balthazar

LOVE this generation, and the 500 just adds to it's allure. 38 thumbs up.

My grandmother had a '62 American convert, and a '64 2-dr hardtop. But 'sports car'?? I don't think so, Tim. I prefer the round-bezeled '64s the best :

I never before heard someone say '3 months in Trenton were for the best'. I just spent the last 7 days straight emptying a 5000 sq ft warehouse of (16) 26-foot box trucks of material, 85% of it loose. The best pay week of my life so far, but as it was a state contract, naturally it'll take 2 months for them to write a check. Same abode for 19 years now, still love the house, but the area is continually getting more congested and the taxes are unfiltered hell.

Unfortunately, it is the inherent inflexibility of the 'platform' architecture that makes what was & should be a relatively inexpensive engineering project a complete 're-do' and MUCH more expensive. That said, it's worth pursuing.

Circa 1884, the Westinghouse Air Brake Company was experimenting & developing the railroad air brake. Though the new concept was correct, the early execution was far from perfect. Crude manufacturing resulted in the high pressure air leaking out, causing poor stopping power/distances. Westinghouse crews spend some degree of time altering & tweaking the air brake units, and re-installing them on test RR cars, only to find repeated unsatisfactory performance. A traveling salesman, a representative for a tool & machine manufacturer, stopped at Westinghouse and became involved as an observer to these tests. After some discussions on machining with Westinghouse engineers, said salesman met with the skeptical superintendent, and convinced him to allow the salesman a small quantity of rough castings to take back to his firm. On an improvised machine, the salesman (also learned in the machinist's trade), finished a complete set of parts by precision grinding them to close tolerances. Returning to Westinghouse, the salesman observed said parts in their first trial test. They performed with excellence, and the salesman accepted a quantity order for grinding machines. The salesman expected the machines might not be well understood in their operation, and offered to send along some mechanics for instruction. Westinghouse declined, with the result that after a few months, the machines were judged to be useless. The salesman returned himself, gave demonstration & instruction, and within a few days all machines were successfully operational and producing consistent, quality products. The lesson proved was that parts accurately made could hold air under high pressure, and the air brake became a long-standing railroad industry standard. The salesman/machinist worked for the Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company of Providence RI, and went by the given name of Henry Martyn Leland, future founder of Cadillac.

Oh HELL no.

'65-66 Stingray, maroon, factory spinners, exc shape, in the vegetable market parking lot.

Have you never seen a Baja (or an Outback for that matter)??

wasn't the nsx, at the end, finding about 300 buyers/yr? Who's asking for this to return??

where's Dodgefan lately? This is his bag, no?

>>"Chevrolet introduced the small-block in 1955"<< That would be rather impossible...

You're missing the correct guy. Yep, he's early and he's significant.

^ This is another area cars in general have definitely moved backwards. All that paneling & fuzzy nylon carpet doesn't add space, either. But a good point, esp with trunk sizes shrinking so.

The 'cargo loading' premise is false; once the trunk lid is opened, whether it's angled sharply forward or flush with the surrounding bumper/ sheet metal is irrelevant. No one slides cargo against that 1-3" horizontal plane either, as it's an exposed, unprotected painted surface (some SUVs have a rubber 'pad' there, but I was addressing cars). Many cars don't have it at all, but (unscientific observation) more do than don't. It's a non-functional fad. But the 'yanked up shorts' of the black plastic underwear so many modern designs wear out back is bone-numbingly ponderous.

Interesting direction there.... can you connect it to an early major figure in GM history ?

I'm looking right at you, DD.....

I can side with the sentiment, but I gots no Z-06, no goatee and no chrome dome.

Dig that crazy Art Deco speedo needle! Nice clear pics, showing off a nice clean car.

I had no idea that white coupe was a jag. Rather derivative cues. I'm largely with FOG on this general topic- does every other car out there have to have the 'drooping pants' thing going 'round back; where the black boxers are hiked up from below and showing (see jag concept for illustration)? God, but this is SO overdone, tired & dis-harmonious. Another thing that annoys me is the 'minivan cut' so many makes insist on putting on the trunk lids of their sedans. The new civic has it chronically bad: (In general) ...they offer up this sculpted bumper surface, thenmove around to the rear and BAM!! - a flattened trunk lid was slapped in there, heavily indented with a flat section below it like you're going to shovel coal out of the back. It's like a decklid from a completely unrelated car was made to fit. Purposeless and needs to go away.

>>"...the two companies..."<< Humorous.

General Motors has a long & storied (and sometimes convoluted) history of involvement with railroading. Most know that Electro-Motive became a Division of General Motors, and thousands of locomotives & engines were built under the GM banner. One early strong connection to General Motors was instrumental in the development of an important safety system on trains, which was the standard for that system for decades upon decades. Name the person and the system involved.

I've seen numerous pics over the years, tho my source says only about 300 were built. Brewster was originally a full manufacturer '15-'25 (where production was again but about 300 units), tho those cars looked unrelated to the '34-36s. The 2nd gen, if you will, was a coachbuilt car, as they used (primarily) lengthened Ford chassis' & engines, tho some Brewster bodies were also on Buick & Olds chassis. As such, the '2nd gen' Brewsters are not a 'make', but akin to LeBaron, Fleetwood, Bohman & Schwarz, etc. Most of the times I see '34-36s, they are called 'Brewster-Fords'. I've been lukewarm on these all along. I don't dislike them, but they are a bit overwraught for some.

The maybach ALREADY IS an "expanded range" badge-engineered s-class (with a 1970's 2-tone paint job)... mercedees already plops $15 grand on the hood of s-classes; they are not going to add a handful of maybach features to the s-class and jack the price back up to $375K - it's already failed. I strongly suspect the cheap platform is at fault. mercedees need to put the money into their core models and stop chasing every niche known to autodom. They've lost the vast bulk of their lead in the core segments due to frittering away funds on pipe dreams & ego strokes.

Take it real easy Cort, and wow- what a lot to go thru. I had really minor surgery in March of '10, and in a perfect storm of conditions, I 'slipped over to the other side' for a peek. In that it was so completely unexpected, it did change my outlook in some instances. No recollections from the experience, but it sure makes you think. Glad to hear you were in good hands.

Yikes and double yikes!