The year is 1911.
Fields are still being plowed by mules and horses.
Most of rural America doesn't have electricity.

Yet still, there are plans to break the powered vehicle land speed record.

How to get started?  Well, to begin with, "there is no replacement for displacement"
So start there.
FIAT, the Italian manufacturing conglomerate, hatched a plan, with a 28.5 liter, 4 cylinder, water cooled, triple spark plug per cylinder Beast  (the S76 if we're getting technical).
At the time, the first test driver refused to take the vehicle above 90 mph, and it's not hard to understand why.  Nearly everyone in the entire world had no idea what would happen at those speeds, a horse at full speed was the entirety of the idea of 'fast'.
Finally, in 1913, an American driver was hired, and the car hit 132 mph...however, the title of the worlds fastest was not attainable, as the car couldn't complete the run in both directions in the allotted time, which is how top speed runs are done to this day.

132 mph in a time where most people still walked and biked to work.  Then this fire breathing (it actually spits fire) unrestricted monster rips through the countryside.  I can't imagine.

Unfortunately, as often happens to showpieces and test cars, it was dismantled.  There was WW1 rebuilding going on after all, and that was much more important.  Slowly, a piece here and a piece there, and next thing you know just the shell is put out back and forgotten.  

But there is a glorious conclusion to this story.  Fate intervened....a man willing to restore this car, the discovery of a second engine (the original engine was gone)....and the technological advancements to recreate the crucial missing pieces of the car....and 100 years later, she roared to life.

This car coming to life is a chill inducing show today.  Just imagine this thing rolling out of a makeshift shop in 1911 and waking up everyone in the surrounding towns.  They captured thunder and lightning.

​

What an amazing feat.

So now what?   How about let's strap someone to it and run it down the road.  Over 100 years since it was last driven.
Sound like fun, and quite a bit of work.  Ignition timing, fuel pressure, gear changes, oil pressure....all of this has to be constantly monitored every second of the run.  This video from Goodwood this past weekend shows just how much work is involved, and this is at 40 mph.  Imagine more than tripling that speed! How terrifying the ride must have been.  On a dirt road.  With no safety equipment.  Incredible/nuts.

​

Huge thanks to everyone involved in saving this piece of automotive art and history.
Here is a another nice video showing the intricacies of running this piece of machinery, and some archival photos from over a hundred years ago, when this thing was thundering through the country side.  The likes of it we almost never saw again.
​

The NAACP.  The 'National Association for the Advancement of Colored People'.

This is the sad part: A group of blind followers being led by race baiting, self serving, ignorant  Reverends, Activists, Doctors (PhD), and organizers.  You know them...Jackson, Sharpton, Moultrie.  Wait...never heard of Rev. Jerrod Moultrie?  Me either.  Well he has been caught lying about racial profiling by police officers, using social media as his sounding board.

From WPDE's website:

​"Timmonsville NAACP President the Rev. Jerrod Moultrie posted on Facebook on April 13 that he was racially profiled when a Timmonsville police officer pulled him over for a traffic violation near his home on Harkless Court in Timmonsville."

But when the Police Chief, Billy Brown, investigated the body cam footage, he stated:
"When I saw the video, I was shocked that someone who is supposed to be a community leader, a pastor, and head of the NAACP would just come out and tell a blatant lie. It bothered me. It really bothered me, thinking about the racial unrest it could've cost in the community and it's just troubling to me that someone who held a position like that would come out and just tell a lie."

Shocked and bothered...absolutley.  But surprising?  Not hardly.

But that's what the race-baiters want.  They want unrest.  They want to be able to claim that all of the 'colored' peoples problems are someone else's fault.  But not this time.  You've been exposed for what you really are.

Not surprisingly, some have come out in support of Moultrie, with statements like: 
"Based on the integrity of Rev. Moultrie, I really don't feel that he has a reason to lie about what he saw. Because he doesn't have any ill intent against anyone. I spent a lot of time with him and I just know his character," said  NAACP officer Henry James Dixon. 

That's a lie right there.  He DOES have ill-intent, for self serving reasons.  It was caught on camera.  What do you think his intention was by falsely claiming he was harmed?  To cause more unrest, so he could make himself more relevant. 

This low life didn't think about a police body cam being on, which is odd, because his group is part of the reason that body cams are so prevalent now. 

This is the great part...that he was taken down by the very thing that he wanted.  I hope he stays down.  

Full story

Body cam video:
​

From 'The Guardian UK'

"A 78-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a suspected burglar was fatally stabbed at his home in London.The pensioner, named locally as Richard Osborn-Brooks, discovered two intruders at his house in Hither Green, south-east London, late on Tuesday night and was forced into his kitchen by one of them, who was armed with a screwdriver, according to Scotland Yard.
While the second man was upstairs, detectives believe that a struggle ensued and the 38-year-old intruder was stabbed in the upper body. He was taken by an ambulance to a central London hospital where he was pronounced dead in the early hours of Wednesday morning."

Here's where it get's crazy...the burglar dies of his wounds inflicted during the robbery....and low level idiots are leaving tributes to the dead thief.   Well, one person (and there have been others) is not taking kindly to it....and I think he makes a valid point.  What a silly world we live in...and the worst part is, it's our own fault.  

​

 You pay taxes, and one of the big reasons is the public school system.
Yet, there is near constant whining and complaining that 'we' don't value schools and teachers like 'we' should.
Constant calls for more money, higher salaries, comparing school systems, free lunch, free breakfast,  more "think of the children."

Yet, there is time/money/resources for this?

There are currently enough resources in the public school system to brainwash 8 year olds about 'white privilege' and so called racism in America?

Read about it here.
And the 11 steps the PTA group wants the parents to read here

Yes, lots of high level positions are held by white people....white people make up a large portion of the American population.  So?

How about we get the best person in the job, regardless of race or gender?  Let's teach be the best you can be, and go out and get it done.  Don't worry about what others are doing.  Raise yourself up.  Racism/biases/prejudices are taught.  8 year olds want to go to school, learn, and play with their friends.  They don't need to know that some people are racist and ignorant.  The vast majority of the population goes out, gets it done to provide for themselves and their family, and treats their fellow humans with respect.  Let's teach this. 

How about reach reading/writing/arithmetic...you know, the things that prepare you for a good paying job.   I don't want to hear one more thing about the lack of funding or resources being allocated to public schools.  If there is enough time for this, there is plenty of time and money for basic proper education.

​OBS F250, extended cab, 4wd, 5 speed.  7.5L gas engine.  SHORTBED.  
Officially the 139" wheel base version....this is the first we've ever seen in this configuration.

Offered here on Ebay, at a aggressive price, is a rare gem.....even more of a gem at less then 100k miles.

No clue on how many were built like this, but a quick search of the usual sites on the 'net don't show another one.  If you know of another, send us the details.

Even at $20k, someone is going to be very happy with this purchase.

Figaros
Things
FJ-45s
Classic Beetles with 7 miles
1st gen Rx-7s
1960s Buick wagons with the plastic still on the seats
A line of more than ten Delicas?

Your kind of place?  Now take your wildest dream and multiply it by 10.  At least 10.

Then'd you'd be at Duncan Imports and Classic Cars.  Mr Duncan, (a franchise car dealer with a VERY healthy passion for the weird/unusual/didn't-get-it-in-America autos), has setup an independent dealership featuring makes and models that you've never heard of, much less seen.  And not just one, 10 to 20 or more of each.  Some that were never titled, have less than 1000 miles, and are the cream of the crop.  

Mr. Duncan, whose family (according to their website) has been in the car biz since 1955, has scoured the globe for quite some time now amassing this collection, and most of it is for sale.    

  
The dealership is located in Christiansburg VA, in the northwest part of Virginia.  They have a small staff, but seem to not mind crazy eyed, drooling types to come check out the collection, and none of the inventory appears to be roped off from common folk.

This guy in the video below got a tour, and documents it very well, but only captures a small portion.  I, and you, need to go and get a better look see.

Their website is:  www.duncanimports.com

Descriptors fail this place.

You knew that Porsche 911s used to be coded 901, right?  Long before the iconic shape, style, handling, and race pedigree made the 911 a house hold name.  The 901s had quite a few VW 'Bug' and 356 features, such as gauges, thin (4.5 in.) wheels, lack of fender flaring, and rear view mirror mounted to the roof, among other small identifiers.

Well only a 'handful' of 901s were produced (some say that they were all pre-production, due to the model number designation dispute...all actual production models had the 911 designation), and the Porsche museum in Stuttgart didn't have one.   However, that is no longer the case, thanks to a series of fortunate events.

After a three year restoration by the museum, this legit 'barn find' is now returned to all its glory for everyone to see.

Some great pics and a short video in the link here

From this:

​To this:

See this to the left?  These ideas, along with all of the rest of the issues the world faces, should keep any one man busy for years.  There is no reason that the president of the United States should have time (or waste time) commenting on issues surrounding entertainment issues.  The Federal Government is supposed to exist to fight the wars, guard the countries borders, and keep us safe from foreign and domestic terror.  Doing anything other than that is a waste of time, taxes, and is a slap in the face to the millions of hard working men and women that struggle to pay the rent while working full time.  You think they care if some neanderthal that makes millions a year is happy or not?

Get with it Trump.  If you don't like what some mis-guided youths are doing, keep it to your self.  We all have an opinion,  The NFL is a private business and they can handle it, and will.

Get to lowering our taxes and reign in spending.  That's what matters.

Thanks

Once you get past all of these recent distractions about things, idea, people, and events that took place a few hundred years ago, quite a few things that affect the present time begin to stand out.   Things that have a direct impact on your day to day life, and take money out of your pocket, or worse.

As I'm sure most have seen or heard about by now, there are people in the streets arguing, fighting, and killing each other over long dead ideals.  This is what the mass media and Federal and Local governments want you to do.  These protests will solve nothing (the ideals have already been given up by most decades ago.....(things like slavery, naziism, segregation, etc)  These are all distractions, and an alarming number of people are falling for it.

But while bored and ignorant kids (age doesn't matter, there are plenty of 40-50 year olds with poorly developed reasoning skills...also known as kids) rally around some statue they are offended by this week, actual innocent people are being killed by known criminal invaders and the money you made at work today is being taken from you and used to support said criminals and their offspring.

Let's take this deadbeat scum bag for example.....Alejandro Ramirez-Jaramillo.....I thought about not typing his name here, he doesn't deserve to have a name, but knowing his name will allow you to further research.  He entered into this county illegally, and did he try to make this country a better place for all of us?  No, he took advantage of our overwhelming generosity and the Feds ignoring his presence, and then got drunk and drove, ran a stop sign, and killed Robin and Barbara Shellhammer, of Oregon, Ohio, and their daughter Whitney Meinke.    As we have seen, this country has enough problems without illegal aliens coming here and causing more problems.  Just think, if the people that we elected had done their jobs and enforced the law, three native born Americans, who worked and paid taxes, would still be alive.  The deceased could have easily been your mother or father, or you. It can't get much worse, but it does a little....we are now in charge of footing the bill for this piece of trash's prison bill for the next 21 years.    Hope you worked extra hard today, and hope a drunk criminal doesn't' run a stop sign on your way home.

Or this waste of space (and his baby momma), Yamir Cruz .  The title of the video and news articles try and imply that this 'man' was just here in the States minding his own business when the Feds came and knocked his door down and deported him.  You know, tug on the heart strings....THINK OF THE KIDS!  What a deliberately misleading title.  The video puts a slant on the blame...the government, the welfare system, the immigration system, anyone but the real problem.  Mr. Cruz snuck into the USA illegally, had four + one unwed children with a meth user, then they both wasted tax payer dollars by getting the cops called on them about domestic abuse.  Three times.  Finally, someone came to their senses and deported the man.  Problem solved?  Nope.  The deadbeat meth head mom doesn't want the kids.  Guess who now has to pay the bill to take care of them?  You should look in the mirror for that answer.  Who are we kidding....the mom, dad, and kids were already getting welfare assistance.  He then goes on to blame the system that legally took his children away 'because he didn't have papers'....but why didn't he bring his children back to Mexico with him, get a job and support them?  How is any of this yours or mine problem?  

The issue arises from the 'anchor baby' statute of the 14th amendment.  Like most of the Constitution and Bill or Rights, it was well intended in the beginning, but has been taken advantage of far too often.  Just because you are born in the United States, to foreign parents, should not automatically (or very easily) affirm your status as a citizen of the United States.  The spits in the face of the people that work, study, and move legally through the immigration system.

​Rep. G.K Butterfield of N.C. has advocated for illegals to not be deported under the Trump presidency. (in a pathetic and transparent effort to pander for votes), while seemingly forgetting that his boy Obama deported millions of illegal aliens.   I wonder if he will try and comfort the Shellhammer family?  He should focus on the people that got him elected and American citizens and work to make their lives better, not hold rallies for criminals.  As far as I'm concerned, he and his kind have blood on their hands.  At the very least, he should open his home to all the illegals that want to call N.C. home, he can pay to support them, as to not burden his constituents.  He, and others, have seem to confused 'immigration' with 'illegal' immigration, and are attacking anyone who speaks out against the illegal portion.  We are all the children of immigrants, no sane person is arguing that.

Yes, the immigration system is flawed, slow, and confusing, but it works, many people become US citizens every day.  There is no excuse for living in the United States illegally, and even worse, being a burden on the tax paying citizens.

We have control over this.  We just have to be louder than the distractions.

EDIT:  A bit more reading on the subject can be found here: 
Note the brain twisting response from NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio responding to a question from Jake Tapper in a recent interview concerning whether or not drunk driving is a legitimate reason to start the deportation process, 

TAPPER: But is grand larceny or drunk driving a very minor offense?
DE BLASIO: Drunk driving that does not lead to any other negative outcome, I could define as that.

Do we have to wait until someone is killed before anything is taken seriously?  

Most young men grew up wanting to fly, or at least go fast, in some fashion.  Astronaut, fighter pilot, racecar driver.  This was before their brains developed enough to understand that many people do it for the fame and/or women.  That doesn't matter.  Speed and pushing the limits is intoxicating, and to some, addictive, regardless of age.

Well Brian Shul is obviously one of these boys that grew up wanting to go fast.

He was a Vietnam fighter pilot that was shot down, badly burned, rescued, and went on to become one of the very few that got to pilot the world's fastest jet air craft, the SR-71 Blackbird.

The technology and brainpower that got the SR-71 in the air (in just 18 months, in the 1960s, mind you) is almost incomprehensible today, in the age of cost and time overruns, untested systems that have to be reworked, and billions of dollars wasted.

Brian now travels as a motivational guest speaker, and he has a lot to talk about, and show you.  He is also the author of 'Sled Driver', the most comprehensive photo record of this then Top Secret air craft and program.    Let him fill you in on the details.

Enjoy.

​