The Trotters -- Rare Photos from 1960 of an African-American Drag and Car Club

The driver of the rail was Charles Bryant and he is 83 years old and lives in Norwalk, OH. I'll forward your info to him. He is the one entitled to credit!

From Samuel Marchett -- thank you!

car club (black guys) tow truck and B/dragster. They also had a matching trailer. They won best appearing crew at the 1960 Detroit Nats. Attached are photos I took in 1960.

All these were taken at Dragway 42 in West Salem, Ohio.

The track was located about 40 miles southwest of Cleveland,

Ohio and was one of the premier mid-west tracks of it's day.

The pits were tree covered and the track was long and wide,

with no guardrails. At one time they ran 4 cars at a time,

(mostly stockers). I have fond memories of this place, as it was

a big deal back then to make the trip from Pittsburgh out to

42 for some of the big dragster meets. Again, sorry about some

of the quality, but it's all we got........................................G-Man

The Best Thing about NASCAR -- Linda Vaughn -- "Miss Hurst" Golden Shifter

This is what Tom Wolfe said of Linda Vaughn in his The Kandy-Kolored.... (p. 139).

"Starting time! Linda Vaughn with the big blond hair and blossomy breasts,puts down her Coca-Cola and the potato chips and walks out of the officials' booth in her Rake-a-cheek

red showgirl's costume with her long honeydew legs in net stockings and climbs up on the red Firebird float. The Life Symbol of stock car racing!...Linda gets up on the Firebird float.This is an extraordinary object, made of wood, about twenty feet tall, in the shape of a huge bird, an eagle of something, blazing red, and Linda, with her red show-girl's suit on, gets up on the seat, which is up between the wings, like a saddle, high enough so her long honeydew legs stretch down, and a new car pulls her -- Miss Firebird -- slowly around the track just before the race."

Linda Vaughn --appearances in films "Gumball Rally"(1976) and "Stroker Ace" (1983).

Later vice-president of Mr. Gasket.

From a Georgia good old girl to a famous 60s-70s and beyond celebrity.

Tom Wolfe's The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby: Essay Question, test 2

Larry Mendelsohn of demolition derby fame

a young George Barris

An early photo of Junior Johnson
Hi folks -- test 2 in my HST 344 class is Friday, and here is the essay question I am using this time around, drawing from Wolfe's book. Three great essays in this book about car culture: one on the demolition derby, and other on George Barris, and my favorite, on Junior Johnson and NASCAR. You have to pick up this under-appreciated book and read these chapter essays!

II Essay Question (60 pts.). Answer the following with a well-organized and written essay, making sure to include both an introduction and a conclusion. Be as factual and detailed as possible as you harness factual evidence in support of your work.

Tom Wolfe’s The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine Flake Streamline Baby provides the reader with a unique view into America of the early 1960s, including American Car Culture. Drawing on material from the following chapters --- 2 (“Clean Fun at Riverhead”); 6 (“The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby”); 8(“The Last American Hero”) and 21(“Why Doormen Hate /Volkswagens”), discuss American popular culture and the love affair with the automobile during that era. What values are expressed in this culture, and what does this say about Americans of that era?

Procrastination -- Installing a new Part that I bought 12 years ago -- A New Voltage Regulator for my Porsche 911

This was the old Marchal voltage regulator I replaced with a new one. It looked like it had gone through a war.

Hi folks -- I don't know why I am the way I am! I have had a new voltage regulator stashed in my parts bin for 12 years now, and finally yesterday decided to put it in. Perhaps it was in the wake of my successful installation of the Perma-Tune ignition box on Saturday. Anyway, I put it in yesterday without much of a hitch, although the bottom screw was a bit difficult as it is partially hidden by a radio noise suppression capacitor that is also installed right there.

The car seems to be running great after the installation of the new ignition box. In fact, it was running a bit lean, so I opened each of the idle mixture screws just a bit to compensate.

Early Porsche 911 Ignition Box Switch: From the OEM Bosch to a 1976 Permatune Unit

Hi folks -- several years ago at the April Porsche swap meet at Hershey I ended up buying a very gently used Permatune unit as a backup for $40.00. Earlier this month I checked it out electronically using an ohm and capacitance meter, and so decided to go the next step and install it. Before I did that I would have to find a compatible coil, and read in an old Stoddard catalog that a blue Bosch coil works well and costs little -- actually $40.00, which I ordered from Pelican parts.

Installed both box and coil this morning and it works fine. I ma going to clean up the plugs and see if the 3x more power claimed by Permatune actually is the case, or hype.

The Continental Kit -- one of the excesses of the 1950s

This is what started the craze -- a 1942 Lincoln Continental. The kits that followed mimicked the class that was inherent to this model, the last of Edsel Ford's cars before his premature death in 1943.

A nice example of an early 1950s continental kit, on a 1954 Ford. In essence, the kit was to take a low end car and accessorize it, thus making it "Upscale" in the eyes of the owner and perhaps public?

Hi folks -- I was reading a 1952 Motor Trend the other night and an ad for "The Original H-W Continental Custom Rear Conversion" caught my eye. The ad, for the Hudelson-Whitebone Co. of Champaign, IL, promised that the product would "Make Your Car a Classic in its Particular Class --

The ad copy goes on to state "What a transformation! An ordinary '50, '51 or '52 model (either convertible or hard top) becomes a classic in its particular class when an H-W Continental is installed. Feast your eyes on he sleek contour, blending so smoothly with body lines...the richer, longer, wider appearance...the distinctive custom accent. Ruggedly built for long life and trouble-free service, the H-W Continental is amazingly practical too...providing greater deck and fender protection, more obstructed luggage area and a new tool compartment in the trunk. It also assures quicker, easier removal of spare tires when a change is necessary. Here's the moderately-priced "extra" that can make your car tops in sophisticated style and a remarkably high figure to its trade-in value."

My Porsche 911 has a black hole! Repairing a Hand Throttle and Loosing Clip!

Heater control on the right, equalizer bar below. The tube is the shifter connector that goes to a back coupling.

Hi folks -- a bit bored this weekend as I had a sore knee after playing tennis Friday night. So I decided to install a new hand throttle "schlepper" with my extra time as I bowed out of a USTA tennis match Saturday. I began by taking out the drivers' side seat to make things easy. Work went as planned until I was putting everything back today. The last big thing to do -- put in the clip pin that connects the handbrake ratchet with the equalizer, and I dropped the thing into the hole. OK it should go very far, right? Well, somehow I can't find it -- even after shining a bright light from the other end of the tunnel and dragging the tunnel with a magnet! Where the hell did it go? So now I have a hand throttle that works, but a hand brake that does not. And I have to find a clip!