Once More, With Feeling

Time to wrap up my coverage of the classic car show at the Howard County Fair with a quick blast of photos representing my personal "Best In Show."

THE ROADSTER COLLECTION

First, a gorgeous black Porsche. I'll take one in black and another in red, please.

First of several Corvettes - this red one is from the '60s...

... and THIS red one is from the '50s (maybe '58).

This 'Vette is a couple years older still, a '55 or '56, the first generation. Note that the quad headlights from the red 'Vette above debuted on many GM models in 1958.

THE PONY CAR & SEDAN COLLECTION

Always competing, even when parked in a field with the bonnet up. Here a Camaro SS and a Mustang show us what's under the hood.

Somebody spent a ton of cash on this highly-modified Studebaker Golden Hawk. Gorgeous. Not subtle.

A moment of silence, please, as we pay our respects to the Plymouth brand, God rest her soul. Still flying the flag.

"Goodnight, Jim Bob."

"Goodnight, John Boy."

A prop from "Driving Miss Daisy"?

THE PICKUP COLLECTION

This gorgeous green Chevy reminds me of a Stepside my younger brother had back in the '90s. Much like my old Caprice, I'm sure he'd love to have that truck back now. I'd love to have this one myself.

Stepping back in time a decade or two, we find this immaculately-restored Ford, another Stepside.

Next I found a two-tone Ford, a Fleetside restored to within an inch of its life. My uncle, a plumber in North Carolina, had a more pedestrian monotone example very much like this one.

This one I wanted to drive home that afternoon. One thing was clear at this show: many of these car collectors have a ton of cash to spend on restorations, chrome engine treatments, custom paint jobs and interiors, etc. Recession? What recession?!

Finally, a great old Chevy stepside with side-mounted spare, next to a fabulous fifties Ford with a power retractable hardtop. Nice!

Hope you enjoyed the pics. Odds are I'll hit another show this fall, and I pledge to remember to bring a REAL camera next time so that I don't have to rely on the single-use, drug-store specials...

More Classic Iron

Among the other fabulous cars I saw at the Howard County Fair a couple weekends ago was this lovely back number. Love this freakin' hearse. Check out the custom coachwork, including side panels that look like curtains. At first glance I thought they were some sort of plastic do-dads added in the 70s - but it's actually STEEL, people! The owner had photos of the unrestored car with rust covering those drapery panels. I've never seen anything like it - a real looker.

Below is a gorgeous 1940 Buick. The sign says "96 produced. This is allegedly the extant version with dual side mounts." So this one might be worth some bank.

Also of interest to me, thanks to my Mopar jones, was a gorgeous Chrysler Imperial. A few shots - check out the fabulous tail-lights, and the headlights-on-stalks. Car also had a push-button automatic transmission (which makes an enormous amount of sense, when you think about it). Some fascinating details.

More cars to come in my next post. Stay tuned!

Classic Car Show at the Howard Country Fair

I found my grandfather's car at the

Howard County Fair auto show a couple weeks ago. OK, not EXACTLY my grandfather's car, but a twin sister. On what had to be one of the hottest days of 2009 (and brightest, judging by my over-exposed photos), I drove up to the fairgrounds to have a gander at the antique machinery.

And there it was: a 1973 Chevrolet Caprice, a near twin of the burgundy Classic I bought from my grandfather in 1992. To this day, I wish I hadn't sold that cherry ride. Burgundy paint, black vinyl hard top, immaculate burgundy cloth interior, pillarless doors, and a honking V-8. Nice.

The green and white example at the fair was a real looker, too, in excellent condition. I had a nice chat with its owner, a delightful older gentleman who's owned the car for 40 years.

Here are a couple more images of that fabulous ride that brought back a lot of memories.

Stay tuned for more images from the show - lots of nice iron.

The Dymaxion Map & Geodesic Dome

Two of Bucky Fuller's Many Innovations

While researching my prior post on The Buckminster Fuller Challenge, I ran across another of Fuller's innovations, the Dymaxion Map. It's a fascinating application of Fuller's folded-triangle geometric principles. These principles also generated the geodesic dome, of which Epcot Center is probably the most famous example:

Below is a geodesic dome designed by Fuller in 1967 for The Bioshere, a water and environment museum in Montreal:

Below are a couple more examples, showing the triangular sections and how they fit together to form a 2-dimensional representation of the 3-dimensional earth.

If you're interested in learning more about the works of Fuller, his life and innovations, this website offers books, posters, and more. Enjoy!

2009 Bucky Fuller Challenge Winner

"Does humanity have a chance to survive lastingly and successfully on planet Earth, and if so, how?"

Legendary designer and futurist Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller (1895-1983) was concerned with this question throughout his life. His inventions and innovations focused on ways to minimize our impact on this earth while maximizing human potential.

Every year, the non-profit Buckminster Fuller Institute conducts a contest (the Buckminster Fuller Challenge) and awards a $100,000 prize "to support the development and implementation of a strategy that has significant potential to solve humanity’s most pressing problems." The winner of the 2009 Challenge is the Smart Cities Group at the MIT Media lab, for their entry entitled "Sustainable Personal Mobility and Mobility-on-Demand Systems", which is a system of sharing 2- and 4-wheel vehicles in an urban setting. The innovative proposal includes a collapsable 2-wheel "RoboScooter" and stackable 4-wheeled "CityCar." Excerpted from the winning proposal:

"Mobility-on-Demand systems utilize fleets of shared-use lightweight electric vehicles placed at automatic charging racks throughout a city. The CityCar and RoboScooter, both folding vehicles, along with the Green-Wheel Bicycle, minimize parking space and can be picked-up and dropped-off at any rack. Mobility-on-Demand systems maximize mobility and dramatically reduce congestion and pollution through energy and land-use efficiency."

Details of the proposal, and those of other contest entries, can be found here.