RIP General Chuck Yeager

[DeputyDog]

Smooth flights and happy landings.

https://www.npr.org/2020/12/07/341894780/pilot-chuck-yeager-dies-at-97-had-the-right-stuff-and-then-some


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[BarryBobPosthole]

Yessir, a real hero. I loved his autobiography. Might be one to dust off and read again. An amazing rule breaking, bonafide American hero.

BKB

[LJ3]

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[DeputyDog]

I remember that he drove the pace car at Indy a couple of times in the mid to late ‘80s. The catchphrase they used was “Just pace the racers Chuck”. He also flew a P-51 as part of the pre-race flyover in 95 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII.


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[BarryBobPosthole]

He had 20-10 vision. When he was flying P-51s in WW II he said he could spot enemy planes before the radar did. He said he could also see the vortices of the bullets from his machine guns which made him a better shot. And to think his entire WWII accomplishments and maybe a lot of other stuff he did came down to an out of character decision by Dwight Eisenhower.
BKB

[DeputyDog]

Here’s a link to a story about him driving the Indy pace car. I love the quote from his autobiography at the end, “The first time I saw a jet I shot it down “.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/38027/chuck-yeagers-love-for-speed-led-him-to-pace-the-indy-500-twice

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[BarryBobPosthole]

Its too bad he had to drive the ugliest POS Vette Chevy ever made.
BKB

[DeputyDog]

Here is a photo of that car.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20201208/d0f7411547649f848d228915a201def5.jpg


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[airbud7]

Its too bad he had to drive the ugliest POS Vette Chevy ever made.
BKB

ain't that the truth!....slow as hell/ good for 50,000 miles then everything broke!

But yea, Chuck was awesome Dude!....Rip.

[Thumper]

Yeager was a National Hero IMHO ... and the ultimate daredevil. I'd say the only person with bigger balls was John Glenn.

My dad had a '53 (first year of the 'Vette) when I was a LITTLE kid. All I can really remember about it was it was white with red interior and had a "Blue Flame 6" under the hood (ALL '53's were the same). I do remember standing in the front passenger seat while dad was driving ... waaay before seatbelts and kid seats. That car could bring $250,000 these days (maybe a million with a super low production number). I once asked him why he sold it and he said, "I had to trade it on a station wagon to haul all you kids!" ARRRRGGGHHH! (there were 6 kids in our family).

I remember calling him and telling him I'd just purchased a '93 model in his honor ... the 40th Anniversary model. (the pic makes it look kinda black, but it was dark green ... Chevy called it Polo Green)

I'll admit it was fun, but what a POS ... I'd take it out of the garage on a nice weekend, take it for a short drive, park it back in the garage and the next weekend I took it out, something would have mysteriously quit working .... WHILE PARKED IN THE GARAGE! The Chevy dealer LOVED seeing those dollar signs any time I pulled into their service department. (No, that's NOT my house, I don't water my grass!) ;)

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I paid that one off in 5 years and immediately traded it on a '98. IF I babied it, the tires "might" last 18,000 miles. Even back then, a new set would set me back $1800 - $2000 .... PLUS $60 apiece for mounting and balancing (run flats). I finally got Corvettes out of my system and that one eventually got traded for a Toyota Sequoia. Ha! I guess it was a sign of getting old. :oldfart

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[BarryBobPosthole]

i used to park at work in the same area as a guy that drove a red one from that year. Him parking it outside and not paying for a covered spot is one big old giant clue. Up close it looked like a Vega on Viagra. Very cheap looking actually. Was that they years that Iacocca had such a big influence on the auto industry?

On edit, I was talking about the Indy pace car not your models, Thimper.


BKB

[Thumper]

The Corvette is pretty much the staple for Indy Pace Cars (I think there have been like 20 of them) and they are usually some of the fugliest color/graphics schemes I've ever seen. The 80's-90's were the absolute worst I've ever seen (IMO), but they've gotten a bit more refined through the years (but still a bit on the fugly side). I thought both of the Vette's I had were pretty sharp looking cars for their era, but the Indy pace cars? Not so much. Here's how they take a pretty decent looking car and turn it into something that looks like it was made by Mattel (really? The purple and white HAS to be the fugliest of all time). These are the same models as the two I owned.

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[Thumper]

Ha ha ha ha ha! I just Googled the Edmund's reviews of the above two cars. I guess they see them as I see them .... FUUUUUGLY!

Re; Per Edmund's reviews.

1995 Corvette Pace Car


There was nothing mechanically awful about the 527 replicas built of the Corvette Convertible that paced the 1995 running of the Indianapolis 500. But they looked like white cars that a couple of lunatics in the GM design studio had drawn all over with Magic Markers. Purple is a color that has never flattered the Corvette — or the top half of a Corvette. A total of 527 of these were made and that's not a lot of cars. But it is a lot of Magic Markers.


And the second one with the hideous, yellow wheels.

1998 Corvette Pace Car


There's only one thing that makes the 1995 Corvette pace car less hideous — and that is the 1998 Corvette Pace Car. It was painted an even more repulsive shade of purple and then it got worse. Since the designers had used all their Magic Markers on the '95 model, they stole some highlighters from accounting to finish off the stripes, upholstery and wheels on the '98 model. Whoever signed off on this rolling monument to bad taste should have been hanged, or better yet, forced to drive one. It would have been more painful.

[DeputyDog]

Remember when the US auto manufacturers bid for who could supply the Indy pace car?

There was always big anticipation (at least in this part of the country) for the announcement of that year’s pace car.

Several years ago with INDYCAR being so cash strapped and losing popularity, they signed a deal with GM to supply the pace car so now the only question is whether it will be a Vette or Camaro and that’s not usually a question unless it is an anniversary year for the Camaro or they have redesigned it.

Back in the day it was prestigious to have your car picked to be the pace car. It’s where Ford introduced the Mustang in 1964.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20201209/c0d9c03e806cc6ea5c99ca17acfebcb1.jpg


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[DeputyDog]

Another notable pace car was the 1970 Olds Cutlass 442.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20201209/cb37d59629cef967d9466ca480847fa9.jpg

And the 71 Challenger.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20201209/10bf02c29719f4b7e38f69ded4a49891.jpg


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[DeputyDog]

One of my personal favorites was the 25th Anniversary 78 Vette.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20201209/d8916192786b949768ddbc63ca034c73.jpg


Dodge also introduced the Viper at Indy with Carol Shelby as the pace car driver.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20201209/33a25a1bb01033b76299d637ecdf75c3.jpg


Here is link to a list of all of the pace cars used over the 104 races.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianapolis_500_pace_cars

There are some iconic cars in this list and also some real head scratchers.


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[Chicken Dinner]

That’s a pretty cool slice of history DD.


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[Penguin]

Old Chuck was quite a man. Probably the most famous West Virginian alongside Jerry West.

We were always so proud that a tiny little corner of the country, like ours, could have produced someone of such importance. One of the things I remember reading (I believe this was an interview with an Apollo astronaut) is that if you listened closely to test pilots, astronauts, and air/flight controllers they were all subtly trying to mimic Yeager's laid back hillbilly drawl. No matter how hyper stressful and dangerous the situation, you always tried to sound in control and laid back, just like Chuck.

Will

[BarryBobPosthole]

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