Category Archives: Curiosities

Blown Gremlin

Posted on by
2

[printprofilepic]

You can usually find this Gremlin at the Pavilions on Saturday nights. I’ve never been able to find the owner of the car but I’d eventually like to find him and ask him some questions about the car, but for now, I’ll just go out on a limb here and assume that it’s really fast.

This car is weird, and I love that about it. I love the front end, the bare metal, the bizarre half back window and the motor, of course, but I find the interior especially cool. I like everything about it, from the screen, to the randomly placed ignition components on the floor, even the “gremlin” in the sheet metal of the dash. It’s just a really cool car. Enjoy the pics!

Continue reading →

Walter The Bus: World’s Largest Volkswagen Microbus

Posted on by
2

Is it better to be a big fish in a small pond? Kirk Strawn would say so. He’s the man behind Walter the Bus, a 2:1 scale reconstruction of the classic Volkswagen Microbus. This one-of-a-kind vehicle is the largest known Microbus in the world, and that’s no small feat.

So how do you go about building a super-size version of one of Volkswagen’s most iconic vehicles? Kirk and his friends (known collectively as “Tribe Walter”) spent seven years on the project. They started with a 1963 Walter Crash Truck which was originally in service as an airport rescue vehicle at Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix, Arizona.

Continue reading →

Cadillac CTS-V Wagon

Posted on by
1

[printprofilepic]

The Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon is a rare bird. This CTS-V Sport Wagon is more like a Bald Eagle. As powerful and dangerous an animal it may be – with it’s 556hp ZR-1-derived LSA drivetrain – it’s on the brink of becoming extinct. Wagons themselves have unfortunately found themselves almost phased out in favor of their wimpy cousins, the CUV. The utilitarian nature and appearance of them draws people towards more “stylish” vehicles (Compact Utility Vehicles) or before that, vehicles with a less traditional image (Minivans).

I think the shame is that this is the last rear-wheel-drive, American-branded wagon for sale here. Before this we also had the Charger/300-based Magnum wagon. Unfortunately Chrysler’s post-K-car management left this car more Mercedes and Renault than Chrysler. Big wagons were apart of the suburban landscape until the 1980’s when minivans (coincidentally popularized by Chrysler’s K-car based “Magic-vans”) became hugely popular. We should be glad that for now, we have this ostentatious, outrageous, and over-powered American vehicle tearing up the asphalt and providing 1.0g of grocery bag-spilling lateral acceleration.

Quest for Fire Extinguisher

Posted on by
Reply

[printprofilepic]

On my way to the west side I spotted this plume of smoke. As I got closer, I noticed it was a truck on fire in front of the north campus of Glendale Community College. As you can see the gentleman operating the vehicle was rather unsuccessful in extinguishing it.

I’m sure you’re asking yourself why I didn’t stop to help him, but it was very clear that he had gotten out of the vehicle safely and I had my daughter and step-son riding with me, and I didn’t want to leave them unattended. When I came back towards my home, perhaps 15 minutes later, Police and Fire Departments had arrived and put out the fire. Which isn’t surprising considering it happened practically in front of the local firehouse.

Automotive Recyclers

Posted on by
2

[printprofilepic]

Something looks familiar here, right?

Let’s take a closer look…

Weird.

This is a Coachmen Aurora. I can’t find any information regarding what years they used Camry taillights, but I did learn that certain Winnebagos also used the same lights.

Apparently, more than one person on the forum I was reading has had their lights stolen from their RVs. I think this lends credence to the theory that every single Camry in the whole world has had one of it’s corners smashed. The owners are desperate for replacement parts because all of the Camrys in the junkyards have broken taillights too, so  they have resorted to stealing parts off people’s motorhomes. I’m really not sure how you would take one of those lights off from the outside though, so I really don’t know what to think exactly.

I’d like to know what other RVs use existing car’s tail lights. It’s definitely something I’m always going to be looking out for now.

Ford F-350 Centaurus III

Posted on by
4

[printprofilepic]

Apparently, this truck has nothing to do with the similarly named Bronco Centurion (one of which I keep seeing but never when I have my camera). The company that does the “Centaurus” conversions is called LCM and I can’t find much information about them at all. It appears that they mostly converted Chevy and Ford vans and Explorers though, and the F-350 conversions are said to be very rare, which I believe, since I haven’t been able to find a picture of a truck on the internet yet that looks similar to this one at all.

The actual conversion itself is pretty much what you’d expect from a typical conversion van, from what I’ve read. They are supposed to be really plush and luxurious inside, but I wasn’t able to get close enough to take a look. Looking at the outside of the truck, it isn’t hard to imagine how tasteless customized these vehicles are inside.

That fact that all the accessories on the truck were designed by the same company and professionally installed does make it look much better than most of the other hyper-accessorized trucks out there (why are there so many of them anyways?) I guess you could say it’s tasteless, done tastefully.