(first posted 4/12/2013) Quick: Name an American-built pickup truck from the late 1990s that is not called Ford, Chevy, GMC or Dodge. OK, then, I mean yesterday, before you read the headline. Would you have guessed “Isuzu Hombre”? If so, you are a better person than I am.
Every once in a while the topic of Edsel must be tackled. No lengthy essays about the marque’s brief and star-crossed life on this occasion. Much has been said about its questionable styling, doubtful placement within Ford’s hierarchy, and lousy market timing (’58 recession!). Instead, we’ll revisit Edsel with period images. Some include owners, while some are just Edsels out in the real world.
I’ve been hinting at this one for a while in my regular Singles Outtakes posts and its day (or rather its week) has finally come. As you may or may not know, in my general area of north Tokyo lives one a rather famous classic Bentley / R-R specialist. The Bentley S3 we saw yesterday was from his stable. But this man’s guilty pleasure is Bristols. Because Bentleys can feel too common?
What is so special about springtime? As winter fades away the grass greens, leaves return to trees, baby animals are born and car auctions return. I have been teaching my youngest son to drive (with a manual transmission car for an extra challenge) so he will likely be the primary driver on my Hyundai Elantra for summer weekends. As a result I informed my wife that I am on the lookout for a reliable road trip vehicle for myself. She just rolled her eyes when I mentioned the non-running forty nine year old Datsun pickup at this auction that I identified as a good candidate. But let’s check out everything on offer during the auction preview before settling on something.
By this point I think we all know that I have some kind of (ir)rational lust thing going on with Maserati’s supposed savior in the 1980s (and 1990s), the Biturbo. I believe our correspondent in Tokyo thinks I’m nuts but he only sees showroom-perfect examples and then critiques the styling as if they were all children of a lesser god. Harrumph! I get to see the ones that need a little work and elbow grease and might just fit the family budget. Well, as far as the acquisition cost goes anyway. Our Jaguar is still running so that makes me hopeful. But my lust doesn’t stop with the basic Biturbo, it continues on to all of its variants and that’s the reason why Alessandro DeTomaso is on my Christmas card list. He is my pope. Read the rest of this entry »
(first posted 3/28/2013)
Memorable (def): 1. worth remembering 2. easily remembered
Maurauder (def): one who raids for booty
In my 1967-1968 Cougar CC, I claimed there were only three Mercuries truly worth remembering. The Marauder X-100 wasn’t on the list, and many of you protested. Fortunately, there are two definitions for the word, and the Marauder is certainly easily remembered; more like impossible to forget. And what exactly is it memorable for? Its booty. So how could we possibly not honor that? Read the rest of this entry »
(first posted 5/8/2018) Most cars would usually be looking rather tired eight years into their model run. Not so the first-generation Holden Commodore. Other than an unchanged width, the VL looked remarkably different to the inaugural VB Commodore. Even more refreshingly, it came with two new engines: both straight-sixes from Nissan, one a turbocharged version. Read the rest of this entry »
Let’s change scenery and decade with today’s vintage snapshot gallery with a visit to Seattle. The cloudy sky images in this post are dated to about 1980 and 1985 respectively, and as is our preference, the shots cover a good deal of daily life and traffic.
Photos from the Cohort by Benoit.
Here’s an example of the CC effect in the virtual world; about ten days ago I posted a gallery with vintage images of station wagons from the ’70s. Then, over the next few days, a stack of 1970s wagons appeared at the Cohort. And with old wagons being just about as common as Dodo birds, I always find it hard to resist giving any surviving sample its few minutes of CC glory.
When Rolls-Royce took over Bentley in the mid-‘30s, each of the two marques had a clear role and segment. Rolls were very large and opulent, suitable for chauffeur-driven limos. Bentleys had smaller engines and a sporting heritage. After 1945, the two marques became clones technically, but Bentley kept a sporty model in the Continental and LWB models were still the purview of Rolls-Royce. By the time the brand new V8 came to be in 1959, though, the Bentley marque started to lose what remained of its character. But at least the grille stayed.
Not too bad for a first effort. But still very Japanese looking. All photos from web.
The best Harley that wasn’t, and the beginning of the end.
After I sold my long term Harley XLCR, I was without a bike of any kind for several years. As I approached my first retirement in 2006, I started thinking that I might want to get another motorcycle.
I had been a Harley fan for a long time, but I had seen how the Japanese manufacturers had really gotten serious about building their own V Twin powered cruisers. Their early efforts were kind of amateurish; while the bikes were V Twin powered, they definitely wouldn’t be mistaken for something that came from Milwaukee!
(first posted 5/1/2018) CC reader Franco P. sent me this shot of two Nissan Cubes side-by-side. A while back, this might not have been so unusual, but the Cube is quickly slipping into obscurity, at least from a subjective point of view, if not quite truly rare.
(first posted 5/7/2018) Anyone mildly familiar with the 1980s melodramatic primetime soap opera, Dynasty, will know that Alexis Carrington was a force to be reckoned with. Strong, confident, dignified and larger than life, yet brash, manipulative, elitist and self-interested, the character of Alexis Carrington was not unlike that of Chrysler’s CEO during the 1980s, Lee “Lido” Iacocca. In one way or another, both would ultimately try to claw his or her way back into the control of organizations they had been ousted from, though in the case of Alexis, “clawing” could be quite literally-speaking in addition to figuratively.
For today, let’s check out some outdoorsy images of vintage rides in camping action. The images mix camping grounds and parks, with most shots heavily featuring the family ride. There’s a good deal of variety in location and vehicles, all comprising a good deal of fins and open spaces. Some of CC’s favorite themes.
Sometimes interesting cars appear in unlikely places. My wife snapped these pictures while chaperoning our daughter’s band trip in Salem, Massachusetts. She knew the car was interesting, but wow – this is a car I haven’t seen in decades, and rust-prone New England isn’t where I’d imagine one to be driving down a city street. A one-in-a-million encounter… in more ways than one.
Interestingly, Salem once played a bit part in Toyota’s history. In 1972 – around the time our featured car was new – a Salem Toyota dealer sold a red Corolla wagon to a local couple. What seemed like an ordinary transaction, though, was made more interesting because Toyota declared that car to be the company’s one millionth US sale. The lucky couple were treated to a ceremony, as well as engraved watches and a free London vacation. But Toyota itself was the real winner. The company had made it big. And the Corona Mark II was part of that success.
