These aerobirds, especially the plain-vanilla versions like this one, are at risk of extinction. They appeared out of nowhere in 1983, and multiplied exceedingly quickly. Even in California, which was so anti-domestic at the time, these became as common as starlings or crows. But now they’re at danger of extinction. Read the rest of this entry »
I was perusing my files for Toyotas I’ve shot but not posted when I stumbled into this gem of a find from some years ago, shot on a cliff overlooking the Pacific near Big Sur. It’s my first and only gen1 Corolla, and it’s still in regular use, by the same owner since 1984. So what was I waiting for? Read the rest of this entry »
It is well known hereabouts that I suffer from a fetish – I just cannot get enough of the 1964 Studebaker. In the company’s last burst of creativity it got an “A” for effort in trying to make a thoroughly obsolete platform relevant in the fast-moving market as the early 1960s morphed into the mid 1960’s. This car may have been the most competitive convertible the company had offered since the year it paced the Indianapolis 500 in 1952. But as we have all known from an early age, effort alone does not guarantee success.
Texty by Patrick Bell.
Cars with the DeSoto nameplate were produced for over thirty years, and have been gone for over sixty. Today we have a good selection of images from their final full decade. Please join us as we look over a few of the cars named after the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto.
There are too many things in life that are frustrating because of a lack of context. You can fill in your own blanks, but I’m reminded of a Peanuts cartoon strip where Snoopy takes a phone call, laughs, hangs up, and walks away, leaving a befuddled Charlie Brown to yell impotently, “I’ll never know what that was about!” Hyperpack has left a series of pictures in the Cohort that leave me feeling as befuddled as everyone’s favorite animated sad sack in the face of his wonder dog. It’s a ’59 Ford F-250, that much is clear, but what isn’t so obvious is the owner’s purpose in adding an array of aftermarket lights, reflectors, electronics, and even horns. Are they an ex-trucker? A lover of accessories? Both? Regardless, perhaps you can spot a couple things I miss, and we can all speculate together; sometimes it helps to talk through one’s exasperation.
A year and a half after introducing the smaller Seville, Cadillac downsized its full-size models for 1977, making them a bit less grotesque in size and somewhat better to drive. Car and Driver, not Cadillac fans by any means, tried the downsized Cadillac Coupe de Ville in June 1978 and found it “surprisingly capable” as a car as well as a status symbol.
(first posted 8/14/2019) Finally, something right up my dorsal fin. It’s no secret that I have a slight preference for the T87, but any Tatra sighting is a post-worthy occurrence. And it so happens that the Jesada Technik Museum, not too far from Bangkok, has two Tatraplans. To quote the eminent philosophers Ren and Stimpy: “Happy happy, joy joy!”
(first posted 8/16/2019) If Darth Vader was a real person and inhabited this planet in the 1980’s would this in fact be Darth’s choice of ride to commute to the Mos Denver Space Port from his lair in the foothills of the Rockies? I think it could be. Back when the Saab 900 Turbo SPG debuted in 1984, it was powerful, dark, and subtle. It didn’t carry a huge stick but it had huge presence. It made itself known without overt theatrics and was underestimated by many. And I wanted one so bad I could taste it. Read the rest of this entry »
You think the early 5 mile bumpers were excessively long? CC Cohort William Rubano caught this ’57 Cadillac with a continental spare kit that makes a Pinto’s shelf bumper-butt look positively anorexic. Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s something I didn’t expect to come across at all. Not that I was entirely sure as to what exactly I was staring at when I saw it from a distance. Can you blame me? Is not like there’s a whole lot on this one left. And in the San Salvador of my youth, Fiats of the seventies were the norm, not these from the 1960s. So, apologies for not figuring out the car’s identity right away.
Still, I remembered the shape as I had seen it somewhere once or twice. Recessed memories from my youth that I didn’t recall? Nope. Online mental references most likely. At first glance, it seemed like an Italian… or an early Japanese with Italian cues. Nope, Italian! You Fiat lovers are shouting. So yeap, an Italian, barely hanging in there. Like a lost and battered Roman soldier, left behind after a failed invasion effort in African lands (I was going to use Germany, but this being the tropics, it seemed all wrong. Better stick closer to the equator!).
In the fall of 1959, Chrysler introduced a new compact car called Valiant, with sound engineering, good road manners and controversial styling; it was an also-ran in the market, although it survived a long time once it adopted more conventional styling. In the fall of 1985, Ford introduced a new midsize car called Taurus, with sound engineering, good road manners, and controversial styling; it was a huge hit that only stumbled when Ford adopted an even more confrontational design for 1996. Although these cars couldn’t look more different, I realized recently that the early Valiant and the early Taurus were surprisingly similar in number of respects, including their inside and outside dimensions. Let’s see how they compared.
Time for another B-body! Yes, it’s well-established that many of us here at CC love the 1977-90 B-body, so I will shamelessly appeal to those well-versed folks with this red beauty, shot at the great Trains, Planes and Automobiles show in Geneseo, IL. The 1977 Caprice Classic and Impala, along with its corporate cousins, were perhaps the last great GM cars. Well hey, for the longest time, no one did full-size cars like the General…
The precise evolution of the SUV, like all car genres is debatable, but there’s no question that the International Scout is the critical link between the military Jeep and the modern SUV. It was the first vehicle of the genre to be designed from scratch to meet the anticipated growth in the off-road capable civilian market, and it clearly was the template for its many imitators: Ford Bronco, Range Rover, Chevy Blazer, Dodge Ramcharger, as well as the Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero (and others). True to its name, the Scout led the industry into the land of milk and SUV profits, even if it bowed out early. Read the rest of this entry »
Take a 1997 model, give it the front and rear fascias, bumpers, and bodyside moldings of the same car from 1995, add in the chrome grille, wheels, and interior from a different 1996 car, and sell it as a new model. Sound like a logical plan? Well, that is just what Oldsmobile did for the 1997-1998 Regency.
