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Greetings 405 listener!
The 405 airs over KMMR Radio Station. At 5 Minutes past 4 PM each M-F week day of the year. Here on the website we strive to have it posted within a few hours afterwards.
Your neighbor and website maintainer,
D.J. Rasmussen
Thanks for stopping by and listening to the shows.
Wanna again welcome you to The 405 Coffee Break. Get you a cup of coffee, guys. It's a new week. Glass ice, tea, or bottle of water. Let's see what's happening.
OK Solberg:Spring wheat $5.51 a bushel. 550lb steer calf, coming up a bit $4.19 a pound. Butcher hog in Iowa 69 cents a pound. And a hare lamb weighing 71lbs for $3.21 a pound. How do I know? Because Dusty Eamon sold some at Pays. But guys theres more, much more.
OK Solberg:Well, you know, it's Motor Monday, yet I don't have much fuel in my tank. Have you ever had one of those days? I think of the Bible verse that says, rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Romans 12:15
OK Solberg:Yeah. You know, it's kind of like the guy who owned a Cadillac and his neighbor owned an Etzel. The Cadillac owner would look out his window and the hood of that Edsel was up in the air again with his neighbor's head buried in there with wrenches in his hands. Finally, the Cadillac owner just took the last sip of coffee, pulled on his boots, and went over to his driveway and handed him wrench after wrench and listened to him express his grief.
OK Solberg:So welcome to Jay & Joe's Motor Monday, where we look at horsepower one Monday at a time. You know, it's been a challenging week. Feels like we're running on one cylinder short. There seems to be a miss. So today, instead of redlining the conversation or driving into big horsepower stories, I thought we'd take things a little slower, you know, kind of ease off the throttle, so to speak, and settle into a low idle.
OK Solberg:Let's look at a machine that knew a lot about quiet strength. Today, let's look at the 1953 Buick Roadmaster with a straight 8's last year. Yes, sir. The last year. The last year for the straight 8 cylinder, the 1953 Buick Roadmaster with the straight 8 was stately, understated, powerful, but not flashy.
OK Solberg:You know, it's kind of symbolic because the 1953 was the final year for Buick's legendary straight 8 engine, an ending an ending, but also a tribute. I think this episode will be like, well, like its final lap. When I do research on the 1953 Buick Roadmaster, I find comments like this, and I quote, there was something comforting about it, an engine that didn't need to rush, didn't need to shout, just took the road one mile at a time, steady and sure. When you drove it, it felt you felt every beat of the motor. Talk about torque.
OK Solberg:That baby would lug with the absolute best of them. You know, I remember a friend riding with me on a Sunday afternoon, and there's this big hill on the outside of town. Well, we were climbing up that hill, and I'm in high gear, of course, been out cruising. We started climbing that hill, and you could hear the RPM slowly dropping. I just kept driving.
OK Solberg:My friend said, sounds like time to shift down. I smiled and said, just watch this. I never did shift down. That straight 8 didn't climb that hill with speed, but believe me, it climbed it with strength. I topped that hill still in high gear, nothing showy, nothing fancy, but like power on the back end that you'll never see again.
OK Solberg:The writer says, you know, to this day, I miss that straight 8. It wasn't the fastest, the one the showiest, but lugging power like you will never see today. I had to write something, and it's fun to remember, but I sure do miss that old girl. So until next time, as you go out there, remember now, don't be bitter.