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Curbside Classic: 1952 Hudson Wasp – Different, Wonderful, and Ahead of Its Time

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– Posted on October 5, 2026

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(Updated 10/5/2026)        Spotted during a dreaded visit to Target last spring, this Hudson Wasp resulted in my partner going inside while I snapped pictures.  If he never had to touch or see another car again, he’d be perfectly happy, and that’s why meet-ups like this are so important.  Otherwise, you’re left all on your lonesome with an appreciation of all the aspects of what make cars so amazing, and it’s not uncommon for me to feel just like this Hudson, by itself at the back of the parking lot.  Speaking of which, many other shoppers, scurrying on and off the premises in their Outbacks and Jettas likely didn’t even notice this green beauty.  Read the rest of this entry »

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Classic CARmentary: 1999 Chrysler Cirrus LXi – The Chrysler That Looked Like a Bargain

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– Posted on October 5, 2026

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(Updated 10/5/2026)       When Chrysler introduced the Cirrus in 1995, it looked like an awful lot of car for the money. My father thought so, too and he was one of those people intrigued by the Cirrus’ high-content-to-price ratio.  When he was looking to replace his 1989 Civic in early 1995 (the seats were killing his back), he mentioned to me that he was considering the Cirrus.  I had a business trip to South Florida coming up a few weeks after our conversation and arranged to rent a Cirrus so he could take a closer look outside of the confines of a dealership and I could give him my opinion as well.  The agency gave me a white Cirrus with about 10,000 miles on it, but it felt like far more.  There were numerous squeaks and rattles to go along with the droning V6 and rough-shifting four-speed automatic.  After finishing my business in Miami, I headed up to my parent’s house with the intention of telling Dad to avoid this car.  When I pulled into the driveway, there was an identical white Cirrus.  Damn.

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6

1960s–1970s Chevrolet Dealers in Vintage Postcards

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– Posted on October 5, 2026

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Let’s revisit some of Chevrolet’s prime years with another gallery of vintage dealer postcards from the 1960s and 1970s. Along with plenty of models to check out, these postcards capture the colorful dealership signs and promos, distinctive architecture, and all the little details that made a trip to the local Chevy dealer a fun event.

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14

My Favorite Model Car Kits: Ten Pre-’48 Classics

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– Posted on October 5, 2026

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YouTube is a fascinating way to waste time. Last week I was surfing through several model car channels, both American and British. I’d never watched them before, though I think I may have ‘met’ two of the American guys online. Their unofficial ‘theme of the week’ seemed to be favourite kits. One of the guys listed a top five, another added two honourable mentions, while a third virtually said ‘Blow that, here’s my top seven’.

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9

1967 Buick Skylark: An Uncommon Four-Door Hardtop With One-Family Ownership

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– Posted on October 5, 2026

Driver side profile of white 1967 Buick Skylark four-door hardtop

In the 1950s and 1960s, full-size four-door hardtops were almost universally great-looking cars that sold very well, but for some reason, that magic never quite spread to General Motors intermediates. Whether it was because of their comparatively truncated length or a price tag that started crowding models on the full-size side of the showroom, sales were tepid, at least by GM standards. Maybe it’s that relative rarity that makes them so intriguing today, as this 1967 Skylark so eloquently suggests. It was bought new by the seller’s grandmother, and is now being auctioned on Hagerty Marketplace in Bloomingdale, Indiana.

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7

1965 Hino Contessa 1300 Deluxe – Japan’s Italian-Tailored Renault

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– Posted on October 5, 2026

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It’s easy to call the Hino Contessa Japan’s VW Type 3 or Japan’s Corvair, but we should be more accurate with our similes at CC. This is Japan’s Renault 8/10, really. The Corvair and VW had air-cooled boxer engines, whereas we have a good old water-cooled straight-4 on our hands here. And the boxiness of the design feels a little closer to the French car, anyway.

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Curbside Classic: 1989 Daihatsu Charade – Treat And Retreat

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– Posted on October 4, 2026

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(Updated 10/4/2026)       What a difference twenty years makes. The eighties was the Japanese decade, when they were going to take over the US, if not the world. They bought prime real estate assets like Rockefeller Center and Pebble Beach. They wrote books telling the US how to fix its problems. And their car makers were swamping the US like a tsunami. The last of the holdouts, Daihatsu, finally showed up on our shores at a rather inauspicious time: 1988, one year before the great Japanese stock market collapse. Did Daihatsu’s failure and retreat in 1992 have to do more with Japanese hubris in trying to sell a “BMW quality” Geo Metro, or was the Charade just an overpriced charade? Or is there a difference? Read the rest of this entry »

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1967 Plymouth Sport Fury: To Restore or Not to Restore? — A Case Of Automotive Cognitive Dissonance

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– Posted on October 4, 2026

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(Updated 10/4/2026)        According to Psychology Today, “cognitive dissonance is a term for the state of discomfort felt when two or more modes of thought contradict each other,” and one need not have a degree in psychology to know that everybody has suffered from the pangs of regret when faced with the possibilities of the road less traveled. Chrysler Corporation is perhaps the most apt corporate metaphor for this psychological phenomenon, as every manifestation of corporate leadership outside of Walter Chrysler himself, and perhaps Lee Iacocca, has had to look in the mirror at the end of the day and make up a good story.  This 1967 Sport Fury I recently spotted in the parking lot of a drag strip is proof that I am guilty of mixing my metaphors.

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12

Car Show Classics – South West Alfa Day 2026

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– Posted on October 4, 2026

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Alfa Romeo—and Alfa Romeos—get into your system, and often the only credible response is to meet some fellow patients (or enthusiasts, as I prefer to call them) for a little group therapy. I think it’s fair to say that, whatever the state of current Alfa Romeo sales in the UK, it is probably one of the best-supported overseas brands in the UK classic-car community. South West Alfa Day (SWAD), organised by the energetic and professional Alfa Romeo Owners’ Club UK, provided the perfect opportunity for such therapy, held in the extensive grounds of the Haynes Motor Museum in southwest England. Here are some personal highlights. Read the rest of this entry »

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HMB-1: This Rusty Barge Was Built By The CIA For A Top Secret Cold War Recovery Mission

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– Posted on October 4, 2026

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At first glance, there’s nothing particularly remarkable about the structure sitting just off to the right of the Alameda Ferry Terminal. But, if you knew its history, you’d realize this rather innocuous-looking structure has quite a story to tell: This is HMB-1, a barge that was originally built by the CIA for a highly secretive underwater recovery operation, and that was later used in an experimental stealth ship program for the U.S. Navy.

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8

1989 BMW 735i: You Can Go Home Again

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– Posted on October 4, 2026

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In January 2026, I was on my way to work when I spotted a familiar gold BMW sitting on the local lemon lot. It was a 1989 BMW 735i, nearly identical to the 1988 735i I had once owned and loved—and eventually regretted letting go. In fact, aside from a few details, it might as well have been my old car. And just like that, the possibility of owning my first love all over again was suddenly on the table.

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23

1963 Mercury Monterey S-55: One-Year-Only Bucket-Seat Sporty Version Of Mercury’s Weird Breezeway Roof

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– Posted on October 4, 2026

Right side view of a 1963 Mercury Breezeway two-door hardtop above a shot of its two-tone pink bucket seats

While the 1967–1968 Cougar remains most people’s favorite Mercury, the brand’s most distinctive models were certainly the 1963–1966 Breezeway cars, with their reverse-slant C-pillars and retractable rear windows. Although most Breezeways were sedans, there was also a two-door hardtop, which in 1963 was offered in sporty S-55 trim, with bucket seats and a center console. This Pink Frost survivor is one of those rare two-door bucket-seat Breezeway S-55 cars, which were only available for a single year.

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Manual Classic: 1970 Gulf Safety “Car-Chek” Guide – A Relic From When Service Stations Sold Tires Instead Of Twinkies

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– Posted on October 3, 2026

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(Updated 10/3/2026)        The Gulf Oil logo ranks among the most recognizable in the petroleum industry, especially among gearheads.  The Gulf colors of powder blue and orange adorned the flanks of such heady machinery as the Ford GT-40 and Porsche 917, but few know that the standard Gulf service station colors were dark blue and orange; these are the colors that grace the cover of my 1970 Gulf Safety “Car-Chek” Guide.  Owners of Gulf service stations were expected to provide more than gas and snacks; many of them were full-service garages, performing minor and major repairs for their patrons’ cars.  This book was their guide.

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Vintage R&T Review: Opel Diplomat V8 – “Something That GM Could, And Should, Build In The US”

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– Posted on October 3, 2026

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(Updated 10/3/2026)           Now that’s an interesting line, as this Diplomat was actually seriously considered as the basis of the 1976 Cadillac Seville. As the story goes, the big Opel’s body tolerances were too tight for GM to build in NA, although I suspect that may well not be the full story. But the even more interesting line in this short review is the last one:

“Why doesn’t GM import the Diplomat? Simple. It would meet head-on with upper Olds, Buick and Pontiac models and could no more achieve the prestige of a small Mercedes than it does in Europe. But if they gave the Chevy Nova sedan its brakes and rear suspension, hmmm…”

This was in February of 1972, well before GM had committed to build the Seville using the Nova as its basis. And no, they didn’t give it the Diplomat’s DeDion rear suspension and brakes.  And although it tried to take Mercedes head on, it never made the slightest dent in Mercedes continued growth in the US.

Now if they had done that ten years earlier, it might have been a different story.

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12

Mercedes-Benz Actros 3358 – A Triple Of Three-Pointed Stars

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– Posted on October 3, 2026

Trucks@Twenthe 2026 - three Mercedes-Benz Actros 3358 tractors, owned by Bolk Almelo - 1

A trio of identical Mercedes-Benz Actros 6×4 tractors, neatly arranged at a September 2026 truck show in the east of the Netherlands. The one on the right was first registered in February 2019, the other two in October 2018. They’re obviously quite exceptional.

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