I'm sure that you have all heard by now that actor Paul Newman passed away over the weekend.

I was perusing memorials and obits for this veteran racer over the weekend and thought that I would share this one from the UK Times with you. While my all time favoriate Newman movie will always be Cool Hand Luke (How many hard-boiled eggs did he eat?) Mr. Newman's love of motorsports led him to be an icon in the field. And he will be greatly missed.

From Cool Hand Luke:

Dragline: "He was smiling... That's right. You know, that, that Luke smile of his. He had it on his face right to the very end. Hell, if they didn't know it 'fore, they could tell right then that they weren't a-gonna beat him. That old Luke smile. Oh, Luke. He was some boy. Cool Hand Luke. Hell, he's a natural-born world-shaker."

TImes UK article:
It was a movie role that led to the other great passion in Paul Newman’s life: motor racing. He started out driving around a car park and went on to take second place in the gruelling Le Mans 24-hour race at the age of 54.

Newman caught the bug when he was cast as a racing driver in the 1969
film Winning. How fitting that his last cinematic role was as the voice of Doc Hudson, the veteran racing car who has retired to Radiator Springs in the 2006 animated film Cars.

Newman said: “I just decided one day, why not do it? . . . I can’t be competitive about acting, because there’s no way to compete as an actor. What are you competing against?

“In auto racing, either you win or you lose. You go across the finish line and come in first or second or ninth — or not at all.”

He started at the bottom, driving a saloon car. In 1976 he won his first national amateur championship. In 1977 he began competing against professionals.

CLICK HERE for the rest of the article.

I don't know about y'all, but this week has worn me out and it isn't even half over yet.

When life starts to get to me, a good laugh always seems to help.

Below you will find a few video clips from the old Candid Camera TV show. Not only do they feature shots of some nice old cars, they are definately good for a chuckle. Just click on the pictures to watch the videos...but be careful if you watch them while at work. While they contain totally clean and appropriate viewing material, the folks around me must think I am losing it as I sit here at my computer chuckling to myself.

Enjoy,

Matt

For years I have listened to people on both sides of the fence discussing whether or not safety belts should be required in antique vehicles. I understand that many in the hobby are purists who are against adding anyting to their car/truck that wasn't there when it rolled off of the assembly line. However, when I read the following article on a local Indiana TV site (www.wsbt.com), it makes me wonder if we should all re-think our personal choice to on the issue:

SOUTH BEND — A 34-year-old man pleaded guilty Tuesday to two felony charges stemming from the Aug. 16 accident that killed Carol Ragsdale and seriously injured her husband, Kenneth Ragsdale.

Derek A. Dygulski admitted to charges of driving while intoxicated resulting in death, a Class C felony, and DUI causing serious bodily injury, a Class D felony.

Sentencing is set for Nov. 5 in St. Joseph Superior Court.

The crash occurred about 7 a.m. Aug. 16 as the Ragsdales, both 60 and of the 1300 block of Providence Court, Mishawaka, were headed to a antique car show in their 1960 Corvair.

Police said Dygulski apparently was headed west on the eastbound side of Lincoln Way East in Mishawaka and drove into oncoming traffic. His vehicle crashed head-on into the Ragsdale car.

The couple were not wearing seatbelts because the Corvair did not have them. Dygulski suffered minor injuries in the crash, police said.

Since my daugthers still get a kick out of riding along in my ol' Binder every now and then, I think that a trip to the local salvage yard may be coming in the near future. I guess for me, it simply isn't worth the risk of letting them ride along if I can't buckle 'em in. No matter how good a driver I may think that I am...there are times that you simply can't protect yourself, or your passengers, from others who are out there on the roads.

What do ya'll think?

(Click on the "Leave a Comment" link below and let me know your thoughts)

I can't even begin to remember how many times I heard my parents tell me " Not to run with scissors", "Don't talk with my mouth full," and "Don't leave the battery charger hooked up to my dream car when I leave the house."

OK, so maybe that last one was a stretch, but I can guarantee you that Melvin Baggs of Lathrup Village, MI wishes his dad, or anyone for that matter, had warned him about the dangers of unattended battery chargers.

According to an article in today's Observer & Eccentric newspaper, Mr. Baggs was happily tinkering with his 1966 Plymouth Sattelitte--with the 426 Hemi uner the hood--that he had been working on for nearly  20 years late last week when he suddenly remembered that he needed to picku up a few things from the store.

When he returned a short time later, he found firefighters preparing to "knock" on his front door with a small battering ram...worried that his front door was about to be reduced to a pile of spliters, the newspaper reports that he quickly cried out..."I got the key, I got the key."

Unfortounately, at that very moment, the front door of his home should have been the least of his worries since another door was in the process of being reduced to rubble, the door of his beloved Plymouth.

Fire Marshal James Dundas said the apparent cause of the fire in his garage was an unattended battery charger attached to the Plymouth.

Adding insult to injury, the car, which was severely damaged in the blaze, was not insured.

Even so, he considers himself to be blessed. "The fuel in the gas tank didn't ignite," he told the newspaper, and nobody was injured. "I can replace everything that was damaged or lost."

The engine can likely be salvaged, Baggs said. But everything else will probably have to be replaced.

Clearly not a quitter, Baggs has vowed to rebuild his dream car. "It may take 10 years or more, but I'll do it."

Since we all generally cut a few corners here and there and often forget all the safety rules our shop teachers once tried to instill in us, I was wondering what other basic safety rules you may have forgotten...and lived to tell about.

For me it was the simple rule, never crawl under a car that isn't securely sitting on jack stands.

Way back in the day when I had a lower hairline and a higher waistline, I was working on removing the gas tank from my '52 Studebaker. A relatively simple task, despite the fact that we did not own a floor jack. I had just started when I heard a creaking sound just in time to realize that the bumper jack that I had used to lift the car was about to give way. Fortounately for me i was a little more agile back in those days and was able to get clear of the car before it slipped completely off of the jack.

Despite having been rather thinner back then, i am still not sure that the cinderblock that was sitting beneath the frame of the car was tall enough to have kept me from being flattened.

The folks over at Ford MO CO have been trying to beef up the image the classic pony car in time for the '10 models to roll out of the stable.

This time the redesign didn't include anyone by the name of Shelby...no, they weren't looking to make any drastic changes to the overall appearance, they simply decided to put a new badge on their always popular ol' pony.

According to Marco Querciagrossa, a senior Ford graphic designer, the new logo is..."A little more sinister than in the past. The old horse was more cuddly and kissable."

While the new styling for the pony logo is relatively subtle, it is interesting that this is the first update to the Mustang badge since it maed its debut at the New York World's Fair in 1964.

To help build the hype, Ford has also created a new Web site www.the2010mustang.com and an online contest that invites pony fans to subit their favorite Mustang story with a photo.

Judges will pick 25 finalists, and online voters will then pick a winner.

What does the best Mustang story get you? Well, since I learned at an early age not to look a gift horse in the mouth, I can guarantee you the folks at Ford aren't just horsing around...The winner will receive a 2010 Mustang (with the new logo stuck square in the middle of the grill) and a trip for two to the Los Angeles Auto Show in Nov.