Motor Heads: Cars, Trucks, Tractors & Hvy Equip.

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You used to be able to get that green glow in older cars by just popping in a green-coated instrument-panel light bulb.

Today, if there were any demand for it, you'd be able to use an LED. But since most instrument panels are either LED-lit characters, or LCD displays, no need.

Of course back then you could just remove the cluster by pulling four Phillips screws. Whole thing would pop out. If you were so inclined, you could easily remove the odometer drum and roll back the miles...or, at least, leave the speedo unplugged from its drive-cable.

(That was something a LOT of new-car dealers did, when transporting cars, doing trades with other dealers, etc. Illegal, but they did it regularly. We bought one car that still had the cable disconnected...OOPS! And yes, the car turned into a lemon. Probably had run tens of thousands of miles before sale...there's reasons for believing this...and it wasn't broken in properly.)

Working on cars, back then, was easy, cheap, and often fun. It was a great way to stretch your budget. I've done timing belts, fuel pumps, starters, driveshaft u-joints, all with cheap tools and a set of ramps.
 

Ford's Mustang Cobra Jet sets a new EV quarter mile record at 6.87 seconds​

Engadget
Ford 2200.JPG​

Ford Racing's Mustang Cobra Jet 2200 just ran a quarter mile in 6.87 seconds at 221 mph at an NHRA event in Charlotte, setting a new world record for an EV. As the name suggests, Ford's Cobra Jet 2200 puts a massive 2,200 horsepower to the wheels thanks to a newly designed electric motor and inverter combo. Ford elected to use two motors and inverters instead of four of each as before to reduce complexity and boost efficiency to 98 percent. Overall power is up by 600 horsepower, but the motors and inverters weigh half as much as before. Everything runs on a 900-volt architecture and 32 kWh battery that charges in 20 minutes.
 

METALLICA STAR'S Custom Creation | James Hetfield's "Aquarius"​

Apr 28, 2026
Welcome back to the Petersen Automotive Museum! In part two of our James Hetfield (yes, of Metallica fame!) Collection deep dives, we explore Aquarius—a stunning custom build that blends 1930s French Art Deco design with 1950s American hot rod style.
Donated by the Hetfield family in 2019, this one-of-a-kind car features flowing fenders, bold sculptural details, and a modern LS3 V8 under the hood. Built by Rick Dore Customs with hand-shaped aluminum bodywork, Aquarius is a perfect mix of vintage inspiration and modern performance.
Thanks for watching—stay tuned for more from the Hetfield collection!
Missed Pt. 1 of our Hetfield Deep Dives? Click to learn about the Black Pearl: • Metallica Meets Motors: Hetfield's Custom ...


5:30
 

Auto Micromanagement: The GM Cadet XP-79 Microcar!​

May 2, 2026
A classic car connoisseur tells the story of a secret project within the styling studio of General Motors, the Cadet / XP-79 microcar. American car companies aren't exactly known for making ultra small cars, so what moved GM to work on this little fella? And would this be a competitor to the upcoming Chevrolet Corvair? Or even better, fight the microcars in Europe, like the Isetta?


15:52
 
searcher said:

Auto Micromanagement: The GM Cadet XP-79 Microcar!​

May 2, 2026
A classic car connoisseur tells the story of a secret project within the styling studio of General Motors, the Cadet / XP-79 microcar. American car companies aren't exactly known for making ultra small cars, so what moved GM to work on this little fella? And would this be a competitor to the upcoming Chevrolet Corvair? Or even better, fight the microcars in Europe, like the Isetta?


15:52
Click to expand...

That looks far different from the prototype Cadet that had been published years ago...which looked like a Ford "Shoebox" melted in the rear.

And it wasn't just a spitball styling option, either. Stylists working on it, in the stuff I'd read, wanted that as a theme. Nobody, in the era the Cadet was being considered, had conceived of a roofline like that of the later Camaro, shown on that thumbnail.

Be that as it may...while small cars were about to have a brief rebirth in popularity (Nash Rambler) it would have probably been better for GM to have stayed clear of them. GM was even then a huge organization, slow and rigid in changing. The Corvair, later, showed what happens when even a small team within is given the latitude to move. Feathers are ruffled; enemies try to paint it as a failure. Forces outside (like Nader) try to attack it, for fame and profit, and the enemies within the company glom onto that, run with it. The careers of the innovators are destroyed, and the Status Quo protected.

The Corvair showed what would have happened to the Cadet, a few years earlier. Just as what happened to Saturn, later...much-less innovative, but still, ruffling feathers. Killed from within, by withholding funds to update. ONLY those projects that kept the power-group entrenched, would have support.

This is why the growth of ANY industry absolutely depends on outsiders coming in with innovation and new ideas. And in a healthy structure, sometimes destroying the entrenched Old Guard.

Today, with regulatory moats, the entrenched forces face no challenge. How's that working out? Are cars better, cheaper, any different in design (other than fragile weight-reduction and government emissions crap) than they were 50 years ago? Actually, yeah. Now we have aluminum-bodied hulking four-door pickup trucks, so delicate you can break an axle off on a large pothole.
 

The Race of Gentlemen 2025​

Oct 15, 2025
Trip to the Jersey shore to race in the Race of Gentlemen


26:29
 

Ken Magee's Taco Mini Bike Collection is Insane!​

Take a tour of Ken Magee’s amazing Taco minibike collection as he shows off his vintage minibikes, classic bikes, and go-karts. In this video, Kenny breaks down the history of Taco minibikes and shares insight into some of the rare and iconic machines in his collection. This is a must-watch for minibike fans, vintage minibike collectors, and anyone interested in minibike history!


14:35
 

Was Your Car this Cool? Check out these vintage photos of 1950s & 1960s automobiles set to music!​

May 4, 2026 CALIFORNIA
Remember the era of the 1950s and 1960s when cars were "cool"? We sure do! Enjoy this collection of vintage photos over 100 cars and trucks from the greatest time period in automotive history for styling and nostalgia.
How many vehicles do you recognize? See anyone famous? Do you recall any of the venues shown in the photos? Let us know in the comments!
Check out this video of classic cars and trucks from the greatest era of automotive history, and let us know your memories in the comments! We have many vintage photos of wonderful cars, trucks, places, and people of the time period, and it's all set to music. Enjoy!
The 1950s and 1960s were two of the best decades of automotive styling and innovative features. There were so many different makes and models that were easy to spot! How many vehicles in this video do you recognize? Let us know in the comments.


12:30
 
searcher said:

Was Your Car this Cool? Check out these vintage photos of 1950s & 1960s automobiles set to music!​




12:30
Click to expand...

Thirty seconds in, and I'm calling Bovine Scat.

That photo of a row of cars at a Chevrolet-Pontiac dealership...on the extreme left...is a "ute" - a coupe utility, like the El Camino. Except the El Camino first came out in 1959, with a far more modern body. I'm not sure GM even made them in Australia, where they found a home, until later. Certainly never sold as Chevrolets - Holden was the GM brand there.

So it's not just AI narration (probably; I had the sound off) but AI hallucination, too.

(EDIT: I see they had a Holden sign before the others; I guess it was a Holden dealer. Didn't know Chevy and Poncho were sold in Aussieland, ever. BUT...two later photos show the Chrysler Turbine experimental cars in some sort of street race. Those aren't cool; those are rare museum pieces. Only fifty were made and most destroyed after testing).

That said...the photos before...I have some awareness of those cars. The Tri-Fives weren't cool until about when I got into high school. Prior to that, they were just old Chevrolets. A friend's mother had one; dad was climbing the corporate ladder and while he had a nice new Pontiac (1964) company car (they could use when he was at home), they couldn't afford a good car of their own. Or chose not to - they had a nice home and put a lot of improvement into it. We had newish cars; they had whole-house air-conditioning.

But she hated that rusty 1956. When finally she was allowed a newer car, a 1963 Ford Fairlane (a stripper, and used, but not rusty) she was overjoyed.

Others saw those cars the same. Just appliances. No one thought of them as anything special (beyond the Nomad wagon model) until they were mostly gone.

And that's how it is. We had a 1968 Wagoneer. It was my father's car; but for dirty jobs like getting a Christmas tree or getting mulch, my mother would use it. OH, how she hated that car...admittedly, it was a lemon. Kaiser had problems in those years - a small plant and demand for the J-Series (Wagoneer and Gladiator pickup) was exploding. And company owner Henry Kaiser had just died; no one knew what the future was. The IRS could have wound up owning the company for taxes. So they weren't going to expand the factory and they just sped up the line. The 1967-69s were the worst-assembled years.

But today it would be worth six figures. Back then...for five dollars my mother would have cheerfully burned it in the center of the city park.

Not just my own experiences. On an old-car site I used to frequent, we were discussing the last of the old-school Dodge/Plymouths, the Gran Fury and Diplomat. Those were the long-running last holdouts of the pre-Iaccoa years. The site owner put up a photo of one near his home, said it belonged to a neighbor. It had been Grandma's car, and now the teen girl in the family was taking it to school (2010; things are different today, of course).

I remarked that she probably hated it, felt it demeaning. I know I hated those things as taxis. If someone had given me my grandmother's brother's Ambassador as a school car, I'd have REALLY not been grateful.

I was quickly corrected. She loved the car, said the owner-poster. The kids all thought it was "ironic" and kewel - the boxy look, the four square headlamps, the bench seats.

It just shows how tastes change. Unpredictably.
 
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searcher said:

They Built the World’s First Aluminum V16 Automotive Engine… Then Vanished - The Marmon Story​

They Built the World’s First Aluminum V16 Automotive

en.wikipedia.org

Howard Carpenter Marmon - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

en.wikipedia.org

Marmon Motor Car Company - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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Marmon continued as a truck manufacturer, and then a specialty parts and adaption company.

Marmon made the Ford and GMC/Chevrolet pickup conversions to four-wheel-drive until about 1960.

Which was a niche market, and with increased demand for 4x4 trucks, manufacture, of the components and complete trucks, was moved in-house.

It's a common end to a small maker...everything from Winton Motor Car Company (became the Winton Engine Company and finally, EMD, of railroad locomotives) to Checker Motors, which, after ceasing taxicab manufacture, continued to do component manufacture for GM for another 28 years. It took the GFC to kill Checker, finally.

As to aluminum engines: They were a loser, until the brilliant Japanese engineers ironed out the many bugs. Buick, with its small aluminum V8 in 1962; Chevrolet, with its failed Vega engine, American Motors, with its attempt to convert the old boat-anchor Nash engine to aluminum to lighten the weight...all of those were failures. Only the Corvair aluminum engine succeeded, and only because it was, basically, a beta-test involving consumers. It was over-engineered and then drew lawsuits from Lawfare specialists like Nadar. The headache wasn't worth it, which was why the plug got pulled on that one.

Had not Marmon pulled out of the car market, we'd today be reading about what a failure THAT aluminum engine was, also.
 

US woman purchased lifetime warranties on all her 1964 Mercury Comet's parts so she could keep it running at over 500,000 miles for free​

A woman purchased lifetime warranties on all of her 1964 Mercury Comet’s parts, and she kept it running at more than 500,000 miles.

Rachel Veitch owned her car for more than nearly 50 years.

Named Chariot, this 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente was originally picked up for $3,289.

Knowing she’d have Chariot for the long haul, Veitch purchased lifetime warranties for the parts, and it was evidently a sound investment.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/oth...0-miles-for-free/ar-AA23vT7z?ocid=socialshare
 
searcher said:

US woman purchased lifetime warranties on all her 1964 Mercury Comet's parts so she could keep it running at over 500,000 miles for free​

A woman purchased lifetime warranties on all of her 1964 Mercury Comet’s parts, and she kept it running at more than 500,000 miles.

Rachel Veitch owned her car for more than nearly 50 years.

Named Chariot, this 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente was originally picked up for $3,289.

Knowing she’d have Chariot for the long haul, Veitch purchased lifetime warranties for the parts, and it was evidently a sound investment.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/oth...0-miles-for-free/ar-AA23vT7z?ocid=socialshare
Click to expand...
There were no, or very few, lifetime warranties on parts in 1964.

You couldn't "buy" and extended warranty on a car. If your muffler rotted off - which frequently happened - Midas would provide a lifetime warranty on a replacement.

The Midas exhaust was better, but not a miracle solution. It, too, would eventually rust off, and you could get your warranty replacement.

ONCE. The replacement muffler would come with no paperwork - and they'd collect the original warranty work.

Ziebart would warrant their rust-proofing system - yeah, body-rust was a problem back then - but when the car DID rust out, as it would, just more slowly...they'd have caps on repair cost. You'd get your money back, plus, in repair costs at a contracted shop.

But nobody was selling these "extended warranties" until the 1980s, when cars suddenly became more complex than owners could understand. I had bought one of the first, for my ex's VW, in 1988. I have no idea how that worked; I wasn't long for her world myself.

But that was a new idea, back then.
 
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