Welcome to part 2 of the Mayfair Park car show. The fun continues!
A ’56 Bel Air 210, a Ford Vicky ( I think ) of unknown vintage, a ’64 Chevelle 300 series, and a ’57 Chevy Nomad ( barely visible behind the Chevelle ) . In perusing these photos, I spotted an interesting and slightly freaky little detail. Take a good look at this ’56. Now look at the T-bucket in the cover photo and look at what’s behind it. What are the odds of THAT happening???
A first-generation Viper GTS coupe makes an appearance.
Part 1’s cover vehicles- a ’56 Bel Air 210, a ’55-’56 Chevy pickup, a ’33-’34 Ford three-window coupe, and a 1940 Ford coupe.
A peculiar assortment of customized PT Cruisers.
This gorgeous, bone-stock 1937 Buick caught my eye from clear across the park.
The heart of the beast. No idea what the specs are, but the add-on fuel pressure gauge is probably good idea.
One unusual detail on this Buford- the folding jump seat for an extra passenger.
The proud owner showing off his prize to interested attendees.
Off to the World’s Fair! Pack yer bags, Martha!
This lovely ’65 / ’66 Mustang was for sale. Very nice car, but the $35K asking price was waaay to steep in my opinion.
There’s a good reason for the stretched frame on this Ford street rod.
This hotrod sports a rather unusual power source- a 300 cubic inch inline 6-cylinder from a Ford truck.
A detailed spec sheet.
I almost missed this neat-o ’79-’81 Camaro Z28. I have no idea if it’s real or a clone, but it sure looks nice. The polished aluminum disc wheels were a very common and highly popular accessory back in this car’s heyday.
The Heartbeat Of America.
The Monster tach, aftermarket gauges, ratchet shifter, and deeply contoured buckets show that this car means business, despite the lack of a roll cage.
Despite their many shortcomings, the second-gen F-cars always get an A+ for style in my book.
A complete 180 from the Camaro was this little Crosley.
The power ( or lack thereof ) plant.
The interior.
This screaming yellow ‘Vette was a real show-stopper.
The Vette’s owner was nice enough to include this spec sheet, showing where all the money went.
I’m jealous. I wish MY engine were this clean.
The control room.
The intricate pinstriping is a nice touch.
I was totally diggin’ this Vega GT wagon.
As you can see, the four-cylinder aluminum tractor engine this car came with is long gone. Is this were my car, I definitely would have gone with some shorty headers instead of those heavy and restrictive cast iron manifolds.
GM cars get commonly bashed ( and rightfully so ) for their oppressively cheap and cheesy interiors. At least this one TRIES to look classy. It’s certainly better than my ’72 Ventura interior. I wish I knew what the huge rectangular hole in the dash was for.
This gorgeous ’59 Chevy Parkwood wagon is the Vega’s polar opposite in almost every way. Other than both being Chevrolet station wagons, no two cars could be more different.
This beautiful ( and rare ) 1970 Ford Torino GT convertible is a good stopping point for this chapter. On to part 3…
And yet another ’56 Two-Ten painted like a Bel Air (the baby blue and white one in the first and second pictures)… What’s up with that?
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-capsule-1956-chevrolet-210-black-and-white-done-right/
In the case of Part 1’s cover photo, THAT 1956 Chevy Two-Ten is painted correctly (The red and white one).
Ummm, that Buick is no 1937. I am going to put it at 1921-22, though I could be off a year or two either direction. This could be my favorite car of the whole bunch.
Love the Crosley, an car where the battery is almost as big as the engine.
The Mustang is a 65.
Ha! I had to go back and look at the Crosley battery.
The GT interior in the Vega wagon is a bit less cheap and cheesy than the regular Vega interior, and cast iron headers may be easier to fit in that little engine compartment without cutting?
For my favorite I will be contrary, and pick the Model A behind the yellow vette 🙂
And the hole in the dash was a “storage compartment”, but really a way to delete the a/c vents from a non a/c car that looked slightly more intentional.than a blanking plate.
Personally having dealt with the joys of leaking header flanges I’d pick iron manifolds on a car that actually gets driven. Plus shorties are more show than go, they don’t have the scavenging effects of real longtube headers, and you can port and smooth out cast manifolds to match the minimal performance gains of the shorties.
I’m guessing 26 or 27. If anything, I thought the original caption was a misprint.
Looking at old car brochures, the bumper matches 1922. Much later and the radiators are different.
If the Buick is 1922, then the six was rated at 50 brake horsepower
I love the straight six in the hotrod. Hotrods are built for a unique style and retro-innovative backyard engineering. It’s a waste of opportunity just to install a me-too small block Chevy as so many do. Do something different. A straight six is cool.
It makes me want to build a rod around a straight eight, maybe a flathead.
I like it too, and imagine the howl it makes, a slant six makes a great looking hot rod engine as well.
Love that yellow ’70 Torino GT. Those Ford dog dishes and beauty rings (discussed in Joseph’s ’71 Mustang/Flint MI post the other day) look especially nice on it.
With that camera angle and lighting though, it looks like that weird blue thing parked next to it has a tree growing out of it. ?
Ugh I can’t believe custom PT cruisers are still a thing, thank god rust quickly killed them all off here.
PT cruisers are not my thing but this is a cool way to enjoy them! I like this! More power to these folks!
A friend sold his flame-painted bling-wheeled PT Cruiser and bought a new MX-5. A step in the right direction!
The gap on the dash of the Vega GT is a storage cubby. That’s stock. And the interior looks good because that was the extra cost optional one. The seats in the stock interior were incredibly cheap and terrible.
And that Parkwood wagon is mom’s first ‘second’ car in our family. All except for the wheels.
My uncle, living next door to us at the time, had a Parkwood in exactly that same color combo.
Nice tour. Thanks. I await Part 3.
Nice set, Chris. Shows like these are always such fun. Can’t let you get away with the red Ford in the third photo, though; isn’t that a ’36 two-door sedan ?
I look forward to the next part . . .
Been a long time since I saw any car (like that white Camaro) equipped with the aftermarket Grant removable steering wheel. As a locksmith, I got called out many a time to make keys for GM vehicles, and I learned to ask it they had Grant wheels. If so, the regular GM price for pulling the wheel TRIPLED. Those Grants were a royal PITA.
As far as that “1937 Buick?” I hardly think so. A touring phaeton, with DUAL demountable-rim spares?? 1927, more likely…maybe even 1917. Buick was building all-steel cars well before 1937. I suspect a typo.
The Buick was a typo, actually. Not sure what I was thinking when I typed that…
I’d like to find the California licensed smog inspection station that certifies that yellow ’79 Corvette every two years. Or, does the owner mount the stock carb and distributor for the test. I know folks that do such things.
Don’t forget the cats…
I remember attending the Mopar Nationals a year or two after the PT Cruiser came out and we were shocked at the dozens of chromed up PT’s that showed up. We thought most of them looked like pimp mobiles but it did get younger Mopar fans into the hobby.
Very nice cars, all .
The big shiny black tin can thing midway down the block on the Buick is a vacuum fuel pump ~ very common in the 1920’s and early 1930’s .
-Nate