I'll keep posting about the classic cars, but I want to break up the monotony a little as well, so we'll move on to the wedding... my next activity for the day.
The weather couldn't have been better for Kevin and Kristin's Big Day. I drove over to the hotel where Kevin and his family and the groomsmen were all staying. Everyone was nervous and worrying about the bow ties. Nobody was quite sure how they were supposed to be tied! We managed to get through it after Kevin learned by watching a video online.
I was recruited to be an usher, but I wasn't at the rehearsal.. so this was going to be slightly tricky. I drove to the Cà d'Zan and found a few people there. They had a cellist playing classical music and the chairs were set up on the lawn. When the limo arrived, I sorted out what they needed me to do. First I lit the candles, then I walked Kevin's mom to her seat, then Kristin's mom, then I sat down.
Everyone involved in the wedding looked absolutely their best. Amanda and Liz (Maid of honor and bridesmaid) looked stunning. The sun was up when the wedding started and it set while we ate dinner on the terrace. The venue was ideal, the view of Sarasota Bay and the sound of the water made it a perfect night. I spent a lot of time taking photos of the mansion and the grounds while the professional photographer shot up the wedding party.
For dinner there was a choice between beef and cornish hen. I had Kevin choose for me, because they both looked pretty good. He apparently chose the cornish hen, it was excellent. Deboned and stuffed with wild rice and served with a cranberry sauce, I ate the entire meal!
Afterward, we danced and then went to the Ritz Carlton where Kevin and Kristin would spend their first night together. The Ritz is an amazing hotel!! I took a few pictures from the terrace. We had a few drinks there and then I headed back to my hotel room after an exhausting day.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Just Married!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
John Lennon
John Lennon, originally uploaded by zuctronic.
The Sarasota Classic Car museum had a few of John Lennon's cars on display. First up is the 1956 Bentley SI that John Lennon had custom painted for the Beatles.
John Lennon Designed Psychedelic BentleyThey also had a couple of John Lennon's personal Mercedes on display. First was his 1965 Mercedes 230SI:
This Bentley was acquired by John Lennon and the Beatles' "Apple Corp". It was painted at John Lennon's supervision by the same firm that painted the front of the Boutique Building in 1967, at the height of the "psychedelic era". This Bentley was often parked in front of "The Apple Tailoring Boutique", owned by Beatles Apple Corp., on Kings Road in London. Lennon was known to frequent the 'after hours' clubs in this Bentley and along with other Rock-n-Roll celebrities of the day, including Jimi Hendrix, and Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones.
John Lennon's MercedesAnd finally they had on display John Lennon's last car... his 1979 Mercedes-Benz 300TD.
This 1965 Mercedes Benz 230SL was the personal car of John Lennon, a member of the Beatles. The car was ordered through a British dealer, who delivered the car. It is equipped with right-hand steering and modifications to suit British laws. Lennon asked for an automatic transmission. Although not often fitted, his request was honored and the car was so equipped. In the rear seat, you may see an enlarged copy of the registration bearing Lennon's name and address. Although some 20,000 cars of this type were built, this one is unique.
John Lennon's Last VehiclePoor John only got to drive this car for a year before some jerk shot him in New York. They had a news story posted from the day he was killed:
1979 Mercedes-Benz 300TD
Manufactured by: Daimler-Benz AG
Place: Stuttgart, Germany
Production: N/A
Body: steel unibody--Daimler-Benz
Chassis: wh.base: 110 in.; lgth: 190.9 in.; wt.: 3635 lbs.
Engine: water-cooled I-5, SOHC
Disp./Power: 183.4 cu. in. / 110 h.p.
Suspension: Front-independent, coil springs
Rear independent swing axles, coil springs
Transmission: automatic to rear axle
The introduction of a turbochrager on the three liter diesel improved the performance. The wagon was introduced in early 1979, and featured an automatic rear load leveler. The sliding roof was standard on the wagon. Although owned by a celebrity, the wagon is completely stock with few options or accessories, the alloy wheels being the only obvious one.
Cost new: $23,900
Dec 8, 1980 - JOHN LENNON GUNNED DOWN ON NEW YORK ST.
Former Beatle JOHN LENNON Was Today Shot & Killed Outside His Manhattan Apt. Sources Said a Lone Gunman Fired Several Bullets Into Lennon's Chest, Causing Immediate Death. No Further Information is Available at This Time
Monday, May 4, 2009
Perspective
On a dry October Sunday in 1871 a fire broke out in southwestern Chicago. At first the fire was dismissed by most citizens... perhaps they thought it would be dealt with by the city's fire department. Unfortunately, the fire department was poorly manned and exhausted from fighting a fire the night before. The fire soon became a storm of flame that engulfed the city and reduced 4 square miles to rubble. By the time the fire was extinguished, two days later, the city lay in ruin. Potter Palmer's hotel was gone. His dry goods store reduced to ashes. Hundreds lost their lives. The city land surveys were destroyed. How would they go on?
"If you were standing at the corner of Wabash and Washington Streets in Chicago in 1871, this is what you would see: piles of rubble, with the ruins of the Second Presbyterian Church in the background, just part of the unimaginable devastation from the "Great" Chicago Fire. The fire burned from Sunday October 8 to early Tuesday October 10, 1871, killing hundreds and destroying about four square miles in Chicago, Illinois."
We are delivered setbacks, disappointments, and frustrations - but if we don't rise again, we haven't learned a thing.
1981 DeLorean Gullwing
Manufactured by: De Lorean Mfg. Co.
Place: Belfast, Northern Ireland
Production: 1981-82
Total Produced: 8,742
Body: stainless steel-designed by Giugiaro
Chassis: wh. base: 95 in.
Length: 168 in.
Engine: water-cooled V-6 SOHC fuel injection
Top speed: 125mph
Weight: 2,712 lbs
Suspension: Front & Rear Independent, coil springs
Transmission: automatic to rear axle
Cost new: $26-$30k
Built by John De Lorean in Belfast, Northern Ireland with British Government financing. Stainless steel panels over fiberglass, the bodies carried no paint. Of the total 8,742 produced, 4,000 were shipped to the United States. The cars were well-equipped, with standard air conditioning, leather upholstery, power windows and door locks. After bankruptcy in 1983 De Lorean was charged and acquitted by the British Government for embezzlement of company funds. 
Story from OCTANE website:
DeLorean: From dream to nightmare
As we have already seen, John Z DeLorean didn’t play by the rules – and was prepared to think unconventionally in order to realise his dream of getting his gullwing sports car into production. However, choosing Northern Ireland to build his car was either the act of a genius – or commercial suicide.
When DMCL in the UK was set-up in October 1978, it was effectively a start-up operation, and the prototype had been underdeveloped.To accelerate the DMC-12’s move to production, the engineering programme at Hethel had been run simultaneously with endurance testing at the company HQ in Coventry; at a time when parallel development programmes had yet to become commonplace in the industry.
In setting up car production in Northern Ireland (as opposed to Puerto Rico), new supply deals with a myriad of component suppliers in the West Midlands needed to be set-up. This placed untold pressures on the UK managament team – and that wasn’t even accounting for the demands placed on it by setting up the green-field factory in strife-torn Northern Ireland.
Based in Dunmurry, near the Catholic Twinbrook Estate, the factory was perfectly placed to deal with the region’s rampant unemployment (it was as high as 50% in the Catholic areas). The factory was equidistant between large Catholic and Protestant estates. However, the work force wasn’t skilled, and would need training, and there simply wasn’t the industry infrastructure in place for a rapid build-up to production.
The workforce – a mixture of Protestant and Catholic – got on with the job and built the cars, proudly leaving religion at the factory gates. As for the cars – they were an object lessson in streamlined production methods. All of the components were brought in from outside suppliers apart from the fibreglass floorplan. This just-in-time construction also predicted subsequent industry practice.
Adding to the enormity of the task of getting production off the ground, John Z had set an impossible schedule. He’d promised the government that pilot build cars would be ready by May 1980, and a year after that, the factory would be assembling 30,000 cars per year. Despite this, John Z remained in New York, relying on his UK deputies – industry heavyweights such as Barrie Wills (purchasing director) and ex-GM man Chuck Bennington (product planning director) to get the operation running in the UK.
On January 21, 1981, eight months late and £34m over budget, the first DMC-12 rolled off the line at Dunmurry. Given the timetable, this was a remarkable achievement, even if the press gleefully reported the overspend of taxpayers’ money. It was still a rush job – the car was released to the public undercooked and lacking in build quality. Within months the factory had these issues licked...
The initial road tests were kind, though – after comparing it with the Porsche 911 and Ferrari 308 among others, Car & Driver concluded, ‘If De Lorean keeps it up, he could be the only North American besides Henry Ford to leave his mark and his name on the business.’ Given it cost ,600 compared with ,258 for the considerably faster (if much less refined) Chevrolet Corvette, it was an optimistic view, gullwing doors or not.
The chassis was impressive, even if the excessive ride height did its best to upset the overall levels of roadholding. Autocar reckoned it was biased towards understeer; Road and Track thought it rolled too much – and all thought it lacked the ultimate delicacy of its European rivals. But who really cared when it looked so striking?
Car & Driver summed in a wonderfully overblown way: ‘Let the sun blaze or the night lights sparkle and the sheen shines. And when the gullwings reach for the sky and their amber warning lights alert the neighbourhood’s low-flying Learjets to a new obstacle, all the world’s air traffic controllers couldn’t channel the glut of instant onlookers.’ Quite.
Despite promising early sales, the queue of buyers had evaporated by end of year – the chill wind of recession had struck the US automotive sector, and stockpiles of unsold cars started to mount up, both in Dunmurry and dockside in the USA. The worst US winter in 50 years also didn’t help the demand for sports cars.
As DeLorean had built the company on fragile finances, there was no way DMC could weather the storm. John Z desperately tried to secure additional funding from any sources available to him, while successfully managing to top up his investment from the Conservative government.
In January 1982, production was slashed and plans were accelerated to give the DMC-12 Euro Type Approval – something that John Z originally thought wouldn’t be necessary. An emergency recovery programme headed by Barrie Wills was instigated – but it was already too late.
On February 19, the receivers were called in, and after forming DMC (1982) Ltd, continued funding limited car production while a viable rescue plan was devised. The deadline would be July 31 – John Z assumed the date would come and go, and the government would offer a bailout.
DeLorean’s head of marketing, Tom Ronayne, toured Europe sounding out potential sales outlets. The feedback from over the channel was positive – and a rescue bid was cooked up. The immediate issue was to increase demand and and start selling stockpiled cars, but beyond that, Barrie Wills’ management team did all they could to make DeLorean – as a marque – saleable.
Wills and Bennington drew up a business plan that looked solid enough for them to receive a commitment to funding from a consortium of financial backers keen to rescue DeLorean.
However, on October 19, after a four-month operation, the FBI pounced on John Z in a Los Angeles hotel room for ‘narcotics violations.’ The dream came apart the moment the briefcase full of cocaine was captured on camera.
Four days later, it was over for Wills and Bennington, too. Time and money ran out, and the receivers were forced to close the company. After a run of less than two years and around 9500 cars, Barrie Wills locked the factory gates at Dunmurry for the very last time.
Did the DMC-12 deserve such a fate? Clearly, it was launched at the wrong time, was overpriced, and the company wasn’t strong enough to survive the economic downturn. However, the DMC-12 is a fascinating monument to the unique character of its creator – had anyone else attempted to build the car, it would never have made it off the drawing board. British taxpayers who stumped up the cash may have seen it differently, but John Z’s dream car deserved so much more.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Musical Interlude - What a Wonderful World
In the movie they'll make about me one day long after I'm gone, this will be the song that plays over the opening credits.
I see trees of green........ red roses too
I see them bloom..... for me and for you
And I think to myself.... what a wonderful world.
I see skies of blue..... and clouds of white
The bright blessed day.... the dark sacred night
And I think to myself..... what a wonderful world.
The colors of a rainbow..... so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces..... of people going by
I see friends shaking hands..... sayin how do you do
They're really saying...... I love you.
I hear babies cry...... I watch them grow
They'll learn much more..... than I'll ever know
And I think to myself..... what a wonderful world.
Yes... I think to myself.... what a wonderful world.
1905 Schacht at the Sarasota Classic Car Museum
1905 Schacht
Manufactured By: Schacht Mfg. Co
Place: Cincinnati, Ohio U.S.A.
Production: 1904-1913 / 9000
Body: steel/wood runabout
Chassis: wheelbase: 65 in.; weight approx. 800 lbs.
Engine: water-cooled hor. opp. 2 cyl. sidevalve
Disp./Power: est. 100 cu. in. / 10 h.p.
Suspension: Front-beam axle, center-clamped cantilever leaf spring
Rear: beam axle, center-clamped cantilever leaf spring
Transmission: friction discs, differential cross-shaft and chains to rear wheels
Cost new: unknown
Present: not established
Schacht built 713 of these "high wheelers" in 1905. The company also built more conventional, larger, 4 cylinder cars. These were not successful, and Schacht turned to the manufacture of trucks in 1913, continuing with them into the 1930s. Fire apparatus was added to the line until Schacht went out of business in 1938.
When this came to the museum, they were instructed to leave one half exactly as they found it, and restore the other half to look the way it did the day it came from the factory. The video I took of the tour guide describing the vehicle shows both sides, and you can see that they've done a miraculous job of restoring it.
As the guide says in the video, this car has a safety feature. The crank is on the rear of the vehicle so that the person starting the engine would not be run over once it started up.
The Sarasota Classic Car Museum
I woke up a little late on Thursday, but had a little time before the wedding events started. Kevin told me to check out the Classic Car Museum, so I decided to give it a go. I wasn't disappointed at all! In fact, I'm going to split this into several posts because there were so many cool things there.
To start with, there are a few classic cars on the lot outside the museum. In front is a Studebaker (unsure of year) and a few others. Inside the lobby there was a restored convertible VW beetle, a model airplane, a collection of antique cameras and model cars, a scale model of a Ford Model T, and some very entertaining elderly people who were running the ticket counter.
Tickets were $8.50 and I could wander around the museum for as long as I wanted. He said there were three main rooms and gave me some direction on where to start and which way to walk through. There was a tour guide who would be talking through the museum in an hour, but I wanted to see the place before that started.
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