This is simply a beautiful Nova drag car that I saw last season at New England Dragway in Epping New Hampshire. Low cars with fat tires gets me every – single – time.
Brand New 1984 Harley-Davidson XR-1000 In The Box
I could go about a million different directions with an eBay find like this. Maybe I should reference Brad Pitt in the movie “Seven” when he is screaming “WHAT’S IN THE BOX!!!“? Or I could write my own version of Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg’s famous “Saturday Night Live” like song:
Step 1) Cut a hole in the box…
Step 2) Put a motorcycle in the baaaahhx…
Step 3) Never open the box… and that’s the way you do it. It’s a bike in a box!…
It’s not just a bike though. This is a 1984 Harley XR 1000, and yes it is brand new, straight from 1984 to your computer screen. You can’t make this stuff up. Here’s the story quoted right from the eBay auction:
Up for auction is a 1984 Harley Davidson XR-1000 Motorcycle. This bike was delivered to Thurnalls Harley Davidson in Clarksville Indiana. Due to slow sales at the time, the motorcycle remained at Thurnalls warehouse in its shipping crate. Mr Thurnall passed in 2003, and in 2007 the bike along with other motorcycle related items were purchased by the current owner. When the bike was transferred in 2007 a small C shaped cut was made in the crate so the local sheriff could inspect the VIN number. Other than that, the Motorcycle has been undisturbed in its crate. I was able to take some pictures by inserting my camera through the C shaped hole. We have a clear Ky title in the current owners name showing 3 miles. Local pickup, is preferred, with payment of the balance at that time. We will ship if payment methods are acceptable.
Much like the brand new Bronco from a few weeks, I’m left wondering what the owner can possibly do with it? It’s a crazy piece of history that is totally one of a kind. Tearing the box off of it would potentially hurt its value, never mind ever starting it and riding it. Sure, it would be amazing to tear up the streets with a brand new bike from the 1980’s, but let’s face it, once this thing has a couple thousand miles on it, its value will slice in half. Amazing mechanical finds like these are always a blessing and a curse for me to see because I am always so torn up about what the “right thing” is to do with them! Luckily, none of us will have to stress out about it, because the motorcycle sold yesterday for $30,000 to somebody that we don’t know (most likely).
Check out the eBay Item # 220942214431 for more pictures.
Automotive Sheep Cyclone Spotted
It’s no secret that when you mix vehicles and excitable farm animals, you can nearly guarantee yourself a great youtube video (and entertaining car blog). Today, for all of you animal/automotive lovers out there, we have just that. It’s a sheep cyclone, no… a sheep… tornado! I cannot even begin to imagine why these sheep decided to create a such a whirlwind around this car, but I know a humorous situation when I see it. Enjoy!
Are You Ready For The New Top Gear USA Season?
Last year we discussed the new Top Gear USA that had graced our TV’s for the very first time, and there were some mixed reviews. I personally liked it, but hoped that the whole thing would get a bit less “stiff” as the season went on. Luckily, it did. By the end of the season, Tanner, Adam, and Rutledge were really drinking flowing together quite well. It’s now a year later, and we are just one week away from the new season beginning on February 14th at 9pm on the History channel. Will you be watching this season? Will you forget that it’s also Valentines Day?
Here are the promo’s for your viewing enjoyment.
1972 Nova Inner Wheel House Metal Fabrication: Part 2
Today it was above freezing in the garage, so I decided that it would be a great time to finally finish the 1972 Nova inner wheel house that I had started several weeks ago. We left off in the last post with the repair panel about 95% made. So today I just had to clean the surrounding areas up and prepare the new panel to be welded in. Easy enough right? I started by hitting all of the surrounding metal with the abrasive Roloc discs attached to the angle grinder. This removed all of the old paints, primers, and seam sealer from the “hot zone”. I like to also chip off any nearby undercoating too because that stuff burns fast, and stinks like you wouldn’t even believe. It’s probably not so great to inhale either. Once clean, I tack’ed the new panel in place with a few spot welds, double checked everything, and then spot & stitch welded it into its new home. Then I ground the visible welds down, and snapped off a few pictures.
Next, I’m going to clean this whole area really well, and give it a good soaking in black POR-15. Sadly, I will have to wait for a warmer day because I don’t have heat in my garage, and POR-15 doesn’t flow or dry really well when it’s sub-40 degrees F. Boooo Winter! Let’s all cross our fingers and hope that we get a warm day this week. If we do, I may be able to tackle the quarter panel next weekend!
2003 Audi RS6 LS1 Engine Swap
Great, now that I have your attention, what you are about to witness is pure automotive hottness at its very best. There’s beautiful fabrication, a beautiful car, a beautiful engine, and an overall beautiful build thread. The whole event took place over on MotorGeek, and if you have a spare hour or so, you will definitely want to read through the entire build thread. It’s dang near incredible. Here is the short story.
A user known as “timmmy” got a great deal on a 2003 Audi RS6 that had a missing twin turbo engine. He decided that rather than replacing it with a very expensive factory replacement, a 2004 Pontiac GTO LS1 v8 would be the best candidate to go in its place. The best part? He also swapped in manual transmission and kept the all-wheel drive. For-The-Win. Absolutely ideal daily driver in New England? Yessiree Bob… err… should I say “Judas”? I forgot to mention that, this project is named Project “Judas.”
Challenges of the Audi RS6 LS1 Engine Swap
Now it’s one thing to plop this GTO engine into a 70 Chevelle, but a totally different game to surgically slide it under the hood of an all-wheel drive (AWD) Audi RS6. Mechanically, this engine swap had a unique set of challenges that you might expect, like relocating the transmission further rearward, modifying axles, and just basically making space for 4 more inches of engine under the hood. There was plenty of awesomely fabricated parts to make this happen. Transmission cross-members, engine mounts, accessory brackets, the whole shebang. The majority of the parts were made of aluminum, and if you have been reading the 1A Blog for a while, you know that I’m a sucker for TIG welded aluminum.
Fuel Injection. For those of you that have done fuel injected engine swaps before, you know that it has its own variety of challenges that carbureted engines don’t have, like ohhh, about 4 million wires. Not only that, but this builder then had to connect the LS1 engine harness to the Audi harness and have them play merrily. That way he would have a dashboard, OBDII port, and engine accessories that actually worked like they were intended. That takes some serious noggin power, and is almost always the most frightening part of a car build.
Within the build thread, there are probably hundreds of pictures, many videos, and great automotive banter throughout. I grabbed a few to share with you today, but really you need to check out the complete thread. It’s everything you want and more.
Here is a link to the truly spectacular LS1 Audi RS6 build thread: http://www.motorgeek.com/
You know I grabbed my favorite video as well right? Here, he tests the Audi RS6’s new launching capabilities and LS1 rev limiter. They work!
Special Note To MotorGeek Guys: I fixed the “slight” error on transmission swap 😉 My bad.
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We Found That 8 Second Supra You Wanted
In the automotive world, there is a tongue-in-cheek joke about Toyota Supras, it goes something like:
Q: “What do 400hp, 600hp, & 800hp Supras have in common?”
A: “12 second time slips.” (…Laughter then ensues…)
Well, today I have found official evidence that 1200 horsepower Supra’s do in fact run faster than 12’s in the quarter mile. It comes in the form of… you guessed it! an eBay listing for an absolutely evil looking MKIV Toyota Supra. Here are a few stats that will make you question what you are doing with your life.
- 8.028@181.23 MPH (@ 45psi boost)
- 3.2 2JZ Engine, partially filled with Hardblok
- 91mm Garrett GT5533R
- TH400 Transmission
- Nitrous
- Parachute
- TWELVE 1000 injectors (2 per cylinder)
- 6x EGT sensors
- CO2 controlled wastegates
- Over $80,000 in receipts in hand
Naturally, there are also videos of this thing in action. Watch this and look at how disturbingly hard this car launches. I don’t know how it doesn’t spit the driver through the rear window at the starting line. I mean it is truly ridiculous. The 60 foot times on this must be mind blowing.
Got a need for a potentially 7 second Supra? Bid now on eBay Item # 270898816806 . If you win the auction, you better keep in touch. We want to see the first 7 second run that it makes.