If today’s Belmont Stakes starts on time, then the race will begin in the Spring and end in the Summer. Post time for the Belmont is supposed to be 5:42 PM ET; the summer solstice is at 5:43 PM and the race lasts two and a half minutes. It’s not likely, though, that the race will start on time.
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From Sophia Loren via The Muscleheaded Blog:
“It’s a mistake to think that once you’re done with school you need never learn anything new.”
Amen…oh, you want to see a picture. OK, from the post quoted above:
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Until watching the most recent episode of Jay Leno’s Garage on CNBC I was unaware of this car. Live and learn…
My wonderful wife and I were both immediately smitten by the looks of this car. (The picture is from chryslerboano.com, which is not a secure site. Hey people, it’s not difficult to make your site secure. Why it’s not done all the time is beyond me. OK, maybe unscrupulous people want you to visit a site that is not secure.)
From the same website:
“Toward the end of 1955 Italian Industrialist Gianni Agnelli known as “L’ Avvocato” commissioned building of the Chrysler-Boano Coupe while he was vice president of Fiat. He tasked Mario Boano, formally of Carrozzeria Ghia, with producing a, ‘2-seat coupe with a powerful, modern mechanical system, a classic British style coupe, not a modern shape.'”
“The basic design sketches took just ten days. Mr. Agnelli chose his favorite one and from that single sketch a “master model” was created, In the meantime, a new Chrysler 300 chassis was ordered; 3N561171 was produced by Chrysler on February 1st, 1956. By the fall of 1956 the body panels were welded to the chassis. It would take an additional two months of hand fabrication work to create the individual components.”
“Toward the end of 1956 the car was completed and on an invitation from Boano, Agnelli came to inspect the finished coupe. While he was very pleased with the final result, he was bothered by the prospect of being seen in public driving a foreign car while he was ascending to the presidency of Fiat. Ultimately Agnelli decided to give the car to his brother Umberto.”
“…The Chrysler-Boano coupe features a frame shortened by the coachbuilder from the original 126” to 119” to better complement the two-seater layout. The mechanicals remained the stock Chrysler 300B high performance 354 cubic inches (5.8 liter) Hemi engine combined with a 3 speed TorqueFlite push-button automatic transmission.”
I confess I cleaned up some spelling and other “mistakes.” The Chrysler-Ghia partnership of the 1950s yielded some stunning cars like the Dual-Ghia, the Chrysler Ghia ST Special and this car.
The episode was about cars reaching perfection and this car was shown at the end of the episode during the “Assess and Caress” segment featuring renowned automobile appraiser Donald Osborne. He gave the car a value of $800,000. To me, the car is priceless.
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You didn’t think I would write a post with the word “Solstice” in the title and not show one of these, did you?
From supercars.net a picture of a Pontiac Solstice, supposedly a GXP model.
#SaturdaySolstice
#SophiaLoren
#ChryslerBoano
#PontiacSolstice
#somanycarsjustonelife
#disaffectedmusings
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Disaffected Musings 
I love Donald Osborne! Oh, and that’s a nice car. >grin< Seriously, going to have to get caught up on my Jay Leno series. There's a bunch sitting on my DVR awaiting a binge watch.
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Thanks, sir. So far, this season of Jay Leno’s Garage has been very good, in my opinion. In the last couple of seasons the show has strayed too much into silliness and pushing the envelope just for the sake of it. I don’t need to watch Leno pilot a giant tank; I just want to see cool cars.
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Aw come on. Jay Leno driving a tank was COOL! Some of the other silliness, yeah, was too much. His interactions with Tim Allen are fun, especially when they go to Michigan.
The Chrysler Ghia, is cool and I too was not aware of this pretty little (?) two seater.
My son-in-law bought new and still owns a 2006 Solstice in black with 106,000 miles. It is his daily driver. He and his Solstice club mates go to Willcox, AZ to the Inde Motorsports Ranch to run their cars about once a year. I was invited to tag along and yes it is FUN!
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Thanks, Philip.
I have always been very fond of the Solstice/Sky. It’s too bad they’re a “fail” as a grocery car.
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There is barely even room for my lunch box with the top down. I prefer the Hot Rod Magazine modified Solstice into which they dropped an LS-7 small block V-8.
Link here: https://www.hotrod.com/articles/hdrp-0605-pontiac-solstice-project-v8-engine-build/
When Jon, my son-in-law bought his, I went out and bought him the three issues of Hot Rod Magazine with the articles of the engine swap and the other modifications. If it wasn’t his daily driver and they had the money, I’m sure he’d do the swap only with an LS-3. His thinking that anything more than 450 hp in his car with so light a rear end will make the vehicle want to swap ends fairly readily. He who was the driver of the University of Arizona Mechanical Engineering Department SAE Student Chapter Formula Car. These are open-wheeled formula cars powered by 1000cc motorcycle engines.
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“There is barely even room for my lunch box with top down.”
In a nutshell (or case in my context) that’s why the Solstice/Sky is a “fail” as a grocery car.
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