Meanwhile, bench race about it on the CarCraft.com message boards then watch the Web site as details are fleshed out. For information on Mustang chassis dynos, see mustangdyne.com. For information on the Autorama series by Championship Auto Shows, see autorama.com. And if you're a company dying to throw money at us to sponsor this deal, call Publisher John Gallagher at home tonight and he'll be glad to take your credit card information: dial 323/782-2000 and ask for Hollywood Johnnie.
Something tells us parts are gonna break. Be there.-David Freiburger
?Car Craft's Blast From The Past
We got a slight chuckle over the advanced technology being tested and touted in a '72 Buick back in 1971. As the caption went in The Greenville News: "A Phystester, an experimental device designed to test a person's mental alertness and coordination before allowing him to start his car, is demonstrated here on Thursday by Mark S. Grody of the public relations staff of General Motors Corporation. The device requires that a driver, before starting his car, must be able to read a five-digit number flashed on a small screen, and within four seconds dial that number while stepping on the brake pedal within one second." Three times a failure, and an electrical relay would disable the ignition for 30 minutes.
The experimental gadget was created with the hope of preventing accidents caused by the tipsy, car thieves, those "in a highly nervous condition," and former editor Matt King. It was decided that people in these profiling categories would be most likely to hit a wrong digit, start too soon, finish too late, not step on the brake pedal while dialing the number.... Sorry, but the thought of trying to start up a car with this pressure would have made even us get the quivers more than a poodle on the way to the vet.-Tori Tellem
2nd Annual PSCA/Street Car Super Nationals 2006
Las Vegas Motor Speedway will host five Pacific Street Car Association events in 2006, and four of them will be included in the PSCA's points chase. The fifth is designed to be the world's largest Pro Street event, the Super Nationals. Check it:
February 18-19: PSCA Icebreaker Season Kick-off
April 22-23: PSCA Spring Sizzler
June 23-24: PSCA Summer Nationals
September 2-3: PSCA Labor Day Nationals
November 17-19: 2nd Annual PSCA/Street Car Super Nationals
For more info, visit pscaracing.com.
'Germans are no longer allowed to smile in their passport photos.
Buy A Mustang, Get Cheap Insurance?
USA Today reports that Ford worked with Hartford Insurance and also took notes from State Farm on how to keep rates down when designing the new Mustang. For example, instead of headlights flush with the grille, they were placed away from it, so that they're not targets in a fender bender. Also, the feds require bumpers able to withstand impacts up to 3 mph, so Ford designed them for up to 5 mph. They also borrowed locking mechanisms, handles, and door pieces from the Mazda 6, which have been found to be difficult for thieves to break into. Or perhaps it's just that no one wants to steal a Mazda 6.-Tori Tellem
How to Get What You Want? Do it Yourself
As they prep for 2005's ceremonies, we took a look back through the Michigan Motorsports Hall of Fame list of inductees for 2004 and were happy to see someone like John Grivens. He raced Ford Stock Eliminator cars from 1958-1960 at a couple Midwestern dragstrips but then said to heck with it and decided to make his own. An expressway was being built to connect Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo, Michigan, and was running through open farm country about a mile west of a previous two-lane road. That resulted in some land leftover when it was completed, including a 198-acre property with more than a mile of frontage on the new highway-too long and narrow for a farmer. But perfect for a dragstrip! Grivens and his pappy started working on the track in 1961, and opened U.S. 131 Dragway in 1962.-Tori Tellem