Koenigsegg Trevita CCXR

Does it get cooler than this, Jay Leno, Christian Koenigsegg, and the car...enjoy!

Model Cars

Who did not build models at one time or another? GMP has very cool mostly "nostalgia" models.

In case you are wondering, the Yellow dragster is the Greer-Black-Prudhomme car yes that Keith Black and that Don Prudhomme.

Visit the GMP site and Tom's Garage.

Vro0m Ro0m

Good Morning!

Its Caffe Latte and biscotti this morning, spring is in the air!!!

Does it ever happen to you that at times you seem to be a wee bit behind, especially when some things gain a higher priority. We have a few things gain priority last week and early this week, but we are catching up. The beauty of life is its unpredictability.

Did you know? We started Strada Posterous, we are using it as our "scribble board" to make quick notes on "things" that catch our attention. Make sure you read the Banjos entry.

If you remember our First Car series from some time ago, we scribbled an entry on Posterous, take a look. 

Lately we have had several "instantaneous" encounters with The Colonel he's a busy guy these days, must be that spring has arrived, and he's trying to get out of hibernation mode, or perhaps its something else. At some point he well get in touch with us....perhaps he is reflecting on "something".

Are you getting the feeling that some manufacturers are becoming "recall addicts"? Do we really have to mention names? 

If you are looking for reviews on automotive books visit Speed Readers, and you can follow on Twitter @speedreaders.

For the first time RM is holding an auction in Monaco tomorrow...take a look.

By now you know that we have an affinity for horsepower, the Kentucky Derby is tomorrow.

Spend a moment perusing the photo gallery of Kokomo...its a cool yacht.

Comprehensive photo gallery of the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este held last week end.

After the success of the New Year 2010 Wave, we just started a Wave to support Corvette Racing for the LeMans race.

Blueprinting

Back in the day when carburetors, ignition points, distributors, mechanical linkages were popular, or better yet the only thing available. Blueprinting was if nothing else a term that was often used by publications, and gearheads. 

The most popular was to blueprint an engine, its fair to say that the small block Chevrolet was the subject of many a blueprinting article.

It always started by visiting a salvage yard to find the correct engine configuration, be it by knowing the casting numbers for the various blocks that were available, the same for the cylinders heads that had different combustion chambers, valve sizes, and identification markings.

Once you secured one of these engines (if you were lucky), usually for "not a lot of money", it was as simple as dismantling the engine, inspected all the parts, thoroughly cleaning all the parts, and initiating a painstaking task of "massaging" the various parts to ensure a "blueprinted" fit, as well as massaging new replacement parts.

There were a myriad of sources to gather information on how various engine builders would assemble the engines, what was being done to the block, the heads. Especially in the days of muscle cars, Trans Am racing, it was easy to get information. One engine builder that would always "come up" was TRACO with the "porch grey" engines, as well as Smokey Yunick.

The steps were usually the same, from deburring the block to remove potential stress points, to checking all the clearances, to at least porting the heads, which could be done from a student to race engine budget and everything in between.

Operating on a limited budget "blueprinting" an engine was an excellent winter project, especially that many if not most steps involved time consuming labor. On the same tight budget the Bill Jenkins rule of nothing chromed on the engine applied.

Once that engine made its way in a car, it was "your engine", it was "your specs", and at times your mistakes a too. Did it really run better? Sure it ran better, and often one would test the limits of how good it ran....

Think about it, today several manufacturers charge an appreciable premium to put a name tag on an engine!

Once the engine was blueprinted, the advance curve in the distributor was blueprinted, the carburetor was at least tweaked, and fine tuning the blueprinting was an ongoing task to improve on the performance of the engine.

It was "your engine" with your massaging and your specs!

Aprilia RSV4 at Big Dog Garage

Here is Jay Leno giving a walk around of the Aprilia RSV4 while telling us to do the math, to convey the message of just how fast sport bikes have become.