CanAm Goes To School!!

[USCANAM]

My wife Sandi is a grade 4 school teacher. Every year, as an incentive to complete homework, we bring one of the cars to school and each eligible student gets to have their picture taken beside, or in the car. Last year it was the F2000, the year before the Cobra, and this year it was the CanAm.
Recently, Sandi has been teaching decimels, and I loaned here a set of my dial calipers, which the kids enjoyed by measuring everything. She used the CanAm as an example of how knowing how to measure correctly was important in putting a car together. The students asked some very good questions. They were really impressed with the size of the rear tires.
http://home.attbi.com/~rosenracing5/wsb/html/view.cgi-photo.html--SiteID-743290.html
Maybe there's a future Ultima builder in that group
Jack

[ultimasimon]

Good picture. There's a few girl mechanics in the making there too no doubt...

I am soooo envious about you guys over there that don't have to have a front number plate. The car looks so much better without it - and now it's illegal to use the stick on ones, so a large and bulky plastic one it's supposed to have stuck on the bonnet - bo77ox to em' I say if I can fine one

[USCANAM]

ultimasimon said:

I am soooo envious about you guys over there that don't have to have a front number plate. The car looks so much better without it -

Simon. You're quite right. The car does look much better without a front plate. However, since mine is a new registery, I'm supposed to have one on the car. Right now, it's put away at the shop. I'm getting the impression that in Europe, you have to provide your own numbers?
Here in the Colonies, the Registry of Motor Vehicles provides them at a fair and just price. As a matter of fact, you have no choice, you have to use theirs, which in most states are manufactured in the local prison by the inmates.
The law varies from State to State as to whether you have a front plate or not. In our State, Massachusetts, if your rear plate has the green letters, which means you've had it for a long time, you do not have a front plate since one was notrequired at that time, therefore you don't have to display one. Most of the time, you can get by without one on a specialty car. All you do is tape it on for the annual safety inspection, then remove it.
I got stopped by the State police yesterday, and his first words to me were " what kind of space ship is this?" Turns out all he wanted was to see the car, and his excuse for stopping me was that I didn't have a rear view mirror on the windscreen???? I really thought he was going to get me on not having the front plate displayed.
regards
Jack

>> Edited by USCANAM on Friday 20th June 12:52

[davefiddes]

That's really great! I hope all of the kids really enjoyed playing about with your racing car

[ultiman]

On the matter of number plates, l used a stick on small version which looks a whole lot better to me. l noticed the other Ultimas at Le Mans had the giant plastic plates attached to their fronts which was a shame. Both front and rear numbers are smaller then the car legal size as well as being not quite correctly spaced. l have never been stopped in over 2 years of use. Guess l must have seen only reasonable traffic police. Even the one who pointedly raised an eyebrow as his patrol car passed me as l was at 95!
The only problem was the German police who wouldn't believe the number till l showed them my log book.
The Italians have the best idea with tiny unreadable plates. But then they have a different approach to cars.

[doc_fudge]

Down Under in Australia (the state of New South Wales to be exact), you may purchase plates from the local authorities that are different sizes front and rear.
Both are 372 mm long ( a bit under 15 inches) but the rear is 106 mm (about 4.17 inches) deep while the front is only 86 mm (3.38 inches)deep. Unfortunetly, they are only available as black numerals on a white back ground...apparently perfect for speed cameras: