My brother moved about a year ago, a different town but still around two hours away from my house. Since our Father had not visited yet I took him last Sunday. Read the rest of this entry »
The CC Effect™ is real! I saw this ’63 Lark Daytona two days after Read the rest of this entry »
When it comes to automotive esthetics, a case could be made that there are three kinds of cars: some are beautiful all around, some are ugly through and through (looking at you, ‘70s Nissans), and some just have that one angle that works. As far as I’m concerned, the 2nd generation (1972-76) Toyota Mark II hardtop coupé lies squarely in that last category. And the angle that works is the ¾ rear.
Sui Generis is an old Latin legal term that means one-of-a-kind, or that there is nothing else like it. In other words, something that is unique. It is the term I think of when I remember a certain 1974 Charger from my youth.
Most of my TOTGA (The Ones That Got Away) cars were those I briefly test drove, really wanted, but did not buy. This one was a little different. I could have bought it if I had wanted to, but never thought about it until it was too late. And the jury is still out on whether I would have actually wanted to buy it or not.
(first posted 28 May 2017)
Think of Toyota and the first thing that’s likely to pop into your mind is a Corolla or a Camry. But the Toyota Group, like most Asian conglomerates, has an amazing number of subsidiaries and affiliates; you may be surprised to know that here in Japan you can buy a Toyota house, supposedly built with the same precision as an LS460 and the sturdiness of a Land Cruiser. But as we’re Curbside and not Neighborhood Classics, we’ll focus on Toyota’s wheeled products. One of the company’s major affiliates is Hino Motors, their large-vehicle manufacturer and a member of the Toyota family since 1967, and one of Hino’s most popular models is its large intercity and touring coach, the S’Elega. Read the rest of this entry »
(first posted 8/15/2012) Maybe I should start a new series: Psychedelic Outtakes. This is about the fourth or fifth time my camera has suddenly flipped out on me, but at least it picked a good subject this time. This Hudson Hornet convertible is pretty far out, man, even in unaltered vision. Dig this, but then get ready to crash, and see it in the stark sunlight of reality. Read the rest of this entry »
Welcome back to a journey through alternate universes where Studebaker not only survived but thrived into the 1970s. What would the Gran Turismo Hawk be? A personal luxury car? A rebadged Mercedes? A muscle car? Where would the market lead Studebaker?
By the time I was done exploring this question I had generated over seventy images of cars from Crisis on Infinite Hawks. On balance, the vast majority were from universes where the Hawk existed, but it was a very boring, awkward, and ugly state of affairs. I’ll save those for a future post, because even if they aren’t good, they’re still interesting. But for now, let’s limit our exploration to the twenty-odd cars I thought were the best. As usual, I’ve numbered the pictures for easy discussion in the comments.
Well, Mercedeses were handled by Studebaker dealerships in the U.S. for awhile, so why not this in Sweden! Closest Read the rest of this entry »
Robadr at the Cohort recently captured this ’68 Eldorado, with the right amount of natural lighting to accentuate those nicely chiseled lines.
Sorry, I had to write another chapter about Imps—this is about the Imp I have owned the longest and still do, 24 years already! and counting.
When I bought the Commer Imp van from Guus in the late 90s (see COAL № 8), a few other Imps and parts came with it as well. One car was Read the rest of this entry »
(first posted 5/27/2017) While reading JP Cavanaugh’s excellent series on Indy Pace cars, I noticed when writing about the 1979 Mustang pace car he also mentioned the 1979 Ford Indy 500 Official Truck. Reading about the 1979 Ford Indy 500 Official Truck got me thinking, why not write a quick piece on the other special trucks of the Indy 500? While the Ford was the only truck mentioned in the Indy Pace Car articles, there were a number of other special edition pickups utilized during the Indy 500 over the years.
(Originally published May 24, 2013) As we accelerate into “Turn One” of Race Weekend, we continue our look back at previous Indianapolis 500 Pace Cars. We have reached a point in Pace Car history where, with rare exceptions, this was an annual GM event. However, there certainly was more variety than the unbroken string of Chevrolets we’ve seen over the past twelve years.
Studebaker or Packard?
Found this 1957 “Studebaker Clipper” on Craigslist, located in Westminster, MD. First I thought it was a ’57 Studebaker wagon, but then I looked at the back . . .
The ride had been going for a little while and we had already exhausted small pleasantries. It was now time to catch up on what each were actually doing with our lives. On her case it was family matters:
