Tag: HISTORIC

Awesomely Weird: This 1970s Chevrolet Parts Film Stars Evel Knievel And Literally Makes No Sense

Apr 24, 2021Apex Video, BangShift APEX, BangShift News, FUNNY STUFF, HISTORIC, MISC, Videos

Awesomely Weird: This 1970s Chevrolet Parts Film Stars Evel Knievel And Literally Makes No Sense

We’re guessing someone lost their job for this one. You are going to watch this 1970s Chevrolet parts film which stars Evel Knivel and makes literally no sense at all. The theme of the film is “conflict” and it is illustrated by a series of scenes where animals eat other animals, black and white movies are shown, and Evel Knievel jumps stuff on his motorcycle, sometimes crashing, sometimes not. Throw in a dose of 1970s Anchoman-level hilarity with a bikini-clad woman, and you have yourself one of the most singular odd things we have ever seen.

Make no mistake, Knievel would never turn down a gig, especially one with Chevrolet that likely was a great payday for reading some cue-cards. The company definitely did not hire him for his suave acting ability because this dude is straight up stiff while narrating the action. By action, we mean the bizarre things we are shown on screen.

Oddly, while Chevrolet parts are mentioned a handful of times there’s barely (if ever) a Chevrolet car shown as a prop in the film. This whole thing is some weirdo theater of the mind that was likely schemed up by an executive’s kid. “Hey Johnson, get my son a job in the media department and let him run wild!”

Obviously, Knievel was majorly famous at this point and his star only grew bigger. Note that he mentions that someday, “I’ll jump a mile….” we all know how that quest ended.

You have to see this one to believe it.

Press play to see the weirdest Chevrolet Parts video ever made, starring Evel Knievel!

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Ever Wonder How They Make Wooden Airplane Props? Check Out These Two Ladies From Culver Props As They Take Us Through The Entire Process

Jan 16, 2021HISTORIC, MISC, TECH, Videos

Ever Wonder How They Make Wooden Airplane Props? Check Out These Two Ladies From Culver Props As They Take Us Through The Entire Process

Airplanes are bitchin machines, and were instrumental in the design and components used on some of the earliest hot rods. So it is no wonder that gearheads are often attracted to the cool shapes and lines that come on classic and military airplanes. And what’s cooler than the sexy wooden propeller hanging off the front of a neat old airplane? If someone asked what it took to build one, it would take a few minutes to think about all the steps and critical shaping that is required to make one from scratch. But now, you and I can watch one getting made, step by step, by two talented craftswomen from Missouri who build every single prop that comes out of Culver Props in Rolla, Missouri. I stumbled onto their YouTube channel and saw that they are starting a series on what it takes to make a new prop, and how the days progress during the build process.

I for one am excited to see what this cool prop will look like when done, seeing as it is made from several layers of Maple. Laminating wood like this not only produces a beautiful layered look, but also provides more strength and stability than if the prop were made from one solid block of wood.

Here’s Day 1 of a Propeller Build, we’ll share the next one as soon as it is posted!

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Classic YouTube: Rod Millen And Nobuhiro Tajima Running Pikes Peak In 1996

Nov 04, 2020Apex Video, BangShift APEX, HISTORIC, RACING & ACTION, Videos

Classic YouTube: Rod Millen And Nobuhiro Tajima Running Pikes Peak In 1996

If you are sitting at the starting line for your chance to tear up Pikes Peak, have no doubt in your mind that you are either exceptionally talented or exceptionally brave. Or both. Without question, every year the pack of racers will be a group of “best of the best” drivers who will attack the mountain course with all that they can muster out of themselves and the machines they have sank hope, hours and tons of emotions and money into. No matter that the entire highway is paved…that means precious little when you can look off the edge and see a drop that will require you to take a breath in-between screams before you hit the bottom. But that doesn’t deter drivers…if anything, it entices them as a challenge.

Two names that are strongly tied to Pikes Peak are Rod Millen and Nobuhiro “Monster” Tajima. Millen has held the fastest time on the mountain five times and had ran the course before partial paving projects removed some of the dirt sections of the course. His goal was to break the ten-minute mark, but he never made that. Still, watching him fling around monsters like this radical 850 horsepower Toyota Celica sillouhette racer on the dirt was something to behold. The Celica had an underfloor diffuser that sucked the Celica to the ground, causing the car to blow up rooster tails of dust wherever it went.

Tajima ended up breaking Millen’s speed record, one that stood for thirteen years, in 2007. He broke the ten-minute time in 2011. “Monster”, his nickname, has run cars with dual engines, heavily turbocharged mills, and electric race cars. This was a man who built his own car, that might have used a grille from a Suzuki Escudo (Sidekick) and pretty much nothing else, and was powered by two 1.6L four-bangers that together made a snorting, pissed off 900 horsepower. Tajima did not screw around with his designs.

From start to finish, these two titans went after each other, the mountain and the clock, trying to hit that seemingly mythical sub-10 minute time. Hit play below and check it out!

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“You might want to get back in it!”: Check Out The Story Of The F-106 Delta Dart “Cornfield Bomber”!

The Convair F-106 Delta Dart was a hot rod of the highest order when it came to interceptor aircraft. Mach 2.0 was just starting to reach the upper limits of the airspeed indicator (Mach 2.3 was officially the fastest it’d go), it had the pure 1950s delta-wing design going on, and it had one major downside of a delta-winged supersonic jet: when induced into a flat spin (where the wings are horizontal), the chances of recovery are minimal and require major man-handling of the aircraft’s weight forward and down for a successful recovery. What does it look like when that doesn’t happen? You know that scene in Top Gun where Maverick and Goose fly through Iceman’s jet wash? That happens.

For the then-Captain Gary Faust, a flat spin in a “Six” was the last possible place he ever wanted to be in. During aerial combat maneuver training over Montana on February 2, 1970, the F-106 went into a flat spin and at with 15,000 feet between the jet and the ground, Faust punched out and ejected. The force of the ejection, coupled with the weight shift of suddenly losing the weight of the pilot, pitched the Dart’s nose downward…and the aircraft recovered and flew off, pilotless, to the amazment of all of the pilots…and, most likely, the absolute annoyance of Captain Faust, who ended up landing near some mountains no worse for the wear. He was recovered by snowmobilers and brought to rescuers. The Delta Dart, on the other hand, was predicted to end up as a fireball, but instead glided into a snow-filled alfalfa field near Big Sandy, Montana, making a nearly-perfect belly landing, missing a stone wall by turning as if it had been piloted, and coming to rest in the snow, still running, the radar still sweeping.

What happened next was almost comedy: first, the local sheriff got a call from the farmer that an Air Force jet had landed in his field, was unoccupied and running, and could they please advise what to do. The sheriff drove out, found that the farmer hadn’t been warming himself up with whiskey, and got in touch with Malmstrom Air Force Base for instructions on how to shut down an F-106. At one point, the sheriff even climbed up onto the wing and was checking out the cockpit when the jet lurched forward…the snow would melt enough to allow the Delta Dart to shift a couple feet forward, and that was enough for the officer to abandon the plan. Instead, the Convair was allowed to exhaust it’s fuel before it was disassembled on-site and shipped back to Malmstrom AFB for repairs. Other than some torn outer skin, the F-106 was in pretty decent condition and was returned to service, flying until retirement in 1986. The aircraft, 58-0787, is now at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

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