My first ever trip to Road America, and my first ever video edited, and posted to YouTube,
My first ever trip to Road America, and my first ever video edited, and posted to YouTube, away from home.
I had forgotten what a real V-8 sounds like. Until today.
When I die, they can cremate me and scatter my ashes at Turns 8 and 12.
(more)
(less)
Added: 2 months ago
Views: 172
The previous version of this video had some major glitches, so I'm posting this one and de
The previous version of this video had some major glitches, so I'm posting this one and deleting the other.
I'm really getting behind on posting these videos. Anyway, the title says it all.
I want to live in that house at 2:26; it's right across the street from the H-D dealer. (more)
(more)
(less)
Added: 2 months ago
Views: 1,079
It's been like this ever since the Ryan was built, especially at this curve. How can anyon
It's been like this ever since the Ryan was built, especially at this curve. How can anyone go off the road on a clear, dry, warm day? You can imagine what it's like out here when it's raining or snowing.
And to those two plainclothes cops at about 1:45: was a nerd with a video camera the worst criminal in Chicago at that particular moment? Weren't there gangbangers and drug dealers and slumlords and gas station panhandlers and illegal vendors and dogfighters and motorcycles racing down the Ryan at 80mph? Or did crime suddenly take a holiday at 11:30 Saturday morning?
Just asking.
(more)
(less)
Added: 2 months ago
Views: 1,201
|
It's a scandal that the City of Chicago let a major expressway/street interchange deterior
It's a scandal that the City of Chicago let a major expressway/street interchange deteriorate to this condition, especially one that is traveled by visitors to Chicago every day.
Out-of-towners who fly into Midway must think we've lost our minds. And if anybody on the Olympic committee flies into this airport, rents a car and drives up Cicero to I-55 to go downtown, Chicago can forget about the 2016 Olympics.
I'll bet the owner of that red Firebird is sorry he bought those 22's;-)
(more)
(less)
Added: 2 months ago
Views: 545
I kept hearing sirens, so I grabbed the camera and went to the corner of 47th and Princeto
I kept hearing sirens, so I grabbed the camera and went to the corner of 47th and Princeton. It was bedlam.
People's Gas had been replacing gas lines in the neighborhood, so when I heard the sirens, I thought "gas leak and explosion", and nearly got ready to evacuate my house.
As it turned out, an Amtrak train, the "Pere Marquette" out of Grand Rapids, MI, had plowed into the rear of a Norfolk Southern freight train near 52nd and Shields, a half-mile southwest of where I was standing.
You'll see firetrucks, supervisors' vehicles, a helicopter, and an ambulance who speeds in the opposite direction from the crash before realizing his mistake.
Watch the backpedaling in the next few weeks, as various mopes try to save their asses explaining why an Amtrak train was on the same track as a freight, and why, at the time of the crash, all five Amtrak crew were crowded into the locomotive cab, which is designed to hold two.
The latest as of December 6: the engineer who was operating the Amtrak locomotive had three months experience. That's like having a 16-year old drive I-95 through northern New Jersey and New York. In rush hour.
Passenger injuries aside, this was a videomaker's dream, but I had to get back and finish a magazine project on deadline. Rats!
(more)
(less)
Added: 7 months ago
Views: 21,862
One of GM's last all-new line of full-size cars, the '79 Caprice and Impala 2-doors, with
One of GM's last all-new line of full-size cars, the '79 Caprice and Impala 2-doors, with their infamous "bent" window glass, were in the last year of a body style that was introduced for the 1977 model year.
These "downsized" full-size cars were almost a foot shorter and 700 pounds lighter than the '76's they replaced. But, trunk space and interior room stayed the same. In one year, the 350 V8 went from being the smallest engine you could get in a big Chevy to being the largest.
As big Chevys had been for years, they were traditional body-on-frame construction, but they were the first cars to be partially designed and engineered using CAD-CAM (Computer aided design-computer aided manufacturing).
GM's other B-body cars, the Pontiac Catalina and Bonneville, Olds 88, and Buick LeSabre, and larger C-bodies, the Buick Electra, Olds 98 and Cadillac DeVille/Fleetwood, also got the downsizing treatment in '77.
Almost a million-and-a-half full-size Chevy sedans, coupes and wagons were sold in those three years, unfortunately not enough to take back the number-one sales spot from the mid-size Olds Cutlass.
The universal complaint back then was that GM had made the Chevy full-size cars TOO small. (In '77, they were only slightly longer than a "mid-size" Chevy Malibu. How times change;-)
For the 1980 model year, they were mildly restyled, and that basic body lasted 11 years, until the "pregnant whale" '91-'96 models, which, along with the Buick Roadmaster, Olds Custom Cruiser and Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham (all based on the same '77-vintage chassis), were the last body-on-frame big cars GM would ever build.
This one was bought new by my mom in September of 1979 for (take your heart medicine now) $7,500.
Thanks to an oil shortage and subsequent doubling in the price per gallon of gas that summer, sales of full-size cars had fallen off a cliff, so she had her pick of in-stock colors and options. If you've tried to find a clean '77-79 Caprice or Impala 2-door, you know it's next to impossible. So imagine visiting City Chevrolet, a Chicago dealer that was located in a series of old multi-story warehouses, and riding the freight elevator with the salesman to one of the enclosed upper-floor new-car storage areas. There, parked nose-to-tail and mirror-to-mirror, were at least 40 Caprice and Impala 2-doors, including the rare Landau models. Too bad City routinely undercoated all its cars. (A side note: City Chevrolet supplied the City of Chicago with its Impala and Caprice cop cars until the day GM ended production.)
This one was bought at the now-vanished Circle Chevrolet at 82nd and Racine. It has very few options: the 305 V8, A/C, a rear window defogger and AM/FM stereo with 8-track player and rear speakers. Mom had it Ziebarted a month after she bought it, which partially accounts for the shape it's in now.
It replaced a green '68 Impala 4-door hardtop with 78,000 miles, a 307 V8, Powerglide, drum brakes all around and no A/C, bought new by my dad.
In her care, this one's led a pretty sedate existence. Except for a road trip to Washington D.C. in 1980 and a period of about six months where I commuted in it to Argonne National Laboratory, no long drives. Pretty much to the grocery store, to her friends' homes, and to church.
The locking wire wheel covers became necessary in 1983 after the original wheel covers kept getting stolen.
Also that year, a Metra road crew dropped a load of track ballast on it as she sat under a viaduct at a stoplight. Allstate (bless them) paid for all the repairs to the body and the pitted glass and litigated with Metra for the next seven years.
When she passed on a few years ago, I inherited it. I'm basically keeping it the way it is. No Corvette motor. No 22's. No thumping stereo. It needs a little body work (after 28 Chicago winters, what did you expect?), and as soon as a little more money comes in, I've got to take care of the windshield wiper motor and find a set of the original wheel covers.
It just got a new brake master cylinder and fuel pump (ouch!), and winter's coming, so converting the A/C from R12 to R134 will have to wait.
But other than that, it runs like a top, and the interior's in almost perfect shape. And on sunny days, it's great to pull off the cover, back it out of the garage, and drive one of the last of GM's big cars. After zipping around in my Fiero, it's like driving a Cadillac (I used to drive my uncle's '79 Coupe de Ville, and the ride wasn't much smoother than this one).
As with the Fiero, master GM mechanic Dave Armstrong keeps it running right. If you're in the Chicago area, get in touch with him at (773)282-1444. He'll keep your car on the road or get it back on the road if it isn't.
(more)
(less)
Added: 8 months ago
Views: 22,432
|
Its on-again, off-again development took 6 years before it finally saw the light of day. L
Its on-again, off-again development took 6 years before it finally saw the light of day. Like almost every inexpensive sports car through history, it used numerous components from high-volume production cars to keep costs down.
Pontiac's crack marketing department predicted total sales of 60,000 that first year. Imagine their surprise when 30,000 people placed orders for the car sight unseen. By the time of its official introduction in September of 1983, there was a six-month waiting list. By model-year's end, 136,840 Fieros had flowed out the doors of its Pontiac, MI assembly plant, a record for any mid-engined car.
It was chosen as the Pace Car for the Indianapolis 500 that year, powered by a Pontiac 2.7L Super Duty 4 making 232 h.p. The 2000 Pace Car replicas sold to the public had the standard 92 h.p. Iron Duke 4.
Its Enduraflex body panels, bolted to a driveable space frame, never dented and never rusted. The lower door and fender panels would even bounce back from minor impacts. What GM learned about these body panels with the Fiero was applied to its first-generation minivans and its Saturn line of small cars.
This one was my first, and only new car. 24 years, 134,000 miles, two owners (for the first four years, the bank owned it. LOL). I ordered it in October 1983 from Townsend Pontiac in Merrillville, IN; it finally came in April 1984.
Mine is a Sport Coupe (the middle model), red with a gray interior and alloy wheels, and looks exactly like the Fieros Pontiac used in their print and TV advertising in '84. For this model year only, the engine cover grille was cast magnesium. The rear trunk held 5 upright sacks of groceries, the front compartment two more. (You listening, Solstice?)
It went 50,000 miles the first 3 years, thanks to a long daily commute; it took eight years to go the next 50,000. It took another 12 years after that to get to 134,000+ miles. Not that it had an easy life, being a daily driver in Chicago winters, where they throw salt on the street if a snow cloud passes overhead (notice I didn't say it actually had to snow.)
It's a 30-footer; from that distance, it could pass for new. As you get closer, you notice the stone chips, the clearcoat peeling off the wheels, the ripped driver's seat, and the swirl marks in the paint. But then, if any of you look like you did 24 years ago, raise your hands. Those of you who weren't even born 24 years ago can recuse yourselves.
It's on its second hood medallion; the first and only time I left the car parked outside my house overnight in 1987, someone tried to pry the first one off, and nearly succeeded. This is its second clutch and its second set of headlight motors, and its third set of tires (Eagle GT2's -- Goodyear no longer makes 215/60R14 tires, so my next set will have to be BF Goodrich). The old Iron Duke and 4-speed have gone all the way; I'll have to take care of the Duke's oil leak this winter.
Other than that, it's original and bone stock, an increasing rare commodity in the Fiero world of turbo-V6 and small-block V8 engine swaps and one-off wheels, bodies and colors.
The only real problem I've had with this car is crappy repairs by mechanics, both dealer and independent, who shouldn't have been allowed to change a trunk light by themselves.
The Recall was the worst. The mechanics at my friendly local Pontiac dealer would loosen parts to get to other parts and forget to tighten them back, causing a noticeable rattle (hardly the car's fault) and refused to take responsibility for their shoddy work; I ended up tightening those parts back myself.
After 16 years of these kinds of repairs, through my local Fiero club, Northern Illinois Fiero Enthusiasts, I finally found a dealer mechanic, Dave Armstrong, who knew what the hell he was doing; he's the reason my car is still on the road. I found out from him that even when Fieros were still being made, it was OPTIONAL for Pontiac mechanics to be trained to work on them. If you brought your Fiero in for service, it was strictly luck whether you got a qualified technician (like Dave)or a clueless hack.
A possible consequence of getting a dealer hack, going to an independent mechanic or doing a backyard DIY repair? If the Fiero's cooling system was not flushed and refilled according to a specific procedure (clearly outlined in the owner's manual and, I would imagine, the dealer shop manual), the car ended up with HALF the antifreeze/coolant it was designed to hold. And there were engine fires? Gee, I wonder why.
Dave was the go-to Fiero guru at Jacobs Twin Pontiac in Chicago; now he's got his own garage near Harlem and Irving Park, doing a land-office business. It couldn't happen to a more deserving guy. He'll get your Fiero (or any other GM car) running right.
Contact him at 773-282-1444.
(more)
(less)
Added: 10 months ago
Views: 17,359
On Saturday, July 28, 2007, four days after my leg cast came off, I was up shooting video
On Saturday, July 28, 2007, four days after my leg cast came off, I was up shooting video at the Rambler/AMC/Jeep show in Kenosha, WI, the largest such show in the country.
Felt real good to be back on two legs again.
And before you start writing in with blood in your eyes, yes, I know the Alliance pictured isn't an '83; convertibles didn't come out till a few years later. This one was the only one at the show. Encores, Medallions, Sportwagons and Premiers weren't there at all. You owners of '83 to '88 Renault cars should be better represented at next year's show; they were as much a part of the AMC story as the Rambler and the Jeep.
(more)
(less)
Added: 10 months ago
Views: 8,202
This year's World of Wheels at McCormick Place in late January had a great rat rod display
This year's World of Wheels at McCormick Place in late January had a great rat rod display, but the video had to wait until I found the right music. And it doesn't get much better than Mickey Gilley "Drive-In Movie" and Eddie Cochran "Somethin' Else".
And to the guy behind me talking to his friend while I was shooting: They DIDN'T forget to paint them! And that's the main attitude that people who own or like rat rods have to put up with.
(more)
(less)
Added: 1 year ago
Views: 118,596
|
|
See All 257 Videos
|
