The coolest things I found at the 2012 Grand National Roadster Show, #1 - Erik Salin's "California Color" Kustom Kulture and electric guitar fusion

http://eriksalin-art.com/guitares/guitars.html

from car parts, and a dealership sign, plus Paul's ingenuity, he made this one of a kind scooter

read the story about how he made a scooter fit inside the sign at Hemmings http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2011/09/07/skinny-the-scooter-sign/

Czysz C1 990 MotoGP racebike. Innovation hasn't happened in motorcycles to this extant in, perhaps, decades

Image via: http://www.asphaltandrubber.com/oped/tradition-business-model-motoczysz/

40-year-old American architect Michael Czysz from Portland, Oregon was an architectural designer by trade, a damn good one, he heads Architropolis which has done work for celebs Lenny Kravitz and Cindy Crawford.

But his father and grandfather were motorcycle mechanics, and Micheal wanted to make his mark in the MotoGP world, and he has now done more, he's invented a new engine design, new front forks and front suspension design, new chassis design, and engineered and manufactured it to full functionality, perhaps even competiveness. Definitely breaking apart from the paradigm of prior engine design, and pulling a fully realized racing motorcycle from paper to race track in about 3 years.

HD Theater on cable tv had a one hour show about all of this, and I was blown away at the total single handed design of a previously unheard of motor. Then they showed how Michael drew up a new design of all the other things I've mentioned.

But think about just the one part, the engine.

A new design. When was the last new design in engines of any kind engineered or produced?

The Dual over head cam 427 Ford in the 60's? The Wankel (rotary engine) in the 70's? It took about 10 years of GM and other companies putting full engineer teams at work to make a rotary engine actually work, and then Mazda to perfect it. . . but Michael designed, engineered, built, and perfected his split crank counter rotating inline 4 cylinder engine... in months. Start to finish, paper to combustion, in months.

Then he puts this inline with the wheels, countering gyroscopic torque that causes wheelies, and it also doesn't screw around with the bike's rolling left or right when turning.

To read a real motorcycle journalists description of it, and thoughts on the ride he had: http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/firstrides/122_0507_radical_c1_990/index.html

For an update on what happened after the C1 990, and how MotoGP reducing the engine size from 990cc to 800cc, read this http://www.asphaltandrubber.com/oped/tradition-business-model-motoczysz/

July 2011 update http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/06/motoczysz-e1pc/

Two stroke Pogo stick, and nitro roller skates, the most unusual things from the mind of Von Dutch

The above was first published in the Nov 1955 Hot Rod, but I don't have that one, and instead found it in the 25th anniversary issue of Hot Rod

Above image, and for more info go to: http://chopcult.com/news/blogs/von-dutch-monday-xiii12-21-09-22-06-02.html

For more of Von Dutch's inventive stuff, see: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2006/12/von-dutch-expert-mechanic.html

Survival of the innovator. A broken 2CV, no welder, no power tools, and Emil Leray made a motorcycle while stranded in the Moroccan desert, in 12 days

Photos of Daniel Denis of 2CV magazine and full story in http://chameaudacier.free.fr/moto1.html

Via: http://thenewcaferacersociety.blogspot.com/2009/09/our-favorite-hero-emil-leray.html

Lars-Erik Fisk, artist with a vision of what things would be like if they were round, one of my favorite posts revisited and upgraded

the barn ball

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/02/vw-bus-ball-lars-erik-fisk-sculptor.html

so far all mentions of this VW Bus Ball are just copying the photos from http://oblique.csail.mit.edu/Album/Shellenbarger/Shellenbarger_Summer_2001/Volkswagen2.jpg.html but without giving credit to the photographer, nice guy named Thouis, who told me I can use his photos, and only requested that I "Mark them as creative commons licensed, and please attribute Lars-Erik Fisk as the sculptor"

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/05/remember-vw-bus-ball-ny-times-has-2.html

One thing leads to another, a cool guy, a cool restored tractor, an incredible guy who invented stuff and succeeded at a wide variety of things!

Faced with the task of clearing the massive acreage needed for Lake Texoma, he and his father invented a mobile circular saw.
When he wanted to plant a World War II Victory Garden but didn't need a farm tractor, he invented and manufactured the Jaques Mighty Mite, a little tractor for small acreage.
Still later, while clearing land for the Tennessee Valley Authority, he invented and manufactured a hydraulically controlled earth auger to set utility poles.
He did it all with a GED education.

John Jaques had to drop out of high school to help support his family. His father had tuberculosis and could not work.
During the Great Depression, Mr. Jaques was a stone mason for the Civilian Conservation Corps. He did the cornerstones for a lot of the buildings for the CCC, they chose him because he was such a perfectionist.

He next worked as a cook, then he entered construction work, which led to a contract to clear land for Lake Texoma. He needed a fast, efficient way to cut timber, so he invented the Jaques Power Saw.
Its popularity led to the creation of the Jaques Power Saw Co. in Denison.

During World War II, Jaques Power Saw Co manufactured two-wheel Jeep trailers for the military.

http://www.ottawamuleteam.com/jaques.html Has terrific original advertising

Nicola Tesla... unmatched genius, so far ahead of his time he wasn't comprehended, invented radio, patented the speedometer,

http://patimg1.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=01274816&idkey=NONE for the patent drawings...

by Tesla when he worked for Waltham Watch company

http://www.google.com/patents?id=wuBTAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4&dq=1274816

Speed Indicator - 1918 August 6 - Speedometer that possesses the feature of: Linearly proportional torque readings; Strong low speed torsional effects; not affected by atmospheric density, temperature, nor magnetic influences; Rugged; Simple; Economical.

http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Tesla

"A new type of speed measurement instument wherein the adhesion and viscosity of a gaseous medium, preferably air, is utilized for torque-transmission from a primary driving to a secondary pivoted and torsionally restrained member under conditions such that the rotary effort exerted upon the latter is linearly proportional to the rate of rotation of the former."
To give an example of an earlier work of his, a "air-drag" speedometer... to illustrate the mental ability of this genius when he is only describing a speedometer for pete's sake!

So, in nearly every vehicle I've ever admired lie the evolved forms of two things that Nicola Tesla invented.... radio and speedometers, which you will see dozens of photos of each here in this blog because I dig the variety in design of both of them. I hope you enjoy!

I just learned of this myself, though I've admired Tesla for some time due to other things he invented and accomplished (truely a unique and remarkable man who invented things other genius' could not even comprehend) by reading the last page of the March issue of Automobile magazine http://www.automobilemag.com/index.html

Louis Brennan and his single track gyro scope train

For all the bio on the inventor, his difficulty working out how to make the train stay upright through curves, and more. Good reading. http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/odgyro.Html

In 1929 he developed a working gyrocar: http://thenewcaferacersociety.blogspot.com/2008/05/when-is-motorcycle-not-motorcycle.html

VW Bus Ball, Lars-Erik Fisk sculptor

These are the coolest car art sculptures / mods I've ever seen. Made by a young Vermont artist (who has the unfortunate luck to live in Burlington Vermont) this was made a couple of years ago, and earned the artist a $20,000 prize from a local art museum.

Update : http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2009/03/lars-erik-fisk-artist-with-vision-of.html
I just learned of this artist today, and after an hour on the internet could only get the basic idea that no one has the guts to show the great stuff this guy has done.
Some websites did mention the UPS truck ball, and the John Deere Tractor ball the Lars-Erik has made, but so far all mentions of this VW Bus Ball are just copying the photos from http://oblique.csail.mit.edu/Album/Shellenbarger/Shellenbarger_Summer_2001/Volkswagen2.jpg.html but without giving credit to the photographer, nice guy named Thouis, who told me I can use his photos, and only requested that I "Mark them as creative commons licensed, and please attribute Lars-Erik Fisk as the sculptor"

How cool is that?!

I first found this ball at a cool website I look at almost daily 'cause they find neat stuff like this all the time! They linked to http://blog.coker.com/index.php/2007/01/30/ which is also a cool website if you love cars and car rally's (nice wall paper and story about the '58 Austin that the High School girls restored Corky! )
His facts were a bit off, but well intentioned I've no doubt. As long as someone gets the word and the pics out I thank them all the same. Terriffic blogs, car guys, rockers, websites, and photographers, all made it possible for this cool artist's sculpture / mod to get some well deserved acclaim and attention.
Read the link at Corky's blog, it links to several other pages that highlight the fantastic rodding life of Billy Gibbons, one of the guitarists of ZZ Top, a favorite band of mine since the "Eliminator" album got my attention in the early 80's. Billy has a big hardcover book that you can buy at Walden Books, that really diplays the hot rods and cars Billy has had made. I'm just sad that the awesome pair of motorbikes don't seem to be in any of the links. Damn, they were part of a Hot Rod, or Car Craft, maybe even Popular Hot Rodding article that I clipped for the Cadzilla, Eliminator, and Kopperhead picturs. Loved every album since, and saw them in concert in San Diego on the XXX tour around 2001.
Kopperhead was made at the So-Cal Speed shop it seems, that's where the photos link to, the Cadzilla pic is linked to the Petersen Automotive Museum online slideshow of a great exhibition they had of guitars and hot rods. But, by far the best gallery of the cool rods that Billy has is at http://www.channel4.com/4car/gl/gallery/gallery/802/11 . Just go right there and get your fill of no expense spared, built by the best, hand crafted american iron.
If anyone knows where we can see anyother of Lars-Erik's sculptures, email me please so I can link others to them right here. The John Deere ball is reported to unfold and show working gears and stuff! So cool, and I love the dichotomy of the UPS ball being such a contrast to the boxy UPS trucks and boxes.
jbohjkl@yahoo.com
And thanks to cool websites like http://www.iwantavolkswagenbus.com/blog/2008/07/the-amazing-volkswagen-bus-ball-by-lars-erik-fisk/ for the compliments and for sending readers my way, and update July 2011, Tolleson Blog for the following link http://rappaportfoundation.org/pages/art_winners/fisk.asp
from the 2007 archives at http://tolleson.com/blog.php?yearmonth=2007-02&author=Bill Bowers