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Monday, 21 December 2009

The failed 1934 expedition across Canada in Citreon half tracks



Bedaux announced his intention to cross northeastern BC with Citroën half-track trucks, the Canadian Sub-Arctic Expedition, launching from Edmonton, Alberta on July 6, 1934 and contained a formidable array of talent and beauty, including Floyd Crosby, a Hollywood cinematographer, two land surveyors, Frank Swannell and Ernest Lamarque, mining engineer Jack Bocock, a Citroën mechanic, many cowboys, as well as Bedaux’s mistress, his wife and her maid.

Due to a combination of weather, terrain and poor planning, the expedition failed and the Citroën vehicles were abandoned, one by one, some in more dramatic fashion than others. Two trucks slid off 120 foot high cliffs, while the cameras rolled. Another was sent by raft down the river, where it was to meet a carefully planted stick of dynamite. The shot was ruined when the dynamite failed to go off and the truck floated into a sandbar. The two remaining Citroens were abandoned at a ranch near Halfway River.








Once the highway opened up the territory in the 1950's around Telegraph Creek, a Fort St. John, B.C. automotive dealer searched out the abandonded Citroens and using their parts assembled one that he used and donated to the Western Development Museum of Saskatoon in the 1950s.


Born in France in 1886, Charles Bedaux moved to the United States and became a naturalized American citizen. He was a millionaire based on management consulting.

In 1937 he hosted the marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor at his French chateau. Collaborationist activities with Nazi-occupied France led to his 1942 arrest in North Africa while overseeing a German pipeline project, he was taken back to the United States on charges of treason, and overdosed on sleeping pills in a Florida prison in 1944.





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V8 Trivia

1st to be modified specifically to set a record (1956 Boneville Salt Flats, 187.992)
1st small block with a GMC blower

These are not yet verified, and may never be, but it's pretty certain that with no documentation from the 1930's through 1970's like the way everything is documented now, it'll never be proven wrong even if it's never proven correct.

The engine? A prototype 265 cu in given to Stu Hilborn by GM in 1954, then sold to Tom Cobbs and installed in his 29 Ford on 34 rails

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Sunday, 20 December 2009

Greatest innovation in bumpers ever


This is the 1964 Indy race car of Smokey Yunick, named the Hurst Floor Shifter Special... a momentary loss of traction caused it to run into a wall and never get into the race, Bobby Johns was driving
Via: http://forum.exile.fr/viewtopic.php?pid=157789

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Cool photos from Speed Hunters year end "best of" galleries

Above , John Brooks photography
That is the coolest looking blurred photo I can recall

Above the space between the bumper and the railing is mighty thin
and below the front tires aren't touching the ground, the car is still sideways (love momentum), the photography of Ross I'Anson

Above and below the photography of Rod Chong

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Von Dutch at work


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Terrific bio of TV Tommy Ivo

Read or just drool over the photos: http://speedhunters.com/archive/2009/10/29/drivers-blog-quot-tv-quot-tommy-ivo-gt-gt-drag-racing-s-master-showman.aspx

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cool pinstrping



Check out this artists work and website: http://empire32.blogspot.com/

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