2strokebloke's Excellent Adventure (pic intensive)

[2strokebloke]

You may or may not have noticed that about a week ago, I was absent from posting on this forum for about ten days. Where was I? what did I do?
I was on a 3000 mile roadtrip across the whole of the western United States - I drove through or stayed in New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, and of course my home state of Colorado. It was quite a trip. Anyway, in no particular order are pictures of what I did, and where I was - as well comments about my trip.
So why was I headed to California? Well, California is loaded with supper hot, perfectly tanned chicks, but that's not reason enough to go there because they're all jerks. So what would be reason enough for me to go to California? Obviously, the 2004 National Microcar meet in Long Beach!
From top to bottom: Mazda suitcase car, Honda N600, Hondas arriving at the show.

top to bottom: Suzuki roadster (not imported to the U.S.) Honda N600 Sedans, and my Subaru hatchback, in Weed California, where it suffered a broken throttle cable. (which I fixed myself).

Top two: Subaru 360 Roadster - less than twelve of these unusual fiberglass bodied subaru 360s are thought to exist. Bottom: Honda Z600 coupe.

Top to bottom: Renault 4cv, A super beautiful Mazda R360 Coupe! the restoration of which was finished only one week before the show - this car is thought to be the most accurately restored R360 on the planet, even better than the one on display at Toyota's car museum in Japan. and the bottom car is a Toyota Sports 800 - a twin cylinder air cooled sports car.

Top to bottom: DKW 3=6 sedan, DKW was bought by VW in the 60's, and today is known as Audi. A funny sign with a pirate, from the Marina in Long Beach, and driving shot from Arizona.

Top to bottom: Mazda R360 up close, Subaru 360 sedan, and a mostly original 1957 Citroen 2cv with centrifugal clutch that I got to ride in.

Top & bottom: The engine of the DKW - note one coil for every cylinder - the "single overhead fanshaft" and the location of the radiator BEHIND the engine! The car below it is an East German relative of the DKW, a Wartburg convertible, also fitted with a three cylinder 2-stroke engine.

Below: shots of stuff from Western Washington University's Vehicle Research Institute - including a prototype dual overhead cam engine that they built for Subaru.

Bottom to top: An all carbon fiber car built at the VRI undergoing some work in their shop. They claim it can be crashed at 50mph into a wall with no resulting injuries!, a prototype turbo-charged Subaru from the eighties that now resides at the VRI, and a bad shot of one of the older solar powered cars the VRI has built.


That's my story, I hope you found it entertaining.

[Moppie]

Some cool pics of some very unusual but cool cars.
just a shame the pics are so small

[2strokebloke]

AF limits one to 80K or smaller file sizes, and splitting the images all up into indiviudal files would have taken too long for my lazy ass.

[blindside.AMG]

You drove to California for that?

[engineer]

y do those photos look like they were taken in the 70's?

[Toksin]

Cos 2stroke hates digital, he used an older camera

Cool pics man, most excellent.

[crayzayjay]

Originally Posted by blindside.AMG

You drove to California for that?

You don't approve?

[blindside.AMG]

Originally Posted by crayzayjay

You don't approve?

Approve? How, in any way shape or form, is my approval implemented in the question I asked?

[Jimster]

Knowing the bloke, he'd have probaably creamed his pants more than once on the roadtrip

[crayzayjay]

Originally Posted by blindside.AMG

Approve? How, in any way shape or form, is my approval implemented in the question I asked?

It's certainly implied in your original post. Ever heard of "to each his own"?

[blindside.AMG]

Originally Posted by crayzayjay

It's certainly implied in your original post. Ever heard of "to each his own"?

Yeah, I don't give a shit what someone else does with their own time and money. Just seemed like a big trip for such a little car show. No pun intended.

[kittedb18bt]

dang nice, nice.

[2strokebloke]

No, my whole trip was not just about the car show, I also visited WWU's VRI, and friends and family on the west coast, the show however was my only reason for going to Long Beach. And the pictures were taken with a 1964 Petri 7s camera - it's the scanner that mildly changed the colors making them look more vintage.
It was also nice to meet fellow enthusiasts again, since I missed the 24th Annual Unique Little Car Show because of my Le Car dieing.
Aside from the Citroen, I also got to take rides in the DKW 3=6 (pictured) and a Peel Trident (see Below).

The Trident has a six speed gearbox, and this particular one was fitted with a non-original 80cc engine, and it accellerates like motorcycle, it was easily the goofiest, scariest and funnest car present at the show. Unfortunately my only picture of it didn't turn out very well, so I stole this one of the web.

[eversio11]

small pics for small cars

[engineer]

that trident sounds pretty awesome...hmmm i wonder how quick it would be with a sc/tc