1964 Ford Thunderbolt

The 1960s occurred in a vastly different world than the one we live in today. As proof of this, we draw your attention to one of the most insanely powerful road machines ever built: the Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt. Like a Tyrannosaurus Rex or a B-29 bomber, it’s a symbol of a bygone era, one less secure but a helluva lot more exciting than the carefully sanitized, politically correct society we live in today. To be fair, the Thunderbolt wasn’t built on Ford’s assembly lines, but at the private shop of Andy Hotting with Dearborn Steel Tubing. It combined a relatively lightweight Fairlane frame with a 425 ci (7.0-liter) engine and dual four-barrel Holley carbs. To even fit the massive engine into a Fairlane required radical reconstruction of the front suspension. 100 Thunderbolts were built, 49 with a four-speed gearbox and 51 with an automatic. On top of that, the builders slashed weight in every way possible, like adding fiberglass doors, fenders, and front bumper. They also eliminated such unnecessary parts as the sun visor, the heater, one of the windshield wipers, arm rests, mirrors, window cranks, and the spare tire. The carpeting was replaced with a rubber mat and the front seats with lightweight versions from Ford police package vehicles. The high beams were pulled as well, replaced with special air intakes. The Thunderbolt was 700 lbs. lighter and three inches shorter than the Galaxie, the actual vehicle the 427 was designed for.

The Thunderbolt’s list of racing add-ons included tubular headers, custom rear suspension, and special tires and wheels from both Mickey Thompson and Goodyear. The Thunderbolt was rated at 425 hp, but in reality it topped out at over 600 horses. It ran 11.61 seconds in a test drive at the Lions Drag Strip in November of ’63 at 124.8 mph. Amazingly, despite these facts the Thunderbolt was (barely) street legal, though no one ever used it for the daily office commute. This was a creature built for one purpose: to go insanely fast on a race track. It did what it was meant to do, winning the NHRA Super Stock title for Ford in 1964.

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The ISEE-3 Reboot Project

About The ISEE-3 Reboot Project: By Keith Cowing on May 21, 2014 4:24 PM Our plan is simple: we intend to contact the ISEE-3 (International Sun-Earth Explorer) spacecraft, command it to fire its engines and enter an orbit near Earth, and then resume its original mission - a mission it began in 1978. ISEE-3 was rechristened as the International Comet Explorer (ICE). If we are successful it may also still be able to chase yet another comet. Working in collaboration with NASA we have assembled a team of engineers, programmers, and scientists - and have a large radio telescope fully capable of contacting ISEE-3. If we are successful we intend to facilitate the sharing and interpretation of all of the new data ISEE-3 sends back via crowd sourcing. NASA has told us officially that there is no funding available to support an ISEE-3 effort - nor is this work a formal priority for the agency right now. But NASA does feel that the data that ISEE-3 could generate would have real value and that a crowd funded effort such as ours has real value as an education and public outreach activity. Time is short. And this project is not without significant risks. We need your financial help. ISEE-3 must be contacted in the next month or so and it must complete its orbit change maneuvers no later than mid-June 2014. There is excitement ahead as well: part of the maneuvers will include a flyby of the Moon at an altitude of less than 50 km. Our team members at Morehead State University, working with AMSAT-DL in Germany, have already detected the carrier signals from both of ISEE-3's transmitters. When the time comes, we will be using the large dish at Morehead State University to contact the spacecraft and give it commands. Continue reading About The ISEE-3 Reboot Project. Personalized t-shirts.

What a Beast

Here is another great car, 60 in 2.7 seconds. Courtesy of t-shirts blog and Yahoo Auto.