These look 3-d to me.. does the airbrushed red areas look like they are layered over the black engine bay?

Tere ( Justakargal ) took these, and for her full gallery see http://justakargal.blogspot.com/

America's Sports Car: Corvette or Tesla

With the Independence Day holiday fresh in our minds, and our nation focused on the troubled and changing economic times, I thought it would be interesting to re-examine what we should consider to be America's sports car. Usually the Chevrolet Corvette immediately comes to mind when thinking of the quintessential American sports car.

Ever since the mid 1950's, the Corvette has symbolized what a classic American sports car should be. A two seater with a big engine up front, able to spin the rear wheels with just a foot on the floor. The Corvette has really come of age recently with the current Z06 model, and the introduction of the 200+ mph ZR1. These cars are lightweight and technically advanced, and worthy of the America's sports car crown.

But let's take a step back, and focus on the changing climate in America. With the auto industry in peril, and the world's focus shifting to more eco-friendly autos, perhaps there is another car to consider. A car from a new company that is working to become a new major player in America, and the world. Tesla Motors has emerged onto the automotive world scene with their Tesla Roadster, an all electric sports car that sprints to 60 mph in just 4.4 seconds.

The Tesla is an electric car based on the Lotus Elise, but with an electric motor. The Tesla is six times more efficient than the average sports car while producing only 10% of the pollution. Tesla Motors is based in California, and is starting to open dealerships all around the US, and the world. At $109,000 the Tesla is not cheap, but you won't need to buy any gas or oil to maintain the roadster. Besides, the Corvette ZR1 also will set you back about $100,000, and is much less efficient.

The next release from Tesla, the Model S is going to have all of the performance of the roadster, but it will be a more useable four seat luxury all electric car. Tesla is already taking orders for the Model S so we are just a couple of years away from perhaps the most revolutionary American car debut since the Chrysler minivan.

If the Model S is well received, and America (and the world) embraces the new technology by installing charging stations along our nations highways, it may just change the way we think about cars. Being a sports car guy, I have always been leery of new hybrid and energy efficient alternative forms of transportation. I was always worried that they would take the fun out of driving. After having been in the Tesla Roadster, I no longer fear the new technology. It is truly an amazingly fast car, and it makes absolutely no noise when underway.

The Tesla Model S is going to sell for around $50,000 after the federal tax credit of $7500. That's pretty much the same as your average high line luxury sedan. The standard Model S will reach 60 miles per hour in just 6 seconds, while an optional sport version will achieve 60 mph in under 5 seconds. The top speed for the Model S is 130 mph. The Model S costs around $5 to drive 230 miles.

If the Model S is constructed as well as the Tesla Roadster, and has even half of its performance abilities, than we just might have a new great American sports car that we can all be proud of. Perhaps the day will come in the future when we have an all electric Corvette. For now, I think America has two great sports cars to call its own, the Corvette and the Tesla Roadster!

A great write up on the Dragster Insider at NHRA.com about Tommy Ivo's haulers / racecar transporters and trailers

I may be the only person to wonder this, but where is Tommy's 1969 Vette with the white racing stripe now?

From http://www.nhra.com/blog/dragster-insider/2010/07/27/tommys-towing-toys for the whole story (it's defintitely worth the reading!)

via http://blog.cardomain.com/2010/08/06/tommy-ivos-tow-rig-history/ by way of http://chromjuwelen.tumblr.com/

A couple of interesting things from the King of Clubs event

Normally this much smoke means brush fire here in So Cal, but not here at the 1/8th mile dragstrip... around a dragstrip this is just a good start

Apollo 12 astronauts (and others) were near hero's and GM loaned them Corvettes and a Smokey Yunick connection

The video above and the vette below belong to Danny Reed, who has owned it since 1971

Above image from
http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/forums/c3-general-discussion/107644-blast-past-apollo-12-1969-corvette.html



For more photos and the full story : http://www.vetteweb.com/features/vet1101_1969_chevrolet_astrovette_stingray/index.html

Crew of the Apollo 12 space rocket (Pete Conrad, Dick Gordon, Al Bean) each receive a gold Corvette coupe with 427-ci engine.

Through a special General Motors lease program, astronauts were allowed to drive any car for a year for $1. Bean and his Apollo crew ordered matching Corvettes distinguished by the black "wings" and red, white and blue logos on the front fenders reading "LMP" for lunar module pilot.


Why did they have black rear fenders?

The article states that those cars and the lease program had been arranged by Jim Rathmann, in co-operation with Ed Cole. Rathmann owned a Chevrolet Dealership in Melbourne, Florida.

We know that the Gold & Black combination is typical for Smokey Yunick's cars. And Yunick was crew chief for Rathmann for three years in a row (1960 to 1962) at Indianapolis. When Rathmann won the 1960 Indy 500, his car, named "Ken-Paul Special", was blue. But in '62, he drove the "Simoniz Vista Special" (car #44) which was sporting Yunick's Gold & Black.

Thus the colors of these three "Apollo 12" Corvettes, in the most likely possibility.

CORVETTE NEWS Feb/Mar 1970 p.16-17 "The magnificent men and their flying machines". Large picture (courtesy of Ralph Morse - Life Magazine), showing the three '69 Vettes with Pete Conrad, Dick Gordon and Al Bean sitting on the T-tops.

One interesting detail in the text deserves a quote: "...Especially Pete Conrad. His checklist of things to do before the flight of Apollo 12 included a call to a friend in the Central Florida Region of the Sports Car Club of America to make sure that all systems were go for his SCCA competition license. Conrad was reported to have said: I'd sure like to have it when I get back from the moon . And he was obliged by being issued 1970 license number 12 in honor of the flight..."

http://www.digitalcorvettes.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-118283.html

Every astronaut had a Corvette of the day. Every one "made full advantage of the social opportunities".

Every one except John Glenn. Glenn drove a Hillman Minx, and lectured the rest about "keeping it zipped up for the good of the program". http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=258763

I didn't know it, but Nik did a post on these 2 months ago: http://carrosantigos.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/the-astrovette/ and thourougly explained the astronaut/corvette association, and far better than I could, Nik is a far better writer. His blog is in Portugese, but you ought to install Google toolbar if you haven't yet, and that is because it will instantly translate any website from another language to your own.

Chevrolet Corvette Stingray pics

Collection of cool Chevrolet Corvette Stingray sports cars including a few concept cars thrown in for good measure. Hope you like them!

The Chevrolet Corvette Stingray has got to me one of my favorite cars but they are very hard to get hold of and I can imagine the car insurance would be eye watering, not to mention the petrol consumption!

Chevrolet Corvette Stingray pics

Collection of cool Chevrolet Corvette Stingray sports cars including a few concept cars thrown in for good measure. Hope you like them!

The Chevrolet Corvette Stingray has got to me one of my favorite cars but they are very hard to get hold of and I can imagine the car insurance would be eye watering, not to mention the petrol consumption!

Mallett Corvette Z03

Many people are simply drawn to cool cars. Behind the artistry and superfluous lines lies the maker’s true passion to make an already existing work of art into something much more. This is what the 2009 USD Mallet Corvette ZO3 is. As a joint project of Mallet Cars of Berea, Ohio and Ugur Sahin Design from Gorinchem, Netherlands, the very powerful Corvette has just gotten a bit better.

The Team of USD B.V. had promising dreams for the Corvette C3. They already knew the capabilities of the favored supercar, which has a supercharger-twin turbo 7-liter V8 engine. But they wanted to create something that not had power in the inside, but it had to reflect on the outside as well. And thus they created something far more than design and style. It’s what they call Automotive Haute Couture.

Mallett Corvette Z03

Many people are simply drawn to cool cars. Behind the artistry and superfluous lines lies the maker’s true passion to make an already existing work of art into something much more. This is what the 2009 USD Mallet Corvette ZO3 is. As a joint project of Mallet Cars of Berea, Ohio and Ugur Sahin Design from Gorinchem, Netherlands, the very powerful Corvette has just gotten a bit better.

The Team of USD B.V. had promising dreams for the Corvette C3. They already knew the capabilities of the favored supercar, which has a supercharger-twin turbo 7-liter V8 engine. But they wanted to create something that not had power in the inside, but it had to reflect on the outside as well. And thus they created something far more than design and style. It’s what they call Automotive Haute Couture.