Thursday, February 28, 2013

Back to Newport

After that brief break we're back to showing more of the cars I didn't get to from the show this past summer in Newport called The Rides on Monmouth. It's such a huge show with hundreds of cars that everywhere you look there is something great. And if you have a favorite type you are sure to see it. Enjoy these pictures.








Wednesday, February 27, 2013

The Chase

There have been so many movies over the years that have built major plot points around one of the most exciting action sequences known to Hollywood, the car chase. The good guy chasing the bad guy or the good guys racing hard to get out of harm's way; however it's established these action packed five to seven minutes will get your heart pounding and you up on the edge of your seat.

Grant Cooper is an on line friend who lives out in Los Angeles. We started chatting on line when he commented on a blog post about Doug Painter, Sr.'s 1971 Dodge Challenger (http://turnerbudds-carblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/vanishing-point.html) . Doug had bought the car because he'd fallen in love with the one in the movie Vanishing Point. Grant and I began bantering back and forth about great car chases and great cars in movies over the years.

Grant knows a little something about cars. He worked as a mechanic for 20 years and worked on heavy equipment repair for 35. During that time he worked on everything from the typical daily driver to a 12 cylinder LaSalle and a four cylinder Puma to a right hand drive Bentley. He even helped a friend completely overhaul a '23 T-Bucket. "We rebuilt everything on it except for the differential and the transmission," he said. He promised to share some of those pictures with me.

Now Grant has put together a small web site where he has some of his favorite car chase scenes (and one areal classic). His favorites include some of mine as well. From Bullitt to The French Connection he has collected a hand full of great pieces of cinema.

What I hope you all do is take a look at this web site (http://grantwcooper.com/car%20chases.htm), watch the clips and tell me what you think. Tell me which are your favorite car chases and which ones you would include that aren't there. Either leave a comment or drop me an email at turnerbudds@yahoo.com.

The chase is on.




Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Valentine's Day Oldies

The 4th Annual Chizzaz Valentine's Car Show featured some great oldies. In addition to the 1919 all original Model T pick up truck that I posted about earlier, there were cars from the 1920s, the 1930s and the 1940s. Hope you enjoy them as much as we did.







Monday, February 25, 2013

Valentine's Day Rat Rods

The 4th Annual Chizzaz Valentine's Car Show featured some of my favorites, the Rat Rods. Rat Rods are the raw equivalent of a log cabin. You chop together whatever you have available and, as long as it runs, you're ready to go. Where a custom job or a totally rebuilt or restored classic is more like a beautiful custom home, those Rat Rods posess the raw energy of their creators.

One of the Rat Rods on display really grabbed both Josh and me. Sporting hydraulics (yeah, a low rider Rat Rod) it was literally resting on the ground. Maybe the owner is eventually going to do the body and interior work to turn it into a beautiful custom but for now it absolutely belongs in this group.
In addition, the last car pictured was technically an old Ford Model A but was actually cobbled together from six different cars. With a .50 cal bullet as the gear shift this camo colord Rat wasn't standard military issue. Get your Rat Rod on.




Thursday, February 21, 2013

The Problems With Being In Doors

I love the fact that there are a few nice indoor car shows during the winter months. Around here only a hard core gear head would brave the elements for an outdoor show in February. But indoors, the temperature is nice and warm and you are away from any potential elements.

There is a down side to being indoors, though. The biggest is the lighting. I didn't bring my big flash rig and had to rely on the on board flash of my Nikon and unless I was right on top of the cars I didn't get a very good image, at least not as good as I would have liked.

Still, there were some great cars on display at the Robert's Center over the weekend for the 4th Annual Chizzaz Valentin'es Car Show. Hope you enjoy them.





Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Lots of Variety


The 4th Annual Chizzaz Valentine's Car Show offered up a lot of variety. Cars ranged from a vintage, all original 1919 Model T pick up (see Monday's blog) to newer Detroit muscle, there was pretty much something for everyone. In addition, there was a selection of 1970s evergency vehicles inlcuding a fire engine and several ambulances. Yeah, pretty much something for everybody.







Tuesday, February 19, 2013

4th Annual Chazziz Valentine's Day Car Show

A reader of the blog shot me an email not too long ago (you can too at turnerbudds@yahoo.com) and asked if Josh and I were going to attend the 4th Annual Chazziz Valentine's Car Show at the Rober's Center near Wilmington. I had never heard of the show and it wasn't listed in my Show and Shine. But armed with the information about when and where and the fact that it was an indoor show, we headed up that way yesterday to check out the show.

Randy, that intrepid reader, told us that the show really isn't that big "but they get some good cars." He was right. Though we were told that about 70 cars registered we saw at least 40 lined up inside a portion of the convention center. We also saw a couple cars leaving the two day event while we were there, including a blistering hot '60s Caddy and a VW Beetle convertable.

For the next few days, enjoy some of the cars that were on display at the 4th Annual Chazziz Valentine's Car Show.






Monday, February 18, 2013

Not Bad for A 94-Year-Old

Sitting off in the back of the hall, away from most of the cars, from a distance it almost looks like a rat rod. There looks to be rust and decay all over the sparse body but as you get near it you realize exactly what you're seeing. Most of that body is wood, old wood, wood that is over 90 years old. This is no surfer's woody, this is an all original 1919 Model T Ford pick up truck.

Terry Hatfield has owned this piece of vintage automotive history for over 10 years and verifies that it is all original. All the way down to the original wood on the body and truck bed.

From the aged condition and the  looks of this car most people would think that when he shows it Terry puts it up on a trailer to cart it around. That isn't so.

"I drive it a lot," he said, adding that "I drove it here today." Right now he's careful not to drive it too much, not that lack of an enclosed cab is very inviting in the winter, but because he's been having some radiator problems. "I have to pull the radiator," he said. "It's clogged up and I don't want to overheat it."

Ford began making the famous Model T in 1908 and proved the value and efficiency of assembly line manufacturing. By 1927, when the last one rolled off the line, Ford had manufactured over 15 million Model Ts. While most of the early Model Ts were roadsters and runabouts, the car was intentionally designed to be adapatble to all types of circumstances. For that reason the pick up truck version was a logical model. But it wasn't until 1925 when Ford made a large push with the pick up.

Terry's Model T pick up is showing the wear and tear of its many years but it is still aging gracefully and still running. He put it best when he said, "Not back for a 94-year-old." Not bad at all.