Being a poor car guy can be very frustrating. I spent a lifetime dreaming about cars that I could not afford, and chances are I never will. Perhaps, writing about those machines helps to cope with the frustration.
Instead of owning memorable cars, what I have are some memorable moments driving ordinary cars.
In a long list of clunkers and uninspiring cars I have owned throughout the years, there are a couple that will always have a special place in my heart, one of them is a 1969 VW Beetle.
Unfortunately, I lost all the pictures I took of that car and what you see here are pics of Beetles that resemble the one I had.
This story starts on a Friday afternoon, the year was 1988, I was 18 years old and had recently joined the Brazilian Air Force. That day I was very happy indeed, the Base commander gave the afternoon off for all nonessential personnel and I, with two of my friends, were going home riding a car instead of taking the bus, like most of the other guys from my platoon.
That Beetle was my pride and joy, I had installed a set of 13-inch, magnesium rims, wrapped with some second-hand radial tires. That alone considerably lowered the car, but not happy with that, I altered the front suspension, really slamming the poor Beetle to the ground. The engine was the original 1300cc but the exhaust was pretty loud. The color was Beige Claro, code L-1075, factory original.
According to Brazilian traffic laws, owners are not allowed to modify the stock suspension of any automobile and also is not permitted to alter the final diameter of the wheel-tire assembly. I knew I was riding an outlaw car and the police could, at any time, impound it.
Ok, back to that promising Friday, when we were proud to be wearing the Air Force uniforms and so happy that our weekend started a bit sooner. As you can figure by now, my day was just about to turn sour.
Just a little bit before hitting downtown, we ran into a police checkpoint, and to make things worse, they were the traffic police. With the regular police, you even have a chance to fool them about a car like mine or even bribe them, but not with these guys, they do not take bribes and they know their stuff.
When the officer saw my Beetle approaching, he immediately signed to stop. He came to the car, put his two hands on the front fender, and tried to push it down. The suspension didn’t move an inch.
Officer – “Locked suspension?“
Me – “Yes”.
Officer – “OK guys, get out of the car, and bring the keys and documents”.
I looked at my friends and said: – “Shit, they will take the Beetle”.
Jean Claude, one of my friends said: “Tell the guy we need the car, tell him we are scheduled for armed service tomorrow morning, I don’t know, just lie to him”.
Yes, this is my best shot, I thought. I called the officer: “Look officer, we are scheduled to be back to the base at 7 o’clock tomorrow morning, and we need the car. Can you let us go? Come on, as a favor from one soldier to another”.
Officer: “Why don’t you guys take the bus? You know what? I don’t call the shots anyway “. “Hey Sarge, these fly boys here wanna talk to you”.
And here comes the Sarge, with an angry face that only sergeants can make: – “What seems to be the problem”?
Then I started to tell him my sad (and fraudulent) story. When I finished he looked at me and with the kind of wisdom that only sergeants can have he said: “Let’s cut the crap, I have more important things to take care of”. “I will give you a 24-hour permit, which means you have 24 hours to get your Beetle back to the original standards”. “And remember, this is my area, if I catch you again driving a car like this I will impound the car, and you too. Then I will call your sergeant to come and get you out of jail”. “Am I being clear, private”?
Me: “Yes Sir.”
The first thing my dad and I got done on Saturday morning was unlock the front suspension, which was, by the way, pretty easy. Then I spent the rest of my weekend hunting for a set of 15-inch rims and a decent used tires. Thankfully that 24-hour permit meant 24-business hours so, I had just enough time to get the car ready for the inspection.
I had totally forgotten how comfortable my Beetle was before the modifications. With a properly working front suspension and soft bias ply tires, the car was ridding like a Cadillac (a little exaggeration here…). On my way to the police HQ, on Monday morning, I was seriously considering leaving the car in the way VW intended it to be.
Upon my arrival at the HQ, a corporal, sitting at the reception greeted me: “Hello, what can I do for you”?
Me: “I brought my car for an inspection”.
Corporal: “That is easy, I will inspect the car myself”.
Then he looked around, trying to find someone who could replace him at the reception. He didn’t find anyone, then he grabbed a pen, signed my papers, gave one copy to me and said: “You are good to go”.
Me: “Aren’t you going to see the car”?
Corporal: “Nah. I trust you”. “Besides, I don’t think you would show up here with an irregular car”. “Have a nice day”.
Have I learned my lesson? Nope. Ten years later I ran into another police checkpoint, driving a lowered VW Gol (not Golf). This time it wasn’t the transit police.
Officer: “License and registration”. “Your Gol is lowered, isn’t it”?
Me: “Just a little bit, officer”.
Officer: “That is wrong, my friend”. “Although it would be a shame to take such a nice car to the HQ”. “Here are your docs, get out of here. “Go, go”.
He and his fellow officers were holding assault rifles, perhaps they were after something more menacing to the society than lowered cars.
If memory serves me well, that VW Gol was my last modified car, I never tried again to make a boring car look cool. That means it was my last brawl with the law.
Car guys can be a very opinionated bunch indeed, some of them will worship one brand and despise all the others, and some of them will prefer a certain category of cars and make fun of the others. But there is one thing that seems to bring all of us together, we all have a soft spot for station wagons (or Estate, as they are known in Europe and the UK).
Is it easy to explain this unconstitutional love? I don’t know, maybe because since the wagons are based on regular cars, it doesn’t take much to make them perform like a sports sedan and you still have plenty of room for all your family’s junk. On top of that, a tastefully modified wagon can look even more badass than its sibling sedan (ok, the last statement is open for some debate).
The sporty wagon.
Unfortunately here in North America, consumers have replaced the station wagon with SUVs, but in Europe, the segment is very much alive. Brands like Volvo, BMW, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz have been exploring the idea of high-performance station wagon, for a while and some of the results are nothing short of stunning. A couple of weeks ago I drove by a brand new Audi RS6 Avant and WOW, that thing does look like a race car.
Well, since we are bringing the the words station wagon and race car into the same sentence, lets talk about… Volvo.
It will be hard to find another automaker more deeply attached to station wagons, than Volvo. The company built its image upon reliability and thousands of families bought those brick-shaped wagons not for the looks but mainly because they felt safe driving around in a car that was built like a tank.
Volvo started building station wagons in the 1950s but it was only in the 1980s that the 245 model won hearts and minds in North America. In 1981, they released the 240 Turbo, which was, according to Volvo, the fastest wagon in the world. The picture above shows a 1984 245 Turbo and as you can see, the car has less chrome, alloy rims, and a chin spoiler, giving the beloved wagon a sporty aura.
In 1991 Volvo unveiled the 850, the car that, according to a few experts, saved Volvo from bankruptcy. Thankfully the legacy of high-performance wagon continued with the 850-R (picture above), equipped with the amazing 5-cylinder, 2.3-liter turbo engine, capable of 250 hp, which might sound tame by today’s standards but it was very interesting back then. The Estate “R” was originally intended as a limited run of just 2,500 units, but the first batch sold out so quickly that Volvo felt compelled to make it a regular production car.
The 850 was the right car at the right time for the company, it might not be as pretty as a BMW 3 Series from the same era but it was a huge improvement when compared to the previous generation.
This modern and attractive car gave Volvo the confidence to face the competitors not only on the streets but on the race tracks as well. It was time to use racing as an advertisement tool.
From soccer mom’s car to track warrior.
If an automaker wanted to use racing to advertise its products in the 1990s, there was only one place to be, the British Touring Car Championship. The competition, held in the UK since 1958, reached its peak in popularity in the 90s during the so-called super touring era. Thousands of fans flocked to the race tracks every weekend to watch the fierce battles between the drivers. The races were broadcast live not only all over Europe but across the globe as well. Manufacturers from Japan and Europe were not shy about pouring copious amounts of money into their official race teams and the level of competition on the tracks was unmatched. To understand how close fought those races were, please go to YouTube and dig some videos about it.
Volvo joined the BTCC in 1994, and the season was all set to be a memorable one. The Swedish team would be fighting against some formidable opponents. Brands from all over the world were represented there: Ford, BMW, Vauxhall, Mazda, Toyota, Nissan, Renault, Peugeot, and the second debutant that year, Alfa Romeo.
But the season would be remembered for one reason: Volvo chose to race the 850 Estate instead of the sedan.
Volvo was not fooling around when they joined the touring car war; the company formed a partnership with Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR), a British motor race team that was responsible for putting together the Jaguar XJR-9 that won the 1988 World Sports Car Championship, and also getting into Formula 1 through Benetton, pushing Michael Schumacher towards his first world title.
They were also not fooling around when the time to choose the drivers came. The 1988 Le Mans winner Jan Lammers and Swedish Formula 3 racer Rickard Rydell were hired to perform the driving duties for that season.
The decision to compete with the station wagon was kept in secrecy. Nobody knew until the two white and blue livered cars rolled out of the truck at the season opener race, in Thruxton. Everyone thought it was some kind of joke, even the drivers. “When I signed up for Volvo… I didn’t know about the estate plans,” Rydell said later. “If I’d known, I would probably have hesitated!
Overcoming a weakness
The 240 Volvo, at the pits, during the 1985 German DTM season.
At this point, Volvo was no stranger to the race tracks. In 1985, the turbocharged, flame-spiting beast Volvo 240 won the European Touring Car Championship (ETC) and the German equivalent, the Deutsche Touringwagen Meisterschaft (DTM). The fans quickly adopted the underdog Volvo as their favorite and affectionately called it “The Flying Brick”.
But at BTCC, things were a bit different. Rules were strict – 2-liter maximum capacity for the engines and no turbo/supercharger assistance; throwing out the window the two main advantages of the Volvo 850. The downsized 5-cylinder Volvo engine, without the help of the turbo, became a very uninspiring powerplant, at a first attempt the team was able to squeeze a meager 260 ponies out of it.
You don’t need to be a rocket engineer to figure that using the 850 Estate meant more glass and metal on a longer wheelbase. Although the wagon was a bit more aerodynamic than the sedan, the anemic engine put the Swedish team in a pickle.
Thankfully, the technicians at Tom Walkinshaw Racing were very resourceful. Turns out that the BTCC rule book was not that strict and the team explored every loophole possible.
First, the absence of the turbo allowed the engine to be positioned further back towards the firewall, and the adoption of a sequential 6-speed transmission permitted the engine to be installed in a much lower position than in the original 850. All these modifications greatly improved the handling of the racing wagon.
The engine also received a lot of improvements, the rules stated the head should be the same as the production car, but it wasn’t specific about how much it could be altered. Volvo came up with camshafts so aggressive that they couldn’t fit inside the head and new supports had to be created to accommodate them.
Much bigger valves were used to improve the air-fuel flow. The rules didn’t allow to modify the angles of the valves so the team went to the extreme, altering the sitting angle of the head to the block and the intake manifold… WOW!!!! All these ingenious modifications kicked the power output to 300 plus HP. Not bad at all.
Besides all the efforts, not only from the TWR but from the drivers as well, the 1994 BTCC season fell short of Volvo’s expectations. During its debut (and only) season, the 850 wagon’s best results were 3rd in qualifying, and 5th in a race. Volvo finished 8th overall in the 1994 championship, beating only Nissan and Mazda.
Driver Jam Lammers poses with the team’s mascot, a huge stuffed collie. The dog used to go for every parade lap, in the trunk of the 850, as a practical joke.
We can not only focus on the lack of competitivenessof the 850 Wagon; at the end of the season, Volvo had achieved what they were looking for when they chose the car, publicity.
Alfa Romeo won the manufacturer title of the 1994 BTCC season, taking advantage of a controversial aerodynamic aid. Both cars became legends in the BTCC universe, and when we talk about the Super Touring Era, the first image that comes to mind is the red Alfa Romeos and the Volvo Estates “apexing” the turns on two wheels.
For the following season, BTCC changed the rules regarding aerodynamic aids, forcing TWR and Volvo to go conservative, using the sedan body instead. Volvo ended both the 1995 and 1996 BTCC seasons in 3rd place.
Just three racing wagons were made for the 1994 season. The first chassis then spent a period in Australia before returning to Sweden where it was rebuilt and restored to its original livery before being placed in storage.
The second remains on display at the Volvo Museum in Göteborg while the third model was re-shelled as a saloon and used as a test hack ahead of the 1995 campaign. The two remaining cars can be often seen at classic car racing events in Europe.
Today, the Volvo states from the 1980s and 1990s are becoming collector’s items and are no longer seen as “dorkymobiles”, but the 1994 BTCC season significantly helped to change the perception of Volvo cars from boring to somehow cooler, and sporty.
Note of the editor – Some pictures I grabbed without asking permission. I hope the authors won’t mind. The top one is from the amazing Wheels and Things blog – https://wheels-and-things.com/en/, and a couple from Speed hunters web page – Chaydon Ford
Most men never receive their wings—they never fly above things.
Those who do
learn to sleep in the wind—
because
they’re too afraid to touch back down again.
Nursing home food reminded him of K-rations.
There was nothing glamourous about dying in the war,
and there was nothing glamourous about dying in a home.
There was nothing glamorous about death, period, or the lives people lived up until their death,
and despite this fact,
Alex couldn’t stop thinking about it.
He had waited for something to happen after the war, but it had never happened.
Just work—endless days of Max Realty Company—the feel-good feeling people have of not being on the streets, of going shopping on Saturdays, of enjoying sports games on Sundays.
Alex longed for war.
When the war ended, he felt like part of himself died—he was missing a thumb.
He came upon a Samurai in the swamps and shot him in both shoulders with a .45.
Alex didn’t finish him off.
The Samurai begged for a bullet, but Alex wouldn’t give it to him. He felt guilty about that afterward—it was a guilt that grew on him, as he got older, like a wart or a skin tag.
An alligator nibbled on the Jap in the night—eating him slowly, while he screamed.
It was music to Alex’s ears. Death and suffering were all around him then—it was loud. Death and suffering were still around him—it was quiet. Patients died impatiently—they couldn’t wait to go.
There was the smell of excrement and vinegar in his room. It reminded him of the war hospitals. Alex had cancer, TB, anemia, and some other things he couldn’t pronounce.
Death was eating him from every angle in the dark, just like that alligator was eating that Jap, but he couldn’t complain. He waited patiently for the silence.
His nurse walked in.
She reminded him of a fat silkworm in tight white clothes.
“Mr. Johannson, it’s time for lunch. Soup is on the menu.”
“That would violate my diet. I’m eating salads.”
“Who are you trying to impress?” Mr. Johansson. “You’re over 90.”
“Betty’s husband died 20 years ago. She’s in play, and she keeps leering at me from across the hallway.”
“Mr. Johansson, you have trouble getting out of bed, let alone, going to Betty’s room.”
“Maybe—I’ll find my strength.”
“You’re an incurable romantic, Mr. Johansson.”
“I know. Love will kill me.”
She left, and Alex exhaled.
“God, what I wouldn’t give for a cigarette—”
Across the room, his closet was open, and his army green uniform was hanging there, like a POW who had been tortured for three years.
He shook his head to get rid of the image, but it was frozen in his mind, like those battered bastards at Bastone.
– Note of the editor – During this writing adventure of mine, I even tried poetry, but as life became harder, and my romantic side grew older and bitter, I just abandoned my silly attempts to write beautiful things (or to write beautifully about things). But that does not mean I stopped reading poetry.
This provoking, compelling poem, The Old Army Officer, I found on a wonderful website, Just Poetry and the author graciously allowed me to post it here. If you enjoyed it please make sure to check his work.
This is my first attempt to create a post answering the Worldpress daily prompt. I just could not resist the endeavor.
First of all, it has been a long while since the last time I bought a fiction book, I just decided if I am going to spend a good deal of time reading a book, I might as well learn about something that happened for real (or it is happening). Since I have a penchant for military history, those are the books I read the most.
At this moment I am reading “Fighter”- The True Story of the Battle of Britain, by Len Deighton.
The German bombing campaign against England in 1940, is considered a pivotal moment in the history of the Old Island. The British Empire came awfully close to defeat but the audacious opposition of the RAF not only drove the Nazis out of the British skies but also solidified Winston Churchill’s leadership and unified the Brits to once again fight the Germans.
RAF fighter pilots, waiting for the next wave of German bombers. In the background, a Hawker Hurricane.
Len Deighton is a master novelist, he enthusiastically describes how the human factor influenced every turn of this close-fought battle. He also has an enormous knowledge of technology which comes in handy when defining the role of machines in this fight for Britain’s survival.
This is a second-hand book that I bought from a very interesting charity event at Trinity College Library, in Toronto. The pleasure of visiting this 172-year-old building was already the highlight of that Sunday afternoon, the books we bought were just the cherry on the cake.
I love used books, they have a kind of character that is hard to explain. Some of them have handwritten notes on the first pages, saying the book was bought as a gift. Some of them still carry forgotten treasures, like pictures of past owners.
Call me old-fashioned but I don’t see myself replacing physical books with the much more convenient digital versions. I still enjoy carrying them around and reading them while riding the bus.
I might even start reviewing some of my favorite books here at TCM, it seems an interesting idea.
When Dodge released the Charger, in the fall of 1965, the car was not a major hit. Despite the sleek design, and attractive selection of engines (the 426 HEMI being at the top of the list), the customers didn’t embrace the fastback design. Cadillac had tried it already in the 1950s with the Sedanette and even AMC released the Rambler Marlin in 1965, another fastback personal luxury model that failed to win the hearts of the customers. It was Ford that made this body style a winner with the much smaller and unpretentious Mustang, but that is another story.
After two years in production, Dodge decided to radically change the Charger, giving the car a second chance, and that was one of the smartest decisions Dodge has ever made.
The new model adopted the coupe/hardtop body style but the long “C” pillars are a reminder that the original Charger DNA was still there, and the hidden headlights also are a beautiful heritage from the first generation. This new muscular design became known on the streets as the “Coke bottle”.
The new Charger was an instant hit, its bold new style captured the spirit of the muscle car movement like no other. The car looks mean and gracious at the same time. The guys at Motor Trend Media Corp. were so in love with the Charger that one of the writers went into full-poetic mode describing the car:
“You look outside and see erie sweeps of metal and hypnotic, fascinating shadows that soothe the pounding sun and make the car an almost organic, protective embrace. “
The second-gen Charger, built between 1968 and 1970, became one of the most recognizable American cars ever. Of course, the big (and small) screen played its part in making the Charger so popular. It became the car of choice for many bad guys and outlaws in movies like Bullit, Crazy Mary-Dirty Larry, Fast and Furious,and the beloved TV show responsible for the senseless destruction of hundreds of Chargers, The Dukes of Hazard.
The second generation Charger was a huge sales success, Dodge was expecting to sell 35.000 units during its debut year but, but when 1968 was over, almost 100.000 Chargers had left the showrooms across North America.
All this popularity created an interesting phenomenon, two Chrysler factories, located as far as South America and Oceania, decided to, somehow, make a few extra bucks out of this new Dodge fever.
The Brazilian Charger.
By the end of the 1960s, the Brazilian auto industry was going through a small revolution, it was gradually shifting from building flimsy, second-rate cars from European and American companies to more up-to-date, good-quality models. Chrysler got a ticket to the Brazilian market when they bought the French automaker Simca, in the mid-1960s. In 1969, Dodge released its first car in Brazil, the 4 doors Dart. It was powered by the 318 V8 small block, paired with a three-on-the-tree transmission.
The Dart was a nice surprise for us, it was a contemporary product since the same body style had been released in the US only two years before, and the 318 engine provided a decent performance for the car. For the next year, Dodge unveiled the 2 doors model.
The Dart was an affordable entry-level car in the US market but in Brazil, it was a very expensive machine. The 2 door coupe became an attractive personal luxury model, sitting between the middle-class Chevy Opala and the up-scale Ford Galaxie. Buyers soon elected the coupe as their favorite Dart, and the model easily outsold the four-door. The sales numbers made the guys at the Dodge marketing department think: “Why not a true “Sporty” Dart? The solution was pretty obvious: the Dart “GT”, just like in North America. But the design department wanted to go one step further.
“What if we can make the Dart look like a Charger?” – Well, why not?
And they really did it. In 1971 the company presented our very first muscle car (or the closest thing we ever had to a muscle car), the Charger R/T.
The design cues from the real Charger start with the front facia, receiving a plastic-slotted grille covering the headlights. That was a no-brainer.
But how to get those long, elegant “C” pillars without spending a lot of money on tooling? Thankfully our friends at Mexican Chrysler had the answer, they created a metal applique that could be attached to the body, stretching the pillars, giving that desired look. The overlapping of the sheet metal was then conveniently covered by the vinyl top. Voila!
The Charger was equipped with 14-inch steel Magnum rims, wrapped with whatever sports tire we had at the time, Firestone Wide Oval or Goodyear Polyglass. To complete the visual, the customer had the option of a few bright colors, like yellow, lime green, bright red, and orange, adorned with black stripes. The interior was as luxurious as you could get at the time, with bucket leather seats, and plush carpet. On the dash, there is a tiny tachometer occupying the space where the clock used to be.
While the Dart had its engine painted in blue, the more powerful Charger V8 left the assembly line painted in gold.
Under the hood, the 318 received a higher compression ratio, requiring high-octane fuel for optimal performance. The tiny 2-barrel carb was revised with larger jets and a dual exhaust system was adopted. Chrysler assured that those little modifications gave 20 extra ponies to the small block, cranking out around 220 hp (SAE), making it the most powerful engine in Brazil, a title that the Charger kept for many years.
The absolute majority of the Chargers sold in Brazil were equipped with the traditional four-on-the-floor, but customers could special order cars with 3-speed automatic transmissions. Power steering and servo-assisted front disc brakes were standard equipment.
A 1980 Charger R/T, restored to showroom conditions. Photo courtesy Pastore Car Collection. -Brazil.
In 1979 the Brazilian “A” body received its first noticeable design update and the Charger lost its already dubious personality.
In 1980, the Brazilian Chrysler was acquired by Volkswagen. The Germans wanted a share of the lucrative commercial vehicles market in the country and the Dodge truck assembly line was their best option at the time.
VW kept the Dodge cars in production for one more year, making them, with the Australian Valiant, the last A-body produced in the world.
1975 Dodge Charger.
To the eyes of a North American car guy, the Brazilian Charger is nothing more than a silly knockoff, but we took the car very seriously. It was one of the most desirable cars produced during the most romantic period of our auto industry. The passion we have for the Charger is reflected in its price in the classic car market; a decently restored Brazilian Dodge Charger can fetch prices up to the level of 1960s Mustangs and Camaros.
The Australian Charger.
Just around the same time when the Brazilians were creating their own Charger, the Australian Chrysler was going through the same path and although it was also an A-body, the car was based on a model that was exclusively built in Australia.
We can trace the roots of this car all the way back to 1962, when the American Plymouth was locally built and rebadged Chrysler Valiant.
1969 Valiant Pacer
In 1967 the Chrysler Valiant adopted the American Dart body style, the only difference was the front facia, which was exclusive to the Australian market. Two years later, the company unveiled the Valiant Pacer, the first attempt to offer customers a sports version of the car. It seems that Chrysler was aiming at the “enthusiast on a budget” kind of buyers since the Pacer was a rather spartan car. While the competition, the Monaro GTS and Falcon GT, were powered by small block V8 engines, what you would find under the Pacer’s hood was a six-burner.
1970 – 2 door – Chrysler Valiant Pacer
The only engine option was a high-compression version of the trustworthy 225cu.in (3.69-litre) ‘slant six‘. With a two-barrel carburetor, it pumped out 130hp at 4500rpm. The transmission was a 3-speed manual… well, at least they put the shifter on the floor. Fake alloy hub caps, bright colors, and a dash-mounted tachometer complete the visual. In the first year, only the 4-door body was available and in 1970, the 2-door coupe came along.
It didn’t take long for Chrysler to realize that the Pacer was too tame to face the competition and in 1971 the company unveiled the Valiant Charger.
This new car was still conceived on the omnipresent Chrysler A-body platform, but the short wheelbase, (105″ x 111″ of the regular Valiant) fastback body style was only built in Australia.
The Valiant Charger had a vast array of versions, most of them powered by the new in-line six engine called HEMI-6. Yes, you heard it right, HEMI-6. This engine replaced the iconic slant-six in Australia, it was born as a truck engine project that, for some reason, was dumped by the Americans. Its cylinder head wasn’t a crossflow in proper hemi fashion, and the combustion chambers were only partially hemispherical. Still, it added to the mystique. The more basic version of the Charger received the 215 cu in (3.5 L), good for 140 bhp, The next step was the Charger XL, powered by the 245 cu in (4.0 L), pumping out 160 bhp. Both versions were equipped with a 3-speed manual transmission as the only option.
The Charger got a lot more interesting with the R/T version. To live up to the iconic moniker the car was powered by the largest HEMI-6 available, the 265 cu in (4.3 L), cranking up a respectable 280 bhp, but it could be special ordered with the race-specs- 305 bhp Six-Pac engine, characterized by a higher compression ratio (10:1), finely tuned exhaust headers, more aggressive camshaft, and the adoption of 3 Weber 48 DCOE carbs.
Glowing headers on a spicy in-line 6. This is the most beautiful car advertisement I’ve ever seen.
The Charger R/T came equipped with a sturdy Borg/Warner 4-speed manual transmission as the only option.
Deciding to cover all fronts, Chrysler created the ultimate version of the Charger, called 770. This top-of-the-line model offered two options of small block V8, first, the 318 cid, 2 barrel carb, rated at 230 bhp, and the 340 cid, 4 barrel carb, imported from the USA, rated at 275 bhp. Both engines could be paired with either a 4-speed manual or a 3-speed automatic transmission.
Australian Chrysler finally had all the firepower necessary to go after the Ford Falcon GT and Holden Monaro GTS, not only on the streets but also on the race tracks. The new Charger took the prestigious Australian Touring Car series by surprise, since their weapon of choice was the spicy Hemi-6 option, also code-named E38.
To be fair, the six-cylinder engine was not their first choice for the tracks. The Australians imported a good quantity of the 340 cid V8 small blocks from the USA, to homologate the engine for the touring series but the hot rod version of the HEMI-6 proved to be a better option. During the trails, the six-burner Charger was found to be 2–3 seconds faster around the Mallala race track than the 340. The heavier V8 at the front caused severe understeer and required earlier braking than the Hemi six.
With more than 300 units of the imported 340 small blocks in the warehouse, Chrysler decided to get rid of them making it an option for the the top-of-the-line 770 version.
The Valiant Charger or simply Chrysler Charger was a huge success, at some point the car represented more than 80% of the Valiant sales in Autralia.
1975 VK Chrysler Charger
In 1975 the Six-Pac engine option was dropped but the Hemi-6 continued to power the Charger, but now it was fed by a 4 barrel carb. Around this time the stockpile of the small block 340 was exhausted and the engine was replaced by a 360 cid which was a bored-out version of the locally built 318 cid.
In 1976 the Charger received its last design update, with a beautiful 4 headlights set up, but thanks to the global oil crisis, Chrysler shut down its production in 1978.
The fate of the Australian Chrysler wasn’t much different from the fate of its South American counterpart. In 1980 Mitsubishi took over the company and in 1981 the last Valiant left the assembly line.
Conclusion.
It was only at the end of my research that I realized the title of this post might be misleading. To call both cars, the Brazilian and the Australian Chargers phony would be an injustice. While the Brazilian one is, in fact, a cheap knockoff, the Australian one is a totally different story. The Aussies created a brand-new car that carries zero design cues from its American cousin. Chrysler even considered different names for the car.
On the other hand, I have to give some credit to the Brazilians; they did what they could with a much tighter budget than the Australians and the car they created is not that bad.
All things considered, both cars became icons in their own countries. If the local market didn’t allow us to have the real B-body Charger, at least the alternatives we created have something special, they are the result of the hard work and ingenuity of the local guys.
The kind of pride that only a car that was “built, not bought” can give.
The amazing story of a rogue RAF pilot and his vendetta against the Gestapo.
WWII was the bloodiest conflict in human history, it is impossible to be precise about how many lives were lost as a consequence of the hostilities but the number lies somewhere between 50 and 85 million. It was a time when Presidents, Prime Ministers, and dictators asked their citizens to abandon their civilian lives to become soldiers and go to the battlefields across the globe, to fight, kill and die for their countries. The war revealed an immense number of heroes and unfortunately, a great number of cowards too.
From five-star Generals to the privates, all of them were forced to make decisions that were meant to take or save lives. Decisions that brought victory or defeat one step closer. There are thousands of stories about bravery and self-sacrifice and a good number of them were driven by revenge.
This is the story of Baron Jean de Selys Longchamps, a man determined to bring swift vengeance against one of the most feared terror organizations that ever existed, the Gestapo.
The invasion Belgium
On the 10th of May 1940, the German armed forces unleashed Operation Fall Gelb (Case Yellow), invading at the same time Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium. At this point, there were Nazi flags already flying in Poland, Denmark, and Norway. The Germans seemed unstoppable.
The French and the British concentrated their armies in Belgium, in hopes of stopping the Germans there. During the first two days of battle, the Nazis managed to cross the dense Ardennes forest, encircling the Allies and pushing the offensive towards the English Channel.
The Germans reached the Channel after five days, gradually reducing the pocket of the Allied resistance, and forcing them back to the sea.
The tactics of the Blitzkrieg had prevailed once again. The Wehrmacht overwhelmed the enemy with superior manpower, better equipment, and over-the-top motivated troops. For the Germans, it was payback time.
Soldiers from the British Expeditionary Force await their rescue, on the beaches of Dunkirk. May 1940.
On May 26th, the Brits initiated Operation Dynamo, in which they managed to evacuate more than 338,000 Allied soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk. The retreat marks the end of the British military operations on Continental European soil for the time being and also the end of the French Army as an effective fighting force.
With no other option on the table, the Belgians surrendered on May 26, avoiding the certain slaughter of its entire army.
The road to Paris was wide open.
The relentless Baron.
Among those soldiers rescued in Dunkirk, there was a young Belgian Army Captain who would become more than a footnote in the history of WWII. Baron Jean de Selys Longchamps, DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross), was born into the Belgian nobility, on May 31st, 1912. He inherited his title from his father, Baron Raymond Charles de Selys Longchamps. The young Longchamps had dropped out of the Catholic University of Leuven to start a tranquil career as a bank clerk in Brussels.
His fate after the outbreak of the war was no different from thousands of other young men around the world. Longchamps was drafted into the Belgian Army and became a cavalry officer with the 1er Regiment des Guides.
After the fall of Belgium, he was rescued at Dunkirk and went to England. Once there, he joined the Allied soldiers who were crossing the channel, going back to defend France.
France fell fairly quickly, a victim of faulty intelligence and the reluctance of the army’s high command to adapt the tactics to this new, fast-paced warfare imposed by the Germans. On the 14th of June, 1940, the citizens of Paris watched in disbelief, Nazi troops marching through the city. Baron Longchamps fled to Marrocos, avoiding being captured by the Germans.
Upon arrival, he was arrested by the Vichy French authority and sent to Marseille. The Baron was becoming quite an expert in escaping from the enemy and once again he was able to elude his captors and fled to Spain. From there he found his way back to safety in Great Britain.
The Royal Air Force was desperate for recruits and Longchamps was offered a chance to become a pilot. He didn’t think twice and immediately applied to join the RAF academy. The only problem was, at 28 years old, he was considered too old for the job, but the Baron would let such a small hiccup like this block his plans, and he lied, straight face, about his age on the application.
After completing the flight training, Longchamps was posted at No 609 RAF Squadron, equipped with a new, state-of-the-art fighter-bomber, the Hawker Typhoon.
The Baron’s weapon
The Typhoon was designed as a replacement for the aging Hawker Hurricane, but unfortunately, its introduction into service was quite complicated. The plane was plagued with serious project flaws that followed it throughout its career.
Structural failure – Under severe stress, the Typhoon was prone to lose its entire tail section. RAF records show that 23 pilots lost their lives victims of this problem.
Carbon monoxide seepage – A design flaw allowed fumes from the engine exhaust to enter the cockpit. Several improvements were made, changing the length and the curves of the tubes but the problem was never entirely solved, forcing the pilots to wear oxygen masks all the time during their missions.
Engine wear – Poorly designed air filter allows solid particles to be swallowed by the engine, causing premature internal wear. Sending engines to a complete overhauling after only 3 missions was not uncommon.
Despite all the problems, Hawker and RAF were committed to making the Typhoon a front-line warrior. The fighter was designed to beat the Spitfire in performance and firepower. It was powered by a revolutionary 36.7-liter displacement, 24-cylinder Napier Sabre engine. This liquid-cooled power unit was designed in an “H” layout. Basically, this engine consists of two separate flat 12 engines (complete with separate crankshafts), mounted one on top of the other and geared to a common output shaft. The name “H engine” is due to the engine blocks resembling the letter “H” when viewed from the front. The Napier Sabre was capable of producing 3500 HP on the later versions. Just to give an idea, the much smaller Rolls Royce Merlin V12 that powers the Spitfire (27 liters) could crank out 1580 HP on the later versions.
Beautiful picture of a Hawker Typhoon, at the moment of its takeoff. The black and white stripes tell us this plane was part of the D-Day operations.
The Typhoon never succeeded in surpassing the Spitfire as the RAF main fighter but all that raw power was to be put to good use. The plane proved to be a versatile platform and with some modifications, it was used as a long-range fighter, fighter bomber, and, perhaps, the role in which it performed best, ground attack.
The already formidable firepower provided by the 4 Hispano-Suiza 20mm cannons was significantly improved with the adoption of bombs and rockets, mounted under the wings. The increase in weight required a more robust landing gear, but the 24-cylinder Napier engine took it like a champion. The Typhoon blossomed into a very destructive machine.
Pummeling the Germans
The squadrons of Typhoon, alongside its American cousin, the P47 Thunderbolt, became the nightmare of the German logistics and infrastructure. Trains, truck convoys, bridges, depots, and even tanks, everything was fair game to those hunters. There was no other place Baron Longchamps would rather be than behind the controls of his Hawker Typhoon, and it didn’t take long before he proved to be a talented and aggressive pilot. The man was doing his part in the war but that was just not enough.
Longchamps was flying a British airplane and wearing the RAF uniform but his heart and mind were still in Belgium. He was constantly in contact with the resistance, in his hometown, Brussels. It was in 1942 that he received the dreadful news that his father was captured and died under torture at the hands of the Gestapo.
Longchamps couldn’t bear the idea that his father might have died during interrogation about his son, who fled to England and now was an RAF pilot. Now the only thing the young Baron had in his mind was revenge.
Thanks to his friends in the resistance, Longchamps knew that the Gestapo was using the Résidence Belvédère, a luxurious Art Deco apartment building located at 453 Avenue Louise, in downtown Brussels as its headquarters.
The rogue mission
Jean immediately started a campaign to convince his squadron leader that a raid against the Gestapo building was not only possible but highly recommended. The Baron had some good arguments in his favor: he could lead the attack since he knew the city like the back of his hand, and a blow to the Gestapo would certainly disrupt their operations, giving some room to the resistance to carry on their jobs.
At this point, the squadron commander knew that the biggest reason behind this proposal was revenge, and consequently, the raid requests were denied. The RAF resources should be applied against more important targets.
Longchamps never abandoned the idea of attacking the Gestapo headquarters, even if he had to carry on alone. Revenge is a dish better served cold.
Meanwhile, the 609 Squadron kept hammering the Nazi’s installations inside occupied France, but on January 20th, 1943, the Baron and his wingman, Flight Sergeant André Blanco, received orders to attack a rail yard near the city of Ghent, in Northwest Belgium. That was the chance he was waiting for.
He ordered his Typhoon to be armed and fueled to the max and at the scheduled time, both pilots took off towards the occupied Belgium. During the attack, Sgt Blanco noticed that Longachamps barely touched the trigger, it seemed he was saving ammo.
Upon finishing the mission, both Typhoons are heading back home when, suddenly, Longchamps storms away from the formation and before cutting off his radio, he orders his wingman to keep the course and not follow him. Blanco realized exactly what was about to happen.
Pencil drawing of the attack by Patrick Sadler
Flying low and fast, Jean crosses into the city limits, and following the well-known streets of downtown, he heads straight to the Résidence Bélvedére building. On the ground, citizens and occupiers are busy with their daily routines when the stillness of the morning is broken by the furious roar of the Napier engine. The noise drew several Gestapo officials to the front windows of the building, scanning the skies, trying to identify the incoming plane. For Longchamps, this is the icing on the cake.
He starts shooting aiming at the middle of the building then he pulls the stick, graciously lifting the nose of his Typhoon, covering the rest of the facade with bullets. Inside the headquarters the hell broke loose, the destruction caused by the hail of explosive 20mm cannon shells is beyond anybody could imagine. At the top of the building, there was an anti-aircraft gun but the crew could do nothing to repel the enemy fighter. They were not prepared for this kind of attack.
The rogue Baron was not quite done with his mission, he had a bag of small Belgian flags made by Belgian refugee schoolchildren in London. After the attack, he scattered those flags across Brussels. Then he dropped a Union Jack and a large Belgian flag at the Royal Palace, in Laeken, the official residence of the Belgian royal family, and then dropped another at the garden of his niece, the Baroness de Villegas de Saint Pierre. Quite a busy morning indeed.
The aftermath.
Jean made it back to England, safe and sound. At the base, he was cheered as a hero by his comrades, but the squadron commander was not very pleased about this insubordination. As punishment for his reckless behavior, Longchamps was demoted from Flight Lieutenant to Flying Officer.
The official report from the Nazi authorities in Brussels stated that only 4 officials lost their lives as a consequence of the attack, obviously, they were downplaying the real results. According to the resistance, between 25 and 30 Gestapo personnel died, but the firing was so precise that no other building in the vicinity was hit. Among the victims there were: SS- Obersturmfuher Werner Voght, SS Sturmbannfuher Alfred Thomas, head of Abteiling III in Belgium, and a high-ranking Gestapo officer named Müller. Of course, there was retaliation, more innocent people were killed at the hands of the Gestapo, but the morale of the invaders was visibly shaken and the structure of command was disrupted for several days.
Longchamps and the squadron’s pet.
The RAF high command had no other option than recognize the valor of the mission. The man said he could strike a blow at the heart of the Nazi occupiers and he just did it.
On the day of his birthday, 31 May 1943, Jean de Selys was awarded the British Distinguished Flying Cross.
At the ceremony (pictured above), the Squadron Commander read the following:
“This Officer is a pilot of exceptional ability and keenness. He shows a great offensive spirit and is eager to engage and destroy the enemy whenever possible. He has shown his great courage and initiative in numerous rail transport and the Gestapo headquarters attack in Brussels. He has also destroyed at least one enemy aircraft and damaged another”.
The attack on the Gestapo HQ in Brussels represented much more than a strike against the Germans. More than anything else, it gave hope to the Belgians, it showed that the Allies were working hard to liberate the country.
The ground offensive to get Belgium rid of the Nazis began on 2 September 1944 with the liberation of La Galerie and was completed on 4 February 1945 with the liberation of the village of Krewinkel. The freedom came after four years of occupation.
Sadly, Longchamps didn’t survive to see his beloved country free. On 16th August 1943, after returning from a mission with No.3 Squadron over Ostend, de Selys was killed when his Typhoon Ib EJ950 QO-X crashed at Manston, during landing procedures. It is possible that the aircraft was damaged by flak. It suffered structural failure, breaking into two and crashing on approach.
Photo courtesy The History of Manston Airfield.
He was buried at Minster Cemetery, England.
Photo courtesy Paul Boedts
The city of Brussels erected a statue in honor of Jean de Selys Longchamps, right in front of the building he partially destroyed in 1942. It is a monument to remember the bank clerk who became a fearless fighter pilot and a national hero. The RAF airman who put his love for Belgium above his duties as a pilot.
Note of the editor: According to Marc Audrit, the author of the Longchamps biography, his father was never arrested and died peacefully in 1966. Marc goes on to say there are a lot of myths surrounding de Selys’ raid and he debunks them all in this book released in 2023. (picture below). It might be a fascinating reading.
Note of the editor – 2: A total of 3317 Hawker Typhoons were produced and just a handful of them survived the war or the crusher. There is a group of people dedicated to restoring one Thyphoon and making it airworthy again. They started with pieces and bits of a plane and the journey proved to be a hard one. You can check it at their website – https://hawkertyphoon.com/
Daniel Demaras finished the 2023 season of the Canadian F-1200 as the indisputable champion, after winning the race at the iconic Toronto Mosport, on Sunday, Oct/02.
The Brazilian flags and the #12 on Daniel’s car are a sign of the admiration the team has for Airton Senna. And how cool is that? The TCM decal on the champion car!
The F-1200 (or F-Vee in other countries), is one of the most competitive classes in motorsports. Claiming the title is no easy task, it requires not only a great deal of talent but also a lot of hard work and perseverance.
Congratulations to Daniel, and the whole Demaras team, and to all those involved in making this dream come true.
Check out all the details of the winning weekend by clicking on the post below.
When you walk inside any dealership, chances are you will find more than a couple of car-crazy guys working there. It is just natural that some gearheads will try to to find a way to make a living out of their passion.
During the time I worked at Stouffville Nissan, in Ontario CA, I had the satisfaction of befriending a few good examples of those maniacs. Starting with the fixed operation manager, Ian Phillips, who is a former race driver and two technicians, Sebastien Roxborough and JP, who are classic car aficionados.
All of them have cars and life stories that I would love to publish here at TCM, but there is a tale about a very interesting car that caught my attention. Sebastien recently bought a 1957 Monarch Turnpike, a car that I’ve never seen or heard about, even after all those years involved in this business.
Pictured is the scene at the official opening of the Ford Motor Company of Canada, Oakville Assembly Plant in 1953.
First of all, we need to know what “Monarch” is and what it represents. In some countries where the auto market seemed promising enough, American carmakers tried to establish unique brands that could more deeply relate to the local customers. Perhaps one of the most popular of those brands is Holden, the Australian subsidiary of General Motors.
In 1946 Ford introduced Monarch, a distinctive brand for the Canadian market. The vehicles were built by Ford Canada as badge-engineered Mercurys, with some exclusive styling features to set them apart from other cars from the company.
The Blue Oval guys were feeling pretty confident with the post-war prosperity in North America. They didn’t seem worried that this new brand would clash internally with other cars from Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury, which continued to be sold in Canada.
The Monarch became the luxury Ford brand in the country since Lincoln/Mercury had their own dealerships. The idea proved to be a winner and more often than not, Monarch outsold Mercury during the time they shared the market.
When Ford released (with much fanfare) the Edsel in 1958, the company shut down the Monarch’s assembly line, avoiding unnecessary confrontation. Since the new Ford fell short of expectations, the Monarch brand was back in 1959.
At the beginning of the 1960s, the American automakers were systematically scaling down the opulence of their cars. Models were being downsized and the assembly lines were reworked towards efficiency. In this new scenario there was no longer a place for a brand like Monarch and 1961 was the last production year.
Seb’s Monarch
The four-door hardtop body is absolutely gorgeous.
This Monarch is a 1957 Turnpike Cruiser four-door hardtop. Seb bought the car in June 2023, right after he sold another classic, a 1958 Edsel.
The car was built at the Ford assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario. It came equipped with a 368 cid V8 engine, which was the largest displacement “Y” block ever produced, rated at a respectable 290 HP. The engine is attached to a push-button automatic transmission.
The Monarch was sold new at Mel Newman Ltd in Atikokan, ON. The production numbers confirm it is a very rare car indeed, it is one of 336 four-door models produced that year (185 two-door models were built). Seb was told the first owner was a doctor in the area and the car was driven until 1969 when it was then left to rot in a field.
A few pictures were taken during the restoration.
The Turnpike was rescued in 1978, when it was sold for $300.00 to Gerhard (Gary) Mantey, a farmer from Dryden, ON. Mr. Mantey began having the car restored in the mid 2000s and it was completed in 2012. The restoration includes repairing the rusted-out body, rebuilding the engine, and new upholstery.
The total cost of restoration was just above $65,000. Unfortunately, the car was used very little, and in 2021 Mr. Mantey passed away and the car was inherited by his daughter.
When Sebastien got the car, it was in a non-runningcondition. He spent the summer getting it ready to live up to its name, Cruiser.
The Monarch emblem.
He rebuilt the fuel pump and the carburetor. Parts that were replaced include the generator, voltage regulator, fuel sending unit, and speedometer cable. He also replaced the instrument cluster, re-installing the factory vacuum wiper motor. To finish the job Seb performed a complete tune-up returning the ignition system to stock, and installing 4 new white wall tires. He got the car ready just in time for some summer/fall rides.
The American dream
A typical North American family of the 1950s: owning a decent house, and a brand-new car was easy peasy. Even if, in most cases, the husband was the sole financial provider.
The world after WWII was an interesting mixed scenario, while the whole European continent was struggling to recover from the hardships of the war, North America experienced a period of unprecedented prosperity. The strong blue-collar, middle-class families in the United States and Canada, with some good money in their pockets, wanted to buy nice stuff. Cars in particular.
The 1950s was, perhaps, the most glamorous period of the American auto industry. Designers and engineers went above and beyond to create magnificent cars to lure customers into their dealerships.
Sebastien’s Monarch is a perfect example of the machinery built during those magical years. It is a gorgeous car, with a striking design and powered by one of Detroit’s finest V8s of the time. To make it even more special, it is a car that not many people know outside Canada.
Those who follow this blog know that the Demaras family is a habitual subject here and the reason is simple, they are one of the most active bunch of gearheads in town. I eagerly follow their adventures on Demaras.com and if you like racing, you should too.
It is well known that every gearhead has a favorite automotive brand to which he or she devotes unconditional love, in the case of the Demaras, the brand is Subaru. The car from this very traditional Japanese automaker has been in the family for generations. Nowadays, they have two Subies in their garage, a 2003 Impreza WRX, and the other one is a model that, in my opinion, is the coolest Subaru ever built, the SVX.
Besides being a very rare model, Chris’s SVX received some very tasteful modifications, making it even more special.
No one is more suitable to talk about a car than the owner himself, and that is why I asked Chris to write about his Subaru. It is a great story, I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.
Text by Chris Demaras.
When I was a kid, my dad bought his first Subaru. It was a white 1986 Subaru XT with a 5-speed manual and a turbo-boost gauge on the dashboard. I loved it! After six years and 350,000+ km, dad returned to Scarboro Subaru to check out the new model; the SVX. This Subaru was more powerful, more beautiful, and WAY more expensive. It was nearly $28,000 in 1991 (approx. $60,000 in today’s dollars). We went out for a test drive, and I remember the car was just so futuristic looking to the eyes of 17-year-old me. But there’s NO WAY my first-generation Greek-Canadian dad was going to spend that kind of money on a car. We quietly returned the vehicle to the dealership after the test drive, and thanked our young salesman, Guy. I stored the memory of that test drive in my brain for a couple decades.
I always liked that SVX and cherished the memory of my dad and me doing car stuff that day, since he’s not much of a ‘car guy’. Over the years, my father bought 5 more Subarus, and I got a WRX for my wife. I’d mentioned to Scarboro Subaru that if a good-condition SVX ever came up for sale, they should let me know.
Twenty years went by, but the same salesman Guy (the General Manager now) called with good news. A mint condition 1992 SVX was just sold back to the dealership. The original owner, Mr. Wagman, had passed away. The car was ‘babied’ since new, and needed a new owner. Mr. Wagman’s widow asked that the car be sold to a new owner on the condition that they don’t mess with the car, don’t paint any idiotic flames on it, and don’t put a big dumb spoiler on the rear end like you see on all the other Subarus. If I could refrain from doing any of that… the car would be mine. I hustled over to Scarboro Subaru and didn’t even ask how much. Guy just handed me the keys for a test drive, and I didn’t come back for two days. That’s how it all started.
It really turns heads! Being such a unique car, it attracts attention from people who recognize what a rare bird it is, and people who have no idea what they’re looking at but couldn’t help but be attracted to the sleek body. Acquiring the car also gave me the chance to become part of the car scene, to be part of the shows I had been attending for years. My SVX was one of two or three at the Toronto Subaru Club’s annual ‘HyperMeet’ event, compared to the hundreds of WRXs and Foresters. It was definitely the only one playing ‘Speed Racer’ cartoons on DVD in the Kenwood.
The Subaru SVX is a rare car. It was manufactured from 1992 to 1997, but my early production example was actually built in September 1991. Total production was just over 14,000 cars during the 5-year run, and less than 1,000 ever made it from Japan to Canada. This specific car was originally sold at Scarboro Subaru in Toronto’s east end and continues to be dealer-serviced to this day
The SVX (called the Alcyone in Japan) is a front-engine, all-wheel-drive, four-passenger, two-door Grand Touring coupe. This was Subaru’s ‘halo car’ and was meant to compete with other GTs like the Jaguar XJ-S and Mercedes-Benz 500 SEC cars of the era.
Not quite a high-performance vehicle, the SVX was powered by a naturally aspirated 3.3 L ‘boxer’ engine rated at 230 HP / 224 TQ. The 24-valve, DOHC flat-six engine was only available with the 4EAT four-speed electronic automatic transmission, and an all-wheel drive system called ACT-4 which varied the amount of torque sent to the rear wheels. The torque split was normally 65% front / 35% rear, but based on driving conditions, the split could reach 50% / 50%.
The original SVX transmission is its weak point (torque-converter clutch and high-clutch failures) so the first modification to my SVX was to install an updated “Phase 1” 4EAT transmission from a Subaru Legacy. A big difference is the ‘new’ transmission has a 4.44 rear gear ratio (compared to the original 3.90 gears) which means the car now launches off the line way harder but revs a little higher at highway speeds. This was a complex modification, as the original LSD carrier from the SVX had to be swapped into the new 4.44 rear differential housing.
Over the years I made other minor modifications like lightweight engine pulleys and braided stainless-steel brake lines. The stock 16″ wheels were replaced with bigger 17″ BBS wheels from a Subaru WRX STi and a set of Yokohama Advan tires. The original ‘waterfall’ grill was replaced with a more modern-looking 1996 SVX grill, plus some clear corner lights.
A Delta Speed body-kit (knock-off) was installed, including side skirts, front splitters and the taller JDM rear spoiler. Last year I finally had the windows tinted, and then wrapped the roof with black vinyl, emphasizing the ‘jet-fighter cockpit’ look that famed Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro (also responsible for the BMW M1 and DeLorean DMC 12) was aiming for when he sketched out the SVX in the late 1980’s.
The SVX is long, low, wide and heavy; at 3,500 lbs it is no lightweight! The soft springs and comfy shocks made for a very smooth ride on the highway (it was designed as a Grand Tourer, remember) but all that weight caused some serious body-roll on twisty roads. The original suspension components were old and tired, and new components were no longer produced, so the second major modification I made was a set of coilovers, plus a stiffer anti-roll bar. The car sat about 2″ lower, and the stiff springs really kept the car planted. The coilovers had adjustable valves to fine-tune the bounce/rebound of the shocks, but the ride was just never comfortable. And those coilovers were just so noisy! It got to the point where I’d only bring the SVX out a couple of times over the summer. Very sad…I even thought of selling it.
As with many things in life, I solved the problem by throwing money at it. Two years ago, I contacted NV Auto in Hamilton to discuss retro-fitting an AirLift Performance series air-suspension kit (originally designed for the 2002 – 2007 Subaru WRX) to the 1992 SVX. Some components from the SVX are interchangeable with the WRX, but it would still take a lot of cutting, welding, trial and error. Many months (and many dollars) later, the SVX was back on the road. There’s a 2.5 gallon aluminum air tank in the trunk, taking up all the space, but who cares! With the bags ‘aired-out’ the body rests flat on the ground with the wheels tucked up into the fenders. It looks amazing now, and at 45 PSI, the car rides like a Cadillac.
Every time I drive the SVX, I feel like a movie star. People stare at the car and give me thumbs up. Drivers of more common Subarus will always chat me up at the coffee shop, since this is a model many have never seen in person before. Now that the car has some custom touches, like the suspension and body kit,
Chris and his son, Daniel, proudly posing by the SVX.
The SVX finally feels like it’s mine, and not like a car I’m looking after for Mr. Wagman. I bet he’d be proud to see his baby is still cruising the streets of Toronto more than 30 years later.
Note of the editor
On Friday, Sep/22, Chris invited me to attend a Toronto Subaru Club meeting, in Newmarket. There I had a chance to hang out with the guys and Chris even allowed me to take the SVX for a spin. The car drives amazingly and it sounds like an F-One.
Life in Ontario, CA has become extremely difficult, since the cost of living has gone through the roof. However, every now and then we can take advantage of so many attractions the province has to offer. After all, this was one of the main reasons we chose it to call home.
For a history buff like my wife and I, Ontario is a paradise of museums, and this summer we discovered one more, the Ontario Regiment Museum.
WWI era ambulances
The museum is housed on the South Field of the Historic Oshawa Executive Airport. The airport opened in June 1941 under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan as No. 20 Elementary Flying Training School RCAF Station, Oshawa. Only three of the original buildings are still standing. Potential military pilots from Commonwealth and Occupied countries were trained there during WWII.
A WWII Ford light truck, powered by the omnipresent Flathead V8.
The Museum was established to preserve the story of the Ontario Regiment RCAC from its beginnings in 1866 as the 34th Ontario Battalion of Infantry, through WW1 as the 34th and 116th Battalions, 11th Armoured Regiment in WW2 and the Ontario Regiment (RCAC) today.
The Ontario Regiment Museum holds a collection of more than 100 operational vintage military vehicles, including jeeps, trucks, tanks, and motorcycles, making it the largest collection in North America.
WWII Triumph TRW 500
Throughout the warmer months of the year, the volunteers put on a series of themed events called Tank Saturday. It is a wonderful opportunity to see those monsters in action.
Before the show, the public can buy rides on certain armored transports and even a German-built, Cold War-era Leopard tank. (video above).
The Blitzkrieg
The event we chose to attend was about the German Blitzkrieg. The team of volunteers brought to the track a few German and Allied vehicles for a parade.
The Museum executive director, Mr. Jeremy Neal Blowers, was there, in the field, narrating the whole event and giving us very interesting details about each vehicle. A history lesson in real-time. (picture above)
Here are some of the most interesting vehicles we saw in action that Saturday:
M4 Sherman
This tank was the backbone of the American armored divisions, both in Europe and in the Pacific. At the beginning of the war, the Sherman was severely inferior to the German Panzer, lacking thicker armor and firepower. After heavy losses on the battlefield, the model went through many improvements, and by 1944 it was already a worthy opponent against the Germans. It is armed with a 76mm gun and powered by a 400 hp, air-cooled, 9-cylinder Continental aircraft engine.
Daimler-Benz Panzer III
“A German Panzer is worth 10 American Sherman. The only problem is they always show up with more than 11”. – (A popular joke among German tank crews)
Although the Panzer owned by the museum is a reproduction, built with original Panzer parts, it gives you a pretty good idea of how good the original one was. Low profile, fast, agile, and powerful. It is armed with a 37mm gun and powered by a 300hp Maybach V12 engine.
Canadian Military Pattern CMP-15
One of the most popular multi-purpose Allied trucks of WWII, the CMP-15 was mass-produced in Canada, at the Oshawa, ON plant, under British specifications, especially for the Commonwealth countries. It could be powered by either Ford or Chevrolet engines and it was regarded as extremely versatile and nearly indestructible. Those qualities made the CMP 15 highly desirable even to other Allied countries outside the Commonwealth.
One interesting feature of the CPM-15 is the windshield, mounted at a negative angle. The idea was to prevent snow accumulation on the glass.
BMM Jagdpanzer 38 (t)
By 1944 the tide of WWII had changed, the Allies were making considerable advances and Nazis were stretching thin to keep up the fight in so many different theatres. As Germany was running out of both equipment and manpower, their industry started to build more defensive weapons. This is the case of the Jagdpanzer, or tank hunter. This machine has a powerful 75mm gun and it is equipped with heavy armor, capable of withstanding some severe punishment. Besides those qualities, this vehicle wasn’t meant to face Allied tanks on an open battlefield, instead, it would hide, motionless, just waiting to ambush the enemy. Since the Jagdpanzer had no gun turret, it was a lot cheaper to build; a good sign that Germany was running out of steam at the time.
Picture by Ontario Regiment Museum
Ford Universal Carrier
For most of us, the “nonexperts”, every military vehicle equipped with tracks is a tank, which is not true. The Ford Universal Carrier is a good example, this little machine was created to be a multi-task, all-terrain support vehicle, capable of pulling a trailer full of equipment through mud and snow. Since the Allies had to rush the production of military equipment at the beginning of the war, they used whatever was available at the time. The engine, transmission, and rear end of this carrier came from “off-the-shelf” Ford commercial truck parts.
And yes, you guessed it right, the engine is a Ford Flathead V-8. It seems that before starting the Hot Rod movement in the late 1940s, the mighty flatty had another important mission: defeat fascism.
Picture by Ontario Regiment Museum
The guy you see in this picture (on the left) is retired CAF Sgt Steve Jordan, he was the driver of the Ford Carrier that day. A lot of details about the vehicle I wrote here came from a delightful chat we had before the event. Sgt Jordan is such a nice guy, I hope we’ll meet again in the future, for another interesting conversation.
Picture by Ontario Regiment Museum
Sd. Kfz 261 – Hanomag
Since I was a kid, I have been fascinated by the so-called half-track vehicles. What’s up with that? A truck that looks like a tank? Wow!
The picture above shows the German half-track Hanomag and we can use it as a good example of how Germany was preparing itself for war way before the Allies. While the American half-tracks look like commercial trucks adapted for combat, the Hanomag is a true war machine, with a low-profile design and armored cabin and engine bay.
The Parade
The video above is a short footage of the parade. I never thought I would see WWII-era tanks in action right in front of me but, there they are.
The battle
The next part of the show was a mock battle between the “Germans” and the “Allies”.
Starting with a few actors recreating the arrival of a group of German soldiers on the battlefield.
The climax of the event is the “tank battle”. The confrontation starts when all the vehicles withdraw from the field, leaving it for the infamous German Panzer III to face its challenger, in this case, the American light tank M3 Stuart. The public goes crazy, watching the two tanks, running up and down the track, chasing each other and firing blanks. In the end, it was up to the crowd to choose the winner, and we decided that the Panzer was the vanquisher. The Stuart crew fought valiantly but they were no match for the “Germans”.
A noble mission
French farmers and American GIs celebrate the liberation of their village with freshly made cider.
The Ontario Regiment Museum carries on the noble mission to preserve history, showing us the ingenuity of our industry and the courage of our veterans during horrendous times.
As Mr. Blowers said, these events are not intended to glorify war, instead, they are meant to show to the newer generations that thousands of soldiers paid the ultimate price to guarantee the freedom we so carelessly enjoy now.
The orbiter Enterprise was the very first Shuttle built for the program, but the ship wasn’t even fitted with engines; it was exclusively used for gliding tests and it never left Earth’s atmosphere. It was the second ship, Columbia, that had the honor of being the first orbiter to reach space. In so many ways Columbia was the banner of the Space Shuttle Program.
Columbia, on the launch pad, waiting for the countdown. The red circle on top shows the location from where the piece of foam broke off and the lower red circle shows where the debris struck the wing.
On January 16, 2003, Columbia left Earth on its 28th mission, carrying a crew of seven. Although NASA was deeply involved in the construction of the International Space Station, Columbia’s last mission, STS-107, was purely for scientific research. The flight was originally scheduled to launch on January 11, 2001, but it was delayed thirteen times. Even after 20 years after its first flight, NASA was still fighting multiple problems that plagued the program.
This GIF shows the exact moment when the piece of foam hits Columbia’s left wing.
With all systems on the green, Columbia ignited all its engines and launched at 10:39 a.m. Once again, what seemed to be a perfect lift-off, was, in fact, a tragic one. At 81.9 seconds after the launch, a piece of foam, measuring approximately 21 to 27 inches (53 to 69 cm) long and 12 to 18 inches (30 to 46 cm) wide, broke off from the left bipod on the external fuel tank, striking the panels on Columbia‘s left wing like a cannonball, at a relative velocity of 573 mph (922 km/h), severely damaging the carbon thermal shield on the edge of the wing.
The thermal shield problem
The ceramic tiles used to protect the ships against the scorching heat during the reentry proved to be a headache from day one. There are reports of missing titles even during the gliding tests, in the late 1970s. Although the thermal protection around the orbiters received several improvements throughout the program, by the early 2000s it was still very fragile against the impact of debris.
The solid rocket boosters and the external fuel tank also received a thermal shield but with a different purpose. They were covered with insulating foam, meant to keep the liquid hydrogen (LH2), stored at −253 °C (−423 °F), and a smaller tank for liquid oxygen (LOX), held at −183 °C (−297 °F). The insulation also prevented ice from forming on the tank’s exterior.
This foam performs quite well as a thermal shield, but it can be extremely troublesome to endure the hardships of ascending. Speed and vibration cause the material to crack and break apart. Foam strikes occurred regularly during Space Shuttle launches; of the 79 missions with available imagery during launch, foam strikes occurred on 65 of them, resulting in damages to the ship’s thermal shields, from minor to near catastrophic, as was the case of Atlantis in 1988. Once again, the years have passed and NASA didn’t take a more effective approach to fix the problem.
The doomed mission
It was only on the second day after the launch that NASA, during a routine review of videos of the lift-off, noticed the debris strike. None of the cameras that recorded the launch had a clear view of the incident, leaving the group unable to determine the level of damage sustained by the orbiter.
Boeing engineers (1) replicated the incident on modeling computers and they concluded that the damage to the thermal shield was severe enough to compromise the integrity of the wing during reentry. On the other hand, NASA downplayed as much as possible the severity of the situation, after all, foam strikes were a common occurrence and so far, they had managed to bring the crew safely back home.
The engineers and a few NASA officials proposed a request with the Department of Defense to reroute its orbital spy cameras to take a closer look at the damaged wing. The idea really got some traction when the DoD said it would gladly do whatever was necessary to take those pics. However, NASA Mission Management Team Leader Linda Ham declined the offer, saying the procedure would interfere with the ongoing science operations.
The crew spent their 16 days in space conducting some 80 experiments before preparing to return home, on the morning of Feb. 1, 2003.
Debris from the space shuttle Columbia streaks across the Texas sky as seen from Dallas on Feb. 1, 2003. Jason Hutchinson/AP
During the reentry, as predicted, the damaged thermal shield allowed hot gases to penetrate the left wing, melting its internal structure. The wing started to disintegrate and after a few minutes, it completely broke off, causing the shuttle to spin violently and eventually break apart over northeast Texas, near Dallas. All seven astronauts perished in the accident.
In the chaotic minutes that preceded the disaster, NASA was receiving confusing data from the sensors placed around the ship, and after that, they lost communications with the crew. Mission control was still scrambling for answers when they received a phone call saying that a television network was showing a video of the shuttle breaking up in the sky.
This amazing shot of the STS-107 crew was on a roll of unprocessed film that was later recovered during searches of fallen Columbia debris. From left (bottom row) Kalpana Chawla, the mission commander Rick Husband, Laurel Clark, and from the Israeli Space Agency Ilan Ramon. From left (top row) David Brown, William McCool, and Michael Anderson.
The investigation board reporter
NASA recovered 82,000 pieces of debris from the disaster. In total 84,800 pounds or 38 percent of the dry weight of Columbia. Among the recovered materials were the remains of the seven astronauts, which were identified with DNA.
In the week that followed the disaster, The Columbia Accident Investigation Board released a multi-volume report on how the orbiter was lost and what led to it.
Besides the physical cause, CAIB produced a damning assessment of the culture at NASA that had led to the foam problem and other safety issues being minimized over the years.
“Cultural traits and organizational practices detrimental to safety were allowed to develop. Reliance on past success as a substitute for sound engineering practices and organizational barriers that prevented effective communication of critical safety information”
“The shuttle is now an aging system but still developmental in character. It is in the nation’s interest to replace the shuttle as soon as possible,” the report stated.
The orbiter Atlantis docked at the International Space Station. May 2010.
NASA kept the Space Shuttle program going until the completion of the International Space Station. The ISS was also viewed as a safe haven for astronauts to shelter in case of another malfunction.
The space shuttle program was retired in July 2011 after 135 missions, including the catastrophic failures of Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003.
Conclusion
It is not easy to criticize a program that is so emblematic. For more than 30 years the Space Shuttle was a matter of pride not only for Americans but for mankind. For me, it is impossible to look back in time and not picture it; if I bring the 1980s back in my memory, the first flight of Columbia will be there, side by side with Tears For Fears and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
But a cold analysis of the number will show a somber reality: a total of five orbiters were initially built: Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis. A fifth operational orbiter, Endeavour, was built in 1991 to replace Challenger, and when we consider that 2 ships were tragically lost, that’s a 40% vehicular failure rate and a flight failure of 1.5%. This would have grounded any other vehicle permanently.
Each Shuttle was designed for a life span of ten years. Keeping the ships flying for twenty years past the expiration date stifled creativity and innovation. The end of the program marks the end of the reusable spaceship dream, a sci-fi concept that engineers and designers have nourished since the 1950s.
In a very ironic turn of events, NASA brokered an agreement with the Russians to use the Soyuz spacecraft to ferry American astronauts to orbit until the private Space X rocket program became operational.
(1) – Boeing became the company responsible for providing engineering assistance for the program after the acquisition of Rockwell International, in 1996.
If memory serves me well, I shouldn’t be older than 14, I spent the weekend at my grandma’s home, and when I came back, my best friend told me that he and the gang went on a journey to the city’s abandoned racetrack, which had been, at this point, closed for several years. My friends had to cross a few neighborhoods and once there, they threw their bikes over the fence, jumped in, and then they rode a few laps on the track before leaving, afraid that someone had seen them and called the police. I was devastated. We had been planning this adventure for a while, and when they finally decided to go, I wasn’t there.
Little did I know that racetrack would be an integral part of my professional life in the future.
Before we move here, let me tell you where my hometown is. For the most part of my life, I lived in the town of Curitiba, in Parana state, located in Southern Brazil, a region predominantly populated by descendants of European immigrants. All those wonderful people who crossed the Atlantic pursuing a better life in South America naturally brought their traditions and their passion and among them was the love for speed.
The finest of the Brazilian auto industry at the time, a DKW leading the pack, followed by a Simca, and an Alfa Romeo.
Organized racing before and after the Great War, in Brazil, happened mostly on city streets or highways, from one town to the next and back. As the interest in auto racing kept growing, the authorities and the private sector saw a good business opportunity.
The birth of the track
The father of Curitiba’s racetrack was Flavio Chagas Lima; a businessman passionate about motorsports. In the 1950s he came up with the idea of a racetrack surrounded by a multi-sport complex that even included an artificial lake for aquatic activities. This mega arena would be built in one of his properties, located in the city of Pinhais, on the outskirts of Curitiba.
Finding investors for such a grandeur enterprise proved to be an impossible task, and Lima had to scale down his dreams, sticking with the racetrack only.
The construction began in 1965 and in 1967 it was done, or should I say almost done, since they ran out of money before paving the track.
The top pictures show the racetrack right after its inauguration, in 1967. The bottom left, a Formula-Ford race in 1970, and the bottom right is a touring car race in 1988. Picture courtesy: nobresdogrid.com.br
Oh well, who needs asphalt, right? Races were held at the new facility almost every weekend while the investors were scrambling for more money.
In 1968 a rich businessman driving a slightly modified 1958 Ford Galaxie won a race there, receiving the checkered flag ahead of some of the most powerful purpose-built cars in town. He was so happy with his victory that he decided to pay for the stone foundation of the track, making it ready to receive the asphalt.
The track was finally paved by 1969, and it started to receive competitors from all over the country. Unfortunately, the so-called first phase of the track was short-lived, Mr. Lima was a short-tempered guy, with a “It is my way or no way” attitude, and he didn’t take long before getting in trouble with the Brazilian Motorsports Association (Federacao Brasileira de Automobilismo). Lima was not happy having the FBA telling him how to conduct business and in a rampant outrage, he closed the track, 3 years after its inauguration.
The second chance
The circuit remained dormant for nearly 17 years until a consortium of a few investors and the government of Paraná signed an agreement for a 12-year concession. An initial sum of 2.5 million dollars was spent on renovations and in 1988, the racetrack reopened its gates to the public.
The facility was officially named after Raul Boesel (pictured above), a race driver who was born and raised in Curitiba. Boesel was a former F-One driver when he won the 1987 World Sportscar Championship.
During the 1990s, the Circuito Raul Boesel flourished with activities, even hosting events at the national level. The picture above shows the Carpizza – Chevy Opala during the 1993 edition of the 12 Hours of Curitiba.
Another businessman who got seriously involved with the racetrack was João Alexandre de Abreu, my ex-boss from the time when I worked for Powertech (check out the post: Best Job of My Life). In the early 1990s, he brought a team from the National Hot Rod Association to provide all the technical information for the construction of a concrete drag strip on the racetrack, right in front of the stands. It was also equipped with a state-of-the-art timing system and for many years it was the best drag strip in South America. Drag racing always brought the largest number of fans to the track, between 30,000 and 40,000 during the Festivals, in December. In the picture above, the Powertech top fuel #13 is going for its final match, during the Brazilian Drag Racing Festival, 2014.
The new administration never stopped improving the Circuit. In the early 2000s, it was homologated to host international events, like the World Touring Car Championship. (picture above). The track was renamed: Autodromo Internacional de Curitiba.
The South American Formula 3 Championship was a very popular attraction at the AIC.
The AIC was also the stage for some memorable races, like the one when the former F-One driver (and national treasure), Rubens Barrichello, won the 2014 Brazilian Stock Car title.
All good things come to an end.
The AIC became the second busiest racetrack in the country, only behind the iconic Interlagos, in São Paulo. The people responsible for the administration were truly passionate and they kept improving the facility, elevating it to the top 5 racetracks in South America.
But as early as 2010, the AIC started to face its biggest threat, urban development. Back in 1967, the city of Pinhais, where the track is located, was nothing more than a collection of small farms, but after more than 40 years the landscape of the region changed drastically. The farms were given away to residential neighborhoods and noise levels during the races became a nightmare for the local population.
The City of Pinhais and the AIC administration fought a fierce battle over the public disturbance. The authorities even threatened to take the case to court and shut down the facility for good, but in the end, money settled the dispute. Developers made an offer for the land that the owners just couldn’t refuse.
In December 2021, the AIC was officially closed and the demolition started a month later.
If speed is our religion, a racetrack is our temple. When a friend sent me the video above, I just couldn’t believe what was happening. My heart was crushed. There is even a story that a race fan placed himself in front of the machines that day, trying to stop the workers.
That is me, as happy as one can be, while working. This picture was taken at the Brazilian Southern Nats Meeting, held at the AIC, in 2015.
Yes, the AIC was my temple, but I didn’t go there just to worship, I had the privilege to be part of a team that worked in backstage. For me, it is still hard to grasp with idea that next time I go visit my hometown, the track won’t be there. I just hope the new homeowners living on that piece of land will be as happy as we were, during those magical years.
On the 2nd of December, 1988, the Orbiter Atlantis successfully took off from Kennedy Space Center at 09:30 EST, carrying a crew of five. The STS-27 mission was top-secret, one of those rare occasions when the Space Shuttle program was used for military purposes. Tucked inside the cargo bay was a surveillance satellite, commissioned by the US Department of Defense.
NASA launched Atlantis right on schedule, and the lift-off procedure was flawless. It was the second Space Shuttle flight after the loss of Challenger and tensions were very high.
The ship reached its orbit as planned but there was a minor hiccup during the deployment of the satellite and the crew had to perform a spacewalk to fix it. At the end of the day, the secret device was released and the current progress of the mission has been satisfactory.
On the third day in space, the crew received dreadful news from ground control; footage of the launching showed that a piece of the insulator from the right side solid rocket booster broke away and the debris damaged the fragile thermal protection of the orbiter. The crew used the camera installed on the robotic arm to assess the damages. They found out that one of the thermal titles was missing, and several others were damaged. To make matters worse, the arm couldn’t reach the area on the leading edge of the wings, the part of the orbit that experiences the most heat during reentry.
The crew sent the pictures taken by the robotic arm to NASA, but since this mission was highly classified, they had to use encrypted software and the images received had a very low resolution, making it impossible for the engineers to access the extent of the damages.
At this point, there was nothing thecrew or NASA could do other than pray. On December 6th, Atlantis started its journey back home, the reentry was initiated while the ship was flying over the Indian Ocean, as the Commander was aiming to land at Edwards Air Force Base.
To everyone’s relief, they made it through the atmosphere and safely landed at Edwards. When the technicians came to ship and inspected the damages, they were in disbelief, the level of breakage was way worse than what they were expecting. The fact that Atlantis didn’t burn during the reentry was nothing short of a miracle.
“Darn!!! I don’t think the insurance will cover this, guys!!! The crew of the STS-27 inspect the damaged heat shields.
Now that we know how close the mission STS-27 came to a disaster, we can only speculate that the loss a second orbiter in such a short period of time would have caused the termination of the entire program.
Even if you are not a movie aficionado, chances are that you have already heard the name Paul Newman.
Paul Leonard Newman was born in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, on January 26, 1925. According to his family, he showed talent for the stage as early as 10 years old.
The actor
During WWII, Newman served in the US Navy, as a radio operator, for 3 years, in the Pacific. He started to pursue an acting career right after the war but the stardom only came in the 1960s when he starred in movies like The Hustler-(1961), (pictured above), and Cool Hand Luke-(1967).
The movie Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid-(1969), in which he starred with Robert Redford, propelled him to the status of a superstar. Newman had already been nominated 10 times for an Oscar when he finally got one for best actor in The Color of Money (1986).
The philanthropist
Paul Newman was one of those rare Hollywood superstars that used his fame and fortune to do good. In 1982 he created a brand of salad dressing named Newman’s Own, which became a huge success all over North America. Over the years, the company expanded its product range with items such as pasta sauces, cookies, lemonade, and popcorn, resulting in a larger market share.
Since day one, Newman made a declaration that all profits generated would be donated to charitable causes. The mission continues today through Newman’s Own Foundation. In total, more than $600 million has been donated to good causes since 1982.
The race driver
“I’m not a very graceful person. I was a sloppy skier, a sloppy tennis player, a sloppy football player, and a sloppy dancer with anyone other than Joanne. The only thing I found grace in was racing a car.” – Paul Newman
In 1969, Newman was offered the leading role in the film Winning, directed by James Goldstone. The movie follows the story of a fictional race car driver named Frank Capua, as he strives to win the Indy 500.
Goldstone convinced Newman to attend the Watkins Glenn Racing School and learn how to properly drive a race car. Having the leading actor perform some stunts himself would greatly simplify things on the production set. Additionally, taking classes has also helped him to perform a more convincing “race driver” attitude in front of the cameras.
Paul Newman and Robert Wagner enjoy a break during the shooting of Winning, 1969.
Paul developed a passion for racing during the time he spent at Watkins Glenn. The movie was filmed in an authentic Indy 500 setting, and interacting with individuals such as Bobby Unser, Tony Hulman, and Dan Gurney strengthened his newfound interest in speed.
The SCCA experience
Newman’s debut as a professional race driver happened rather late in life, when he was 47 years old, at Thompson International Speedway, in 1972. In an attempt to avoid unwanted attention, he signed the entry form as P.L. Newman, a practice that he kept throughout his racing career.
It didn’t take long to show that he possessed the qualities necessary to become a champion. Newman won the 1976 Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) D-Production National Championship, at the wheel of a 1971 Triumph TR6. (picture above).
In 1979 Paul was invited to be part of the Bob Sharp Racing Team, establishing a long and successful partnership with Datsun/Nissan. In the same year, Driving a 280ZX, he dominated the season, winning races at Summit Point, Watkins Glen, Brainerd (Minn.), Lime Rock, and Road Atlanta, culminating in an SCCA National C-Production Championship.
Le Mans
Porsche was the dominant brand at the 1979 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans in the 1970s was a much less glamorous event than what it is nowadays. The global oil crisis forced some drastic rule changes, causing an exodus of the official factory teams and big sponsors.
The 1979 edition of the iconic race was no different. The grid was filled up with privateers and Porsche was the only works team, competing with the 936 prototype. The Germans were the favorite to win the race; the only challenge would come from the Ford-Cosworth-powered Mirage prototype.
But the biggest fuss that year was the presence of the Hollywood superstar Paul Newman. He joined the Dick Barbour Racing Team, sharing the driving duties with German Formula-One driver Rolf Stommelen and Dick Barbour himself. They qualified their IMSA class Porsche 935 in 16th position.
The race was a festival of breakdowns, all the Porsche 936s and the Mirages had to retire, most of them with mechanical problems, leaving the race to be decided among the lower classes.
The Kramer K3 Porsche #41, driven by Klaus Ludwig and Brothers Whittington won the race.
Followed by Dick Barbour Porsche #70, driven by Newman, Stommelen, and Barbour. Both cars experienced significant mechanical issues towards the end of the race, which nearly prevented them from crossing the finish line and receiving the checkered flag.
Finishing the 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans in second place was a major boost in Newman’s racing career.
The man ended the 1980s by winning two additional SCCA championships in 1985 and 1986, while driving a Nissan 300ZX.
The Indy/CART years
Mario Andretti at the wheel of the Newman-Haas Lola/Ford, in 1983.
Paul Newman started his enterprise in the F-Indy community in a unlikely way. In 1982 he received a call from Carl Haas, inviting him to be partner in a F-Indy team, which Newman refused up front. Besides being fierce competitors within the CanAm series, Haas was an occasional supplier of race car to Newman, who claimed they typically arrived late and overweight.
Carl Haas was a persuasive guy, he told Newman the team was pretty much good to go. The man was the official distributor of Lola race cars for North America and as such he had secured the brand’s come back to F-Indy and also a contract with Ford as the engine supplier. Newman was still not convinced but when Haas told him that Mario Andretti would be the team’s driver, he finally changed his mind. For anyone with little knowledge in motorsports, Andretti needs no introduction, an extremely talented and versatile driver, also know for being a real team player, always committed to make things work properly.
The Newman-Haas Racing was officially born in October 1982, with high hopes for the next year season. But things were happening too fast, Lola assumed the team’s debut would be 1984, giving them a whole year to develop the car. With a such short notice, the Brits delivered a less than impressive car for the 1983 season.
Paul Newman, Lola’s manager Nigel Bennett, Mario Andretti, and engineer Tony Cicale.
Thanks to Andretti’s experience and the determination of the technicians, the Lola-Ford T700 was entirely revised and greatly improved, becoming a real contender. The result for all that hard work came with Mario finishing the season in third. Not bad for a rookie team with a car that was rushed into development.
The gorgeous Lola-Ford T800
In 1984 Andretti dominated the season with six wins, nine poles and scored a total of 10 top-ten finishes to win Newman/Haas’s first CART season championship. (picture above)
Another superstar that was part of the Newman-Haas history was Nigel Mansell. The British driver became the 1992 Formula One World Champion, driving for Williams. Thanks to a disagreement with the team’s management, he not only quit Williams but the F-One circus all together. He packed his things and crossed the Atlantic to become the number one driver at Newman-Haas team.
Paul Newman and Nigel Mansell.
Mansell took the F-Indy by storm. In his debut season, 1993, he won five races, scoring the championship and also the title Rookie of the Year. His aggressive driving style conquered hearts and minds of the American fans.
Thanks to a coincidence in the calendar, Mansell was the only race driver in history to hold both world titles at the same time, F-One and F-Indy, even of it was for only 3 weeks.
Brazilian driver Cristiano da Matta celebrates after winning the 2002 driver’s title for Newman-Haas.
Newman/Haas became one of the most successful teams in Indy/CART history, clinching 107 race victories, 109 pole-positions, and 8 driver’s championships, between 1983 and 2011.
The final years
Certainly the job as team’s owner/manager kept Paul busy but he always found time to step into a race car and hit the track.
In 1995, Paramount Pictures sponsored Paul Newman in the 24 Hours of Daytona, driving a GTS-1 class Mustang prepared by Roush. Literally showing to the world that age is just a number, his car carried the # 70 in honor of his age. Newman managed to win his class and finish 5thoverall, becoming the oldest driver ever to be part of a winning team in a major sanctioned race.
Newman went back to the Daytona once more in 2006, driving a Crawford-Ford prototype. Following his personal tradition since 1995, the car received the #79, reflecting his age at the time. The Crawford belonged to Newman-Haas but it received sponsorship by the Disney Pixar animated film “Cars”.
Paul provided his voice for the character Doc Hudson, a retired anthropomorphic race car in the first movie of the franchise (2006). This was his final role in a major feature film, as well as his only animated film role.
In June 2008, Newman made public that he was diagnosed with lung cancer and was receiving treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, in New York. He was a heavy cigarette smoker until he quit in 1986. Paul Newman died at his home in Westport, Connecticut on the morning of September 23, 2008. He was 83 years old.
Newman’s racing career was greater than what I wrote here, but if I wanted to tell every detail of it, I should have written a book instead.
The guy lived his life to the fullest but he always considered himself a common man. The title of his memoir reflects exactly that: The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man. I haven’t read the book yet, but it is on my list.
I would like to finish this article on a lighter note, telling a couple of interesting stories involving Newman.
The Hot Rod Volvo
Paul Newman developed a curious interest in souped up Volvo station wagons. He owned more than a couple of those and at some point, he even convinced his pal, the famous TV host and notorious car guy, David Letterman to order one. Here it is the story, told by the man himself, David Letterman.
“One day Paul called me at home with an interesting offer“.
“Dave? I’ve got a deal from a guy in Maine,”
“It’s a custom Volvo 960 station wagon, OK? But it’s different. He’s going to take a small-block Ford V-8 racing engine, strip out the transmission and suspension, then supercharge it. My guy’s gonna make it for me. Would you like one?”
David Letterman was stunned, but in a split of second the car guy took over the sensible guy.
“Well yeah, Paul,” “Wouldn’t we all?”
“Supercharge the Volvo. Swedish safety be damned! Go nuts!”
“So, Paul eventually brings the car over, drops it off and this is the kind of car that people would stare at streetlights,” Letterman told his TV audience after Newman’s death in 2008. “It was like an atomic furnace under the hood. I used to love driving it. It would go 170 miles per hour (270 km/h) and underneath the exhaust system would glow bright orange.”
Then one day Letterman was in the Volvo on a New York Interstate with his girlfriend when she asked: “What’s that smell?”
Letterman turned to her and said, “Raw power and speed, baby.”
Wrong. The Volvo was on fire.
“We had to pull over, the car was shooting flames everywhere. It couldn’t handle the power,”
“I call Paul and say ‘ . . . Everything is on fire.’ But, wow, what a car!”
The most expensive Rolex in the world
In 1972, Joanne Woodward was seeking a present for her husband, and in a New York ‘Tiffany’ store she purchased a Rolex Daytona Chronograph, model 6239, for about $300.
She had the case back engraved with the words ‘Drive Carefully, Me’. A thoughtful gift indeed.
Newman really loved his Rolex, and he wore it daily, as hundreds of pictures taken through the 1970s and 80s can prove. But one day, in a burst of generosity, he gave his beloved watch away.
The year was 1984 and Nell, one of Newman’s daughters, was dating James Cox, a high school classmate. During the summer of that year, Paul hired Cox to rebuild a treehouse in the family’s property. One day Cox arrived a little late to work and Newman asked him – “What time is it?”, which the guy answered – “I don’t have a watch, I don’t know what time it is.” Paul unstrapped his Rolex and handed it to Cox. “If you remember to wind this, it tells pretty good time.”
No doubt it was a very generous act, not only because it was a Rolex, but because it was a gift from his wife, a gift that he loved very much. Perhaps Paul had the feeling that Cox would, eventually, became his son-in-law.
James and Nell broke up a few years latter but they remained good friends ever after. As for the Rolex, he kept it like a treasure, until 2017 when he decided to sell it.
Nell Newman and James Cox, in 2017.
It took less than 12 min for the iconic time piece to fetch the mind blowing sum of $17.8 million, setting a new record for the highest price ever achieved for a wristwatch at auction. As one would expect, a good portion of the money went to charity, through the Nell Newman Foundation.
This passion that we, gearheads, nurture for cars and motorcycles is, in most cases, a shallow one. Besides the cheap thrills of speed and the idea that by saving old cars from the junkyard we are preserving history, there are not a lot of good deeds in this hobby.
But every once in a while we stumble upon a story of selfless people at the wheel of powerful cars, on a mission to help others in need.
This story that I found on Demaras.com has all the ingredients of an amazing action movie, a fearless special ops soldier driving a Camaro that looks like it came straight from the Mad Max movie set, and a bloody war in the background. This is the proof that real life can be much more spectacular than fiction.
It was unusually cold on the morning of January 28, 1986, and orbiter Challenger had spent the overnight on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The first thing the engineers noticed that morning was ice crystals around the ship and the equipment. That was not a good sign.
The ship was (supposedly) ready for the 25th mission of the STS program. The purpose of the flight was to deploy a communication satellite and also to study Halley’s comet. At 11:39 EST, the orbiter took off, carrying a crew of seven, and among them one civilian, Christa McAuliffe, a school teacher from Concord, New Hampshire. After 73 seconds on its flight, a malfunction in one of the solid rocket boosters caused an explosion, disintegrating the whole craft. None of the crew members survived.
A Teacher among the astronauts
In 1985 NASA created a project called Teacher in Space, hoping that sending a teacher into orbit would increase public interest in the program, and also reassure the reliability of space flight at a time when the agency was under continuous pressure to keep its financial support. President Reagan said it would also remind Americans of the important role that teachers and education serve in their country.
McAuliffe was chosen among 11,000 applicants; she went through proper training and received the title of Payload Specialist. She was 37 years old when boarded the Challenger on that fateful morning.
The “O’ring” problem.
The two Solid Rocket Booster provided most of the thrust necessary to send the shuttle into orbit. Each one of them is a massive piece of equipment, with 45.46 m (149.16 ft) in height and 3.71 m (12.17 ft) in diameter.
The boosters were built in four segments at Morton Thiokol Company and then shipped to Cape Canaveral; once there, NASA would put them together and attach them to ship. Each segment is sealed with two O-rings, one primary and one backup, and since the beginning of the program, those O’rings proved problematic. Under extreme pressure, the seals would extrude from their seats rather than compressed. The Thiokol engineers warned NASA that the O’rings and their seats needed improvement but the agency always judged the matter was within acceptable safety parameters.
Many problems plagued the orbiters up to this point in the program’s development and perhaps, the O’ring issue was one of the easiest to be fixed.
The magnificent Challenger, at the launch pad, waiting for the countdown. NASA had the chance to postpone the mission, saving the lives of the crew members, but they decided to go ahead.
The morning of the Challenger launch was bitter cold, it had reached -8°C (18° F) overnight, and around 9 o’clock it was -3°C (26° F), a record low for a Space Shuttle launch. The Thiokol engineers expressed their concern that the cold weather could have harden the already problematic rubber seals, diminishing even further their capacity. Thiokol was in favor to postpone the launch, but NASA insisted to go on. After a brief phone call between the two parties, the engineers changed their opinion and gave NASA the green light for launch.
One booster breaks free and escapes the explosion, continuing its unguided flight.
As predicted, at the takeoff, one of the O’rings failed, on the right side booster, causing hot gas and flames to travel through the joint section. After 73 seconds into the flight, the ship exploded.
A televised catastrophe
The decision to take a civilian into space sparked a higher-than-usual interest among the population and the media around the world. The disaster was seen live by millions of people. I saw the video of the explosion later that day, at the evening news, and even after 37 years, I still remember the gut-wrenching feeling of it and how hard was accepting that a NASA’s space ship had been lost.
President Ronald Regan had been scheduled to give his 1986 State of the Union Address on January 28, 1986, the evening of the disaster. Some people believe that NASA was under pressure not to postpone the mission because Regan wanted to talk about it in his speech. Needless to say, the President canceled his discourse and he addressed the nation about the disaster instead.
The aftermath
NASA spent months recovering pieces of the wreckage from the ocean floor and also human remains of the seven astronauts. A series of investigations and safety commissions were launched. The government put the Space Shuttle program on ice for 32 months.
The result of the investigation just made official something NASA and Thiokol knew all along, the faultyO’rings were the culprit of the explosion.
The agency finally allowed the engineers to address the issue; the joints and the gaskets on the booster were redesigned and greatly improved.
The world always regarded NASA as the zenith of engineering, we always admired them as the most capable and efficient professionals on the planet. For me, and I believe for many others around the world, it is hard to believe that NASA allowed money and politics to interfere in the agency’s affairs.
The picture above shows the Space Shuttle Challenger Memorial, right after a wreath laying ceremony that was part of NASA’s Day of Remembrance, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012, at Arlington National Cemetery.
It was tragic that seven people had to die in order to get such a simple issue fixed. In the years that followed the accident there was lot of blaming going around but no criminal charges were ever filed.
As one would expect, the Teacher in Space program was canceled after the disaster.
The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, in Mount Hope, Ontario, is one of my favorite places in Canada. They have an impressive collection of vintage warbids, and one of the only two flyworthy WWII Avro Lancaster in the world.
Every summer the museum hosts the Vintage Wheels and Wings, an amazing show where the visitors can cherish a gathering of classic cars and airplanes at the same time.
The 2023 edition of the show happened on Sunday, July 16th and the TCM crew (my wife Estela and I) went there to check it out.
The meeting starts at the parking lot, with some interesting cars that didn’t make the pre registration, like this 1973 Brazilian built Chevrolet Opala. The car belongs to Bruno “Chumbinho”, a Brazilian gearhead that moved to Canada in 2019 and the idea of leaving his classic Chevy behind never crossed his mind. You can check more about the car in his You Tube channel: https://youtube.com/@OpalaInCanada
Another cool car at the parking lot was this super wicked Buick GN.
It was an overcast Sunday morning, with chance of rain but fortunately it didn’t happen. We took quite a few pictures and also made a short video. I hope you will enjoy it.
1968 Pro Touring Camaro
With the prices of a vintage VW Bus reaching the Stratosphere now a days, some people are improvising. This guy converted a Japanese micro van (I couldn’t figured out the brand) into a VW Bus look alike. The job was well done and the tiny van looks awfully cute.
FIAT Bertone X1/9Me: “I am gonna wait for the people to leave to Cobra alone, so I can take a good pic”. Estela: “Good luck with that!”A Coyote powered 1972 Torino1967 Shelby Mustang1967 ThunderbirdThe next generation of gearheads.Willys was a bit pretentious when they named the Jeep engine.1964 Mercury MarauderThe interior of the Mercury Marauder.Canadair CF-5McDonell CF-101 VoodooThe cabin of a de Havilland DHC-5 Buffalo1967 Austin-Healey 3000That little fella on the left was genuinely excited with the Oldsmobile. He went “wooooow“when he saw the car.
The Classic Machines 