Blazing sunshine, after a week and a half of mostly valley fog. Time to walk downtown for a bite of lunch and see what we encounter on our never-ending hunt. Since I was only looking for new-old cars, it wasn’t very productive, although that’s a relative term. We’ve done the gen1 Celica coupe before, and I have a nice fastback to write up, but this one has been hanging around for a while. But I never noticed its damaged side. The problem with wounds like this is that it makes it easier to walk away the next time something gos wrong. But that could be a while. Now about that headline:
Another Olds Roach-mobile, but what caught my eye was the sticker. That’s the official city seal, usually found gracing city cars and such. But it’s been a while since the last A-Body owned by the city was finally put down. Hmmm…
Aha; someone’s gone to the trouble to make their own unofficial version. Yes it is.
This caught my eye, a vintage HD Sportster, in a rather nice get-up. I’m not an expert on these; I know the iron-head engine goes back a ways, although the front forks look sort of seventies to me. And no front brake; yes we’re being very authentically vintage indeed. Never fails to amaze me.
And once again, a pair of Volvo wagons huddling up together as the sun falls early behind a building. Birds of a feather…
My sister is moving to Oregon in a few months.
I wonder how I’ll ever be able to visit her without buying a car during the trip.
That Sportster makes me miss my Suzuki Savage. 40 cubic inches in one cylinder, 5 speed, belt drive. The only downside was the 2 gallon tank that meant you had to refuel every 2 hours or 120 miles. It was a darned reliable bike that never left me stranded and was easy to service and work on.
The Cutlass Ciera is giving me flashbacks to your “lugage rack” out take on TTAC. http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2009/12/curbside-classic-outtake-the-much-more-tasteful-eighties-edition/
You have a good memory. I was thinking the same thing when I shot it. The other one is just a couple of blocks from this one.
Havent seen an early Celica in ages that one would clean up ok with a little TLC
Eeuuuurgh, green body with tan top? Now that’s something we don’t see anymore today, and for good reason!
I think Eugene really MUST be the shit. Such an interesting place, such interesting people, and it has the only house I’ve ever seen with a blue front door, which is frigging awesome!
are blue front doors rare?
Eugene really does seem like a great place though, one of these days…
They are where I live. Green or red is much more common. I had to think for about a minute to remember what color mine is, which of course is white.
My front door’s lime green. A study of magnificent tastelessness…all I need to complete the picture is a car parked out front with a luggage rack on the bootlid… Speaking of bootlid-mounted accessories, did you folk in the States get the spare tyre optionally mounted on the bootlid of the Rover P6? Now that actually served a purpose!
Ah the Toyota Celica… Looks like a 1975-1977 to me. In 1974 my parents traded their 1973 Pontiac Catalina for one of these. I have to admit as a kid I was pretty upset with my dad, but hey it was the gas crisis. That car purchase coincided with my parents desire to build a home and pay cash, so we drove that car for 10 years in the salty Florida beach climate. My memories are rust holes so big you could put your fist through them. Several trips to North Carolina to visit my Grandparents. One trip we had the trunk so fully packed the lid popped open on I95. That cars undoing was my mom hitting a boat that came off a trailer on the highway. Damn car still run and moved under its own power. It also started a long line of Toyota’s at our household. Camry’s, and my favorites, the two Cressida’s. Moms last car was a Camry, 125,000 miles when she passed away, my brother in law bought it from the estate and drove it to his job at the space center, it had just shy of 300,000 miles on it when he was hit from behind and it was totalled. Funny thing, I have never cared for Japanese cars myself, I have had a long string of domestic full size pickup trucks. But I do have tremendous respect for them starting with that Celica.
That Sporty is early/mid-70’s. Front end is definitely early 70’s (assuming the hub is stock, something you really can’t assume). Dating Harley’s is always a crapshoot, seeing how you can mix and match the parts when you build one.
Dang Paul…
I thought that sunny SoCal was a haven for vintage cars. Eugene is a veritable museum!!