is 420 feet long and has a width (beam) of 104 feet.  But astonishingly it only drafts in 14.5 feet, meaning it could enter some pretty shallow coastal areas.  A crew of forty proud men and women run the ship and there are actually two separate crews (a blue and a gold crew) so one is on board and one is off at any one time.

A littoral combat ship is designed to engage enemies along the coast lines.  These new ships, built jointly by General Dynamics, Austral USA and Bath Iron Works, are unique because they are modular in design,  They can easily change up their containers to switch from a submarine fighter to a search and rescue to …?

Coronado

The USS Coronado is actually the third ship named after Coronado, California and will be home ported in this Navy friendly  town.  Coronado is home to North Island Naval Air Station and is home for aircraft carriers, SEALS and various ships.

USS Coronado Crest

Crest for USS Coronado

The ship’s crest has an interesting background.  The ship is on top with the alternating blue and gold rope representing the alternating crews.  The crown represents the city of Coronado’s seal.  The three tines of the trident represent their three missions; Mine Warfare, Anti-Submarine Warfare and Surface Warfare

A commissioning only occurs once in a ship’s lifetime and is actually pinpointing the time when it enters the fleet and is available for duty.  The crew assigned at the time of the commissioning are known as Plankkeepers and it is an honor to help a ship to go through the shake down cruises and prepare it to be a vital piece of Naval combat.

On the dock were a rescue helicopter (check out the artwork on the fuselage), a submarine detector and various other armaments.

While a departure from our usual coverage, we thought you’d enjoy this close up look of a fighting ship.  What do you think?

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Cruise on Central revisited

55 ChevyWe had the chance to write an article for eBay Motors  n the Cruise on Central.  Here’s the link to the article.

We wrote about it earlier here and even submitted a quick video on YouTube as well.  Some additional pictures have been shared on Google + as well.

Cruise on Central

The Cruise on Central has some legendary history especially among long time locals and natives.  Find out how it started back in the 60’s,  was policed out of existence and then revived first as an unsanctioned event and now a local promoter has taken it under her wing.

 

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Goodguys Del Mar Car Show Coverage

Here is a link to our  complete coverage of the fun times at Goodguys Rod and Custom car show in Del Mar, California show last month.  This is our article as posted by eBay Motors.

We gave you a sneak peek of the car show before, with this article.

Del Mar

Goodguys in Del Mar sort of gets the West Coast car guys to dust off the cars and start up the car season.  We had perfect weather and some great cars to look at.35 Chevy

Check out the article on eBay and let us know your favorite cars .

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i3 from BMW San Diego spotted

i3

i3 passenger side 2

The i3 is BMW’s answer to the hybrid world.  It is the all electric answer from Germany for sustainable cars.  But seeing these cars in person, might be harder than finding a public accessible plug in spot!

i3 carbon body and carbon footprint

The i3 uses carbon fiber strengthened plastic in the body panels and the use of electricity and their lithium ion battery should lower the carbon footprint of the car that goes 0-60 in seven seconds.  Electric cars are known for their instant on thrust/torque.

i3 BMW passenger side

I3 spotted

Recently while on assignment in San Diego, we spotted TWO i3’s – also on assignment.  They were running around the harbor of San Diego Bay, presumably involved in a commercial spot.  These cars are still pretty rare and mainly hitting the car shows try to prime the pump.  My guess is the video may even end up on the cutting room floor, if that is where they discard digital footage these days.

Photo car

Photo car 2

While you are looking at these shots, take a look at the tricked out photo car –  Porsche.  the flat black paint helps to reduce reflections in the car model and the long extended boom allows for a variety of action shots.

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Central Avenue Cruise

55 ChevyTwice a year, Phoenix, Arizona hosts the Cruise on Central.

60’s Cruise

Back in the day Central Avenue was the main arterial for Phoenix, Arizona.  On Friday and Saturday nights youths would flock the entire length to cruise with their cars.  Of course back then, Central Avenue didn’t go as far!

Gone

Eventually the police and local businessman tired of the antics and “encouraged” drivers to disperse elsewhere.  Strict law enforcement helped this encouragement as cruisers went to Metrocenter Mall and Mesa’s downtown Main Street.

90’s Unsanctioned Cruises

“Somehow” in the 90’s the cruise on Central resurrected as an “unsanctioned” cruise.  Somehow cars just showed up along Central twice a year.  Now a local car show promoter Nancy Perry has taken the cruise under her wing and has organized it with police security, port-a-potties, some vendors and  arrangements with the owners of Park Central Mall, which is mainly office complexes now with lots of empty parking spaces on Saturday afternoon.

Enjoy this video of a few burnouts and watch for full coverage in a later post

You Tube Video

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Barrett-Jackson Florida Update

Barrett-Jackson wrapped up their three days of car auctions on Sunday with sales exceeding $25 million in sales for over 500 vehicles.  The auction was held in Palm Beach, Florida and crowds were evident throughout the auction.  The prices were right and seven cars linked to charities sold for over $2.25 million dollars.

Detroit Muscle

Among the cars being auctioned off were Chevrolet’s first 2015 Camaro Z/28 for $500,000, a 2013 Mustang from the Hollywood film, Need for Speed went for $300,000 and the first production 2015 Z06 Corvette went for a smooth $1 million dollars!

Three Preview Cars from Barrett-Jackson Did Well

Previously we previewed three classics to keep an eye on and the prices sure were high for these beauties.

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The 57 fuel injected Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible went for $110,000.

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The 1971 Oldsmobile 442 Convertible went for $104,500.

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The silver 1967 Corvette coupe went for $165,000

Not bad for just three cars!

Barrett-Jackson TV Coverage Changes for 2015

Perhaps responding to complaints/concerns of their recent coverage on a variety of Fox stations, Barrett-Jackson announced that starting in 2015 with their Scottsdale auction the television coverage will be on Discovery and the Velocity channel.  That might be a better linkage for the car auction, especially with the heavy emphasis that Velocity gives to cars and restoration shows.  Wonder who the reporters will be?

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Barrett-Jackson Auction in Florida

57 Chevy at Barrett JacksonBarrett-Jackson Auctions comes to Palm Beach, Florida this weekend for car sales on April 11-13, 2014, just before Easter.  They have a variety of cars for sale and provide live coverage from Fox Sports 1 and National Geographic for over twenty hours.

Barrett-Jackson is a great auction house and runs a well organized operation.  Their cars are well presented and the action is brisk.  It is a great show and definitely not one to miss.

Preview

We had the chance to preview some cars at a recent Goodguys event and here are some of our picks.

This 1971 Oldsmobile 442 is a numbers matching convertible.  The OLDS 445 engine links to a manual four speed and comes with factory optioned air conditioning, power steering, power lift top for the convertible and power front disk brakes.  The black paint is flawless and is coming from NASCAR’s Rick Hendrick.

DSCN3358

Corvette

You can’t go wrong buying or selling a Corvette at Barrett-Jackson and this silver beauty looks great.  It too has a four speed, naturally, matched up to a 427 Chevy engine.  It has lots of documentation and awards but the coupe would be a neat drive even without all the restoration efforts.DSCN3359

1957 Chevy Bel Air

Finally, readers know we like 57 Chevy’s here at Route 66 PubCo and this white convertible looks great.  It is one of eight 1957 Chevy Bel Air’s selling this weekend at Barrett-Jackson.  The 283 engine is updated to fuel injection, which is a sure way to bump up the fun and the price of these classics.  It comes with a correct red and silver interior.DSCN3364

Check out the auction and let us know your favorite.

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Rod d’Elegance by Goodguys

Goodguys makes it a point to issue various yearly awards at their various shows throughout the year.  One of the first and eagerly awaited is the Goodguys/March Performance Street Rod d’Elegance award that is issued at the Del Mar Nationals.DSCN4715

Del Mar

This was the 14th Nationals at Del Mar and the only time, they will be at Del Mar for this year.  They have had a late Fall show in the past but it couldn’t make their schedule this year.  For the region,  the Goodguys show is a wakeup call for all the cars that have been cocooned for the winter season.  In nearby Escondido, the Cruising Grand car show started on the first Friday in April, which was also the first day of the Goodguys show.

Street Rod d’Elegance

This award is issued to a street rod from 1948 or older and must be entered in the Goodguys indoor show.  For the Del Mar show there are two buildings utilized for indoor displays.  Car owners have to apply to be entered into the indoor displays to have a chance at this award.

Black Bow Tie

The winner of the Goodguys 2014 March Performance Street Rod d’Elegance award was a 1935 Chevy Phaeton owned by Wes and Vivian Rydell.  The 35 Chevy was named “Black Bow Tie” and is rather rare in the first place.  Couldn’t ask for more gracious and unpretentious owners.  They are not strangers to awards either.  They won the Detroit Riddler award back in 2002 for another 35 Chevy.

AMBR Winner

I figured this beauty was bound to be the winner when it was announced that Wes Rydell was bringing it out to the Del Mar show.  It burst onto the car scene at Pomona, CA where it won the AMBR – America’s Most Beautiful Roadster- award.  It also churned up some chatter and angst by some questioning whether it should be considered a “roadster”.  But it easily meets the standard and was deserving of the AMBR and now this award as well.

Troy Trepanier

Hot Rods by Troy worked on this car and spent a fair amount of time making it look just right.  The amount of custom touches is hard to recognize, especially when a stock unit is not close by to compare to.  The grill is angled forward and the windshield leans back.  The body was stretched 2 inches and the wheel base has three more inches.  Just check out the room in the rear seat.35 Chevy Rear Seat

Heidt’s

The rod rides on independent front and rear suspension from Heidt’s.   Mike Curtis, who used to work for Boyd Coddington, outdid himself CNC’ing this set of wheels.

I’m hoping that Wes Rydell will be sharing this awesome ride at other Goodguys shows as they crisscross the country.  It is worth the price of admission alone to check out this fabulous ride!

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