URAL M62

URAL M62

Ural motorcycles are still being built. The company's headquarters are in a suburb of Seattle, the factory is in Kazakhstan. The company, Ural Motorcycles, has a history of the company along with some photos.

M-72 motorcycle engine (external view with cutout)

Ural Motorcycle Factories

Production started in Moscow in August 1941. A couple of months later the factory was moved east to Irbit. In the late 1950s, the factory was moved to west to Kiev. In 2022 the factory was moved again, this time to Kazakhastan.

Ural Motorcycles have been here before.

1969 Chrysler 300

1969 Chrysler 300

Glory days, 440 cubic inch V8 engine, automatic transmission, 19 feet long, 4300 pounds of Detroit Iron.

Soviet Snow Machine 1963

Не для легких дорог... Фильм 1, 1963
Alexandr Zudin

Title translates as 'Not for the easy roads... Film 1, 1963'. You can turn on the subtitles and engage the autotranslation, but it doesn't tell you much. It was an experimental vehicle and it worked better than most others, but did it ever make it to production? I suspect not. Fuel economy wasn't that great. 900 liters of gas gas it a range of 600 kilometers, which works out to 3.5 miles per gallon.

P. S. The comments on YouTube make for some interesting reading.

Apollo

Apollo 11 being loaded into a Super Guppy, via Wikipedia.

Apollo 11 was the first spaceflight to land humans on the Moon, conducted by NASA from July 16 to 24, 1969. - Wikipedia

Rover 3500

The Dream Car You've Never Heard Of: Rover 3500 SDI Full History — Revelations with Jason Cammisa
Hagerty

Jason includes a brief history of Rover, most of which was new to me. I have probably seen this car before but I never paid much attention to it, probably because it never made much of an impact in America. The part I like is the aluminum V8 engine. I had a 1963 Buick Special for year or so when I was in high school. Bought it from my dad for like $100, which was the trade in value he would have gotten from the dealer on the new 1967 Buick LeSabre he was buying.

Anyway, it had the tiny, 215 cubic inch aluminum V8 engine which I thought was very cool. I still think so. Buick dropped it, but Rover picked it up and used in their sedan and in their Land Rovers and maybe even in the Range Rover.

Comfort & Style

1965 Chrysler 300L Convertible

Sotheby's give us some numbers from a Chrysler 300 they sold last year:

• One of 440 300L Convertibles produced for the 1965 model year
• Powered by a 413-cu.-in. V-8 engine paired with a three-speed TorqueFlite transmission
• Featuring air conditioning, an AM/FM radio, and power windows

MotorTrend tells us a story:

[This story first appeared in the Winter 2011 issue of MotorTrend Classic] Sing it with me: “I got me a car, it’s as big as a whale, and we’re heading on down to the Love Shack. I got me a Chrysler, it seats about 20, so hurry up and bring your jukebox money.” Of course you know the lyrics. Everybody knows those lyrics. But perhaps you’ve never seen the video, the one where Fred Schneider pilots a turquoise and chrome 1965 Chrysler 300 Convertible. B-52s guitarist Keith Strickland’s in the front seat riffing away (he’s probably got a combo amp in the footwell—there’s room for it), while the quartet’s twin beauties Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson sit perched upon the rear seatback belting their sweet hearts out. “Glitter on the mattress, glitter on the highway.”

Not seen the video? Are you kidding? Of course I've seen the video, but I am afraid I did not notice the make and model of the car. It only shows up a couple of times in the first 20 seconds, and it sure looks like a Chrysler convertible. It's not turquoise though.

The B-52's - Love Shack (Official Music Video)
RHINO

Turquoise & Chrome Chrysler 300 Convertible

The car in the video is not turquoise, so here's one. Maybe I got the wrong video.

Style

1966 Ford Thunderbird Town Coupe

I never use to care about a car's interior, all I cared about was whether it was functional - runs, goes, stops, and steers. If the doors and windows worked that was a nice bonus. Eventually I started becoming more particular. I wanted something that was reliable and one of the ways you can ensure your car is reliable is to get rid of any evidence of trouble. If there is something wrong with the car that needs to be fixed, you need to take care of it, only because every time you see it you will be reminded that that thing is broken and needs to be fixed. And you've got enough on your mind, you don't need to be thinking about chickenshit like getting the cracked do dad fixed, get it fixed and stop worrying about it. Free your mind.

Anyway, I've been looking at old car interiors and even though I didn't appreciate them at the time, they really were out of this world. A lot of it is ridiculous chrome plated plastic decorations, the instruments only gave approximate readings, but that was more than enough for the average driver. I think all the decoration was just a homage to this amazing device - the car - that we have created. Look at this thing we have created, it is okay to just enjoy it, you don't have to keep your nose to the grindstone all the time.

Alfa Romeo GTV

1968 Alfa Romeo GTV

The GTV was powered by a 1.8 liter DOHC engine that produced 120 horsepower.

Alfa Romeo Twin Cam Engine

I think I have always loved Alfas. To me, they were the poor man's version of a Ferrari. When I was a teenager, Ferrari's were the very pinnacle of the car hierarchy and were completely unobtainable, but Alfas had the same pedigree (red paint, DOHC, high revving, aluminum engines), but were affordable. Friend of mine was even able to buy an aging spider. He made a mess of it, but that's another story.

They are still affordable, but they require a lot of care or deep pockets to keep they running.

Metisse 'Steve McQueen' Desert Racer

Metisse 'Steve McQueen' Desert Racer

This bike is one of 300 replicas of the Metisse Mk3 Desert Racer, as spec'ed by Steve. Metisse gives us a little background on McQueen:

Born in 1930, Steve experienced a rough childhood until the California Boys Republic and the US Marines helped turned his life around. These experiences would be crucial in helping Steve relate to many of his future movie roles.

In 1952 he embarked on his acting career in theatre, progressing to Broadway in 1955 and finally making his break in movies in 1956 with ‘Somebody Up There Likes Me’. He then went on to star in iconic movies such as ‘The Magnificent Seven’, ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’, ‘Bullitt’, ‘Papillion’ and of course, ‘The Great Escape’, which also showcased his great passion of motorcycles.

I remember The Great Escape:

Steve McQueen in The Great Escape

Steve McQueen - The Great Escape (motorcycle scene)
Bib48_MovieClips

I remember the jump, didn't remember the crash into barbed wire. I also remember the story was a disaster.

Never heard of the California Boys Republic. 

Mason & Sons has a page about Steve McQueen and Boys Republic. 

McQueen died at the age of 50 or cancer in Mexico in 1980.

Igloo White

DARPA's Little Secrets That Changed The World
Curious Droid

Methinks the American defense industry has been going wild for two long. I dunno but I suspect much of that $35 trillion debt we are carrying was incurred to pay for all the wars we've been involved in since WW2.

Infiltration Surveillance Center (ISC) at NKP RTAFB

Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base

Lockheed EC-121 Warning Star

Lockheed OP-2E Neptune of VO-67

Lots of stories about Igloo White out there.

Thunderpig

SOLD: 1968 Chrysler Newport Town & Country Station Wagon California
Spoke Motors

I made several friends when I went to school in Bexley, Ohio. Sometime in the late 1960s, one of my friend's dad bought a brand new Chrysler station wagon. This group of friends was into tiny European sports cars. American cars, to this group of friends, were too big and too clumsy. They had no finesse. So this purchase was derided by this group, and my friend Phil Hathaway christened his dad's wagon Thunderpig. It had a honking big V8 engine and cruise control and Phil had his driver's license. Somebody had set the cruise control to highway speeds. Phil got it the car, started it, and pressed the RESUME button on the cruise control The analog cruise control obeyed, opened the throttle wide and the car took off like a greased pig, tires squealing and smoking. Great fun for 16 year old boys.

And that's why the cruise control on your car is crippled.

Beep Beep!

The Insane Story of La Brute, a Renault Dauphine Gone Mad
Chris VS Cars

I like this guys patter. His accent makes it a little difficult but it's a good story. Only shortfall is he doesn't show the engine, so I looked around and found this one on Motorious.

La Brute engine - V6 from Volkswagen GTI

If you are like me, you might remember the beep, beep for the TV commercials back in the day.

Renault Dauphine Commercial (1960)
Throwback

1969 Vinyl LPs

Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride (Version 1969)
DiscoBar80

Hoo boy, ain't heard this one in a while. I was a senior in high school when this came out. From Wikipedia:

Steppenwolf were a Canadian-American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1967. The group was founded by singer/rhythm guitarist John Kay, keyboardist Goldy McJohn and drummer Jerry Edmonton, all formerly of the Canadian band the Sparrows. Guitarist Michael Monarch and bassist Rushton Moreve were recruited via notices placed in Los Angeles–area record and musical instrument stores.

Steppenwolf sold over 25 million records worldwide, released seven gold albums and one platinum album, and had 13 Billboard Hot 100 singles, of which seven were Top 40 hits, including three top 10 successes: "Born to Be Wild", "Magic Carpet Ride" and "Rock Me". Steppenwolf enjoyed worldwide success from 1968 to 1972, but clashing personalities led to the end of the core lineup. From 1980 to 2018, John Kay was the only original member involved, having been the lead singer since 1967. The band was called John Kay & Steppenwolf from 1980 to 2018. In Canada, they had four top 10 songs, 12 top 40 and 14 in the top 100.

LP Storage

Reminds me that a friend of mine and I went to visit another friend. We were in a room and along one wall were cabinets full of vinyl records. It was maybe half as tall as the cabinet in the picture, but is was at least as long, maybe longer. Whatever, it was big. I don't think I have ever seen such a large collection all concentrated in one place. I don't think there was any purpose to our visit. We were just stopping by to say hello. It didn't occur to me till much later, like ten years ago, that that pile of records represented a small fortune. Say there's 30 disks in each cube, times six cubes long by four cubes high by $4 per disk is like $700. And this was back when gold was $35 an ounce and used car cost $100. Scale that $700 up to today's value and it comes to $70 grand. I suspect that the reason I didn't attach any significance to this is that such a large concentration of money was an alien concept (beware! here there be monsters!).  I didn't attach any significance to it at the time, but I squirreled that memory away and kept it, and 50 years later I pulled it out and realized what it was.

Via The Village Hemorrhoid

Update a week later. Corrected the price of an LP.

1965 DMW Typhoon 500

1965 DMW Typhoon 500

Don't see many big, 2 stroke motorcycle engines. DMW Motorcycles was a British motorcycle manufacturer. DMW was founded in 1940. Over the next 30 years they produced about 15,000 motorcycles. It was noted for trials and racing machines and many DMWs can still be seen at UK sporting events.

Bonham's talks about the creation of this 2 stroke engine:

Spurred on by Metal Profile's enthusiastic boss, Harold Knock, DMW created its 500 racer by the simple expedient of joining two Hornet engines together, an arrangement that afforded the prospect of 60-70bhp at a time when a good Manx Norton managed around 52 horsepower. A pair of Alpha crankcase assemblies was used, sandwiching a special straight-cut primary transmission. The latter consisted of a jackshaft in an oil bath, from which drive was taken to a secondary transmission and thence to the Albion five-speed gearbox via a Royal Enfield Interceptor clutch. Ignition contact breakers were mounted at one end of the jackshaft but were later moved to the crankshaft end.

This bike had problems: vibration and weak brakes. People fiddled with it, but it never became the world beater they were hoping for, 

1965 DMW 500cc Typhoon Engine

Finis Maximus

1962 Cadillac

Automotive stylists were just going wild in the 1950s and 1960s. Cadillac may have been the most flamboyant, but they weren't alone.

US Navy Experimental Hydrofoil Project

This Ship Could Fly: What Happened To The Plainview?
Mustard

I remember hearing about this back when I was kid though my information was a bit sparse. I always wondered what happened to this project. Well, now I know.

The big thing I got from this video is you can design dynamically stable hyrdofoils, or you can design one that is not stable and then add a computer to constantly adjust the foils. A stable design seems like the way to go. By adding a computer you are just asking for trouble. Problem was, the stable design wasn't suitable for the Navy's purposes.

Rambler Marlin

1965 Rambler Marlin

The 327 cubic inch V8 engine with a 4 barrel carburetor developed 270 horsepower, not bad for a 3,000 pound car.

The Marlin Auto Club has a page about the development of the Marlin.

From Slashgear:

10 OF THE WORST-SELLING MUSCLE CARS OF ALL TIME

AMC always built quirky cars that stood out from the more mainstream models produced by Detroit's Big Three, but the 1965 and 1966 AMC Rambler Marlin proved too much even for AMC fans, with sales totaling only 10,327 in 1966 and a paltry 4,547 in 1966. A redesign in 1967 caused sales to fall even further to just 2,545 units, leading to the model's cancellation after that year.

Wikipedia

Meme Me

All stolen from Tamara.

I've heard of all the terms in the last image, but the connection between Ska and Checkers escaped me. Google knows:

The checkerboard pattern in ska music and fashion represents racial unity and a fight against segregation. The pattern was popularized in the late 1970s during the second wave of ska music, also known as the "two-tone" era. 

I remember Ska music being sort of popular once upon a time, but I didn't know any Ska tunes, so again I asked Google. This one struck me as 'authentic'.

Desmond Dekker & The Aces - 007 (Official Music Video)
Trojan Records Official

YouTube blurb:

In the summer of 1967, Desmond Dekker & the Aces’ rude boy anthem, ‘007’ became one of the first Jamaican-produced recordings to breach the UK’s national Pop Singles charts; its unexpected international success prompting an urgent need for material to promote the 7” single.

 

Consequently, Graeme Goodall, MD of Doctor Bird Records, the company behind its British release, hastily secured the services of respected Jamaican director, Perry Henzell, who wasted little time in filming the group live on stage and in the streets of island’s capital before editing the resultant footage and rushing it to the UK, where on the evening on 3 August, it was aired it on the BBC’s hugely popular ‘Top Of The Pops’ TV show.

 

Notable for being one of the earliest promotional music films ever to be created in Jamaica specifically for a global audience, it now not only provides a truly fascinating glimpse of Desmond & the Aces in action, but also of Kingston street life back in the mid-Sixties.

Here's a couple of tunes that I know that are supposedly Ska, but I never would have thought so:

• Take On Me by Reel Big Fish
• The Impression That I Get by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

Malcolm X

Malcolm X

I've been seeing a number of stories about people getting out from under the yoke of the Democratic war machine lately, and I can't tell if there really is an upsurge, or it's just normal, but those kind of stories were overshadowed by the runup to the election. In any case, I like this story from RT. It has a couple of points:

1. Malcolm's family is going after the FBI & CIA for their role in the assassination, and
2. It's got a brief history of Malcolm and his extremist views. I'd kind of forgotten about that part so it's good to be reminded.

Introduction to the story:

CIA and FBI sued by family of Malcolm X

Three of Malcolm X’s daughters have filed a lawsuit against the CIA, FBI, and New York Police Department, accusing the agencies of complicity in the assassination of the militant black activist.

Filed in a Manhattan court on Friday, the suit alleges that the CIA, FBI, and NYPD were aware of a plot to kill Malcolm X, but did not act to stop it. It claims that the NYPD arrested his security detail days before the assassination, while the CIA and FBI’s undercover agents – who were present on the night of the fatal shooting – stood by while the militant leader was gunned down.

The lawsuit alleges that there was a “corrupt, unlawful, and unconstitutional” relationship between the agencies and “ruthless killers that went unchecked for many years and was actively concealed, condoned, protected, and facilitated by government agents.”

Malcolm was killed in 1965.

Long John Baldry

Long John Baldry ... Don't Try To Lay No Boogie-Woogie On The King Of Rock and Roll
gilothian

This song came up in rotation and I got to wondering just who is this guy. I mean, this is the only song I've ever heard by him, but he doesn't seem like a one-hit wonder, so I look him up on yea olde Wikipedia and found this bit:

John William "Long John" Baldry (1941 – 2005) was an English musician and actor. In the 1960s, he was one of the first British vocalists to sing the blues in clubs and shared the stage with many British musicians including the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. Before achieving stardom, Rod Stewart and Elton John were members of bands led by Baldry. He enjoyed pop success in 1967 when "Let the Heartaches Begin" reached No. 1 in the UK, and in Australia where his duet with Kathi McDonald "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" reached No. 2 in 1980.

He was 6' 7" tall which explains why he was called 'Long John'.