Cars That Make Me Go Hmmm.. Who Knew? Part Two

Welcome back fellow car nuts. Here we are back with another adventure in odd ball rides found round town.

The British Invasion of SoPo?

A rare bird indeed

It’s not everyday you see an Aston Martin in Maine. Much less a DB9. That makes this sighting all the more interesting.
Your humble reporter person drove past this most unique of modern Brit rollers before suddenly seeing the 12 foot neon sign in his head flashing:

That’s a FREAKING ASTON MARTIN!!

Okay. Calm down. Your currently piloting your lessor vehicle with your wife and nephew aboard.

Double back at the next intersection. Is it really an AM? Not just a tarted up Jag?

Yessir. Thaty thar is the real thing

See above…

Well. That certainly says something here. This is the land of the C, E & M class Benz slash 3 & 5 series Bimmer slash A4 & A6 Audi. The odd AMG/M/S car shows up (seems like a crapload of AMGs as of late). Jags are a dime a dozen now and land somewhere between true sports cars and over glorified Tauruses …
Aston’s are a breed apart. A small firm (from 1987 to 2007 a part of the FOMOCO fleet) building somewhat handmade cars on a very small scale.  In the 20 years from 1968 to 1988, AM made a total of 5000 cars. Founded between the two world wars, it went from peak to trough multiple times whilst producing some astonishing rides. Perhaps best known in American culture for the DB5, James Bond’s infamous car during the Sean Connery years.
So my fellow odd and  rare car nuts, this is truly a find here in the Portland area. But,  enough of the wordy crap, more about the car…

DB9 Rear 3/4 View with nephew 1.0 in the background

Here we have the classic 2 seat GT form in all it’s beauty.  From the muscular front fender along a smooth shoulder to the flared rear fender and tight upright tail, a classic example of ‘English Understatement’. The front & rear shots show a distinct ‘wasp waist’ to the body. Not to overdone mind you.

Sweet

That being said, I do like the red Brembo calipers shining from behind the big assed wheels.
Mind you, this is no all show and no go affair either. Powered by a 470 bhp V-12, it is capable of exceeding 60 mph in 5 seconds and running to nearly 200 mph before running out of breath.

All the while swaddling you and your partner in some nice leather wrapped seats.

With Ford's billions, you would think they could have made better cupholders

Sadly, due to the location, you intrepid sleuth was unable to get a full side shot. I have since seen this car twice in the Portland area. I still hope to get you the “Full Monty” as it were.

WOW! Did I just type that? I, errr, ah…

So long auto sleuths until next time when we revisit:

Cars That Make Me Go Hmmm..

Where in the hell have I been?

What I have been doing for the last 30+ days (since the last time I kicked my lazy ass into posting)?

WORKING
Brewing Mac’s Roasted Pumpkin, er Squash, ale
Brewing All Backyard grown Cascade hops ale (round deux)
Bottling Mac’s Roasted Pumpkin, er Squash, ale
WORKING
Drinking
Re-discovering Oak Pond Brewing. (JEEBUS they brew a bunch of lagers!!)
Saving (as in re-carbonating a flat brew) All Backyard grown Cascade hops ale (round uno)
Harvesting the last of this years cantaloupes. (a little loo late but still worth it)
Harvesting the rouge leek that was in this years onions seedlings from Johnny’s. Leek & potato soup YUM!
Watching crazy video from the New England Forest Rally (Why have not been to this?!)
Cleaning the chimley. (That is a chimney in flat lander tongue.)
WORKING
Building a bedroom for my niece who is moving in.
Drinking
Discovering Rosement Bakery (So many good things from Maine)
Receiving the quarterly shipment from Namaste (Pinots to die for)
Cooking carbonarra for eight (Pushing my skills to the max)
Discovering Maine Coast Vineyards. (I never thought  would like a rose’. Much less one with Grenache?).

Other than that, not a damned thing deah!!

Thank You Mister Pugsley

Dear Mister Pugsley
Ever since I visited the Sea Dog Brewpub in Camden way back on a buzz ride (see “driving around aimlessly on cheap gas whilst consuming large quantities of marijuana”) long about 10 years ago, I have been trying to find ‘that beer‘.

Tonight I consumed it again.

Back then, Sea Dog was an entity unto itself.  A part of the ‘early days’ of craft brewing, Sea Dog crashed and burned at the end of the first era of Craft Brewing . Along with Stone Coast ( The home of Cannery Kolsch, my first Kolsch love),  all were sucked into the post Brew Pub V1 vortex.

On that day in the fall of the year, I drank a Pumkpin Ale that tasted like a pumkin pie in a glass. The taste of roasted pumpkin, malts and a nice mellow hopping balanced with a blend of nutmeg, cinnamon and just a wee bit of clove along with a clean finishing, almost lager like, yeast created a perfectly balanced beer. I remember having two. Or was it three?

Since then, I have been chasing that beer, at somewhat random intervals.

There really have not been many choices.  Your own Shipyard Brewing Pumpkin Head has been around for sometime but I gotta tell ya, it is like drinking a freakin cinnamon stick in a glass of beer. Not at all pleasant. One of the few times I have walked away for a local craft brew was a glass of PH at Wild Willy’s a couple of weeks ago. Just unbearable.

I moved on.
I tried Dogfish Head Punkin Ale.  Even though this is my favorite DFH brew to date, I am no fan of the 60, 90 etc, it is close but still is too much spice forward.

I want pumpkin!

A "Cheese" pumpkin? WTF?!!

Next up, Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale.

We are starting to get there. Less emphasis on spice and more on pumpkin. Mutha thought it was yucky. I thought, and still do, that it was much better balanced then anything I had consumed before. But there was still too much cinnamon.

The current champ

Enter Pugsley’s Smashed Pumpkin.

A member of the ‘Signature Series’, it is a limited run brew.  Eagerly awaited, I had clerks at two different locations tell me it was flying off the shelves, it is worth the wait.

When opened, the nose is met with the scent of a pie fresh from the oven. The pumpkin and spice are to be expected. The nice thing is that is the NUTMEG and not the cinnamon that comes out first. YES!!!

The flavors matched the nose. Pumpkin and malt are checked with a mild hopping to yield a clean,

What I had not thought of was the crust.

What is a pie crust? Water, salt, fat and flour. FLOUR. WHEAT.

Of course! To make an ale that tastes of a pumpkin pie, you have to incorporate the character of the crust. To get the doughyness of the crust, you need some wheat to the grain bill. And lo, when we look at the label and press release, we see ” Pale Ale, Wheat and Light Munich Malts“

You sir are a genus

The Munich malt gives the coppery color and just a hint of dryness to help balance the sweetness of the pale malts & the pumpkin. The wheat, beyond adding to the overall pie like qualities, brings a clean light body to the beer. Hopping is minimal, leaving the nose and pallate to enjoy the scents of pumpkin, nutmeg and the solid malt background.

In closing let me say, you have given me that long lost pumpkin beer of my memories. I thank you for that.

Now to see if I can make this puppy myself.

Sunday Sunday Sunday!!

Now that's a bottle of beer

Starting September 12, Maine breweries will be able to sell and refill half gallons of brew on premises. Signed sealed and by governor Il Duce himself.

Having spent many a fond times at Bridgeport Brewing in the OTHER Portland, I have had the occasion to bring a growler back to sisters house for later consumption onlyto bring it back the next day for refilling.

I ask myself

Why in EFFIN CRIPES can’t I do this at home?!!!!

Perhaps it is the latent Puritanism that rears it’s gruesome head with all too regular frequency
Perhaps it is a remnant of Neal Dow and the Maine Law.

Either way, It SUCKS THE BAG!!

Just let me buy the beer from the LOCAL guys who make it and reuse the damned bottle!! Why is this bad?! Why is this hard to comprehend?!

Anyway, in a rare lucid moment, the Exalted Ones in Disgusta decided to finally let me by beer direct from the producer. Gosh, how nice of them. I still have to pay the taxes on it of course…

Counting the days!!

Who’s buying the first growler?

The Argh Files: Memo to NASA

So, I am reading the Space and Science new at Yahoo and I come across this teaser:

Buzz Lightyear Sets Duration Record Aboard Space Station

Excuse me? Ain’t Buzz a toy?

Well, some more reading is in order…

“The animated astronaut has been on a real space mission in the form of a 12-inch tall action figure since launching last year aboard Discovery’s STS-124 mission, as part of an educational partnership between NASA and the Walt Disney Company.”

Freaking Great! They cannot even make the toilets work and they are booking room for an animated character?

Memo to NASA:

Book a damned plumber and leave the toys on the ground eh?

Cars That Make Me Go Hmmm.. Who Knew?

Living in a relatively wealthy community, I have grown used to seeing some interesting cars on the roads. There are 2 Bentley GT Convertibles in town. The old man who summers here and drives his Phantom to get the mail. Across the state we can find some pretty serious collectors. But I still am amazed by what pops up some times.
A couple of weekends ago, mutha and me went antiquing up to the fair grounds in Union. We decided we would drive up the Kennebec to Gardiner then go cross country to Union and home by the coast and Old Route 1. As we was gonna be in Gardiner, we decided to make a stop into Ayer European Auto. I have been stopping there for years and have been consistently amazed by what is on the lot. From Porsche, to BMW, & Mercedes with the occasional Ferrari thrown in. But I was not prepared for what was in the showroom.
I have seen a lovely Dino there from time to time. Dressed in proper Cavallino Red,  a very nice piece. The occasional ‘modern’ Testa Rossa is to be seen there as well. There were 2 in the showroom on Sunday. But, it was what was sitting center stage that blew me away.

When most Americans hear Ferrari, 1st they think of Magnum PI and his red 308. Then perhaps the ‘Daytona’ convertible Miami Vice. Aside from the fact that it was a replica built on a Corvette chassis, it presented the nation with an iconic face that still speaks of the beauty of form and speed.
The 364GTB coupe is one of the most graceful forms Ferrari ever put into sheet metal. From the wedge front through the sweeping, wasp shaped cockpit to the kamm tail, it speaks of speed and agility. Mounting the classic V-12 in front, it was one of the last to do so, with the gearbox at the rear, it had spectacular weight balance and speed to spare.  And it was just plain beautiful.

Mama Mia!

Did I mention they sell for a quarter million dollars or more?

So, to see a Daytona sitting in Ayer’s showroom was jaw dropping to say the least. There were only some 1300 produced, making the sighting  of one in Central Maine all the more amazing. I note from Ayer’s listing that is does not appear to be for sale. Or perhaps, if you have to ask, you cannot afford it?

It keeps me wondering what else is out there…

Cars That Make Me Go Hmmm.. PDX Edition Vol 1

Welcome back fellow intrepid wacky car nuts. In this episode, your trusty reporter/sleuth goes on the road to the other Portland to see what is lurking on those streets.

A bolt of lightning from days gone by

The Opel of My Eye

Once upon a time in America, there were many many ‘little’ car companies vying for the buyers attention. Slowly, as markets changed and corporate bean counting yahoos took over from the real car guys, the ‘little guys’ faded from the scene. Some truly disappeared, some just removed themselves to markets that were more profitable.
Opel is in the latter category. An arm of the (Older, pre-bankruptcy) GM behemoth since 1929, it sold cars in the US for less than twenty years ending in 1975.
While they were here, Opel really never gave us much of anything to go nuts over. The Kadett and Manta were not horrible on a Fiat scale but they were not great cars. There was one model though…….

1970 Opel GT

I give you the REALLY poor mans Ferrari. Mounting a 1.0 or 1.9 litre 4 cylinder belting out a whopping 89 hp (that was for the big engine) through a 4 speed manual or 3 speed auto box to a live rear axle. Nothin fancy but it got ya by purrty darned okay.  Among the odder features of the GT were the MANUALLY operated pop-up head lights. Yes, I said manual. There was a lever  next to the shifter console that operated the headlights. Just to add a bit more fun, the headlights rolled over along the longitudinal access of the car unlike every other pop-up that rolled on the transverse access.

But I digress, as I so often will.

Here in the North East Rust Belt, I had not seen a GT in at least 10 years until last weekend when mutha and me was up the coast and saw a real rat rod GT. It even had a blue and white Shelby Daytona paint job.

It kinda looks the same.....

A search of Craigslist yields a pretty straight if not pristine example in Terryville CT from what seems to be a motivated trader, and a pricey fixer upper with an owner who could use a spell checker in Berlin NH along with some scattered parts. They do show up in other parts of this great land, quite often in very nice shape. Take this Texas Belle over at Bring A Trailer.

But, when one travels to the Left Coast, one finds many treasures.

A two-toned Tuetonic Triumph?

The Really Really Really poor man’s poor man’s Ferrari?

A thing of beauty no? Just look at the lines. From the sleek wedge nose to the Kamm tail it is a treatise on aerodynamics.  Maybe. Kinda. If you squint. The owner is obviously going for the California “shaved” look by removing all extraneous trim and accessories. Sorta. I think. The scrap of poly for a drivers window is a nice touch, if not so effective judging by the scrap of poly on the drivers seat.

A wet seat in a wet town

I am thinking the driver will end the day with a wet ass even with the ‘protection’ provided by the owner. I note, through the rain drops, the lack of a interior panel on the drivers door. Perhaps waiting for the new window. In vain maybe? The wood trim wheel is a nice touch although I am not sure if it is original.

On to ‘better’ things

Where have I seen you before?

Okay, so it is not an XKE (the sexiest shape ever to cover an auto IMHO), but there is certainly a hint of it in the headlight shapes. It’s not a Shelby Daytona but the lines of the leading edge of hood and grille are reminiscent. I personally find the line of the tumblehome to be quite pleasing.
Let us also note the carrying of the ‘California Look’ to the nose with the missing marker light and turn signal cover. Also, note the ‘Yeropean’ style crossed wiper blades. Truly a touch of class. I wonder if the headlights are stuck, or was the owner tired of having to deploy the things?

Baby got back

Here we are with, on this shining example to be sure, the best side. Straight and mostly intact, down to the chrome on the cute little bumperette’s  The lights are intact, check out the single tiny back up light way down below the plate. That would never pass Fed muster today. I do like the trick looking Monza style exhaust in their own cut outs.

So, what are we left with? A tired old shell of an odd ball moment in auto history for sure. Your could restore it. THat would mean spending five to tend grand creating a $3500 car. Not very wise me laddo. You could put a big V-8 in it and put big tires under it like this misdirected sole.  Seems a bit of overkill there eh?
I am thinking ’sleeper’. Or perhaps a ‘Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing’. Something that looks as innocuous an Opel GT can whilst having the heart of a beast, ready to burst out at many moment. I am thinking
HAYABUSA

So, all my auto nut friends, as you attempt to digest that one, I agonna ride off into the sunrise and back my East Coat home. Fear Not!! For I shall return someday for another adventure in Cars that Make Me Go Hmmm.. PDX Edition.

Weekly Reader for 8_1_09

After a long break, welcome back to the Weekly Reader.

On the Intertubes:
My very good friend has his own blog now. Scenes From Inside a Middle-Aged Head.
Daryl Hall, musician, writer & preservationist has a site called Live From Daryl’s House. He regularly hosts artists at his home for jam sessions. Video from the sessions is streamed from his site. Great stuff. I particularly liked KT Tunstall. Live From Daryl’s House.

On Paper:
I finally threw in the towel on The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles. Although the subject is compelling, I found it to be pretty hard slogging. Perhaps another day. The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt.
I am re-reading Uncommon Grounds by Mark Pendergrast. Perhaps one of my favorite “food/beverage history to date. Uncommon Grounds the History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World.
The new Hemmings is here. A perfect match for a cappuccino on a gray afternoon. Hemming’s Motor News.

On the Telly:
I have finally found the original BBC versions of Francesco’s Italy Top to Toe & Francesco’s Venice. Having seen the heavily edited version of  Top to Toe on the Travel Channel, I have wanted to see the full versions. Not easy to find but worth the effort.     Francesco’s Italy Top to Toe Francesco’s Venice.

Spurwink Meeting House Vol 2. Observations

The Spurwink Meeting House. April 2009

After a prolonged delay, it is time to pay a visit to the Spurwink Meeting House. This time with some observations on the structure.

Floorboards

These may be from the original structure. They are 10 to 14″ wide and, although hard to discern in the image, show saw marks made by a somewhat crude up and down saw.
Given the time frame of the first building, I am assuming (Bad Idea I Know) that the pit saw was no longer in use here on the Southern Coast of Maine other than in some localized shipyard work. The circular saw had not been introduced at the time of the 1830’s renovation so, it is logical that all the timber was cut with an up and down saw.
I use the term ‘crude’ because the saw marks are not uniform for every stroke. They sometimes vary within the same stroke. This points to an earlier for of saw, a bit unlike the one described in the link above. These earlier saws were not securely fixed to the frames. This allowed a large degree of deflection in the blade thus producing saw marks of varying width and, to a lessor extent, pitch.

Original floorboards?

Skived jointed clapboards

A somewhat lost art

In ‘olden’ days, clapboards were usually hand cut & planed, quite often on site. This was most likely the case for the meeting house when it was built. Probably so for the 1830’s renovations. By  the time  of the 1890’s work, mill cut claps might have been available but it is not known what, if any new claps were installed then. We do have a building that is loaded with great examples of the old way.
In most modern building, clapboards are laid end to end, or ‘butt jointed’. The carpenter relies on the material being properly dried prior to installation, a proper nailing pattern and proper priming & painting to insure the pieces do not move after installation. As long as this all holds true, the joints will stay closed.
The builders are yesterday did not have those advantages. The materials may or may not have been dry. Nailing was the area they did have pretty good control over but the overall quality of the hand made nails was far below our standards of today. Last but not least was the ‘paint’. If there was any, it was probably based on seashells, or calcium if you will.There are plenty of old recipes that utilize seashells to make a ‘off white’ pigmented color.
So what were the builders of yore to do? The answer was the ’skive’ or ’scarf’ joint. As seen below, this overlapping joint would maintain an adequate level of coverage even when the wood moved due to swelling or contracting.

A pretty darned good example

Now, all this does no good if the paint is on the surface only.

Now, On to a couple of things that make me go ‘Hmmm…

Why is that mortise pointing at me?

So, here we have a bit of an odd thing. Why is the moritse joint in this picture on the horizontal? Why, also, is it the only horizontal mortise on the span? It is perpendicular to the floor joists and has no match on the opposite side.
Was it an error that they flipped and started again? At first I thought it was a reused timber but, then I asked myself the second question above. “Why is it the only one on the horizontal plain?” Seems like there would be more than one along the length of the timber.  Admittedly, about 1/4 of the span has been replaced but that still leaves some 25 feet or so.
That brings me back to an ‘OH SH$T’ Moment. Did the joiner make it in the wrong spot? Was it too big? This is one of those questions that make history exciting to me.

What do you suppose....

I note several timbers in the structure display ‘hash’ markings near their bottom tenons. As seen above  on a wall or stud post on the river side. The photo below shows a wall post and a support post on the Rt 77 side that display markings as well.

2 different posts, 2 different marks

I wonder if this was a way of locating the timbers to the specific mortises. Most joiners did, and still do, fit each moritse and tennon joint to separately. This way, they could move the timbers around as needed but still be sure each one returned to it’s specific spot. All conjecture I know,but it is the best answer I have.

How’s  bout you?

Gravity

More than just a theory, it's the LAW.