England has seen more than its fair share of crop circles over the years, and the "mysterious" impressions have found their way to Goodwood right in time for its 10th Revival. The crop circles were found in the grass at the West Sussex circuit during final preparations for the Revival, which runs today through Sunday. The Goodwood Revival features vehicles from the 50s and 60s in a retro race, along with period dress and a variety of festivities. Several aircraft from many different decades have flown safely above the Goodwood course in past years, but in 2003 there was a reported UFO siting at the race and the photographs of the sighting were the talk of the Internets after the alleged incident. We're pretty skeptical about the crop circles, so we're guessing the marketing types over at Goodwood wanted to get one more media push in advance of the 10th anniversary of a very cool weekend event. We would like to see the event in person, but short of little green men beaming us over there, we'll have to sit this one out.
Who could have imagined back in 1957 that so many contemporary Chevrolet Bel Airs would still be driving the roads of America a half century later. Something about those models seems to compel their owners to preserve them and then bring them out for cruise nights all these decades later. They aren't the only cars being preserved, as the classics that participated in yesterday's Dream Cruise clearly demonstrate.
There are hot rods, there are hot rods, and then there's "Um... what is that?" Tom Cramer, an ex-GI and mechanic in Omaha says, "I wanted to see what would happen if you put a really high powered engine in a chassis." Sound familiar? That was in 1953. So he found a fresh 12-cylinder 1,710-cubic-inch Allison airplane engine that produces 1,350-hp/1,500 ft-lb and got to work.
The body of the Cramer Comet was Frankensteined from De Sotos, Dodges, Oldsmobiles, Buicks, Studebakers, Cadillacs, Lincolns, and Fords. Part of the tubular chassis is made up of four-inch refrigerator tubing filled with coolant that runs to a rear-mounted radiator. The engine is mounted in reverse and is heavily insulated -- it gets hot in there. Power is sent through a drive shaft mounted between two truck universals and on to a four-speed transmission. The top speed is said to be 160 MPH, which is low for so much power, but probably sensible considering it's hand built.
Check out that center console. To start the car, the driver (pilot?) sets the throttle quadrant to ten-percent, cranks the fuel mixture to full rich, turns the spark lever to retard, flips the master switch, turns the magnetos on, turns the fuel boost and primer switches on, flips the starter control first to energize and then to on. And then it's time to fly, hopefully not in the literal sense.
Tom didn't get rid of the car until 1991 and it's now up for auction for the first time at this year's Sport & Classics of Monterey held by RM Auctions August 15 and 16. It's expected to fetch up to $300,000. Even if you don't plan to buy, you should check out the gallery of high-res photos below for evidence of how powerful elbow grease is.
