334 manufacturers once made cars in New York

Nothing else to say about that. It's remarkable though.
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2010/12/20/just-another-garage-in-gotham

Finland

More rally champs (7) than any other country

more Formula One champions per capita than any other country
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/mar/10/formulaone17 and Top Gear Episode 74

same number of champions as Brazil, which has a population 40 times bigger. Even the UK, with eight champions, is four times less successful than Finland given its size

Traffic lights, a brief bit of true but funny history

The above light is made for quick easy identification by anyone who can see shapes, or colors. Particularly in the case of color blind people.

The 1st traffic light ever made exploded, killing the cop that was operating the lever to direct it's light in the right direction. Jan 2nd 1869 was the day, and natural gas vapor was the source of the flame that made the lights visible... no electricity, nothing but a torch behind a colored lens.

The first traffic light in Ireland (1890's) was placed near the oldest pub in Europe (900 AD) because the first car in Ireland was owned by the pubs frequent patron, and he was Ireland's first drunk driver.

Photo and much more info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_light

But the best idea in traffic lights is a light that has a time indication of when it will switch to green http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/04/two-good-ideas-id-like-to-see-in-world.html

Betty Skelton, Duntov's test driver

found on http://corvettebrasil.blogspot.com/2011/04/test-driver-de-zora-arkus-duntov.html

But as Paul Harvey told us, you haven't heard the rest of the story!

Betty was fascinated with flying since childhood, and strove with incredible focus to be a pilot since age 12, getting her Civilian Air Authority private pilots license at age 16. In the next two years she was certified single and multi engine, land and sea, and at 18 got her Commercial Pilots License and in the next year was an instructor and the year after that, at age 20 was a major in the Civil Air Patrol and began her professional acrobatic career, also as a test pilot, and flew blimps, gliders, jets, and helicopters.

In '48, 49 and '50 she was the US Female aerobatic champion, and retired because there was no longer any challenge and she was exhausted from the constant touring, her plane "Li'l Stinker" is now part of the Smithsonian.

She set the high altitude record in 1950, and the speed record in a racing p51 Mustang.

In 1953 she was flying people around, and met Bill France who was having some racers flown to Daytona Beach, they became friends, and she drove a pace car in Feb 1954, then climbed into a Dodge and set the stock car speed record, which must not have been hard, she is likely the only woman at that time to drive one, and AAA certified her the first race drivers license for a woman

The National Aviation Hall of Fame reports that "Betty earned a total of four Feminine World Land Speed Records and set a transcontinental speed record."She competed in races across the Andes mountains in South America and drove the length of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. Betty set records at the Chelsea Proving Grounds and was the first woman to drive a jet car over 300 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats. She also set three women’s land speed records at the Daytona Beach Road Course, the last one being 156.99 mph in 1956. That same year, she broke Cannonball Baker's 40-year record for the Transcontinental Auto Race from New York to Los Angeles.

In 1956, she became an advertising executive with Campbell-Ewald and worked with General Motors on and in their TV and print ads. She was GM's first woman technical narrator at major auto shows, where she would talk about and demonstrate automobile features, later becoming official spokeswoman for Chevrolet. While Skelton was working with Chevrolet, she set numerous records with Corvettes, and owned a total of 10 models.

Between 1956 and 1957, Harley Earl and Bill Mitchell designed a special, translucent gold Corvette for Betty, which she drove to Daytona in 1957 to serve as the NASCAR pace car.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Skelton_Erde

The Shelby GT 350 S, first non white GT 350, it was the Paxton prototype. By the time production would have started the idea changed to an option

found on http://www.paxtonauto.com/article.php?id=3

Click on the image for the full size to read the writing, but basically it's a publicity-press release shot in the event that the GT 350 S were put into production, like the GT 350 H (Hertz rent a racer program)

Rambler trivia

first series was 1902 to 1914 and then the 1950-1969 was the last

The first series is credited with introducing the spare tire