1934 150 Sport Roadster Mercedes Benz, one of 5 made, only one left just restored last year by the Irvine Merc. Benz Classic Center

Click on the above for the story of the finding of, and acquistion of this rare Benz, and final restoration by the Mercedes Benz Classic Center in Irvine - not the Stuttgart Mercedes Benz Center! Huh!

One very unusual limousine, one very small woman, the 1912 Cole 40 limo, and the worlds smallest woman

Just look at the full size version, and the details of how they made a relatively sized full cab for her in place of an ordinary back seat in a 7 passenger touring car, and just below and behind the driver is a set of stairs, and a regular trunk under the footman on the back. Thanks to Navarro Zonta who shared this with Nik of http://carrosantigos.wordpress.com/ who finds all the coolest stuff!

Bottom two images are from a great source of info and factory sales brochure images: http://www.american-automobiles.com/Cole-1919-1925.html

1911 Oldsmobile Limited, series 27 / limousine, biggest tires ever factory installed on a car

The fine print in the above ID card tell us that this is the only one left in existance, and that the tires are 43".

Amazing variety of unusual railcars from Steampunkvehicles tumblr

Why he's riding a big wheel / pennytfarthing on rails is anyone's guess... but I'm guessing he was a SOB to work for

There has to be a reason for the strange design angle of the steam engine, I'm going to guess it was for big uphill angles so the heat exchanger tubes would be level

Above is Ridgeway Railway Museum

Above is a Packard

1889 photo of a wharf steam crane in Gisborne New Zealand

Railcar with it's own portable turntable so they can drive back where they came from facing whatever they might run into

all of these are from http://http//steampunkvehicles.tumblr.com which has an incredible variety of all things old and steam powered

the "NeverWas Haul" is the name of this vehicle at Burning Man

Above from http://steampunkvehicles.tumblr.com

In the above the cow catcher is missing

http://www.neverwashaul.com/ to see and learn all about it

All three of these were from different sites, and I've posted two of them before, but never together. The middle one is new to me, and from http://megamoto.tumblr.com/

the guy in charge is Major Catastrophe, and is interviewed here about what it's about: http://etheremporium.pbworks.com/w/page/10454244/Neverwas-Haul

The 1936 BMW snow machine

I found these photos before, but never could find the top one to make them a pair in a post, because in the top photo, you can't tell that there is a sidecar, and I didn't know it was a BMW

Top photo from http://motorcycle-74.blogspot.com

ignore the rider, what do you think about this unique morphing of a motorwheel and a motorcycle

found on http://motorcycle-74.blogspot.com

Innovation in steering wheel design, that never went into production... the "Wrist Twist" from Mercury

At Mercury, engineer Bob Rumm produced this one-off 1965 Mercury Park Lane convertible with so-called "wrist-twist" steering controls. The standard steering wheel has been replaced by two 5-inch, wrist-operated dials, that the promo claims frees up knee room, improves visibility and makes parking easier.

Skip the first 45 seconds and the male chauvenist attitude, they are both useless

Found on http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-were-they-thinking-mercurys-wrist.html

Jim Lakey's Speed Shop, Piqua Ohio, 1963 Nash Metro B/Comp dragster. Lovin it.

Found on http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428585

24 butterflies, 8 blowers, and makes 3400 hp worth of Nitrous powered grin... Mike Harrah's Detroit Diesel, does it make you feel a bit awed?

180 photo gallery of the intake and engine going together here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/learaviator/sets/72157623774941005


learned about it on http://www.autoblog.hu/videok/video_24_hengeres_dizelmotor.html

not much info on the www yet, but I did find that the guy is a millionaire real estate developer, and owns the biggest of the Blastolene cars (can't recall the name, it's the one with the PT boat Packard engine) and this titan engine is going into a Peterbuilt 359

Zaniest thing I've seen in a while, the Jade Warrior from 1985

Skip the first 30 seconds

Learned about it from http://zelastchancegaragedu78.blogspot.com/ information from http://www.dragzine.com/news/the-jade-warrior-a-truly-insane-and-one-of-a-kind-ride/

The creation of British motorcycle racer Angus MacPhail, who built it himself in his garage, it's called the “Jade Warrior,” did the quarter mile in under 8 seconds a quarter century ago without the use of nitromethane. That's riding on the tip of a bullet.

It was powered by an inline 4-cylinder that blended MacPhail’s own engineering with that of a Ford Cosworth and sported a Roots supercharger producing somewhere between 400 and 500 horsepower.

The frame was, obviously, a completely one-off piece that was built monocoque-style – with a main center section made of alloy and put together with Araldite adhesive and Monel rivets. A well-designed body with ground effects incorporated helped keep it stable and hooked up at close to 200 MPH. Angus claimed it was actually very easy to navigate down the track.

One big honking vehicle, the TC-497 Overland Train, Obsolete the day it was finished

Above image from Big Lorry Blog, where there are a couple more photos and the info that one is restored and at Ft Yuma Arizona http://www.roadtransport.com/blogs/big-lorry-blog/2010/10/more-le-tourneau-overland-trai.html#more

In the 1950s the LeTourneau company developed several overland trains, essentially oversized semi-trailer trucks that could travel over almost any terrain. Their intention was to be able to handle logistics needs without being dependent on local road or rail systems, allowing them to operate in back-country areas.

six-wheeled TC-497 Overland Train MkII used four Solar gas-turbine engines (at 1,170hp each, that’s 4,680hp total) to spin generators that delivered juice to 54 total motors – one for each of its wheels. Of its 12 trailers, two were dedicated just to carrying the turbines and generators. The Overland Train stretched 572 feet long, easily making it the world’s longest vehicle. Funny enough, it could only carry 150 tons of freight – as much as the Sno-Freighter – though it carried such developments as steerable trailer wheels that allowed the entire train more maneuverability.

Read about it here: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2009/11/19/54-wheel-drive-the-letourneau-electric-arctic-land-trains-that-put-australian-road-trains-to-shame/ because Dan at Hemmings wrote a cool long post about the land trains

For other crazy polar exploring vehicles: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2009/12/arctic-or-antarctic-explorers.html