The Drive-In Era

I'm the first to admit I'm getting to be an old guy, and going back to when I was a teenager is a trip of many decades. But if we did that, we'd find drive-in restaurants were popular, particularly with the younger crowd. In good old Kelowna, BC, there were several, but the most popular was the A&W. There's still an A&W restaurant in the same Capri Mall location, but it has long since become just a walk-in establishment.

In the sixties (my era), the A&W did not, I recall, offer any sit-down service. It had a long covered walkway projecting from the front of the building – cars pulled up and angle parked on either side of the canopy, facing towards the building. Over each space, conveniently positioned to be read through your windshield was a copy of the menu. What was offered: three sizes of hamburger (baby, mama, and papa), french fries, onion rings, hot dogs, and two soft drinks (root beer and orange). Once you'd decided on your order, you turned on your lights, and a young car hop in a smart A&W uniform would come right to the driver's window, take your order and collect payment. My favourite order: mama burger, onion rings and "swamp water" a tasty combination half orange and half root beer. When your order was ready, she'd bring it out on a tray, you'd lower your window about two-thirds down, and the tray would clip on to the glass. The drinks would be in a heavy chilled glass mug, and the food was served in a foil bag, which did a reasonable job of keeping it hot.

If you had a nice car or were really cool, instead of pulling up to the walkway under the canopy, you'd back into a parking stall on the other side of the driveway – this would allow you to keep tabs on who was coming and going through the drive-in. I was never cool enough or had a nice enough car to pull that off. But if I was riding with my friend John in his bright yellow '36 Ford, yeah we were good for the back row.
Back then, the A&W was on the "cruise route."
Every town had one, and Kelowna's started with a trip down the main street (Bernard Avenue), then into City Park (back then there was a loop drive through the park), then it was up Harvey Avenue (Highway 97), turn right onto Glenmore Drive (now called Gordon Drive) and through the A&W, then back along Glenmore and left onto Bernard to complete the loop. This route might be done three or four times in the course of the evening, sometimes stopping on Bernard, or in the park to talk to friends. For sure there would be a stop for burgers and brew at the A&W. Sometimes a car full of guys would park next to one full of girls. There would be chatting back and forth, and maybe even some passengers would switch cars.

If you're too young to remember the drive-in era, there's a movie that does quite a good job of depicting this phase of car culture. Check out "American Graffiti" a 1973 coming of age film directed and co-written by George Lucas starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Harrison Ford, Cindy Williams, Mackenzie Phillips,Wolfman Jack and Suzanne Somers.
Those were the days!

Images courtesy of google!

My absolute favourite car ad...

The Jordan Motor Car Company was founded in 1916 in Cleveland, Ohio by Edward S. "Ned" Jordan. Prior to his foray into manufacturing cars he had been an advertising executive, and it showed in his approach to making and marketing his cars.
Much like many of the cars of today, Jordan's cars used components from other manufacturers – the factory produced what is known as "assembled cars." Even the bodies were produced off-site, but Jordan did have the capacity to paint them, and boy did he ever do a bang up job on that! While Henry Ford exclusively used the fast-drying lacquer called Japan Black, Ned offered a myriad of choices, including: Apache Red, Mercedes Red, Savage Red, Ocean Sand Gray, Venetian Green, Briarcliff Green, Egyptian Bronze, Liberty Blue, Chinese Blue, Submarine Gray and of course, Black. Ned said, "Cars are too dull and drab." He thought since people dressed smartly, they'd be willing to drive "smart looking cars" as well.
It was in the advertising of his cars that Ned led the way. He was one of the first to name Jordan models with unique evocative names such as: The Sport Marine, The Tomboy, and The Friendly Three Coupe. The Friendly Three's slogan, "Seats two, three if they're friendly."
But it is his print advertisement titled, "Somewhere West of Laramie" that caught my eye many years ago. It is promoting the Jordan Playboy and like all good advertisements hardly mentions the actual product it's promoting. Jordan had considered calling his sporting car the "Doughboy," but decided that soldiers returning from The Great War would be more attracted to an ideal of fun and frivolity instead. The name was adapted from a noteworthy Irish play called, "The Playboy of the Western World."

From 1923, here is "Somewhere West of Laramie" enjoy...

If you're having trouble reading the copy in the ad, here's a more readable copy.

SOMEWHERE west of Laramie there's a bronco-busting, steer roping girl who knows what I’m talking about. She can tell what a sassy pony, that’s a cross between greased lighting and the place where it hits, can do with eleven hundred pounds of steel and action when he's going high, wide and handsome. The truth is - the Playboy was built for her. Built for the lass whose, face is brown with the sun when the day is done of revel and romp and race. She loves the cross of the wild and the tame. There's a savor of links about that car - of laughter and lilt and light - a hint of old loves - and saddle and quirt. It’s a brawny thing - yet a graceful thing for the sweep o' the Avenue. Step into the Playboy when the hour grows dull with things gone dead and stale. Then start for the land of real living with the spirit of the lass who rides, lean and rangy, into the red horizon of a Wyoming twilight.

Ever Wonder Where The Names Come From?

In the early days of the automobile, many of the brand names were the same as their founders. Here are but a few for your amusement, starting with the one most widely known...

Ford

Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. Although Ford did not invent the automobile or the assembly line, he developed and manufactured the first automobile that many middle class Americans could afford.
Henry could be stubborn when it came to updating his engineering, often to the detriment of their product. Steve Jobs of Apple Computer showed similar traits, e.g. adamantly insisting on NO cooling fans in the original Macintosh and years later, the terrible "round" mouse of the first iMacs.

Chevrolet

Louis-Joseph Chevrolet (December 25, 1878 – June 6, 1941) was a Swiss-born American race car driver of French descent, founder of the Chevrolet Motor Car Company in 1911, and a founder in 1916 of the Frontenac Motor Corporation, which made racing parts for Ford's Model T.
Louis was never pleased that General Motors made sure "his" Chevrolet was the low-price offering from General Motors.





Cadillac

Antoine Laumet de La Mothe Cadillac,  (March 5, 1658 — Oct. 15, 1730), French soldier, explorer, and administrator in French North America, founder of the city of Detroit (1701), and governor of Louisiana (1710 to 1716 or 1717).
I find it ironic that one of the PREMIUM American automotive marques is named for a person whose life preceded the automobile by nearly 150 years! 

Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes Jellinek

Initially Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz worked independently of one another. Benz founded the firm Benz & Cie. in October 1883, and Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) was formed in November 1890. Later, a new brand name for DMG products appeared, when Emil Jellinek became involved in the company. That new brand name was Mercédès, the name of his daughter.
Inflation after the First World War meant a difficult time for sales – especially of luxury passenger cars. Only financially strong companies were to survive – even these were frequently forced merge. It was in this way that the former rivals, Mercedes (DMG) and Benz & Cie., merged in 1926 to become what is now known as Mercedes-Benz.


Dodge

After meeting Henry Ford, the two Dodge brothers, Horace and John, were intrigued by his car and its engine. They were so impressed by Ford that they risked their business future on a contract with him. The Dodges agreed to give Ford the $7,000 worth of automobile parts and $3,000 in cash that he needed in return for a ten-percent stake in Ford Motor Company.

In 1913, Dodge announced they’d stop building Ford cars and would design, build, and sell their own car. On July 17, 1914, Dodge Brothers was formed with $5 million in common stock. Later that year, the first Dodge car rolled off the assembly line. Ford was not happy that the dividends he paid to Dodge were being used to bankroll his competition. In 1916 he announced that he would stop paying. The Dodge brothers sued and got appropriately $19 million in back dividends.

So there's the origins of just five automotive names. If you'd like to see more like: Maserati, Bugatti, Ferrari, Kaiser, Willys, Hupmobile, Chrysler, Essex, Jordan, and so on, just let me know.

The Ritual of The Nenette Brush

For those of you not familiar with a Nenette brush, it came in a round cardboard tube, inside was NOT a brush at all, but a small fringe mop on a short wooden handle. The mop fringe was impregnated with an oil called "Nenetol" that made it attract and trap dust. When not in use, the Nenette brush was always stored in the tube. Surprisingly, the dirtier it looked, the better it worked!
In the early sixties our family car was a 1953 Chrysler Windsor Club Coupe. A big heavy good-looking car, with a flathead six engine and a Fluid Drive transmission. Although fast approaching its tenth year, it was still a very nice-looking car. My dad, who we ALWAYS called Pop, was very proud of that car, and took very good care of it. All the chrome and paintwork on the car looked nearly new, but the deep burgundy colour showed every speck of dust.
So from April to the end of September, Pop's evening ritual was to go out to the car, take the Nenette Brush out of the trunk, and give the car a thorough dusting. The way Pop would "Nenette" the car followed the same unhurried routine. Step one was to light up a Players Plain, and then pull the brush out of the tube. He'd give the brush a little shake to release any clumps of dust it might be holding from its last use. Open the driver's door and step up on the sill – Pop was about 5'-7" tall, so he needed to do that to reach the centre of the roof. After wiping down half the roof, he'd go round to the other side and repeat the open door, step on sill, wipe the roof process. He'd then move to the trunk and back bumper giving them a thorough wipe down. Both sides of the car were done next, including the hubcaps and tire sidewalls. He always saved the hood and front of the car for last. The hood got a thorough wiping, then he'd give the front and grille a good going-over. Just about then, his smoke would be done, which was convenient as often there were fresh bug splats on the front that needed attention. That part took two hands to do, Pop would hold the handle of the brush in one hand with the fringes over the bug spot, he'd loosely bunch a few strands of the fringe in his other hand and rub them gently on the spot until the bug was gone.
With the front of the car finished, the brush would be put back in the trunk. He'd lean comfortably on the fence and spend a moment to admire the car. As the last light in the sky faded, he might just finish off with another Players.

Learning To Drive...

Phase One
So maybe I had a different start to the driving world than most. The first time I "took the wheel" was at age six, sitting on Pop's lap in our '48 Ford. Today, if a father was caught with his young son sitting between him and the steering wheel in a moving car, he'd be thrown in jail! But back in the olden days, we hadn't yet realized everyone should be buckled in. In fact, I often rode in the car standing up behind the front seat. The only hard and fast rule, "Don't ever touch the back door handles!" Pop was paranoid about those doors, which were hinged at the back. If a child opened one of those doors while the car was moving at speed, the air rushing past the car would violently rip the door wide open. Before said child could release their grip on the door handle they would likely be flung out of the car! They weren't called "Suicide Doors" for nothing! But I digress, this post is about learning to drive.

Phase Two
When my friend Ron was twelve years old, his mom had a nice little Volkswagen beetle. When he knew his mom was going to be out for the afternoon and didn't take her car, he'd grab the VW's keys and four thick volumes of their encyclopedia. With two books on each seat we'd start up the car and back it down the driveway to the back lane. The first few outings were just back and forth in the lane. But it wasn't long before Ron felt the need to explore further. It's amazing how far two young boys in a Beetle can go staying mostly in back lanes. I never drove that car, but I was, as they say, taking detailed notes of how the clutch, gearshift and gas pedal all worked. The last outing in the Beetle found us miles away, no longer restricted to back lanes. Fortunately we got the wits scared out of us when a police car followed us for a while. The Beetle got home that day with no incidents, and we considered ourselves lucky not to have gotten caught.

Phase Three
It was an old 1941 Ford panel truck that was used at the greenhouse and nursery business my friend Don's family operated. The truck wasn't licensed, so it was used only on site to haul plants and dirt. Don and I were fourteen and were allowed to use the truck in our "work" at the nursery. For example if someone bought a shrub or an ornamental tree, off in the truck we'd go with shovels and a burlap sack. We'd dig up the plant, pack its roots in burlap and bring it back to the front of the greenhouse. Then we'd have to patrol the whole site in the truck, just to make sure everything was OK. I got to take many turns at the wheel and got quite proficient with the clutch and shifting gears. We were allowed to take the truck across the street into the orchard, supposedly to deliver ladders and other equipment for the orchard workers.
This arrangement held steadfast for a good part of the summer of my 14th year. But as time went on, the speed we drove steadily increased. Alas, one day the truck somehow ended up on its side in the orchard. No one was hurt, but sadly the truck was soon to the junkyard. To our dismay, it was replaced by two shiny new wheelbarrows.
On a trip to Oregon last year, I happened to see an old Ford very similar to that greenhouse truck from years ago. I stopped and took a few pictures of it, which I later worked into a digital painting I titled "Rust In Peace." I gave Don a print, and which I'm pleased to see hanging in his home. At the end of this post is a copy of it for your amusement.
When I finally turned sixteen and got my Learner's License, Pop offered to teach me to drive. We had just one outing, after which he said, "I don't know how, but you drive as good as anyone on the road, go take the damn Driving Test!" If only he knew...

   

My Very First Car

In a previous post I'd reported that a 1951 Anglia was my first car. To be more specific, it was my first MOTORIZED car, the pedal car in my illustration holds the honour of being "My Very First Car."

I was four years old when this car came into my life. Even though I was restricted to the length of the sidewalk in front of our house on Marshall Street, which was only one block long, it was enough. I was thrilled to be mobile! Several times a day I'd set out for a drive to see the sights.

How Does a Pedal Car Work?
The back axle resembles a two cylinder engine's crankshaft. Two connecting rods are attached to the axle and run forward to two pedals hung from pivots on the underside of the hood. You put your feet on the pedals and push. As one pedal goes forward the other went back, a natural walking motion that is easy to learn. But like most things that initially appear simple, there's always more to it. The hard part is figuring out which pedal to push FIRST to go forward. It could be either one, depending on where that crankshaft shaped rear axle was positioned – what I did, was to push gently on one pedal and see if the car went in the direction I wanted. If it did, then I'd push hard on that pedal and away you went. If the gentle push moved the car opposite to the desired direction, you pushed the other pedal to go. It was also important that you never "parked" with one pedal all the way back and the other all the way forward. That put the crankshaft in a flat position and consequently you could not  move the car with the pedals. But since the car had no floor, you could "Fred Flintstone" it a few inches, pop your feet back on the pedals and off you went.  

Little Ricky's Big Adventure
A year later we moved to Okanagan Boulevard to be closer to the site of the new house that Pop was building at Poplar Point. I often went to the new house with Pop where my job was to carry nails for him and the carpenter he'd hired to run the framing of the house. I was paid 25 cents a day for this very important job.
One day, Pop went to work on the house and forgot to take me. I didn't want to miss a day of work, so I decided to drive MY car to the new house. I knew the way, and it was only two kilometres. Two hours later, when I pulled into the driveway at the new house, I couldn't understand what all the fuss was about.

The End Of The Car
As I got older, I got bigger. I no longer could fit my legs inside the car. No problem, I'd just sit in the seat and put my legs around the steering wheel and cross my ankles on the hood. Did I mention Poplar Point Drive was a nice winding unpaved hill, great for coasting down in a pedal car? One day Johnny, the kid who lived across the street, talked me into letting him drive the car. He had seen how I finished off the ride by doing a big sliding turn onto a driveway near the bottom of the hill.
So here comes Johnny roaring down the hill in my car. He was bigger and heavier than me, consequently he was going MUCH faster than I ever did. I realized it was way too fast to make the corner. "Drag your feet Johnny!" I yelled as he zoomed past, giving me a bewildered wild-eyed look. Johnny cranked the wheel hard right, but car turned only the slightest bit (today we'd call that classic understeer). The far side of the driveway had about a seven foot drop into thick bush. Johnny and my car parted ways as they sailed off that embankment. The car landed on its side and moments later, Johnny hit with his beefiest part right on top of it. The car was flattened and Johnny couldn't sit down for two weeks!

Deal-breaker Design Details

I would've bought that car except for...

That's how the description of a deal-breaker design detail begins. There's lots of them throughout the automotive world. Everyone has their own opinion in this area, but this is MY blog and I can say and show what is a deal-breaker detail for me.
Over the years, there's been lots of design details I didn't like on several cars. In most cases, they're things I could live with, if I had to. But this is about deal-breakers, so here's what is currently my most despised deal-breaker detail.

This is the 2013 Hyundai Genesis Coupe. I like the overall look of this car. It has a nice wide stance, and flowing, interesting lines throughout, except for the deal-breaker. It's that notch in the bottom of the window behind the door. It's awkward and ill-conceived and does not enhance the car in any way. Hyundai says it's to enhance the driver's ability to shoulder-check when changing lanes – that's just a load of hooey and they know it. They were just trying too hard to come up with something different and it didn't work.
I can imagine a lot of you thinking, "it's easy to criticize, but let's see you come up with a better detail." Well that's just what me and photoshop have done. Here's how I think that window should look. I'll let you be the judge whose is better-looking...  If you click on either image, it enlarges to fill the screen and you can click back and forth from their design to my "notch removed" design.

My apologies to Hyundai for selecting one of your cars as my first deal-breaker detail. I think you make great cars, in fact my wife and I are very happy with our Elantra Touring.
Look out Nissan, Mini, Ferrari and others, you'll all get your turn when I air out more of my deal-breaker details.

Cheers, Rick

Truth in the Automotive World

Today's post is about Truth, and the many areas where automakers bend it to make their products appear more desirable or profitable.

Truth In Images
Car manufacturers have been playing visual tricks on us for years! In the sixties car ads featured renderings of cars that were impossibly long, low and wide. Pontiac being one of the worst offenders... look at this illustration from 1963 – that four door hardtop must be 9 feet wide and 23 feet long.

Today, we're a little more subtle, we have TV ads showing cars with windows tinted so dark they appear to be solid black – this enhances the look of the car, but would never be considered street legal anywhere.

Truth in Design
How many cars have you seen where the exhaust pipes appear to be 3 inches or more in diameter – but then when you look more closely, that's just a short extension on the end of the pipe. The REAL exhaust is only 1-1/2 inches. A true high performance car will have larger diameter exhausts, so car manufacturers create the illusion of big exhausts on lesser cars in the hope we'll believe they're more powerful.
Open the hood of just about any luxury car and what do you see? Not the engine, but a cover that sort of looks like an engine. It makes things under the hood appear clean and tidy, while underneath is a sea of pipes, wires, relays, belts, pulleys etc. I guess planning the real parts in a neat and organized manner would cost more.

Truth in Materials
Thankfully the vinyl roof era has disappeared into the mists of the past. But we're still being inflicted with things like wire wheel hubcaps – if you want wire wheels, get wire wheels, nobody is fooled by a cheezy set of hubcaps.

Truth in Engineering
When a car maker wants you to think a car has a really powerful engine, they make the gas pedal very touchy. In the two Corvettes I've driven, if you pushed the pedal down a quarter inch, you got about half throttle – thus enhancing the fact you're driving a performance vehicle. Trouble is, for some, this makes the car very difficult to control. Furthermore a Corvette IS a high performance car, why not just make the throw of the gas pedal such that it makes the car more drivable – if you want more go, it's there, just put the pedal to the metal.

Truth in Fuel Economy
We are warned that vehicle fuel economy figures generated by the government and published by automakers are for only comparison between different vehicles. They are not representative of realistic real world fuel consumption. Why not?

What I liked about the PT Cruiser

I had quite liked the Chrysler Pronto Cruizer a concept car that made the show circuit in 1998. Designed by the then very young Brian Nesbitt (dob 1969). It was a fastback coupe body style, that took many design cues from the cars of the late 1930's – my favourite era of car design. The Pronto Cruizer previewed the upcoming production car that would eventually be called the Chrysler PT Cruiser. It debuted in 2001 as a 2001 model.
Incidentally "PT" reportedly stands for "personal transport" – an appropriate name for this car as its space efficient interior could transport a big pile of your personal stuff. As everyone knows, when a car goes from concept into full production, a lot of the really cool stuff in the concept doesn't make it into production. And the PT Cruiser was no exception... they even changed the spelling of "Cruizer" to "Cruiser." While being watered down from the concept I still liked the look of the car.
The car nicely captured the essence of a 1930's "slantback" sedan in its overall shape. But it is the little details in the bodywork that really caught my eye. Viewed from the front, the bumper appears to run across the grille – so similar to the 1937 Ford. The hood, also is similar in shape to that same  Ford, which incidentally is considered the best-looking Ford of the thirties. At the back of the car, the latch to open the hatchback is neatly integrated into the classic Chrysler logo. Perhaps the most striking feature in the PT design is the care and attention given to the joints between body panels. The bottom edge of the hood flows into a crease in the doors that then further extends completely around the car. The fuel filler door is integrated into that crease. The back of the hood comes to the front of the doors, an elegantly simple detail. Most people wouldn't notice these little design details, they'd likely just say the car looks nice.
Unfortunately Chrysler "updated" the PT in 2006, eliminating that portion of the grille below the bumper, visually ruining the look of the car in my humble opinion. The next time you see one of those pre-2006 PT's, take a walk around the car, and really look at how the joints in the body have been done. Then look at nearly any new car and you'll notice there appears to be no real thought put into where the joints in the body are located. An engineer put them where it was easiest with I suspect little thought given as to how it looks. Where's Mr. Nesbitt when we need him? Well, actually he's currently head of General Motors Corporation International Operations Design, based in Shanghai, China.
The PT Convertible
The convertible was introduced in 2005 and I never liked the look of it. It was, what I call a picnic basket convertible. Chrysler called the basket handle a "sports bar" and sort of justified its existence saying it deflected the airflow thus reducing buffeting for rear seat passengers. In reality, it is a necessary structural element compensating for the removal of the car's roof.
If they'd taken another look back to the thirties when they were engineering the PT convertible they would have seen there were many 4-door convertibles. Had they taken that route, the reinforcements could have been built into the back of the front seats (no basket handle). A four door PT convertible would have been unique. Something not seen since the Lincoln Continentals of the early sixties.
The PT Coupe
In a previous post I mentioned a coupe always looks better than a sedan. So it would have been with the PT. But this car exists only in MY mind. Well actually a few years ago, I had photoshopped a version and here it is for your amusement.

You Can't Make Up Stuff Like This!

I've spent some quality time reviewing a great website dedicated to old car advertisements. http://www.oldcaradvertising.com  The poetic ad copy and beautiful illustrations from the past, show how modern advertising has lost that so enjoyable over-the-top bombast. Can it be that "Truth in Advertising" so fervently promoted in the 1970's killed off those highly creative "Mad Men" as they were called.
Furthermore, I was surprised to find that Ford's advertisements from the 1920's and 1930's were almost always aimed at women! Mostly these ads beautifully illustrated the car while the ad copy that went along with the picture left the reader with a warm and fuzzy feeling about the car and life in general. But in one instance, the big-city ad men's lack of knowledge of Mother Nature created a less than idyllic scene. For example here's the ad copy for the new Ford Sport Coupe that ran in the Literary Digest of August 23, 1930.
"The beauty of the new Ford, so apparent in line and colour, extends also to the upholstery and appointments. You note it as you open the doors and see the attractive interior. You find it also in those important little details of trim and finish which a woman's practised eye is quick to catch. There is about the car a distinctive style or tone which reflects the substantial quality that has been built into it. In external things, as in mechanical construction, the new Ford has been made to endure."
Tragically, the illustration that accompanies the above copy shows a newlywed but about-to-be-widowed woman in the driver's seat of her new Ford Sport Coupe, snapping photos of her hapless groom feeding a cub while mama bear is poised to attack!

The Origin of the Coupe

From Wikipedia: A coupé or coupe (from the French, coupé, to cut) is a closed two-door car body style with a permanently attached fixed roof. The precise definition of the term varies between manufacturers and over time.
Nowadays an automobile manufacturer can apply the term coupe to just about any car they want. For example: club coupe (2 door sedan), opera coupe (a limousine with a roof tall enough so occupants don't have to remove their top hats), sports coupe (car having a roof sloping down to the rear aka fastback), four-door coupe (luxury sedan with coupe-like proportions), quad coupe (car with one or two small rear doors) and so on.
For me, the coupe remains a body style most popular in the thirties and forties. All had only two doors and a very short roof. A bench seat would be fitted and two could ride in comfort, but you could cram in three in a pinch.
Three Window or Five Window
A three window coupe had two side windows and a back window. The five window had a slightly longer passenger compartment and added two more windows, one on each side behind the doors. That slightly longer cab left space for a package shelf behind the seat – something a three window would not have.
Many coupes featured an opening windshield. It was hinged on the top and you turned a crank mounted below the windshield in the centre. It only opened a few inches, but it did let in a lot of air. Of course the windows in the doors rolled down as well. If the car had a rumble seat* (let's save a full discussion of that for another blog), then the rear window would roll down to allow the two front passengers to converse with the poor souls riding out back. With all those windows open, who'd need air conditioning?
If you drove a coupe you were cool. Young married couples would have a coupe until the kids started arriving. Travelling salesmen loved coupes! When the cab was shortened, the trunk got longer – boy could you pack a lot of goods in there! Moonshiners and bootleggers loved coupes for the same reason, that huge trunk! Add to that coupes were lighter than their sedan counterparts, meaning they had noticeably peppier performance.
For me though, the major appeal of the coupe is that just looks better than any sedan. Sadly, by the late forties they had disappeared from most manufacturer's model lineup. Here's my digital painting based on a photo I took at the Nixdorf Museum in Summerland BC of a '48 Chyrsler New Yorker Coupe. And yes it's featured in my ebook, Digital Automotive Art on iTunes.

*A rumble seat, also called mother-in-law seat, is an upholstered exterior seat which hinges or otherwise opens out from the rear deck of a pre-World War II automobile, and seats one or more passengers.

 

A Space Efficient Pickup

In North America the pickup truck is the king of the road. Ford sells more F-150's than anything else. In fact, during the month of March, 2014 they sold 70, 940 of them in the US. That's three trucks every two minutes, 24/7! While all the pickups sold in North America are great vehicles, I believe we've been brainwashed to think we NEED a big giant truck. I'll admit there's something empowering about riding along in your bigwheel looking down on the mere mortals trundling along in their hatchback and sedans, but the shine comes off when you've got to park Goliath downtown.

The rest of the world uses a different style of pickup, something more like a van with the back cut off.  It has the same load carrying space in a significantly shorter package. Back in the sixties, the Big Three (Ford, Chyrsler and GM) all offered pickups in that style. In fact I had one, a 1966 Dodge A100. When I bought it, it had already been hard at work for more than ten years, but that trusty old slant six engine still ran like a top. It was my daily driver for more than ten years, making hundreds of trips for building supplies and to the garbage dump. It also helped haul the equipment for the Kelowna City Band. We called him "The Relic." If you were to buy my ebook on iTunes called "Digital Automotive Art" you'd find a nice digital painting of himself in all his glory just after we treated him to a full body workover and a paint job.

From personal experience I can tell you that this style of truck carries a heavy load more balanced between the front and rear axles than a conventional pickup. Before I had The Relic I'd borrow my boss's regular Dodge and with a heavy load in the back, it felt like the front wheels were just barely maintaining contact with the road – not a great feeling. 

Relic's pickup bed was 8'-4" long and the sides were taller than any regular pickup. If the load was something relatively light, like yard waste for example, it would take a nice big load of it. Inside, the cab was downright spacious feeling. The engine sat between the seats in a "doghouse" that was big enough to spread out all the fixings for a nice picnic if the weather turned nasty. Also in an emergency, five people could be seated in that cab quite comfortably. There was only two seat belts in The Relic, so more than two occupants would now be considered illegal, but we did utilize the space on a few occasions to transport people out of the woods after they'd had a mechanical breakdown.

With his very short wheelbase, The Relic could turn around on a normal city street within the width of the pavement – try that in your 4X4 crew cab! All in all that old cabover pickup as one of my friends liked to call it, served us well. It was relatively comfortable to drive, and did everything that was asked for it. All the while being a whole lot more compact in size. 

Here's a quick little sketch I did of a Dodge A100 pickup. My friend Brian says he's disappointed when he gets a new blog entry from me and it doesn't have an illustration of some sort in it. This one's for you, Brian.

  

How to pass a cyclist

It's springtime and the cyclists (including me) are back on the road. So I'd like to take a moment to review how to pass a cyclist, specifically on a narrow, winding road. Now let's throw in a blind corner to the mix and see what shakes out.

Points to Ponder:

• The motorist approaching a cyclist from the rear has the ability to control the timing and location  of the encounter. 
• A bicycle is a single-track vehicle. This means the rider is going to weave slightly to maintain balance. If the cyclist is a young child the amount of weaving can be exaggerated and unpredictable.

Let's say we are that motorist approaching the cyclist from the rear. There is also another car approaching in the opposite direction. If neither of the cars vary their speed, both cars and the cyclist will meet at the same location. Remember there's a blind corner that's going to come into play, meaning you can't see that other approaching car. You can react to this scenario in three dramatically different ways.

THE OBLIVIOUS DRIVER
This driver is too busy NOT driving they don't even notice the cyclist. They proceed on auto-pilot at a constant speed, they also don't vary their position on the lane, thus passing by inches from the elbow of the cyclist at the same moment that other car bursts around the corner. If we're lucky the cyclist doesn't suffer  more than momentary cardiac arrest.

THE GIANT SWERVE DRIVER
As this driver approaches the cyclist, their response to the situation is to swerve WAY over the centreline into the oncoming lane. Just at that moment that oncoming car comes into view. A drastic swerve back into the lane is needed to avoid a collision with the oncoming car. If the cyclist is lucky they aren't hit. Probably they've been watching this disaster unfold in their rearview mirror and have "hit the ditch" in a desperate attempt at self-preservation.

THE SPEED CONTROL DRIVER
This driver sees the cyclist ahead and quickly determines that if they don't adjust their speed they will pass the cyclist at a dangerous spot on the road. They either speed up slightly and pass before the blind corner or preferably they slow down and follow behind the cyclist until they are both past the blind corner and can see it is safe to pass the cylist. Perhaps if they're especially considerate, they will move over slightly to the centreline to give the cyclist a bit more room.

I hope you will make it your goal to be a Speed Control Driver. Every cyclist on the road will thank you.

It's Convertible Season!

The first bit of warm weather has hit the Okanagan! Joggers are wearing shorts and t-shirts, cyclists no longer look like refugees from Siberia and the convertibles are starting to return to our streets. The latter is most assuredly the most reliable sign that winter's over.
Nowadays, a car with a folding or retracting top is considered the top of the line. Something you buy to show you've had a bit of success and don't always have to be completely practical with your money. This wasn't always the case.
In the 1920's and 30's some of the cheapest cars were convertibles. But back then they were more often called a roadster or a touring car. Most didn't have roll up windows, but there were side curtains one could install to keep out some of the wet if the weather took a turn for the worse. To make matters worse, even a heater was an extra on many cars including the Ford Model A.
My dad, who we always called Pop, said he had bought the third Model A roadster sold in good old Winnipeg. He would have been just twenty or twenty-one years old at the time, probably had just started working an entry level job with the Canadian National Railway. With not much money to throw around, I can imagine him being able to scrape together enough cash to cover just the bare-bones $385.00 purchase price. I'll bet his car had no heater and likely no side curtains either! Can you imagine a better way to really experience a Winnipeg winter?
Yes the convertible has come up a long way from Pop's roadster. Now they have backdraft barriers that come up behind the seats to keep the wind buffeting to a minimum. Mercedes even has "air cap" a series of deflectors on the top of the windshield that can be raised to direct airflow over the occupants heads. In their brochure they describe it as follows, "The air deflector consists of a total of 211 individual components and 32 different materials. 14 different coatings and surface finishes are employed to afford protection from environmental influences. Mercedes-Benz has registered 20 patents for the AIRCAP®." That's a lot stuff to keep from mussing your pompadour.
Compared to their closed counterparts, convertibles have security issues, weigh more and in most cases COST more. But there's no denying that on a warm spring day, driving a good open car with your "significant other" at your side, is worth the price of admission.

What do you think of the new formula?

We've now had two Grands Prix in the 2014 formula one season. It's been interesting to watch the teams deal with the teething problems the vastly different power systems are creating. If you'd said to me five years ago that F1 was going to abandon the screaming 19,000 rpm 2.4 litre V8's for a 1.6 litre turbo V6, I'd have asked, "What you been smoking?" But here they are in race cars that are truly hybrid vehicles. But if you thought last year's cars were complicated beasts, they look like Model T's compared to this year's crop.
So far, Mercedes has been doing the best at having the least number of reliability issues, and it shows in the results. Red Bull is not too far behind, they seem to have run afoul of the maximum fuel flow regulations. Sadly Lotus, who last year, was looking to be a force to be reckoned with, struggling big time this year to even finish a race. Williams is looking much improved this year. Time will tell how all the teams sort out the new power units. I've got the PVR set to record the qualifying sessions and race in Bahrain this weekend. I won't be able to watch them until Sunday night – so if watch the broadcasts live, don't tell me who won.
I miss the sound of last year's engines. It was a clear indication that something very incredibly violent was going on inside those engines. A bit of arithmetic, reveals that an engine spinning at 18,000 rpm has its pistons going up and down 300 times a second! Marvellous!
This year's engines and electric hybrid drive produce a lot more power and torque. They also use a third less fuel in a race. Both good things. But the domestic sound they produce is just not very exciting. 

What Car Is This?

This German engineered car has just two seats. The roof is all glass. Body panels are plastic.
It has electronic stability and traction control.
The intercooled and turbocharged, direct injection engine is rear mounted and is equipped with a six speed manual transmission controlled with steering wheel mounted paddle shifters.
It is one of the few modestly priced cars sold in North American that is equipped with a headlight levelling control.
If the car is stopped facing uphill, the brakes will stay activated for a brief moment after the pedal is released to allow the driver to apply the throttle, thus preventing unwanted roll back.
One of the on-board computers monitors the time interval between the release of the throttle and a brake application – if this interval is less than a prescribed time, the car determines the driver is making an emergency brake application and it ensures the full force of the brakes are applied. In a collision if the air bags are activated, in the milliseconds before they deploy, the seat belts are retracted to pull both driver and passenger back into the seat to lessen the possibility of injury.
In the event of an accident, the doors are unlocked and the four-way flashers are activated automatically.
I've been driving this fun little car for over nine years and have enjoyed it immensely. The car now has over 167,000 km on the clock and has been nearly trouble free. Other than having to replace an EGR valve, all other costs have been what is commonly called normal maintenance.
Does YOUR car have all these features? I hope so, some of them might just save your life some day.
Lastly it doesn't hurt that its lifetime fuel economy average to date is 64 mpg!
The car I'm describing is my daily driver, a 2005 smart fortwo pulse diesel coupe!

Why do we put up with it?

Imagine this, you're standing in line at your favourite Tim Hortons or Starbucks. The person in front of you puts in their order, pays, and gets their coffee. You step up to the counter, order the SAME coffee and the clerk says, "Sorry the price just went up ten cents." No warning or explanation is given for the increase. You can't do without that coffee so reluctantly you pay.

The next day, coffee's back to the previous price. The day after that, when you don't really need a coffee, it's another five cents less. Then when you decide you absolutely must have a coffee fillup, the price has ballooned up overnight twenty-five cents more!

Coffee customers wouldn't stand for shenanigans like that. There'd be a revolution! So why do we put up with it when it's gasoline prices doing the same thing?