Auto Mobiles

For the first time, a tire supplier receives the Outstanding Achievement Award. The award was given to the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and it was Penske Truck Leasing who gave away the award.

Goodyear was chosen by Penske as the deserving winner for the Outstanding Achievement Award because of the high quality tires that it has been supplying Penske. The tire company had been supplying Penske with truck tires of all types - from replacement tires to retread tires to everything else in between. Goodyear has also been providing tire services to Penske.

Aside from the Outstanding Achievement Award, Goodyear also received from Penske the Tire Supplier of the Year award. This is the 8th time in a row that Goodyear received such an accolade. Steve McClellan, the vice president of Goodyear’s commercial tire systems, have shared that the company looks at the recognition with much significance for it is a reflection of the kind of products and services and they offer.

Drowsy driving is just as deadly as drunk driving, the National Road Safety Foundation, Inc. disclosed. And most drivers are not really aware of this fact. Some think that drowsy driving is not a big deal.

A recent study done by the NRSFI reflected that 60% of drivers felt tired while they were out for a drive. More than 33% of the lot was brave enough to share that they even fell asleep while driving. This just goes to show that drowsy driving is dangerous and is one of the major causes of crashes.

The NRSFI sent out a list of signs that all drivers have to watch out for:

• Difficulty focusing, with frequent blinking
• Daydreaming or not remembering the last few miles driven
• Head nodding
• Repeated yawning or rubbing eyes
• Drifting out of your lane, tailgating or hitting shoulder rumble strips

If you notice yourself with at least one of these signs, it would be best that you pull over and let somebody else drive you home instead.

[Via The Auto Channel]

…or, even more on Pontiac’s attempts to badge-engineer the El Camino. As mentioned in the other day’s post on the Grand Am-amino, Pontiac built a prototype sedan pickup with Catalina front sheetmetal in 1959. As John Sawruk, relates, Pontiac may have built two, and one was used by the Pontiac Retail Store in Pontiac, Michigan, as a parts chaser. Sawruk said he knows the owner of the one known El Catalina, who has repeatedly said since the 1970s that he plans to put it back together someday.

I’m not holding my breath.

So you think you’re a good driver, bub? ‘You good enough to handle…China? Yeah? Well, put your money where your mouth is, and give China Car Times’ version of the standard Chinese driving test. Part of the challenge is attempting to get inside the head of the translator (what IS the difference between a slip, slide and skid, anyway? And what the heck is a contour light?). You goal: Beat my pitiful 71.43%–not even close to the 90% needed to pass.

More intimidating is that this is a mini, 65-question version of the real 100-question quiz, and the thought that “Chinese people who are studying for the theory test have a book containing 1000 questions and answers.” When I got my license, the State of New York gave me 20 on mine, and I needed to get, what, seven right?

Lets see how the rest of you stack up.

While TA posted more than a year ago about the gloriously awesome Canadian Military Pattern trucks, he unbelievably glossed over the coolest CMP variant, the C8A. While both Chevrolet and Ford built CMP variants from about 1942 to 1945, it appears just Chevrolet built the C8A type, which looks like a pug-nosed box on a four-wheel-drive chassis. Spotted the one above in Bill Wolf’s pictures from the 2007 Weare rally.

And I’m not the only one who appreciates their cubist faces. Found more pictures at canadianmilitarypattern.com and the above 3D rendering by todd587 at deviantart.com…

…and the one above in the Guthrie Collection of Military Vehicles in the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

I need one.

Recently got an email from Greg Steinmayer of Dearborn, Michigan, inviting us to check out his photos of the Warhoops junkyard - specifically of a few Motorama show cars hanging out at Warhoops before Joe Bortz discovered and subsequently bought them.

The cars are the Lasalle, Lasalle II Roadster and the Biscayne. The Lasalle was nearly complete, right down to the tires with the whitewalls down the center of the treads (the plexi windshield was inside the car.) and the phony engine. The roadster was almost completely destroyed but enough parts were left to see what it had been.

The Biscayne was missing its doors, roof, interior, chassis and trunklid. I took the photos in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s at Warhoops, a junyard located in Sterling Heights, Michigan, about 6 miles due north of GM’s Tech Center. They used to get all of GM’s stuff. Of course, with nearly 20 years gone, none of the other cars visible in the pictures remain - Warhoops has gone completely to modern iron.

The more I look at these photos, the more I think about how Bortz is a lucky lucky man.