So how many of these are left on the road anywhere? As a daily driver no less. Well here is one I am very familiar with. Read the rest of this entry »
Auto-Biography: My 1966 F100 Is Overloaded Once Again, But For A Good Cause
Since I’m covering for Rich this week and it’s been a while since I’ve done an update on the official CC company truck, here it is, still hard at work. A week or so ago I hauled another yard of gravel for a little project that will end up in the truck finally getting covered parking after all these decades. Maybe it’s too late to even bother? It’s been sitting outside all these decades and that hasn’t killed it yet. Nor has my endless abuse of it. But this gravel is part of a project to finally get the old truck under a roof.
This may not look like much, but a yard of 3/4 minus gravel weighs 2,800 lbs when it’s dry, but more like 3,400 lbs (1540 kg) when it’s wet, as this certainly was from the massive rains just before this bit of sunshine. My ’66 F100’s official load rating is 1,200 lbs, but then I’ve been overloading it forever.
Curbside Musings: 2004 Buick Rendezvous – Meetup With A Deer
It was November of 2011, and I was back home in Flint as one of many featured artists participating in one of the downtown art walks held regularly on the second Fridays of the month. I had never shown my photographs in Flint before, and was hesitant when my friend Marta reached out to let me know there was a spot available for me at the bookstore where she worked. I had started having prints made for only a few years by that point, but it didn’t take too long before I was won over by the excitement of the prospect of showing some of my images in the city that formed much of who I am. I selected six of my favorite, framed prints and shipped them FedEx from Chicago to Flint, where I picked them up after arriving by train, later completing my temporary installation at the bookstore.
Curbside Classic: 1979-85 Oldsmobile Toronado – The Forgotten E-Body
(first posted 8/20/2014) In GM’s E-Body line of personal luxury cars from 1963 to 1992, the Oldsmobile Toronado occupied the lowest position in the divisional hierarchy and for the most part, carries the lowest stature among car collectors today. Aside from the original 1966-67 Toronado, the Toronado did not have the impact of the early Buick Rivieras of 1963-65 and 1966-67, nor the prestige of the Cadillac Eldorado from its debut in 1967 into the 1980s. Nevertheless, spotting this 1982-ish Toronado (it has the grille of a 1981, with the badging of an ’83) in the Capitol Hill area of Washington, DC reminded me that these were very good cars in their own right, by bringing up memories of personal experience with them when they were new.
Curbside Classic: 2002 Holden Monaro – A Tale Of Two Cars
(first posted 3/18/2018) The story of the new generation Holden Monaro has two distinct parts: first there was an after-hours concept car built by a group of designers wondering how a coupe version of the Commodore sedan might go; followed by a pretty complete re-work when one Bob Lutz tapped the project for a larger purpose. So it makes for an interesting story…
Cohort Pic(k)s of the Day: GM A-Bodies Still Slogging Through The Canadian Winter
canadiancatgreen is one of our most prolific Cohort posters. I just perused a few pages there (I’m covering for Rich this week, who is taking a well-deserved vacation) and there’s a lot of old iron. I was taken by several shots of ’70s and ’80s GM A-Bodies that are still being driven, despite the brutal winters (and salt).
Daily driver colonnades have become a rare thing indeed, but here’s a rusty Olds Cutlass sedan still at it.
Recent Snapshots: Images From The Netherlands – March 16, 2024
Last Saturday afternoon, I spotted an Alfa Romeo 147 on my approx. 10 km walk. Then I thought, I might as well take a picture of the whole parking lot collection. And one snapshot leads to another, so here we go.
Automotive History: 1974 Ford Pinto And The Birth of the Lima 2.3 Engine – The Pinto Gains 457 lbs And Loses A Few HP
In the comment section of Chris Clark’s Honda Accord COAL, Paul said this in response to Eric703’s reminisces of a friend’s family’s disappointment with downsizing:
This was a not uncommon issue when folks drastically downsized during the two energy crises, and not just into imported small cars. The Pinto was the best selling nameplate in 1974; how many folks that had traded a big Ford on one in 1974 were still driving it three years later?
Since my parents were two of those people that traded in a big[ger] Ford on a Pinto in 1974, I thought that the 1974 Pinto deserved a closer look. Read the rest of this entry »
Curbside Classic: 1971 Lamborghini Countach LP500 Replica – Ciao, Marcello
Marcello Gandini, one of the greatest car designers of all time, died last week aged 85. Many publications have been running his obituary, or listed his top 10 (or 12, or 20 or whatever) greatest designs to pay homage to an outstanding artist. CC will too, in its own way: look what I found on the side of the road for the occasion.
CC Capsule: 1994-96 Mercedes-Benz C180 Esprit – Mercedes-Benz, Home Of The Four Flavors
(first posted 3/15/2018) When I saw this odd, faded yellow C-Class, I thought, “Wow. Pale yellow might have worked on Benzes in the 1960s and 1970s but it sure doesn’t work on a 1990s one!” And then I spotted that little Esprit badge and I remembered Mercedes’ selection of “themes” in the 1990s and 2000s, something which I first saw in a brochure when I was a kid. I thought it was a cool idea then and I think it’s a cool idea now–certainly more so than pale yellow paint! Read the rest of this entry »
Automotive History: Other European Deadly Sins (Part 3) – DAF 66, Or How To Turn A Daffodil Into A Swede
(first posted 3/17/2018) Welcome to the final act of this European Deadly Sins trilogy, dedicated to smaller nations’ failed automotive efforts. After having seen Belgium’s obscure Minerva-Impéria and Switzerland’s glamorous Monteverdi, let’s top things off with a look at the remarkable Dutch singularity that was DAF.
Vintage Snapshots: Images From Alaska, 1953-1965
I like the idea of taking tours on weekends, either in person or by armchair traveling. So for today, I felt it would be nice to share this series of images from Alaska that I discovered recently. A decent collection of Kodachromes taken between 1953 and 1963, with most featuring some neat cars.
Vintage Road Test Comparison: 1969 Dodge Monaco 440 & Plymouth Fury III 383 Convertible — Big Power And Two Body Styles
Today’s Car Life vintage review belongs to a June 1969 comparison of what the magazine termed ‘Powercars’. Not exactly a term that caught on, but in their words, full-size vehicles carrying the largest factory engine available. Four vehicles took part in that ‘Powercar’ comparison; the Chevrolet Impala, the Ford LTD and two Mopar siblings, the Dodge Monaco and Plymouth Fury III.
We’ve previously covered the Impala and LTD reviews (links below). In the end, the Impala was the magazine’s favorite for its taut suspension and power delivery, while the LTD fared the worst for its poor handling and odd ergonomics. Meanwhile, the Mopar siblings’ qualities placed them right between those two contenders.
CC Global: Skip (Container) Loaders – The Shortest Heavy-Duty Trucks By Far
Short, low, yet with plenty of power on tap. The English call them skip loaders, dedicated straight trucks for transporting open top containers, especially used for the disposal of construction waste.
Given their GVWR of roughly 20 tonnes (44,000 lbs), these would be labeled as Class 8 trucks in the US of A.
COAL #17: The ’70 F-100 — From Pony Car to Pickup
Art Center graduation was less than a year away, and there was little or no prospect of landing a junior designer position at any of the then-Big Three (least of all at Ford, after I managed to cast styling aspersions on a medium-duty truck done by one of the Dearborn designers who sat across the table from me during a courtesy interview. See my earlier post here for the unsavory details.).
I took some time off before my eighth and last Art Center semester, driving the now-repaired ’69 Mustang (see COAL here for that sad story) back East, where I assessed my prospects a continent away from the campus where I’d devote fifteen more weeks of blood, sweat, and tears before braving the real world.