Legendary hot rodder, Dean Jeffries, dead at 80.

Perhaps best known for much of his work that was claimed by George Barris, Dean Jeffries was one of the most legendary men in automotive culture. He was the complete package. He was a metal worker, a painter, a designer, a car builder, stuntman. He did it all. I mean, where do you begin?

Jeffries was born in Lynwood, California in February 1933. He had dreamed of attending the Art Center in Pasadena, but instead of doing well in school he gravitated toward cars like most teens do, learning from his  father who was a mechanic. While stationed in Germany during his stint in the Army, he learned the art of pinstriping from a furniture and piano striper, and upon returning home to California, he continued to learn from Kenneth “Von Dutch” Howard. This landed him a  job as the in-house pinstriper for George Barris. Along the way, he learned how to shape metal, as well, and began to take the customization of his clients’ cars further; during that time, he not only striped James Dean’s infamous Porsche 550 Spyder with the nickname “Li’l Bastard,” but also built Chili Catallo’s 1932 Ford three-window coupe, the one that the Beach Boys used on the cover of their Little Deuce Coupe album.

Jeffries also did work for Caroll Shelby. He painted the first Cobra as a favor to Shelby. He sympathized with Shelby’s effort to get the car done on a budget. “The body was a disaster, all heliarced and torched up. I had only three days from start to finish. I asked Shelby what color he wanted, and he said, ‘Any color you want.’ So, not knowing if it was right or wrong, I painted it pearl yellow because I had heard on TV that yellow stood out the best.” Shelby would later provide Jeffries with a Weber-topped 289-cu.in. Ford V-8 and four-speed transmission for Jeffries’s Mantaray, an asymmetrical single-seater based on a 1939 Maserati 8CTF Grand Prix chassis.

After leaving Barris' shop. Jeffries set up shop in Hollywood. This attracted plenty of celebrity clientele and made way for jobs creating and customizing cars for the movies and for the stars, including the Monkeemobile, the Chrysler Imperial based Black Beauty from The Green Hornet television series, and the Landmaster from Damnation Alley. He didn’t restrict himself to Hollywood cars, however: He also designed and manufactured the Kyote Volkswagen based dune buggies and built a number of custom and concept cars for Ford Motor Company, including a gullwing-door show car called the Cougar, the Falcon Python show car, and the Ford GT40. He also did some construction and painting for several Indy Car teams. 

Jeffries also worked for a while as a stuntman. During the production of Honky Tonk Freeway in 1980, Jeffries performed a jump stunt with a truck in which he broke his back. He also performed stunts in The Blues Brothers and Fletch. What he will mostly rememberh him for if not through his cars then through his feud with George Barris, brought on by Barris’s habit of taking credit for Jeffries’s work throughout the years. “He couldn’t put a dent into something, never mind taking one out, but he’s a hell of a promoter, believe me,” Jeffries said. Barris retorted that he couldn’t “control what magazines write and who they list as the designer and builder.”

Jeffries remained very active in the industry until about five years ago and still maintained a shop in Hollywood. 

Source & Photos: Hemmings Motor News & The Jalopy Journal

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Cruze Diesel Driven 900 Miles At 57.7 Average MPG

General Motors has posted a video showing yet another potential advantage offered by the pending 2013 Chevrolet Cruze turbo diesel over the Volkswagen Jetta TDI.

At least that’s the hope, because the competitive advantages appear to possibly be mixed with disadvantages as well, such as a starting price higher by $730, and city mpg lower by 3 mpg. But the Cruze diesel is well equipped at that price, promises more power, highway mileage of 46 vs 42 for the Jetta TDI, and on that note, GM engineer Tessa Baughman says she achieved an 800 and 900 mile run, each on a single tank. She did this, she says, while avoiding other hyper mileage techniques with the only concession to maximizing fuel economy being that she drove 5 mph below the posted limit.

With a fuel tank capacity of 15.6 gallons for the Cruze diesel, this equates to a highway figure of 51.28 and 57.69 mpg respectively. As a point of comparison, the record set with a manual-transmission 2013 VW Passat TDI rated at 43 mpg highway was an astonishing 84.1 mpg over 1,626 mpg. However this was set by expert hyper mileage instructors, John and Helen Taylor, and in this case, the boilerplate caveat “your mileage may vary” applies doubly. The take home message with the Cruze Diesel is it too can substantially beat its highway numbers, so, is it thus possible it can beat its city mpg number and close the gap between it and the VW as well?

The Cruze diesel starts at $ $24,885 plus $810 destination charge. It is available only with automatic transmission. Volkwagen offers a manual for $23,055 plus $795 destination or automatic for $24,155 plus destination charges. The EPA mileage per gallon estimates for the Cruze Diesel are 27 city, 46 highway, 33 combined. For the Jetta TDI, it’s 32 city, 42 highway, 33 combined. This said, options can easily make either car overlap each other, and GM says for the starting price, its Cruze Diesel is a comparatively solid value as equipped.

Without a doubt, VW has established a fan base for its Jetta TDI, which leads the small but growing clean diesel car market. The Chevrolet, GM points out, has a track record too, however. It was launched in other markets in 2010, and 33,000 units have been sold so far.
The gas variants of the Cruze furthermore have proven to be a top seller for GM, even usurping once stalwarts such as the Honda Civic. So, if the Cruze diesel, engineered with help from Germans to give all comers a run for their money is as good as promised, GM does stand to begin eroding VW’s market.

Working against them all is diesel remains more expensive than gasoline, making the premium each vehicle costs over gas equivalents a real exercise in number crunching. In their favor also, diesels can operate at lower rpms, potentially can last longer for those who keep their cars till the wheels fall off, and their power characteristics are excellent also.

The Cruze is said to offer performance like a V6 with highway mileage only 2 mpg less than the Toyota Prius Liftback, and with potential to match the Prius Liftback’s mileage and be much faster when desired. Of course, The Prius’ 51 mpg city and 50 mpg combined figures solidly trounce the Cruze diesel’s 27 mpg and 33 mpg respectively, but the Toyota is an altogether different technology that lends itself to excellent city figures. We could go on and on with point and counterpoint, but the addition of a new contender, whether it sells well, or only moderately, can only be seen as a step in the right direction. Rome was not built in a day, and neither will a changeover be to more fuel-efficient transportation.

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Honda’s Civic Tops All Safety Ratings

The new 2013 Honda Civic Sedan has received the highest possible overall safety ratings from both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

This is good news for a car that is known to be one of the most popular small car among individual buyers. The 2013 Civic Sedan recently received the top 5-Star Overall Vehicle Score in the NHTSA’s New Car Assessment Program (NCAP), and the highest possible rating of Top Safety Pick+ from the IIHS, including a top score of Good in the new small overlap frontal collision test.

Honda said it leads all automakers with every one of its tested model year 2013 vehicles earning a Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick+ rating from the IIHS. The 2013 Honda Civic Sedan and Coupe are the first and only small cars to earn the IIHS’ highest safety rating of Top Safety Pick, and the NCAP 5-Star Overall Vehicle Score for the Civic Sedan further separates Civic from the competition in safety ratings performance.

The 2013 Accord also earned these high safety ratings in the midsize segment. “Car shoppers cannot find a small car with higher overall safety ratings than the 2013 Honda Civic,” said Art St. Cyr, vice president of product planning and logistics at American Honda. “Safety ratings leadership across product lines is a fundamental part of not only our strategic business plan, but also our philosophy as a company.”

The Civic Sedan, which Honda said was significantly re-engineered for 2013, is equipped with Honda’s next generation Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE) body structure, which contributes to make Civic the first small car to earn a Top Safety Pick+ crash safety rating, and the first to earn the highest rating of GOOD in the IIHS’ new small overlap frontal crash test (sometimes called a ‘narrow offset’ test).

This aggressive test is designed to simulate what happens when the front corner of a vehicle collides with another vehicle or an object such as a tree or utility pole at high speed. Honda said the reinforced ACE body structure found on the 2013 Civic further enhances frontal crash energy through a wider range of these offset and oblique collision scenarios.

Additional standard safety equipment on all Civic models include Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA) with traction control; an Anti-lock Braking System (ABS); side curtain airbags; dual-stage, multiple-threshold front airbags; and driver and front passenger side airbags.

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Tesla Model S. The best car. EVER

In some news out of left field. The folks from Consumer Reports have come out an announced that the Tesla Model S is bar none, the BEST car they have ever tested. Interesting because of the fact that it is a full electric car. But that's also one of the biggest reasons why CR says it's the best. Styling is uniquely Tesla, and looks like nothing else on the road. Inside, a 17 inch touch screen panel controls just about everything in the car. Now how it is better than say a VW Jetta TDI?

Well, I'm not sure other than you can take the Jetta on long road trips. The Model S can handle say Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Longer trips are possible thanks to a network of supercharged charging stations that can charge the battery from empty to half full in about a half hour. However, expect a full charge to take 12 hours using normal 240 volt home electric. That can be cut down with an optional charger from Tesla that takes about 5 hours to recharge.

Sticker price for the Model S comes in at a hefty $90,000 give or take a couple hundred bucks. And lets face it. Frankly, it's not a Prius, and that's why we like it. Even though we still prefer our cars to suck gas, not electricity.

So, while it may not fit the need for everyone, it's pretty darn close for some. Unfortunately, for those of us here in Pittsburgh, and the rest of Pennsylvania for that matter. There are no Tesla dealers. There is a service center in Philadelphia, but the closest dealer is in Tysons Corner, Virginia which is just outside of Washington D.C. That is partially due to Tesla's troubles with their store style of dealer system that has the national and state dealer associations up in arms. And that's not to mention the other financial troubles that have hounded Tesla.

Here's hoping that Tesla sticks around for a while. 

Source: Consumer Reports, Tesla Motors.

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2005 - 2011 Porsche 911 RS1 Street by LOMA

LOMA is best known for its work on the C6 Corvettes, but recently the German company has decided to turn its sights on Porsche. Because of the company’s location, all of the parts in the kit are made in Germany using carbon fiber, which is something a Porsche owner will prefer.

The 911 GT3 RSR is one of the most awesome Porsches ever built, but it’s not built to handle daily driving nor is it priced for the average Porsche buyer. To help satisfy your urge to own one, LOMA decided to make a kit to allow for you to turn your 997 into an RSR.

The 911 retains the stock engine that produces at least 325 horsepower, but LOMA offers a sports exhaust system to give the car more of a racecar soundtrack. The suspension and brakes also stay the same as the stock car, so the car doesn’t ride any lower than stock unless you decide to lower the car yourself.

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2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Indianapolis 500 Pace Car

Chevrolet Corvette served as an Indianapolis 500 pace car for the first time back in 1978 and Chevrolet has sent a total of 11 models to pace "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing." The 2013 model year will be the 12th time a Corvette model will pace Indianapolis, and as rumored two days ago, it will be the new Corvette Stingray.

The model will be equipped with the track-capable Z51 package, which adds a limited-slip differential for reduced under-steer while cornering, improved aerodynamics and ride tweaks to help it handle corners more effectively. The Stingray Pace Car is painted in a Laguna Blue Tintcoat exterior combined with official Indianapolis 500 graphics on the doors.

The technology features and powertrain will be identical to the standard version, except that the Pace Car will be equipped with track-mandated safety features and strobe lights.

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2015 Jaguar F-Type Coupe Revealed in Patent Drawings

Jaguar announced its intentions to release a coupe version of the F-Type once the roadster version hit the market. Until now, however, the car has never been spotted testing anywhere around the world, so we had to just trust Jaguar’s word.

Today, we can add some substance to Jag’s claim, as leaked patent drawings of the F-Type Coupe have made their way onto the Internet and they reveal the final design of the sports coupe. Not that it’s very hard to imagine how an F-Type Coupe would look like, since you are essentially slapping a fixed roof on top of the F-Type Roadster. Reports point toward everything else being borrowed from the roadster version, including the exterior look and the engine lineup.

The F-Type Coupe will arrive on the market sometime in 2014 and will be followed by a more powerful R version. A Sport Brake version has also been rumored, but we doubt we are ever going to see it.

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