1952 Willys Jeep

Hey Everyone,

I have always been a fan of Jeeps and have wanted one since I was little. I think one aspect of jeeps that have always appealed to me is there spunk and ability to take one all kinds of different terrain. So this week I am learning about the 1952 Willys Jeep.

This one at LeMay Marymount, along with its trailer, has been restored to look exactly like the Jeeps and trailers that were used in the Korean War. So here are a few tidbits of information that I learned about this vehicle.

So, I always  thought that a Jeep was a Jeep. So when I saw that this was a Willys Jeep, I shrugged and thought okay why Willys? Is that a type of Jeep? Well come to find out Willys stands for Willys-Overland, the  automobile manufacturer responsible for the Jeep.

The Willys Jeep has a very interesting history and had a special place in the Korean War. Because of the various road conditions the Jeep was highly relied upon and became popular means of transportation for enlisted men, officers and military police.  The Jeep was used for all kinds of missions. Some of them even had communication devices to help direct air strikes and observation planes.

What I thought was really cool about this jeep was that it has a snorkel so that the engine can run underwater. 

 What a beautiful piece of history. Well that is all I have for now. I hope you enjoyed this post about the Willys Jeep.

This is me taking my birthday picture in front of the Willys Jeep.

'Til next time have an amazing day everyone,





p.s. Here is where I received my information about the Jeep from:
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1945-1952-jeep.htm

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1945-1952-jeep4.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willys

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/history-of-jeep.htm

Happy Valentine's Day!

Know that I deeply appreciate all of you who follow my blog. Happy Valentine's day and Have an amazing week!

LeMay Marymount Event Center and Car Club Corner: Metropolitans

Hello to you out there in cyber world. It has been way too long and I deeply apologize for not writing. It has been a couple of hectic months adjusting to my job. However, I am back and that is what matters.

Some new stuff on the volunteering front. I knew that there was going to be a time when LeMay - America's Car Museum was going to have the new beautiful museum built and I always wondered afterwards what would happen to the beloved Marymount Academy, where the collection is currently.

 I fell in love with Marymount the first time I visited it and it was partially the reason why I chose to intern at the Museum. I love the fact that each room had a story and that it had such history to it. ( Marymount was a military boys academy back in the day and it was run by nuns). Anyway, since the projected time for the new Museum's building to be finished in fall of this year, the Museum and Marymount have become separate entities with a mutual friendship to prepare for the big transition. So now there is LeMay - America's Car Museum and then the Marymount Event Center which houses part of the LeMay Family's collection of automobiles.

The Marymount Event Center also has a new webpage and Facebook page which you should definitely check out.

What I think is cool also is that LeMay Marymount has started to give tours of the chapel and military academy rooms ( classrooms, dormitories, etc.) on a bi-monthly basis. I am hoping that I will be free one of the upcoming Saturdays that they hold it, since I have only been able to see the grounds and chapel.

I look forward to writing more about what I learn in the following months.

Here are a few pictures that I took of the Metropolitans that are currently in Car Club Corner at Marymount. Please enjoy.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Have an amazing day everyone!

One interesting car... 1943 VW Schwimmwagen

Hey everyone,
I apologize for not posting anything for a while. It's extremely difficult being away from my source of inspiration, the LeMay Family Car Collection, to write posts about cars and dealing with learning a new job. So I do apologize but I am back and writing a short post for today that I hope to expand on later on.

I was trying to decide what to write about next and so I decided to look up one of my favorite cars just from their design, the volkswagen bug. However, in doing so I came a really cool and interesting car called a VW Schwimmwagen. The one I found that was actually for sale on a website called: oldbug.com (I've included the link even though it already has been sold because it does have some really cool pictures of this amazing little vehicle).

Its a amphibious car and actually looks like a cute rounded off boat with wheels.
Here a couple of youtube videos that I found of it:

The first one gives you a really good look at the car:


And the second it actually shows the car going to the water and driving off:




Cool huh?
Well I'll let you know about the history and logistics of the car as I go along, which hopefully will be soon.
I hope you have enjoyed this short blog post.
'Till next time have an totally amazing day!

1914 Detroit Priscilla - Electric Car

The 1914 Detroit Priscilla Electric car, a very cute and successful electric car for its time.
These cool electric cars were made from 1907 to 1938  by the Anderson electric company and was powered by a rechargeable Edison storage battery which was rechargeable, which were both lighter than lead acid batteries and long lasting.

The car was marketed towards women and doctors of the day and with good reason. This was a great vehicle that didn't require to started by  hand crank and the driver did not need to master choking skills either.

This car was produced during the companies peak in the 1910s. In fact the car was so popular that the name of the company was changed to the Detroit electric company. 

The beauty of the Detroit Priscilla's china cabinet like body is one of the things that it is known for. The car also featured a flower vase and lantern shaped headlights which I really like.

This is known as one of the most successful electric cars of its time. Its top speed was about 20 mph and it was advertised to get at least 80 miles on a single charge. It's slogan was: " ... it will take you anywhere that an automobile may go with a mileage radius farther than you will ever care to travel in a day."

Unfortunately things for the gasoline powered car improved and with these improvements the electric car became obsolete. The Detroit electric company while filing for bankruptcy in 1929 actually made it through the depression years but closed up shop for good in 1938.

However, the good news is that these beauties are still around to this day so that people can still see and admire their beauty.

I hope you have found this blog post interesting and educational. Thanks to the LeMay Car Museum for the information on this little beauty.
'Till next time have an amazing day everyone!

Ford Mustangs

The Ford Mustang, in my mind is one of the "famous" cars out there. It is a very popular car and started on being on the market in early spring of 1964. It was a beautiful car and was fairly inexpensive.

The popularity of the Mustang caused many others to mimic it thus creating the different "pony" cars - Finally that mystery is solved, when I first started at the LeMay Museum at Marymount I had wondered what a "pony" cars was and how they had come about. Now I know.

One of the famous mustangs were the 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 which had such a built a such a big engine that it had what was called a shaker scoop (much like the one on the mustang below) which was part of the engine that extended through the hood of the car and shook when the car idled.

Personally I like the older Mustangs from the 1960's once the "fox body" was introduced ( I really wish I had a picture to show as a example but I don't) the Mustang seemed to go down in design and seemed to blend in with so many other cars' body designs afterwards in my opinion.  Some more of the Mustang's characteristics were a long hood and a short  back end.

One of the really cool things about the Ford Mustang from 1965 to 1970 was that the former race car driver designed the Ford Shelby Mustangs.This is something new to me as I thought the shelby cars were a totally different car altogether.

Here are a few more pictures of some of the Mustangs I have encountered over the recent months:

So I hope enjoyed this interesting but short post.
'Til Next time have a amazing day everyone!

The Volkswagen Thing

The Volkswagen Thing

The Volkswagen Thing aka the Volkswagen Safari,Volkswagen Trekker and the Volkswagen Type 161 or Type 162,  based on where a person is and where the car is from.  Unfortunately the Thing has gotten some bad publicity, in my mind as a ugly car but I really don't think so. I think its cool and different. Now maybe if I rode in it I would think differently but for right now I stand by the vehicle and say, "Hey that is a cool car!"  - at least in design.

 

The car was actually made after a military vehicle called the Kübelwagen:  Kübel meaning bucket and wagen meaning seats which makes since that is what the car has. 

The convertible things were only sold in the United States in 1973. Unfortunately the car never really caught on with the market because most of  those that could afford the  $3,150 ( as much as many of the sport cars at the time) did not like it. (However it did catch on with the youth.)

Fascinating fact is that the vehicle's doors and windows are detachable and interchangeable! The convertible models of the Thing were only sold in the United States.

It was built on the same chassis as a pre -1968 Volkswagen Microcbus. A chassis, for people like myself that didn't know until I looked it up is the skeleton of a motor vehicle consisting of a steel frame supported on springs that holds the body and motor.


Looking back at the car show I really wish I had taken a peek inside the car's interior. It was suppose to be so bare and "stripped" that Volkswagen advertised that one could hose out the interior!

The way that the car was heated was through a gasoline fueled heater that was hooked up right to the engine and the heater was optional. 

It had a four cylinder engine and the only option for transmission was a four speed manual transmission. Just another reason why I should learn to drive a stick.

Things did not go well for this car since few that did like the design could afford it and then Ralph Nader got it banned from being imported after the 1974 model due to its failure to meet safety standards for passenger cars - hmmm.... Safety is important but if you follow the #1 rule of driving it shouldn't be a issue ( the rule is don't hit anything and don't let anything hit you!)

However, the Thing wasn't known for its speed either - it would go from 0 to 60 in 23 seconds, not so great. 

Overall the Volkswagen Thing to me is a pretty cool little car and I hope to learn even more about it along the way.

It you are interested in more Volkswagen Thing history I found a great website, the Jacksonville VW Thing website. Its chocked full of information on the Thing that I couldn't possibly squeeze into my blog. Click here for the link for the history pages of the VW Thing on their website. They are also a cool resource for the history of the Volkswagen company as well.

I hope that you enjoyed this blog and found it to be entertaining and enlightening.
'Til next time have a amazing day everyone!