When Volvos Weren't So Safe

 Greeting from the attic!

Man, is it HOT up here! But I'm going to take a few moments away from my constant fanning to share yet another item!

Yay!

Today I have a Corgi Toys Marcos Volvo 1800! These were made from 1966 to 1969 and I had one as a kid...although not this one. What happened to the old one? Let's just say that fireworks and toys don't mix (although it's about the most American kid thing ever to try to combine them, sadly). I found this one, an exact match to mine, on eBay a few weeks ago...

Now this one isn't in the best of shape either. That windshield crack alone is pretty tough. Still it HAS a windshield, which as I recall is better than mine ended up. Still, I paid under ten bucks for it, and it rolls well and a cheap "roller" is good enough for me!

As a kid, I bought it because it looked cool. I had no idea what car (if any) it was actually based on. So, I decided to do a little research. This is what I found:

" It is a die-cast model (roughly 1:43–1:44 scale) of the Marcos 1800 GT, a British sports car introduced in 1964 by Marcos Engineering.

Key real-car details:

Fibreglass body over a unique plywood (marine plywood) chassis in the early cars.

Powered by a Volvo 1.8-litre B18 four-cylinder engine (from the Volvo P1800), producing around 96–108 hp, with an overdrive gearbox and (initially) a de Dion rear axle.

Very low-slung design with fixed seats and an adjustable pedal box; top speed roughly 116 mph (187 km/h).

Only about 100 of the Volvo-engined 1800 GTs were built before Marcos switched to Ford engines (the later 1500/1600 models). The 1800 remains the only Marcos eligible for many historic racing series and is highly regarded today.

Wikipedia"

Now fiberglass over plywood doesn't exactly sound safe, and I'm pretty sure airbags were out of the question. Also, at 86-108 hp, this was NOT a muscle car by any means, but it was probably very light, quick, and maneurverable, which is more important than raw power in European racing.

Corgi released this car in two colors, blue and white. Obviously, this is the blue one, which is slightly rarer than the white version.

More research (how DOES he do it?) shows that even in this condition they go for 20-40 bucks, so I got a good deal, I guess. 

All in all, it's a pretty cool car that fills a whole in my childhood Corgi collection, blown there by an "errant" firecracker! Kids are dumb.

Anyway, keep searching for treasure (and don't blow it up!)

Crazy (Car), Man!

 Today I'm going to feature a book that I've had a long time and is almost really cool...but not quite. 

In the late 60s and early 70s, car culture was everywhere. The wild custom "show car" craze was born on the west coast and spread over the entire U.S. By 1973, government regulations had put a huge dent in the muscle car industry, but the show cars were still going strong. It was at this moment that "The One and Only Crazy Car Book" by Sloan Walker was published.

I picked this up at a garage sale years ago, and assumed it was a Scholastic book. (I used to love those order forms that would be handed out at school every so often- and waiting for your order to come back was heaven!) However, upon closer indpection, I see it's a Young Reader's Press book. Anyway, let's take a quick look, shall we?

Upon opening, we find...

They feature the most popular show rods, plus a few lessor known builds such as the Anycar...

Both of these (and many others in the book) were plastic models. Oh, and don't read the text. You might lose a couple IQ points. I know it was written for kids, but still...yeeesh!

Zingers are kinds cool. The idea is simple; make the engine look huge by scaling down the car. By the way, I once read that an owner of a real Zinger said that while they do run, they are NOT fun to drive!

The Boothill Express is probably one of the most famous show cars ever.

I remember the Blue Flame as a kid. This was back when land speed records made national news!

Of course...

I thought it was interesting to see what the brand new presidential limo looked like in 1973.

And I really don't think "NASA specs" had much to do with this show car...

So there you have it! There are other cars that I didn't show, but you get the idea.

Now I said this book was not quite really cool. Why? Well, first the text really talks down to kids, I think, and second is that they cheaped out and printed it in black and white. One of the main attractions of these cars is their fantastic paint jobs! In this book, you would never know that.

Still the book sits in my book shelf as a testiment to a time when the crazier the cars got, the better we kids loved them!

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

Four Times as Fun!

 I mentioned that I have a quadrophonic stereo system that I've built over the years. Here is the paper insert from a quad album that explains about quad and features receivers that used their SQ playback system. I think it's pretty interesting...

You can click on it and zoom in to read it. It's interesting that the record company felt that people needed this information to understand the idea of quadrophonic sound. Now, of course we have surround sound, which uses 5 channels, plus a sub woofer. And that's just on our TVs! But in the late 60s to early 70s it was a really revolutionary idea. Heck, stereo (two channel) had only been around a few years at that point!

Unfortunately, quad would fail as a consumer stereo option. The different systems (QS, SQ, CD-4) were confusing and most systems could only decode one (although my Sansui receiver does all of them, it was very unusual). The systems were expensive, and the idea of surround sound was years away. 

Still, it's fun to mess with, and this humble sleave is a nice view into a time when consumers were offered an item that was poorly thought out, and they didn't want anyway!

Yay!!!

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!