Curbside Classic -

Curbside Classic: 1973 Toyota Carina – My CC Holy Grail

– Posted on November 12, 2024

(first posted 3/26/2013) There are about 250 million cars on the streets across the United States. Most have not reached Curbside Classic Status, and those that have are often “common” classics such as an SS Chevy or Mustang. In addition, the ravages of rust and time have driven car after car into the jaws of the recycling center. Because of this, our roads are littered with the popular, the common, and the new. Despite this challenge, each of us searches for their own Curbside Classic Holy Grail. It may be a very rare car, an unusual body style, or a car we remember from our youth. My personal Holy Grail is the Toyota Carina. Read the rest of this entry »

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Classic Curbside Classic: 1976 Lincoln Continental Mark IV – Gas Fed Beef

Richard Bennett

– Posted on November 12, 2024

(first posted 12/19/2011) Ah, the 1970’s. It was the Big decade, a time for big houses, big hair, big families, and big cars!

Despite this being the Malaise Era, status seekers still knew what they liked. Show the world you have arrived with a Fleetwood. Keep up with the Jones’ by buying a Cutlass.

But according to stories I have heard, if you were the owner of a Steak House, or a Car Wash, you drove one of these.

The Lincoln Continental Mark IV. Read the rest of this entry »

CC Capsule: 1982-85 Ford Escort XR3i – If You’re Looking For A Good Time…

William Stopford

– Posted on November 12, 2024

(first posted 11/12/2018) There are some old cars you won’t be surprised to see still on the roads two or three decades later. Camrys and Corollas, for example. Old pickup trucks. Exotics. Conservative sedans favored by the elderly. One type of car you definitely don’t expect to see is a 1980s hot hatch like this Ford Escort XR3i. Read the rest of this entry »

Vintage Snapshots: Traffic In Toronto In The 1970s

Rich Baron

– Posted on November 12, 2024

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A Fall Harvest of Old Trucks (and Some Yummy Looking Volvos)

Dead Swede

– Posted on November 12, 2024

This butterscotch 144 looks good enough to eat.

Autumn is my favorite time of year, especially here in the Pacific Northwest. This fall there was a great pumpkin harvest, and a bumper crop of old trucks. Mix in a couple of classic Volvos and you’ve got a veritable cornucopia of quirk. Hope you enjoy my most recent finds. Read the rest of this entry »

Car Show Classic: 1963 Hino Briska – Before The HiLux

Rich Baron

– Posted on November 12, 2024

Here’s something I didn’t expect to find at all, not even in a car show: a partially restored early ’60s Hino Briska pickup. A surviving relic from the early days of Japanese products spreading, trickle by trickle, around the globe. And while today’s Briska isn’t clearly all original, it’s –for a rare survivor– mostly all there. In some ways rather fitting for CC: a mix of modern preservation aided by local ingenuity to make up for the missing pieces.

So as we check out this Briska a little closer, I hope you’ll forgive the lack of originality on some of its cosmetics. After all, when talking about a 60+ years old obscure Japanese offering, factory trim is not something to be found in a local parts store.

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Curbside Musings: 1964 Ford Thunderbird – How Things Make Us Feel

Joseph Dennis

– Posted on November 12, 2024

I’ll state from the jump that this week’s essay is mostly a means by which to share pictures I had taken of the featured Thunderbird last fall, but I do have some other ideas about it to share, so I hope you stay with me. Much has already been written about this generation, colloquially referred to as the “Flair-bird”, and I’ll link some of our homegrown content below. I had Las Vegas on my mind at the time of this writing, as it had been just under two weeks since I had returned home to Chicago after spending almost an entire week there on vacation.

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Cohort Outtake: 1960 Corvairs Still Hard At Work In Cuba With Lada Engines In Front

Paul Niedermeyer

– Posted on November 11, 2024

(first posted 3/30/2013) Dave Rush just left this picture and comment on the ’60 Corvair Cohort post: I just got back from a month in Cuba and saw about 10 first generation Corvairs and they all had a front engine/live rear axle drivetrain swap. Ladas were the favourite donor car. Read the rest of this entry »

Curbside Classic: 1954 Cadillac Series 62 Sedan – A GM Greatest Hit

Paul Niedermeyer

– Posted on November 11, 2024

(first posted 3/27/2013) Trying to pick the best Cadillac is an exercise in futility, or even worse, masochism. I’ve obsessed over the brand since my earliest encounter with one in Innsbruck, and have repeatedly played the game of which vintage Cadillac I’d like to have in my garage. That imaginary Caddy has been a notorious shape-shifter, but in the end it settles down to a battle between the 1948-1949 fastback coupe or one of these ’54 – ’56 sedans. And why does the more dramatic (and highly collectible) coupe lose? Because of Mrs. Welch. Read the rest of this entry »

Vintage R&T Review: 1975 Lada 1500 – “…soon to be imported to the US”

Paul Niedermeyer

– Posted on November 11, 2024

(first posted 11/11/2018) Here’s something a bit different. Road and Track drove a Lada 1500 in the UK due to the expectation that it “… is the model soon to be imported to the US”. I’d rather forgotten about that, but it sure is something worth pondering about as to how that would have gone down. The driving experience showed that the Lada had some positives along with the negatives.

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Vintage Snapshots: Parking Lots In The ’60s & ’70s

Rich Baron

– Posted on November 11, 2024

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Museum / Trackside Classic: The Railway Museum at Ōmiya

Tatra87

– Posted on November 11, 2024

If rail transport is almost a religion in Japan, and it most certainly is, then this is the equivalent of Mecca or the Vatican. Over thirty railway cars, locomotives, or other rolling stock, from imported steam engines to the latest bullet train, can be seen in a compound of various buildings and sidings. Jim Klein, his son Riley and yours truly wandered through this veritable Aladdin’s shed of all-Nippon rail last month and thoroughly enjoyed it. I think it deserves a wider audience.

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Car Show Classics: 1978 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser And 1977 Ford Country Squire – Dad, These Are Not The Cars You Ordered!

Johannes Dutch

– Posted on November 11, 2024

A wagonload of pictures was the yield of walking around in the lot for visitors of a classic car event who drove an ‘old’ set of wheels. No supplementary requirements, really, given the utterly eclectic collection. Like a pair of US wagons from the seventies, parked right next to a Citroën 2CV Charleston, sans SC.

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Driveway Find: 1980 Olds Cutlass Supreme Coupe – It Was Dad’s Favorite Car As Well As America’s

Paul Niedermeyer

– Posted on November 11, 2024

It’s always nice to run into an old friend on a walk, especially on a bright and colorful fall day. I first ran into it at least ten years ago, when I also shot the owner’s BMW 5 series and had a brief chat with him. The Cutlass was in the garage that day, and he told me had been his dad’s car; his favorite, at that. And that he was going to hang on to it for the long haul, as tribute to his dad. And America?

Yes, the Cutlass was America’s favorite car for years, even if it was edged out by the Chevy Citation in 1980; it was the best seller in 1976, 1978, 1979, 1981 and 1983; what a record. The Cutlass hit the sweet spot: not too big, not too small, not too spartan, not too posh, stylish, comfortable, and with an acceptable balance of performance, efficiency, ride and handling. It didn’t excel at any of them, but the the overall balance of qualities made it a winner with a whole lot of Americans.

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Cohort Capsule: 1974 Audi 100LS – Keep It Beautiful

Perry Shoar

– Posted on November 10, 2024

(first posted 8/18/2018) Finds like this one, by S. Forrest, really validate the cohort and enrich CC, because as much as we’d like to go for a stroll and see a first-gen Audi 100 sedan sitting before us, it’s an unlikely occurrence. It helps to spread our efforts over a wider area; just how many of these could be left in North America?

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