The Second Annual Malaise Invitational was held in Philomath, OR. on June 24, and we drove up to see the sights. Just like last year, there were many excellent examples of cars from the ’70s through the early ’90s, but the star of the show had to be this 1981 AMC Eagle 4WD Sundancer convertible. It’s one of one hundred built, and the first one I’ve ever seen.
Its owner, Robert bought it in October of 2022, and did little or nothing to it before he decided to drive it to this show from Bend, OR, after seeing our post. And he took the scenic route over the Cascades. He only had one issue: a blown a/c compressor.
Robert said he saw puffs of smoke and heard noise, and pulled over to find the source.
The piston-type compressor must have thrown a rod, as there was a hole (visible on the right of the label) in the compressor case. Someone stopped and helped him diagnose it and disconnect the compressor. It must have been running dry, as the a/c had not been working anyway.
Robert also owns a few Studebakers, including a ’61 Hawk, a ’58 Packard hardtop coupe, and an Avanti too!
Moving on, there was this fine Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz convertible.
And this same color(?) 1992 Brougham d’Elegance. Just one step away from the vaunted Talisman.
It was parked next to the ultimate polar opposite, this Datsun B210 4-door. This is a very familiar car, as I saw it being used regularly in Eugene for a number of years, even hauling two teenagers in its cozy back seat.
I had to get in and remind myself what it was like to sit in (and drive) these cars. It was very familiar!
Including wrapping my long legs around the front seat. Did that a lot back in the day.
This B210 is in superb shape. The four door was not a popular seller, as most were the 2-door sedan and the coupe.
A fine V6 Fiero.
The pendulum sung quickly back the other way with this 1975 1978 Eldorado Biarritz.
We’re both wearing malaise-appropriate colors.
I sat in the Eldo, as a contrast to the B210. The leather seats were absurdly soft, and it was of course roomier, but not as much as you might think. Wider, yes.
A Ford Econoline Club Wagon.
Those seats are very much like the ones we had in our ’77 Dodge Chinook. I wish our seats in the Promaster had a bit of color like these, but then they are vastly more comfortable.
An Astro conversion van. Never quite totally got what these were supposed to be about, as I’m a bit of a spartan and prefer camping equipment to soft plushness everywhere, but the seats are comfy. And it does seat six much more comfortably than any sedan.
A 1984 Corvette.
My first sighting of a Nissan President here, although the number of 25+ year old imported sedans from Japan is rapidly increasing. This was of course sold here as the first Infiniti Q45.
An Olds Custom Cruiser.
With a vintage Bultaco on the back. Sweet bike!
And the inevitable Chryco minivan.
Great color for a Volvo 244.
An ex-JDM import Land Cruiser.
And another recent import, the first Toyota Century I’ve seen here.
I asked the owner to pop the hood for a shot of its magnificent V12, but I should have known better. It’s well hidden.
A somewhat weathered gen1 Ranger.
A US-market diesel Maxima. How more malaise can you get?
Those seats are so…Japanese.
These tough Nissan diesels are the polar opposite of the fragile Olds diesel V8 of the same era.
Here’s my personal favorite: a 1973 Ford C750 semi truck.
I just love these boxy C-series cabs.
I should have known, but I wanted to confirm that it was powered by the FT gas V8.
A big boy Tonka truck.
No, it’s not a Country squire version; that’s rust.
The familiar 5-speed with two-speed rear axle. I drove this combination in a number of trucks; very common back then. It was lots of fun to split all the gears smoothly and quickly.
Put a short dump bed on the back, and I could really put this to good use.
This is the Phoenix owned by Daniel, who organizes this show.
These two make a fine combination.
Modifying old Japanese cars for off-road use (or just looks) is a very popular thing, at least out here. Who needs 4WD?
A pristine K Car.
And a superb Dodge 400 convertible to keep it company.
A 1987 Chrysler LeBaron with 22k original miles.
This Jaguar was the prize for the raffle. I didn’t buy a ticket…
Ford pickup.
1987 Peugeot 505 V6 STi.
An early Chevy Blazer S10.
Looks like the 2.8 V6.
1993 VW Fox.
It’s for sale.
Another Fiero, this one powered by the Iron Duke Tech IV.
Last but not least, a Subaru hatchback.
We had another commitment to go to, so we had to leave quite early. We saw several cars on he road that were undoubtedly heading here as we were driving home, including a a superb beige Hornet 2-door sedan, a light green ’71-’72 Cadillac coupe, a Nissan 300 ZX, and a couple of others.
Here’s last year’s show, in case you missed it:
Car Show Classics: The First Malaise Invitational In Eugene
I like that B210, would have liked to take it for a little drive.
Lookin’ mighty dry there in Philomath! We were in Victoria BC last week and it was much the same.
Yes, we haven’t had any real rain since early-mid May. it’s going to be a long, dry, and most likely hot summer. We can commonly go 5 months (or more) without rain out here. Hence the title of the post (in part).
Meanwhile, in Port Orford it’s still green; and cool. 🙂
Port Orford update coming soon?
Dave
Hopefully. It’s a work in progress. But as soon as I finish the redwood table and the shed, I will do one.
I feel your (heat) pain…
What year is the “B210”? I liked the “hatchback” ones. They had two sets a side “flip out windows”!!
Someone in my hometown drove a “tudoor coupe”, version up till about “1992”. It was white; remember seeing it parked in the mall lot near the “triple a” building.
The diesel Maxima is the opposite of malaise. Dependability, longevity, fuel efficient, comfortable, fun to drive.
Thanks for this great post. First choice for me is the Fleetwood Brougham deElegance! 👍 Had an 89 with plush velvet interior. Loved everything and it! Living room on wheels. SOLID as a bank vault. Still regret letting it go. Believe the two tone Eldorado may have been one of a few two tone offerings. Would definitely put that in my garage. Sad what is now wearing the Cadillac name. A friend had a 90s LEBARON. Went on several trips in that car. Comfortable, surprisingly roomy and classy! Seldom seen are 82 through 88 RWD Fifth Avenues. Had an 83 and 85. Held their own with Lincoln and Cadillac for comfort, reliability and upscale luxury and traditional American luxury formal look. Another sob (definitely NOT Saab 🤮) story about the one that got away!😎
Given CAFE restrictions, the Cadillac Escalade V is a fine successor to the old Brougham. The CT6-V was also a good successor to the Brougham, but it was made in very limited quantities and sales weren’t enough to justify a second generation, which would have likely been imported from China as some sort of Hybrid/Electric sedan.
The rest of the current Cadillac line-up (excluding XT6) would be better off badged as Buicks, Pontiacs, or Oldsmobiles, I would keep the XT6 to lure families into Cadillac that can’t afford or justify the purchase of an Escalade. The XT6 is also an excellent “Town Car” for funeral homes and livery duties.
Killing off the CTS and its brand equity just to replace it with the CT4 & CT5 is a Cadillac deadly sin. The CT4 should be Buick’s Regal with the twin-turbo CT4-V being the Regal Grand National, it wouldn’t hurt if it was offered in coupe form either.
The CT5 should be renamed the CTS, but really would have been better off as a successor to the Oldsmobile Aurora or Buick LeSabre. It’s just not big and brash enough to be a Cadillac and especially not the “top of the line” car/sedan in the Cadillac line-up.
I think the Eldo identified as a 75 is a 78 Custom Biarritz last edition model because of the Demitasse Brown and Arizona beige two tone
Agreed.
Yes it is. It even said so on its sign. I fat-fingered that.
So much awful goodness here ! .
I wish I’da been there to drool in person .
Hard to choose just one but I think the Datsun B210 gets the nod from me .
-Nate
I lived in Michigan in the mid-to-late 80s, and those conversion Astro and Safari vans came close to being the de facto family hauler for a while. Maybe because so many folks had GM family plan discounts, I dunno. They were truck-based, and a lot of folks felt that would make them more durable than the stretched-to-the-limits K-car based vans.
After families tired of them, they mostly went on to the same fate: tradespeople who could no longer find the cargo variants of these vans that they loved would buy the conversions (because they were in much nicer condition; not beat to death) and gut them out, returning them to their cargo origins. I think a bunch of the ones that came from the factory as passenger cars met their fate in Cash for Clunkers – the passenger versions were eligible, but not the cargo versions.
Some folks on my block have a late passenger version, in an oh-so-90s color scheme of Mocha over Dark Teal two-tone.
A lot of Astros and Safaris were exported to Japan too. It was featured in one of their Anime cartoons and took off in popularity, similar to the RWD 80s Corolla hatchback.
The funny thing is that GM exported the Cavalier to Japan which nobody brought. GM should have exported the Astro instead!
I spent a lot of time in Indiana in the 80’s and early 90’s. That is kind of the epicenter of conversion vans, I believe, as multiple manufacturers are (or were) there. Conversion vans were very popular, moreso than in Vermont and Arizona were I also lived.
Love the Peugeot. My mechanic in the 80’s was French. He was an amazing VW guy – referred to these as Poo-shit…!
Man, looks like I missed a great show! I couldn’t make it this year due to transmission issues. There’s always next year…
Such a fun looking show! I remember the article from last year, and I think there was at least one here from last year (Pontiac Phoenix)
The Eldorado convertible and the Brougham are notable for having standard hubcaps. I rarely saw those on Broughams and have never seen them on an Eldorado convertible. I assumed that since the droptops were Biarritz trim, they came standard with wire hubcaps and optional wire wheels. Perhaps the owner supplied the regular hubcaps himself because he likes them, which I am totally simpatico with. I like old-style hubcaps better than fake wires in most cases and think it’s cool that Cadillac offered them on most of their cars in the 80’s. Most buyers didn’t choose them, so the rarity makes them even cooler. I’m guessing both cars have the same owner?
You beat me to it. The Eldorado’s hubcaps look factory but not familiar to me, and I used to study their brochures. Hate the fake wires, especially the Ben Hur chariot FWD ones. I’ve been getting a weekly Eldo ad email from Hemmings for several years, and I can’t remember one of that vintage without them (most are Biarritz).
I’ve seen an occasional Eldo with those hubcaps back in the 80s and 90s. I was always attuned to that because I liked how it was a throwback to the “good old days” when all Cadillacs had full hubcaps.
That Sundancer is so awkward, so weird, so wrong, I love it.
A. great. Afternoon. Out.
And the AMC Eagle Sundancer is a worthy winner of a malaise era award.
My sister had a VW Fox sedan in that exact color – it’s fun to see one still on the road. It was her first new car, and it served her very well. I remember borrowing it for a drive out of Denver into the foothills of the Rockies – it had a surprising amount of power for such an inexpensive car, handled well, and the interior was nice as well, particularly the very comfortable front seats.
My other memory of the car was that it was the first car I ever worked on that had an oxygen sensor – it was one of the things I replaced in an eventually successful attempt to correct a lumpy idle.
Aside from that one issue, my sister had no problems with the Fox for years, until she eventually got married and needed a larger car. The VW Jetta she traded it in for proved to be far more problematic – it cured her of any future desire for a German car.
I didn’t know 4 door Foxes had been available in te US. Being Brazilian, they were everywhere in Uruguay for a long time. Most were equipped with the 1.6 diesel (54 hp), and at times they were the preferred car by cab owners. I can’t tell you how uncomfortable they were in that service….
But the GLS versions, better equipped, were as you say. Nice velour seats, well finished, and relatively well insulated.
The one that put a smile on my face was the B-210 – just so familiar.
A great show; thanks for taking us.
I spent a lot of time behind the wheel of several C750’s and one C8000 (gas and Diesel, respectively.) The gas job had a 361, and the Diesel was a Cat 3208. The visibility was outstanding and the gas trucks were especially maneuverable, a prime virtue since they were used for retail heating oil delivery. The Diesel was a dud, however. The extra weight of the engine and the (short-lived) antilock air brake system that was required for that model year required a heavier front axle and larger front tires, which limited the wheel cut angle,, and negated any maneuverability advantage of the tilt cab design. The 3208 wasn’t spectacularly powerful or durable, and it’s prime virtue was that it would start almost instantly at temperatures low enough to require ether or other extraordinary measures to start other Diesels. Once running, it would often refuse to respond to the throttle if the fuel was cold enough, the remedy for which was to idle the engine for a short while so that its heat would warm the injection pump and fuel lines on the top of the engine, and then proceed until everything cooled off again. The gas trucks were good in every way for our purposes. It did take getting accustomed to the shift linkage, which was fairly complex and somewhat vague, but liberal lubrication of the linkage joints helped a lot. The C series trucks certainly did a wonderful job in an incredibly wide variety of vocational applications, from city tractors to linemen’s cherry-picker trucks. I don’t think anything quite took their place when they were discontinued after their very long production run.
For many years I was in the support of C.O.L.A.’s fleet of these we had dozens if not hundreds of them in all manner of applications (the L.A.P.D.’s first bomb recovery truck was a ’59 with in house built low boy body, it hadn’t the brakes it needed but was still neat) so I got to order in many many parts .
Those long contorted shift linkages had, IIRC two universal joints and we had troubles sourcing them .
Then FoMoCo sold their medium & heavy duty division to Sterling, at that time we were told they’d make parts for a long time but they stopped in less than one year so we had to scrap out plenty of otherwise good C800 trucks for lack of cab lift pumps, door latches, horn buttons and so on .
The new Sterlings of course were total trash from the jump .
-Nate
WOW! What an amazing post, and photos! These owners, and their cars/trucks are worthy of much respect. Thanks!
So many of these vehicles just amaze me – none more than the AMC. I also have never seen one.
The Subaru Hatchback is another incredible standout here; it’s one of those cars that I’ve figured I’ll probably never see in person again.
Oddly, just yesterday I saw an Eldorado convertible parked at a nearby apartment complex (below)
How can they call it a malaise show without something built by FoMoCo in the 70s? 🙂 But what a great find on that Sundancer convertible!
That Phoenix brings back memories – a school roommate drove one to Indianapolis from Connecticut when he was moving in for the school year – the hatchback made it a better load carrier than the 77-ish LTDII he normally drove. The Phoenix was his mother’s good car and had that high-trim interior, though in a lighter beige.
It is a shame that the Ford Club Wagon couldn’t keep/find the blue seats it came with. That 80s unit probably had a 302/AOD, so plenty of malaise there.
I haven’t seen one of those AMC Sundancers in a very long time. Wacky car. Needs to be a bit more brown though.
I remember when they were new and were sometimes seen on the same lot as Renault Le Cars, also with a big floppy piece of vinyl as a roof.
There needs to be an East Coast Malaise Invitational. As long as all participants received tetanus shots before attending, it’d be a sure hit.
Great article and it looks like you surprised my son with a picture while he was lounging out in the executive seat of my century
I wonder what it’s like to run a Century V12 in the US. I’m sure it’s the most reliable V12 out there, but I wonder whether there are some hidden expensive running costs or unobtanium parts. If not, I’d consider getting one, though I couldn’t register it in CA in any event.
I own the century and it’s an easy car to own in the states. While the century sat on top of the Toyota lineup and the body panels, glass, and motor are shared with nothing else many of the rest of the parts are shared with a ls400/celsior so parts are attainable. Last weekend i drove the car from Eugene to Seattle and back and it was one of the most comfortable 600 mile days I’ve had in a vehicle, just don’t watch the fuel gauge
The a/c in the B210 must sap much of the remaining power…! Mind you, its presence means that’s the only 120Y I’ve ever been remotely interested in. Great assortment of cars Paul, put me down for the President, followed by the 240 / Maxima / Jag / Peugeot.
In fairness, I don’t own the 1956 Golden Hawk (mine is a ‘61 with 4 speed), but I do own a 1958 Packard Hardtop that once got a write up 🙂
Robert, this is what happens when you’re my age and you wait two weeks to write up this post. 🙂
But where is your Packard hardtop at CC? I can’t seem to find it. Hmm…
Thanks so much for coming out again, Paul! Once again, I was too busy running the show to hop over and say hello!
The Peugeot is mine–a backup car I bought until I get my Mazda Capella (as seen last year… I brought the hood and put it on the ground as a monument to my lil Mazda’s absence… you may have stepped on it) back on the road. She’s been such an insanely good car (LA and back earlier in the year without breaking a sweat and numerous trips to Eugene from my little town on the coast) and the Peugeot community is so helpful, I’m compelled to keep her. Never would I ever think a rare PRV-powered Peugeot reliable, but she continues to shrug it all off!
My Dad brought his cranberry red 1995 Ford and the rest of my clan came, helping me babysit Dan’s Phoenix and another club member’s white Reliant during the show. Dan also owns that 1978 Eldorado… a one-year-only Custom Biarritz Classic (a super cush, super rare two-tone special with Astroroof).
Next year we’re absolutely planning on having the Invitational in town (Eugene) for everybody’s convenience (especially vendors… who were too scared to trek out to this year’s show location).
-Laec
(These three made good company as my family and I babysat the K and Phoenix!
Yes, my brother brought a trio of vintage 70s/80s bikes for the Peugeot to carry like a good Yuppymobile. No Peugeot bikes, unfortunately, but an Italian racing bike, Italian fold-up, and other vintage 80s 10-speed)