New Gas Cans For 2011 In The Sprint Cup Series

Gone from the 2011 Nascar Sprint Cup series is the catch can man, and in are new ventilated fuel filler cans that will hold the new E15 ethanol based gas that the Sprint Cup drivers will be using to power their cup cars for the new season.

This is where things are going to get interesting.In the past the job of the catch can man was not only to catch the gas coming out of the car when the tank was full,but also to adjust the right height of the rear of the car as it pitted,if adjustments needed to be made.

In the past the gas guy was always done fueling the car before the tire changers were done with their job, but with the new ventilated gas can it has many more parts to it that is hard to line up correctly slowing down the gas guys job,so now the tire changers are going to be done while the car is still getting fueled up,and if that isn’t enough to turn things around in the past the team would weight what was left in the gas can and also what was in the catch can to determine how much gas actually made it into the tank of the car.With the new can you pretty much are going to have the can to deal with.

It’s going to be very interesting during the Daytona 500,to see how these pit stops play out and what crew member will be making the the adjustments to the rear of the car. From what I can see the gas guy it going to play a huge roll in determining how long the pit stop is and also if all of the fuel actually made in into the tank.

With the new gas can theres a clear tube that shows the gas guy when the system is fill by letting out a burp and splashing gas up into the clear tube.Now here’s the tricky part if you’re the gas guy do you burp the car once or twice.

Man these guys are going to be under some pressure. I’m not sure if I’d sleep the night before the Daytona 500 if I played that role.

Image Borrowed from www.nascar.com

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Ormond Beach Florida "The Birthplace of Speed"

Many people recognize the salt flats in Utah as the place where land speed records are held, but what a lot of people don't know is that this all started in 1902 on Ormond Beach in Fl.

In 1902 many daredevils figured out that Ormond Beach was the perfect place to go fast and to break land speed records. It was long and flat and in the beginning there was plenty of room to go 127 miles an hour. They started over in Ormond Beach and as the times got faster they used Daytona Beach as the shut down area.

When a driver was scheduled to make an attempt at the record the Daytona Beach fire station (which still stands) located on the corner of Beach Street and Orange Ave. would blow it's siren to alert spectators, police, National Guard and the Halifax Medical Center that the race was about to take place. People would be let out of work and children were also let out of school to witness the event (can you imagine?).

All of this went on until Britain’s famed driver Sir Malcolm Campbell showed up at Daytona Beach. He was known for breaking many land speed records on the beaches of England. He set three consecutive land speed records on Daytona Beach. In 1932 he went 253.968 mph, 1933 272.465 mph, and on his last attempt in 1935 he broke 276.465 mph.

On the last attempt he realized in order to make a run at 300 mph he needed a larger area because he went under the Daytona pier at 276! If you have ever driven the family car under that pier at 10 MPH there's not much room.

On September 3, 1935, Sir Malcolm Campbell set a new record of 301.129 mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats of Utah.

Pictures Borrowed from:

http://www.birthplaceofspeed2006.com/

http://www.floridamemory.com

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Remembering Dale Earnhardt

We're about a month out from the start of the 53rd annual Daytona 500. With every year that passes and when the green flag drops during the Daytona 500, you can't help but think of Dale Earnhardt Sr. and what he meant to the sport.

I've been to the Daytona 500 many times myself and was fortunate enough to have been at the 1998 Daytona 500 with friends and family when Dale Earnhardt Sr. won. If you weren't a Dale Earnhardt fan,on that day you were.

When Dale crossed the finish line and finally clinched his Daytona 500 win, the grandstands absolutely exploded. Looking back on it now I wish I could rewind time to enjoy it for one last moment.

After Dales passing you heard so many stories of how he helped people in the community,including donating money to his church so that they could repave the parking lot. He often told the people that he had helped not to mention it to anyone or he'll undo what he did (lol), but that is one of the things that made Dale Earnhardt Sr. one of a kind, he was a working mans hero and a great guy for the sport.

Here's a pretty cool video I found on YouTube


Picture borrowed from:http://www.nascar.com

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The Great Race from New York To Paris in 1908

The Great Race from New York To Paris in 1908 was a publicity stunt dreamed up by the New York Times. In 1908 6 cars left Times Square in New York city at a whopping 35 MPH heading to Paris from NY. Back in 1908 there were not to many cars and there were no roads as we have today, so these six cars drove through conditions beyond extreme.

The cars were bound for Alaska but when they got there the travel was impossible due to deep snow and melting rivers.With this obstacle in the way the cars were shipped back to Seattle,and them shipped to Japan to continue the race.

On July 30th the Thomas Flyer had reached Paris,but one of the guards would not let them into the country without a working headlight. One light worked on the car but the other was broken.A guy on a bicycle passing by heard the commotion and gave the driver his bicycle that had a headlight on it.They strapped the whole bike to the hood of the car and continued on.

With two cars left in the race barreling towards the finish line, the Protos had crossed the finish line first but received a 1 month penalty for taking short cuts and skipping Alaska and Japan.

So the Thomas Flyer was declared the winner of the Great Race.

photo borrowed from the New York Times

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Tucker:The Man and His Dream

If your a car nut and enjoy a good movie,and if you still haven't seen it Tucker:The Man and His Dream, is a great one to watch.

The movie is about the life of Preston Tucker, and a dream to build an automobile that was way ahead of it's time that the average person could afford.The cars were to be built with features such as a rear engine,disk brakes,a water cooled aluminum block,seat belts,and a third headlight that turned in the direction of the car enabling you to see better at night.

This movie really hits on ideas and inventions that came from Mr. Tucker. The demise of the company was reached when the Tucker corporation started taking preorders for accessories and vehicles to be built,which is common practice among manufacturers today.

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TV Tommy IVO's Four Engine Dragster

This was the car that hooked me on racing. I remembered my father coming home one night from the auto body shop and saying to me "Let's go to the dragstrip, the four engine dragster is up". I was about 7 years old and the wheel standers and jet cars were also running that night.So may dad loaded me up is the car and off to the track we went.

 Back in those days (this was the late 70's)it was a night of watching Shirley Muldowney,Don Garlets,Bill Mavericks "Little Red Wagon", the Blue Max funny car, Jungle Jim and countless others run that night. When the  four engine dragster came up to the line and the tree counted down this thing was a quarter mile of tire frying smoke for 1320 feet. It was loud and it was awesome. As a 7 year old kid it was one of the coolest things I'd ever seen.

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Need help replacing the exhaust manifold on your Jeep

If you would like to try to tackle some repairs in your driveway,automotive forums for your vehicle are a great place to research what you might be getting into.

Jeepforum.com has a large member base and offers some great how-to articles and advice from experienced Jeep enthusiasts. These guys eat,work and sleep Jeeps. There are articles on how to fabricate your own bumpers and articles such as this Jeep Exhaust Manifold Repair article that really show you what to expect when diving into a repair project such as this one.

The majority of automotive forums are free to join and you can usually find an answer to your question pretty quickly.

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