[Racer X 69]

Keeping with the current vehicle theme and getting back to bacon.

Very current and appropriate Bob!

Post of the day.

And here the day is just beginning.

[robtcorl]

[Racer X 69]

That picture proves one thing for sure.

No part of bacon is bad.

Every last morsel is awesome.

Matter of fact, had some this morning, Saturday wakeup meal.

Now, back to the fire.

More later . . . . . . .

[Racer X 69]

Just watched the Mackinac Island Pro-Invitational Stone Skipping Tournament 2019 on ESPN.

Entrants play for fudge.

Really.

It's a big deal there.

| stoneskipping.com

[Parallax]

Just watched the Mackinac Island Pro-Invitational Stone Skipping Tournament 2019 on ESPN.

If you're that bored you have my sympathy.
What's next on your "list of exciting things to watch", golf?

[bertwert]

What's next on your "list of exciting things to watch", golf?

I would post the video, but there's a few 'non-family friendly' words in there... but look up Robin Williams about golf...

[lesmore49]

My family and I lived in Pennsylvania for a couple of years back in the noughties when I worked there. There, I discovered that when I mentioned ‘Merc’ when talking about cars, the automatic assumption was that I was referring to Mercury, while being from over the pond, I was actually referring to Mercedes. It got confusing for a while!

It was sort of the opposite for North Americans...we used the abbreviation 'Merc' for Mercury and when I started watching the English TV show, Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson and the boys, I noticed they referred to a Mercedes as a Merc.

I guess that's the way the Mercedes...Benz.

I've been looking for an opportunity to slide that last line in for awhile.

[Racer X 69]

If you're that bored you have my sympathy.
What's next on your "list of exciting things to watch", golf?

The Tube is on in the backgoround at the moment. There isn't any racing on TV today, and most of the car oriented shows are on the nth rerun cycle.

So.

Been processing some pictures today.

Yesterday there was a break in the rainy spring weather, so we mowed.


Mrs. Racer runs the GR2110 (the one with the 3 cylinder diesel) with a 54" cut. She does all the edges and tight spots.




I run the L260, with the King Cutter finish mower, 3 blades, PTO driven, 72" for every pass. I get everything else.





Then I built a fire in the rock crusher cone, and finished up most of the yard debris collected a week or so back. Mrs. Racer stayed up for a little while, but headed for bed about 8 or 9. I stayed up until midnight or so.

There may have been beer consumed.




With my morning cup in hand I went back out first thing this morning and finished it off.



It is raining again, so back to inside stuff. Gonna try and finish the dust separator today.

[MarkJerling]

Being a fan of the '57 Ford, I thought you might like this article, although you may have seen it before. I'm a Hemmings subscriber and they have some pretty interesting stories on non typical cars.
https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=...tbIhrRKxmL73ja

That is a lovely article. And to think the original supercharger was sitting right there in a barrel. Interesting, the bootlegger story. '57 Ranchero pickups were very popular as smuggler trucks. Reason being, the '57 Ranchero floor plan was a 2-door Ranch Wagon floor plan. So, the back seat footwells are still there and therefore there's a great smuggler's space between the pickup bed and the 'car' floor pan underneath.

I see too, looking at the specs, that the car's running 15" wheels. '55 and '56 Fords ran on 15" wheels, but Ford went to 14" in '57 because the designers were going for the low, long look, and by running the car on 14" wheels that helped to get that 'low' look. Of course, that did not work all that well for poor roads and for farm tracks with a high centre. So, many farmers ordered their '57 Ford with 15" wheels. Mine ran 15" wheels for that reason too.

You've mentioned in the past that when you were younger you lived in South Africa, then moving to New Zealand . I believe Australia in the '50's and 60's got American cars from Canada...sometimes in knockdown form, where they assembled them in Australia. I'm not completely sure on this...do you know if this was the same case in South Africa and NZ...at that time ?

I grew up in South Africa, my ancestors emigrating there in 1773. 20 years ago Annie and I started looking for somewhere to emigrate to as we had concerns about raising our children in South Africa. So, we considered Canada, Australia and New Zealand and, at the time, New Zealand was the easiest to get into, so the decision was made! We're still, to this day, very happy with our move although Canada was a close second place. This interlude does actually have a car angle, I promise: My parents lived when I was small in Port Elizabeth. Port Elizabeth was South Africa's major manufacturing city. All the car factories were there. My father's older brother worked at the Ford factory. My dad was never into cars and I got interested in old cars pretty much by accident.

But, to answer your query: Australia, New Zealand and South Africa had similar systems to try to shore up their local industries. One such scheme applied to motor vehicles so imported vehicles had very high import levies. In the case of South Africa, for a long time the import levy was 100% of the cost of the vehicle. Most car manufacturers did not actually manufacture the cars in South Africa, they only assembled the cars there. In time, the factories became more advanced and some parts were locally manufactured with others imported. There was import duties on imported components too, so there was an incentive for the manufacturers to try to increase local content.

Back in the 1940's and 1950's the cars were largely assembled locally, while, by the 1960's and 1970's the local manufacturing content had increased quite a bit. Of course, we not only got USA style cars but also UK and European cars. Volkswagen Beetles and Kombis were very popular, as were many English cars like Wolseleys, Ford Prefects, Consuls and Austins. The English cars had the advantage that they were, of course, already Right Hand Drive, while the US cars needed top be specially built as RHD cars for the South African, Australian and New Zealand markets.

Enter Ford Canada: You're quite correct that Ford Canada manufactured many of our cars, but they did that in knock-down form. The cars were shipped to South Africa in unassembled form and assembly took place in Port Elizabeth. So, for the '57 Custom 300 I had most parts had Canadian Ford part numbers and many parts had a "Made in Canada" on the part. As result, Ford Y-block V-8 engines that are always red in the USA with silver aircleaners are green with light green aircleaners as that's how they left the factory in Canada.

Of course, most cars imported were the cheaper models so while there's quite a lot of Fords and Chevrolets of the '40s and '50s in South Africa, there's very few Lincolns, Mercuries, Cadillacs, Buicks and Oldsmobiles. There are two years (or rather periods) though where you see plenty of the other expensive makes: 1947-1948 and 1958. The reason is that the South African government needed new cars for government officials in those years and therefore temporarily relaxed the import restrictions, not just for government, but for everyone. So, you'll see lots of '47 and '48 Cadillacs, for instance, but very few '46 or '49 Caddies. Likewise, quite a few '58 Buicks and Oldsmobiles and Lincolns, but very few '57 or '59 model years.

So yes, you're 100% correct!

[tim60]

The Tube is on in the backgoround at the moment. There isn't any racing on TV today, and most of the car oriented shows are on the nth rerun cycle.

So.

Been processing some pictures today.

Yesterday there was a break in the rainy spring weather, so we mowed.


Mrs. Racer runs the GR2110 (the one with the 3 cylinder diesel) with a 54" cut. She does all the edges and tight spots.




I run the L260, with the King Cutter finish mower, 3 blades, PTO driven, 72" for every pass. I get everything else.





Then I built a fire in the rock crusher cone, and finished up most of the yard debris collected a week or so back. Mrs. Racer stayed up for a little while, but headed for bed about 8 or 9. I stayed up until midnight or so.

There may have been beer consumed.




With my morning cup in hand I went back out first thing this morning and finished it off.



It is raining again, so back to inside stuff. Gonna try and finish the dust separator today.

54” for the tight spots!

At my place the whole lawn is about 100” wide, if that, and less that 200” long. The lawn is uselessly small, gets muddy when it is wet, which is often, but big enough to need a mower. Glad I found a Flymo electric, they are all electric or push here, except for the big ones the council do the parks with, which are liquid fuel driven. I bought mine for a price about 30% off normal.

[tim60]

In the 70s Australia had a protection scheme with high import tax on imported cars, unless a car had some particular percentage of local content. The local makers sold basic models with everything like nice wheels and radio sold as an extra price option. The Japanese makers worked out that if they shipped bare cars and added radios and nice wheels and similar ‘options’ in Australia they could satisfy the local content rule. So they became even more popular because the cars were fairly good, fuel efficient (remember the shortages and high prices of the 70s) and came with all the luxury extras as standard.

Creative thinking finds a way around such protectionism.

[rod_grant]

whole lawn is about 100” wide, if that, and less that 200” long.

come on Tim, with a lawn that big you should be able to cut with hand shears.





ps Do you remember Lou Richards, that dirty little Collingwood footballer who became "Louie the Lip" as a football journalist/commentator?
He used to make outlandish promises about what he would do in the event of a major upset in the footie.
The best one that I remember (perhaps the only one - this was back in the early 1960s) was that he would cut Ted Whitten's lawn with a pair if nails scissors if Footscray beat whoever they were playing that week. (Ted was Footscray's captain)
Monday's morning paper had a picture of Louie on hands and knees cutting Ted's lawn.
(We all know that photos don't lie, so I'm sure he did the whole lawn.

[tim60]

I remembered hearing the bit about cutting the lawn with nail scissors but not the whole story.

Another story I like from Melbourne is the one about Jacko, who was reported 7 times in the same game.

For the ignorant from other countries, in Australian Rules players are not sent off for bad behaviour, because that could make the umpire the best player on the other side. Instead, naughty players get reported and need to answer a case at the Tribunal, a league run court, who decide the penalty. Often penalties are suspensions for one or more games.

[Liney]

Just watched the Mackinac Island Pro-Invitational Stone Skipping Tournament 2019 on ESPN.

Entrants play for fudge.

Really.

It's a big deal there.

| stoneskipping.com

Well they have to fill the airtime somehow, although I can't see it catching on.

---------- Post added 05-03-20 at 07:24 PM ----------

In the 70s Australia had a protection scheme with high import tax on imported cars, unless a car had some particular percentage of local content. The local makers sold basic models with everything like nice wheels and radio sold as an extra price option. The Japanese makers worked out that if they shipped bare cars and added radios and nice wheels and similar ‘options’ in Australia they could satisfy the local content rule. So they became even more popular because the cars were fairly good, fuel efficient (remember the shortages and high prices of the 70s) and came with all the luxury extras as standard.

Creative thinking finds a way around such protectionism.

The same sort of tax existed until the nineties at least. We had an RAAF liaison officer with us who picked up a very nice second hand 7 series BMW as a runaround. When his time came to go back he investigated shipping the car back to Aus, but the conclusion was that he would have to pay something approaching the original price of the car in tax to get it into the country.

[tim60]

Well they have to fill the airtime somehow, although I can't see it catching on.

---------- Post added 05-03-20 at 07:24 PM ----------



The same sort of tax existed until the nineties at least. We had an RAAF liaison officer with us who picked up a very nice second hand 7 series BMW as a runaround. When his time came to go back he investigated shipping the car back to Aus, but the conclusion was that he would have to pay something approaching the original price of the car in tax to get it into the country.

I can believe it. I think more recently the car had to be more than a fairly old age, or owned by the importing owner for several years to get low or no tax. The RAAF rotation time would have been too short.

How dare that taxpayer funded person try to get a personal benefit out of his taxpayer funded trip to wherever it was!

I looked at the Qantas frequent flyer scheme once. The first question, before asking for name and address was: are you an Australian tax resident? This is because using FF points earned from work travel is considered a taxable benefit of employment, and the government even sued former Public Servants for using points earned from work trips after they retired.