E N D L E S S R O A D
Road Chatter XLVII
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IN THIS ISSUE:
* Car Trivia Questions
* Giovanni Cases
* Give Away
* Formula 1
* Bits and Pieces
* Car Trivia Answers, 15% Off Purchases For Your Trivia Questions
======================= ** ======================
Car Trivia (answers are later in this newsletter)
1) We all notice the big red flying horse logo at Mobil stations. Where
did
that come from?
2) 'Think Small' was the buzz-word for Volkswagen, but they did not stay
small. What European company did VW buy in 1969?
3) Who purchased the first HUMVEE built for civilian use?
4) Ferrari is the only team that has continuously been in Formula 1 racing
since its inception. But in 1996, they had not won a Drivers Championship
since 1979. When two-time World Champion Michael Schumacher (you remember
him) came to Ferrari, he promised he would bring them a championship. But
who was the driver that gave Ferrari its championship before the long
drought after 1979?
5) The original Chaparral 2 used stock tail-lights from a production car.
What were they from, and why were they chosen?
--- Retreads ---
These next three questions are from over two years ago. If you remember
them
from before, consider this a memory test.
6) MOPAR had a legendary set of pumped-up muscular engines. Which of these
sets is correct?
A Hemi 440/400hp & Six Pack 426/425hp
B Hemi 426/425hp & Six Pack 440/390hp
C Hemi 440/435 hp & Six Pack 426/390hp
D Hemi 426/435hp & Six Pack 440/390hp
7) What European car has a name that's Latin for 'I Roll'?
8) Henry Ford made his fortune with the world famous Model T.
Who else made a Model T?
And the last two are from four years ago.
9) Where did Ferrari get their Prancing Stallion emblem?
10) Audi's logo is four interlocking rings. What is the derivation of this
logo?
***
About the only way to know if anyone reads this stuff is if someone tells
us
when we are wrong. Well, at least four of you sharp-eyed guys do read it.
And you don't let me get away with anything.
-Jack N., Bill W., and Glen L. reminded me of Jeff Andretti, the fifth
member of the Andretti family, for our last issue's question #3.
-Glen also reminded me of Mike Wallace; he should have been in that list,
too.
-We had a good friend/customer discuss question #2, the F.O.B. question.
He
said that it should have been 'Freight On Board', not 'Free on Board'. At
first, I agreed with him and sent him a note saying so.
But since I had to correct myself to the rest of you, I looked in
Wikipedia.org, and it says: Free On Board (FOB) is an Inco term -- also
commonly, but incorrectly, referred to as 'Freight on Board'. It means
that
the seller pays for transportation of the goods to the port of shipment,
plus loading costs.
To tell the truth, when I was in wholesale, I heard it referred to both
ways.
To the four of you, I do appreciate you bringing these points to my
attention. We will give each of you 15% off your next purchase for your
trouble.
==================== ** ====================
* Giovanni Cases
The die cast collectors from our retail shop will remember the great
Giovanni cases we carried. They have all the die cast sizes from 1:64 to
1:18 and more odd sizes than you can count. Of all the years we had the
shop, we never found better cases for the money. We still supply them for
a
few of our customers. And we can do the same for you. Find the case you
want
on Giovanni's website, www.GiovanniPlastics.com. Then contact us, and we
will have it shipped directly to your door; same price as Giovanni, but no
$10 shipping cost.
Endlssroad@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Number: 1-304-274-5074
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* Gift Certificate Give Away
Our regulars know that every month, we give away a $30 Gift Certificate
from
Endless Road to one of our regular Road Chatter readers. We are happy to
say
the winner this month was Jack H. from Salisbury, MD.
We are changing things this month. We have been selling the great Cobra
Ferrari Wars DVD since it came out in 2005. However, we have been
contacted
by the author of the book by the same name. We are told that there is a
court battle between the book author and the DVD creators over the
ownership
of the name. And we are violating his copyrights selling the DVD. That
leaves us with $400 worth of DVDs we cannot sell. But we can give them
away.
So ... for every purchase our regular Road Chatter Newsletter recipients
make, we will put their names in our drawing, and the person whose name is
drawn will receive a $39.95 Cobra Ferrari Wars DVD from Endless Road.
Remember, you must receive our newsletter by email to qualify for the
drawing.
Good Luck.
==================== ** ====================
Formula 1
2007 Schedule
Fox will be airing four of the F1 races this year. But this time, they are
doing it right. Fox will be using the same crew we know: Bob, David, Steve
and Peter. Remember, Fox owns Speed TV now. This could be a good thing; it
will make F1 visible to millions of new viewers. Increased interest could
be
good for F1 in the states.
March 18 Australia
April 8 Malaysia
April 15 Bahrain
May 13 Spain
May 27 Monaco
June 10 Montreal Fox
June 17 Indianapolis Fox
July 1 France Fox
July 8 Britain Fox
July 22 Germany
August 5 Hungary
August 26 Turkey
Sept. 9 Italy
Sept. 16 Belgium
Sept. 30 Japan
Oct. 7 China
Oct. 21 Brazil
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* Bits and Pieces
DO NOT get rid of your VHS machines; there are many great racing videos
that
are available on VHS tape and not scheduled to be put on DVD.
***
Cheap Seats
By Warren N. Miller
The old saying 'Nothing is Cheap' certainly applies to today's racing
activities, whether it's actually racing or just attending a race. NASCAR
tickets can go for hundreds of dollars per seat, and even a night at the
local dirt track can set you back a few dollars, not counting food,
parking,
and souvenirs, plus the cost of gasoline just to get there.
In 1963, I was stationed at the US Naval Hospital at Camp Pendleton, CA as
a
US Navy Hospital Corpsman. Two other corpsmen and I decided we would like
to
go to the 1963 Riverside 500. Since we did not have a car at the time, I
enlisted the help of another corpsman who was willing to drive, and we
decided, for whatever reason, that we would all go in uniform. Well, I was
the last one to be picked up, and when they arrived, everyone was wearing
civilian clothes. I immediately protested and said, 'Wait a minute, you
all
said we would go in uniform', but since it was already late, I didn't have
time to change. So, off we went, and from what I remember, it took several
hours to get there, and when we arrived, the parking lot official looked
in
the window of Howie's car and said '17'. Howard replied, '17 what?', and
the
guy said, '$5 for each of you and $2 for him because he's in uniform'.
Wow,
$2 to see the Riverside 500 - CHEAP - there must be a better word for it
than that. The race was even better than what I expected!
-- Every Car-Guy has interesting stories about their cars. If you would
like
to tell us one of your car stories, then when we use it, you will have
your
pick of any item we have on our web. One of our contributors from a
previous
issue chose one of our great Monaco posters.
***
Floating around on the web:
A motorist was unknowingly caught in an automated speed trap that measured
his speed using radar and photographed his car. He later received in the
mail a ticket for $40 and a photo of his car. Instead of payment, he sent
the police department a photograph of $40. Several days later, he received
a
letter from the police that contained another picture, this time of
handcuffs. He immediately mailed in his $40.
***
At Amelia Island:
Charlie Kolb, a road racing driver of the 60's and 70's, told how the
first
race he ever saw was the Twelve Hours of Sebring in the 50's. He and a few
friends were enjoying their favorite malt beverage, or perhaps whatever
they
could afford. Charlie was driving an MGA at the time. The only thing
between
his group and the race track was a snow fence. As the evening shade began
to
shroud the more remote areas of the track, and as they consumed more
refreshments, Charlie decided that this racing thing was something that he
could do. The snow fence was not much of a deterrent. Said Charlie, 'Well
.... I entered the race.' The race was going on; they could not stop the
race
to take him off the track, so Charlie stayed out there to the end of the
race. 'The surprising thing is, I passed a few.'
We have been telling you Amelia Island stories since we went there in
March
2006. Well, now you can see the whole discussion and hear the stories for
yourself. We have the Legends of Can Am DVD in stock. The Forum
Participants
were: Pete Biro, Peter Bryant, Dan Davis, George Drolsom, Vic Elford,
George
Follmer, Jim Hall, Hurley Haywood, Carl Kainhofer, Charlie Kemp, Oscar
Koveleski, Pete Lyons, Bob Nagel, Jackie Oliver, Sam Posey, Brian Redman,
and Bill Warner. Believe me, if you liked Can Am, you have to see this
DVD.
***
License Tag Novelists
Sometimes the tags are a bit romantic:
-White Accord Sedan: 0X0X4U2
-Silver Mitsubishi Wagon: SMILZ2U
-Very Green Ford ZX2 Coupe: D2 OF US
-VW Passat: OBAYBY
While some prefer to be more sinister:
-Black Lexus with very dark tinted windows: BLACOUT
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Car Trivia Answers
1) Mobil uses the winged horse, Pegasus, from Greek mythology. Pegasus was
the son of Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and the Gorgon Medusa.
Greek
mythology doesn't mention Poseidon doing a back flip in the middle of the
ocean.
2) In 1969, Volkswagen bought Audi.
3) Who purchased the first HUMVEE built for civilian use? You guessed it:
Arnold Schwarzenegger. We like to give easy ones once in a while.
(Thanks to our friend, Tim, the webmaster for Maryland Automobile Modelers
Association, MAMA.)
4) Ferrari won in 1979, but it was not an easy win. Carlos Reutemann left
Ferrari to partner with Mario Andretti at Lotus. That left room for Jody
Scheckter. This was the year that most of the teams were now sprouting
aerodynamics that had been so instrumental in last year's Lotus. Alan
Jones
won with his Williams in four of the last six races. But Jody's
consistency
was enough to take the title with only three wins. You can see it all on
the
Formula 1 1979 DVD. We now have each year of the 70's Formula 1 season on
DVDs.
5) The Chaparral 2 used stock tail-lights from a production Corvair.
Originally, the link between Jim Hall and GM was the hiring of Hall and
the
very secluded Rattlesnake Raceway (Midland, TX) to test Corvairs in
preparation for the (then) upcoming plethora of lawsuits. Needless to say,
after the roll-over tests, there were a lot of tail-lights lying around.
(Thanks to our friend, Jay D.)
--- Retreads ---
6) MOPAR muscle was packed in:
B Hemi 426/425hp & Six Pack 440/390hp
7) What European car has a name that's Latin for 'I Roll'?
'Volvo' is Latin for 'I Roll'.
(Our friend, Jeff, wants to know 'How come the Latins named all these
cars,
and they didn't have any of their own???')
8) Ford was not the only one with a Model T. From model year 1918 through
model year 1922, Chevrolet designed its 1-Ton trucks as Model T's.
(Source: Standard Catalog of Light-Duty American Trucks, 1993. Thanks
again
to our friend, Tim, the webmaster for Maryland Automobile Modelers
Association, MAMA.)
9) There are at least two stories to Ferrari's Prancing Stallion's
origination. One is that Enzo Ferrari had won a race in 1923, and, in
honor
of this, he was given a piece of fabric from the Spad S13 fighter plane of
a
member of the Baracca family of Modena. The fabric showed a black prancing
horse, possibly part of the Baracca family crest. Enzo apparently liked
the
idea and adopted it as his own. Another story told by the late Battista
Pininfarina is that Ferrari's brother served with, and died in, the same
squadron as Baracca, and, because of this, the Countess Baracca suggested
to
Enzo that he should use the Prancing Stallion on his cars as a memorial.
(Both versions of this came from 'Ferrari The Sports/Racing and Road Cars'
by Godfrey Eaton, 1982.)
10) In the early 30's, four German auto companies joined forces to better
survive the poor economic times. These were Horch, Wanderer, DKW and Audi.
The interlocking rings symbolize the joining of these four.
(Thanks to our friend, Jeff, for this one.)
==================== ** ====================
15% Off Purchases For Your Trivia Questions
To Tim, Jay., and Jeff, thanks for the trivia questions. Remember, you
three
will receive 15% discounts on your next orders.
We try to choose these trivia questions from several groups and still be
interesting. This time we have a brawny Governor, F1 Champs, Crushed
Corvairs, Muscular MOPARs, Latin Lessons, Model T Chevys, four Germans, a
prancing horse, a flying horse and a few Greek Gods.
Anyone have any trivia questions of your own? Send us an interesting fact
on
just about anything on wheels: cars, trucks, F1, Drags, Muscle Cars, weird
obsolete car thingies, whatever, and, when we use it, you get 15% off all
purchases on everything on your next order.
***
Thanks,
Dave Payne
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