DIY Weekend Warrior Project

The weather is perfect, it's Saturday and I have a little time so I decide to change the oil in my daily driver, my trustworthy Chevy Impala.  With the temperature in the 70's this is the time to change the oil- no sweat!  So first empty the garage of my two 'children',  my 2000 Porsche Boxster and my 1987 Pontiac Trans Am GTA.  Cover the Porsche and bring in the Impala.  Up goes the jack and in my normal multi-tasking fashion I decide to rotate the tires and check the front brake pads while I'm at it.  Of course- the pads are OK but I have a spare set sitting on the shelf and what the heck - lets replace them!  If I wait 3 more months to do it, I'll regret it because by then it will be 90 outside and even with a fan, its not as fun as today's cool temp.   So here's the series of pictures -  sorry no exotic cars or races to film today-  this is a working weekend.   All the above took about one hour and if you want to get the complete process on how I do this, just click the contact button on the blog.  I've been doing this light duty maintenance in my garage for years and it works fine and saves a bunch of money.  You also know the job is done right- I never had a loose lug nut, a drain plug that was not tightened properly or a squeaky brake caliper.  Working 20 years at 'Texaco Tech'  ( My first job at my friends Texaco, turned Mobil station up in Palmyra, NY) paid off with some good, practical car care knowledge.

 

Make Room For The Impala

Keep The Sun Off

Off Comes The Old Pads

Rotate The Tires

Just Like New-  48,000 Miles

Look For Another of Paul's DIY Projects In Future Posts
1968 Dodge Charger Redo

 

Check Back Soon!

 

NitroJam Jet Dragster Video

 

 

Jet Dragsters At NitroJam Southern Nationals

 

Bradenton Motorsports Park FL,  April 12, 2014

 

Zero - 60 in .8 seconds,  280 MPH in the 1/4 mile

5,000 HP and 30 gallons of bio-fuel!

 

 

Brought To You By IHRA and

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

and Larsen Motorsports

 

 

Check out this picture of Marisha Falk prior to her run and newest driving sensation. She is 1 of 4 women in the world currently driving jet powered dragsters.

 

 

duPont Registry Cars & Coffee April 19, 2014

There was an excellent turnout at Cars & Coffee Saturday the 19th in St. Petersburg, despite less than perfect weather and Easter weekend.  I am always amazed at the variety and number of cars that come to this gathering of faithful car buffs.  Tampa Bay Area - We are all fortunate to have duPont Registry in our back yard to host this event as it is more than a car show, it is a happening and a forum to enjoy the vehicles and make new friends. I have to note that I had the good fortune of meeting Jim Parrott a few months back who happened to be mentioned in the May issue of duPont Registry for his reconnection with a flight school buddy, Joe Ziglar after 50 years!  See page 10 for details.  What a great person I discovered when I met Jim, and we get to swap car and airline stories when we see each other at Cars & Coffee.  If you have not attended, you should give it a try  next month-  every 3rd Saturday.    So here's few of the 'keepers' I took at the show.

This Vette Had Highlights- ZoomZoom and Stop Drooling

Need A 4 Seater Convertible?
 

  



Ford GT 40 Fans

The End 

Stop The Presses- News Flash From Porsche

I was all ready to do a wrap up story on the April 19th DuPont Registry Cars & Coffee car show when I spotted this news from Porsche.  Gotta get this out to you because it is so special it may be the dawn of a new era for the Hypercar market and the technology will eventually translate to street cars from the race track as this post will show.  After seeing the Silverstone race report, I'd give anything to go to Le Mans this year.  See below:

Here is the excerpt of a press release I received tonight from Porsche:

Press Release 20/04/2014

Sports Car World Championship WEC, round 1: Silverstone/Great Britain, LMP1 Porsche 919 Hybrid race debut was a success Stuttgart. The eagerly awaited race debut of the innovative Porsche 919 Hybrid in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) was a success. The highly complex Le Mans Prototype took a podium at its first attempt in the action packed six hour race at Silverstone (Great Britain). Timo Bernhard (DE), Brendon Hartley (NZ) and Mark Webber (AU) came third in the Porsche 919 Hybrid after 165 laps on the 5.891 kilometre long track. The race was red flagged because of heavy rain 24 minutes before the planned six hours were completed. Webber brought the car home behind the safety car. The sister car of Romain Dumas (FR), Neel Jani (CH) and Marc Lieb (DE) had to retire after 1 hour 15 minutes because of a technical problem. The overall victory went to Toyota drivers Sébastien Buemi (CH), Anthony Davidson (GB) and Nicolas Lapierre (FR). Wolfgang Hatz, Board Member for Research and Development of Porsche AG: “I am really proud. This was a proper comeback to the highest class of endurance racing. Preparation, operation, discipline in the garage and at the wheel of the two Porsche 919 Hybrids have been very good. The race itself was fascinating and this shows me that the new WEC rules work well – despite or even because of the great technical freedom. Three manufacturers, three innovative hybrid systems and exciting competition on the highest level. For me this is motorsport that contributes to road car development.” Courtesy, Porsche Factory Press Release And to compliment this news- take a look at this video of the new Porsche 918 Spyder you can buy for around $900,000.  It is worth every penny when you consider the R&D that goes into making this car possible.  This is an engineer's dream. Porsche 918 Video Give Me That Hybrid Power Unit!

Southern Nationals and NitroJam

I love living in Florida.  There are car races and car shows going on all the time.  It is a car guy paradise. Growing up outside Rochester, NY there was little time for summer sports because the season was short and the weather not always on your side.  The biggest thing going was Watkins Glen for NASCAR and sports car racing and even  F-1 back in the day, if it was not raining or freezing.
Last weekend I headed to Bradenton Motorsports Park just an hour from my home base in Seminole to check out the Southern Nationals and NitroJam.  For $30.00 you got your money's worth and then some. This year they had the jet powered Embry-Riddle dragsters driven by a team of four women and you has to see it to believe it.  How about 0- 60 in .8 seconds with 5,000. HP!  Strap a  General electric J-85 jet engine behind your butt and see what it will do.  How about 280+ MPH in the 1/4 mile.  Along with that attraction they had Nitro Harley's  (now that's crazy) and a full field including Funny cars, fuel dragsters, Pro Stock  and on and on.  So here's a taste of what it was like on that beautiful cool night in Bradenton.  (When the video I shot edited, I'll be back with a post of that)

Ready To Launch



So Fast Its A Blur



Marisha Falk- Fast On Her Feet, Faster In The Car!

Get Crazy On A Harley

More to come on the next post.

Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

It took me a while to get back to posting for this race -  here's a few pictures to give you a sense of what it was like to attend.  The quality of the pictures is not what I had anticipated  because of all the fencing but this is what I can show you.  It was as they say, a Chamber of Commerce Day and a big difference from Saturday's rains! 

As you can see the fences really make picture taking difficult-  that's what you get if you don't buy a grandstand ticket. Although this is a cool shot showing a traffic signal in the foreground and race cars in the background- you know this is street racing!   Yes, that top picture is a Ford Mustang as they ran the Pirelli World Challenge race before the Indycar race.

I will say it was a beautiful setting as you can see below-  Surreal to the senses was the Dali Museum in the background with the smell and sound of Indycars flying by like a flash- Salvador Dali' would have loved it!

The Dali' Museum

And finally, here's what an Indy car looks like up close:

So we move on- I have a treat for all  IHRA fans- Coming up next is the Southern Nationals and NitroJam  Report ( Click On and Check it Out)

Answer To The Mystery Quiz

So what's the stone block in front of the Victorian house got to do with anything about cars? History my friends, history! You need to know where we came from in such a short time with our technology to appreciate the world we have come into. If you were born just a sneeze off the eternal time clock, think of all the cool stuff you would have missed. In a little over 100 years we went from this to rows of computers in the pit box, checking every detail of the cars performance and ah, it's horsepower, That stone block was a hi-tech pit box back in the 1800's. If you had money and a house you had a nice stone block 'pit box' to mount and dismount your horse, before parking Daisy in the barn out back. The one in the 'Quiz' post is a custom two tier version, a real gem of a stone block. Some folks only had a one tier version like this one:

So if you wanted to go big, and wanted wanted to go upscale you got the two tier version - sort of equivalent to the twin cam, four valve, souped up version here:

But that's not all, for the rest of the story: My great grandfather Jake had his blacksmith and carriage shop in the late 1800's just two block from where I took these pictures. I grew up on this street known as Cuyler Street in Palmyra, NY which is a small own on the Erie Canal. In fact it is known as Canal Town and the canal was the focal point for commerce in the village. Horses and mules were the transportation of the day and great grand dad Jake shoed horses and repaired and built carriages down by the canal banks, near the towpath. ( For those who don't know, a towpath is where the mules walked as they pulled the boats along the canal.) All it took was for someone to put a motor on one of those carriages and the rest is history. Just like they have been racing horses for hundreds of years, we race cars today- man always finds a way to have an outlet for proving who is the biggest and baddest. And women too! For all you young folks out there, you need to know about this stuff. Well the upshot to all this background information is, it turns out my dad and mom owned a house just up the street and my dad, following in his grand dad's footsteps serving the transportation needs of the community ends up having a gas station and car lot which turned into a car dealership selling Chevrolet and Olds! So if you wonder why his son, namely me, is crazy over cars and started CarCameraStory that's probably why. It is in my genes!

Mystery Quiz: What Is This and What Does It Have To Do With CarCameraStory?

Look for the Story about these pictures this weekend. While you wait, here's a story from Autoblog that will relate to the tale I have to tell about these pictures. How's that you say? You will have to wait to read the 'rest of the story' for all you Paul Harvey fans. Click on and enjoy!

Autoblog