Project Car Hell, Lord Humungus Motor Pool Edition: Thiokol 601 or GMC Mystery Box Truck?

What would the Warrior of the Wasteland, the Ayatollah of Rock-n-Rollah drive?

Inspired by the Mountain Miscreants, winners of our Mad Max: Fury Road Most Apocalyptic Vehicle Contest, the Hell Garage Demons have opted to make today's Project Car Hell episode one of wasteland survival, crossbow bolts, and hats made out of animal skulls. Yes, apocalyptic vehicles, as driven by The Lord Humungus and Immortan Joe!

We've picked out a pair that, with endless a bit of work, might be suitable for use by bands of heavily-armed scavengers feasting upon the long-expired carcass of civilization.

Top speed isn't so great, but it will go anywhere.

Multiple supercharged V8s are great for speeding across great expanses of desert in search of loot, radioactive rats to eat, and so forth, but what do you need when your crew of apocalyptic warlords runs into swampy or snow-covered land? That's right, tracks!

We couldn't find any T-34 tanks on Craigslist (and all that heavy armor means poor fuel economy, anyway), but we did find this 1965 Thiokol 601 Snowcat in Colorado (go here if the listing disappears). Imagine the terrified screams of your soon-to-be-vanquished opponents as they hear those treads approaching their food stockpile! Now, we'll be the first to admit that this fine machine needs a little bit of work to get in operating condition, because the seller (who adheres to the Craigslist tradition of Arbitrary Capitalization of Descriptive Terms) ran the engine completely out low on oil and grenaded damaged the engine. Don't worry, though, because that engine is a plain old available-in-any-junkyard Ford 240-cubic-inch straight-six.

It seats ten, has "Grab Bars Galore," and boasts a snowplow that just needs some spikes welded on for genuine Warrior of the Wasteland style.

We're a little skeptical about this truck being ex-military, but who cares?

That Thiokol would be a welcome addition to any properly apocalyptic vehicle collection, but suppose you and your War Boys want something with a bit more style, speed, and load-carrying capacity? A box truck provides plenty of exterior surface for attaching sirens, menacing symbols, and armor plate, and the roof offers real estate suitable for ring-mount antiaircraft cannons.

A true wasteland leader doesn't want any old boring Grumman bread truck, though— you need to make a statement with your box truck. Say, this 1939 GMC COE box truck, complete with fender skirts and cool-looking circular windows (go here if the link disappears). The seller doesn't offer much information about this vehicle, other than "complete but needs full restoration," so you can start shopping for appropriately crazy drivetrain parts for it right now.

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Austin Dillon cruises to NASCAR Xfinity Series win at Charlotte Motor Speedway

Dillon's second win of the season is his fourth career win in the Xfinity Series

For the second straight Saturday, Denny Hamlin had the chance to hold off a race’s strongest car for the victory.

Unlike last Saturday’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, however, there were too many laps left after the final restart in Saturday’s Hisense 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and pole sitter Austin Dillon powered past Hamlin on lap 186 of 200 to finish the race where he belonged -- at the front of the field.

By the time he crossed the finish line, Dillon was 2.692 seconds ahead of Hamlin, who had taken the lead during a restart on lap 167 that saw Dillon fall back to fourth from the inside lane by the time the leaders exited turn two.

One by one, Dillon picked off Regan Smith, Kasey Kahne and Hamlin on the way to his second Xfinity Series victory of the season, his first at Charlotte and the fourth of his career.

Kahne ran third behind Dillon and Hamlin, followed by Smith and rookies Darrell Wallace Jr. and Daniel Suarez. Ty Dillon came home seventh and trimmed the series lead of 11th-place finisher Chris Buescher to four points.

Dillon led 163 laps and held an advantage of more than six seconds during a 54-lap green-flag run that preceded the second caution of the race on lap 110.

Austin Dillon breezes across the finish line in Charlotte with a lead of nearly three seconds. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

How good was Dillon’s No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet?

“I didn’t want to get out of this thing,” Dillon said in victory lane. “This thing drove so good. It was a heck of a race there with Denny at the end and Kasey (Kahne). I had to go right there in lapped traffic (to make the winning pass).

“I knew if I didn’t hurry up and get in front of him right there, the tires might equalize (in terms of grip).”

But when Dillon picked the inside lane for what proved to be the final restart -- after a caution for Kyle Fowler’s wreck in turn one -- Hamlin seized what he considered a fortuitous opportunity and surged into the lead.

“I thought when the 33 gave us the outside, that was a big advantage for us if we could stay with him through turns one and two,” said Hamlin, who last Saturday held off Kevin Harvick in the final 10-lap shootout to win the all-star race. “We (did), and it allowed us to get position on him and even get him shuffled a few spots.

“That was all good, but his car was just so fast he just overcame that track position.”

Hamlin lost the lead when the lapped car of Peyton Sellers stayed low and forced Hamlin’s No. 54 Toyota to pass on the outside.

“I needed to stay on the bottom,” Hamlin said. “My car was best on the bottom. His car was pinned to the bottom as well. So I needed all of the lapped cars to move up high, and all of them did, except for the 97 (Sellers). He gave us the high line. That just killed us and killed our chances from that point, once the 33 got to our inside.”

Dillon chose the inside line because his car had worked well on the bottom for the entire race to that point.

“My spotter (Andy Houston) made the fact that we should have probably taken the top, and I had been on the bottom all day, so I chose the bottom again,” Dillon said. “I just didn’t want to let these guys down (his crew). The Rheem car was so fast...

“I thought about it, and I probably should have used the top, just because I would have had the run down the backstretch. It seems that, as the race goes on, that the outside can stop spinning the tires, and the rubber lays down...

“Andy made the point, and it all worked out, but I’ll definitely learn from that, for sure.”

Smith, Wallace, Suarez and Ty Dillon qualified for next week’s Xfinity Dash4Cash competition at Dover as the top-four finishers among series regulars. Those drivers will compete for $100,000 in next Saturday’s race at Dover, with the top finisher among them claiming the prize.

 

NASCAR XFINITY Series Race - Hisense 300

Charlotte Motor Speedway

Concord, North Carolina

Saturday's Results

               1. (1) Austin Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 200, $70854.

               2. (4) Denny Hamlin(i), Toyota, 200, $45242.

               3. (8) Kasey Kahne(i), Chevrolet, 200, $35150.

               4. (15) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 200, $34424.

               5. (2) Darrell Wallace Jr. #, Ford, 200, $35548.

               6. (19) Daniel Suarez #, Toyota, 200, $29090.

               7. (9) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 200, $27577.

               8. (16) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 200, $27640.

               9. (11) Elliott Sadler, Ford, 200, $25831.

               10. (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 200, $25997.

               11. (14) Chris Buescher, Ford, 200, $24514.

               12. (10) Ryan Reed, Ford, 200, $23983.

               13. (24) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 200, $23375.

               14. (13) Kevin Harvick(i), Chevrolet, 200, $16895.

               15. (7) Erik Jones(i), Toyota, 200, $23170.

               16. (18) Dakoda Armstrong, Ford, 200, $22287.

               17. (21) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 200, $22060.

               18. (17) Brendan Gaughan, Chevrolet, 199, $21832.

               19. (6) Aric Almirola(i), Ford, 199, $15806.

               20. (3) Brian Scott, Chevrolet, 197, $22255.

               21. (25) JJ Yeley, Toyota, 196, $21554.

               22. (32) David Starr, Toyota, 196, $21497.

               23. (30) Blake Koch, Toyota, 196, $21448.

               24. (22) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 195, $21381.

               25. (28) Chad Boat(i), Chevrolet, 194, $15496.

               26. (35) Jimmy Weller, Chevrolet, 193, $21311.

               27. (34) Kyle Fowler(i), Toyota, 192, $15275.

               28. (38) Peyton Sellers #, Chevrolet, 192, $21240.

               29. (23) John Wes Townley(i), Chevrolet, 191, $21194.

               30. (36) Eric McClure, Toyota, 189, $21449.

               31. (20) Ross Chastain #, Chevrolet, Engine, 187, $21113.

               32. (39) Joey Gase, Chevrolet, 186, $21067.

               33. (5) Kyle Larson(i), Chevrolet, 183, $15097.

               34. (26) Cale Conley #, Toyota, 146, $20991.

               35. (27) Harrison Rhodes #, Chevrolet, Transmission, 141, $20957.

               36. (37) Carl Long, Dodge, Engine, 129, $19499.

               37. (33) BJ McLeod(i), Chevrolet, Fuel Pump, 58, $18499.

               38. (31) Jamie Dick, Chevrolet, Accident, 45, $17499.

               39. (29) Timmy Hill(i), Toyota, Electrical, 40, $10499.

               40. (40) Jeff Green, Toyota, Vibration, 2, $9499.

Average Speed of Race Winner:  139.824 mph.

Time of Race:  02 Hrs, 08 Mins, 44 Secs. Margin of Victory:  2.692 Seconds.

Caution Flags:  3 for 22 laps.

Lead Changes:  9 among 7 drivers.

Lap Leaders:   A. Dillon(i) 1-98; D. Wallace Jr. # 99; K. Kahne(i) 100; D. Suarez # 101; L. Cassill 102-105; A. Dillon(i) 106-111; K. Harvick(i) 112-122; A. Dillon(i) 123-166; D. Hamlin(i) 167-185; A. Dillon(i) 186-200.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  A. Dillon(i) 4 times for 163 laps; D. Hamlin(i) 1 time for 19 laps; K. Harvick(i) 1 time for 11 laps; L. Cassill 1 time for 4 laps; D. Suarez # 1 time for 1 lap; K. Kahne(i) 1 time for 1 lap; D. Wallace Jr. # 1 time for 1 lap.

Top 10 in Points: C. Buescher - 401; T. Dillon - 397; C. Elliott - 373; D. Wallace Jr. # - 371; R. Smith - 360; E. Sadler - 352; B. Scott - 350; R. Reed - 320; D. Suarez # - 320; B. Gaughan - 309.

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World Motor Sport Council must approve F1 Strategy Group's proposed changes

Faster cars, refueling stops, fatter tires all on the table for discussion

Time will tell how much last Thursday's meeting of the Strategy Group will actually change the direction of Formula One.

The group -- featuring the top teams, Bernie Ecclestone and the FIA -- met in England amid ever-loudening voices calling for urgent measures to turn around the series in the face of flagging audiences, disinterested sponsors, and struggling teams and promoters.

Afterwards, the FIA announced that teams will be able to choose their own tire compounds beginning next year, but Pirelli immediately voiced its doubts and concerns.

Also getting the green light was faster and louder cars for 2017, with a 6 second-per-lap boost to be achieved through aerodynamics, higher revs, fatter tires and lighter cars due in part to the return of in-race refueling.

"It was a good meeting," Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff told Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper. "We want to build the fastest cars in the world, and now we will. That was the best moment: when everyone raised their hands to vote for building the fastest cars of all time."

However, before any of the changes can be set in stone, they will have to pass through the World Motor Sport Council, which will not meet until mid-July in Mexico.

Wolff acknowledged that reintroducing refueling, for example, is in fact still being looked at.

"Refueling was banned because of cost and because the pitstops were taking too long," he told the BBC. "But we want to re-explore it and see if we can make pitstops for fuel and tires happen in the same time it takes to change the tires now. (But) if it's too expensive, we won't do it."

The fact that the notoriously divided teams are still in the discussion phase is causing some to wonder if the changes will really ever see the light of day.

"Basically, nothing was decided, but this is not surprising," F1 legend Gerhard Berger told Germany's motorsport-magazin.com.

"Everything will remain as it is," Berger predicted.

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