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AutoNotes #17, 08/11/94 copr. 1994, Dave Williams
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GM has ceased production of their CNG pickups and recalled 2500
already-sold trucks after a few exploded during refueling. Those
ground wires and "No Smoking" signs are there for a reason...
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Chevrolet has finally updated their "Chevy Power" handbook. It's
available as GM part number 24502488, or from your local bookstore
from HPBooks.
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Delco Electronics has introduced their "Telepath 100" radio. It
includes a GPS receiver and a modified Etak navigation system. The
device also provides for future enhancements, such as a HUD display,
one-touch cellphone dialing, a traffic information receiver, and a
Mayday transponder. What, no CD player?!
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While we're on electrical things, you might've noticed Packard
Electric plug wires or other items. Packard Electric was originally
part of the Packard automobile company. Packard itself was bought
out by Studebaker and they both went down the toilet, but Packard
Electric is still around, tracing its lineage back to the Packard
brothers in 1890.
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The first use of a neon sign was by a Los Angeles Packard dealer in
1923.
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Brodix has introduced their new Smokey Yunick signature heads. No
big deal, but they also carry California EO numbers. Sounds like a
step up from the FSH heads, at least name-wise.
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Montgomery Ward department stores are now carrying Hoosier tires.
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Ford once sold Mazda pickups as Ford Couriers. Mazda is now selling
Ford Ranger pickups with Mazda badges. Chevrolet once sold Isuzu
pickups as Chevy LUVs. Now Isuzu and Chevy have cut a new deal, and
Isuzu will sell S10 pickups with Isuzu badges.
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VW's old assembly plant in Pennsylvania didn't make it, but BMW
seems happy enough with their plant in South Carolina. Now Mercedes
is building a plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. ZF is also planning an
Alabama facility. GM's own Saturn plant is in Tennessee, and Nissan's
truck plant is in Smyrna Tennessee. Honda builds cars and
motorcycles in Marysville Ohio and Kawasaki builds motorcycles in
Lincoln Nebraska. Looks like the nobody likes Michigan any more.
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Remember the movie "Timerider" where the hero had a heads-up display
built into his crash helmet? Believe it or not it's already here -
at least two British companies are offering similar systems for
Formula 1 drivers, along with a couple more companies offering
variants of the "Private Eye" one-eye viewer. There's also a company
in the US offering "virtual reality glasses" which project a
transparent big-screen image from a belt mounted TV receiver.
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The issue of tobacco and liquor companies advertising their products
by sponsoring race cars has been a recurring issue in the USA since
the late 1960s. It's hitting Europe now. In their rush to do the
"right thing", whatever that is, the EC passed a directive banning
advertising of pharmaceuticals in May 1992. Belgium restricts
advertising for fuels, Portugal for cars, France for computer
hardware, Greece bans media and toy advertising. Alcohol sponsorship
advertising is limited in every country of the EC and banned outright
in Belgium and Italy. Tobacco products suffer the same fate in
Portugal and Italy. It's getting a little crazy out there...
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GM is trying to develop "reverse camouflage" to make cars easier to
see. They claim one out of every seven road crashes happen because
the driver didn't see the other vehicle. I doubt any sort of
paint scheme, flashing lights, or siren is going to help - the
average roadgoing couch potato simply doesn't LOOK past the hood
ornament. It's not uncommon for the potatos to slam into 18
wheelers, garbage trucks, fire engines, marked police cars, and
taxicabs. GM, if you remember, is the company that's going to start
wiring their headlights to stay on all the time, starting with some
of the 1995 models. Some sudden politically correct safety drive?
This is the same company that attaches the outboard ends of some of
their seatbelts to the DOOR, for crying out loud.
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After years of futzing around, Ford has suddenly chilled out on its
Orbital-based two stroke engines. Ford UK may continue to develop
it. If you believe Ford's PR people it was ready to go into
production any day now for the last few years.
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Detroit's Big Three are talking about standardizing electrical
connector designs across their model lines, going from around 100
separate connectors to maybe 10. Sounds like a reasonably good idea,
as long as they use GM's Weatherpak instead of Ford's sorry excuse
for electrical joinery.
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For you motorcyclists, Tsubaki (800-323-7790) is now selling
stainless steel chains.
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If you think NASCAR or Indy cars are expensive, try unlimited
hydroplane boats. The popular definition of "boat" is 'a hole in the
water, which you throw money into until it sinks." Unlimiteds use
military-surplus gas turbine engines at around $60,000 each, and run
them far beyond their service ratings, making their lifetimes short.
Props cost about $10,000 each and have a service life of only 45
minutes before fatigue failure. And if you thought a custom made
fiberglass hull was expensive, you don't even want to know what it
costs to autoclave a 25 foot carbon fiber hull...
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