The newsletter is a monthly collection of stuff of interest to car hobbyists. If you wish to submit an article or photo please go to the Submissions Page for info.
From Fred
I went to a car show this weekend and when I left I drove one mile and there was another car show. Both were well attended. I was hoping with the calendar of events that this would not happen. But it did happen and both shows looked like a success. I guess this area is growing so rapidly that we can have two shows within a 5-minute drive of each other. In fact you have lots of choices if you want to attend a cruise-in or show any weekend. What is unfortunate is that the area media completely ignores the car hobbyists and the many charity shows. When their readership is down or they can't sell their news then maybe they will come back to the people who count - those that live in their viewership or readership area.
See you at the shows.
~ Fred
I spotted this Hudson Hornet at a local cruise-in. This car has a fishtail exhaust extension and a sticker in the window that say "H-Bomb"
I went to the Virginia Street Rods show in April and saw this super nice 60 Chevy in the parking lot
News You Can't Use ~ 100% True
They need to rename the dog Lassie – an 81-year-old man went outside to smooth down the gravel on the driveway with his tractor. He was having some trouble with his old Massey Ferguson and tried to make some adjustments. The tractor went into gear and ran over him breaking a couple of bones. The tractor ran into a pond. Then the dog inside the house went into action and began barking. The man’s wife saw the tractor in the pond and thought he was also in the pond. But the wonder dog saved the day by leading her to the injured husband.
UPS decided to redesign routes so that the delivery trucks will turn right instead of left. Last year the company claims it saved 3million gallons of fuel and reduced emissions by 32,000 metric tons. All that by just turning right instead of waiting to turn left.
Someone is shooting out car windows in Hopewell. 32 cases of shot out car windows have been reported recently to the Hopewell police. One car had all four windows shot out.
In New York a man made an illegal turn and got busted by the local cops. He was driving on a suspended license so they hauled him in. He got into even more trouble when he tried to post bail. The man was busted for trying to pass a counterfeit $50 bill.
You may have seen those courthouse steps on “Law and Order” TV shows. Well someone tried to drive their car up those steps. Six people were injured including the driver. Not since Model T days have cars been made with enough suspension travel to go up courthouse steps.
She needs a ride to get some new clothes - the old ones just don't fit her
We’ve all seen those cars racing through the streets of some city in Europe. There is only one place in America where the cars race through the streets of a city. It’s the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix and they only allow the antiques.
The Chesterfield Police leaders wanted a red light program for some intersections in the county. Due to the cost of $6.6 million to start up the program it has been cancelled. There have been news reports about the under paid police in the county. Chesterfield needs to recruit, hire, train and better pay officers. Spending nearly $7 million on a loser of a program was simply dumb.
New definition of drive-thru banking – a guy plowed into a bank in Henrico County doing a total of $8,000 in damages. Police charged the driver with reckless driving and driving without a license.
I know you have heard the RMA is going to jump the Powhite tolls from 50 cents to 70 cents this fall. But did you know that the RMA profits were up 62% last year? They say they need the additional money to cover repairs in the NEXT decade.
Only in Gloucester – someone parked his or her car at the Wal*Mart. Another someone broke in and stole something in the car. That thing was a fer-de-lance in a box. Fer-de-lance is a very dangerous snake from Central America. Not sure why the first someone left a deadly snake in a box in a car in the Wal*Mart parking lot but the police are looking for it.
Also in the parking lot at the VSR show was this 70 El Camino. If you are wondering what El Camino is in English it's "The Way".
Monthly Rant ~ Richmond Newspaper Hates Car Hobbyists
Before you read this you may wish to go to Gremlin Article and read the article about the Gremlin written by two Richmond Times Dispatch reporters.
An evildoer happens to own a collector car and the newspaper has to write a story about it? Do you think the paper would write a story on Toyota Corolla’s if someone driving one robbed a bank? Or what if the I-64 shooter was driving a Ford F-150 pickup instead of a 74 Gremlin? Do you think there would have been a story on the F-150? Of course not! The paper hates car hobbyists. And the paper wants to pick with them if there is an opportunity. In fact I spoke with the Studebaker owner who was quoted in the article. He has no idea how the reporters got his phone number. He says he was quoted out of context and they didn’t include everything he said. He says if the paper calls him again he will say “no comment”. Which is what all of us should say if contacted by the newspaper. The T-D is not car hobbyist friendly.
The paper needs people to read it. And one way to get people to read the paper is to stir up something. The paper wants content that will make people want to buy and read the paper. And if they treat car hobbyists like crap – well so much the better. Why do you think the paper picked this article to allow posts of comments? Stir the pot – screw with those car hobbyists and they’ll give the paper’s website some free content. The article was meant to slam the old car hobby and hobbyists. Look at the comments that pick on the Studebaker owner – it wasn’t by accident his comments were taken out of context.
The T-D doesn’t cover any charity car shows in the area. Why cover something good and nice when you can print filth and get people mad? I made an agreement with the newspaper’s features editor last year. I would send in the three largest charity car shows in this area and he would get coverage. He lied. The paper did not cover the MDA car show that raised over $27,000 for Jerry’s Kids last August. The T-D didn’t cover the story of a local car club’s show that raised over $32,000 for the Children’s Hospital last September. But last month the paper printed in the Sunday Flair a story of a group that raised $8500 for the Children’s Hospital along with 7 color photos – but that’s OK they weren’t car hobbyists.
About that editor that lied – when I emailed him asking why nothing was covered I got a very nasty email back. A few weeks later a photo and article about a poorly attended charity car show (that I didn’t know about and apparently not many others) appeared right on the front page of the Metro section. I emailed the reporter to get some info – I said I wanted to contact the person in charge to help spread the word so the show would be more of a success if done again next year. I never got a response. The paper says no to advance for a charity show and then refuses to cover the largest ones. The paper could really help us by getting the word out. It would mean more money for local charities – apparently the paper cares little about community and local charities.
In June of 2006 I filed a Freedom of Information Act with the treasurer of Chesterfield County about stickers for antique vehicles. One of the questions I asked was how many antique vehicles are registered in the county. There were over 13,000 antiques registered in Chesterfield County alone. I estimate there are at least 50,000 car hobbyists in the newspaper’s territory. That’s a lot of people to ignore at best and treat with disrespect at worst. The newspaper is losing circulation and has chosen to ignore 50K people? Who’s running the show at the T-D?
Just think – those car hobbyists who drive Gremlins and other collector cars are helping to raise tens of thousands of dollars for local charities and the only time the T-D cares is when someone does something criminal. Perhaps it’s time to do something about it. Months ago I stopped all advertising with the T-D and I encourage others to do the same. Stop spending money putting car show listings in the Classics and Antiques section of the classifieds. If you have a business consider stopping all ads with the paper until they treat hobbyists right. I think the local clubs should work through the car club council and come up with strategies.
I like to see four doors fixed up this nice like this 61 Chevy. They are out there and are lower in cost than the two-doors.
Big cars despite gas prices are also nice ones to own. They sure ride well. This is a 67 Impala.
Bum Bot
A guy who happens to be an engineer runs a bar in Atlanta. He was having trouble keeping the homeless at bay until he came up with his “Bum Bot” – see photo below.
The guy regularly sends the remote-controlled Bum Bot -- which he created from a Cajun meat cooker, a mechanical scooter, a walkie-talkie wired to a home-alarm speaker, an infrared camera, a spotlight and a homemade water cannon -- out to patrol the neighborhood around his bar after dark. It even has a cam corder so people in the bar can see what it sees. If the voice from the speaker doesn’t scare off the drug dealers, prostitutes and bums then he hits a switch and they get blasted from the water cannon.
I wonder when the guy is going to start selling them?
Bumper Sticker of the Month
My kind of motorcycle cop
Kool Site of the Month Click on this link: Rat Fink Museum lots of Rat Fink Memorabilia - opens to a new window - close to return to this page.
Video of the Month - Push the button to see some old cars
Another more door - this is a 55 wagon
Here is a special ordered 1969 Plymouth Fury III with 440 engine. It only has 8K miles!
Weather Channel Founder on Global Warming
Here's part of what Weather Channel Founder John Coleman had to say about global warming: "It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM. Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create an illusion of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental whacko type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the “research” to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon they claimed to be a consensus."
