SURFACE VEHICLE RESOURCES
TECHNICAL RESOURCES
Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers (Standards & Journals)
Society of Automotive Engineers (Standards & Journals)
U.S. FCC Equipment ID Reverse Search
Comment on cross-pollination of aviation and automotive fields.
INTERESTING VEHICLES
Ultimate Pick-Em-Up Truck?Keith's comment on "recycling" automotive design decisions.
Old Electric Rail Vehicle
(you can ride on them in Vancouver BC in the summer)
James J. Hill and the Great Northern Railway
- built with private funds to operate profitably
(by operating efficiently through areas where freight would be available,
not by government grants that fostered hasty building).
For a novel with railroad operations as the occupation and passion of a lead character, read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
This reality test of train cars raised my eyebrows: This track's too good.
(Regrets, the story is no longer there - it described challenges of making a test track in England
with features of real tracks that cause problems for trains (including wet leaves).)
(Globe and Mail, April 25, 2002, Reuters News Service)
Monorail transit system - privately funded, profitable.
A modern transit train system.(driverless)
An "Art Deco" commercial ferry boat?
(The Kalakala operated in WA state, last I heard restoration enthusiasts were running out of funds to even pay moorage.)
and trends in ship propulsion
(oops - registration now required to view the article)
Nice car
(I had one, a blue '67 Camaro 350 with both RS & SS trim plus red-stripe wide oval tires and white top, but sold it to get a car my then-wife could learn to drive on (and save money on gasoline).)
Here's one web site with much technical information on the first generation Camaro, including what was not in the factory service manual - wiring for the headlight doors (with diode hidden in the wiring harness under the LH fender lip inside the engine compartment, not where Pozzi says it is).
Sportier car
(special version of the mid-late 60s Corvair)
(Even more radical was the installation of a V-8 engine in the back seat, bolting right up to the original transaxle (with a simple reinforcement, just turned around to suit a mid engine instead of the original flat-6 behind the rear wheels) for good weight distribution and lots of go with good handling. Has anyone installed a V-6, which would take up less room? (The V-6 was not readily available when the V-8 installation was designed, but now is - complete with high performance equipment. It is not as smooth in principle though some have balance shafts.)
Pages and pages of restored cars and customs in Cruzin' Magazine.
Much well researched history of automobiles, mostly classic cards including Australian models, some older and newer.
Future to the Back
Keith's irreverent look at recycling of automobile configurations.
Museums and Shows too (local club web sites should have links to worldwide sites)
- Pacific Northwest Truck Museum (near I-5 in the broad valley well south of Portland Oregon) (and perhaps a power equipment museum nearby)
- Antique trucks on Vancouver Island
(There's usually an antique truck show north of Duncan every summer, perhaps in June, either at the forestry museum or the fairgrounds.)
- the Fred Deeley motorcycle dealership in the Vancouver BC area has a museum of motorcycles and would know of car museums
- there's a large collection in Tacoma WA that opens a few times a year, ask around to find it
- there was a small car museum beside the Trans-Canada highway somewhere well east of Kamloops BC, on the northeasterly side, a small break from driving
- further east in Revelstoke BC there's a good train museum, with a large oil-fired steam engine (the day I was there it was complete with an "engineer" who had driven it back whenever, he told me about the operation, water capacity limited its distance between stops), and a gift shop. (Please let me know if you see the book Atlas Shrugged in the shop, its heroine runs a railroad.)
- there's a collection of train cars in Cranbrook in SE B.C., emphasizing passenger coaches if I recall correctly
- and off in SE Iowa state there's trains, trams, antique tractors and farm machinery, educational exhibits for children, and old steam equipment including a merry-go-round. In a fairgrounds in a town, they have a several day long open event at labour day.
DRIVING THEM WELL
For educating drivers I suggest the PTEC Driver Handbook which provides meaninful explanations of "why" that government dropped from its guide (though appears to have re-introduced in part).
The guide is by PTEC, operating out of the Justice Institute of BC in New Westminster.)
Beware that email enquiries to addresses given by the JIBC site may not receive response, reception personnel may not be properly aware of what programs operate out of the building.
But the handbook is worth persistence and the under-$10. price.
It is available by phone, try 604-525-5805.
That PTEC web page for guides provides a downloadable order form and claims the JIBC's online store has it, but I would phone both departments first as JIBC's web sites are not great.
As well, there is advice on handling skids, in the Winter Driving publication of Transport Canada. Look for it by title or the number TP 14840 in http://www.tc.gc.ca/roadsafety (a no-charge download though the web pages are a little confusing, probably because paper copy can be purchased). It may also be available through members of the Canadian Automobile Association.
Advice for newer drivers.
MAINTAINING THEM WELL
Start of an RV winterizing checklist.
Advice for newer drivers on buying and maintaining automobiles.
GOVERNING WELL
Will today’s clunkers be future classics?
Is cash for clunkers program destroying past and future classics?
Intellectual property of Keith Sketchley
2015.11.23
Please advise Keith if any links don't work or have become inappropriate - the Internet changes. (The Seattle Times has changed to requiring registration to view archives, so get less publicity.)
