(first posted 8/25/2018) I wouldn’t classify it as such. I think it’s important to limit the Brougham classification to those primarily American (and sometimes foreign, usually Japanese) cars which really do it justice. This car–spotted in California by CJCars–has a gussied up style for sure, but it stops short of true Brougham. What is it, then? Well, m’dear, it’s nothing less than proper British luxury–in the form of one of its rarer exemplars.
Photos from the CC Cohort by Guillaume Vachey.
As soon as I saw the image of these two Américaines, I was transported back to the mid-90s. Never mind that they carry French plates. So, not quite a location I would have trotted back then, but there’s no way these two won’t reawaken those now-distant 1990s memories in my head.
In every age, there are those who enjoy that which is different. Folks who astray from the usual, either due to fondness for the uncommon or a quest for new solutions or experiences.
Today’s series of vintage images featuring a ’64-’65 Citroën DS wagon seems to be such a case. From the looks of things, someone wanted to taste something quite different from your garden-variety Ford and found it in this nicely loaded Citroën DS. Then, piled on miles and miles across the US over the years, leaving a short but nice record of its journeys.
So, how about checking out America as seen by this DS wagon between 1965 to 1969?
Given the brawny new ohv V8s that the Big Three and Studebaker had by then, it might seem odd that the Hudson Hornet with an old school flathead six utterly dominated stock car racing, winning 64 out of 108 NASCAR races in the years 1952-1954, thus establishing itself as a legend and cultural icon. Sadly, that all would end with this ’54 Hornet, as a desperate Hudson merged with Nash that year, thus ending production of the step-down Hudson. Maybe just as well, as all those V8s were now sprouting four barrel carbs and such and by 1954 they were ready to take down the Hornet.
Motor Life tested a Twin-H powered Hornet to see for themselves just how hot it really was. They were not disappointed.
Not a partial shot of a Volvo instrument cluster. The arrow indicates that the fuel filler is on the driver’s side. (Source: the web)
In last week’s post I noted that in the world of automotive product planning, if you achieve a .500 batting average, you’re doing well. Over the years, I surely had a few misses along with the occasional hits.
(first posted 2/13/2013)
For many years now, I have been a firm believer in two things:
(first posted 8/11/2014) Since its inception, practicality and functionality were the dominant forces that defined Volkswagens. With the arrival of the B5 Passat in 1996, that took a decided turn towards a more Audi-esqe and upscale image, which soon manifested itself in the Phaeton and that other miscalculation, the Passat W8. That’s not to say that the B5 Passat doesn’t have its charms, although once its soft-touch “paint” that coats many of its interior pieces starts peeling away like a sunburn, a considerable part of that charm flakes away. No such issues with its B3/4 predecessor: it was as honest and unadorned as a shoebox; the last of the old-school VWs. And I briefly lusted after one, if one can actually have such feelings for such a practical box. Read the rest of this entry »
I live in north Tokyo, so I do have a tendency to go south into the city for my regular CC hunting trips. Last week though, I decided to go due north, cross the Arakawa river and explore Saitama prefecture in a little more depth than usual. I’ve done this before, but pickings were usually slim. Not this time: purely by luck, I found Flex Auto Review, a pretty big classic car dealer. Let’s look around the forecourt and see what we have.
A few weeks back we reviewed the Necochea Aerobus, an early attempt at streamlining from Argentina. Today let’s look at another Argentinian bus and one from Brazil that were both similarly designed to “cheat the wind.” Read the rest of this entry »
2005: My first AE86 on the day I bought it.
As described in the prequel, I obtained my first Toyota AE86 from a user on the AEU86 forums called Jasper. Jasper had bought the car from the treasurer of the Dutch Toyota Club. The AE86 in question was a USDM car, a 1984 Toyota Corolla SR5 with air conditioning and a sunroof to be more precise. This will be a three-part series covering how I was able to purchase it, my ownership and what happened to it after I sold it.
(first posted 5/14/2013) Pontiac had an interesting lineup in the Sixties. While most people remember the Catalina, Grand Prix, GTO and Bonneville when it comes to ’60s Ponchos, the Star Chief still hung in there despite its ’50s-vintage nomenclature. The somewhat ignored middle child in the big Pontiac lineup is neither well-remembered or often seen today, so you can understand why I was happy to see one at last year’s Galesburg Car Show. Yes, I am still mining pictures from that single event–there were so many cool cars there!
(first posted 11/11/2018) Sometimes automakers come up with a timeless model name that can be transferred from generation to generation. One of them is Transit, everybody just knows you’re speaking Ford, no matter where you live. Ford and Transit go together like Volkswagen and Transporter, like Toyota and HiAce, like Fiat and Ducato.
(first posted 11/15/2018) Let’s follow up our look at that Fiat X1/9 with its big brother (or sister, depending), the Lancia Scorpion (Monte Carlo in Europe). It was originally designed to be the X1/9’s bigger brother, to be called the X1/20. But perhaps because the 124 Spider was such an evergreen hit, or because Lancia needed a boost, it arrived as such, and was even referred to as a Beta at the beginning.
It promised much: a bold (and successful, in my eye) rolling sculpture by Pininfarina, and much of the same basic technical approach that made the X1/9 such a delight on a windy road. There was just one thing missing: power. Yes, it was 1975, but surely a bit more could have been done to give the Scorpio a bit of bite.
We’ve visited the Imperial marque once before, with a gallery that mixed photos of some of the vehicles on their own, and others alongside their owners. Today’s follows the same idea; with vintage photos of Imperials not being that common, I feel any image capturing them is worth a moment of CC fame.
