Pete - I like the photo of the old tractors. It looks like they were put out to pasture though, are they yours?
Nope. Just a view on a country drive. The old tractors in a sense were put out to the pasture. That is what I tried somewhat to depict in my picture taking.
I do like the term "
put-out to pasture" used appropiately and inappropiately
today taking the phrase out of context in a literal sense.
I have always stopped and taken many pictures as there was never much of a rush on our car club tours.
I am very much in to the evolution of the automobile engine (engines in general), the aeroplane engine and the rocket engine.
While visiting car museums while I like looking at the engines of yesteryear also look at the eye candy of manufacturer utilized to attrack a person to buy whatever sells. A very popular car here made in Indiana in the 1930's was given a European flair of sorts that justified its price to mostly folks that had much money at the time. Well that and speed as bank robbers wanted very fast cars (many stolen) and millionaires while not speed driving them could affort them at the time.
Historically have done the same looking a peridodicals of the yesterday and paying much attention to advertisments (eye candy) of whatever sold at the time. Integrated by manufacturer hood ornaments said a lot over the years whether "ornate" or simple.
We used to have an A&W here way back with car hops but it's been gone for many years now. I remember going there in the 60s but the car hops were a thing of the past by that time.
Yeah it is just something the old neighbor would do on weekends. Mostly he does the weekend car stuff on his own.
Today we live near some stuff in Joliet Illinois. There is a place nearby where I have been to called Autobahn Country Club. That said I have been able to test a few new cars on the track there. Well too getting yelled at by spotters and a radio in the car. (IE pushing a 500hp automobile to take a curve at over 100 mph for fun) Letting the cars loose I have never flipped any. The homes/condos are built there for car enthusiast.
Over the years have purchased my tires at Tire Rack near South Bend Indiana. We would make a day trip of the event as the place has a track to test drive you automobile right after you purchase tires from them and we have friends that live nearby. There are not too many tire stores around that let you do this.
A bit about the Triumph Spitfire
The Triumph Spitfire was originally devised by Standard-Triumph to compete in the small sports car market that had opened up with the introduction of the Austin-Healey Sprite. The Sprite had used the basic drive train of the Austin A30/A35 in a light body to make up a budget sports car; Triumph's idea was to use the mechanicals from their small saloon, the Herald, to underpin the new project. Triumph had one advantage, however; where the Austin A30 range was of unitary construction, the Herald featured a separate chassis. It was Triumph's intention to cut that chassis down and clothe it in a sports body, saving the costs of developing a completely new chassis / body unit.
Italian designer Michelotti—who had already penned the Herald—was commissioned for the new project, and came up with a traditional, swooping body. Wind-up windows were provided (in contrast to the Sprite/Midget, which still featured sidescreens, also called curtains, at that time), as well as a single-piece front end which tilted forwards to offer unrivalled access to the engine. At the dawn of the 1960s, however, Standard-Triumph was in deep financial trouble, and unable to put the new car into production; it was not until the company was taken over by the Leyland organization that funds became available and the car was launched. Leyland officials, taking stock of their new acquisition, found Michelotti's prototype hiding under a dust sheet in a corner of the factory and rapidly approved it for production.
The name Spitfire has some historical significance.
The Spitfire was designed as a short-range, high-performance interceptor aircraft by R. J. Mitchell, chief designer at Supermarine Aviation Works (which operated as a subsidiary of Vickers-Armstrong from 1928). In accordance with its role as an interceptor, Mitchell designed the Spitfire's distinctive elliptical wing to have the thinnest possible cross-section; this thin wing enabled the Spitfire to have a higher top speed than several contemporary fighters, including the Hawker Hurricane. Mitchell continued to refine the design until his death from cancer in 1937, whereupon his colleague Joseph Smith took over as chief designer, overseeing the development of the Spitfire through its multitude of variants.
During the Battle of Britain, from July to October 1940, the Spitfire was perceived by the public to be the RAF fighter, though the more numerous Hawker Hurricane shouldered a greater proportion of the burden against the Nazi German air force, Luftwaffe. However, because of its higher performance, Spitfire units had a lower attrition rate and a higher victory-to-loss ratio than those flying Hurricanes.