Vintage Snapshots: Parking Lots In The 1950s & 1960s
– Posted on July 16, 2024
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Curbside Classic: 1992 Volkswagen Golf Cabriolet – A Good Car Spoiled
– Posted on July 16, 2024
Though nearly all the classics I see in Tokyo are absolutely pristine, there are a few that buck the trend. So in the spirit of doing weekly themes, welcome to T87’s “Basket Case Fortnight,” where the tires are flat, the rust is structural and the paintwork is cooked to a crisp. We’re opening this celebration of decrepitude with a lonesome late-model VW cabriolet, but the other cars will be from different marques, origins and model years.
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For Sale Finds: 1972 & 1973 Dodge Monaco Sport Wagon – Bold Fuselage
– Posted on July 16, 2024
Let’s pay a few minutes of attention to this elusive fuselage model, which has never properly appeared at CC. A ’72-’73 Dodge Monaco Sport Wagon, with a face that boldly closed Elwood Engel’s fuselage era in that division.
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Curbside Musings: 1989 Ford Tempo GL – Gold-Coasting
– Posted on July 16, 2024
My ongoing quest to see more of my city led me through Chicago’s tony Gold Coast neighborhood to get to North Avenue Beach, a stretch of waterfront I had seen many times from DuSable Lake Shore Drive but had never been to before. It was an overcast Saturday and while I’m okay in large crowds of people where I can just get lost and blend in, I was looking forward to taking advantage of fewer folks being there on a cloudy day. I figured I could be more introspective and also get all the pictures I wanted without feeling like an intruder.
It was shockingly easy to get there from my home, which made me wonder why it had taken me so long to explore a beach outside of my immediate area. I took a Red Line train south from Edgewater to the North & Clybourn station, and then the eastbound 72 North Avenue bus, which put me only ten to fifteen minutes walking distance from Lake Michigan. I had thought the bus would take me straight there, but it didn’t – which was okay, since it yielded my opportunity to spot today’s featured car, an ’89 Ford Tempo.
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Curbside Classic: 1960 Corvair Monza Club Coupe – How Some Auto Show Attendees Created The Most Influential Car Of The Decade
– Posted on July 15, 2024
(first posted 11/27/2012. Update: it’s almost surprising how many previous readers/commenters didn’t get the point of this article. It’s clearly not about the first Monza’s rear engine, which was undoubtedly not influential. Its significance was all about offering a fashionable, well-trimmed sporty coupe at very affordable prices. It has long been established as absolute fact that the Monza’s surprising popularity in 1961 motivated Lee Iacocca to create the Mustang. And that led to both the explosion of pony cars as well as the popularization of coupes, which eventually became the best selling body style in America.)
It’s difficult to overstate what a significant car the 1960 Corvair Monza Coupe was. There is no doubt that it turned the industry’s conventional thinking on its head–that compact cars should only be penalty boxes for thrifty folks. That’s what the whole American industry took for granted, and none more than Chevrolet with its Corvair sedan.
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Vintage R&T Review: 1976 Toyota Celica Liftback – “A Much Improved Car”
– Posted on July 15, 2024
1976 brought not just the new Liftback version of the popular Celica, but all the Celicas had significant improvements, including a longer wheelbase, wider track, bigger and wider wheels and tires, among others. It was practically a whole new generation. And ride, handling and braking were all significantly improved, in areas where its predecessor had been a bit weak. The result was a better car overall.
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CC For Sale: 1972 Mercury Montego MX – Back To The ’70s!
– Posted on July 15, 2024
I have to admit that when doing For Sale searches for CC posts, my brain goes back and forth with the results I come across. Should I pick a pristine and rare example of some rare model? Or should I pick the type of daily-use car we used to find years ago on our curbside hunts?
I’m sure you can all guess what my brain chose with this one. (And what would your preference be, CC reader?)
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Museum Photo Report: The Great British Car Journey, Ambergate, England – For The Memories, Not The Glamour
– Posted on July 15, 2024
The number of UK car museums –with heavily revised and expanded collections such as British Motor Museum (BMM)– available seems to be increasing and has inevitably led to some interesting takes on creating a distinctive offering.
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Vintage Review: 1964 Plymouth Sport Fury 426-S – Chrysler’s GTO But Without Pontiac’s Marketing Savvy
– Posted on July 15, 2024
Chrysler kicked off the classic muscle car era of the mid-’60s with their downsized ’62 Plymouth and Dodge when they dropped in their new high-output Max Wedge 413 V8 in those significantly lighter bodies. This would be the same formula used by the ’64 GTO, often attributed to be the first of its kind. There was just one problem: These 413 and 426 “R” engines were designed for racing; they had wild cams, special heads, ram induction, and didn’t really pick up their skirts until about 3500 rpm or so. This created a bit of a problem as buyers found their cars to be rather unsuitable for the weekday commute.
So for 1964, the same year the GTO arrived, Chrysler came up with the 426-S package, with its engine essentially the same as the tame 413 engine as used in a variety of big Chrysler cars, and standard in the Imperial, but with the larger 4.25″ bore. Its specialty was torque: 375 ft/lbs. of it at 3200 rpm and a peak hp rating of 365 @4800 rpm. It foreshadowed the 375 hp 440 that would replace it in 1967 as a milder counterpart to the street hemi and came to be one of the most potent street engines.
Motor Trend took the new 426-S Sport Fury with Chrysler’s new 4-speed manual to Willow Springs and found it to be a very quick but tractable car with excellent handling and brakes. Too bad they didn’t bring a GTO along for a direct comparison.
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Storage Field Classic: The Very Advanced (But Mostly Forgotten) Rover 2000TC
– Posted on July 14, 2024
(first posted 11/7/2012) Before BMW had the European sports sedan genre covered, there was the Rover 2000TC. Based on a lively, rear-wheel drive platform, it combined impeccable handling with a dash of classic British luxury. Taking a strategic cue from BMW’s 1600/2002 range, Rover used their 2000/2000TC line to inject a little life into a familiar and rather staid line up. Although the Rover 2000TC, unlike the BMW 2002, is relatively unknown to North American enthusiasts, it might well be even more worthy of our attention.
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Curbside Classic: 1994 Chrysler LeBaron Landau – Defiance Is Best Served With A Heavy Hand Of Brougham
– Posted on July 14, 2024
Ahh the K-car. So much can be said about it as a whole and its various derivatives, and quite honestly, so much has already been said about it here at this publication, ranging from admiration to utter disgust. Ultimately, after some 15 years of production and mutation, Chrysler did quickly phase out every last K-car derivative to make way for its modern Cab Forward styled cars. One of the very last K-cars, this final generation LeBaron sedan has been detailed here before, though not entirely in its ultimate Landau form. The last of its kind in so many ways, among them, the 1994 LeBaron Landau holds the distinction of being the last Chrysler equipped with a factory vinyl roof, and the last American car featuring button-tufted loose pillow style seats.
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Vintage Snapshots: At The Beach! – Cars By The Beach In The ’50s-’60s
– Posted on July 14, 2024
Following up on galleries with a summer feel, today’s images feature sunny views of the ’50s-’60s along some nice vintage cars on sandy beaches of the past. It’s a follow-up of sorts to a similar gallery posted months ago, and a theme that deserves a second look.
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Truck Show Outtakes: Three Fuel Tanker Semis – LAG Behind The Volvo Tractors
– Posted on July 14, 2024
Running on diesel fuel and transporting diesel fuel, given the numbers on the orange front and rear signs. A trio of identical Volvo FM 4×2 tractors, each towing a tridem axle, LAG tanker semi-trailer. On-highway, full-size oil tankers. From a Dutch point of view, anyway.
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The Volvo 240’s U.S. Journey – Chapter Three
– Posted on July 14, 2024
Chapter Three of our Volvo 240 saga covers the 1980-81 model years. (If you’re just catching up, chapters one and two can be found Here and Here, respectively). The 240’s sixth and seventh model years in the U.S. market proved to be no less eventful than those preceding. Additional engine offerings were meant to address customers’ desires for improved fuel efficiency, but performance was not forgotten, as you will see. As always, sales data has been sourced from Volvo records as well as from various issues of the Automotive News Data Book.
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My 2002 Mitsubishi Montero: If You Can’t Print Money With an SUV in the 21st Century, What Are You Even Doing?
– Posted on July 14, 2024
I’ve been blogging about some of my cars but I haven’t even touched on the trucks I’ve owned. That’s because none of them inspire me to write about them. My last one was a ’99 Silverado 2500 that I got as a winter beater/home improvement project hauler. But even though I bought it cheap, 12 MPG gets old after a while. It was hard to work on too, what with its 8-lug wheels and every nut and bolt making up the brakes and suspension needing monstrous torque to remove. So I decided to replace it with a mid-sized SUV. Read the rest of this entry »
