This YouTube video from the Rockaway Memories website showed up on the Hemmings Blog yesterday. Thanks to the low-flow conditions at CC, I’ve succumbed to my urge to post it here. This week isn’t the first time the streets of New York got more than wet: In 1960, Hurricane Donna pounded the northeastern U.S. with winds up to 105 mph, and gusting to 115. The storm surge reached 11 ft (3.4 m) in New York Harbor. The Rockaways, a coastal part of Queens near the harbor, is where somebody took some home movies featuring a rich assortment of genuine CCs to spot. Let’s see how many we can identify. For starters, what’s that little two-seater that appears 30 seconds into the video???
Cyclone Classics: Floods in New York
– Posted on October 30, 2012
The micro-car looks like a Vespa 400.
Cool! That’s a neat little item. I never knew there were any 4-wheeled Vespas. Looks like a real car out there on the street. Reminds me of a Suzuki X-90. Found one at the Microcar Museum.
I saw a white 400 at a car show this past summer; otherwise, I would have been equally clueless 🙂
That Suzuki does have a striking resemblance to the Vespa.
Another reminder of how the great import boom of the late 50s brought all kinds of exotics to the streets of America. “Oh, honey; look at that cure car…wouldn’t that be fun to have?” Until the first thing breaks, anyway.
Same as it ever was.
Seriously though, great find. Lets hope NYC pulls back from this mess in the least amount of time possible.
This is not my beautiful car.
Best of wishes to NYC and the Coast.
This is not my beautiful house! Thank heavens.
I just learned that the massive fire in Queens was in this neighborhood. Here’s all our hearts to them and everyone hurt by this storm.
I was lamenting the loss of that nice old Buick, until I realized that it was lost 50+ years ago when it was just a used car.
That Donna footage should serve to remind us that although climate change may well be happening, the occurrence of even a “superstorm” is not “proof” of anything one way or the other. This has happened before, and only the fact that the NYC area got pounded makes this one truly remarkable. Another “perfect storm” happened about 21 years ago; they even made a George Clooney vehicle out of it! 😉
Maybe the worst 100-year storm in the last ten years.
I’d say Bianchina- special body version of FIAT 500.
It’s very similar to a Bianchina, but it’s definitely a Vespa 400.
I know it looks like the Vespa, but the proportions look wrong. My vote goes to the Bianchina.
I’m pretty sure there’s a drowning Hawk at 2:00 and again at 2:55, what do you think?
It’s a Studebaker for sure, just wish the cameraman had been less spastic with the dizzying panning!
Without any electronics beyond a tube-type AM radio, many flooded cars used to be successfully salvaged.
I used to live in Rockaway Park. Aside from different business signs and a few new condo buildings, it looks pretty much the same today.
I’m sure that the “directional stabilizers” on the back of that 1960 Plymouth kept it going arrow-straight even in those hurricane winds!
In those days, and indeed even in my adolescence (midwest Flood of ’93), you could still buy flood damaged new cars at knock down prices with salvage titles, as long as the water didn’t go above the bottom of the seats. Many of these cars were so cheap they were nearly free.
Better than flood for the cheapskates was the infamous ‘hail sale’ where at least the ugly and dented cars were reasonably assured of running well, even if their warranty was voided by the salvage titles.
I think consumer protection law has improved enough in recent years to prevent dealers from doing this- or am I wrong???
“little car” looks like a German Gogomobile who became Auto Union then Audi ?.
I haven’t been on here because my power has been out since Monday and I’ve also been working constantly, since I work for the primary NYC utility company – but I had to dig up this post to comment on.
First of all, GREAT video! I’ve come across the Rockaway Memories website in the past, but haven’t checked back in awhile. cristauph’s statement that Rockaway Park looks very similar today would have been accurate a week ago, but it was decimated by Hurricane Sandy. The boardwalk was completely ripped up as well as several homes and businesses. There is a foot or more of sand several blocks deep!
Although it’s not nearly the worst loss, this time around (unlike in Hurricane Donna) an untold number of Curbside Classics were lost to the floods. I don’t know what the news is reporting in the rest of the country, but the damage here is just unbelievable… nothing I ever imagined possible. The entire south shore of Queens and Long Island has been virtually washed away and even a good portion of Manhattan was flooded at the peak – something that hasn’t happened in over 100 years. There are also 6 hour+ gas lines right now… another thing I never thought I’d live to see.
One interesting consequence of this, however, is that as people run out of gas in their normal cars they’re bringing their classics out of the garage to get around. I’ve seen a very interesting assortment including a ’68 Chrysler Newport Coupe, ’59 Pontiac Bonneville, some kinda 1930’s Chevrolet, several VW Beetles, Chevelles, Mustangs and Camaros/Firebirds of all types pressed into daily driver service.
I wasn’t really in the mood for taking pictures of them, though. I was more in the mood for taking pictures of stuff like this… two houseboats washed up about a 1/4 mile onto dry land in the next town over from me:
And just to balance the happy, sad and unbelievable… here’s a wild video of the Con Edison substation at East 14th Street in Manhattan exploding (which blacked out a quarter of the city), fortunately no one was injured or killed:
…and a beautifully decrepit ’69 Mark III I caught parked in front of it last year. This car is a fixture in this spot and was likely one of the casualties: