Main page | April 22, 2008 »

Old Tractors Don’t Die, They Just Ride in Parades

The Great Eastern Iowa Tractorcade passed by grain silos in Lamont last June.

What do you call 460 antiquated farm tractors clattering across the highways of rural Iowa, covering 140 miles at the killer pace of 11 miles an hour over three days of June?

Some people might call it a traffic jam, but to the folks who look forward to it every year, it’s the annual Great Eastern Iowa Tractorcade, and it brings out an eclectic collection of old farm tractors, along with equally old farmers and collectors of all ages nostalgic for the days before big agribusiness put eight-wheel monsters into fields of corn and soybeans, according to The New York Times.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 10:30 AM to Shows | Permalink | Comments 0

Buick shows Invicta at Beijing Auto Show

Buick is using the Beijing auto show to unveil the Invicta show car, expected to be the replacement for the LaCrosse midsize sedan in the USA, according to USA Today.

The concept car on display at Auto China 2008 is, in fact, a modified version of the production vehicle, according to veteran auto industry analyst Jim Hall, managing director of 2953 Analytics based in Birmingham, Mich.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 10:14 AM to GM | Permalink | Comments 0

Oil prices spike to record above $117

Oil prices spiked to a record above $117 a barrel on Monday after a Japanese oil tanker was attacked off the east coast of Yemen, according to the Associated Press.

The 150,000-ton tanker Takayama was attacked about 270 miles off the Yemen coast in the Gulf of Aden while it was heading for Saudi Arabia, its Japanese operator, Nippon Yusen K.K., said in a statement posted on its Web site.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 10:10 AM to Crude oil market | Permalink | Comments 0