Recent Posts
5

1966 Chevrolet Bel Air Station Wagon – How Thrifty Americans and Canadians Hauled Their Families

By
– Posted on July 25, 2025

The world has changed a lot in the 50 some years since this Bel Air wagon sagged down on its springs and undersized tires and hauled the family on vacation trips, to Little League games, and the weekly supermarket trip, which filled a good portion of the back with sacks of groceries. We’re not going to attempt to document all those changes here, but one of the biggest ones was the one-earner family with a passel of kids. And when it came time for long-suffering dad to figure out how to make his modest paycheck stretch far enough to buy a new family hauler, this is what was all-too often the answer. Read the rest of this entry »

19

Curbside Classic: 1994 Mercedes-Benz E320 (A124) – Warmer Days Are Here Again

By
– Posted on July 25, 2025

(first posted 7/11/2017)        With a lot of rainy, overcast days in May and early June, summer was a bit late arriving in Southeastern Massachusetts this year, but I’m happy to report that it’s officially here, with sunny skies, temperatures averaging in the 70s and 80s, and lots of people opting to go topless, by means of a convertible that is.

Read the rest of this entry »

9

Vintage Photos: The Cars Of 1966 Arrive, Ready For A Great Year Of Sales

By
– Posted on July 25, 2025

Text by Patrick Bell.

I always enjoyed when a transport truck arrived at the dealership’s where I was employed.  There is something about a load of new vehicles, even if they aren’t all that attractive.  Today we are heading back to the 1966 model year, and looking them over along with their mode of transit.  So ride with us and pick out one or two for yourself.

Read the rest of this entry »

12

1975 International D200 Truck Still Hard At Work Hauling Gravel

By
– Posted on July 25, 2025

Our driveway and parking pad in Port Orford needed some additional gravel. A friend there gave me the name of a guy who does smaller loads, ideal for tipping under the low branches of trees. So I called up Dale and ordered a few loads. I was out front by Coast Guard Road that has quite a steep grade when I heard what sounded like an older V8 at full chat. Then I saw the distinctive face of a vintage orange International slowly come into view. The bed was sitting mighty low over the rear wheels.

But it was all in a day’s work for this old workhorse; Dale said it’s hauled over 150 loads this year already.

Read the rest of this entry »

14

Vintage Road Test Magazine Review: 1971 Buick Centurion – A Mild Cat Replaces The Wildcat

By
– Posted on July 25, 2025

The Buick Wildcat had established itself as Buick’s big performance car of the sixties. It had been available with a hot dual quad V8 and four speed floor shift, although most of them were not quite that gnarly. But the times they were a changing, and for 1971, Buick replaced the Wildcat with the Centurion. It was intended to convey a more understated aura of performance and sportiness for a new era of smog controls and changing priorities. Road Test Magazine tested one, and although it was reasonably brisk for 1971, despite its larger 455 cubic inch V8 it was almost three seconds slower to 60 mph than one of those gnarly ’64s.

The Wildcat had been replaced by the Mildcat.

Read the rest of this entry »

13

Curbside Classic: 2001 Mitsubishi Proudia V8 GDI – Mitsu’s Only V8, Dead After 15 Months

By
– Posted on July 25, 2025

The fact that Mitsubishi still exists and manufactures cars in 2025 is a source of permanent wonder, isn’t it? These days, the Sick Carmaker of Japan title has reverted to Nissan, and rightly so, as they’re really in dire straits. But you know who is majority-owned by Nissan since 2016? Mitsubishi, of course. Always in the background. The start of this slow-motion death spiral is best exemplified by their Titanic-like flagship, the 2000-01 Proudia. I even found the rare super-deluxe V8 version, just to add gravitas to that sinking feeling.

Read the rest of this entry »

23

Curbside Find: Datsun 1600 (521) Li’l Hustler Pickup, and Its Replacement

By
– Posted on July 24, 2025

(first posted 7/7/2017)       One of the best things about our neighborhood is the alleys. I can walk out my back door and back garden gate, and head down the alley to our neighborhood market/cafe and other shops, and never set foot on pavement except to cross the streets. The backyards are more scenic than the front yards, and there’s blackberries and other fruit to pick in the right times of the year.

Just one block down from our house sits this old Datsun pickup, a 1600 (521) from somewhere between 1969 and 1972. It hasn’t moved in the past two years or so, and there’s a radiator sitting next to it, but it used to be a regular driver, and I’ve shot it severe times before, in another part of town. And next to it is its apparent replacement. I’ll bet you can guess what it is. Read the rest of this entry »

5

Curbside Find: 1974 (?) Jensen-Healey – Parked, Now Trying To Run

By
– Posted on July 24, 2025

As I was once again in Laramie, this time working on my other rental house that looks like it is finally rented after I spent way too much time refurbishing it over the last year and half, I took a look behind the house in the alley.  Lo and behold, just like I found a Supra languishing a few alleys away behind the other house, there was a treat here as well! Read the rest of this entry »

11

Car Show Classic: 1967 Ambassador Convertible – Only 1,268 Others On The Planet

By
– Posted on July 24, 2025

08-03-2012 054 (800x524)

Today, let’s look at another rare AMC. Jason Shafer showed us an amazing ’68 Ambassador sedan, but have any of you seen the elusive convertible? Offered only in ’67, the model only found 1,269 buyers despite quite an attractive look. This one was at the 2012 Maple City Cruise Night in Monmouth, IL.

Read the rest of this entry »

5

CC For Sale: 1955 Pontiac Wagon Found Down South – Old American, In Need Of Rescue In The Tropics

By
– Posted on July 24, 2025

Last weekend, I did a post on a ’53 Ford Ranch Wagon found in San Salvador. With that, I thought I was done with the “Hey look, an old American wagon found in Central America!” topic. However, the local FB Marketplace had other plans for me. And unlike that earlier ’53 Ford, this old Poncho needs just about everything; it’s a body in need of lots of soft parts, glass, electrics and more. Though supposedly it still carries a V8 (original? working?), and manual transmission.

Read the rest of this entry »

27

Curbside Find: 1990 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme – A Stick-Shift Supreme

By
– Posted on July 24, 2025

Can you imagine being an Oldsmobile product planner during the height of “Cutlass Fever” in the 1970s and ’80s, and being told by some prescient being that Oldsmobile would be the first of the “classic” GM brands to get the axe? When exactly did Oldsmobile lose its magic touch? It might have been around the time that their stalwart Cutlass Supreme sent Curbside Classic writers on an hour-long research journey in an attempt to nail down the model year (I’m still a little hesitant). Regardless, Hyperpack left some pictures of this base 1990 (fingers crossed) Cutlass Supreme on the CC Cohort, and it’s not only interesting for being a car that has fundamentally disappeared, but also for having a five-speed manual. Who’d have called that?

Read the rest of this entry »

14

Vintage Car Life Review: 1966 Ford Bronco – Ford Joins The Compact 4X4 Market With A “West Of The Pecos Rodeo Aura”

By
– Posted on July 24, 2025
Left front 3q view of 1966 Ford Bronco wagon

1966 Ford Bronco wagon (U-15) / Bring a Trailer

 

In the mid-’60s, Ford Motor Company studied the Jeep CJ-5 and International Scout and declared, “We can do that!” The result: the 1966 Ford Bronco, a boxy little SUV with part-time 4WD, rudimentary styling, and VW Beetle performance. Car Life tested the Bronco in April 1966 and concluded that despite its considerable on-road deficiencies, it was a vehicle that “awakens the latent Wild West in a driver’s personality.”

Read the rest of this entry »

21

Curbside Classic: Zimmer Quicksilver – It Was Simply Inevitable

By
– Posted on July 23, 2025

I once heard someone say “If you wait long enough, eventually you will see every car ever made in the world somewhere in Southern California.”  At the time, I sagely nodded my head, but I believe it to be true.  Southern California has long been a mecca for the automotive being, and people there own everything imaginable, never mind that it’s one of the most inhospitable environments in the world from a vehicle regulatory standpoint.  So I was surprised and bemused, but not amazed, when I decided to go for a walk after having dinner at my sister-in-law’s house last month a couple of miles from UCLA and came across this rare bird just around the corner.
Read the rest of this entry »

12

Curbside Find: 1995-2003 LaForza – Italian Trailblazer From The Early Wave Of Luxury 4x4s

By
– Posted on July 23, 2025

Here’s something you don’t see every day, a LaForza captured in Vermont and posted at the CC Cohort by William Oliver.

A what…? What in the world is a LaForza? You may ask. Look, if the model doesn’t ring a bell, don’t you worry; these were rare from the start. The LaForza is part of an early wave of exotic luxury oriented 4x4s from the 1980s, about which 1200 supposedly sold in the US throughout its ’89-’03 run.

Read the rest of this entry »

10

Curbside Find: 1968 Beaumont – SD396? Maybe, But With the Wrong Badging

By
– Posted on July 23, 2025

photo from the CC Cohort by William Oliver

 

What have we here from that alternate universe to the north of us? Looks like a ’69 Chevelle Malibu with a Pontiacesque (that already sounds like a Canadian car) nose job. Well, it is just that. The Beaumont, a brand unto itself, was sold by Canadian Pontiac-Buick dealers.

And this one is sporting a 396 badge. So is it one of the legendary Beaumont SD 396 models? Well, if it is a genuine SD, then yes, as by this year, all SDs were 396s.

Read the rest of this entry »

Older Entries