Tuesday, December 29, 2015
C-10 / C-20 Trailing Arm, Coil Spring Perch Rebuild
Killed by Death: Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister Was the Sound of Speed
A couple of weeks ago, I found myself on a Moto Guzzi Griso (more on that in a future Year of the Goose installment) hurtling down I-5 from Seattle to Sacramento. The 1151-cc, eight-valve twin thrummed away at 4k, sounding for all the world like a B-17. Or Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister’s Rickenbacker bass. Can the the two things even be separated? For 600 miles, I rode along with the band’s “Bomber” stuck in my head, across the Rogue River, over the Cascades, and finally down California’s dead-end-at-both-ends Central Valley. And now Lemmy is dead. But you probably already knew that. If your social media feed hasn’t blown up with tributes to the man, who passed away yesterday at 70, might I humbly suggest that you acquire a better grade of friends?
-
Blazin': Philthy Animal Taylor, Lemmy Kilmister, and Fast Eddie Clarke, Motörhead’s classic line-up.
But Motörhead, man. Booted from Hawkwind after a drug bust at the Canadian border, Kilmister founded the band in 1975, the year I was born. 1916—about the closest the band came to American mainstream success—arrived in 1991, the year I got my driver’s license. I grew bad hair and toted my early-‘70s Rickenbacker 4001 around in my ’75 El Camino with “We Are the Road Crew” cranked as high as my two-speaker, eight-watt-per-channel stereo would allow.
-They were the band that everybody could agree on, from the Nova-driving dirthead to the heavy-duty aesthete with a penchant for the lowbrow. Lemmy played with The Damned. Lemmy played with Wendy O. Williams. Lemmy played with Metallica. Motörhead united the greasiest greasers, the crustiest punx, the most ferrous of metalheads, everyone in between and plenty of herberts outside the scenes. Even my father, who came of age when bebop was au courant, once came out to the garage and exclaimed, “This is some great rock ’n’ roll!”
-The first feature I ever wrote for C/D saw me almost dead in the Permian Basin, nearly a dessicated corpse on the bench seat of a 450 SEL 6.9 built in the same year Motörhead’s eponymous LP was released. The sheer force of will inherent in “Bomber” helped get me to Eunice, New Mexico, an ice-cream bar, a Red Bull, and a whole lot of water. It remains the best meal I’ve ever had.
-The first time I laid eyes on the Bonneville Salt Flats, I was listening to Motörhead. Is there a better choral accompaniment on a pilgrimage to one of the world’s holy temples of speed? The music is the sound of a demolition derby. It’s the essence of the aftermath of a nothing moment with a nowhere-town lady simply because you’ve got the hottest car within a hundred-mile radius. It’s 160 mph on the autobahn in a Mustang GT. It’s a late night in a Rust Belt hatchback with half an exhaust system. It’s crossing the Sierra Nevada in record time because you’ve got somewhere to be; the Rockies rising impossibly high above your head, and Missouri stretched out before you. Motörhead, essentially, is all the best stuff about a life on wheels.
--
- -
- King of the Kustomizers George Barris Passes Away at 89 -
- Denise McCluggage, Legendary Writer, Racer, and Adventurer, Has Passed Away -
- Class War: Rolls Royce Wraith Inspired By Music Does Its Best to Kill Rock ‘n Roll -
-
Perhaps the dawn of the autonomous, electrified age was the right time for the smoke-belching, alcohol-fueled man to depart. Farewell, Mr. Kilmister. You left a helluva trail of parts in your wake, and it’s up to the rest of us to make use of them. Built for speed? Indubitably. Built to last? As long as we’ve got nicotine and wheels, your art will sure as hell endure.
-
Monday, December 28, 2015
Not a Car, Don’t Care: You Have to See This Custom, 7500-Piece Lego Millennium Falcon
Yes, you can buy a Lego Millennium Falcon kit in stores, but one master builder has constructed a replica of the galaxy’s most famous Corellian freighter that goes so far above and beyond we just had to share.
-
Built by Hannes Tscharner, this Falcon is based on the version that appears in the latest Star Wars installment, The Force Awakens (note the rectangular sensor dish). It’s comprised of an estimated 7500 pieces; weighs 22 pounds; and is 32 inches long, 21 inches wide, and 7 inches tall. For reference, the official kit—which runs $149.99 at lego.com—has 1329 pieces and is 18 inches long, 12 inches wide, and five inches tall.
-
The internal framework required to support the build means the custom ship doesn’t have an interior, but it does have illuminated drive units and blaster turrets, and it also features a working boarding ramp and detailed cockpit with four seats for Rey, Finn, Han Solo, and Chewbacca (or maybe Unkar Plutt and his thugs).
--
- -
- Every FCA Brand Has a Star Wars–Themed Ad; Watch Them All Here -
- 12 Things You Need to Know About Hot Wheels’ Life-Size, 150-mph Darth Vader Car -
- The Craigslist Ad of the Day Is for a Used Imperial Star Destroyer -
-
The entire thing took a full year from planning and brick gathering to completion, says its creator, whose Flickr feed is filled with other amazing Star Wars customs, including a Jawa Sandcrawler—you can check them out here, as well as see more photos of the Falcon. And now that we’ve properly geeked out, we’ll get back to our regularly scheduled car-based programming.
-
Friday, December 25, 2015
2016 Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid Driven: How Does 48/45 MPG Shake You?
Tell anyone that the new Chevy Malibu hybrid shares much of its powertrain with the Volt and they’ll inevitably ask how far it can go in EV mode. Answer: not far. Unlike the Volt, the Malibu hybrid is set up to maximize fuel economy from a running engine, not to stretch electric range. Wait till you tell them you can’t even plug it in. READ MORE ››
-
2017 Fiat 124 Spider Dissected: Design, Engine, Chassis, and More!
Fiat Chrysler boss Sergio Marchionne has made no secret of his desire to hook up with another major automaker in pursuit of massive economies of scale. When General Motors CEO Mary Barra rebuffed his initial overture, he memorably (and creepily) quipped, “I can hug you nicely, I can hug you tightly, I can hug you like a bear.” While the new Fiat 124 Spider is the product of cooperation with another automaker, it’s a far cry from whatever sort of hug Marchionne has in mind. READ MORE ››
-
2017 Fiat 124 Spider Dissected: Design, Powertrain, Chassis, and More – Feature
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
--