The cassette player died this year, 2010 was the last year a manufacturer installed one in a car

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

Possibly the only tucker to race is NASCAR

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/

Formula 1 racing, why Americans (and growing numbers of others) don't care, the stats

Since 1983, the sophistication and technological advancements in race car body and engine design have made the race cars far closer in similar capabilities to the point that they are identical, and once on the track, rarely can pass each other, to the extant that the facts show they finish the race in the order they began the race.

Ergo, there is no race, no competition, and no point to watching cars go around a track for hours without changing anything but the fule tank level. Boring.

http://thechicaneblog.com/2010/04/04/suspicions-confirmed-current-f1-mathematically-proven-less-interesting/ has the stats graphed out.

some reasons:
Decreases in overtaking due in part to 1 engine per race, rev limited engines, equalized horsepower and decreasing amounts of design freedom, aero-grip dependency, exotic technology in brakes, the stopping distances are too short giving no window of opportunity to really take advantage of mistakes... on that topic, cars are more reliable, and fewer fail on the course than decades ago

- 1993 >> 1994: A lot of changes after Imola to make F1 safer
- 1995 >> 1996: 107% Rule, field size down from 26 to 22
- 2000 >> 2001: Traction Control Introduced
- 2003 to 2005: Engines must last longer
http://forums.autosport.com/index.php?showtopic=115835

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Stats from Automobile Magazine, Feb 2011, page 16

in the 201o season:
there were 19 races, and teammates finished 1-2 no fewer than 9 times
not counting opening laps, and pit stops, there were only 4 passes for the lead all season. Snore fest. Only one was successful, one resulted in both drivers spinning out, one was an immediate repass. The only "successful" pass was a teammate passing another to accumulate points for the championship. Big whoppee I say with emphatic dullness.
Eight of the 19 races in 2010 were won from the pole, 6 from 2nd on the grid, 3 from 3rd, on from each 4th and 5th
In 2010 there were 5 winners in 19 races, compare that to 1982 when 11 winners in 16 races

the Pits at the race track

called that becuase the race cars would driver over open pit lane to stop above his crew that could then quickly get work completed without using a jack to get up under the car. Remember, cars didn't even have oil filters until, what, the 1920's? The model t didn't have an oil filter and had to have the oil changed every 300-400 miles.

learned about this (should have been intuitive) and photos from http://thechicaneblog.com/2010/08/10/in-the-pits-at-the-vanderbilt-cup/

Evolution of the Batmobile, all 70 years of it

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

Challenging Mopar trivia masters, what unusual about this 1969 Dart?

Answers are here after the link: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/05/tokyo-plates-on-56-nomad-bitchin-ride.html

Racing stripes

invented by the Briggs Cunningham team in 1950, according to Automobile Magazine's Robert Cumberford, Feb 2011 issue, Jay Leno Bugatti feature

Reasons horses towed cars... cars got stuck easy, horses pulled them out... but did you know Nantucket outlawed cars from 1900 to 1918?

This is an interesting example of another reason on Wikipedia: "Clinton Folger's "Horsemobile" delivering mail, on South Beach Street, at Hayden's Hot Sea Bathhouse entrance.

For nearly twenty years, from 1900 to 1918, Nantucket was the only place in the nation that successfully fought encroachment of the automobile within its limits. Opposing politicians on the mainland and large property owners, mostly non-residents, Nantucketers kept the island free of the "gasoline buggy" until the final vote of the town on May 15, 1918. By the narrow margin of forty - 326 to 286 - the automobile was allowed entry.

Clinton Folger was the mail carrier for Nantucket. Because cars were forbidden by the town, he towed his car to the state highway for driving to Siasconset: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Horse_drawn_US_Mail_car.jpg

But why do the next two cars appear to have been changed to make a seat for the horse driver where the radiator should be?

Brilliant and wise reader angyl_roper (if your email was available on your profile or any of your 3 blogs, I'd email to thank you!) used the comment feature to tell me that: "During the Depression, Ford sold a conversion kit so that you could use a horse to pull your car since fuel was too expensive. I believe this was for the Model A primarily, but also for the Model T. (so why work your horse so hard, instead of just riding the horse and leaving the car at home?)

However, I'll also note that the top two pictures are snowy and it could just be that hitching up horses (and a sled, in the second one) was an easier way to get your car where you needed it than driving it there.

from http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428585&page=920

the 1903 Oldsmobile runabout, usually called the curved dash Olds...

Was first to be put together on an assembly line, predating the Ford vehicles, and never getting proper mention in the history books for that.

Also, first automobile to outsell electric and steam powered machines.

7 Hp Duryea was the first automobile attempt to drive from coast to coast, in 1899

Above are a couple of guys with a REO Mountaineer, 1906... and have nothing but the similar cross country in an early car rlevance, to this story that follows (photo from http://www.shorpy.com/node/8903?size=_original )

after the Louise and John Davis car with the backing of two newspapers left New York City they had about made it to Syracuse, and were passed by a one armed bicyclist that had left new York City 10 days after the car had.

Winton tried it 2 years later in May of 1901, but only made it 530 miles from San Fran in route to New York when he was hopelessly stuck in a sand drift

In the movie "The Great Race" you may have liked the "Leslie Special" ... but did you think they'd ever put it in another movie? I'm 1st to notice

above photo via: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428585&page=733

There are differences, but the grill, hood ornament, and distictive doors are the same. The Leslie Special was made for the movie "The Great Race" and is not a vintage real car, it's a custom built to look like the Thomas Flyer that won the 1907 Paris to Peking race http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/winner-of-1907-paris-to-peking.html .

Both movies are Warner Brothers Pictures, and that makes it more possible that its the same car... what else would a movie company do with a movie car after the publicity is over for the first movie it was featured in?

http://www.imcdb.org/movie_65446-The-Ballad-of-Cable-Hogue.html demonstrates that no one has identified the car yet on the IMCDB site

Gotta love old movies for cool unusual cars

( http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/couple-of-brass-era-vehicles-from-movie.html and http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/couple-of-brass-era-vehicles-from-movie.html and http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/biggest-wagon-ive-ever-seen-might-only.html ),

and I was really surprised to discover this famous car isn't mentioned to have been in a 2nd movie anywhere on the internet. But it is undeniably the same car painted green, and until now, nothing was on the internet about it.