It was a dark and stormy night exactly eight weeks ago when CC began. Those of you who have followed my comings and goings at TTAC know that I tend to be a very seasonal, and have taken summer hiatuses almost every year. Intimations of summer are becoming all too obvious, and some adjustments are going to have to be made. Time to take stock and prepare…
I absolutely have to get a little house built on an empty lot this summer, and there are a number of other projects that can not be prolonged any longer, lest my neighbors show up at my door with a bucket of hot tar and feathers. Obviously, I can’t do it all myself; I’ve got to hire some help. But just planning, organizing and managing it all is a major project. And I tend to get sucked in pretty deeply. I also have a hard time multi-tasking, preferring to throw myself fully into one project at a time.
I really didn’t know when I started CC how it would unfold. I’m very gratified at the healthy response the site has received. It’s very difficult to break through the clutter of a million car-related sites out there. CC averages some 5k page views per day, and has some 12k unique visitors per month. A fine beginning, but not easy to find advertisers for. Maybe they could be found, but that too would take time I don’t have. It’s a labor of love, at least for now.
I’m not going to just walk away for a summer hiatus, but the posting schedule will undoubtedly slow down a bit. It may be more erratic too: if we hit the road and go get lost in the woods for a week, or I’m really working hard…But I always have my camera along, and it can be the source of new inspiration.
I’m not big on navel-gazing, but I would be happy to hear your honest feedback on what you see as the site’s strengths and weaknesses; what you like to see more or less of, resources permitting.
And here’s a call for help: I just know many of you are ready and able to be CC contributors. You just need to get yourself into the willing stage! It’s not that hard to write up a bit of history and some honest personal context: your own experiences, feelings or some other related angle. It’s fun, and sharing is the name of the game here. The CC Cohort is shooting lots of great Curbside Classics; let’s take it it the next level! If there’s a car you’d like to write about and don’t have the pictures for it, I have a pretty big library now, or I can help you find them. (Update: In order to expand CC coverage of more recent vintage cars, I especially encourage some younger “writers-in-waiting” to step forward. We all tend to connect most intimately with the cars of our youth)
If I knew that we had some extra energy to get us through my busy summer days when I can’t post, that would really be a boon. Or does anybody want to come raise a little house instead?
One way or another, site building of two sorts will happen. I just can’t do them both equally at the same time. Any thoughts or suggestions?
We’ll see how well the picture taking abilities of my new phone play out. I was in a neighborhood locally a few weeks ago and glimsed a late 1960s Chrysler 300 sharing driveway space with what had to be one of the first 1988 Chevy 4×4 trucks. The things you see when you don’t have a digital camera. On the way back through the same neighborhood I saw a great potential “name this car” which was a late 60s early 70s Chrysler coupe (I think) in primer with no badges.
I’d be happy to provide content, I just have some worries about well, being on the younger end of the readership/participant pool. I guess I would have to look at the cars of my lifetime more in-depth (Wrangling with finding the first Taurus/Sable as classics and doing the proper research? ) or companion pieces to you Auto-Biography series.
I could work on some content over the next few weeks and then send them to for your review just to see what you think. I’ve got a number of wonderful stories about my Grandfathers loaded to the hilt Mustang II to tell.
Actually, that’s a good thing. I’m not really very intimate/inspired with the more recent cars, so I specifically would like to have some help with that.
I guess the Taurus/Sable Twins would be a good place to start for me to provide something, I can still remember how in Awe I was of them as a 4 year old and remember the first Sable Wagon on our block. Also since they consistently appeared in my driving history (as a Drivers Ed Car, or that beater that I’d always borrow from some relative) I’d probably be able to provide behind the wheel perspective too.
There’s an 86 or 87 Sable Wagon that some middle aged Secretary drives to her office job at a biotech firm not far from my house, so I’ll try to get on it by the end of this week. Chances are it doesn’t have more than 50K miles on it or she doesn’t mind getting new ATX transmissions for that thing. But it is a stunning time warp back to my youth.
If I find a 1988 Cutlass Supreme that’s another “wow” from my youth (I can remember how stunned I was seeing it at the SF Autoshow in the fall of 1987).
Otherwise I just need to think of the cars that astonished me in my youth in the 80s and 90s. The Mazda MX-6 (93-97) and 929 are other candidates, along with the 95-99 Riviera and… well, there’s always deconstructing the 1996 Taurus too.
The ’96 Taurus in some ways really was more “out there” than the ’86, or at least that is how it seems like they were respectively received. (They did get stupid on the ’96’s pricing, but those ovals sure didn’t help.) It always seemed to me the ’00 Taurus should have come before the ’96, kinda like how the ’99 Mustang seems like it should have came before the ’94.
I blame Irv Rybicki at GM and all those puffy bubble cars tripping Ford up and having them do things in reverse order for a while…
There a many old and unusual cars around my location and having been searching for parts for my project its amazing what else has turned up. 52 Ford hearse, fintail Merc, MK3 Cortina sans tree,Morris Minor pickup,HQ Monaro,malaise Olds,XB Falcon all these within 200 meters of my house. Would you like some pics? I think I can figga out how to send them, youve created a great site Paul.
Possibly; but the real problem is not a lack of pictures (I still have hundreds of cars to write up), but the work in putting together a bit of a story. Or maybe folks would be happy just to see the pictures? (It still takes some time to put them up too). What we need is some Associate Editors! it’s not hard to learn how to put content up on the site.
I would LOVE to write some stuff on mostly newer cars, like larsupreme said.
I have owned more cars than I can remember and I do have some pretty good (or at least mildly interesting) stories about them, sometimes even with pictures. I have a penchant for old and unusual stuff, especially 4×4 and military trucks. Of course I see cars everyday that I think, “someone should write a CC about that one”. If someone had pictures of a 1968 Volvo 142S for me, I would love to submit a sample CC.
I would be happy to let you re-use the 142S shots from the TTAC CC I did there. Let me know, or just send in your text, and I’ll assemble it.
Well now that I know you already did one, I will have to do something else! As well as go back and read that.
Well, it’s been a while since I have had to write for an audience, but seeing how much of a fan I am of CC, I would be willing to give it a try!
Like larsupreme, and Dan, I have a lot of otherwise useless knowledge stored up in both my head, and in my library of all things cars, particularly from say, the last forty years. It would be nice to be able to share some of it.
As far as how you have been doing things thus far, I look at it this way: One, it is “your site”, therefore you can post and share anything you want, and two, because no one “owns” this site other than you, who cares what critics might think. I for one have thoroughly enjoyed all the subjects you have written on. I might see something in a slightly different light than you on occasion, but that is certainly okay, and the different perspective is yet another reason I love coming here.
So in other words, I’m here to stay 🙂
-Richard
Let me know when you’re ready 🙂
Paul, if you have the pictures, I’d be willing to try an article if any are cars I have an anecdote about. Porsche 356, 912, Volvo 240/740/940, 1992 & 1997 Grand Caravan AWD, 95 Grand Cherokee Orvis, among others. As for your needing to get things done at home, we’ll be here when you come back, for sure!
I do have some nice 912 shots that I never got around to. And we could re-use the 356 shots from the TTAC CC. And I have plenty of 240s. Take your pick.
912 would work, the one my dad had is kind of an amusing story. Today is my day off, so I might be able to come up with something this afternoon and send it off.
Unfortunately, I’m more of a generalist than a detail man when it comes to the cars I see and like. IOW, I don’t really have much useful or interesting to say about them.
However, I’d LOVE to work on a house raising project. (Not sure my wife would be too happy with me being out of state for that long though.) I’ve got a one ton truck, a smattering of basic tools, and an aptitude for problem solving.
Thanks for the kind offer; but I hate to be a bad influence on marriages. It was mostly a rhetorical question…there’s quite a few carpenters who need work here.
😀
More of a painter, handyman, and landscaper than carpenter. I go where the work is. I usually find that after about three days away, I’m ready to go home. And she’s usually ready for me to be back by then too.
You know, I was just thinking that for those of us with at least quasi-CC-worthy cars, we should start by writing about our own. Or that’s what I’d want to try.
I always felt the Town Car CC was a little thin, but that is probably just because I’m biased…
Always good to have more than one perspective; “My Curbside Classic” was always a part of the plan here.
I’d be more than willing to lend a young Australian perspective, and I’ve written for blogs before. I can’t walk out onto the street without paying attention to cars… all I need is to integrate a camera into that. Also, my country has a glut of cars that are so very familiar to me and yet so foreign to y’all. So, Paul, I can send you an example post if you like… I’d be happy to be an occasional contributor!
Love to have some Aussie pieces; send me the text and some photos (reduced to a max.of 800 pixels width, please, if possible).
What can be entertaining is Aussie versions of cars as they prodiced some unique models of US and English brands and of course utes of all makes. GM platforms all sharing Chev motors was alive and well in OZ long before it happened in the US very disappointing when looking at buying a Pontiac and finding a Chev powering it, I was used to NZ where all our cars were genuine not local mashups.
Got a few stories about a couple unusual cars. Let me try to write something up and toss it your way, see if you like it.
Look forward to it.
I would be very happy to throw my hat into the ring as you’d be surprised what sort of unusual machinery you’d find in the New York area. The Aussie approach would be a great read as well, as I’ve found their products to be very intriguing, especially the pre-Commodore Holdens and their mix of various GM styling elements. Let’s see what the spring weather brings out.
I’ll raise my hand along with larsupreme & Mr. Tactful as a potential contributor of content on 80s-90s CCs. I’ve actually been holding off snapping a few local motors for the cohort because I felt they were perhaps too new…
Anything I might add would (by necessity) have to have a Euro flavour to it (I’ll mostly be limited to curbsides in and around Edinburgh this year, possibly with a scattering from the rich vein of Euro-CCs that is rural France if I can scrape the air fare…) but usually variety is a good thing?
Last but not least if the Associate Editor duties were reasonably light, I could probably offer some help there – am familiar with most things web so uploading content/general maintenance would be second nature. What did you have in mind?
I just put up a new post clarifying the roles. It would involve making sure the text was basically ok, no major typos and such, resizing the pictures (if needed) and loading it and the pictures into the back end of the blog, which is really quite easy. Let me know if you’re willing.
Hi Paul,
My grandfather was one of the early members of the New Brunswick Antique Auto Club here in Canada. He owned and restored many antique cars over the years. I remember a time when I was young that he had a six-car garage filled with various cars, and more parts than you would believe. It was his passion. He even drove the Prime Minister around in a parade in one of his cars back around 1960. I have all the photos and a few autographs to prove it. 🙂
My mother recently passed away and I have stumbled upon a treasure trove of old photographs. Many of his cars are in there. I also have found a lot of paperwork and documents relating to the antique auto club. I have a lot of fond memories of riding in his cars and would like to share them.
I may be able to contribute some family automotive history-type articles this summer, or maybe a few CC-outtake style photo essays.
As for CC’s, there may be some unique ones in this area, although rust is a real problem. NB is the birthplace of the Bricklin and they all seem to come out in the summer as well.
Does this sound appropriate for the site?
Articles with old photos and such are totally welcome. And please do a Bricklin CC this summer; just can’t find them here unless one hunts one down at a car show.
I can offer my services, for whatever they are worth. I really don’t know what I can do for you, but if there’s something, I will gladly participate. I have worked as a moderator on a large scale forum a few years ago, so I know the drill. However, I believe the clientele at this site is so well behaved they don’t need that much taking care of. My usual self is somewhat of a provocateur, but I know how to separate ego from work ethics. I was a highly sporadic contributor to TTAC, I submitted less than a handful of editorials, but I know how to make them, and I know how to write them. It’s just, I need inspiration to write, I can not churn out stuff every day like professional writers do. But as said, if there’s something I can do, I will gladly do so. Robert Farago had faith in me and all the other writers at TTAC that started out as happy amateurs, so I know that people will rise to the occasion. After a while, it will be like a walk in the park…
Ingvar, I would love to have you contribute either as an Associate Editor, and of course just as a writer too. I just put up a new post clarifying the two roles. Do let me know…I could really use your help right now.
I would be honored if you would consider my services. I am a long-time reader, if infrequent commenter, but I do have a reasonably extensive knowledge of imports and oddballs (over the years I’ve owned a Sterling, a Merkur Scorpio, multiple Daihatsus, and a Justy almost identical to your CC from a few weeks back). I’d especially welcome the opportunity to write to your photos, as I’m in Connecticut – the salt belt.
Let me know what you’re particularly interested in, and I’ll see what I have…
I’ve got my eye on a ’64 Merc Monterey and ’66 Pymouth Satillite convertible sitting in one guy’s lot. If you’re interested– I can take some snaps and put something together for those wonderful vehicles. please advise.
Help yourself…see the latest post I just put up.
My neighbourhood- East Vancouver- is a hotbed of curbside classics. Economically and socially comparable to Eugene, in that there are lots of former “hippies” and lots of “alternate lifestyles” represented. Just the type of owners who gravitate towards curbside classics as daily transport… when they’re not riding their recumbent bikes or using the local Prius co-op car.
Now that the weather’s improving, I’ll be out for more neighbourhood walks during daylight hours. I’ll make sure I have my camera with me. Hopefully I’ll be able to find some uniquely Canadian models to contribute photos and write-up for your consideration.
If anyone finds a 1986-88 Mercury Sable Station wagon this week, pictures would be great.
Thanks!