The "CRUISER" Newsletter

UPCOMING EVENTS FOR MARCH, 2026

This calendar is dedicated to car events OTP (Outside The Perimeter) covering the North Georgia area.  www.ellijaymountaincruisers.com

---RECURRING EVENTS---

(Some events may be seasonal; always check with the host group)

Sunday, 1st - Caffeine and Octane Car Show. Town Center at Cobb - 9:00 AM (Recurring event-first Sunday of the month)

Sunday, 1st - WORSHIP Vintage and Classic Car Event - 1135 Woodstock Rd.,Roswell, GA. Vehicles must be 18 years old or older. 8:00am - 11:00am (Recurring event-first Sunday of the month)

Sunday, 8th - Dahlonega Car Club Cruise-In. 140 S.Chestatee St, Dahlonega,GA. 9:00am - 12:00pm (Recurring event-second Sunday of the month)

Tuesday, 10th - ELLIJAY MOUNTIAN CRUISERS CLUB SOCIAL DINNER at El Reys Azteca. El Rays Mexican Restaurant - 6:00 PM (Recurring event -Second Tuesday)

Friday, 13th - Gilmer Street Rodders - Shane’s Rib Shack, 289 Highland Crossing, E. Ellijay, GA. 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm. (Recurring event-second Friday of the month)

Thursday, 19th - ELLIJAY MOUNTAIN CRUISERS DRIVE & DINE - Ellijay, GA. Meet at the parking lot next to McDonalds-11:00am (Recurring Event - Third Thursday of the month)

Saturday, 21st - Po Boys Cruise-In, Riverstone Plaza, 1447 Riverstone Parkway, Canton, GA. 3:00pm - 6:00pm (Recurring event-third Saturday of the month)

Friday, 27th - Georgia Mountain Classics DQ Cruise-In. 380 Progress Circle, Blue Ridge, GA. Blue Ridge Dairy Queen. 6:00pm - 8:00pm (Recurring event-fourth Friday of the month)

Saturday, 28th - Pickens Freedom Crusiers Crusie-In, 104 N. Main St., Jasper, GA., 4pm - 8pm (Recurring event-fourth Saturday of the month)

Saturday, 28th - ELLIJAY MOUNTAIN CRUISERS CARS AND COFFEE  Ellijay, BURGER KING - 9:00 AM (Recurring event-Last Saturday of the month)

ADDITIONAL EVENTS FOR MARCH,2026

Saturday, 7th - Hall Cty Sheriff’s Rod Run, Hall Cty Court House, 225 Green St., SE, Gainesville, GA. 8am-2pm

Saturday, 7th - Cruisin’ the ‘Houn, Calhoun Food Truck Court, 1060 Redbud Rd., Calhoun, GA. 4pm-9pm

Saturday, 7th - Northeast Georgia Swap Meet-The Big Spring Swap!, Habersham County Fairgrounds, 4235 Toccoa Hwy, Clarkesville, GA. 8am-12N

Sunday, 8th - Car-B-Que At The Flat, Old Country Place BBQ, 6764 Hickory Flat Hwy, Canton, GA., 8am-11am

Saturday, 14th - I-75 Exit #1 Cruise-In, 402 Direct Connection Dr., Rossville, GA. 6pm-8pm

Saturday, 14th - St. Patty’s Cruise In, 6365 Joe Frank Harris Pkwy, Adairsville, GA., 11am-3pm

Saturday, 14th - Thrill-On-The-Hill Swap Meet, Car Show, Drag Race, Paradise Dragstrip, 500 Chatsworth Hwy 225 NE, Calhoun, GA., 7am-3pm

Sunday, 15th - Hall County School Nutrition Assoc., Car & Bike Show, Johnson High School, 3155 RW Johnson Dr., Gainesville, GA., 2pm-6pm

Saturday, 21st - The Whopper King Cruise-In, Burger King East Rome, 1313 Turner McCall Rd., Rome, GA., 6pm-9pm

Thursday-Saturday, 26th-28th - AACA Winter Nationals, Georgia Highlands College (GHC), 5460 GA-20, Cartersville, GA., 9am-5pm daily

EVENTS FOR APRIL, 2026

Thursday-Saturday, 2nd - 4th - Georgia Mountain Ford Nationals, Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds, Hiawassee, GA. 8am - 5pm daily.

Saturday, 11th - Civic Guardians of NE GA Spring Bash Car Show, 789 Bradford St. SW, Gainesville, GA., 1am-5pm

Friday, 17th - Fannin Middle School Car Show, 4560 Old Hwy 76, Blue Ridge, GA., 5pm-7pm

Can Old Corded Power Tools Keep up with New Cordless?

By Kyle Smith

(REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF HAGERTY MEDIA)

Many of us who do our own maintenance or restoration buy and keep tools, especially if they still do the job they were designed to complete. Things like open-end wrenches and sockets could theoretically last forever if well maintained, and for the most part, today’s brand-new ratchets do the exact same thing as designs from 50 or even 100 years ago. When it comes to power tools, however, things are a bit different. Or are they?

One of my favorite YouTube channels currently is the Torque Test Channel, mainly because I appreciate their effort to put real up numbers in front of manufacturer claims. Each year, a new cordless impact comes out, and all the numbers on the front of the box are just a few digits bigger, or the weight is lighter, or the Bluetooth connection is more stable. But do I really need any of this modern stuff? Like many gearheads, I’ve picked up more than a few tools at estate or garage sales, and while some were older than I am, they actually work better than I do. So with the idea of returning to corded tools for simplicity’s sake in the back of my head, I was happy to see Torque Test Channel set up its testing rig to compare a handful of old-school corded impact wrenches against a modern benchmark.

The testing rig doesn’t lie when it shows that older corded and brushed tools just don’t have the same hit, but more than anything, the use of these tools comes into question when considering their efficacy. The massive size—one of the 1-inch anvil units weighs 20 pounds despite aluminum construction—means these more than likely were for industrial applications rather than DIY or homeowner-grade work. Even when gargantuan in stature, there is just no match for the unending march of technology.

Brushless motors have changed the power tool game, and now battery technology is stepping up to create even more continued advancement. If you’re a tool nerd who wants the latest and greatest, it’s never been more fun to walk the aisles or step into the tool truck, and those new tools come with more capability than ever. Yet at the same time, if all you need to knock off are a set of lug nuts every now and then, grabbing that second-hand corded impact will get the job done for a lot less money. Just be sure what you are trying to take off is not on there too tight. And that you can lift the dang thing…

Buick Nailheads Were the Engines Behind the Engines in the SR-71 Blackbird

By Stefan Lombard

(REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF HAGERTY MEDIA)

As the nations of Earth beaver away at their respective sixth-generation fighter planes, with all the slippery, stealthy, AI-laden skunkworks tech those entail, it’s worth remembering that 60 years ago this month, January 1966, one of the original stealthy planes, the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, first entered service. Curiously, that wouldn’t have been possible without its twin Buick Nailhead V-8s. 

The super-secret, ultra-sleek two-seater flew high-altitude long-range reconnaissance missions for the U.S. Air Force for more than 30 years, and 32 copies were produced in that time. The SR-71’s power came from twin 6000-pound Pratt & Whitney J58 afterburning turbojet engines, each capable of more than 25,000 pounds of thrust that propelled the plane to Mach 3, roughly 2300 mph. But those J58s weren’t exactly turn-key mills, and they required substantial encouragement to get going.

Few things were more encouraging in the mid-1960s than Buick’s 401-cubic-inch V-8, with its 325 hp and 445 lb-ft of torque, and the plane’s first-generation start cart, the unassuming yellow AG330 (later painted green), employed a pair of them.

According to a detailed write-up on the website of the Aircraft Engine Historical Society (AEHS), each engine was mated to a Hydra-Matic transmission, with those units linked via a 12-inch-wide Gilmer belt. The engines powered a gearbox with a 90-degree dogleg running through a probe out the top of the cart, and once placed beneath the plane’s J58 nacelles, the probe was mated to each engine’s splined starter receptacle.

After the straight-piped Buick engines had been started and allowed to warm up—imagine that noise!—and the cart was positioned beneath the plane, the pilot would radio the crew chief with the instruction, “Engage Buicks,” and the cart operator would begin to slide downward a single throttle lever that controlled both engines, which then engaged the paired transmissions.

The Buicks were required to spin up to about 4500 rpm in order to get the J58s turning at roughly 3200 rpm, at which point the pilot would confirm via his gauges that all was hunky-dory and inject a 30cc shot of triethylborane into the jet’s burner cans, which would ignite as soon as it mixed with the oxygen in the air, and ka-BLAMMO, the J58s lit and were up and running on their own. Imagine that noise…

“Buicks out,” would come the command, the crewman running the AG330 would hit the button marked “Cart Shutdown,” and the probe would fall away from the nacelle.

“Overspeeding of the Buicks caused by a probe hang-up contributed to the occasional thrown connecting rod and oily parts dropping out from under the cart,” Tom Fey writes on AEHS. “Idle speed for the J58 is 3950 rpm, which could drive the Buicks to over 6000 rpm. The potential for engine failure, as well as the Buick exhaust stream, required the crew to stand only at the ends, not aside, the start cart.” Yikes.

As the service life of the SR-71 far outlasted that of the big Buick V-8, eventually they were replaced by Chevy’s LS7 454, before a pneumatic starter devised by Garrett AirResearch assumed the responsibilities. Frankly, we’d rather listen to those Nailheads.

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