Recently at CHP, we spent our lunch hour talking about the Sears Craftsman "Fantastic Fan Garage" promotion from last year and began salivating. What would it be like to have the ultimate garage? Someone said that the ultimate garage would be large enough to make a U-turn in while towing a trailer, but it would also need a big-screen HDTV with extra remotes, tons of tools, and of course, it would all have to be within shouting distance of your house so that you could say, "I'm in the garage!"
Armed with our warped car-guy imaginations, we decided to do more than just bench race. As soon as we got back to the office we dashed for our cars and headed out to see just how much fun we could have building the ultimate garage. Imagine a place to work on your favorite car, with the best tools, the walls decorated with race banners and posters, and a NASCAR race on your HDTV. That's the ultimate.
Yeah, video games are fun,...
Yeah, video games are fun, but there's no real horsepower. So with Ed Taylor's blown small-block bolted to a Craftsman 1,250-pound engine stand, we hot-wired our video game and controls to the motor and talked staffer Scott Crouse into performing a desk-top dyno run. When we finally shut the whole thing down, we had a crowd of angry soccer moms banging on the garage door. So don't try this at home.
After Scott's wild dyno ride,...
After Scott's wild dyno ride, he decided to race a pack of NASCAR race cars from his JAZ bucket seat. After 200 laps, his crew chief called for fresh rubber so Art Director Mark Takahashi jumped in with his 31/2-ton Craftsman floor jack for an 18-second pit stop and a Coke from our Chevy High cooler.
After watching dozens of luge...
After watching dozens of luge races during the Salt Lake City Winter games, Mark just had to try it out on his Craftsman creeper. Before he could get started, Scott warned him that creepers don't have brakes or steering. Mark is recovering nicely at a local hospital, so don't try this at home either.
Instead of taking up precious...
Instead of taking up precious garage space with a microwave, Bob Mehlhoff found a way to make popcorn from a 6-71 supercharger. Simply dump a bag of kernels down the airscoop, fire up the motor, induce a blower sneeze, and voila--instant popcorn. If you use Craftsman Mechanics gloves, you won't even get salt and butter on your fingers.
Our engine-builder/dyno-tester...
Our engine-builder/dyno-tester Ed Taylor insisted that we install a Superflow engine dyno, but local city fathers thought a dyno adjacent to the master bedroom wasn't cool. Clearly they're not gearheads. Instead, Ed ran his latest version of Desktop Dyno and kept muttering "someday."
After Bob got stuffed eating...
After Bob got stuffed eating way too much popcorn, Scott came along with this Craftsman wet/dry vacuum to clean all the remaining kernels from the 6-71 blower.