Repo Man is one of my favorite movies. It’s not the aliens, the soundtrack, or Emilio Estevez that I love - it’s the Malibu. The Dodge Dart in this pic I snapped on the Mass Pike had a certain J. Frank Parnell-vibe to it, even though it’s a little newer than the really hot 1964 Chevy Malibu in Alex Cox’s 1984 film.

Maybe it’s the way this Dart’s lines just set it apart from anything else on the road these days. Maybe it’s the 4-door, plain-Janeness of it, aside from the black vinyl top. Perhaps it’s just because this photo was taken at dusk, where the Dart’s lack of illumination gives it somewhat of a phantom-like quality.

Wait!? You say it’s not reminiscent of Repo Man at all? It’s…yes…it’s Duel you’re thinking of!

Yes, this Dart is just a few years newer than the similarly-styled Plymouth Valiant driven by Dennis Weaver in Steven Spielberg’s Duel. It too is a 4-door stocker with plain-old hubcaps and whose dashboard is home to a fine selection of blinking, red, idiot lights.

Whether you agree or disagree with this car’s relation to these two films, it was refreshing to see a 30-year-old angular sedan with chrome bumpers keeping right up with 70 mph traffic. It was probably doing its job rather economically too, if it housed a slant six - no sign or sound of a V8 here.

Late in the afternoon this past weekend, I was traveling towards Boston on the Mass Pike. Below is an image of an Acura sedan stuffed into a box truck. (Please excuse the lousy photo.)

Why?

Why do this and risk your own safety as well as the safety of everyone else out on the road? This box truck is meant for pianos, toilets, boxes, you know - that sort of thing. The trailer behind the truck looks like a good way to transport a car.

Was this a specialized moving truck that was built to take anything from couches to cars? Doubtful. Not when you can’t even shut the roll-up door! Is a box truck body even built to safely secure a car, even if it did fit inside the truck? No. Get a rollback or a ramp truck.

I don’t usually post complaints about what I see on the road, but this was something I hope this moving company doesn’t ever do again. C’mon, haven’t they ever seen the Polaroid at the Ryder rental counter of the car that smashed through the side of the moving truck?

The creamy yellow coupe slowly negotiated the hectic intersection as I reached for the button to lower my driver-side window. Before the Javelin rolled by the red light that had me waiting, my neck was out the window, my ears picking up on the vintage V8’s tone. My head was nodding up and down in approval as the driver of this rare AMC 2-door noticed my stare and smiled as he rolled by.

After running a half-hour’s worth of errands, my chance encounter with the Javelin became even more coincidental when it was parked in front of my neighbor’s house. Without hesitation, I knocked on his door, intent on meeting the driver and taking a closer look at the rarely-seen AMC. The owner, Pete, was happy to meet the other AMC fan around Boston and offered up a ride around town.

After checking out the original wheels with matching AMC center caps, the badge below the rear window, the Javelin script still mounted in the recessed, rectangular grille, and the original four-barrel 343/automatic combo, I took my first-ever seat in a rare AMC muscle car. 

Pete’s grandfather originally bought the Javelin, brand-new, in Fall River, Massachusetts. The car was also driven by Pete as late as 1994 when his family sold the car to another Massachusetts resident. Recently, while digging through some old paperwork, Pete came across the bill of sale and contacted the gentleman who purchased the car in ‘94. Amazingly, the man still owned the Javelin and was willing to sell it back to Pete’s family! A short while later, the Javelin was on its way home.

Anyone who’s sold an old car and wished to find it again knows that this is a somewhat rare success story. The car was in perfectly drivable condition and was ready to be enjoyed when Pete went to pick it up. The second buyer only repainted the Javelin in its original shade of yellow and pretty much left everything else alone.

What began as a cool old car sighting for me became a great chance to see a ‘69 Javelin up close. What’s way better than my being able to meet the owner and get a story is that this rare AMC enjoyed a stay away from home and is now back in its original owner’s family. 

To see a few more photos of this Javelin, please visit my flickr page.

Fast. Precise. Cutting-edge performance. These qualities come to mind when describing the abilities of a renown sports car like the Callaway Corvette and can also be used when taking a look at the software used to develop the exclusive Callaway performance package.

During a recent visit to Callaway Cars in Connecticut, Callaway engineers showed how they used PTC’s Pro/ENGINEER 4.0 Wildfire program to help design, test, and develop their parts. On the outside, the carbon fiber hood is a stand-out visual clue that distinguishes a Callaway-prepared Corvette from others but it’s also the supercharger, suspension, exhaust and more that work together to deliver 580 bhp and 510 lb-ft torque. As Callaway Managing Director Michael Zoner and Chief Engineer Patrick Hodgins explained, since 1997, Callaway has been using Pro/ENGINEER to design and build exclusive vehicle systems that are powerful, emissions compliant, reliable, able to be reproduced and driven under real road conditions.

A tour of the Callaway facilities included viewing all the milling machines, lathes, flow benches and the dynamometer room. After walking amongst this collection of equipment, it’s fascinating to see how Pro/ENGINEER is used in such and environment. Callaway engineers can design and produce their performance-enhancing parts right there and Pro/ENGINEER lets them work out much of their design challenges in a virtual space before testing and fitting actual parts in the shop. For example, a Callaway engineer can obtain an original file from an OE for a part such as an air induction tube, then, Pro/ENGINEER lets one design from the top-down to work within the space where the re-engineered air tube must be installed.

Being able to go into the manufacturer’s original design file and work within certain end constraints is an important part of Pro/ENGINEER’s capabilities since it allows companies to bring their product to market faster. When you don’t have to start with a blank page, you can keep up with design changes and edit the part right in the assembly.

It’s important to note that even though many 3D design programs can import and export all kinds of files, Pro/ENGINEER has the ability to clean incoming and outgoing data so as to minimize or eliminate the loss of data in translation. Imagine opening a file for a vehicle’s exhaust manifold that you were going to re-engineer and being met with a drawing full of gaps and other geometric problems. At this point, Pro/ENGINEER’s Import DataDoctor can be called upon to save time and make the necessary repairs.

Callaway doesn’t just work on Corvettes; they have designed systems for Holden Special Vehicles, Land Rover, Mazda, and others. When Mazda decided to enhance the 2003 MazdaSpeed Protege’s turbo system, Callaway was hired to design, test, and manufacture 5,500 turbo systems. Pro/ENGINEER’s ability to test the durability of the turbo package was a necessary tool when it came to ensuring the proper level of MazdaSpeed performance. Other project points handled by Callaway included the development of installation instructions, installation training and related documents. Pro/ENGINEER helped speed up the process letting the engineers concentrate on component design since the program can track revisions as they are made and make sure that information is linked to the correct files.

A final key component to Callaway and Mazda’s success with this project was the fact that Pro/ENGINEER enabled engineers from both companies to communicate effectively. In under 10 months, Callaway completed its largest production run to date by manufacturing 5,500 turbo systems for the MazdaSpeed brand, all while sharing files with project engineers in Japan, California and Michigan.

Overall, when designers and engineers can spend more time prototyping, less time chasing a paper trail, and communicate easily, development time can be greatly reduced. Although there are dozens of other intricate features packed into the latest version of Pro/ENGINEER, this visit to Callaway proved that the software helps Callaway develop and install their highly-refined performance packages and please a healthy flow of customers. The line of Corvettes outside the shop awaiting their improvements can attest to that.

How Callaway got started with GM

In 1985, GM tested one of the Alfa Romeo Callaway Twin Turbo GTV-6 cars. This Alfa was Callaway’s first OEM project and GTV-6 proved to be quite impressive when tested against the Corvette. After seeing the Callaway name underneath the hood, GM contacted Callaway and work on the Callaway Corvette began. From 1987-1991, Chevrolet sold around 530 Callaway Corvettes, each featuring 403 hp and 565 lb-ft.

Interested in a Callaway Corvette?

Interested buyers can contact an approved Chevrolet dealer. The new Corvette is shipped to Callaway to receive its upgrades and returned to the Chevrolet dealer upon completion.

From the department of cheap happines for gearheads comes this 1977 Topps trading card, featuring the relatively obscure Volvo 264 GL. A friend of mine was recently cleaning out his baseball card collection and discovered this piece of automobilia which features a color photo on one side followed by matching statistics on the back, just like a baseball card.

What does this mean for my fledgling collection of auto literature? It means that it’s time to search for more of these car cards, but for ones that feature my favorite Jeep and AMC vehicles! Current prices for auto cards like this on ebay are easy on the wallet, ranging from $2-4.50, so keep that in mind for the car lover you might know who’s got a birthday coming up soon. Similar cards turn up for AMC cars at the same prices but a search for Jeep cards came up empty.

A fun find such as this is right up there with grabbing an iced coffee on the way home from work, when all you want is a little instant treat. Or, it could also be a small-yet-treasured detail in that collection of literature surrounding your favorite automotive brand. Either way, the few quick searches I performed on ebay only brought up 1977 model year cards. Were these auto cards from Topps a limited offering? Let the research begin.