Twice this year I have visited Orlando with my family. Orlando is a nice place, with both trips being for professional gatherings for them, although Hurricane Milton axed a third scheduled trip. No joke. On this second trip, we focused on areas we had not seen in June. It worked out quite well. Thus, on Saturday, November 9, my daughter and I meandered over to nearby Kissimmee to visit their Old Town. There happened to be a cruise-in happening.
Is there a requirement for places basking in the past to have a car on static display? I suppose there is. This 1956 Chevrolet had been a nice one.
On the opposite side of the wall behind the Chevrolet was this Wall of Wheelcovers. My daughter was impressed (although not necessarily in a good way) I was able to identify model years for many of these.
Before we get to the show itself, I must show this. So often people growl about the monster trucks on the highways and byways of North America. It’s all in one’s visual calibration, I suppose, but this is a monster truck. I’m 5’11” and even the tires tower over me.
This Ford had been used in a couple of movies and somehow wound up in an amusement park adjacent to Old Town.
The setting of the cruise-in was nice with the vintage appearing buildings and such. It was a rather long area for the cruise-in, with more cars able to park than what it would appear.
While baby blue isn’t my favorite color on a car, it looks good on this Falcon.
Daughter was not surprised to learn this Falcon has a lot of commonality to the Mustang beside it.
At first I thought this to be a Javelin. Nope, it was an AMX.
That’s a good looking engine bay.
While typically not a fan of such things, the alterations on this 1950 Ford were likely done decades ago.
A quick aside…There were several themed golf carts buzzing around the Old Town area. This Dodge Ram inspired cart was the first we saw; there was another of a ’58 Chevrolet. I like it.
Orange seems to work on a ’64 Thunderbird. There were a lot of oranges to be found in Central Florida…
This ’56 Chevrolet has met a better fate than the last one we saw. It had a lot of period equipment inside and the lower-tier trim was appropriate for a fire department car.
An old Stovebolt, still doing its thing. I was happy to see it there.
Speaking of straight-sixes, here’s a 1966 Ford F-100. Despite this being a step-side, it put me in mind of Paul’s ’66 Ford.
I rather doubt Paul has similar bling on the engine of his pickup.
This does look like a fun ride.
Since we are on a blue streak, let’s keep it going…
This was a nice, but pretty basic, 1964 Ford Fairlane. My picture of its rear half had glare and this Fairlane does not possess the optional reverse lights.
This Buick LeSabre was quite original and had Puerto Rico license plates.
A 1974 Nova is not a common sight. A 1974 Nova SS is even less common of a sight. This one deserves its moment of glory.
This generation of Dodge Charger seems to always get one’s attention. These are quite visually pleasing although the round tail lights of the 1968s, like this one, just don’t work for me.
What works for me is this 1965 Dodge Coronet. Don’t ask why, it just does.
Maybe this is it. I’m speculating this is a 383??? The distributor being up front is the basis of that speculation.
Seeing a four-speed transmission is less difficult to decipher. This Dodge was great.
As a child I had a Matchbox Dodge Challenger. It always confused me; I rarely saw a Challenger. If I did it was a 1970 or 1971 model. This is like my Matchbox car, the facelifted and far less common newer Challenger.
I don’t think I’d ever seen a Fairlane convertible of this vintage before. It was a high trim XL, to boot.
A 1959 Ford retractable hardtop. These almost seem to be obligatory at any show, but that’s okay. I always enjoy seeing them and this ’59 had a very nice color combination.
Now, the title of this piece mentions Toyota. I have yet to show one. Before I do…
…here’s a Mazda RX-7. These seem even smaller now than they did when new.
That said, I know nothing about Toyotas. So I offer them without comment.
These various Toyotas were good to see as I had not thought about most of them in years. In my part of the world I will see more forty year old Volkswagens and Mercedes, and those are scarce, than I do Toyotas.
But I also mentioned Econolines. They were there. All convoyed in together, which was quite the sight. Here they are:
After all these Toyotas and Econolines, I feel as if a palate cleanser is in order.
No, this Monte Carlo is terrific, but just isn’t what I need. Perhaps a little red meat will do.
There we go. A very nice (and red) 1968 Chevrolet Caprice.
This brings us to the end of our Saturday cruise-in.
When I saw the first pic, I thought oh boy, this will be dull. But then, it wasn’t!
Thanks so much, I needed that. It’s28 degrees at 9:30 am here in Poughkeepsie ny… Winter sucks, I’m not a fan.. All summer I’m at cars and coffee s, cruise ins and car shows. I go through withdrawal at the end of the season.. Lot of nice cars there, and the wind is b!owing here also providing an inhumane wind chill…!!!😟
The 68 Caprice sure is a beauty!
+1
Jason mentioned having a Matchbox model of the Dodge Challenger. One of my first was an Econoline pickup in blue, just like the one pictured fourth from the bottom.
Still have it somewhere (along with my very first, a Morris Crowley).
Great pics!
The red Toyota Starlet is a pretty rare car, especially today. They were only sold in the US for a few years, and they didn’t sell all that well.
Economy car buyers had mostly embraced FWD by that point, and the Starlet had internal FWD competition from the FWD Tercel. The people who embraced the Starlet had going fast in mind, because RWD was still considered better for “racecar” in the era.
Most of these KP61 Starlets were modded and raced to death.
It was also the smallest but not the cheapest model in the Toyota lineup, since it came in one trim level roughly equivalent to the Tercel Deluxe or Corolla Deluxe. The standard Corolla and Tercel – both 2-door sedans only – were really ultra-stripped basic.
Two of these are blasts from my past. A neighbor lady was driving a 67 Fairlane convertible in the mid to late 70s. She had bought it new when she graduated college and started a teaching career, and it continued to serve after she got married and had a couple of kids. Then they moved so I don’t know how much longer she kept it.
Around that same time a friend of my mother had a 68 Caprice. The quality of the interior materials really impressed me – it was nicer inside than newer Cadillacs seemed.
The Caprice for the win!!
+2
Since I tend to gravitate to the more unexceptional cars at shows, I’m most impressed by those Toyotas. With the possible exception of Celicas, I hardly ever see vintage Toyotas at car shows. I wonder which coachbuilder converted the Corolla SR5 into a convertible? I recall there being a few who did those conversions.
Oh, and I’ll admit it – I like the Dodge Ram golf cart.
Nice to catch a Toyota Starlet, those were never common although one of my uncles had one. You could practically have a picnic on that north american spec rear bumper!
My favorite in this bunch is the RX-7. Same original colors as my late lamented RX, but if the wheels are an indication this looks like a GSL-SE with the fuel injected 13B motor, a considerable power upgrade over the more common 12A.
Great post and thanks for the virtual escape, Jason! Too many here from which to pick a favorite, but I have a few. I know that ’74 Monte Carlo isn’t your jam, but I like it and especially in that color combo. I had looked at a ’73 Chevelle in that color (champagne with black roof and interior) as a teenager, but back then, $4,000 was way too much money for me.
That ’64 Thunderbird does work very well in orange with the white interior. It would seem like the perfect spokes-car for the Florida Orange Juice Council.
I love an AMX (and the related Javelin), but for some reason, the ’70 restyle on the AMX leaves me cold. I can’t quite figure out what makes me not like it as much. Big Bad Green is also fine, but I’d take mine in a more subdued color – the better to smoke unsuspecting stoplight racers.
How does one get into that monster truck? With a ladder?
I wouldn’t be surprised if the answer to that last question is “not at all, it’s a static display.”
The top two Toyotas are 1970s Corollas – dark red is a ’78 or ’79 Corolla 1600 and the orangey brown is slightly earlier, 1975-77. The silver convertible is a 1981-83 Corolla, a conversion based on the Corolla hardtop coupe.
The white Celica is an ’84 or ’85, another rarity being a notchback coupe with the widebody flares, a combo Toyota only offered briefly and didn’t really emphasize since they saw the fastback hatch Celicas as distinctly upmarket from the notch (the base ST trim was only ever a notchback, when the Supra was basically a 6-cyl Celica up to ’85 it was hatch only).
The blue 4-door is a first generation Tercel, a 1981 or ’82 model. 1980 was the first year for the Tercel in the US but as 2-doors (sedan and hatch, again the hatch was upmarket) only with the 4-door coming in for ’81 along with the midcycle facelift.
Very cool to see some vintage Japanese iron at a car show for once! A Starlet and early Corollas are quite the rare sight, especially here in the midwest.
Thanks Jason! There’s something there for everyone, and great colors. Maybe the colors strike me in particular because it’s Florida and obviously bright and sunny and definitely not 28 degrees like it is here in Massachusetts.
I was going to say something silly about the Ram golf cart, but then I thought You know, whoever produced that clearly is into their vehicle, and if that vehicle turns out to be a golf cart (which seems to be a thing in Florida from what I’ve heard), so be it. They obviously have talent – I sure couldn’t produce that – and heck, maybe in their retirement (I hear that’s also a thing in Florida) aside from fabricating new body work for golf carts they also spend time on online car sites. Maybe they’re reading CC and saying (to themselves, since they’re not commenting) “Hey! That’s MY burnt orange Ram Cart! Cool.”.
If so, I salute you, golf cart conversion guy. Well done!
Local cruise in was held last week in Napier lots of used imports, no multiples like shown here, but several now rare NZ new cars, it made it onto you tube again theres a British car nut that keeps on turning up and videoing everything,
Love the Econolines, especially the pickups and the Starlet with fat tires.
Ok, by now we all know how I feel about the ‘68 Chevy. 😉
The other car that caught my eye was the’84 Celica. My ex and I had a white one almost exactly like that, although ours was just a GT, and not a GT-S with the fender flares and wider wheels. That car was an absolute hoot to drive.
Nice pictures, all of them .
I don’t see Econoline vans like I use to, whenever I do they’re usually in a bunch 25 + of them doing a club run or show .
-Nate