At the peak of the muscle car era, the 1970 Pontiac GTO offered an innovative driver-controlled exhaust that boosted performance—and ruffled feathers.
The Vacuum Operated Exhaust (VOE), initiated by a stealthy pull on a dash-mounted control, activated flaps on both mufflers that bypassed the stock exhaust routing and opened the gates to twice the sound and improved air flow. In concert with the Pontiac Ram Air induction system, the VOE delivered additional, measurable power. But it was pulled from the options list almost immediately as GM conformed to legal requirements in several states. (That was the official reason anyway. Unofficially, it was doomed by internal politics).
Pontiac motored into the ’70s with versions of its 400- and 455-cubic-inch V-8 engines that kicked out the jams with 350 or 370 horsepower in Ram Air IV trim. Pontiac performance was available across the lineup, but the driver-controlled, vacuum-actuated, dual-mode exhaust was exclusive to the GTO. For 1970, Pontiac referred to the GTO as the Humbler, suggesting that the collective power of Pontiac performance would humiliate drivers of lessor, so-called muscle cars. Even if option-code W-73 VOE was intended only for off-road use, corporate powers shelved it before “excessive humiliation” became a real problem, like in the one-and-only television commercial featuring the GTO VOE option.
Dual mode exhausts have American roots stretching back to at least the early days of gow jobs and hot rods. Cutouts, dumps, or lake pipes were the hot setup for hot rods that were driven on the street and then raced on Southern California dry lakebeds. After a long run from the city out to the lakebeds, enterprising drivers would uncork the exhaust by removing the few bolts holding their block-off plates. Reversing the procedure kept things quieter for the street. Later aftermarket versions of the setup incorporated high-zoot cable or electrically actuated cutout valves for universal installation, essentially making the Pontiac VOE a factory production version of hot rod and street-performance culture.
The system only made it onto about 240 ’70 Pontiacs, but the VOE was such a great idea that it lives on today. Modern versions of the system are commonplace, not just in contemporary muscle cars like the Chevrolet Camaro, Ford Mustang, and Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat but in all shades of performance cars. Aftermarket manufacturers have also tooled up their own versions of the original Pontiac VOE setup, along with an array of similar systems for vintage and modern muscle cars. We only wish the GTO was still around to join the party.
President Trump's son-in-law and key adviser Jared Kushner released a rare public statement Monday ahead of expected congressional testimony, denying that he colluded with Russia during Trump's campaign and calling the meeting he had with a Russia-linked attorney a "waste of our time."
In a prepared statement to the committees obtained by Fox News, Kushner laid out his dealings with foreign leaders and said none constitute campaign collusion.
“I did not collude, nor know of anyone else in the campaign who colluded, with any foreign government,” reads a section of his statement. “I had no improper contacts. I have not relied on Russian funds to finance my business activities in the private sector. I have tried to be fully transparent with regard to the filing of my SF-86 form [security clearance], above and beyond what is required. Hopefully, this puts these matters to rest.”
Kushner detailed four contacts he had with Russians during the presidential campaign and transition.
“With respect to my contacts with Russia or Russian representatives during the campaign, there were hardly any,” he said in the statement, before recalling when he was at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington in April 2016, when his father-in-law delivered a speech on foreign policy and he was introduced to four ambassadors at the event, which included then Russian ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak.
“With all the ambassadors, including Mr. Kislyak, we shook hands, exchanged brief pleasantries and I thanked them for attending the event and said I hoped they would like candidate Trump’s speech and his ideas for a fresh approach to America’s foreign policy,” Kushner recalled. “The ambassadors also expressed interest in creating a positive relationship should we win the election. Each exchange lasted less than a minute; some gave me their business cards and invited me to lunch at their embassies. I never took them up on any of these invitations and that was the extent of the interactions.”
Kushner denied reports he took two calls with Kislyak between April and November 2016.
“I had no ongoing relationship with the ambassador before the election, and had limited knowledge about him then. In fact, on Nov. 9, the day after the election, I could not even remember the name of the Russian ambassador,” he said.
In the statement, Kushner detailed the June 2016 meeting with a Russian-American lawyer, news of which emerged ealier this month and gave new momentum to Democrat claims the Trump administration secretly worted with the Kremlin to game the election.
“I arrived at the meeting a little late. When I got there, the person who has since been identified as a Russian attorney was talking about the issue of a ban on U.S. adoptions of Russian children. I had no idea why that topic was being raised and quickly determined that my time was not well-spent at this meeting,” he recalls in the statement. “Reviewing emails recently confirmed my memory that the meeting was a waste of our time and that, in looking for a polite way to leave and get back to my work, I actually emailed an assistant from the meeting after I had been there for ten or so minutes and wrote "Can u pls call me on my cell? Need excuse to get out of meeting."
“I had not met the attorney before the meeting nor spoken with her since. I thought nothing more of this short meeting until it came to my attention recently.”
Emails released this month show Donald Trump Jr. accepted the meeting at Trump Tower with the idea that he would receive damaging information about Hillary Clinton. But Kushner says he hadn't seen those emails until he was recently shown them by his lawyers. Kushner says in his statement that Trump Jr. invited him to the meeting.
The release of the statement comes just hours before he is to be interviewed by a Senate committee investigating Russia's meddling in the 2016 election and any possible collusion by Trump associates.
The interview with the Senate intelligence committee will be behind closed doors.
Connecticut police said more than 90 people were hospitalized Friday night during a Chance the Rapper concert. (AP)
HARTFORD, Conn. – Police in Connecticut say more than 90 people were hospitalized during a concert featuring Chance the Rapper.
Authorities say many were taken to hospitals for excessive drinking.
Hartford Deputy Chief Brian Foley said Saturday that officers made 50 underage drinking referrals Friday at Hot 93.7's Hot Jam concert at Xfinity Theatre. Most of those charged were issued a summons to appear in court. Several other arrests were made throughout the evening.
Police say the crowd was apparently made up of people in their late teens and early 20s. He says tailgating, partying and excessive alcohol consumption was "extremely prevalent."
Foley says a large number of people hospitalized were underage attendees experiencing "severe intoxication."
Other artists performing at the concert were Kyle, PnB Rock and ANoyd.
But Zimmerman, now 30 and living in Washington, D.C., grew up amid the hashtags that have come to symbolize the killings of unarmed black men by police. On his Facebook page on Thursday — after Simpson was granted parole from armed robbery and assault convictions — Zimmerman posted: "Let 1994 go guys."
"The most relevant thing that came out of O.J. since the trial was the Kardashians for millennials," said Zimmerman, referring to Simpson's close friendship with the reality-TV clan that was highlighted in a recent television series about the case. Family patriarch Robert Kardashian, a lawyer, was on Simpson's defense team during the murder trial.
"We don't have an O.J.," Zimmerman said. "For me, that was Trayvon Martin. He was me. That resonates more to me ... It wasn't like (Simpson) was at the forefront of any movement." While millions watched Simpson's parole hearing last week, audiences were hardly as emotionally invested as they were a generation ago watching his murder trial. Simpson's 1995 acquittal in the deaths of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman bitterly polarized Americans around race.
But interest has waned, attitudes have changed and black Americans are wrestling with more familiar injustices. Today, Simpson's racial symbolism is largely seen as a relic. "We just have bigger concerns that are much more directly impacting our specific lives," said University of Pennsylvania sociologist Camille Z. Charles. "We now have symbols that reflect what actually happens to most black people. Most black people don't get fancy lawyers that get them off. They don't have jurors that will be sympathetic because of celebrity. The tide has shifted."
On Oct. 3, 1995, an estimated 150 million people — more than half the country at the time — tuned in to hear the jury's verdict in Simpson's trial for the Brown-Goldman murders. The strategy for Simpson's defense team — which included legendary black litigator Johnnie Cochran — was to frame the case around race. They argued that Simpson had been framed by a corrupt and racist Los Angeles Police Department.
Simpson spent much of his life distancing himself from the black community. He lived in the wealthy enclave of Brentwood in Los Angeles and traded his black college sweetheart for a blonde, white woman. And he once said, "I'm not black. I'm OJ." Still, many African-Americans saw the former running back and actor as a pioneer and cultural icon. Even before he became a criminal defendant, Simpson stood for something bigger.
Charles McKinney, who is black, was at work on June 17, 1994, when a friend called and told him to turn on the television. In his office with his white co-worker, the two saw the infamous Bronco chase as Simpson tried to elude police on a California highway.
"My co-worker was like, 'I think we should both go home and watch this,'" recalled McKinney, now 49, and a resident of Memphis, Tennessee. "I knew it was a simultaneously fascinating and toxic mix of race, reality television and celebrity, to see how quickly the nation just split itself along racial lines and how black folks tried to navigate this moment."
At the time, many blacks were less concerned with Simpson's guilt or innocence. For them, Simpson's wealth balanced the scales of justice in a way that was impossible for most black defendants: He could afford to buy his freedom.
"That sort of euphoria around somebody black working the criminal justice system and having it come out the way that it comes out for white folks all the time was kind of a big deal," Charles said. "We knew 'not guilty' didn't mean 'innocent.'"
Time has sobered the view of many blacks since the verdict. Recent polls show that a majority of blacks now say they believe Simpson was guilty — a view shared by only about 20 percent of blacks at the time of the trial.
Simpson found new relevance with millennials and sparked nostalgia with Generation Xers last year with a wildly popular docuseries and documentary about the murder case. And rapper Jay-Z's new album, "4:44," includes a song titled "Story of OJ."
When Simpson was convicted in Nevada for a hotel-room heist in 2008 and sentenced to up to 33 years in prison, blacks and whites perceived the harsh sentence as a proxy justice for his earlier acquittal. Still, McKinney wasn't glued to his television for Thursday's hearing. His initial reaction: Who cares?
"It's older white people or people who were around in 1994," McKinney said. "You get them mad about the case again. For folks in my generation, nobody was running home to watch this. He's a symbol, but we have lots of symbols now of people who embody these tensions."
Simpson's hearing on Thursday also didn't resonate with Shane Walk, 23, of Albuquerque, a white man who was an infant when the verdict came down. "I didn't live through the trial, so he doesn't represent to me, at least, to be a racial, polarizing figure as he did with previous generations," said Walk, adding that he felt the hearing was just another passing fad for the media and that people his age should focus on the current divisions in our country.
For Zimmerman, that focus belongs more on the modern-day issues around race and policing that Simpson's case once captured. "I have no vested interest in O.J.," Zimmerman said. "I would like for our country to get over certain things that just really don't affect us. His freedom doesn't affect anybody. There's no systemic issue with O.J. being free."
Associated Press writer Russell Contreras contributed to this story from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Contreras and Whack are members of AP's race and ethnicity team.
