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itsworn · 6 years

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Best of Both Worlds: 1964 Chrysler 300K

The Chrysler letter car story is well known to the readers of Mopar Muscle. Starting in 1955 with the introduction of the C-300, through to the 300L in 1965, the last of the famed letter cars.

For 1963, the entire Chrysler lineup received extensively restyled exterior sheet metal and on the inside, gone was the electro-luminescent AstroDome instrument cluster, replaced with a much more traditional flat instrument panel. While most Chryslers rode on a 126-inch wheelbase, the two door models of the 300 letter and non-letter cars had a wheelbase that was four inches shorter at 122 inches. The biggest news for Chrysler in 1963 was the introduction of the 5 year/50,000-mile warranty, a move that set Chrysler apart from its competitors.

All the 300J hardtops (the letter “I” was skipped due in part to in that it might be confused with the numeral 1) were equipped the 413-cubic-inch V-8 featuring ram induction, producing 310 horsepower. Top speed was reported to be 142 miles per hour making it one of the fastest production cars in America, in spite of a curb weight exceeding 4,000 pounds. Sales were comparably poor for 1963 with just 400 cars produced as sales of the non-letter 300s continued to grow.

For 1964 the convertible returned to the 300K lineup but the cross-ram 413 became an option, a 300K exclusive not offered on other 1964 Chryslers and the leather interior became an extra-cost option. These moves allowed Chrysler to reduce the base price of the 300K by over $1,000. The results were an eight-fold increase in sale to 3,647 units (3,022 hardtops, 625 convertibles), the largest total in the history of the 300 letter car series.

The car you see here, a 1964 Chrysler 300K two-door hardtop, owned by Michael Laiserin, one of those 3,022 hardtops produced for the 1964 model year, the last of the sixth generation.

Michael marks the start of his car enthusiasm in 1971 when he was just four years old, vividly remembering his Dad shopping for a new Chrysler when he planned to trade in the family sedan, a 1964 Newport he bought new, to his mom who was just learning to drive. “I remember a big blue fuselage-bodied Chrysler on the showroom floor with a white vinyl top and interior, fancy wheels and hidden headlamps,” recalls Michael. “Looking back now I’m sure it was a 300 and kept telling my Dad ‘let’s get that one.’ Being ever so practical Dad insisted on another economical sedan and the salesman took us out into the lot and showed us a Burnished Red Metallic Newport. I didn’t like it and told Dad the wheels were ugly – back then the wheel covers were in the trunk until the cars were prepped – and this car was broken because the left front tire was flat. I remember noticing the unusual, dual-pinstripe whitewalls but remained unimpressed. ‘Dad, let’s get the blue one.’ Of course, we came home with the red one.”

For Michael, the 1964 Newport became somewhat of a plaything as he asked. “Hey Dad, if we still have this car when I’m old enough to drive can I have it?” To which his dad replied, laughing, “Sure why not.”

“Little did he know the path he set me on,” says Michael more than four decades later. “As I got older I learned to tinker on that car, changing oil, brakes, ignition points and more. By the time I was sixteen although the car was still around, I came across a big block ’1970 Charger project. Dad wasn’t a car guy and looked at the basket case with the engine in pieces and figured I couldn’t get into any trouble. He knew he was wrong the first time a cop woke him up in the middle of the night and asked if he wanted me locked up and the car impounded or if he wanted to get dressed and come to get me instead. That ended my street racing activities for the summer and I was headed off to college anyway.”

After college, Michael took the Charger off the road with plans to restore it and while he was collecting parts, came across a 1964 Chrysler 300K convertible. I had never seen a 413 cross-ram engine before and he had to have it. He did the best restoration a 23-year-old could back in 1990 and drove that car to every show he could attend. Soon after he replaced his 383 automatic Charger for a legit, numbers-matching 1970 RT/SE four-speed Charger. Once completed, he packed up his cars and headed west figuring Arizona was the place to be as he could drive his cars year-round and they’d never rust again. As the years went by, he didn’t just add a wife and kids, like so many other car nuts, he added and completed projects that included a 1970 Road Runner with a Gen III Hemi, a 1969 Charger 500, and this 1964 300K hardtop.

“I came across this car sitting on a trailer in the swap section of the Spring Fling in Van Nuys, California,” said Michael. “It was a complete, but rough looking, unrestored car. It was pretty devoid of options as far as luxury cars go, even radio and side view mirror delete. The original window sticker was in a box full of paperwork dating back to before the original owner even purchased the car. There were handwritten notes comparing prices from different dealerships and shows he traded in a Renault to order this “bankers hotrod.” He checked off very few options, just leather trim, a Sure-Grip differential, and the ‘300K special package’ which included the dual four-barrel, cross-ram equipped engine. The paper trail on the car spanned nearly 25 years with receipts for warranty work at the dealership, car washes, and even custom tuning at the famous Granatelli Automotive. I struck a deal for it and the seller trailered it to my my place in Phoenix.”

While I’ve driven it to Mopars at the Strip in Vegas and the Spring Fling in California my favorite trip was attending one of the Chrysler 300 Club International’s events which was held in Monterey, California. The show host arranged for an afternoon gathering at Laguna Seca Raceway where they allowed us all to do some exhibition runs around the course. Not going to miss the chance, with the wife and my three kids (the youngest 10 months old and in a car seat) securely fastened we hit the track for a few laps. I’m confident my girls will be able to say they’re likely the only little girls to have experienced the famous corkscrew in the family show car. Not even Disneyland can compete with that.

“I figured that this car was going to be the bookend to my 300K convertible, only with a modern twist,” explains Michael. “Having owned my ram engine ragtop for over 20 years, I know that even when tuned properly, you’ve got to have a feel for how to drive the dual quads. These were built for the open road and they weren’t exactly civil for cruising around town. The decision was made to retain the ram induction but to add EFI for driveability. A manual trans with overdrive would make cruising fun and overcome the 4.10 gear needed to launch this heavy beast. A hydraulic roller cam would maximize power and alleviate the need to regularly remove the intakes to adjust the valves. Yards and yards of Dynamat lined the floors, roof, firewall and doors to keep things quiet so the kiddies in the car seats could nap on long trips. The original KK1 Silver Turquoise paint color was retained as was the black leather interior. I needed to upgrade the wheels as there was no way 14” tires were up to the task of maintaining adhesion with the road considering all the weight and power involved here. I settled on 18-inch Centerline Boulevard wheels custom-ordered with unpolished centers and they were reminiscent of the 1950s and 1960s kidney-bean-style wheels. Overall I achieved the look I wanted with the car.”

Michael explains that the original Chrysler 300 letter car series helped to spawn the horsepower races of the 1950s and 1960’s. Not classified as muscle cars (defined as a big engine installed in an intermediate or compact car), the big, bruising Chryslers are muscular cars. “Many are restored to stock as owners feel that protects not only their heritage but value also,” says Michael. “Mine is tastefully modified with subtle improvements that don’t get the purists too upset but make mine a helluva lot more fun to drive.” One of these modifications, the stealth infotainment system concealed behind a movable panel of the dash, is almost as comprehensive as the uConnect package you would find in a contemporary Chrysler 300.

The cross-ram fuel-injection setup is a unique, one-off design. From Imagine Injection in Phoenix, Arizona. It was this unusual EFI set up that caught our eye many years ago when caravanning from Phoenix to Las Vegas for that year’s Mopars at the Strip (when it was still called Mopars at the Strip). Lifting the hood at a gas stop in Wickenburg, Arizona, we saw that the expected carburetors were missing, replaced by a state-of-the-art fuel-injection set up. Michael explained that not only did fuel injection improve driveability, but in conjunction with the overdrive fifth gear, it substantially improved fuel mileage. It’s almost as if it was engineered by Chrysler’s engineers in Highland Park back in the 1960s (remember that Corvette offered fuel injection since 1957).

Over the years Michael has joined many Mopar clubs including the Chrysler 300 Club International, the Chrysler 300 Club Inc., AZLX Modern Mopar Muscle, and the 602 (area code) Mopars. He’s participated in the Silver State Classic Challenge and the Nevada Open Road Challenge

Michael notes that he doesn’t drive the 300K as much as he might like. “I drive my projects a little bit after completing them before parking them and getting involved in my next project. It’s a mixed blessing. I’ve been fortunate to be able to build quite a few Mopars but when I’m into a current build that consumes all my time, I don’t enjoy the finished cars as often as I hoped to. One thing I love is that my family is actively involved in the hobby and I have aspirations that my three daughters will get the car bug as they approach driving age in a few years.”

“I love my vintage Mopars, but as I’ve gotten older, and the cars have gotten older I enjoy them differently than I used to,” say Michael with a smile. “I don’t abuse them like I used to, I have the modern Mopars for that. If I hurt one of the new cars the local dealership delivers the new parts to my shop the next day and I’m well on the way to being back on the road. I had a customer who wrecked his vintage Challenger and although the insurance took care of the bill, the car was down nearly a year for the rebuild. I think that’s got to be a collector’s worst nightmare.”

Concluding our conversation, Michael noted that both the 1964 and 1971 Newports that started it all for him are still in the family. This, as well as the cars he’s built since then, remain in his custody. Unlike many of us, he’s had space and never has been forced to sell any of his Mopar legacy.

ENGINE Type V8 Wedge Bore x stroke 4.36-inch x 4.15-inch Block 440 Rotating assembly: Mopar Cylinder heads: Edelbrock Compression: 10.4:1 Camshaft: Muscle Motors spec’d, Comp Cams ground Hydraulic Roller Cam Valve train: Hughes Engines 1.6 Roller Rockers Induction: Original “Short” cross-ram fitted with EFI Oiling system: OEM Fuel system: EFI by Imagine Injection Phoenix, AZ Exhaust: Factory Cast Iron “headers” into 2.5-inch pipes through Impco Imperial-style stock mufflers Ignition: Direct Connection electronic replacing the factory dual point Cooling OE Engine built by: Shortblock by Speedomotive,

DRIVETRAIN Transmission: Five-speed Tremec TKO600 Shifter: Tremec with Hurst Handle Steering: Stock power steering Front brakes: AAJ Disc brake conversion using GM calipers Rear brakes: Dr. Diff Disc brake conversion using Mustang Cobra calipers Rear Axle: 8-3/4 sure grip with 4.10 gear

WHEELS & TIRES Wheels: 18×8 Centerline Boulevard wheels with as-cast centers instead of polished Tires: Michelin MXV4, front 235-50-18, Rear 255-55-18

INTERIOR Seats: OEM leather by Legendary Auto Interiors Instruments: OEM and vintage-style Autometer short sweep tach mounted on the steering column Hidden Navigation radio

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lindyhunt · 6 years

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16 of the Best Shopify Stores to Inspire Your Own

Ecommerce is predicted to account for 17% of all U.S. retail sales by 2022. As ecommerce grows, so does competition, making it hard to differentiate your website from everyone else's.

It isn't enough to have a one-of-a-kind product: to attract your ideal audience -- and more importantly, to turn that audience into passionate brand ambassadors -- you need a one-of-a-kind website.

A sleek and captivating Shopify website can attract a large audience and even act as your start-to-finish marketing pitch.

But you need to know what makes one Shopify website better than the rest. Here, we've curated a list of 16 best of the best Shopify stores to inspire your own.

Whether you're new to ecommerce and about to design your first website, or an ecommerce veteran considering a redesign to outshine your competitors in 2018, this list offers plenty of creative ideas.

Top Shopify Stores

UgMonk

Pipcorn

Taylor Stitch

Happiness Abscissa

Skinny Teatox

HELM Boots

BioLite

Pop Chart Lab

Luca and Danni

Harris Farm Markets

So Worth Loving

Great George Watches

Choose Muse

Brilliant

Holstee

Kylie Cosmetics

1. UgMonk

Jeff Sheldon starts the "About" section on his UgMonk website with a simple question: "Why was it so difficult to find fresh, high-quality, unique items in a modern aesthetic?" His Shopify site is simple and fresh, and exhibits UgMonk's clothing, workplace items, bags, and prints in the same modern aesthetic style he sought while designing his unique products.

2. Pipcorn

When you think about popcorn, I'm betting the first concern that comes to mind isn't "is it healthy?" Pipcorn knows this, so their homepage features a simple slogan: "Most tender, crunchy, delicious popcorn … and it won't destroy your teeth like the ‘generic' stuff." The best websites know their target audience's primary concerns (in this case, the taste of popcorn and the kernels in teeth), and sell them on those solutions upfront.

If you look on their "About Us" page, you'll find Pipcorn's products are also non-GMO, vegan, gluten free, and whole grain. Even though this could have easily been incorporated into their slogan, they chose to exclude it in favor of tackling our bigger concern: Does it taste good?

3. Taylor Stitch

The inner child in me loves Taylor Stitch's website because of the creative alternatives displayed when you hover over a product: a jacket, for instance, flips to an image of a model posing with the jacket on a motorcycle.

The Taylor Stitch website does something else really cool, too: it almost immediately calls more attention to its message than its products, with "Three Simple Ingredients" written across most of the images you see on the homepage. Taylor Stitch doesn't just make high-quality clothing. It also aims to reduce waste and help the environment by creating clothing with recycled or 100% natural products.

On their website, you can't miss their environmental efforts, and I'm betting this is a differentiating factor for most buyers when they come across the site.

4. Happiness Abscissa

The company's logo, a crooked "Ha," draws in the viewer's attention, and then they use Ha in a sentence without defining the word, further stimulating viewers' curiosity. You get the sense they don't take themselves too seriously, affording the viewer a cheerful and fun experience.

5. Skinny Teatox

As I've noticed with a few other Shopify websites, Skinny Teatox places its products on the homepage with an easy "buy now" call-to-action. For a company that isn't too complex to figure out ("All Natural Detox Weight Loss Tea" is written beside the company name in search engines), I think it makes sense to offer the viewers what they want upfront.

6. HELM Boots

"Our boots give men confidence from the ground up, confidence to take steps they've never taken before." Immediately, HELM incentivizes viewers through emotion: I might just be a guy looking to buy some boots, but yes, I'd definitely also like some confidence and bravery while I'm at it. The website looks elegant, and you can find everything from the homepage, which is designed to convert viewers at various stages of the buyer's journey and assuage doubts as you scroll.

7. BioLite

I might be a sucker for the little details, but the product images on BioLite's website are enough to make me want to buy something (they look 3-D and illuminated, and some even look wet from rain!).

Since BioLite's major selling point is its humanitarian impact (the products bring affordable energy access to places in India and Africa), the first thing on the homepage is their slogan, "Gear That Brings Energy Everywhere," which will appeal to their target audience. The navigation bar at the top also has a clever twist: beside each product title, there are little black-and-white cartoon drawings of the product.

8. Pop Chart Lab

This site looks like one of the vintage and trendy prints they sell. It's also organized in different categories depending on a viewer's browsing preference.

First, Pop Chart Lab's Shopify store has a scroll-down navigation with sub-categories ranging from, "NYC" to "Kids" to "Hip Hop" to "Wine." They also have a carousel with some of their top prints on display. Below the carousel, they offer "wholesale," "gift guides," and "scratch-off" collections, for viewers who are having a difficult time discerning what they want. The shop manages to appear simple, despite its vast array of different print products, which is no easy feat.

9. Luca and Danni

There's something addictive about an ecommerce store that changes as you scroll. Luca and Danni's page is highly interactive: as you scroll, some images get bigger and others get smaller, boxes of bracelets open up within images, and some images follow you down the page. It can be tricky to offer so much movement on a page while remaining coherent, but somehow, Luca and Danni accomplish this. There's also a very zen vibe to the whole layout, with images of palm trees and cactuses, and calls-to-action with language like "brighter days: shop soil to sky," and "find what speaks to you."

10. Harris Farm Markets

This is a family-owned company, something you can't miss from the homepage. It's casual and playful, with text that looks like a child's handwriting and colorful drawings of fruit (there's even an adorable drawing of a bee with animated wings!). Even the calls-to-action sound laid-back, like "What's nature been up to?" It's so genuine, you can imagine a family building the site together.

11. So Worth Loving

Sometimes, being evasive pays off. While it's not always a good idea to hide your products from the viewer, it can be a very smart move if your product doesn't make sense without understanding the backstory. With So Worth Loving's site, you don't even see the t-shirts for sale until a third of the way down the page. By that point, you've already read their slogan, a little bio from the founder, Eryn, and a full narrative about how the site began.

The site leans into personal touches, with handwritten-looking quotes scrawled across images and very normal looking images of people posing in t-shirts. This is a great example of knowing your audience enough to break the rules.

12. Great George Watches

I'm not an experienced watch shopper, so when I first read, "Made with Swiss parts and 100% square," on Great George Watches' homepage, I thought maybe "square" was a fancy term I'd understand if I knew watches. But as I scrolled and read, "Think outside the circle," I realized these terms were unique to Great George Watches, which are all square-faced.

By emphasizing what makes their product unique before even showing the produce, Great George Watches captivates the viewer. I love this shop because it has a refined and polished look, with black-and-white photos and an attention-grabbing red call-to-action button.

13. Choose Muse

Choose Muse incorporates a full-display video of a man putting headphones on and using Choose Muse's product right from the homepage. The video starts playing immediately (as opposed to offering a play button option), which is especially eye-catching. I usually think simple is better when it comes to design, but Choose Muse proves me wrong, incorporating compelling designs with a ton of images and text, while still retaining a clean and enjoyable viewer experience.

14. Brilliant

For a math and science website, Brilliant is surprisingly easy-to-navigate (even for someone like me, an English major … ), with big, colorful block buttons to choose the math concept you want to learn. This shop is also a fantastic example of using a call-to-action button wisely: there's a big "sign up for free" button prominently displayed in the top right, and then another at the bottom of the page, after you've scrolled past the information you need.

The site doesn't have a navigation bar, but instead uses the web page to answer all the questions a viewer might have.

15. Holstee

Holstee does a fantastic job of designing their site in tiers depending on a person's initial level of interest in the product. For starters, you see the text, "We help you along your journey to live more fully and mindfully." If you're already convinced, you can click "Join today" right below the text. If not, you can continue to scroll down the homepage to find pain points this product reduces, read a "Holstee Manifesto," see Membership benefits, check out testimonials, and find publications Holstee's been featured in.

Throughout the page, there are various calls-to-action, like "Choose a plan that's right for you," and then, at the end, "Become a member today." I love this site because it becomes increasingly convincing and in-depth as you scroll: it's clear they use their homepage as a start-to-finish marketing pitch.

16. Kylie Cosmetics

As one of the top 10 most followed accounts on Instagram, Kylie Jenner's Cosmetic brand is one of the bigger brands using Shopify today. Her site has a very distinct girly-girl vibe, with a bubble-gum pink background showing off her lip kits and gloss.

Kylie's site is also well-organized for her audience: the lip kits, her best-known items, are shown first on the homepage, with "top sellers" below that. I didn't feel overwhelmed looking through the various cosmetic products like I thought I would, and what really stood out to me about Kylie's site is the fun, colorful layout. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I'm betting it appeals to her target audience.

See a store design above that you like? First, grab the guide below to find out how user-generated content can give your business the gusto it needs to attract and retain online shoppers.

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woohooligancomics · 6 years

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Zen and the Cult of Personality: a ComicsGate Story

You can't be a comedian and be afraid of people insulting you. And if stand-up or really any live performance is part of your act, hecklers are a fact of life. Performing live comedy and not expecting occasional hecklers is like working for the Fish and Wildlife department and not expecting bears, or not expecting drunks at a bar, or being a storm trooper and not expecting to get force-choked by Darth Vader.

I've talked about heckling before, but I haven't talked much about the hecklers themselves. Hecklers are a bit like internet trolls, although they're actually a bit worse, even cult-like. You see, internet trolls aren't bundles of narcissism, sadism and sociopathy like hecklers. ;)

As a comedian, if you ignore a heckler it ruins the enjoyment for the rest of the audience, so you have to do something. Most comedians fight snark with snark. Unlike internet trolls, hecklers often just won't give up, so it becomes a kind of roast-battle where the comedian and the heckler fire back and forth, competing for the most creative and entertaining insults. "Yo mamma so dead, you attended her funeral!" This is the most challenging part of performing live comedy because you have to be really creative on the spot, and while they're not quite the same, internet trolls can offer a substitute for us to practice against.