March 15, 2009 by David.

I’ve finally pulled my Willys Wagon information out of the single webpage in DaveDrive.com, greatly expanding it on WillysCountry.com a site dedicated to Willys Wagons, with emphasis on three and four door Willys Wagons and Willys Hy-rail vehicles.

There are many websites with Willys and Jeep technical details and picture collections of personal vehicles, so I’m not interested in duplicating those elements. However, information  - or even pictures - on the old wagons with more than 2 doors and Hy-rail is nearly impossible to find. In fact, most Willys and Jeep enthusiasts aren’t even aware these vehicles exist. Did you know that Willys wagons were licensed to be manufactured by Fairmont, Ford, and Mitsubishi?

I’ve done a lot of searching on the web and talked with numerous people and can confidently say that no where else can you find the aggregation of information on three and four door Willys wagons and Willys Hy-rail vehicles, including US and non-US manufactured variations.

I even have photos and details on ultra-rare 1-off vehicles within multi-door Willys vehicles, such as an aluminum bodied wagon, Willys stretch limo and suicide 3DR wagon.

A big contributor to the information I’ve been able to collect and post is Paul Barry of Willys America. I owe him a BIG special thank you. You will find he has the top Willys restoration business in the world.

Check out WillysCountry.com!

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January 31, 2009 by David.

Nissan has the flatout cutest lil car there is and I want one. Check out the Cube site. Available early 2009 in the US.

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December 7, 2008 by David.

What later G’s can your car pull?

Find out these stats and more by using your iPhone’s built in accelerometers to measure the performance of your vehicle. Application by Dynolicious.com.

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December 7, 2008 by David.

Joe Harmon is building an almost all wood car for his master’s thesis (gee, what’s he gunna pull off for his doctorate?) that is amazing. It has a design reminiscent of a Lamborghini. The body and other panels are made out of a woven wood structure - and he made the loom to weave the wood. No, two-bit project, he has engendred some substantial sponsorships.

As both a carpenter and a car guy, I find what he’s doing fascinating very well executed. Check it out at Joe Harmon Design.

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November 18, 2008 by David.

I think the Willys Wagons were one of the most beautiful vehicles ever made. Well, for a truck, anyway. After all, the Willys Wagon is truly the original SUV. Willys Jeeps and pickups and even coupes are perennial favorites, but the wagons are the forgotten but good looking sister. In the Willys line of vehicles, the wagon is by far the hardest to find with a high-quality restoration or turned into a hotrod.

I had a 51 wagon in the 90’s and loved it. My dream is to have another in the future but this time I want one  that has had a frame-off restoration, completely new running gear, and …four doors.

Most Willys enthusiasts aren’t aware that the Willys Wagons ever came with four doors. That’s how rare they are. However, there was the Hy-Rail Fairmont made in the US. I haven’t been able to find how many were made, but it had to be a small run. They were made with a rail-road undercarriage that allowed the vehicle to run on the tracks. I’ve been able to come up with all of three in existence (although some say there is five) with only one  of those running.

Many also don’t know Mitsubishi licensed the rights to build Willys vehicles in Japan. Naturally the models they made the most of were the Jeep CJ3B style. However, the wagon version they produced had four doors. This is music to my ears!!  Production ceased in 1987, over twenty years longer than anything with a Willys nameplate was manufactured in the US.

My long term plan is to import the body of one of the Mitsubishi 4-door wagons and do a complete custom build. Given that Willys Wagons are renowned for rust, importing a Mitsubishi gives me the opportunity to start with not only a much newer body, but I get my coveted four doors, along with the vertical panel wagon style rear doors instead of a tailgate. I’ll swap out that flat frontend for one with the V shape (as in the other two pics) as I like that much better and it should be a direct bolt on.

Ok, my 4-door wagon build is probably a couple years off, but I’m collecting information and developing the plans while I wait.

Update: I now have a site, WillysCountry.com, that has as much detail on the 4-door Hy-Rail Fairmont and and the Mitsubishi J30 wagon as I’ve been able to find and I will continue  to update it as I collect more detail.

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July 25, 2008 by David.

CNN’s article on avoiding a speeding ticket is right on the money in my book. Avoiding “attention” isn’t all that hard - basically learn how to blend in but still be cranking along pretty good. I’d add one more point to CNN’s list, get a motorcycle. Because of their small size, a motorcycle has to be really close to a radar gun to be picked up, like a quarter mile or less. I’ve ridden by those little signs that tell you how fast you are going and on a full dresser I still am almost on top of it before it registers that I’m even there.

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July 8, 2008 by David.

Yesterday was exactly ten years from when I took delivery of my brand new custom-ordered Dodge Ram V-10 pickup. That makes it the longest I’ve owned any vehicle, beating my previous record of 9 years for a used Jeep CJ-7, and I don’t have any expectation of selling it for the foreseeable future. Ok, it is possible I will get a new pickup in a few  years, but chances are I’ll keep the Ram around. I’ve done so many upgrades to it that what I could get out of it would hardly make it worth selling.

The bottom line after ten years? Well, if I had it to do all over again I’d get a Ford diesel. At the least, I certainly wouldn’t get the V-10 since the heads breathe so poorly you can’t do much to increase output. The V-8 not only sounds better (thanks to the V-10 overlapping spark order) but is a much better candidate to boost power.

Secondly, the ride is quite harsh. In retrospect I wouldn’t have ordered the heaviest duty of everything. Without a heavy load it can be a killer on long trips, although it is pretty funny to have visitors talk in a stutter because they aren’t accustomed to the sharp bounces.

Thirdly, its maintenance record isn’t very good, although I have to say that I’d guess that Ford and Chevy aren’t much better for that era of pickup.

That heavy cast iron V-10 over the front wheels make it one of the best vehicles you can get for driving in snow.

If you are wanting a nice, plush interior, Dodge is always a step behind the competition.

Putting on shocks and painting the bezel red to match the rest of the truck are a couple of the best things I did to it. I just LOVE a bright red truck with a little chrome accent. Whatever is next will be red, that is for sure - even though the rest of the garage is all black (bikes and car).

It still gets comments about how good it looks and I still smile when I see it, so life with a Ram overall has been pretty good. You can check out more detail on the truck at www.RamV10.com.

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March 5, 2008 by David.

In case it isn’t already obvious enough, I highly admire Maserati cars. Just in case I wasn’t drooling enough over the GranTurismo, now Maserati is upping the anti with a  GranTurismo S model, boosting the HP to 433, adding some aerodymanic and styling queues, and tweaking the suspension & tranny. I’ll take one in black.

My drooling has reached new heights…

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March 4, 2008 by David.

Counting the factory originals, I recently put the fourth set of tires on Sharlet’s BMW Z3. The last set were BF Goodrich GForce KDWS (225/50Zr16). I was surprised to get a full 40,000 miles out of those puppies, although I did take them down to the wear bar. But the car is light, all four wore evenly, and we don’t abuse it.

The tires just installed are Nitto NT 450; not Z rated. They have a 50,000 tread wear warranty so should last even longer than the last set. They have a cool looking tread pattern, are the quietest set I’ve had on the car, the best ride quality, and seem to grip just fine to me. I’m very pleased, particularly at their price point, which is $100/tire, quite close to the previous BFG’s.

I think the difference in ride quality and noise is probably due to the fact that these are not run-flats, something I’ve never really been interested in having anyway. I truly couldn’t be more pleased.

For decades I’ve bought all my tires at either Costco or America’s Tires. Both have given good service and great prices (although Costco usually has a wait).

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February 24, 2008 by David.

0-60 in 16 seconds in a two cylinder turbo diesel, the Loremo (short for Low Resistance Mobile) churns out 150 MPG. Fill up three times from New York to LA. Available in Europe in 2009. (Hey, don’t ask me how you fill up three times driving across the US when the car is in Europe…)

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June 30, 2007 by David.

A couple cars are hitting the news that I absolutely love.  One is the Masarati Gran Turismo.  Beautiful lines and a wonderful car.  I’m thinking a Trident in the driveway is a good thing. 

The second is the BMW CS concept vehicle, just unveiled at the Shanghai Motor Show.  For once, a design from BMW that isn’t boring.  Now, if they’d just 1) produce it and 2) kill that awful iDrive, they just might get me interested in their brand again.

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June 8, 2007 by David.

In my life I haven’t had very many flat tires, but when I do, they tend to be eventful, so to speak. The first flat I ever had was on a dune buggy. It really was my fault.  I aired the tires down when going off road down logging trails. I was in my mid-twenties and apparently being cool with low-pressure tires was more important than actual performance - after all, lowering pressure helps in sand or rock, NOT logging roads.  Adding to that was the fact that the Beetle had way oversize tires on the back - ten inch wide rims - and the tires weren’t quite wide enough so the bead had to stretch out to seat against the rim instead, giving a sidwall that tapered in from the edge of the rim. Hey, at least I wasn’t the one that matched up those tires and rims. Anyway, lowering the pressure in that situation was asking for, well, exactly what we got. When one of the tires’ beads popped away from the rim and with no spare, the guy that was with me (no second vehicle, but at least another person was along - did I mention ‘young and stupid’?) and I walked out to the road, fortunately only a couple miles. We hitchhiked about ten miles to a service station where we called his dad to come rescue us. Eventually his dad arrived. This guy owned a body shop and Read the rest of this entry »

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January 6, 2007 by David.

A couple days ago the latest issue of Motortrend Magazine arrived in the mail.  Anyone who knows me knows I like horsepower.  I’ve done my share of drooling over the Viper since before its introduction.  However, the news of a 600 HP Viper for 2008 has me drooling all over again.  Dang!!!  Gotta get me one ‘a those!

By the way, the skiing in Vail on the drive back home was great…

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