What could possibly go wrong? One shudders to imagine the nightmarish assortment of gearboxes, driveshafts, and balance weights necessary to make this Rube Goldberg contraption hold together in the sky, and that's before you even think about how the engines were cooled. We don't worry about practicality with such an incredible exercise in engineering madness, however, and thus the Mixmaster gets our most emphatic Jalopnik Seal-O-Approval™ stamp.
[Wikipedia]

Now, we admit that this engine was never intended for use in a car, but tanks are certainly related to cars and so we say this engine qualifies for the Engine Of The Day series. The deal with the A57 was that Chrysler needed to whomp up a tank engine in a hurry, so as to put the kibosh on the Thousand Year Reich and the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The easiest way to do this was to grab as many existing components off the shelf as possible, so Chrysler used the 201-cubic-inch Plymouth flathead six as the basis for the new engine. Five crankshafts driving a common center shaft via individual ring gears arrayed around a central gear, five heads, five carburetors, five distributors… and 30 cylinders! It was heavy as hell, but it got the job done and was used to power M3A4 Lee and M4A4 Sherman tanks. Here's a video that gives you an idea of this engine's sound:


[Autospeed]

"During World War II there were many kinds of rationing including food, shoes, coffee, fuel oil, gasoline and tires. Donald Gilmore, CEO of Upjohn Pharmaceuticals and founder of this Museum, felt that there must be ways to find alternatives to these precious commodities. Mr. Gilmore experimented with a number of ideas including having a 1927 Model T Ford converted to electric power and these "wooden" tires. He instructed a local craftsman to fabricate four wooden tires and had them installed on his 1940 Cadillac to show that a person could get by with alternatives during this time of great need in the country. After some experimentation, Mr. Gilmore discovered that it was quite dangerous trying to drive with four wooden tires due to the lack of traction. He then returned the car's original rubber tires to the rear wheel and continued using the wooden tires on the front. It was reported that his employees very much liked the new wooden tire idea because they could hear him coming from a mile away!"

They made some wonderful cars in Czechoslovakia back in the day, but that darned ol' Iron Curtain kept all but a tiny handful of them from making their way to North America. Still, Skoda took an ill-advised shot at importing Felicias back in the early 60s, which means that you might be able to find an affordable one over here. As a matter of fact, you can get this convertible (go here if the ad disappears) for 500 bucks or best offer. How can you resist? The seller sums up the car quite aptly with this no-punctuation-needed statement: "basket case little rust mostly there what you see is what you get." See, it's mostly there! Just make a few calls to Prague and you'll have the missing stuff faster than a man can turn into a giant cockroach! And don't worry about the running condition of the Skoda engine, because it's already been proven that you can put an Audi V8 in the back! Yeah, there's rust... but how bad can it be?

You see quite a few garden-variety WW2 Jeeps just driving around these days, but what if you want one of the super-rare Ford GTB 1-1/2-ton trucks, popularly known as the Burma Jeep? Normally you'd have to pay boo-koo bucks for such a veteran, but we've got a line on this genuine Burma Jeep (go here if the ad disappears) for only $500. We'll readily admit that this truck has something of an oxidation problem, but we know you'll be as relentless as George S. Patton himself when it comes time to replace and/or fabricate the components that are too far gone to fix. Hey, there must be something on this vehicle that won't disintegrate into a cloud of red dust when you stare hard at it! The seller doesn't offer any description (other than "RARE!"), but it looks like an engine is visible behind the grille and you even get the axles. No sweat!

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It turns out that this truck is owned by the guy who runs the Alameda Naval Air Museum, and all the costumed folks hanging around (including a guy in full Indiana Jones gear and some fur-hatted Rooskies) were getting ready to attend the grand opening of the newly restored Alameda Theater, which had been closed for 30 years and was showing an Indiana Jones premiere. Sure, this International normally lives in a museum, but I caught it parked on the street- it's fair DOTS game!


Why Red Army soldiers plan to ride to the movies in a truck done up in USMC colors is a bit hard to figure out, but the costumes were quite good and this truck looks reasonably complete.


I'm hoping that military-vehicle expert (and my ex-coworker) Clinto can give us some more details on this old soldier; I'll need to head down to the ANAM later on and see what other vehicles they've got.

It's got the sirens, blackout lights, and other goodies the well-equipped Pontiac-driving Army officer needed back in the day.


It's good to get another 40s vehicle in this series; this is the fourth (after the '45 Jeep, '47 Plymouth, and '49 International Harvester).


This Chief Pontiac hood ornament isn't quite as cool as the one on the 1950 Pontiac Chieftan, but it's still one of my favorites.


Check out the vintage radiotelephone in there- I sure hope it's functional. Dog Oboe Tare Sail!