(first posted 12/15/2012)
The one-year-only 1977 Mercury Cougar Villager station wagon is worth taking a closer look at. Read the rest of this entry »
Cohort Capsule: 1977 Cougar Villager – The Fat Cat Woody Wagon
– Posted on August 29, 2024
Recent Posts
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Car Show Classic: 1979 Chevrolet Corvette – The Actual Discovette Lives
– Posted on August 29, 2024
(first posted 8/30/2018) The annual Back To The Bricks car festival in Flint, Michigan took place a couple of weeks ago, and continues to produce a treasure trove of fascinating and unique cars, along with the usual fan favorites. Over the past several years, this event has brought several hundred thousand people to the downtown area for the big show at the end of the week, which usually happens on the third Saturday of August. There is such a large showing of Corvettes (both new and old) that in recent years, they have been given their own subsection on the north end of downtown. All 315 of the very first, 1953 Corvettes were built in Flint, and with the Vehicle City also being the birthplace of General Motors, there remains a great deal of affection here for America’s Sports Car.
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CC Global: Volvo, MAN, And Broshuis – Behemoths Protected From The Elements
– Posted on August 29, 2024
A showroom with a floor area of 10,000 m² (107,600 ft²), filled with all sorts of used, heavy on-highway vehicles. My idea of an indoor amusement park.
Two powerhouses in the showroom were parked next to each other. In plain sight was this Volvo FH16-750 8×4/4 tractor with a (disconnected) Broshuis heavy haulage trailer.
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My 1979 Dodge Aspen SE Station Wagon – Part 4: Vacation Time to VA and WV; Mountains Not Optional.
– Posted on August 29, 2024
For Part 4, I am again sharing a family trip in my 1979 Dodge Aspen Special Edition Station Wagon. The year was 2018, and for that summer’s vacation, we decided to travel to the Blue Ridge and Shenandoah Valley Regions of Virginia and wrap up our week’s vacation in the middle of West Virginia with a Steam Train Ride.
In case you missed my previous entries on this Dodge Aspen, Part 1 appears HERE, Part 2 HERE, and Part 3 HERE.
We began with a ~6-hour drive taking us through the elevation, mountain ridges, and high county of both West Virginia and Virginia. We were traveling from Westmoreland County, PA to Blacksburg, VA. To start our trip, which as the crow flies is just due south, but the fastest routes take us to the interstate a bit to the west when leaving PA and getting into WV to make “crossing the ridges” a bit less “grady”.
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Curbside Classic: 1985 Jaguar XJ-S Eventer by Lynx – Brake Or I’ll Shoot
– Posted on August 29, 2024
Ah, the shooting brake. That most elusive of body styles. Not always easy to pull off, either. Sure, Volvo did very well with the 1800ES, as did Reliant with the Scimitar GTE, but remember that poor BMW Z3? That’s part of the difficulty, I guess: some coupés (or roadsters, as the case may be) can be turned into shooting brakes, others will never look right. With the Lynx Eventer, the question becomes: why did Jaguar not include it in their range, pure and simple?
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CC For Sale: ZIM GAZ-12 / Chayka GAZ-13 Hybrid – A Rare Bird, Indeed
– Posted on August 28, 2024
(first posted 8/29/2018) This summer, my uncle (who also happens to be my boss) gave me an unusual working task: to find a nice, restorable ZIM GAZ-12 for him and manage the restoration project. The quest has proved futile so far, but at least the process was both entertaining and informative. One of the more unusual finds I’d like to share with the CC readers. And, first of all, sorry for the low quality of the photos – that’s what the seller provided me with, and going all the way to the city of Samara to see this car in person is not exactly at the top of my priority list.
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Curbside Classic: 1966 Plymouth Barracuda – Dad’s Boots
– Posted on August 28, 2024
(first posted 8/28/2018) One day, as I passed by a concrete plant near the yard I used to work at, I saw this distinctive shape sitting in a field that hadn’t been there last time I’d passed by. I may be terrible with names and faces, but I never forget a car. Still, I couldn’t believe my eyes. There was no way I was seeing a real first gen Barracuda! Read the rest of this entry »
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Vintage Snapshots: Early Import Adopters – 1950s-1960s
– Posted on August 28, 2024
Let’s take another look at cars and their people in the ’50s and ’60s. This time, paying attention to those early import adopters in the US. As such, it’s the second gallery with the theme, and it features more or less the expected suspects of the period; a good deal of British roadsters, with other brands that left US soil long ago. And then, a few that have remained to this day, growing beyond the scope of anyone’s imagination.
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Truck Show Outtake: The Ultimate Needle Nose Peterbilt – Best In Show
– Posted on August 28, 2024
There was a road train’s load of splendid old trucks at the 2024 PNW Truck Show this past weekend. Rather than overwhelm you with them all in one sitting, I’ll dribble them out in not-so-small doses. I should probably save this for last, but I’m a bit impatient, so let’s take in this rather forbidding customized 1948 Peterbilt.
No, it’s not just the camera angle; that needle nose has been stretched, by a bit over two feet. The Pinocchio of trucks. It makes the truck in the movie Duel look tame. It just needs a DD 16V-71 under that endless hood.
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Curbside Classic: 1978 Ford LTD Landau — Diesel Swapped Hipster Bait
– Posted on August 28, 2024
Irony is a difficult word to define, but so is “hipster.” Yet the two seem to share a comfortable coexistence when it comes to automobiles. I’ve occasionally wondered if my choice to daily drive a 39 year old diesel sedan and penchant for confusing T-shirts puts me fully into the hipster category.
The answer is significantly easier when it comes to this straight piped American sedan with imitation period bumper stickers and a healthy dose of patina.
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My Hobby Car of a Lifetime #15: 1951 Jaguar Mark VII — The Empire Strikes Back!
– Posted on August 28, 2024
“God Save the Queen!” “Britannia rules the Waves!” Owning a few Jaguars makes you spout phrases like that.
I had never owned a Barn Find or Yard Car… yet. These are currently all the rage, but as a young high school freshman I fantasized about an abandoned ’59 Ford Thunderbird and an early Fifties Cadillac sedan sitting in the orchard of an old farmhouse. My school bus would pass by this little farm in Clayton California as it drove down Marsh Creek Road on its way to the Concord high school I attended. The farmhouse was just past the curve of the road, down a bit from the tavern where I would see a black ’60 Cadillac convertible.
In my mind, I could rescue these cars, return them to good running condition, and have a couple of unique cars to drive.
If it was only that easy!
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Curbside Classic: 1968 Mercury Cougar – Mercury’s Greatest (Only?) Hit
– Posted on August 27, 2024
(first posted 12/21/2012) There were plenty of reasons why Mercury failed, but the 1967-1968 Cougar certainly wasn’t one of them. Yes, there were a few others too, but the original Cougar clearly stands out. It was distinctively styled in a way that captured the essence of what it was trying to be: an American Jaguar. Read the rest of this entry »
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Curbside Classic: 1980 Toyota Celica GT – From Zero To America’s Favorite In Under Ten Years
– Posted on August 27, 2024
(first posted 8/28/2018) It was a small bullseye, and Toyota nailed it. When its Celica was introduced for 1971, there was no guarantee that American consumers would fall for the idea of a small sports coupe. Celica’s original competitors, the Opel Manta, Capri, and Mazda RX-2, all fizzled out quickly, yet Celica became a success and kept going for 36 model years. By the time our 1980 featured car was produced, Celica was the top-selling import in what had become a fast-growing niche. This didn’t happen by chance. Toyota created America’s favorite imported sports coupe by cleverly anticipating trends, and wrapping it in a package specifically tailored for their biggest export market. It was a strategy that paid off not only in the sports coupe segment, but in Toyota’s overall market strategy as well.
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Curbside Finds: 1959 & 1968 Cadillacs In Lithuania
– Posted on August 27, 2024
Photos from the Cohort by Eric Clem.
It’s always enjoyable to see some classic Cadillacs away from their natural American environment. This time in Lithuania, a more interesting location considering the nation’s history as part of the Soviet Union in those not-quite-fondly remembered Cold War years.
