(first posted 8/4/2018) It’s limousine season here in Thailand – more so than usual. I’ve had cause to write the occasional post about the stretchers I found here, there and elsewhere, and I find the “summer” months (June, July and August, which are monsoon months here) are usually more limo-prone. And I think I know why.
(first posted 8/3/2018) “Overstyled” is a bit of an understatement, but ironically enough, the F-10’s styling was actually just some three or four decades ahead of the curve. High belt line: check. Small windows: check. Sloping rear deck with poor visibility: check. Overwrought bulging headlights: check. FWD: check. Overwrought tail lights: check.
Photos from the Cohort by Jerome Solberg.
Here’s a ’66 Chevelle Malibu 2-door hardtop, beat up and worn, the way they used to be found around my high school grounds back in the ’80s. A once gleaming belonging, now reduced to second rate transportation.
Photo Courtesy Detroittransithistory.info
While never as popular as General Motors “New Look” transit coach introduced in 1959, Flxible Corporation’s concurrent New Look model had a fairly successful run. Over 17,000 were produced from 1960 to 1978. There was however, one slightly embarrassing episode that didn’t add much to the coach’s reputation. Read the rest of this entry »
Brochure image from favcars.com.
I’ll admit right here, I’m an idiot and make lots of dumb calls in life; all in the name of good intentions.
Such was a job I took. I had been with Lowe’s for 10 years when I was “no longer needed.” I was 46 years old and in 2009 the job market was bad. After being turned down on about 15 jobs, I needed work right away.
(first posted 10/7/2012. This post includes images by the author as well as by P. Niedermeyer)
Recently I found this BMW 8-Series parked next to my house. As a departure from typical BMW design standards (and somewhat the opposite of essential BMW philosophy), the 8-Series was one of BMW’s riskier moves of recent years. Since the late 1960s, BMW had become synonymous with sporty handling, great dynamics and advanced technology, and renowned for cars designed to engage drivers in the pursuit of ultimate driving pleasure. So did the 8-Series fit that bill?
Well, not at all.
(first posted 8/2/2018) When the weakening dollar made the German Opel 1900/Manta too expensive to import anymore, GM looked to its affiliate in Japan for the replacement. The Isuzu Gemini was of course essentially an Opel Kadett C, although with a totally different drive train and a number of other changes. R&T’s conclusion is foregone: it’s not a bad car, but it’s not quite it’s predecessor either. But then the comparison is a bit skewed.
For today, a collection of images of sporty Mopars taken back in the ’60s and ’70s. I’ve generally covered these corporate siblings separately, but this time, why not bring them together?
If this were a ’95 Corolla wagon, I wouldn’t have stopped. And I would know with a great degree of likelihood that it would still be around in a few years, or more. But not so with this Passat wagon; not only is it the last of its generation I’ve seen in some time, it looks like it might be on its last legs. Get it while you can…
Day 4 of the Cycle the Erie Canal trip started in Seneca Falls, NY, the central NY town that our rolling camping trip had wound up in the previous evening. Seneca Falls is actually a bit off the main drag of the Erie Canal, but is a popular detour given it affords an opportunity to venture down to Lake Cayuga and also to see the epicenter of the 19th century social reform movements that have given the region its rightful and enduring place in American social and political history.
For those readers who missed last week’s part one of this Erie Canal cycling travelogue, you can catch up with the story here. If you’re already caught up, read on.
Who will take care of old vintage cars as time moves on? And who will value them? It’s a topic that appears on and off again in these pages. As time passes, will the cars that a certain generation lusted after remain desirable? Those Cougars, Chevelles and GTOs of the ’60s are worth beyond anyone’s imagination nowadays. But will they remain so in the years to come?
True, Duesenbergs remain million-dollar machines today. But is not like it’s a nameplate that rolls off the tongue from my Gen Z pals, much less millennials. And on that line, the names Pope Toledo or Pierce Arrow don’t come often in those circles either.
We haven’t done a call-out like this in quite a while, but I feel this would be a good time to find some new blood at CC. With summer in full swing and with our current contributors enjoying the outdoors, the influx of material has dropped a bit lately. So, why not check out who else is out there? With stories to tell or material to share and contribute?
I know the idea can be intimidating to the uninitiated, as the prospect usually sounds harder than it is. But fear not.
(first posted 7/28/2018) Time to crack open the next Road and Track of my huge stack that a reader sent me a couple of years ago. We’re now into July 1976, and the main article is a comparison of the Porsche 924 with the Datsun 280Z and Alfetta GT. You probably won’t be too shocked at the outcome, but it makes for good reading to get there.
(first posted 8/1/2018) “The Shape of Speed” may well be a personal high watermark as regards automotive exhibits. I have been utterly fascinated with the streamlined era since I was a child. The flowing lines of a Tatra 600 parked on our street in Innsbruck in the mid 50s left an indelible impression, reinforced by some streamlined Steyrs and of course the ubiquitous VWs, along with some other cars from the pre-war era still on the streets then.
This deep imprinting on my impressionable brain along with an intrinsic appreciation of the functional benefits of aerodynamics has left me with a life-long fascination with aerodynamics and the cars of this era, which I consider to be the single most important one in the evolution of automotive design. In a brief burst of creativity the automobile shed its its upright, boxy, open-fendered, narrow-bodied look that was still largely based on the horse and buggy, and adopted a sleek envelope body, one that is of course very much still with us today; more than ever, in fact.
Ken Gross curated a superb exhibit that features some of the most significant breakthrough cars of that era, including two prototypes I wasn’t familiar with. I’m going to share them with you in the order as we saw (and drooled over) them, but as a tribute to the most influential and radical production streamliner, I’ll start with this one shot of the Tatra 77, a car I have mythologized and internalized as something of an automotive higher being but have never had the chance to venerate in the flesh. I am not worthy…
