(first posted 10/4/2012) Quite recently, the wife and I went to our weekend house for the city-wide garage sale.
I got our items arranged bright and early Saturday morning. Shortly after the Mrs. came outside, I happened to look up at the street. My jaw dropped. Grabbing my camera, I told the Mrs. that I’d be back. I walked up the street thinking it was a Dodge, but then I realized there were too many letters on the hood: This was a DeSoto!
(first posted 7/26/2018) Lancia’s renewed effort in the US market with its new Fiat-based cars was a mixed blessing. They were stylish, and had lovely interiors. And they had some very good dynamics, but their performance was pretty significantly blunted to meet US emission regulations. The HPE shooting brake’s output went from 120hp in European trim to 86hp. But it still delivered some satisfying driving qualities.
Let’s do a bit of car spotting today with these images of freeways and highways from the ’50s and ’60s. Unsurprisingly, most are in California and to offset that imbalance we start with the view of Chicago’s skyline above, taken from the Kennedy Expressway in 1965.
It’s no secret that I am a fan of all things transportation. Of course this is one of the ties that bind me to this site, and it’s something that I think I share with quite a few readers. I’m also a fan and student of the history of technology, which is as much the history of the people who create, use and are affected by technology as it is about the technology itself. Tossing all of this together, what could be a better activity for me than to spend a week immersed at the ground level in transport, social and cultural history?
So that’s what I did for a little over a week earlier this month on an end-to-end cycling tour of the Erie Canal.
Mine didn’t look this good, sadly.
When the lease on my SE-R was up, rather than replacing it with another new, or newish, car, I went completely the other way and replaced it with the cheapest thing that came to hand. That way I could concentrate on finishing my bachelor’s and moving straight to going for a master’s, without the burden of a car payment hanging over me. Read the rest of this entry »
(first posted 10/2/2012) The grand Marmon Sixteen may have died in the depths of the Depression, but Walter Marmon certainly didn’t go down with it. Instead, he joined forces with Arthur Herrington, an ex-military engineer, to develop and build all-wheel drive vehicles for military and civilian applications. Although most of the initial production comprised larger trucks and vehicles, they had also identified a market for civilian 4x4s and were pursuing it. The result was the Marmon-Herrington Ford, a 1940 version of which is pictured above–and the conversion didn’t stop at wagons. Read the rest of this entry »
(first posted 7/25/2018) About seven years ago I was a fresh, new CC contributor/editor and was a thrill with the state of the world. New and interesting curbside subjects were simply everywhere, and the only question was not if I would stop and photograph an unusual car, but for how long. Time has gone by and I have become jaded into not stopping all that often anymore. And why would I need to when I still sit on a stash of cars that I have never gotten around to writing up. Like this one.
Let’s pay another visit to neighborhoods of the ’50s and ’60s, along with the cars and folks that populated them. It’s a brief collection of images highlighting residential areas for the most part, featuring the streets, sidewalks, and homes. That plus the cars of the period; with most belonging to the Big 3. That said, a few less common ones are included, some obvious, some less so.
We never owned a wagon, so I have only an occasional memory of riding way back there when a friend’s mother drove us home from school. And that was in an FB Holden, so (shrugs)… As a child, it always seemed something special though. Although I asked, Dad always bought sedans, fearing the attention of thieves having his samples and order books on display rather than hidden away securely. Considering where we lived, less temptation may have been wise.
I glanced at the car’s white silhouette from the distance as I drove by, and its rather whimsical face truly spoke to me. It stood in the corner of a car show I hadn’t known about, but with its dignified silhouette and bright round eyes it just stood out from the rest. A sixties Dodge Dart? In this city? Had my eyes been right?
His & Hers Broughams at the Oakmont Fathers Day Car Show 2024 – me spinning the tunes
It’s summer here in the Steel City, so that means we get to drive our classic cars that have been hibernating safely all winter away from the salt trucks ‘n slippy roads filled with potholes. While the potholes don’t magically disappear with spring, it is more fun to dodge them in the Brougham than in the Escalade or my wife’s XTS.
With pressing our latest purchase into daily(ish) duty, comes the most common question from admirers at the Giant Eagle parking lot or car shows – “What year is that?! My parents/uncle/pap/gram had one that looked like it!”
(first posted 7/24/2018) The Jeep FJ-3 Fleetvan used to deliver the mail, but now it’s being delivered. But since this is as close as I’m likely to get to one of these, we’ll use this hulk as a tribute to the little Jeep van. And little it was.
(first posted 7/24/2018) “O-kay,” someone at Ford (probably) said after the last Blackwood was sold “That…didn’t really work out did it? It was hideously expensive, we had to get the beds from Europe, and to top it all off it turns out people want to feeeeel like their truck can haul stuff about! Even if all they do is throw grocery bags in there!”
“Still, that doesn’t mean the idea itself isn’t sound. What if we give it another go?”
