A thousand pardons for an almost three-month absence, or what I'll call a "blogcation." Continuous weeks of travel, other publication projects and just the need to come up for air after going 110 mph since April when the old car hobby shifts into fourth gear are the reasons for my "Invisible Man" imitation.

    Getting back in the groove of writing a regular blog will be easier during the winter months, when the hobby, overall, winds down a bit, especially from an auction standpoint, which is my focus in Old Cars Weekly.

    Speaking of auctions, I'm going to Mitchell, Indiana, in mid-November to cover a sale of approximately 270 salvage yard vehicles. This particular yard was in business for a long time, so much of its contents goes back to the prewar era. This type of salvage yard is quickly disappearing from our country's landscape, what with all the crushing, urban sprawl and "beautification" movements taking place. It's a shame, really, to think that in the near future the term salvage yard may become extinct. Most of us in the old car hobby have a favorite yard we've visited on a regular basis. Some might have several favorites. It's a good bet that many of these yards have recently closed or had a majority of their vintage vehicles fed to the crusher.

     The other trend I noticed on a recent road trip to and from Branson, Missouri, to cover an auction is the disappearance of what I call "field cars" (a.k.a.: photo opportunities). Old Cars Weekly publishes one of these forgotten treasures in its "Weathered Wheels" segment in each issue, but with all the scrap metal scavangers combing the countryside looking for any metal to purchase, these abandoned vehicles have also disappeared at a quick rate.

     If you intend to attend the Mitchell, Indiana, auction, make sure to say hello. I'll be decked out in Old Cars Weekly apparel, and have a camera attached to my face, so I'll be easily spotted. I'll also be nosing around asking bidders who buy cars at the sale what their plans are from a restoration standpoint. I think we all like closure, and hearing about yard cars rescued and returned to the road makes for great reading.

    Since I've been out on the road so much, and other publishing project priorities have eaten up all my time, my blogging went south. So sorry, but with only 24 hours in a day, what's a busy guy to do....

    Anyway, this short missive is my way of giving some credit where credit is due. I refer to much of my photography that gets published in Old Cars Weekly as guerrilla photojournalism.  I've used the same "old school" Nikon manual camera for every image I've snapped over the past almost 18 years, and that fine piece of equipment has not failed me even once. I've used it in snowstorms, rainstorms, frigid temperatures, scorching heat and dust storms, and all the film ever loaded into that Nikon over almost two decades has produced great images, both black-and-white and color. (And, I don't mean to brag about my images being great; I give all the credit to the camera).

    On my most recent road trip, I was doing a photo shoot in an Iowa salvage yard when my worst nightmare occurred. On only the fourth day of nine days of event coverage, I dropped the Nikon while trying to leap off one car onto another. I needed elevation to photograph a car in this particular yard, and not wanting to dent a good panel, I found a car that had a somewhat wadded up trunk lid. All seemed fine as I climbed aboard and took my shots, but unbeknownst to me, one set of hinge bolts connecting the lid to the car had been removed. When I went to "shove off" with my foot to make the leap, the lid slid and I went into a skid. More to the point, I crashed and burned against the car I was attempting to leap onto. Luckily, prior to making the leap, I was holding my camera by its strap, intending to allow it to swing freely once I landed on the other car.

    When it became apparent that I wasn't going to land on my feet after attempting the leap, I let go of the camera strap so I could use my hands to brace for the blow against the other car. The Nikon went skipping across the hard ground (it was 95 degrees that day, and the yard's surface was hard packed dirt and weeds). I spent the remainder of the road trip worried that all the film shot after that point would not turn out, due to some internal damage the Nikon might have suffered in the collision with the ground.

    Not to fear, as all the film shot on the trip turned out fine, as usual. I'm hoping to get another decade or two out of that trusted Nikon, but if not, it's performed admirably and deserves a shout out for going above and beyond the call of duty.

   

    I read a lot of praise for the new television series "Ice Road Truckers" that runs on Sunday evenings on The History Channel so I caught my first episode on July 1. It lived up to the hype. Now, of course, I'm frustrated that I missed the first episode or two, but I'm an extremely sporadic TV watcher, with my "regular" viewing limited to The Weather Channel and NHRA drag racing.

    Beyond the hype of this new show, what also attracted me to see it is that I'm a huge fan of big rigs and have been since a kid standing on the side of the road motioning my arm up and down to get the passing truckers to blow their airhorns. No matter how many viewings I've logged of trucker classic films such as "Duel," "Thieves' Highway," "They Drive By Night," "White Line Fever," "Maximum Overdrive" and others, I'll always make time to watch these favorites again.

    While Old Cars Weekly only sporadically touches on the vintage big rig hobby, mainly covering the annual get-togethers of both the American Truck Historical Society (ATHS) and the Antique Truck Club of America (ATCA), we highly recommend their club publications as must reading, "Wheels of Time" and "Double Clutch," respectively.

    In reading about the history of long-haul trucking in fine publications such as those put out by ATHS and ATCA, the dangers faced by early over-the-road truckers becomes evident. Bad roads, primitive equipment and no rules governing the amount of time spent behind the wheel were the norm. The six drivers who are the focus of "Ice Road Truckers" are men who haul diamond mine equipment on temporary roads created over the frozen lakes of Alaska, and are a throwback to these early drivers who faced peril at every mile. "Ice Road Truckers" is fascinating viewing, and watching men work in temperatures as low as 40 below zero makes you want to pull on a blanket, even in summertime!

    Those of us living in the Midwest can get a first-hand look at many of the trucks from yesteryear at the Trucker's Jamboree to be held at the I-80 Truck Stop near Walcott, Iowa, on Thursday and Friday, July 12-13. This is a free event, and attracts hundreds of vintage big rigs for display. There's also a pork chop grilling event that's not to be missed.

   

I'm not a political animal, but I often equate getting politicians to "walk a mile" in a average citizen's shoes not unlike training a dog. You have to keep the commands, or in this case the re-educational information, simple and direct and have a reward ready for a correct response.

And I don't want anyone thinking that my comparison of politicians to dogs is a trite bit of parody on my part. I have way too much respect for dogs to do that.

What has my biscuits burning is a comment made recently by a politician concerning the elimination of testing vehicle emissions in certain states for pre-1996 cars and trucks. Due to these more than 10 year old cars and trucks not having a computer plug-in (I'm simplifying the procedure for brevity's sake) for ease and efficiency of testing their emissions level, and the costs associated with the more sophisticated and time-consuming testing procedure with these older vehicles, many states are considering doing away with monitoring these older vehicles to save lots of money and make testing more efficient.

I'll not go into the debate here on whether this elimination of testing older vehicles is good or bad. We are a society that relies on fossil-fueled vehicles for our daily commutes. A by-product of burning fossil fuels is air-corrupting tailpipe emissions. In larger cities where the concentration of vehicles plying the roadways is huge, the air quality suffers immensely. I'm all for clean air, but until our reliance on fossil fuels goes away, pollution is a fact of life.

One of the states considering ending the emissions monitoring of pre-1996 vehicles is Wisconsin, the home base for Old Cars Weekly. Wisconsin, I'm proud to add, is also a state that has an active old car hobby and dedicated hobbyists that work closely with our state government to ensure that old cars and their owners are given fair treatment in the rules and regulations that are passed concerning motoring. The majority of our governmental representives seem to be aware or have been educated by the aforementioned dedicated hobbyists of the importance of the old car hobby and all the great things collector vehicles represent. But, I guess one slipped through the cracks!

In a front page story in a recent issue of USA Today newspaper, Wisconsin State Senator Jeff Plale, commenting on the end of pre-1996 vehicle emission testing, said, "We need to get the old junkers off the road." Ouch!

Lumping all pre-1996 vehicles into the category of "old junkers" is, obviously, a slight against all the cars and trucks built before 1996 that are well-maintained, handed down in families from generation to generation and proudly displayed at car shows. It is also the kind of from-the-hip, unresearched statement that is occasionally muttered in our halls of government by so-called educated representatives who are supposed to be looking out for the welfare of our nation's citizens. These types of statements unfairly damage the reputation of the majority of older vehicles and, ultimately, the old car hobby. These knee-jerk statements also cost the people working hard to preserve the good-standing of the old car hobby lots of wasted time and money in the form of damage control to prevent the general public from thinking that just because a vehicle is old that it's a gross polluter and something that should be done away with.

As much as I'd like to sit Senator Plale in a chair and tell him over and over that "Old cars are not junkers" and reward him with a treat when he gets it right, I'd rather have concerned old car hobbyists contact him directly (414-744-1444 or email sen.plale@legis.wi.gov) and invite him to an old car show to re-educate him on what things of beauty old cars represent. I know I'm going to invite him to join us at the Iola Old Car Show coming up on July 12-15 and treat him to a day of the thrills of vintage motoring and fresh air.

    Attending a reunion in summer usually means either attending the family event and eating Aunt Edna's potato salad and pretending it's great or the high school variety where the old girlfriend bends your ear on how fantastic her life has been since the breakup.

    Beginning last summer, I started a new reunion tradition. This involves neither bad potato salad nor an ex-girlfriend, but rather assaulting the senses with nitro fumes, ear-splitting engine noise and blinding paintwork. Sound like fun? Better yet, it's held on Father's Day weekend, and offers the kind of thrills that are best appreciated from the time "when men were men!"

    The event of which I praise so highly is the NHRA Hot Rod Reunion, this year to be held at National Trail Raceway in Hebron, Ohio, near Columbus. It begins June 15 and runs through June 17, which happens to be Father's Day.

    I'm hoping to have the chance to chat with two of early drag racing's legends, Don "Big Daddy" Garlits and "TV Tommy" Ivo. I'm also all jacked up about viewing rows of vintage drag cars, hot rods and collector vehicles. I'll be decked out in Old Cars Weekly logo wear, so if you see a grinning idiot running around photographing everything in sight, that'll be me. Say hello, and I promise to slow down and chat.

    Also, if your in the Wentworth, S.D., area on June 9, I'll be covering the Gene Hemmer Collection sale, presented by VanDerBrink Auctions. In between South Dakota and Ohio, I'm planning on touring some salvage yards in central New York.

    See you on the road....  

    I was excited to read that the Wachowski brothers, known mainly for their futuristic series of "Matrix" movies, are beginning filming a big-screen, live-action version of the hit Japanese cartoon "Speed Racer." I got addicted to this fabulous cartoon while serving in the Marines in Okinawa, Japan, in the late 1970s. For those unfamiliar with "Speed Racer," it's quality animation that imbues viewers with the good-triumphs-over-evil message, but in an entertaining way.

    As much as I look forward to seeing the film, to be released in May 2008, and reliving some youth, I'm more jacked up that this movie will build on the positive momentum that was created by last summer's mainstream movie hit "Cars." This sentimental romp through the fictitious Radiator Springs by a wide-ranging cast of animated automotive characters voiced by stars such as Paul Newman and Owen Wilson was the perfect vehicle to get children to embrace the old car culture at a young age, again, in an entertaining way.

    My recently turned six-year-old son has probably logged at least 25 viewings of our DVD version of "Cars" since we watched it on the big screen at our local multiplex last summer. He has many of the accompanying scale model toys that mimic the vehicular stars of "Cars" such as "Lightning McQueen," "Towmater" and "Doc Hudson" that he plays with on the ridge of the tub at bath time, using his imagination to re-create scenes from Radiator Springs.

    Since a big concern in the old car hobby, and one shared by all the staffers at Old Cars Weekly, is the "graying of the hobby," these types of movies such as "Cars" and now "Speed Racer" go a long way towards getting youngsters interested in positive vehicular role models at a young age. I'm sure if anyone over the age of 40 with even a passing interest in old cars could think back, they could probably pinpoint some movie-, television- or book-based vehicle that peaked their curiousity at a young age and got their passion for old cars started without realizing what was happening at the time. Some of my early influences (and we're going way back, here, because I'm part of the graying segment of our hobby) were films such as "The Great Race," "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" and pulp books by noted hot rod author Henry Gregor Felsen ("Hot Rod" and "Fever Heat").

    A real version of the Mach 5 (Speed Racer's car) has been created for the new movie, and most likely, it will make the rounds of the auto show circuit to promote the "Speed Racer" movie early next year. And, once the movie is released, the prerequisite avalanche of scale model toys will be released. I just might have to get a bigger bathtub so my son will have enough room to add "Speed Racer" cars to his collection of "Cars" toys.

Just back from the road, again, this time taking some vacation to unwind from the grind. One of my favorite destinations for travel is any of the central United States west of the Mississippi River. Because I spend much of my vacation time searching out salvage yards, I find the dryer climate of this part of the country conducive to finding yards full of solid metal rather than rusty hulks.

This trip, due to being only five days in duration, didn't allow for any long-distance journeying, so I stayed close to home (Wisconsin), focusing on Missouri. I'd hoped to make it to Oklahoma to chase a lead on a long-shuttered salvage yard filled with 1920s-'50s vehicles that is for sale in that state, but I ran out of time. When I arrived in central Missouri, the recent storm that caused so much tornado havoc in Kansas also caused massive flooding throughout the middle of Missouri. I lost lots of time having to drive way west to continue south, due to flooded roads and impassable bridges.

Once I did get to southern Missouri, it was worth all the prior meandering and detours. Much of what I discovered, as always, will make its way into the pages of Old Cars Weekly, but there's one interesting story that I'll share exclusively with my blog readers.

Among the staffers of Old Cars Weekly, we have a pact that when each of us travels, we tend to look for collectibles in the areas we each are passionate about. Co-worker Keith Mathiowetz is "wallpapering" his garage with vintage license plates, so when I travel I try to acquire free old plates for Keith.

While traveling south on Highway 13 in south-central Missouri I happened upon a dilapidated "beauty fence" that had the words auto salvage crudely painted across it. Pulling off on a side road, I eventually found the site of what was formerly a salvage yard that still contained lots of auto parts strewn about the yard and also a residence that had suffered a major fire. As luck would have it, the fence posts defining the property line of the yard were filled with Missouri license plates of many years and many colors. Seeing that the yard was no longer in business, I grabbed a half-dozen of the plates that had fallen on the ground for Keith to hang in his garage.

Driving away from the yard, I saw a man out for a walk so I stopped him and inquired about the history of the yard, hoping to find out why it had closed. It turns out, according to this gentleman, that the residence on the yard property was being used as a meth lab and had caught fire while a batch of the illegal drug was being brewed. Once this activity was discovered, the yard was shut down and its contents cleared out.

I wonder if the former yard owner is now stamping out license plates in prison?

    Being on the road is great until you return and find your desk buried and everything needing to be done yesterday. My recent travels to North Carolina and Pennsylvania to cover both the Charlotte Spring AutoFair and Spring Carlisle, respectively, really recharged my battery. After a long winter, there's nothing like going to shows and reconnecting with the old car hobby in-person.

    One of the many benefits of attending shows is meeting and talking with hobbyists. Everyone has opinions, but better, everyone has stories. I hear a lot of stories about hobbyists' collector cars, and I enjoy those immensely. Hearing how others have found cars in barns or salvage yards and returned them to the road are my favorite. I hope to be that lucky someday, after I hang up my camera and reporter notebook and take up restoration full-time.

    Every once in a while, I meet a hobbyist who has a story with a unique slant. Such was the case this trip, and I feel compelled to share it. This gentleman, whom I'll refer to as Joe for reasons of anonymity that will become obvious, falls into the category of rogue adventurer. While most retirees winter in Arizona or Florida, he choses to winter in eastern Mexico. He claims the cost of living "down there" is vastly cheaper than setting up a winter residence in the United States. Aside from the usual precautions of not drinking Mexican tap water (bottled water is prevalent and cheap, according to Joe), he spends his days golfing, fishing, hiking in 80-degree weather, much as he would if he were in either Arizona or Florida. He also says the automotive landscape is quite interesting in Mexico, as he sees old cars being used as daily drivers.

    Being a lifelong old car enthusiast, Joe has heard all the stories about the prevalence of interesting vintage cars in Cuba. He says he regularly makes the $99 round trip flight from Mexico to Cuba to see first-hand what the automotive culture is like, and sample Cuban hospitality. Joe claims that staying in the hotels and dining in restaurants near the major cities is no different than any other country, and American currency is most welcome both in Mexico and Cuba.

    It appears that Joe has found a gray area in the rules to overcome travel restrictions to Cuba, and is able to sate his curiousity about car cultures in foreign countries that most of us may never experience, due to politics or fear of the unknown. He's also smoking the finest Cuban cigars on a regular basis, and to that I tip my hat to him.

    I've always been obsessed with going fast. From my first pedal car to home-made go-karts and mini-bikes to almost 20 years of driving hobby-level stock cars, it's always been about the thrill of mashing the throttle.
    A natural extension of that attitude is that I had heroes early on who, in my eyes, were the guys that epitomized and legitimized the search for speed. I'm talking about World Land Speed Record legends such as Craig Breedlove, Art Arfons, Gary Gabelich, and a long list of others before and after who strapped into land rockets and casting aside the high risks of speed record attempts, lit the fuse and went for it.
    So it was with great interest that I read recently that an American supercar manufacturer by the name of SSC is attempting to capture the production car maximum speed record with its Ultimate Aero supercar. This sleek gull-winged two-seater is powered by a twin-turbocharged 6.3-liter V-8 that is rated at 1,183 horsepower.
    The current production car maximum speed record is 253 mph and is held by a Bugatti EB16.4 Veyron. The Ultimate Aero, in late March testing, was achieving 230 mph at just 56 percent throttle, so things are shaping up nicely for an American car to reclaim the record. Unfortunately, the attempt to go for the record on a 12-mile stretch of Nevada highway recently was cancelled due to a snowstorm. Plans are underway to reschedule the record run attempt.
    With the non-production vehicle World Land Speed Record now owned by Great Britain's duo of Sir Richard Noble and his driver Andy Green who piloted the "Thrust" car faster than the sound barrier several years ago on top of Bugatti holding the production car record, it's high-time for America to get back these records.
    Good luck to SSC and the Ultimate Aero whenever the next speed record attempt is made. And, by the way, if anyone is thinking of building a WLSR vehicle to unseat the Brits and "Thrust" and needs a driver, don't call me. I love going fast, but anything over 700 mph and I get car sick!

Don't look now, but that restorable 1957 Pontiac Bonneville hardtop you've been wanting to buy as a project car from your local salvage yard may become an I-beam for a skyscraper being built in China as you read this. The demand for scrap metal from overseas countries such and China and India, which are currently experiencing explosive internal growth, has been and will likely continue to be high.

One of the prime targets for the scrap metal industry are salvage yards filled with older vehicles. These vintage cars and trucks have a high metal content, versus the modern cars that have large amounts of plastic in their makeup, and regularly weigh in at a ton-and-a-half or more per vehicle. According to Yvette VanDerBrink, head of VanDerBrink Auctions (www.vanderbrinkauctions.com), who leads the industry in salvage yard auctions and grew up in the salvage industry working at her father's yard, Nordstrom's Automotive (www.nordstromsauto.com) in Garretson, S.D., current scrap metal value is at $165 per ton. What fuels the problem during the winter months, is much of the scrap metal, whether vehicles or other, is buried under snow and not accessible. As supply lessens, the price paid per ton increases. VanDerBrink believes the price will reach $225 per ton before it levels off. Once the snow melts, and more scrap metal becomes available, the price paid per ton should come down. But if demand from overseas buyers continues strong, the value of scrap metal will remain high.

Over the past several years, salvage yards that have catered to the old car enthusiasts have been closing at an alarming rate. The crush value of these yards' contents have allowed the owners of these yards to reap an immediate cash windfall, and no one can blame these owners for making a sound business decision, even if crushing old cars is counter to the mindset of hobbyists who want to preserve vintage iron. This advanced rate of yard closures will continue as long as there is high demand for scrap metal. Among the many threats to the future growth of the old car hobby, this should rank as the most insidious. Without the parts donor cars that salvage yards provide, the only cars and trucks that will be able to be restored in the future are those that have aftermarket parts support, which is a minority when compared to all vehicles produced since the dawn of the motoring age.

The other frustration factor in this plight is there's not much the average old car hobbyist can do to "fight back" against this near invisible threat. The threat stems from the simple supply and demand logic that drives every society steeped in capitalism. Aside from purchasing donor parts vehicles and "squirreling" them away before the crusher arrives at a yard, if scrap metal values remain high many more old car hobby-friendly salvage yards will close. Quoting a famous line from a popular horror movie: "Be afraid. Be very afraid."