Brandon has Gone Bonkers 2 – East Coast VW & Nissan
Hungary’s Charming Microcars – And Their Secret Sauce: The Motorcycle Engine!
By Maureen Condon
Hungary’s Microcars on Parade
If you love cars and you like history, I’ve got a treasure for you!
It’s a tale of a country determined to manufacture its own cars, despite being occupied by an aggressor with other ideas.
It’s a photo essay about the Hungarian government of the early 20th Century and its auto designers bucking the Soviet Union’s rules and regulations and building their own unique vehicles: Microcars – tiny cars with motorcycle engines!
Here’s an excerpt from the story:
“Caving to government pressure, the Soviet Union’s slave countries set up an economical alliance in 1949. This new organisation, called COMECON, decided which country had the right to manufacture certain types of goods (from boats to airplanes, from mills to refrigerators, and so on). Hungary was the only country not allowed to produce passenger cars. … In the early 1950s, the Hungarian government tried to circumvent the rules and came up with the idea of producing a “microcar”—a vehicle that sits between a normal family car and a motorcycle. The idea was not new: in Western Europe, bubble cars like the Iso Isetta and the Messerschmitt Kabinroller were becoming fashionable.”
“The Hungarian project laid out the criteria for the microcar: a closed, four-wheeled vehicle, powered by a motorcycle engine, capable of transporting two adults, two children, and some luggage.”
This was a tall order for a small car!
They used what they could get their hands on:
Excerpt:
“In the meantime, an Italian Isetta arrived for inspection, followed by a Messerschmitt Kabinroller.”
Messerschmitt Kabinroller
“The thorough study of the two foreign cars, along with their own ideas, led to two unusual microcars in 1955: Horváth’s Alba Regia—named after Székesfehérvár’s designation in Ancient Rome—and Zappel’s Balaton, named after Hungary’s best-known lake….
Both cars had aluminum bodies, airplane tail wheels, and 250-cc Pannonia motorbike engines.”
The Balaton
These designers really pulled it off.
Microcar by Endre Suranyi
Here’s another excerpt:
“One of the most colorful figures of the era was Endre Surányi, a motorbike racer in the ‘40s and ‘50s, who went on to become a driver for Communist party leaders. In 1946, he completed his first microcar, a 50-cc two-seater, a “motorized shoe”. It was rather underpowered, so he quickly created another, bigger model, powered by a 125-cc Fichtel & Sachs engine. The car, which had a length of 2.3 meters (7.5′), weighed only 86 kg (190 lb). The engine was placed right into the rear axle . No one believed it would work, but it did, although the ride was a bit shaky. A few Communist Party leaders took the car for a spin, but nothing came of it.”
“The Pajtás (“Buddy”)—with its quirky shape was enough to attract attention from Popular Mechanics, which featured the car in 1960.”
The Pajtas (Buddy)
To read more about this intriguing history, visit:
http://jalopnik.com/5563048/the-weirdly-awesome-microcars-of-hungary?skyline=true&s=i
This Man’s Car is His Sand Castle!
Photo Credit: SantiMB
This car comes with a 100,000 mile, 10-year warranty, or it’s good until the next tide – whichever comes in first.
New High Tech Speed Traps Are Starting to Bring Home the Bacon for Cities and States!
Hand Held Radar – Not Up-to-Speed, Technologically Speaking.
The highway traffic patrol officer standing by the roadside with his hand-held Radar gun may be a little passé.
New, inconspicuous high tech speed traps that use: rolling radar, infrared lasers, helicopters, small planes, and/or photo and video technology are all allowing law officers nationwide to get a better bead on speeding drivers.
And when police can track speeders more accurately, they can ticket them more efficiently. More speeding tickets =more income for states and cities. And in these tough economic times, that is just what the state and city budget doctor ordered.
Rolling Radar
Hand-held radar is being replaced with police car-mounted “rolling radar” systems. These systems can be aimed across the highway median at multiple lanes of oncoming traffic, and they measure the closing speed of a given target, and subtract the speed of the police officer’s own car.
If the resulting number shows the speeding driver is well over the speed limit, the officer will cross the median and hit the siren. There’s no visual warning for the speeding driver. No cars in front of him or her hitting their brake lights, as they spot a stopped squad car behind an embankment.
Aerial Tracking Units
A number of police agencies around the country are employing small airplane and helicopter pilots to spot speeders, easily picking out the fastest offenders, and tracking with a stop watch the time it takes these drivers to cross a given set of lines in the road.
Lidar – Light Detection and Ranging Gun
Another newer technology – using laser-based systems — is becoming cheaper and more popular every year. Instead of firing a wide beam across two or three lanes of traffic, a lidar (light detection and ranging gun) hits an individual target with an infrared laser beam one meter wide or thinner, even pinpointing a vehicle as it weaves through heavy traffic.
Laser Technology Inc., a leading lidar gun maker based in Colorado, has released TruCam, which also captures video as it tracks targets. This provides police officers with legal evidence, showing exactly which vehicle was in the gun’s sights, and how fast it was traveling. This system is so accurate, it can track the distance between two cars, allowing officers to issue violations for tailgating, a major cause of serious accidents.
Speed Cameras Snap Up Your License Plate
New stationary speed cameras, mounted inconspicuously, automatically detect an offending vehicle with lidar or radar and snap a photo of its license plate. They are in use in select counties in more than a dozen states. In Lafayette, LA, speed cameras have already issued 114,748 speed violations in less than a year and a half.
So, the next time you’re seriously tempted to exercise your lead foot, remember, Big Brother may be watching you with new and improved eyes!
To read the full article in MSN, visit:
http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1103495&icid=autos_073>1=22013
Cool Cars for a Hot Summer’s Day
Don’t Try This At Home!
It’s really hot and you are looking for a new way to cool off. These people decided to take their car for a swim.
The following mostly fall into the category of “Don’t try this at home” – but you can cool your jets just looking at them:
Park it on Ice!
These people are hoping the ice doesn’t melt and they won’t have to take their car for a swim.
Put the wind in your hair!
You got it. This flyer decided to go airborne to cool off!
The Chicken drove this car to the KFC Drive-Through, and got an extra large lemonade. Cool!
Silvery Sunsets
If you really can’t stand all this excitement, you can cool off at the end of the day by catching the sunset at the beach, in this silver beauty.
Driving Home the “Go Green” Message
Here’s a car that gives a whole new meaning to Going Green.
They say that moss never grows on a rolling stone, but what about on a rolling automobile?
In this case, it’s pretty clear: while money doesn’t grow on trees, moss — or is that grass? — does seem to grow on wheels!
Tips for Improving Miles Per Gallon for Your Truck
There’s an abundance of good advice for car owners for getting better mileage, saving on fuel costs and cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions.
Now, let’s give equal time to the owners of trucks.
Sports Truck Magazine has an excellent article that gets down to the nitty gritty on how to improve mileage – naming specific products, such as performance intake and exhaust systems, fuel catalysts, engine programmers and more.
A good tire gauge will help you maintain the right pressure for your tires,
and that helps you get better mileage.
To get all the details, visit:
http://www.sporttruck.com/techarticles/0810st_how_to_increase_gas_mileage/index.html
Of course, you can usually improve your gas mileage by buying a new truck.
Here’s a listing of the top 10 Most Fuel Efficient Trucks for 2010, according to Vehix.com:
http://www.vehix.com/articles/green/most-fuel-efficient-trucks-for-2010/
Edmunds.com also has its list of the top 10 most fuel efficient trucks for 2010:
http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/list/top10/163566/article.html
The 2010 Ford Ranger tops both lists!
Mighty Utah! Best Kept Secret for a Fly/Drive Vacation!
By Maureen Condon
Bryce Canyon – one of its many amphitheaters full of hoodoos
Surreal National Parks, rugged and delicate rock formations, caves and waterfalls – all will have you raving about Utah for months after your trip.
And, with a nod to the mundane, you’ll rave about Utah’s lodging prices. For under $100 per night, you can stay at some very comfortable motels adjacent to the national parks.
Here’s a sample itinerary for a trip to 4 national parks/monuments, and the scenic highways that link them. I recently took 7 days to do this trip with three friends from college.
Fly in to Salt Lake City. You’ll see breathtaking views of the Great Salt Lake – with vast stretches of white water that look, from a distance, like snow covered frozen bays edging a massive blue gem.
Great Salt Lake
The Great Salt Lake is the largest U.S. lake west of the Mississippi and the 4th largest terminal lake in the world. 75 miles long by 28 miles wide, it covers 1,700 square miles, with a maximum depth of 35 feet. The Lake is actually three to five times saltier than the ocean, and each year the salt industry extracts about 2.5 million tons of sodium chloride and other elements from the lake.
Drive south from Salt Lake City, to the Timpanogos Caves located on Utah Route 92. The 3 ½ mile round trip hike up Timpanogos Mountain to the caves, through the caves and back down again is a real cliff hanger — not for the people who get vertigo looking off the edge of a switchback. Elevation gain for the hike is 1,100 feet, and your starting elevation is 5,000+.
A Park Ranger guides visitors through Timpanogos Caves
However, the path is paved and wide enough for two, and if friends are patient, as mine were, even someone with a moderate fear of heights can make the trip. The cave and the views on the way up and down are worth the effort. You can see a video of what it’s like here: http://www.utah.com/nationalsites/timp_cave.htm
Now, catch your breath, and drive south on Highways 89 and 24 to Capitol Reef National Park http://www.nps.gov/care/index.htm
Beware of animals on the winding highways! We had to stop the car and wait while two bulls fought head to head in the middle of the road. Later that evening, we slowed multiple times for deer crossing the road. It kept the drive interesting.
Capitol Reef National Park boasts “The Waterpocket Fold,” a 100-mile long wrinkle in the earth’s crust known as a monocline, which extends from Thousand Lakes Mountain to the Colorado River’s Lake Powell. The park derives its name from the domes which look like Capitol Domes and the sheer cliffs which resemble ocean reefs. Photographs can’t do it justice, because the colors are intriguingly subtle and the scope of the rift and valley so large.
Capitol Reef Waterpocket Fold
But, this is just an appetizer for the next course in rock eye-candy.
Travel down Highway 12 and pass by magical landscapes that you think should be part of the national parks. As beautiful as these are, nothing on earth prepares you for Bryce Canyon and its amphitheaters of Hoodoos – delicately shaped rock sentries, by the thousands, standing guard over the secrets of time. Water and frost have carved this wonder, not the wind. Bryce Canyon’s hoodoos range in size from that of an average human to heights exceeding a 10-story building.
Hoodoos in Bryce Canyon
Bryce Canyon is one of the smallest national parks, but by far the most haunting. http://www.nps.gov/brca/index.htm Its 56.2 square miles occupy the eastern edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. It contains more than a dozen amphitheaters, each of which is carved at least 1,000 feet into the chromatic limestone. Looking down on its splendor, you can see why the early pioneers called it “Temple of the Gods.”
One of many trails into Bryce Canyon
There are only a few “easy” trails into this wonderland, and almost a dozen moderate and strenuous ones. Chose carefully. At elevations ranging from 8000+ to 11,000+ you don’t need to be dizzy from exertion. You can find a description of each trail at this site: http://www.nps.gov/brca/planyourvisit/hiking.htm
Archway to wonderland
Now, switch gears and drive from the delicate to the rugged down Highways 12, 89 and 9 and descend into the valley of the Virgin River, which has carved out mighty Zion National Park over the past millions of years.
Zion Canyon
Rugged, craggy, massive towers dominate — 1,000 feet straight up above the road through the canyon. They make everyone feel petite. It’s a totally different experience from Bryce Canyon.
http://www.nps.gov/zion/index.htm
The riverwalk is the most famous and easiest trek – 2 miles round trip – through a small section of Zion. We did it in 100 degree dry heat. The cool part is that you can wade through the Virgin River Narrows near the end of the trail and even jump in and swim in spots.
The Virgin River Narrows
You can also catch a horseback ride – for an hour or a half day. The most fun here was fording the Virgin River on horseback.
Zion National Park
We left the majestic beauty of Zion with reluctance, but the drive on Highway 15 back to Salt Lake City was – though not labeled scenic – also beautiful.
I’ve traveled through 36 of the 50 states – I’ve yet to explore the Northwest and Alaska. Utah gets my vote for the most spectacularly beautiful state I’ve seen so far – and this itinerary doesn’t even include the Moab region with Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Natural Bridges National Monument, and Dead Horse Point State Park, all of which I visited 2 years ago and heartily recommend.
For a map of Utah, visit:
http://www.utah.com/maps/utahhighwaymap/
Wayne’s World Movie Icon – “The Spindle” – is Now Just a Memory
By Maureen Condon
“The Spindle”
If you recall the wacky “Wayne’s World” movie from 1992, you’ll likely remember “The Spindle” – cars on a skewer.
The Spindle was created and installed in 1989 by Dustin Shuler at Cermak Plaza, in Berwin, IL. This work of art was commissioned by the Cermak Plaza shopping center owner, David Bermant, who donated his BMW to be placed second from the top of the sculpture.
When it was demolished, after much local protest, it was placed on E-Bay, with a minimum $50,000 bid. But nobody wanted it. I can’t understand why. I like it! It’s eye-catching.
The 1967 Volkswagen Beetle at the top and the 1976 BMW immediately below it were saved. Sadly, the other cars and the spindle itself were put in a dumpster.
I guess some art just isn’t meant to be immortal. Darn!
East Coast Auto Mall 