In recent months there’s been talk in the news regarding the lowering crime rates in El Salvador. Clearly, the government has taken much credit for the feat. But I suspect there’s more to the matter than what’s being disclosed. After all, this recent Suzuki find near my home supports a counter idea: Those lowering crime rates are the result of Gotham City’s Wayne Enterprises opening a local crime-fighting franchise.
Back in 1968, the most popular auto magazine in Germany presented a comprehensive early test drive of a revolutionary new “Wunderauto”: the NSU Ro80. With its futuristic styling and two-rotor Wankel engine, the Ro80 was a bold move for the Neckarsulm-based automaker, and it seemed poised to make a Tesla-like splash in the European executive car market. auto, motor und sport (AMS) gave the Ro80 a complete shakedown, which we are pleased to present on Curbside Classic in English!
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A sign of the times…a forward thinking European city doing its best to be ecologically and environmentally friendly implements an innovative car-sharing service utilizing pure Battery Electric vehicles to reduce both emissions and traffic congestion…it must be 2024. Nope, it’s actually fifty years earlier. Read the rest of this entry »
My assignment in Gothenburg was in many ways the highlight of my thirty-plus years with Volvo. Representing North America’s interests on the project team tasked with developing the replacements for Volvo’s first-generation S40 and V40 compact sedans and wagons, I had the opportunity to work with engineers and product planners who were adjusting to life in the Ford galaxy (pun intended), as well as the near-total redefinition of the project as our previous joint venture with Mitsubishi was deep-sixed in favor of our new collaborators in Dearborn and Hiroshima.
“Doing a small car is like tailoring a dwarf”, GM’s celebrated Styling chief Bill Mitchell is reported to have said. Adding to this haberdashery challenge, when compared to the existing S40, the new car would be shorter (ostensibly to increase the apparent visual “distance” between it and the mid-size Volvo S60 on the showroom floor), taller, and wider (to provide more passenger room and cargo space). Not exactly a repeat of Harley Earl’s “longer, lower, wider” mantra, but perhaps one better-suited for the compact-class automotive environment of the mid-aughts.
(first posted 5/29/2012) Even though I am retired, I frequently find myself crossing the state for non-income producing reasons. Now I carry a camera. I was minding my own business doing just that when I came across this little attention grabber. There is some commonality, at least of features, between this and the ’48 Windsor we just covered. These coupes have always been favorites of mine despite having too many wheels. Just honest workhorses.
(first posted 11/24/2018) Here’s a very unique and technically interesting bus from our friends down under – it’s a Dyson Landliner and it plied the roads in Australia for several years back in the mid-to-late 1940’s. Read the rest of this entry »
What we have today is another chance for armchair traveling, thanks to a series of snapshots from what looks like a vacation to Las Vegas in the early 1970s. And while the traffic is fairly light (Yeap, less cars back in the ’70s!) there’s actually a lot to see car wise in these shots. Especially if you like American iron from the period.
I suppose this may seem a silly question depending upon the extent to which you consider Curbside Classic to be a “car forum”. Actually, my question is about a different type of online beast than this site. What I am asking about is closer to what back in the dark ages used to be called a “BBS” or bulletin board system. Rather than primarily featuring photos and/or essays like CC, these more primal message-based systems are designed mostly for hosting asynchronous “conversations” around topics authorized by the system managers. This is what I mean when I say “Forums”.
Photos from the Cohort by Slant Six.
I would assume that today’s find is basically a unicorn by now: a 2.8L-equipped early third-gen Stang. The only year the Cologne V6 was offered in the new Fox-body platform, after being part of the Mustang II repertoire since ’74 during those energy-challenged 1970s. And from the looks of things, the old 2.8L still apparently powers this baby blue ‘Stang that seems straight out of the Ford showroom.
I really enjoyed driving my dream car.
In part one, I described how I was able to purchase my dream car: a Toyota AE86. I was able to buy one with a bit of a shady background, a shady engine swap, some broken parts, a cracked windshield, and many parts in boxes. It took some time and effort to get there, but I managed to sort out most things. Now that the car was drivable, I started driving it on a daily basis.
Me and my girlfriend went on many weekend trips and I really enjoyed wrenching with my mates one or two evenings per month. I would do small things to improve the car or help my mates out if they had a bit bigger job to do. For me, the next thing to sort out was to make the car a bit more comfortable and improve things. Improving comfort was necessary as the suspension featured lowering springs of unknown origins, a set of yellow Koni shocks set to the maximum stiffness, and the four-links of the rear axle had their rubber bushes replaced by solid nylon ones. This may be comfortable when going sideways in a drift session, but not when driving through Dutch urban neighborhoods. The Dutch are king in lowering speed in urban areas to 30 kilometres per hour (18 mph) and placing uncomfortable speed bumps wherever they can.
(first posted 1/6/2013) During the late fifties and sixties, the pickup became ever more “civilized”. In addition to softer suspensions and other amenities, most of that had to do with spiffing up the cab with nicer upholstery, inside door trim, padded dashes, fancy steering wheels…but no one had yet taken the plunge and installed genuine bucket seats. Undoubtedly inspired by the success of the Mustang, Ford offered a Ranger cab trim option for 1965 that included buckets–straight out of the Mustang. Read the rest of this entry »
I am very pleased to announce that Aaron Severson — known as Ate Up With Motor from the name of his website, — is joining Curbside Classic as Senior Editor. I consider Aaron the best all-round automotive historian of our time, as most of the great print-age historians from that earlier era are mostly gone, retired or churning out predictable coffee-table books. Aaron’s ability to dive deep into subjects that capture his wide-ranging interest can be breathtaking; he is a veritable font of information, facts, statistics, references and anecdotes and has an exceptional ability to synthesize them into cogent perspectives and conclusions.
Aaron has been a good friend to CC and myself personally, providing insightful comments and behind the scenes support and conversations. Now he will also be contributing content to help further CC’s mission to be the best and biggest general interest automotive history site.
(first posted 11/23/2018) Ah, the Rampage. Dodge’s “Sports Pickup”, sold between 1982 and 1984, was a short-lived phenomenon. While a few are still roaming the streets, as of this month there is one less out there. In this case, a 1983 model which I stumbled across a few weeks ago.
I caught this lovely Lorraine-Dietrich last year, when it was still in the two-digit realm (age-wise), but what’s a year and change when you’re that old? It was more than appropriate to hold off and wait until we could celebrate its 100th birthday with an apparition on CC – the first by this ancient and respected French marque, to boot.
