Those of you who follow my posts will recall that early in the year, I published an update of the previous cars making up the family fleet, and how these were reduced to a single vehicle that replaced them both. In that post, I already revealed it as a 2023 Mazda CX-5, but as it was too early to COAL, I held on to a dedicated review. Now, after a year with the family, the time has come to share my experience and thoughts with you.
(first posted 9/6/2018) There’s few things that make my day more than being exposed to a car that I never knew existed. CC reader Julieta L. sent me a couple of links to this delightful little car, the 1960 Siata Ampurias 750. Designed and built at Siata’s Spanish affiliate, which built this and apparently some other specials based on SEATs, or Spanish Fiats.
There’s very little information available on the Ampurias, except that it was of course based on the very popular Fiat/SEAT 600. But it largely speaks for itself.
(first posted 9/6/2018) If the 1958 Studebaker Scotsman wagon from last week was all about honest basic transportation, then its platform-mate 1958 Packard Station Wagon is all about faking it until you make it. As luck would have it, they were both conveniently parked next to each other at the auction of Studebaker collector/hoarder Ron Hackenberger last summer for easy comparison.
(first posted 9/6/2018) “Pull up to the…” bumper? I love the artistry and persona of Grace Jones. Earlier this year, I had gone to see “Bloodlight and Bami”, a biographical film about that iconic actress, model and musician, and I highly recommend watching it. Suffice it to say that our featured long, black “limousine” (please allow me some artistic license) would benefit greatly from another rear bumper sourced from a donor car, but the rest of this car looked surprisingly solid when I photographed it in my neighborhood just over a year ago.
Photos from the Cohort by robadr.
Here’s another creative curbside find, stuffed with what seems like every single Canadian trope one could think of. Being that the car was found in Canada, I suppose it’s either an example of their quirky sense of humor (most likely) or a dubious exercise in misguided local pride (very doubtful). Then again, maybe a truly ill-advised ploy by the local tourism board?
In the United States today, cab-over-engine long haul trucks are basically non-existent. COEs thrive in the light duty commercial truck market and manage to hang on in the medium duty sector. However, the American COE long haul truck was nearly dead long before the last Freightliner Argosy was sold here.
These elusive space saving machines are long gone from even the most low turnover fleets by now, kept alive only by a handful of dedicated owner-operators. Yet I managed to find this spotlessly clean COE Freightliner still working hard as a filming crew support rig in Atlanta.
Having recovered from a litany of dramas, faux-pas and catastrophes (allied bombings, the loss of the Eisenach factory, the V8 debacle, etc.) in the post-war years, BMW spent the ‘60s rebuilding their image and confidence, thanks to the 700 and the Neue Klasse. The takeover of Glas in 1966 brought a huge increase in capacity, enabling the Bavarian company to start looking into prestige projects once again. It took a while for one to gel, but eventually BMW got into the supercar game. But just the (M-)one time.
(first posted 9/2/2018) Constantine Hannaher, who was at the Baltimore CC Meet-up and posted a raft of great pictures from the event that I haven’t gotten to yet, also just posted this fine ’61 Chevy Parkwood wagon. As was common at the time, Chevrolet gave their station wagons different names than the rest of their car lines/models, but the last year for that was 1961 (until they came back in 1969, oddly enough. That means in 1962, this Parkwood would be just a Bel Air wagon.
Back then, I found it a bit confusing, especially since the wagon names seemed to change over the years (but then the sedans did too, to some extent). What was really confusing though was that in the last few years of this (1959-1960), the Impala-level wagons had different names, depending on whether they were 9 passenger (Kingswood) or 6 passenger (Nomad). At least the Kingswood got axed for 1961, and all the Impala-trim wagons were now Nomads.
Back to this Parkwood:
(first posted 9/5/2018) “More.” The word can be a double-edged sword. “Extra” can easily become “excess.” That certainly was the case with Mercedes-Benz’s W140 S-Class. In 1991, the automotive press set out to chronicle the benefits of the newest, biggest Benz, but there was no avoiding the elephant in the room.
(first posted 9/5/2018) Here at CC we’ve seen lots of American cars, especially muscular ones from the 60s and 70s, now prowling about Europe. But here’s one that made its way all the way to Australia: a 1967 Pontiac Grand Prix with the optional 428-ci high-output engine.
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For a remarkably long time, VW and Karmann did great business manufacturing and selling sporty coupés based on VW’s contemporary bread-and-butter platform. It started with the Beetle-based Karmann-Ghia, then came the Golf-based Scirocco. But the Corrado spelled the end of this great multi-decade run of two-door VWs. What happened?
Once again, we’re dealing with Packard’s last days. This time, courtesy of some images of Wendell Hawkins Packard Inc. in Houston, TX. Those who know the marque’s history can probably tell from the image above that the dealer was a favored one in those closing days. After all, in that showroom appears none other than Packard’s 1956 Predictor concept car (at center). A one-of-a-kind proposal that hinted at future models from the marque.
Want a better look?
If you follow the modified car scene, even as tangentially as I do, you’ll probably have heard of the Woodward Dream Cruise, which was on in Michigan a few weeks back.
I was only alerted to this year’s one by a friend who suggested it as a daily theme for a Facebook model group I’m in. A frenzy of models appeared over the following couple of days, and I discovered there seemed to be a limit to the number of posts I could make to one group in a day! I probably wasn’t the only builder who pushed FB’s technical envelope that weekend. Daryl urged me to break it; it broke me instead.
(photos by Stephanie N.)
This Jeepster Commando convertible is a rolling relic for more reasons than one. In addition to just being scarce, especially in such original condition, this one lacks the V6 emblems that graced the majority of them. So instead of a 160 hp Buick-sourced V6, behind its traditional seven-bar grille sits the 75 hp Hurricane four, an F-head version of the original 134 cubic inch Go-Devil Jeep four. By the late ’60s, at a time when greater performance was sweeping all corners of the automotive market, this gnarly little four was already a relic then, and the lowest power American car available at the time.
Given that the Jeepster was advertised as being “Racy and Rugged”, that’s what might well be called a half-truth.
