Category Archives: 7. Miscellany

1917 Locomobile – Part 1

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A Locomobile??

The Locomobile Company of America was founded in 1899 manufacturing affordable steam powered cars in Watertown, Massachusetts.  That lasted for a couple of years when they moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut and ditched the affordable cars for high-end luxury cars.  When I mean luxury cars, I’m talking high-end.  In 1919 a Locomobile open bodied car would sell for $10,000 while the proletarian Ford Model T sold for $300.

The pictures I am going to list here were taken at a local restoration shop.  We know the owner, matter of fact I bought bowtie6‘s ECOTEC engine and gearbox from him.  The Locomobile is there to have its upholstery completely restored including the enormous convertible top.  Finding all the material for the restoration has been a painstaking process requiring a special run of material made by the original manufacturer.  There will be no expense too high here…

There are so many details about this car.  I spent quite a bit of time looking it over, taking pictures and wondering.  Wondering where it had been, how many people it had carried and what roads and streets it had been driven on.  The 1920’s were full of excesses before the stock market imploded.  Wonder how many times this car was driven to swanky parties with occupants dressed to the hilt, “putting on the Ritz”?  Makes you wonder…

Obviously, the body has been painted and a lot of work has been done to the engine.  It is amazing.  However, there are so many intricacies raging from the engine, the wheels, the interior, dash, engine (oh my!) and well… Let me show you.

The engine is a side valve, inline six.  The piston jugs are finished in porcelain and each piston has 2 spark plugs.  There is copper and brass galore.  There is a magneto running power to each plug and each plug has a really interesting connector for the spark plug wire.

It looks like somebody must have spent a huge amount of time making the radiator.  The thing looks handmade.  The fan is pretty cool, with the outside ring around the blades.  And take a look at that fan belt.

On the exhaust side of the engine you can see a chrome heat riser for the carbs.  Down on the front side of the engine you can also see the water pump.  On the intake side of the engine, right behind the horn you can see the magneto and the bundle of fabric-covered spark plug wires.

This is an intriguing detail:

On either side of the copper tubing you can see two “valve” looking affairs on the engine head.  There were six of these, one for each cylinder.  Since this is an engine that was also set up to start by hand (there was a hand crank extension sticking through the front of the rediator), these are pressure relief valves.  Or, perhaps something to prime each cylinder with?

I’ll have more pics later…

Senna Documentary

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I finally got a chance to watch the highly acclaimed documentary of Aytron Senna on the big screen.  The local Lotus dealership had a special viewing at a local theater and I quickly jumped at the opportunity.

The documentary is amazing.  Period footage makes the film and fortunately has very little commentary to color the true meaning of the film.  Basically the images speak for themselves and there is plenty to watch.

The years since Senna’s death have brought a number of changes to F1 cars.  Watching this film really puts these changes into perspective.  The feel is certainly not the one that you get from modern F1 race coverage.  The race is the same, but the cars are so different.

One of the things that stood out for me was a very quick “demo” of active suspension on the  Williams FW14.  This car ran during the 91 and 92 seasons.  Designed by none other than Adrian Newey, but I digress…  They show footage of the FW14 parked in a garage with all body work removed.  It is sitting on all four tyres and it appears to be going through a set of self-tests:  the monocoque floats as the active suspension raises and lowers each corner.  Pretty cool.

From the film one can appreciate the driving force behind Senna.  He basically had a balls-to-the-wall attitude and second was just not an option for him.  The rivalry between him and Alain Prost is certainly visible not only on track footage but also on interviews.  Then, once Prost retires from the sport they become close.  So close that Prost is a trustee of the Senna Foundation.

If you get a chance to watch this, don’t miss it.  Highly recommend this film – it is awesome.  Can’t wait for the American spec DVD to be released…

2011 Euro Car Festival – Greenville SC

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Another great Euro Car Festival has come and gone.  bowtie6 did not have a chance to attend this year, still putting the finishing touches.  Hopefully soon, she will be back on the road.

At any rate, there were many very nice cars to see.  There was a Lamborghini Espada that sure looked sweet.  Talk about a “grand touring” car!  Awesome and impressive.  There were plenty of other awesome machines but two of special mention.

These two cars came from Charlotte NC.  The first is a Volvo 242 with a Ford 5.0L V8.  This car has been detailed in a very impressive fashion and is quick to boot.  Take a look:

There was also an MG Midget with a Ford Duratec 2.0 engine – lot of work has gone into this car and it is very impressive.  The EFI is controlled with a MegaSquirt.  Very impressive:

If you like to read more about the “Midgetec”, there is a link in the left of this post…  Look for “Duratec Powered Midget”.

Before You Buy…

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Hi folks!  Quick update on bowtie6:  All wiring in the engine compartment has been done, the inside of the cab has been completed and now the only remaining thing left is the trunk.  Since my wiring harness is all home-brew and actually quite simple, the trunk area will have three relays and two circuit breakers.  This will control the stop lights, reverse lights and fuel pump.  Confused?  I can understand that – I’ll have a full writeup after all this is put together and the car fully operational.

bowtie6 will be ready to drive very soon.

So what is this “Before You Buy” title on today’s post?

This past week, over at my cousin’s shop somebody brought a classic Mini Cooper.  The owner bought the car and along with it came a rear subframe assembly.  Seems he was told the subframe needed replacing and “here is one along with the purchase price”.

This Mini looks nice and solid!  Cosmetically it is in great shape.  Paint is shiny.  Interior is clean.  Carpet is new.  Seats are comfy as all get-out.  Has cool wheels and Yokohama R008’s.  Chrome fender flares.  Right-hand drive – DAYUM!  How can this get any better?

Take a look:

Nice car huh?  How can anyone want anything better, right?  Another picture?  Sure…

Beauty is only skin deep folks.  Seems the owner got a hard-on for this little beauty and never bothered to put the thing on a lift.  When buying “classic” cars, this is cardinal law number one.  Put the thing on a lift, take a look at the bottom of the car and if there is any rot…  WALK AWAY.  I can’t tell you how many good looking “classics” I have seen on a lift where I just ran away from…

Turns out that after lifting the ass-end of this little gem, we found the following nightmare:

The above is the rear subframe on a classic Mini.  This is where the rubber dampers and rear trailing arms mount onto.  Basically, this is the rear suspension.  Here is another shot of this affair…

Another closeup:

This is only the beginning.  Once we took the subframe out from underneath the car we found a lot of rot along the mounting points for the subframe.  Unfortunately this is what happens when folks don’t really pay attention to the parts that are not “shiny”.  We looked at the front subframe (the one that holds the front suspension and engine) and it looks bad too.  Furthermore, the body has quite a bit of rot behind the front wheels.

Not trying to preach…  It’s your money.  But people… Put a car on a lift and take a look before you buy!!  This owner is now facing quite an ‘spensive bill in repairs.  The rear subframe needs to be replaced – the rust damage is too severe.  The unit body needs to repaired, after all the mounting points for the rear subrame have holes in them where you can see the inside of the cab. And, the front suspension needs attention.

 

The Kentucky Bourbon Trail…

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Not doing a lot of work on bowtie6 this weekend since the Mrs and I decided to take a little road trip along the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.  Since I am a fan of good bourbon I thought this would be a great opportunity to learn more about it.. What a trip this has been!!

We won’t have a chance to stop by all the distilleries along the way, but we did take the time to check out some of the ones I really like.  We started at Maker’s Mark – a smaller operation but nevertheless very impressive.  Actually had a chance to see where “46” is made – if you haven’t had a chance to try it, do yourself a favour and get some.  In the gift shop there, they had quite a nice selection and among the items not available except at the shop:  the Maker’s Mark Mint Julep had been highly recommended.  They also had “white dog” (the spirit before being aged) for sale in clear bottles.  We had a taste at the tasting station and it was extremely good – I reckon this will burn with a blue flame and indeed it had plenty of “bubbles”.  Yes, this was good “moonshine”.

Next on the list of visits was the Jim Beam distillery.  This was a much larger scale facility and in addition to Jim Beam, they make smaller production batches of among other things, Knob Creek.  Since they don’t rotate the barrels in their warehouses, the “good stuff” is found towards the middle to top of the racks of the warehouses.  And by good stuff, they are not joking! In those select racks they choose the barrels that will become such items as Knob Creek Single Barrel (unique to the gift shop), Basil Hayden, Baker’s and Booker’s.  We had a chance to taste Booker’s and that stuff is amazing:  it is 129 proof!!

Well needless to say, when on such trips one never knows what one might see.  At Maker’s Mark I spotted a fellow with a shirt with the Automobile Magazine logo embroidered on it…  Well, in the parking lot was this:

I have seen this bad boy in several magazines and indeed this is the new Mini Cooper coupe.  It is strictly a two seater.  As it turns out, the fellow with the Automobile Magazine shirt is one of the web editors, and of course I had to start a conversation!  This thing would be some serious fun.  He said it was quick indeed and it performed as good as it looks.  Here are some more shots…

That is a wing on the roof and it is trick!

So, if you are reading this post Mr Automobile Magazine Web Editor, it sure was nice chatting with you today!