“Women take a seat in Transportation Hall of Fame - WRAL” plus 4 more |
- Women take a seat in Transportation Hall of Fame - WRAL
- 50th Annual O'Reilly AutoRama in Houston to Feature Major Firepower ... - PR-USA.net
- 1st woman to drive cross-continent among 1st inductees to new ... - Washington Examiner
- At Clemson, researchers study older drivers - Anderson Independent-Mail
- Illinois inventors keep eyes on the X Prize - St. Louis Post-Dispatch
| Women take a seat in Transportation Hall of Fame - WRAL Posted: 23 Oct 2009 08:32 AM PDT BUFFALO, N.Y. — Bad roads, bad weather, flat tires, breakdowns. A lot of Alice Ramsey's challenges during her New York City-to-San Francisco drive could be any traveler's. In 1909, though, and before any other woman had made such a trip, others were uniquely hers. Like when she was stopped by a posse of men on horseback who were tracking a murderer, or frightened by Indians in Nebraska, until finding they were just hunting jackrabbits. And long before GPS, there were driving guides with landmarks like "yellow house and barn" to steer her along. One hundred years after spending 41 days behind the wheel to become the first woman to drive across the continent, Ramsey will take a permanent place in a new hall of fame dedicated to women in transportation. Ramsey, who told her story in the 1961 book, "Veil, Duster and Tire Iron" and died in 1983, will be honored posthumously at a ceremony in Buffalo Friday. Other inductees into the new National Transportation Women's Hall of Fame include a Seattle woman, Emily Anderson, who retraced Ramsey's historic journey in a 1909 Maxwell this spring. The hall of fame will be housed inside the Buffalo Transportation/Pierce-Arrow Museum, which has a collection of antique and classic vehicles ranging from Pierce-Arrows - luxury cars made in Buffalo through the 1930s - to carriages, motorcycles and bicycles from the 19th and 20th centuries. "We started to research to find out what is there in the United States that depicts women and what their accomplishments have been in transportation, and there is none," said James Sandoro, the museum's founder and president. With the museum and its strong women's exhibit already in place, they decided to establish a permanent exhibit that will depict women in different forms of transportation, not just automobiles, Sandoro said. "This is such an honor and I am proud to be a part of it," said Lauren Fix, a race car driver and host of "Talk 2 DIY Automotive," a television auto repair show. Fix, who lives in Depew, near Buffalo, joins Ramsey in the first class of inductees. Others are Marguerite Hambleton, president of the AAA in New York state; Donna Luh, a former Buffalo Niagara International Airport project coordinator; and former Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority Commissioner Mary Martino. The Buffalo Transportation/Pierce-Arrow Museum is undergoing a $15 million expansion, which will include construction of a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed filling station. Wright designed the station with overhead, gravity-fed tanks for the former Tydol Oil company in Buffalo in 1927 but it was never built. Sandoro secured the rights to build a non-working version of the structure several years ago. --- This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| 50th Annual O'Reilly AutoRama in Houston to Feature Major Firepower ... - PR-USA.net Posted: 23 Oct 2009 06:09 AM PDT The annual O'Reilly AutoRama® presented by
Super Start Batteries will celebrate its 50th anniversary on Nov. 26-29,
2009, in downtown Houston. The Thanksgiving weekend event, which is one of
the largest and longest running indoor car shows in the United States, will
feature a salute to the past five decades, as well as a stellar lineup of
custom cars, motorcycles, racecars, tuners, trucks and family entertainment
at the George R. Brown Convention Center at 1001 Avenida De Las Americas.
The O'Reilly AutoRama is sanctioned by the International Show Car
Association (ISCA).
A 50th anniversary reception will be held on Friday, Nov. 27 to recognize the individuals and local car clubs who have helped produce the show for decades. "I'm proud that AutoRama has become such an important part of the culture in Houston that we're now celebrating our golden anniversary," said Bob Larivee Jr., CEO of Championship Auto Shows Inc. "For over 50 years, enthusiasts of every age have celebrated their passion for the automobile at AutoRama. Many of them have grown up with the show and now bring their kids and grandkids." A new highlight at the 2009 show will be a GlowoRama parade in conjunction with Art Cars of Houston Inc. A collection of illuminated Houston art cars will parade down Avenida De Las Americas in front of the convention center at 9 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 28. A party will follow the parade inside Hall A of the convention center. Additional attractions will include an automotive swap meet and toy show, AutoRama Women's World, an All American Motorcycle Show, the Tuner Galleria for imports and the Chevy Vette Fest section. One of the most anticipated displays will be the Ol' Skool Rodz with over 100 traditional rods. Feature cars will include the legendary ZINGER Corvette and Volkswagen, the Hudson Hornet from the hit movie "Cars," "El Tiki" from the pages of "Ol' Skool Rodz" and the "Ratical Rod" street coupe. The top show cars in North America will also be on display as part of the ISCA Championship Finals.
The Action Arena will be staged outdoors behind the convention center this year. Highlights will be a "Cacklefest" for 1960s vintage nitro dragsters, an AutoRama Burnout Competition and XSBA Streetbike Freestyle Shows. Celebrities scheduled to appear include the Houston Texans Cheerleaders, Houston Rockets Power Dancers and Clutch the Bear mascot, the Texas Bikini Team, SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer. About the O'Reilly AutoRama in Houston The 50th annual O'Reilly AutoRama presented by Super Start Batteries in Houston is sponsored by O'Reilly Auto Parts and is part of the Summit Racing Show Car Series. Event hours are Thursday from 3-9 p.m.; Friday from 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; Saturday from 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; and Sunday from 11a.m.-7 p.m. Discount tickets are available at Houston-area O'Reilly Auto Parts stores; regular admission tickets may be purchased at the George R. Brown Convention Center with children five years old and under admitted for free. Additional information about the show is available at www.autorama.com. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 1st woman to drive cross-continent among 1st inductees to new ... - Washington Examiner Posted: 23 Oct 2009 12:32 AM PDT BUFFALO, N.Y. — Bad roads, bad weather, flat tires, breakdowns. A lot of Alice Ramsey's challenges during her New York City-to-San Francisco drive could be any traveler's. In 1909, though, and before any other woman had made such a trip, others were uniquely hers. Like when she was stopped by a posse of men on horseback who were tracking a murderer, or frightened by Indians in Nebraska, until finding they were just hunting jackrabbits. And long before GPS, there were driving guides with landmarks like "yellow house and barn" to steer her along. One hundred years after spending 41 days behind the wheel to become the first woman to drive across the continent, Ramsey will take a permanent place in a new hall of fame dedicated to women in transportation. Ramsey, who told her story in the 1961 book, "Veil, Duster and Tire Iron" and died in 1983, will be honored posthumously at a ceremony in Buffalo Friday. Other inductees into the new National Transportation Women's Hall of Fame include a Seattle woman, Emily Anderson, who retraced Ramsey's historic journey in a 1909 Maxwell this spring. The hall of fame will be housed inside the Buffalo Transportation/Pierce-Arrow Museum, which has a collection of antique and classic vehicles ranging from Pierce-Arrows — luxury cars made in Buffalo through the 1930s — to carriages, motorcycles and bicycles from the 19th and 20th centuries. "We started to research to find out what is there in the United States that depicts women and what their accomplishments have been in transportation, and there is none," said James Sandoro, the museum's founder and president. With the museum and its strong women's exhibit already in place, they decided to establish a permanent exhibit that will depict women in different forms of transportation, not just automobiles, Sandoro said. "This is such an honor and I am proud to be a part of it," said Lauren Fix, a race car driver and host of "Talk 2 DIY Automotive," a television auto repair show. Fix, who lives in Depew, near Buffalo, joins Ramsey in the first class of inductees. Others are Marguerite Hambleton, president of the AAA in New York state; Donna Luh, a former Buffalo Niagara International Airport project coordinator; and former Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority Commissioner Mary Martino. The Buffalo Transportation/Pierce-Arrow Museum is undergoing a $15 million expansion, which will include construction of a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed filling station. Wright designed the station with overhead, gravity-fed tanks for the former Tydol Oil company in Buffalo in 1927 but it was never built. Sandoro secured the rights to build a non-working version of the structure several years ago. ___ On the Net: Buffalo Transportation/Pierce-Arrow Museum: http://www.pierce-arrow.com This content has passed through fivefilters.org.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| At Clemson, researchers study older drivers - Anderson Independent-Mail Posted: 22 Oct 2009 08:14 PM PDT Driving studies need volunteersAnyone 50 or older with a valid drivers license can participate in studies being conducted at Clemson University of drivers. A person who participates in a study will need to devote about two hours to it, and volunteers are paid. For information, call (864) 656-1703. Source: Clemson University CLEMSON UNIVERSITY — Drivers 65 or older represent 15 percent of the motoring population today. By 2025 they will make up one in every four drivers. These older drivers "are on the road the least amount of time, but have the greatest amount of fatalities," said Johnell Brooks, an assistant professor of psychology at Clemson University. Brooks is helping to direct studies on older drivers in South Carolina and find ways to help them drive better, or, if necessary, stop driving. "So many people, their first reaction is we want to take grandma's keys," she said. "That's not our purpose. We want to help aging drivers maximize their independence as long as possible." To do that, she is working across academic disciplines to engage not only psychologists, but engineers, computer scientists, health-care experts, architects and others to help design tests and measures for tomorrow's senior driver. The tests can measure their abilities and also train older drivers about maintaining safety and awareness while on the road. In one project, Brooks is working with Palmetto Health to study contributing factors in fatal crashes. Research has shown that the top mistakes older drivers make in fatal crashes are: * failing to yield right of way, especially in left-hand turns, * driving too fast for conditions, * disregarding signs or traffic signals, * running off the road, and * driving under the influence, which could involve medications rather than alcohol. Clemson and Greenville Hospital System have DriveSafety driving simulators that help assess drivers' skills and also can be used to improve drivers' performance. Health-care experts can check vision, hearing, balance, motor skills and cognitive abilities. "We want to enable drivers to maximize their independence as long as possible," Brooks said. "As we age, we don't have the ability to bounce back as fast." The idea is to establish best-practice methods for assessing drivers' performance, she said. The overall program is part of Clemson's Institute of Engaged Aging and GHS' Center for Success in Aging. Also involved in aging drivers studies are Palmetto Health in Columbia, the University of South Carolina, the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research and the Greenville Hospital System Roger C. Peace Rehabilitation Hospital. Brooks is involved in research to design ways "to assess the total driver" and hopes to create what she calls the Aging Driver Initiative as part of that effort. The school has received some money for the work from foundations and others. "Our overarching goal is to help older adults maintain capabilities and limitations within the vehicle through research and engineering and also medicine," Brooks said. She also is examining the increasing number of fatalities involving motorcycle drivers. From 1997 to 2006, numbers of such fatalities went "through the roof," she said. There was a 175 percent increase in motorcycle driver fatalities among those 40 and younger in that period, a 310 percent increase among those 50 and younger, and a 275 percent increase among those drivers 65 and older. The CU-ICAR facility is a key partner in that study, she said. There are no comments yet. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| Illinois inventors keep eyes on the X Prize - St. Louis Post-Dispatch Posted: 22 Oct 2009 07:32 PM PDT DIVERNON, Ill. — The steel skeleton of Kevin Smith's dream machine rests in the tractor shed-turned-workshop behind his home amid the cornfields of central Illinois. For two years, Smith, 38, and a core group of engineer friends and car enthusiasts have spent nights and weekends working on an electric vehicle they've dubbed "Seven." The project began with a chalk outline on the concrete floor. It involved scouring the Internet for the right electric motor and other obscure parts, and salvaging wheels, suspension and brakes off cars in the junkyard. At first glance, the car appears to be the experimental dabbling of a group of gear heads and aspiring garage inventors. In a way, it is. But this group of five, which calls itself Illuminati Motor Works, also has bigger ambitions — winning the Progressive Automobile X Prize, a $10 million contest to build a super-efficient car of the future. On Monday, Smith and his partners took a big step toward that goal when they made the cut in the design phase of the contest. Of the 111 teams that originally signed up, Team Illuminati is among 43 remaining. The contest, sponsored by the nonprofit X Prize Foundation and Progressive Insurance, is a sequel to the Ansari X Prize competition, a contest to determine who could build and fly the world's first private craft into space. The goal this time is to design and build a low-emission vehicle that gets the equivalent of at least 100 miles per gallon and is within reach for ordinary Americans. "We're looking for an area in the market where there has been stagnation in terms of breakthrough innovation that will ultimately address some of society's greatest challenges," said Eric Cahill, senior director of the Auto X Prize. It's no coincidence that in the two years since the competition began, the Big Three automakers have struggled for survival. Oil prices soared to $150 a barrel, only to come crashing back down amid the worst recession in a generation. And Congress is debating legislation that would dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. While there's no guarantee that winning the Auto X Prize will help launch the car of the future, the combination of prize money, media exposure and awareness raised among investors will provide significant leverage toward that goal. Among the remaining teams, Smith's is one of 28 in the mainstream class, which requires vehicles to carry four or more passengers, have at least four wheels and a 200-mile range. The winner will receive $5 million. The rest of the purse will be split among two winners from the alternative class, which includes two-passenger vehicles and a 100-mile range. Team Illuminati's entry is designed to easily surpass those requirements. The car is designed to go zero to 60 in less than four seconds, reach a top speed of 200 miles per hour and travel from Chicago to Memphis, Tenn., on a single electric charge. With 30 kilowatt-hours of battery storage, it will cost about $3 to "fill up" — barely more than a gallon of gasoline at today's prices. The styling, which could be described as the Batmobile meets Dick Tracy, is just as unique. The car is about a foot longer than a Honda Accord. Its hood and fenders feature sweeping curves that give way to a long, tapered tail. Its most distinctive features, though, are gull-wing doors and rear-facing back seats that accommodate the vehicle's aerodynamic design. Smith, who works as an air permit engineer for the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, is the team's captain and de facto spokesman. His partners include Josh Spradlin, 32, and Nathan Knappenburger, 34, both employed at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield. Thomas Pasko, 47, runs Thomas Automotive Precision, an auto repair shop in Springfield. And George Kennedy, 65, is a co-worker at the Illinois EPA. Smith, who took an interest in alternative fuel cars as a student at the University of Illinois-Chicago, routinely spent weekends with Spradlin customizing motorcycles or refurnishing antiques in his workshop. So when the Auto X Prize contest was announced, they jumped at the opportunity. Designing and building the car of the future is only part of the challenge for Team Illuminati. They also had to submit a business plan to produce 10,000 vehicles annually. And the competition is stiff. Challengers in their class include Tata Motors, India's largest auto company and owner of Jaguar and Land Rover; and Tesla Motors, the maker of the Tesla Roadster, which has already raised millions of dollars in venture capital and received a $465 million loan guarantee from the federal government to help build a plant. By contrast, Smith and his team have a budget of about $40,000, the biggest chunk of that coming from a $10,000 sponsorship by Hyundai. They've also received PayPal donations through their website, www.illuminatimotorworks.org. The rest of the financing has come from their personal savings, credit cards and selling miscellaneous items such as Smith's customized Kawasaki motorcycle. "I sold anything I had that was worth anything," Smith said. The team knows it's considered a long shot to win and relish their role as underdogs. Their motto is audere est facere, a Latin phrase that means "to dare is to do." Other inspirational phrases are pasted on the walls of their workshop, along with design sketches of the car and odds and ends such as a Route 66 sign and a picture of Yogi Bear. So far, the project has been an exercise in resourcefulness and flexibility. Time constraints have forced the team to design and build the car simultaneously. And they've been forced on several occasions to change plans on the fly. For instance, they originally intended to build a gasoline-electric hybrid and later switched to an all-electric vehicle in order to meet the contest's strict emissions requirements. Plans for Lamborghini-style doors were scrapped for gull-wing doors. And they had to build a steel frame to support the car's composite skin after the X Prize Foundation required all composite-body cars to be crash tested. "This is our only car," Smith said. "We weren't going to crash test it." Building a car from scratch, raising tens of thousands of dollars and going head to head with deep-pocketed challengers are only a few of the challenges the team faced. Now time is the biggest remaining obstacle — a reason they didn't spend long celebrating Monday's announcement. "This is way more (work) in much less time than I anticipated," Smith said. "But we've beaten the clock every time so far, and we've done a really good job." Rules require the cars to be complete by February. They have to log 500 miles by April. And cars must be ready for a final round of tests this summer when the remaining competitors will be judged on criteria including fuel efficiency, performance and durability. The winner will be announced in September. Smith says they'll be ready. "Our biggest competition is ourselves," he said. "Just getting the car done." This content has passed through fivefilters.org.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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