FM Transmitter for Mike Y.

[bertvorgon]

Motoring through stuff today I finally came upon the FM Transmitter for you.

What also was actually really cool for me...was the paperwork inside the box!

Some of you on this site are old enough to maybe remember the battle between 4 Track and 8 track (almost like Beta VS VHS), 8 Track won.

Anybody remember the "Stereo Reverb" unit? I bought one of those too, enhancing my musical world on long road trips. And they were long trips on a weekend for sure, how I put 105,000 thousand miles in 3 years and worked 8 hours a day. What a loop I used to do Friday after work, till I got home late Sunday.

In 1967, in the parking lot of the first MacDonald's in Canada, Richmond, sitting in my 1948 Austin A40, when a fellow came in and parked next to me, music blazing away from his Detroit Iron car. I was curious so got out and asked how was he doing that? He had a 4 track deck, which back then a stereo in the car was very cool, so new. I was still going to school then so could not afford that but it stuck in my mind. This was space age stuff then.

In 1969, when I bought my first Datsun wagon, my Uncle was starting to sell the Panasonic line of electronics, so ultimately he sold me at below his cost, my first 8 track deck. It lived with me for just over 105,000 miles in that wagon, played and destroyed many an 8 track cassette in the 3 years I had that car. When I bought my 1972 wagon I bought a newer Panasonic deck from my Uncle.

FM radio was really just getting started in Vancouver then, with LG73 ( the Fox), which started playing some great music which of course the Datsun Am radio could not touch.

In the box with the FM Transmitter was the warranty booklet that came with that deck..PLUS...it gave a hard date for when I lived in my In-laws place here in White Rock, something I had a hard time putting an actual time period on! The 8 track booklet was there also!

Got your name on it Mike, could not go to a better home.

[MikeY]

Thanks Keith,. I had a Craig 8 track in my first car, a 510 of course. The only tape I remember and still when I hear a song from rumors it takes me back to that car. I collected 8 track from rock acts I liked off and on for years. Probably only have 50 or 60 in those little suitcases. But they suck to use. I do have a 8 track.to cassette adapter. But never got into cassettes. And also have a cassette to mp3 player. But all the wheels and mech still have to move. What a racket to make no music. I'm hoping the FM transmitter is a little quieter. Lol
I will contact you later in a pm

[datzenmike]

Bought a Ranger 8 track in Buffalo. Ann Murray and Gordy Lightfoot never sounded so good. One thing it had that I never saw on another was a thumb wheel adjustment to move the head up and down to center it on the recorded track to get the best loudest playback. I had a reverb too. TWANNNNG when you hit a pot hole. Put Led Zeppelin I and II on a single 8 track cassette. When even slightly worn 8 tracks squeak so a folded piece cigarette pack gets jammed in beside it. Never had a Phillips style cassette till the mid '80s but by then they were made right and didn't eat the tapes. Wore out two DSOTM 8 tracks. They were worn so bad they were unplayable. Kieth, ever leave an 8 track in the rear window in the sun???

[bertvorgon]

No, I never did that directly but, I did learn that heat and tapes was not a good mix. I made a tape box that fit between the seats to carry my "road trip" tapes.

[Byron510]

You know, I don’t feel so old anymore!
That’s a great read guys.
8 tracks were on their way out when I started buying records in the early 80’s. Cassettes were there, but I didn’t start buying them until the mid 80’s when I made the choice that CD’s were too expensive and players too finicky. Keep in mind I am a kid of the 80’s - when BMX bikes and skate boards of a reasonable size were THE thing. And 510’s were always cool on the West Coast. CD’s didn’t cut it - they were pricey, skipped and were easily damaged for kids. Tapes eventually wore out, but it took 10 years - as long as you didn’t leave them in the sun. I worn out many a Walkman, went to a discman and back to Walkman’s for many more years. I bought records until they quit selling them in stores in 86, some like the previously mentioned Zeppelin I & II, I have on all three mediums - and more copies of stuff that I ripped off of Napster in the late 90’s. I’d already bought the damn songs three times, I felt perfectly justified! (insert Metallica rant here!)

Anyways, my 74 RX4 had a factory Hitachi 8 track, I owned none, and wasn’t about to start buying them. I did find in some Thrift store an 8 track to cassette adapter, into which I had a cassette to CD adapter where I plugged in discman #3 by that time - or roughly Walkman #8 by that timeI think... My BMX days were hard on both, so I went through many!
At the time, my friends laughed their heads off at the adapter contraption sticking out of the factory console mounted 8 track (You know, my waking friends with no car, so I didn’t take them seriously). I wish I had a photo of it - that’s an epic stack!

Anyways, a different time. Today, I have a large Rubbermaid tub of cassettes that aren’t worth a hill of beans to listen to now. But the first of my records, like Rush’s Fairwell to Kings, Led Zeppelin I and even U2’s War album - they play pretty damn good on my newly purchased Sony USB turntable these days!

Thanks for the trip you ‘Old Guys’!

Byron

[zKars]

Those were the days. I can vividly remember installing the cassette decks, amps equalizers and speakers in all my 70’s Datsun’s.
My friends had 8 tracks, but I was the guy who had to have the latest, which was cassettes at the time. I remember wanting more volume and jumped on new speakers that had integrated amplifiers.

Found this in the glove box of a Z recently.

9F05D825-FB8F-4A9A-A753-CF7362DDFC88.jpeg (140.56 KiB) Viewed 1769 times

The bracket is neatly integrated with the hinge hold down flange and screws.

Tone control. Well, more like no tone full left and just a little tone full right....

[bertvorgon]

This thread has been fun to see the progression of technology!

I too wore out a couple of Walkman's, I tried them in the 510 back in the 80's, vibration kinda killed them. I made a lot of my own cassettes too.

Last week I actually emptied my CD Racks as part of my downsizing, I bet I have 300 CD's that are worth NOTHING, breaks my heart to throw out, they are NOT recyclable.

My final, at this point, technology I use is, I have a 1st generation Apple shuffle that I can plug into the FM transmitter in my G35, or just tuck into my sleeve pocket when hiking or biking. It has been dead reliable. Amazing that this thing the size of my thumb can do so much...and it is OLD now.

I lived records in the 60's, 70's and I must admit I don't mind seeing them gone, fighting needles, scratches, warping, etc. I had a high end Panasonic Turn table and amp, lots of Geewhiz numbers with THD, etc, but, I guess I'm not a real audiophile, I like my crystal clear sound on my Shuffle.

How far we have come since then, my Honda Odyssey has a 600 Watt sound system that is incredible. Remember when upgrading was a big deal? I had the BAD guys try to rip two stereo systems from my cars over the years, but, I always used fasteners that they would not have tools for, so they ended up destroying stuff, which then led to ICBC paying out way more for repair. Can you imagine what was spent on insurance claims in that time period, to do with aftermarket sound systems!?

In terms of my Datsun's, I had decks even into my current red car, but, as I went more serious to racing, weight, as silly as that maybe, had it gone. Only vestige is the 2 speaker covers on my rear package shelf, which are cosmetic only, there are no speakers there. I tried once, in going to Knox, listening to my Walkman for 4 hours, which when I got to Knox and saw peoples lips moving with no sound, other than a ringing in my ears.....I never did that again. It's no wonder my hearing is not great in some situations, what with cars, guns and furnaces over a lifetime.....

[yenpit]

This has been a GREAT read! I'm 56, so sounds like I came in a l'il after some of you! I remember when I first installed a Jensen AM FM cassette deck in my MG Midget, with 6x9 triaxle speakers in back & 4in round speakers in the lower kick panels! I was never so proud of my cousin Ric Jacobs of Steel Breeze, around 1982............"You Don't Want Me Anymore" was one of the early MTV video's & I often had their cassette blaring as loud as I could!

[datzenmike]

My first cassette was '85-ish and cheap Radio Shack or worse. Canadian Tire had an amp that didn't sell for $20 so I got two and had one for each side.... which meant adjusting the volume twice. The next Cassette was a Sony with 40 watts a side. It was better and could fill my 521. Damn the crap I put up with.

[bertvorgon]

Stay tuned for tomorrow mornings trip back in time and technology...see who lived this.....

Fun hearing what people have done. Wow, Yenpit, you are a puppy compared to me...

[yenpit]

Woof!

[bertvorgon]

RADAR DETECTORS….who used them or is still using one?

As I dragged out the FM transmitter for Mike, right beside it is my old ESCORT radar detector.

Let’s step back in time here.

In the mid 60’s or so, the first radar detector came out…The FUZZBUSTER.

As I progressed with my 1972 510 in the early 70’s and its ability to actually really spend some time above 100 miles an hour, I started to get speeding tickets…. a lot of speeding tickets. A couple were quite funny.

Also in that time period I became a real fan of CAR & DRIVER magazine, I loved Brock Yates and Patrick Bedard.

I had bought a BEL MicroEye Radar detector, another of the early ones. At the time it was pretty good, as the early police radars were quite simple too.

Roll this together with two things.

Number 1 was that SOLO sport was starting to broaden its reach, as other car clubs were formed and held out of town events and became part of the SOLO Points system.

Number 2 was that in 1971 Car & Driver’s Brock Yates started (along with a few others), the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash.

We had out of town events in Penticton, Kelowna, Vernon, Seattle, Nanaimo, and Courtenay. For you non-locals say, the trip (on the old Highway) was 300 miles to Vernon, one way, no small trip.

There were up to a dozen drivers that would head out on either a Friday night after work or, Saturday morning, for a Sunday event. Sometimes a “Double-Header” was done to get two events in on a weekend.

This is when our own CANNON BALL RUN was formed, getting to and from the events. I was heavily criticized for so-called organizing these drives, but I organized nothing! You could not have had a more serious group of drivers and the “Cannonballs” to out of town events just evolved.

It really started one weekend in Vernon, after many events where the speeds to and from started to really ramp up.

As the day ended I got packed up early and was waiting for a couple of the other guys to trip back with me. Next thing I knew, the cars lined up to be PART of the convoy looked like a pre-grid for a race.

Off we went; Richard B. was on my bumper in his well set-up Camaro. We had decided to head back via Falkland and then drop down to # 1 and then to Cache Creek.

Richard and I got a break in traffic on the late Sunday and left the pack behind, ramping the speed up. I was in front as I had the radar detector. As we passed Falkland and started to drop down out of the mountain, we passed a guy with two passengers in an early pickup truck. He then decided to FOLLOW us at speed…his folly. He had no real idea how fast we were going as he tried to follow. On the third hair pin and thankfully for him, as he could NOT negotiate the corner, there was an exit to a dirt road that he went understeering and careening off in. In my mirror I saw Richard laughing his head off as the old truck bounced in a cloud of dust and took out the barb wire gate. Too funny!!! If you have ever seen the movie, THUNDERBOLT & LIGHTFOOT, the guy driving that truck was like the hillbilly that picks up Jeff Bridges and Clint Eastwood.

Richard and I got to # 1 Highway and wicked up the pace, realistically at 90 to 100 miles per hour. Once past Kamloops, up we went again. Not long after Savona, cooking along in that same speed range, where the road undulates up and down, my detector suddenly screamed as we were in a dip. On the brakes hauling it down to the speed limit, an RCMP car came over the crest, just as we passed him going the other way. I swear I saw his face wide eyed looking out at two very shiny cars.

As I thought, in a few minutes, as we went into the next dip in the road, he came FLYING up behind us, parking himself on Richards bumper. I knew he did not get us on radar but I thought he was going to light us up for a hassle check. No…but he did follow us ALL THE WAY to Cache Creek, some 20 miles ahead, seeming to take forever at the speed limit.

That detector saved me/us many times over the many trips we did.

In 1979’ish, Car & Driver did their first radar detector comparison test, where the Cincinnati Microwave ESCORT radar detector won in most categories. I and a friend ordered one a few days after I read that article! I think it was about 245.00 US if I remember that right.

That detector had super range, saved me tons, never got a ticket then. It was good with false alarms, and had a low detection range when in towns or cities. Occasionally it would go off, triggered by an on-coming car or truck with their radar detector sending out whatever random signal.

Once Laser radar came into play, I just decided to drive even smarter, know the most common areas they would sit, so the Escort kinda became obsolete for me, parking itself besides the FM transmitter. You can buy them on ebay for 10 bucks I see.

As we only really have a few routes out of town now, the bigger fear is all the “ghost” vehicles, using every type of vehicle now. One BIG rule is ANYTHING with blacked out windows is to be treated with full on suspicion.

Long, open stretches for the most part are not a problem, I worry most is that we really go fast in the twisty’s and that we might meet a rolling radar car coming the other way.

Over the years we solo’d, we never had any major traffic issues other than a few got speeding tickets, one fellow blew an engine in his TR7 and another ran out of fuel, as the speed just ate the tank of gas.

Dan Gurney, who drove the Ferrari Daytona 365 GTB/4 in May of 1971 Cannonball, was quoted; “At no time did we exceed 175 MPH!”

I can honestly say at no time did we exceed 120 MPH!

PS: There are 2 booklets there due to the BAD guys stealing my first Escort. White Rock was a pretty sleepy town in the beginning of the 80’s, till the crack heads started to move in. I had left it in my Honda wagon at the time. I left nothing in my cars after that.

[bertvorgon]

Anybody local into vintage computer games?

Free or best offer.....to a good home....the clean out continues.

[datzenmike]

Early '70s all N American cars started using radial tires. Withing a year or so makers had to add rear sway bars or at least ALL police cars did. At night if a car behind you showed the tell tail shadow of a sway bar from the lights behind him, it was almost always a cop. Next were factory halogen head lights. They were so white compared to the yellow tungsten that they were a give a way that the approaching car (front or rear) was a new vehicle and while not always a cop all cops had them. Now I don't even care to look as I drive like an old man.

[bertvorgon]

That's a good memory, so true!

I like to think, that when the Michelin X tire first hit the market here in North America, Vancouver, I was one of the first to buy! That would be about 1970-71. THAT, was the first foray for me, that a car's handling could be improved. My dad drove me crazy telling me I needed MORE air in my tires, pretty funny now.

Next step was when I heard about InterPart/BRE and I bought a front sway bar for my 1972 wagon...what a game changer that was....the rest is history for me. Then turbocharging...never looked back after that.