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You know about Google Books, right? It's an ambitious project by Google to, essentially, scan and make publicly available every known book. I'm guessing the end goal is to put them all onto a chip implanted in Larry Page's brain so he can always beat anyone in an argument, forever. It's a grand, noble idea, and it's made possible via some amazing technical feats, such as scanning 1000 pages per hour via some elaborate scanning setup, which I'm picturing as having dozens of whirling, gleaming metal arms. More »
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This Probe 16, a.k.a. the Durango '95 driven in "A Clockwork Orange" that was last seen sitting in pieces under the glare of Top Gear's cameras has been restored to full guttiwuts-vibratey capacity. More »
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The answer: Restoring an original 1937 Aprilia Berlina is very, very hard (but worth every wad of $100 bills and gallon of sweat). I visited the legendary Conrad Stevenson's Alfa Romeo shop last weekend and found this work-of-art-in-progress there. More »
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I had never heard of this tiny pre-Minica kei van prior to reading about it on the Japanese Nostalgic Car forums, but now I must have one! More »
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I've been running into Northern California Alfa restorer Conrad Stevenson pretty regularly- he's the Ecurie Ecrappe crew chief and a LeMons perpetrator, after all- but I'd never visited his shop… until now. More »
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I got so many shots of interesting Italian machinery at the Conrad Stevenson Restorations shop that I had to put the galleries in a separate post. Enjoy! More »
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Situated in Kaufdorf, Switzerland exists a peaceful junkyard, holding over 500 classic machines hailing from the 1930s through the 1960s. The government wants it paved but locals want to preserve this history. Mega gallery inside. More »
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Having been to enough car shows featuring Detroit-built entrants with $30,000 paint jobs recreating the exact texture of orange peel that was created on the line back in the day, we've seen our share of restoration absurdity. But when it comes to the only remaining unrestored '57 Jaguar XKSS, what's a wealthy car collector to do? He might lose all-important points if the judges don't like the tiny cracks in the upholstery! Well, according to the Gray Lady, the trend of designating clean original cars as "Survivors" is really taking off, with the unrestored XKSS beating a '61 Ferrari 250GT with a restoration so obsessive it must be handled by white-gloved men in space suits. [New York Times reg. req.] More »
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It set a 24-hour speed record in 1935, hitting 135.58 miles per hour. Sixty-nine years later, The Duesenberg SJ Special "Mormon Meteor" sold for $4.45 million at a Pebble Beach Auction held by Gooding and Company. Now owned by Harry Yeaggy of Cincinnati, it's won the approval of the seersucker'd set at Pebble, taking this year's Best in Show award. The SJ Special isn't the average Duesenberg, any of which are far from the bell curve's center. The supercharged stock engine had been replaced by Augie Duesenberg and salt racer (and eventual Salt Lake City Mayor) Ab Jenkins, who adapted a 1,650 cubic-inch Curtiss Conqueror V12 to the Special's Duesenberg chassis and body. It's since been returned to its more civilized, Deusy-powered iteration by Noted Duesy restorer Chris Charlton of Maine, replete with imposing chrome "DUESENBERG" deco type along the hood and a chrome "Ab Jenkins" script on the cowl. Raise a julep in its honor. [Mormon Meteor] More »
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You have been warned. Anyone who votes against the Daimler Double Six 50 Sport Corsica Drophead Coupe's induction into the Jalopnik Fantasy Garage will be ceremoniously banned, without possibility of appeal. Sayonara. Auf Wiedersehen. Fugedaboudit. [Not really, but you get the sentiment — ed.] However, we are not totally without heart, as Larry Forney can vote however he likes. No such luck for Tom Anderson. And now, we invite you to jump. More »
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It has only taken a smidge over eight months since we dropped it, but this past Sunday I helped buddy Scott nearly-literally shoehorn the beautifully rebuilt 1500cc wind-chilled motivator back into his project Type III. Scott has a much more knowledgeable write up of the day's proceedings over on his impressively researched VW 1500 restoration blog. But I will say this: I hate the clutch return spring on all Type III Karmann Ghias. I thought the Germans were supposed to be such great design wunderkinds? Turns out they're French. Anyhow, now that the engine is back home, Scott is just waiting on a six-volt battery, some last minute futzing (oil leaks) and my sister to get married before Jalopnik gets a test drive. The plan is to point the car up hill, in case the brakes don't work. Make the jump to see a photo of the idiotic part that took longer to install than the actual engine. More »
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Every so often, a question appears in our inbox that has nothing to do with our asking Jay Leno if he'd be interested in buying someone's dead grandmother's 1978 Dodge. This is one of those e-mails. So pop on The Ramones' "Questioningly" (from Road to Ruin) and see if you can help out. More »
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Inside Line, new home of the Loverman, has the story of the first General Lee — the example that leaps Rosco's cruiser at the close of the Dukes of Hazzard's opening credits. Hastily assembled by a crew at Warners' the O.G. Lee was in sad shape when Travis Bell located the car in the yard of a Georgia transmission shop. After exchanging hands a number of times, Marvin Murphy commissioned Bell, co-founder of the North American General Lee Fan Club, to spearhead the restoration effort with the words, "Travis, if someone spray-painted the Mona Lisa, someone would have to restore it. You're that man." And really, how can one argue with that? – Davey G. Johnson More »
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Last night, we popped by the 500 Club in San Francisco with Friend o' tha Jalop Melissa. The place was reasonably packed, so we asked a couple of guys if we could share their booth. We got to chitchatting about jobs and whatnot (In SF, introductions are more often than not followed by the inevitable "So, what do you do?"); we explained that we are one of the people that exist in the form of Jalopnik.com, and John mentioned that he had a 2002. We asked if he'd seen Finkbuilt Steve's Megasquirt conversion. Turns out, he was fully aware of it, and what's more, had done a Megasquirt conversion of his own. More impressively, the 2002 is his first project; he'd never really turned a wrench in anger before starting work on the '73 Bimmer. More »
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When performing a restoration, a rotisserie is often helpful, allowing one a comfortable working position while providing access to places that would otherwise be nigh-on impossible to get to without an expensive lift. We came across this ingenious solution while up at Trevor's a couple of months back — Trev's restoring a Mini that used to be a crisps delivery van in Dublin. It's in relatively good shape for a 40-year old car that was never seen as more than an appliance, but the suspension needed to be rebuilt and there was a healthy amount of floorpan corrosion. More »
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Buddy Scott is making slow but steady progress on the rebuild of his totally rare Type III. So much progress in fact he had to start a blog. And while the vehicle in question may be lacking the ALUMINUM UND SHTEEL! found in modern Deutsche-coupes, Scott's blog is indeed highly precise. How highly precise? More »
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Due to a fourth-quarter cracked piston discovered by the machinist who was repairing the engine, this is not the second installment of our buddy Scott's Karmann Ghia rebuild. However, for petrolheads in general and Porsche/VW fetishists in particular, this may very well be more interesting. Starting in about 1950, German toolmaker Hazet, who for decades has built custom tools for the likes of Porsche and Mercedes-Benz, began producing little round, plastic toolkits for Porsche 356s and VWs. Why round? Easy storage in the center of the car's spare tire. We love that. More »
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There are more than 600 ber-exotic Porsche Carrera GTs in North America. My buddy Scott estimates there are between 30 and 40 first-year (1962) Volkswagen Karmann Ghia Type IIIs on this continent — and he asked me to help him rebuild his. Luckily, for the both of us, the rare two-door is considered a Type III, but was badged and sold as a VW 1500 Karmann-Ghia. More »
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Call it performance art or a really slow-progressing media event, but BMW's building an original 1973 2002tii from the ground up — behind a glass wall at a temporary BMW Museum facility in Munich. Supported by BMW's in-house historians, BMW Mobile Tradition, which maintains a vast inventory of vintage parts, two Bimmer artisans are working in full view of the adoring public (well, we'd be adoring) to complete the all-original 2002 to be auctioned for charity in 2006. More »
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A European friend of ours had one of these as a teenager on the French Riviera. And in his inimitable style, he painted a Flying Tigers-style shark's mouth on the front frenders to ward off any encroaching Nissan Micras. He eventually cracked the thing up in a wreck with an old lady, but to this day he still raves about the car's handling. We dig the one pictured here. More cars need to rock the flat-black hood and '70s-style Cibie driving lights. That look's coming back, mark our words. More »
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Not to be confused with Bruce Meyers, the man who invented the dune buggy, Bruce Meyer is one of the foremost collectors of classic automobiles, as well as a custodian of American hot rods. So much so that Pete Chapouris of the So-Cal Speed Shop refers to him as "his patron." A former chair of the Petersen Automotive Museum, the cars he's currently rotated in his home garage are a 1929 Duesenberg Murphy convertible coupe built for former Chicago Tribune honcho Col. Robert McCormick; Clark Gable's '56 Mercedes-Benz 300 Sc; and two significant LeMans racers: the first 'Vette ever to run there (a 1960), and a class-winning 1961 250GT Ferrari SWB Berlinetta. Can we come over for beers, Bruce? More »
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Supposedly they look at you funny in France if you actually exclaim "sacr bleu!. But they looked at us funny when we said "verfickende schei e! in Germany, too. Europeans. Go figure. In the 20 years of DS-21 construction, Citro n built 1.75 million of 'em. Only 1,246 were convertibles. More »
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A Michigan man, suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune (an old lady blew a stop sign and totalled his Isuzu Trooper II), decided to take matters into his own hands and rebuild a dilapidated Jeepster Commando that he'd traded a Dodge Diplomat for years before. So with $2,500 bucks worth of insurance money in his pocket, he decided to chronicle the build on his webpage. We love personal pages like this, as they're a refreshing respite from corporate-sponsored how-tos in mainstream car mags. Plus, we've always dug Jeepsters. More »
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While Civil War re-enactors seem to get all of the attention, there are a number of people around the country who are into the higher-priced world of World War II re-enactment. Here we have the restoration of an M22 Locust, a light tank developed by the US, but primarily used by British forces (due to their easy deployability via the Hamilcar glider). Found in a Midwestern field, the tank's repurposed Lycoming aero engine was yanked in favor of a cheaper Cadillac 346-inch flathead, and the turret had to be built from scratch. Just the thing to tool around in during a weekend jaunt through the Ardennes. More »
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Bittle, of JBA Racing & JBA Exhaust fame, picked up this veteran of the ponycar wars that had spent its retirement years down in Mexico. Known in its glory days as the Hinchliff/Ross Mustang, Bittle and his posse of performance people cast spells and invoked incantations and whatever else kinda voodoo they do to run in a few vintage races a year. Bittle's dream? "To return the car to Daytona, and co-drive with Ed Hinchliff and Rich Ceppos at one of the annual Daytona endurance historic races." Rock. More »
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Few car enthusiasts can both turn a phrase and reverse the fortunes of a Ponton Mercedes, Ford Country Squire and O'Keefe and Merritt stove like Mr. Jalopy of Hooptyrides. Now, thanks to a recent spread in Japan's Garage Life magazine, we get to peek inside the home garage, where a bounty of treasures — mined from countless desert backyards and the y depths of swap-meet trunks — wait patiently for their turn in the foreground. More »
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Every car nut dreams about it. Some old farmer dies, and there in his barn is a dusty '68 Shelby GT500 under a tarp, in otherwise perfect condition. Sure, it's as rare as finding a Rolex on the beach, but such things happen all the time to lucky folk. Motor Trend is looking to tell the stories of readers' "barn finds." Needless to say, you can leave out the part about screwing a poor, grieving widow out of a half-million dollars. More »
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The Goldenrod, one of the most famed Land Speed Record cars ever to sniff salt, is headed to the Henry Ford Museum. Featuring four naturally-aspirated Hemis, the car set an FIA two-way record of 409.277, which still stands, although other wheel-driven vehicles have since gone faster, and the jet-powered Thrust SSC driven by Andy Green holds the title of fastest land vehicle in history. But the Goldenrod brought the piston-engined record back to the US, wresting it from Donald Campbell's Bluebird in 1965. The car is currently being restored in Southern California and needs volunteers to help out. E-mail John Baechtel at Westech Performance to offer your services. More »
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Now, admittedly, you Euro types may disagree with that sentiment, but Stateside, the Mehari a little utility vehicle based on Citro n 2CV underpinnings was pretty rare, having only been imported to the US from '69-73. We'd like to somebody do one up for serious off-road action, with oh, we don't know...maybe a Hayabusa motor? Or at least as the face of a sled-pullin', multi-engined dirt-spewin' machine. Ah, what could've been... More »
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An auto shop on Long Island is one of the last refuges for Deloreans in need of an alternator, a valve job or a new set of gull-wing doors. P. J. Grady's garage, profiled in today's New York Times, specializes in the repair and restoration of the Delorean, the ill-fated car star of "Back to the Future," which, after 25 years, is becoming desirable among collectors. (A low-mileage specimen is for sale on eBay for $26,500.) Getting parts for the "Mr. Fusion Home Energy Converter," however, is a bitch. More »
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It's a rare treat when Mr. Jalopy picks up a new Hoopty. The eloquence he issues forth on those occasions is that of an unconsolable car nut with a Snap-on heart and 10W-40 pumping wildly in his high-compression veins (ok, ease up, we're done). His latest is a rare, W124 body 1987 Mercedes 300TD wagon. It's an end-of-era Mercedes, he explains, representing the "absolute end of a marquee," built before Mercedes-Benz "lost the uniquely Mercedes feel of absolute integrity as they tried to build a light and nimble car like the BMW." More »
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Paying six figures for a Hummer H1 sounds like a sucker's bet, particularly after checking out the Web site of XHumvee, a company that restores and markets true, Army-surplus Humvees. Sure, they're stripped down, but no one at the country club will ever question your swing again, if you catch our drift. More »
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This rare 1939 Mercedes-Benz G4, one of 57 built, was once owned by a fascist, but those at the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center didn't consider politics as it performed a three-year restoration on the 66-year-old six-wheeler. Originally a gift to Spanish dictator General Franco, the G4 is owned by the Spanish royal family, who received the restoration as a gift from Mercedes-Benz Espa a. The family insisted the truck's patina, acquired during its decades on earth, be retained for posterity. Brutal, head-chopping posterity, but posterity nonetheless. [Thanks to Tom for the tip!] More »
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We are serious Road Runner fetishists, not that you'd know, since we've never featured one of the classic Plymouths (remember those?)on the site. Maybe we were afraid some mental valve would open and Roadrunners would pour out, overwhelming every other ride in the Jalopnik stable. It's a risk, but here goes: Check out this 1970 Convertible that's been restored to pristine by someone equally obsessed as we are. Whew. More »
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Volvo's XC90, while by far the most luxurious, was far from the first SUV Volvo set to sheetmetal. Volvo has a history of building off-road vehicles, such as the Sugga (see photo) and the C303 (they don't come boxier than that), used extensively by the Swedish military (yes, they have one). More »
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We love it when an impromptu gallery of classic cars breaks out, like this one on AutoWeek's forum. It's like a flash mob, only with images. Note to self: organize automotive themed flash mob in random parking lot. Did we just say that out loud? More »
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Cord, Pierce-Arrow, Duesenberg, and Auburn. No, that's not a white-shoe accounting firm in lower Manhattan, they're classic autos from the golden age of luxury motoring for the super-rich. We tend to give short shrift to these multimillion-dollar chariots of robber-baron history. But it's Gallery Day, so now's the time to make amends. More »
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Following last week's post on the eBay auction of a replica 1963 Corvette Grand Sport, the mail came flooding in. Actually, it was just one really good e-mail message, but it flooded our inbox with the extent of its coolness. It brought to our attention one of the best restoration jobs we've seen in a while. More »
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