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A Target 18-wheeler ended up off-target near Monticello, Minnesota this morning when the driver apparently lost control and plunged off the roadway into a frozen lake. State Police are trying to figure out how this happened. More »
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The small town of Cloquet, Minnesota (pop: 11,000) is home to the gorgeous R.W. Lindholm Service Station, the only gas station design by Frank Lloyd Wright. But this was not just a place for pumping gas. This little two-floor car-centric building was to be the social and cultural center of the architect's vision of a future — a future we now live — and drink coffee — in. More »
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Nick Ayers is the campaign manager for Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty's bid to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2012. Five years ago, while running a campaign for Georgia's governor, he was stopped for drunk driving. His attempt to talk his way out through politics just came to light. More »
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It's the old story: Guy meets girl at a party, gets a little wasted, asks girl to drive him home. Except in this story the girl was 12, ran off a Minnesota county road and could face a DWI charge. More »
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The yearly traffic crackdown by police across Minnesota tapped a red Corvette owner in rural Wadena County, whose passenger ratted out the driver for doing 178 mph. Maybe Prince ran out of pancakes? (Hat tip to Eric!) [Minneapolis Star-Tribune] More »
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Two people are dead after a crash in Minnesota yesterday when a truck loaded with 17 million bees scattered the insects across the highway. Firefighters had to spray the bees with hoses to protect emergency personnel. More »
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A couple stopped to help what they thought was an injured cat on a Minnesota highway; turns out the cat's paws were glued to asphalt forcing the pads to detach when rescued. Not cool Minnesota, not cool. [MyFoxDC] More »
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This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition, where we check out interesting street-parked cars located in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot. Here's an AMC that's beaten the odds and survives on the snowy Minnesota street! More »
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Now that I'm scanning negatives, I've fed some old family slides through the scanner as well. Here's one from pre-California Chez Martin, circa 1970, in lovely Spring Lake Park, Minnesota. More »
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What is it with car thieves? A Minnesota man repeatedly dialed 911 after stealing a car to brag that cops couldn't catch him. Did they? Yep. More »
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My grandfather was quite the rally and ice-racing fanatic back in the 1950s and 1960s (running mostly Porsche 356s and Saab 93s) and now I've got a couple of his 8mm movies, shot in 1960. More »
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While you might not be able to afford Jerry Lundegaard's Olds Ciera, Fargo wasn't the only downward-spiral Minnesota crime movie made in the 90s! That's right, the '66 Volvo 122S wagon driven by Bill Paxton's character in A Simple Plan is up for sale on Craigslist! It's not running, so it's more of a Project Movie Car Hell machine than a daily driver, but: fame! More »
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This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition, where we check out interesting street-parked cars located in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot. With the '91 Alfa Romeo 164L we saw down on the Alameda street this morning, we might as look at a miraculous Alfa this afternoon? Why miraculous? Because this 1991 Alfa Romeo 164L lives down on the Minneapolis street, a street stained red from the ruined metal of cars that dare to park upon it. MBAcuraFan took some shots of this amazingly unrusty Pininfarina creation; make the jump to read his description. More »
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The wacky and crazy Google Street View vehicles that manage to capture all of the perfect moments have gotten themselves banned from a United States city, again (kind of). The town of North Oaks, a northeast community and suburb of Minneapolis has chased the Google cars away. They were able to do so because the roads in this community are owned by the residents. The residents reportedly enforce a strict "trespassing ordinance," and per a letter sent to Google earlier this year, the search engine giant removed the pictures and banished the vehicles from ever returning. More »
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Those crazy Minnesotans aren't going to let a little 20-below weather stop them from taking their Saabs and MGAs out for some racing, you betcha! My grandfather, a proud St. Paul native, was serious about rally madness and ice-racing lunacy back in the 50s and 60s, and he'd probably still be doing it today at age 91 if his eyesight were a little better and he still had the ol '356 (or the Corvair... or the Dauphine...). He's handed over some of his racing memorabilia to me, including his Curta Peppermill and some of his old Twin Cities Sports Car Club newsletters. Here's the February 1967 TCSCC newsletter, which shows how those tough-guy Minnesotans pretended they weren't freezing their nodules off in ludicrous weather conditions. Uff da! Yeah, it's not as cool as the 8mm movie film I have of actual races, but I haven't had a chance to get them digitized yet. More »
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It's impossible not to love an ad for a vehicle that includes the statement: "You're stuck on one hole and you're using a vehicle that sinks to get there. There is a better way." Yes indeed, folks, there is a better way to go ice fishing! See, all the time that you spend moving your ice-fishing shack around the frozen lake, rescuing your sunken pickup truck, etc... that's time you could be spending pounding peach schnapps! For you, the folks at Wilcraft have produced the Ultimate Ice Fishing Rig. It floats, it has tracks, and it has a built-in canvas enclosure to keep your schnapps from freezing. Thanks to Thunder for the tip! [Wilcraft] More »
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It seems that there's nothing to do in Minnesota but drink and drive, at least over the holidays. According to police, they were making a stop on the suspicion of a DWI when a car full of twenty-something women from St. Cloud plowed into the parked police cruiser. These are the times when we make crucial decisions in our lives and, in this case, the young lady driving the car didn't make the right decision. More »
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You know what's super lame? When you're whacked out on meth and crash the car you just stole in a ditch. But wait, there's a happy off-duty Sheriff's Deputy driving by. He'll help you! The Sheriff's Deputy was, fortunately, not on meth and was able to put two-and-two together. Dean Gangl, said meth-head, was charged with being in possession of a controlled substance, possession of a stolen car, and possession of wonderfully bad luck.[Fox Twin Cities] More »
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The excrement of avians is not being ruled out as a factor in the collapse of the I-35 bridge on the River Mississippi in the Twin Cities. Apparently, pigeon dung, when dried, exudes salts. Salts which corrode steel and wear away concrete. Years back, grates were installed on the bridge's structure to discourage nesting, but they didn't necessarily stop the rampant pooping of birds with an interest in a river view. While authorities admit that it's far from certain that bird shit caused the July collapse, they're looking into the possibility. The lingering spirit of Alec Guinness, at the present time, is not under suspicion. [SFGate] More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=292481&view=rss&microfeed=true It's always fun doing your hoonage when you're on The Man's clock; most of us have had some fun times with forklift races, delivery-truck donuts, etc. But when you're doing it as part of your job- in this case, to advertise St. Paul's Apex Auto Salvage- well, that takes it to a whole new level. Imagine it- a runner shows up at the yard and the call goes out to set up the ramp! Here's a flat-tired Maxima getting some decent air. But wait, there's more... More »
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Minnesotans do the damndest things. One man has kept an old Ford Econoline pickup running for decades despite the car-eating nature of winter Midwestern roads, while another has taken inspiriation from it, the Corvair Rampside and the A-100 pickup and created what can only be known as the Astromino. Except that it actually reveals itself to be a GMC Sprintfari upon closer inspection. Click through for the vintage side of this zen arcade of two. [Thanks to Jason for the snapshots.] More »
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We're not really sure why this is an issue, but hey, it seems vaguely newsworthy, so what the heck. Apparently, some Muslim Twin-Cities cabbies are irked about rules forcing them to the back of the taxi line at the airport if they refuse a fare for any reason. And why are they refusing fares? Because some believe the transportation of alcohol to be against the teachings of Mohammed. Duty-free stores are apparently killing their living by supplying people in need of transport with bottles of Beam and Campari. More »
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Senator George Allen from Virginia's got nothing on Mike Osskopp, the district office director for Minnesota Representative John Kline. Osskopp, for some strange reason went bezerk at a rally for Kline's Democratic opponent, Coleen Rowley — and ended up being captured on film yelling "another Jap car...your buddies are supporting all these Jap and German cars" as Rowley supporters drove into the event. We're not really sure where he was going with the comments, other than to say Rowley supporters don't support American car companies. The Harley-Davidson-owning Osskopp must have decided he'd stand up for US automakers' honor, attacking their competition with a racial-tinged blitzkreig of blabber. Instead perhaps he should have just followed the lead of the head of his party, also a Harley-Davidson aficionado. That's right, the President's a fair man — he treats all automakers alike, foreign and domestic — by not saying a darn thing about or to any of them. We've got video below the jump. More »
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Step one: Steal a car. Step two: Drive said stolen car through the wall or window of the bodega. Step three, make off with ciggies, phone cards and anything else you can haul away. Step four, sell the smokes on the street for a dollar a pack. A suspected gang of crooks has lathered, rinsed and repeated this one 11 times now in the Minneapolis area in the last few weeks. To say that we find this to be rather uncool is an understatement, as it victimizes numerous people. But a buck a pack? We're so in! More »
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Minnesota is the only state in the union requiring a 10% ethanol mix in consumer gasoline. That's a decision which probably made the General pretty happy. It appears that the same may not be true for Ford. The UAW is reporting that FoMoCo will close the St. Paul assembly plant in 2009. Although PR folks here in NY and Dearborn have been pretty tight-lipped, the response from Ford didn't include important words like "not closing" and "still remaining open." Yeah, and when the AP is quotin' Ford spokeswoman Anne Marie Gattari as saying, "We've made no such announcement, and we have nothing to announce at this point"...guess what? That's totally not good. More »
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The St. Paul Ford plant that builds the Ranger (when was the last time anybody actually bought a Ranger, anyway? 1996?) was saved from being steamrolled by Ford as it made the initial runup to the Great Leap Forward. But all ain't wine and roses in the Twin Cities. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty went to Dearborn to negotiate with the Blue Ovals to save the plant, offering tax incentives, pimping ethanol-production and giving stock options on his third-born child to the automaker to keep the plant open. Meanwhile, UAW-types and Norwegian bachelor politicos are hoping that Ford will do something green at the facility, which features its own hydropower plant. [Thanks to Scott for the tip] More »
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Back in the 1930s, our great uncle Paul would volunteer to babysit our dad and then prop him up in the seat of the Model A and prompt him to shout "Hey, Chicken!" at any passing Betties. Of course, when Grandma and Grandpa found out, there was hell to pay for mischievous Paul Muran, but that's chicken shavings compared to the snit a 6-year-old got Benjamin Menchaca into when he admitted to going car-heisting with his supposed babysitter. More »
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