Notes And Asides

And Now, A Word About Our Sponsors

Memories, misty water-colored memories... and no wonder they're all misty, you stupid dope! You've crammed all those old photo memories into shoe boxes, attics and albums -- where time and the elements are doing the nasty on 'em. Rust never sleeps, and neither does photo deterioration. Do yourself and your photos a favor, and slap a click on the  TicTacGo! ad over to the right. Not only will they convert all those loose prints and 35mm slides to digital immortality (at a great price), the fine folks at TicTacGo are personal pals of Yours Truly. Please give 'em a shout, and tell 'em Dave sent you.

I also want to welcome new Iowahawk sponsor Sharp As Toast, purveyors of some of the coolest conservative gear you'll find, including ginchy presidential tees and WW2 outerwear. Keep your eyes on this space for a possible tasty Toasty iowahawk item.

In fact, patronize all my fine sponsors! Get a yourself a good  laugh, get informed, get buff, dress to the nines, take a picture and save it forever.

I Got A Million of Them

Big thanks to all of you who joined me at the fabulous Hala Kahiki tiki bar last Saturday to commemorate iowahawk's one millionth hit. Drinks were consumed, conspiracies were woven, a good time had by all. Well, me anyway. Special shout-outs to Richard Baehr and Thomas Lifson, two of the natty intellects behind The American Thinker, Pluto's Dad of Eyes on the Ball and longtime iowahawk patron Bruce P. of Conservative Cat. Unfortunately Bruce's co-blogger Ferdinand could not join us due to the Hala Kahiki's prohibition against Feline-Americans. Welcome all to the permanent blogroll.

Get On The Pah-tay Blogroll, Y'all

Also welcome aboard:

Garfield Ridge - Long overdue addition from a fellow member of Rusty Shackleford's exclusive Pimptastik Blog Pimp Alliance.
Maggie's Farm - best lil' group blog in Maryland who turned me on to America's finest corporation: Safety-Flo!
BuckeyePundit - a funny new blogchild of mine from the dark heart of Ohio.
Riehl World View - pungent Joisey japery from the Garden State.
Leaning Right - Official cover illustrator for my Dan Rather Mysteries.

Talkin' 'Bout Cars

You wanna know what I don't like about the blogosphere? Friggin' "car blogging" that's what. Some mope critiquing the peppy insouciance of the steering fade on the new Beemer 5 series. In the immortal paraphrased words of Dennis Hopper as Frank in Blue Velvet, "fudge that shirt." As a tonic for all the civilized-European-road-sedan gasbaggery, I am introducing a new recurring feature to iowahawk: CarPorn, featuring the very finest in vehicular excess. First installment:

Four Allison V12 aircraft engines in a 1938 Fiat Tipolino. No, it does not have refined road manners. That, pal, is a car.

Comments

[Ledger]

Dave, in theory the four Allison supercharged engines could generate more horsepower than the thrust of the Super Sonic Car (SSC).

It's unclear whether the Rolls-Royce Spey 202 jet engines could develop more horsepower that 4 Allison supercharged engines. Although, the 2 jet engines on the SSC have tremendous thrust, the direct translation to horsepower is unclear. Some people have developed a formula which translates the intake temperature to the exhaust temperature and static thrust to develop a direct horsepower conversion for jet engines. I would like to see how two Rolls-Royces Spey engines compare horsepower-wise to four Allision V12s. Anyone got the answer?

[SSC site]:

ThrustSSC is the most powerful, most extraordinary car ever to be designed to attack the Land Speed Record, and as the SSC (SuperSonic Car) in the name indicates, it is also one of the first with genuine potential to breach the Sound Barrier.

Where Thrust2 used a 17,000 pound thrust Rolls-Royce Avon 302 engine from a Lightning fighter, ThrustSSC is the first car to use not one, but two turbojets. These will initially be Rolls-Royce Spey 202s from the Phantom fighter, each producing 20,000 pounds of thrust. Richard Noble has acquired two of them, but also has two even more powerful 205 units (25,000lb of thrust) for use when ThrustSSC has proved itself in transonic testing. ThrustSSC thus has the power of 1000 Ford Escorts, or 145 Formula One cars...

It will weighs 10 tonnes, and initial performance estimates suggest it will accelerate from standstill to 100mph (161kph) in four seconds or 0-600mph (1000kph) in 16 seconds. Within five miles (8 km) it will then reach its maximum speed of 850 mph within half a minute.

see: SSC

http://www.thrustssc.com/thrustssc/Engineering/Engineer.html

[jet engines]

http://www.thrustssc.com/thrustssc/Engineering/Development_of_the_Spey.html

[and]

http://www.thrustssc.com/thrustssc/contents_frames.html

[Yojimbo]

Like a rude and ill-mannered version of Tommy Ivo's "Showboat"

[Tom Spence]

I remember that car from when I was a kid. I never realized it was a Fiat. Modified like that it really should be called a Fiaaaat... think about it.

[Ledger]

Damm, that's cool!

[dave]

The car was in the Guinness record book in the 70's or 80's. The allisons are 1500 to 2500 Horsepower. Each. Four wheel drive, with duals all the way around. In Australia you could register it as a tractor, and drive it down the road!

[Ledger]

Four Allison V12 Engines-

That's a car I have not seen. I have seen dual V8 drag-racers and multi-engine tractors. But, the 4 Allison engine car I have never seen (actual or in a picture) until your popup picture. Hey, does this thing actually fire up and run?

[Son of a Pig and a Monkey]

Two questions:

Did Bangle design it?

And, how many cupholders?