The Tupolev A-3 Aerosledge The Tupolev A-3 Aerosledge is an unusual curiosity from the depths of the cold war, the CIA and MI6 doubtless had thick folders on the craft as it was used for collecting both cosmonauts and crashed pilots in the remote areas of Siberia. Alexei Tupolev of the Tupolev Design Bureau originally developed…
Background: An Inventive Family Marshall and Milton Reeves were American brothers whose inventions made their mark on agriculture, commercial vehicles, and industry. They were Christians known for their humility and when their company became large and successful, they could be found with their sleeves rolled up working on the factory floor alongside their employees. Both…
These are Frank Sinatra’s original fingerprint records from his arrest on the 26th of November 1938 – he was charged with the crime of seduction. His alleged conviction was for engaging in sexual intercourse under promise of marriage with an unmarried woman of good repute. The fingerprint record lists Sinatra’s age, weight, height, hair and…
The MV Agusta 750S America is a motorcycle that was built to fulfill a request from Chris Garville and Jim Cotherman of Commerce Overseas Corporation – the primary US importer of MV Augusta motorcycles in the 1970s.
A Brief History of the Harley-Davidson FL Panhead The Harley-Davidson FL series was introduced in 1941, originally fitted with the Knucklehead V-twin and leading-link front suspension, with a hard tail rear. The first major update was in 1948 when the improved Panhead V-twin made its first appearance in the FL, and a year later in 1949…
The Chevrolet Camaro thundered onto American roads in late 1966, as 1967-badged models sitting on the new GM F-body platform. The Camaro was a direct response to the Ford Mustang, and like the Mustang it was offered with both mild-mannered inline-6s and thundering V8s. The most budget-friendly of the new Camaros was the 230 cubic inch…
The 1948 Lincoln Continental holds the distinction of being the last American made production car to be fitted with a V12, in the post WWII period the V8 was embraced by the nation and they never looked back. The story of how the Continental came to be is a bit of a Ford legend. It…
The AC Aceca-Bristol was built from 1956 as a more powerful variant of the AC Aceca, the addition of the Bristol suffix denoted the fitment of the 2 litre inline-6 engine from Bristol Cars – the eccentric English automobile manufacturer with close ties to BMW. Whereas the in-house developed AC engine produced 90 hp from its…
Clockwork tinplate toy cars were about as close as boys and girls could get to the real thing in the early 20th century, they contain a coil spring that winds up when the car is reversed – and then rapidly unwinds once it’s released. The same basic mechanism is still used on countless toy cars…
The Plymouth PT105 Pickup was developed in 1936 as an alternative to the trucks being built by Chrysler – purely because every Plymouth dealer in the United States and Canada paired each model from Plymouth with another product from Chrysler. In order to save time and developments costs, Plymouth built their new truck on a…
The Egli-Vincent has become a brand unto itself, it was all started by Fritz Egli in Switzerland in the 1960s – he was a motorcycle racer with a Vincent who he felt could handle better given the 10+ years of engineering development that had taken place since his bike was originally built. Fritz stripped the…
The MV Agusta 750 America is a motorcycle that was designed by Italians to meet a very specific American specification. By 1975 MV Agusta was in dire financial difficulties, so Chris Garville and Jim Cotherman of the sole US MV Augusta importer Commerce Overseas Corporation, sent a specification sheet to Italy outlining a bike they…
