Category Archives: Other People’s Bricks

A Wooden Brick Tours Europe

sauna-240-wood

Last year these 2 gents drove their ’89 wooden 240 wagon across Europe, clad in nothing but towels.They covered over 4000 miles in 2 months They visited 12 countries, starting in the UK and traveling to Prague, then Stockholm, then back home to Sevenoaks, England. They were on a mission to help fund brain tumor research and they report collecting $5000 for the Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust.

A sauna company helped sponsor the ride so they decorated the entire brick in wood paneling and dubbed it “The Sauna”. They kept the heat on the entire trip even though they made the trip in July and August.

Unfortunately at one point the wooden brick caught fire:

We first noticed something was awry when a faint whiff was detected in the cabin. A whiff in the cabin is not in itself unusual – undesirable yes, but not unusual. The whiff however was quickly identified as burning friction material on the brakes. We stopped (after a fashion and more by luck than judgement) and allowed the old girl to cool before ploddering hesitantly on towards Bormio in Northern Italy through a serious of treacherous Alpine passes.

We then sauntered off down the pass after a meal, admiring the truly stunning alpine scenery, scraping motorcyclists off the woodwork and listening to Jimi Hendrix at full volume… feeling, all in all, very smug.

That was when the brakes caught fire, suddenly, dramatically.

Using the handbrake to take pressure off the main brakes is only a good idea if you’re handbrake isn’t awful. Ours is.
So, we’re a fire extinguisher down, no sweat. We cooled off for half an hour, enough time for the whole population of Stelvio to mistake Chris for an Italian and then headed off on the rolling roads of Austria, past lakes, twee villages, and interested Austrians who huddled round the Sauna for a picture. Fantastisch.

They documented the trip on their blog, thesaunablog.blogspot.com. You can see more info from before the trip on their nutty website.

John Stewart’s $10 Million Volvo POS

johnco-volvo

Update

On the Daily Show last night John Stewart talked the Supreme Court and how the banks have been screwing us. To demonstrate, he forms a corporation out of himself and puts an asset up for collateral for $1,000,000. The asset? A “1984 Volvo station wagon with a Pioneer tape deck.” Then, through the magic of creative corporate accounting practices, he winds up with this gorgeous $10,000,000 flying brick. Sweet!

johnco-volvo-plane

Forward to 6:00 for the funny:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
In Dodd We Trust
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
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UPDATE: The owner of the original photo
has been found! Nayak Polissar looks to be the original owner of “Greenie”, a 1979 DL with over 300k on the odometer.
Polissar_autobio-greenie

From the Nayak posts to NWAutos in Seattle:

“I LOVE MY CAR BECAUSE … I have so many fond memories associated with it, and because it has served me so reliably for 30 years and over 300,000 miles. When it was very new, I chauffeured a great world leader around Seattle for several days. It has been on hundreds of fun outings all over the West. We have hauled all kinds of stuff and so many people. It starts in an instant and it has rarely needed repairs. It’s alive!”

After seeing it on The Daily Show, he states:

“Greenie has now served amusement and joy to millions of Stewart’s fans and viewers — in addition to the 300,000-plus miles of service to our family and community. I was happy that Stewart showed Greenie flying toward ‘auto heaven.’ But that won’t happen before many more miles with our family.” Yeah!

If ipd won’t publish, then I will

jayboucher-1992-240-front
jayboucher-1992-240-side

I’m disappointed that I didn’t get chosen as a runner up for the ipd RWD photo contest. I’m sure they got plenty of submissions. I’ll try not to be bitter by saying that there’s some cool photos in there. I think next year I need to go for the pensive, looking off into the sunset style that won last years contest.

header_volvolution

As for another contest I didn’t quite get accepted for, above is a partial header graphic I created for Volvolution community. I put together a mock evolution of the fronts of Swedish wagons. Enjoy.