330 Engine Repeat Repeat

We just finished another 330 engine, 330 cubic centimeters per cylinder multiplied by 12 cylinders equals 4000 C.C.’s or 4.0 liters. Actually, Nate did most of the work and this one runs so well without the requisite head gasket leaks!!

Here is a YouTube clip of it running:

Crank in 330

Crank in 330

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Friends At The Shop

Bill (Lockwood) stopped by with some of his friends from the automotive community: professional driver Matthew Johnson, who’s competed in rally and ESPN X Games for many years; Chrissie Beavis, a co-driver, driver, X Games host, and architect from San Diego; and Warwick Patterson, a videographer and classic car event promoter from British Colombia. They’d met up with Bill for a few days before heading to Maine for the New England Forest Rally (gallery here) and Warwick captured some of their adventures in Vermont – including a trip to RPM.

Video Postcard – Vermont – July 2010 from Warwick Patterson on Vimeo.

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‘33 Street Rod

Have a look at this killer ‘33 Street Rod. My friend Tony is looking to sell it and I would like to help him find a new home the car. He had a blown Chevy big block in the car but decided to sell the car without an engine.

Tony Street Rod '33

Interior tint

Interior tint

Tony Street Rod ‘33

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Northwest Passage

It has been too long since I posted on the blog, the trip west to go on Rich and Jean Taylor’s Northwest Passage Rally kind of wiped me out and I am just now recovering. Here is the website to events that Vintage Rallies puts on, 2010 being the first year of the Northwest Passage through Idaho, British Columbia, Alberta and Montana. http://vintagerallies.com/index.html

I hauled a Mercedes-Benz 300SL and a Ferrari 400I from the North East out to the North West in the Freightliner M2, then drove 1500 miles following the tour in the truck with 2 brand new Porsche’s in tow as back up vehicles in case one of the 45 classic cars broke down. By the time I drove out west, participated in the rally and drove home I accumulated over 7500 miles 12 days.

Even though I have to keep up with the pack of high performance sports cars while driving a 33000 lb truck, locate parts and fix stuff on the side of the road, I have the best time on these events and look forward to the next tour in West Virginia!

If Nate can find his camera and email me photos of the trip I will post them in another entry.

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Green Healey 3000 BT-7 on eBay

We’ve just listed a very original Healey on eBay in an auction format running seven days, but it doesn’t start until tonight. Check it out around 9:30 EST at http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320554848023 or preview the pics below.

100415_rpm_healey_1

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Green Machine

This green MG was very impressive looking at Mille Miglia.

100505_green_machine_6388

100505_green_machine_6387

100505_green_machine_6385

100505_green_machine_6386

2 Comments »

  1. Jack Hawkins said,

    June 5, 2010 @ 5:03 pm

    It is certainly an overhead cam midget, probably a C-type Midget: 750cc supercharged, you can see the SU dashpot just in front of the radiator sticking up at the right side in the photo. looking things up: a C-type won the class in 1933 at 61.7 mph for the 24 hours, and I think that the dash plate ID’s it as the J. Ford/M. Baumer class winner. Neat little car.

  2. Jack Hawkins said,

    June 5, 2010 @ 9:07 pm

    “won the class AT LE MANS in 1933….”

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Open House

We hosted an open house last weekend and with all the kids, the Bugatti type 52 was put through the paces, performing impeccably lap after lap around the shop. Later that weekend Ruby drove the car in the Vergennes, VT.  Memorial day parade with her friends screaming with delight seeing her in that little car.

These type of events typically stress me out because we have to stop all projects no matter how pressing they may be so we can wash windows, mop floors and visit our shop deferred maintenance list, I checked off making a new paper towel holder in the bathroom and organizing the stainless steel trim screw drawer among other things. After dinner I realized that everyone was having a great time and took a few notes on what people were doing to enjoy the settings and copied them. I ended up having a great time and cannot wait until next year. Was Memorial day weekend the right time?  It’s certainly better than when we had the party in February!

Open house closed porsche

Open house closed porsche

Speeding Bugatti

Speeding Bugatti

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  1. Pam,Aj and Tony Puccia said,

    June 7, 2010 @ 11:02 pm

    To all “the Gang” at RPM, Thanks for sharing your wonderful event with me and “Mi Familia”. It was a special day for us to enjoy be around so many classic cars and classy car people. Ps, The “Cannoli” was out of this world too!!! Thanks again Tony P

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Chopard Video From 1000 Miglia

Chopard has been a long time sponsor of the Mille, so of course, the Chopard website has a wide variety of Mille Miglia related products, as well as a gallery, and a video. The Ferrari 212 0086E that we restored makes a cameo appearance at about 1:01 on the video. It’s just in front of the cream colored featured car, heading out of Rome in the morning of the third day.

Click this pic to get to the Chopard site, from there, click "movie."

Click this pic to get to the Chopard site, from there, click "movie."

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My Old Friend GTE

We performed a first “major service” on this GTE after overhauling the engine which includes a valve lash, head torque check and overall inspection of the work we did after the first 1500 miles. I found that the water pipe that goes from the back of the cylinder heads to the radiator to be leaking so I installed one of our stainless steel reproduction ones. The owner asked us to prepare the car for a race weekend at a VSCCA event at Lime Rock Park in CT. so we installed overflow bottles, a battery cut-off switch and put safety wire on a few things and shipped it to the track.

The car performed beautifully on the track and was the prettiest car at the event. The owner of this beauty drove it home to New Jersey from CT.

250 GT GTE 2+2

250 GT GTE 2+2

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Cool Roll off Truck

Here is a cool idea for a car hauler, a roll off container that goes flat on the ground and pulls right up on the truck. I saw this at Lime Rock Park a few weeks ago, cannot remember what was in the back of the truck…

Car Hauler

Car Hauler

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