Joel Tudor: Unfiltered - good read on Surfer

Joel Tudor: Unfiltered

We like Joel ALOT - Love him or hate him there's no mistaking where he stands.

DN Class Ice Boats

From the DN Class website:

"The DN is the largest iceboat class in the world, so named because it was the winner of an iceboat design contest sponsored by the Detroit News in 1937. That year the newspaper opened up it's shop to 50 builders who assembled the first fleet of "Blue Streak 60" iceboats (as it was originally named)."

These have 3 runners or basically blades - so there's zero friction, making these go so fast in the lightest wind. This is a smaller pond but they really crank even here.

 I have to get behind the tiller on one of these. Sorry for the portrait orientation, all I had was my phone:


Ice Boats from John Hintlian on Vimeo.

classic pond hockey

I'm you're from a place where it freezes like this you know how truly good this is.

TEMPLE Trailer

TEMPLE Trailer from Deus Customs on Vimeo.

As seen on (and gleeped from) the most excellent Endless Bummer.

Fighting for Crumbs

Small, cruel tease last week in the midst of a severe flat spell.

You would think it were a long period head high groundswell. But hell, it was supposed to be flat so who's complaining?

Seacoast NH in the Winter

See, the folks up in NH get it - rather than bitching about the cold spell/flat spell, go for a sunset skate on a frozen pond, or amaze at the color of the sky - who needs photoshop with light like this?

Turbine Tuesday: "Blackburn Giants" now fully up and running

Look at the trees, and the other turbine behind.  Seriously these things are monumental!

Gloucester MA wind turbine from John Hintlian on Vimeo.

Dismal Flat Spell Wears On

The flatness seems to stretch back forever, will it ever end?

I mean we get a knee high bump and all of a sudden it's flippin' feet week around here.  God give me strength.

Muclecar Monday: Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt

The Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt was a limited production, factory experimental, drag race only automobile built by the Ford Motor Company in 1964. A total of 120 units were produced.

Adapted from wikipedia:
Ford shoehorned a 427 cubic inch (7.0 L) V8 engine with dual quads intended for use in the much larger Galaxie. As installed in the Thunderbolt, the engine was (like all US cars, due to insurance regulations) conservatively rated at 425 horsepower; estimates placed the actual output at over 600 horsepower.

Being basically a factory-built race car, no weight saving measure was spared. Fiberglass doors, hood, front fenders and even the front bumper along with Plexiglas side and rear windows aided in weight reduction; the hood with its distinctive raised "teardrop" scoop to draw hot air from the engine. Later cars had aluminum front bumpers in place of the fiberglass unit due to racing regulations.

Other weight-saving measures included the elimination of such street items as the sunvisors, radio, heater, wheel covers, passenger side windshield wiper, arm rests, rear window cranks, mirrors, sound deadening material, carpeting, trunk mat, lug wrench, jack and spare tire. Front seats were either lightweight units from Ford's police package vehicles or rudimentary bucket seats from the Econoline van; the carpeting was replaced by a black rubber mat. The rear seat was a standard Fairlane unit. The high-beam headlights were eliminated as well and in their place were mesh-covered air intakes which ran directly to a special air cleaner atop the 427.

Though it was technically a street legal automobile, these modifications made the Thunderbolt impractical for street use. However, these modifications resulted in a car which ran 11.61 seconds at 124.8 MPH.

The Thunderbolt was not built on a regular Ford assembly line, but rather in conjunction with Andy Holten of Dearborn Steel Tubing. It was there that partially built Fairlane bodies in top-of-the-line "500" exterior trim were combined with the 427 and either a heavy-duty Lincoln automatic transmission or a Borg-Warner four-speed manual transmission.

To give you an idea how rough thise things were: Ford riveted a metal plate to the inside of the glovebox door of the Thunderbolt and other race-only models with a disclaimer relating to fit and finish. The plate read:

THIS VEHICLE HAS BEEN BUILT SPECIALLY AS A LIGHTWEIGHT COMPETITIVE CAR AND INCLUDES CERTAIN FIBERGLASS AND ALUMINUM COMPONENTS. BECAUSE OF THE SPECIALIZED PURPOSE FOR WHICH THIS CAR HAS BEEN BUILT AND IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE MAXIMUM WEIGHT REDUCTION, NORMAL QUALITY STANDARDS OF THE FORD MOTOR COMPANY IN TERMS OF EXTERIOR PANEL FIT AND SURFACE APPEARANCE ARE NOT MET ON THIS VEHICLE.

THIS INFORMATION IS INCLUDED ON THIS VEHICLE TO ASSURE THAT ALL CUSTOMERS WHO PURCHASE THIS CAR ARE AWARE OF THE DEVIATION FROM THE REGULAR HIGH APPEARANCE QUALITY STANDARDS OF THE FORD MOTOR COMPANY.

above: Spartan Interior

Detail of the air intake setup and painted fiberglass bumper