Author Archive: Craig Fitzgerald
VIDEO: Prepare to be obsessed with Dave Roper, the first American to win at the Isle of Man TT
Dave Roper is a motorcycle racer. Not one of those slick, Italian Valentino Rossi-types, surrounded by a bevy of umbrella-wielding hot chicks with a massive transporter to carry this 200-pound GP...
Video: Cars in action – The 1959 Chevrolet Biscayne mail car
In 2014, the way you sell cars in TV ads is to show them either drifting, driven by some celebrity chick with high heels, or loaded up with kids. But in 1959, if you were out to buy a car, you wanted...
The dedication ceremony at the GM Technical Center in 1956 must’ve been amazing
Given GM’s current recall woes, its financial trouble and its controversial bailout by the Feds, it’s hard to remember a time when the future looked like it was happening right inside the...
VIDEO – WWII Army Motorcycle Dispatch Riders Had Brass Balls
It’s one thing to ride the trails with a modern two-stroke dirtbike largely built of aluminum, with suspension travel measured in feet and bear-trap footpegs you’d have to be an idiot to fall off...
Those Vintage Training Films? They All Came From One Guy, and His Story is Awesome
If you’ve been following BangShift for a while, you know we love to find those great promotional films from the 1930s through the 1950s. Sharp-eyed readers will notice that at the...
BOOK REVIEW: Just Needs A Recharge – The Hack Mechanic’s Guide to Vintage AC
No matter what kind of car you’re interested in, you’re likely to run into dozens of examples that indicates the air conditioning system “Just needs a recharge.”
Citizen’s Band: The Internet of the 1970s
Unless you were sitting up and taking oxygen between about 1973 and 1978, it is impossible to understand just how pervasive the Citizen’s Band radio was in that period. It reached every corner...
This 1957 NAPCO-Converted Chevy Panel Truck Is RADIOACTIVE and We’ve Got The Whole History From the Company That Originally Bought It
A few days ago, we rolled into the always awesome Early Ford Model A Club annual swap meet in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. As usual, we were expecting to see some cool vehicles in the informal...
Hemmings Editor Mike McNessor’s New Book About Tackling the Carrera Panamericana in a ’61 Chevy Impala is a Wild Ride
Mike McNessor is the editor of Hemmings Motor News, and his daily job involves pulling content together that hundreds of thousands of people read in the bathroom every month. In 2005, though, Mike...
Barrett-Jackson Previews All-Original Fast Times At Ridgemont High Z28 for Palm Beach Sale
It’s taking “All-original” to the max. Barrett-Jackson today announced that it will be selling the silver 1979 Z/28 wrecked by Sean “Jeff Spicoli” Penn at its April 11th...
Watch this guy try to squeeze his 40-foot trailer under a low overpass. Ain’t happenin’
You would think that at some point when you “Learn to Drive the Big Rigs,” there’d be a whole day spent on just exactly how tall your truck is, and how to read the damned signs that...
Myth BUSTED: Here’s the Deal On That Evel Knievel Trike, Straight From His Son, Kelly Knievel And The History Books
Yesterday, Lohnes posted the story on the drag bike that showed up on eBay, claiming to be the original property of Evel Knievel. As you may remember, I trust that dude the way I’d trust a cop...
In Memoriam: Gearhead Guys You Should Know: Erik “Carlsson on the Roof” Carlsson
(Editor’s Note: Rally legend Erik Carlsson passed recently and we thought it was only right that we re-ran this great Craig Fitzgerald story about the man’s career and legend. He truly...
Gearhead Guys You Should Know: Paul Bigsby
It’s one thing to be widely respected in whatever industry you’ve chosen to pursue. It’s another to be respected in one industry and then go on to literally invent a second...