The Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum is sending 11 dragsters to England for Goodwood Festival of Speed. The following is from the press release.
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The relationship between the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum, presented by Automobile Club of Southern California, and the prestigious Goodwood Festival of Speed continues to prosper. The Museum has been supplying cars to the event for a few years, according to Tony Thacker, executive director of the Parks Museum. "We took Ak Miller's El Caballo over in 2005," he said, "and last year we shipped the Mickey Thompson Challenger along with several other significant land speed record holders. This year, it's the turn of the dragsters so we're coordinating the shipment of 11 cars."

The 3-day festival runs from July 11-13 and is held at the Goodwood House in West Sussex, England.

Thacker said the first American dragsters shipped to England were the Mooneyes dragster (pictured) and Mickey Thompson's Harvey Aluminum Special in 1963. "My dad took me to see them and I'm honored to be a part of this celebration of American horsepower. And the Mooneyes dragster will be a part of the team returning 45 years after it first raced in the UK."

Other dragsters taking part in the "cricket pitch" display, which will give a snapshot of the history of Top Fuel drag racing, include: Art Chrisman's #25 car, the Glass Slipper, Chrisman's Hustler I, Tommy Ivo's Barnstormer and 4-engined Showboat, the Howard Cams Rattler, The Addict, the Beebe & Mulligan car and the Over The Hill Gang car. It is also expected that "Big Daddy" Don Garlits, who raced in England several times, will ship a car as well.

"To display the land speed cars, Goodwood built a replica of the Bonneville Salt Flats using ground marble imported from Spain," said Thacker. "This year they plan to recreate an early dragstrip, much like Lions, and 'cackle' the dragsters several times throughout the festival. It should be pretty spectacular. For more information about the Goodwood Festival, visit here.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary and named for the founder of the National Hot Rod Association, the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum presented by the Automobile Club of Southern California houses the very roots of hot rodding. Scores of famous vehicles spanning American motorsports history are on display, including winning cars representing 50 years of drag racing, dry lakes and salt-flat racers, oval track challengers and exhibits describing their colorful backgrounds.

Here are two exhibits that are coming up at the AACA Museum at Hershey:

The Antique Motorcycle Club of America (AMCA) is pleased to announce its new partnership with the Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA) Museum. To celebrate this alliance, we are proud to reveal the sneak preview opening of MOTORCYCLES 1884 – 1973, starting on Sunday, June 8, 2008
 
The antique motorcycle exhibits will be located within the Antique Auto Museum at Hershey.  Initially 30- 40 rare motorcycles will be on exhibit.  The majority of the bikes and artifacts will be displayed in the new AMCA Gallery.  However, don’t miss the chance to see period correct motorcycles intermingled with over 100 historic automobiles in the time line exhibit that spans eight decades.
 
Other museum highlights include:
•The largest collection of historic buses under one roof in the country
•Recreated turn of the century machine shop and 1940’s gas station
•The Lakeland bus from the movie Forrest Gump
•1950’s Drive-In theater scene (new for 2008)
•Cars from the 1930’s – 1950’s used in the movie The Good Shepherd
•Changing special exhibits… for summer 2008 - The Rise and Fall of the Tail Fin in American Automotive Design
•Interactive photo area with cars you can sit in and motorcycles that you can pose on

Fins Fun this weekend at The Antique Auto Museum at Hershey, May 10th & 11, 2008
 
Fins have been spotted in Hershey at the Antique Automobile Club of America Museum (AACA) – Tailfins that is!   The Museum is getting ready to open its newest exhibit The Rise and Fall of the Tailfin in American Automotive Design on Saturday, May 10th.
 
The Museum will be hosting a “Cruise In and Come In” Event on Saturday from 10 AM – 3 PM with a focus on the 50’s.   Visitors are encouraged to dress in 50’s attire, there will be a DJ playing 50’s music, a food vendor with 50’s style foods, 50/50 Raffle and much more!   “Cruise In” to the Museum in your antique, classic or hot rod vehicle then “Come In” to the Museum to see the opening of the FINS exhibit.

I'm going to the opening of the Fins exhibit this Friday. Should be fun. For more info, click here.

Bentley Motors designs limited collector’s edition of the new Bond book, Devil May Care
From the press release:

In a unique collaboration between three of Britain’s iconic brands – James Bond, Bentley Motors and Penguin Books - a special, limited edition of the new Bond book Devil May Care will be published on 28th May. Written by Sebastian Faulks at the invitation of Ian Fleming Publications to celebrate the Ian Fleming centenary, Devil May Care is one of the most eagerly anticipated publications of 2008.

Cars and James Bond have always had a strong association and, contrary to popular belief, Bond’s preference has historically been firmly with Bentley Motors. He owned three Bentleys in the course of the fourteen original novels written by Ian Fleming. It is fitting therefore that in Devil May Care - published to coincide with the centenary of Ian Fleming’s birth - Bond is found once again in the driving seat of his favourite car.

To mark the reunion, Penguin approached Bentley to produce a luxury, limited edition of Devil May Care. The result is a beautiful and striking edition which takes its inspiration from hard-covers of the original 1950s and 1960s Bond books combined with the stylish Bentley owner’s manuals and handbooks of the era. Inside the book is a specially designed model pewter Bentley, described in detail by Fleming in Thunderball.

Bentley Chief Designer Dirk van Braeckel says, “Transferring our design knowledge from the car world to a book was a new challenge for us, but working closely with Penguin, we think we have come up with a unique product which is complementary to the history of Bentley and Bond that can be appreciated by all.”

Only 300 copies of the Special Series edition will be produced, costing £750 each, available exclusively from the Penguin James Bond books website (here).

More after the jump.

Continue reading...

Do you know  the name of this car? If you do, you're the winner. Well, you don't actually win anything. However, you can tell  your buddies you know more about cars than them. Wait, you already do that - just for fun then.

Check back next week for the answer and some stats on this automotive oddity.

Brian Moody

Well, I have to admit that this is news to me: A 1938 Peugeot 402 with a folding hardtop. This must be the earliest example of this technology, that is currently all the rage, that I'm aware of. I had always thought that the 1957 Ford Skyliner was the first, but this clearly shows that wasn't the case.

Full story here. Oh, if you're interested, it can be had here for a cool $295,000.

OK, that Ford neo-Thunderbird image was posted to get your attention. Guess what... it's one on the list.

So David Kinney, a guy who follows old cars, and who's the publisher of Cars That Matter Price Guide, has listed six now-cheap cars that he guarantees will raise in value over the years.

"I will guarantee that every one of these cars have done better than the stock market has since the beginning of the year," states Kinney.

Curious? Read on.

There's an interesting video on the 1942 Oldsmobile B-44 over at Jalopnik (sorry, couldn't get it to post properly here). It gives a good glimpse into the wartime mentality that was pervasive at that time, and how that filtered down into the marketing of products of that era, such as this car.

It should be noted that the 1942 model year for all cars was cut short due to the fact that factories were converted over to the war effort. Production of cars for civilians didn't resume until 1946, and those cars were really nothing more than just 1942 models with few if any tweaks.

Full story here.

More proof that what you have stored away in your attic may indeed be worth something, as this 1934 Ford concept, which just sitting in a Florida garage, fetched $1.76 million at a recent auction. Called the Ford Model 40 Speedster, it was designed by Edsel Bryant Ford, and was one of the first ever concept cars designed by FoMoCo.

Full story here.

"Flatheads Forever!" was the rally cry of hotrodders (and bootleggers) for years. In fact, there's even a web site with that name.

The first Ford flathead appeared in 1932, on the Model B, which also became a favorite—arguably the favorite of all Fords to be "rodded."

That first flathead displaced 221 cubic inches, and put out 65 horsepower. Ford kept the flathead configuration until 1954, enlarging it along the way, as well as upping the power somewhat. At that time they introduced the "Y Block," which had overhead valves, thus putting the famous flathead V8 out to pasture for good.

This being a gearhead site, I'm sure there are more than a few Ford flathead fans out there. So, for you guys, this Bud's for you!

Full story here.

For those who think all this recent fuss about electric cars is new and that it's state-of-the-art technology, it's time for a reality check. The fact of the matter is that it's "old tech," as in about 100+ years old.

Yep, back in the early 20th Century, there were electric cars on the road. Check out the Detroit Electric, which was produced by the Anderson Electric Car Company, and was produced electric cars from 1907 to 1939.

Full story here along with other links pertaining to electric cars. ...And in a somewhat related story: What happened to ZAP's fleet of "Green cars?"