1969: It Was A Very Good Year!

This month, we are reminded that it’s been fifty years since humankind first set foot on the moon.  50.  But in some ways, 1969 seems like yesterday because so many elements of that year are still with us.  Also, it was an amazing year in automobilia, motorcycles, and aerospace machines.  Right on!

Celebrating 50 Years on the Moon: The Lunar Rover

One horsepower.

Glorified lawn chairs for seats.

Total weight: Less than 500 pounds.

No protection from the elements.

Approximate cost per vehicle: $9.5 million.

Total distance traveled: About 56 miles.

But they were some pretty good miles. . . . . . .

History Channel’s Hot Rods and Muscle Cars (2018), a review:

In July, 2018, History Channel gave Car Week, a celebration of all things petrolhead. They made good specials worth remembering.

Hot Rods and Muscle Cars begins where WWII ends, with clear indications that hot-rodding is nothing new, as it’s been going on way before the war. Among those thrill-seeking GIs that took their military experiences to make their machines go faster, plus plentiful surplus goodness, there were men like Bill Burke, who set land speed records through an ingenious form of streamlining, and Stu Hilborn, who brought mechanical fuel injection tech from airplanes to cars.

History Channel’s Truck Wars (2018), a review:

In July, 2018, History Channel gave Car Week, a celebration of all things petrolhead. They made good specials worth remembering.

Out of all the Car Week specials, this is the one that I wanted to watch the most.

Truck Wars starts with an explanation of how things used to be back then (crap roads, cars were toys for rich folks, etc.), before talking about Ransom E. Olds, who founded REO after being booted from his first car company, Oldsmobile. REO creates one of the most important trucks, the REO Speedwagon (yes, the one that inspired the rock band name), with tech (rubber tires, electric start) that a number of conventional cars of the time didn’t have, so while considered expensive, it was worth it, as its numerous variations across the decades can attest. It was also powerful, so since the beginning, trucks had muscle to outrank passenger cars, and the REO Speedwagon was the O.G. muscle truck (just as well, the documentary doesn’t mention any muscle street truck at all). And it can never be stated enough to mention that Henry Ford did not invent the assembly line, he merely adapted the moving version to automobile manufacturing; Olds used the stationary version.

History Channel’s Car Week (2018), an overdue review:

Last year, despite not being home, I was surprised to be able to watch most of Car Week. So I decided to make it the subject of a post. But even after getting back from my trip and writing this review, I didn’t have a break to upload it sooner. As time quickly passed by and other websites beat me to the punch, I shelved it. But given that Car Week has become a yearly thing for History Channel, perhaps we can treat this as a recap. Maybe even whet your appetite for the upcoming Car Week.

History Channel’s love affair with horsepower goes farther than just their show Counting Cars, they’ve dabbled into the automotive genre long before the channel reinvented itself, with one of them involving tuning up vehicles for a dragstrip shootout (among them were Firebirds, AMC compacts and VW Beetles). Sadly, I don’t remember the name of the long-hour show (I do remember Bill Goldberg’s show was called AutoManiac). Thankfully, the channel’s love for motoring hasn’t subsided, with today giving rise to Car Week, a week filled with automotive-related programming. Among re-runs like The Cars that Made America (where there Top Gear USA reruns? I’m not sure), new documentaries have been made for the occasion, with proper commercials to promote them: