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Rampside Classic – 1937 Vickers Wellington – Bomber Command’s Only Ever-Present

(first posted 4/29/2018)     We all know the Lancaster – the real heavyweight of the RAF’s campaign over Germany and the occupied nations of Western Europe. As Britain celebrates the centenary of the world’s first independent air force, we should also remember the very different Vickers Wellington, which outnumbered even the Lancaster; was produced before, during and after the war; and bore the stamp of an individual genius like very few other aircraft have ever done. Read the rest of this entry »

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Vintage Dealers: 1957 Imperials In The Showroom

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Alleyside Outtake: 1985 Winnebago LeSharo Turbo Diesel – “Caution, I’m Slow”

It pays to walk down a different alley once in a while…in this case, the payoff was a nothing less than a LeSharo, which has become exceedingly rare. It has the FWD cab and drive train form a Renault Trafic van mated to a low-profile fiberglass camper body. I have not seen one for well over a decade; the last one is written up here.

And yes, with a 75 hp 2.1 L Renault turbo diesel, it was slow, although not as slow as the 57 hp naturally-aspirated version.

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CC Outtakes: Car Spotting In Uruguay, Part 1

Text and Images by Riveranotario. 

This February I was for the first time in Colonia del Sacramento, in Uruguay. This city is one of the most well-known tourist destinations in that country since its old quarter is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We got there just for the day on a ferry from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Of course, the most interesting part for me were the cars.

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Cohort Classic: 1973 Pontiac Catalina 400 — Role Playing; From Lead Actor To Ensemble Player

Photos from the Cohort by Hyperpack.

Being in the public eye is tough. Celebrities, politicians and Youtubers know it. And then, product planners. After all, a product goes out there in the same fashion; to be tried, tested, and find love or scorn. And much like a celebrity, 1970s Pontiac was vying for a new public angle after its 1960s heyday receded. It was quite a turn, from 1960s sexy heartthrob to middle-aged Brougham actor.

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Curbside Classic: 1966 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 – The Best $3,000 Big Sedan In 1966?

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(first posted 3/19/2015)    If you were a typical white-skin, white-collar middle-class Pop with a wife and 2.3 kids, and were looking to spend three grand on a nice-ish white sedan in 1966, you could do worse than to have picked this Olds Dynamic 88. It was reasonably stylish for being a plain sedan, had plenty of room in its 123″ wheelbase, had that famous GM ride, and Oldsmobiles had rep for being screwed together pretty decently. But best of all, it was the only car in its class to come standard with a 425 cubic inch (7 liter) V8; not bad, for an inflation-adjusted $21,600. That is, as long as you were good with manual steering, manual brakes, crank windows, no air conditioning and a three-speed manual on the column. Maybe that part wouldn’t exactly make wifey any too happy; better get ready to cough up some more white-bread dough. Read the rest of this entry »

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Vintage Mechanix Illustrated Review: Tom McCahill Tests the 1953 Studillac – Effortless 125mph Top Speed

(first posted 4/28/2018)        The early 50s were a very fertile time for automotive creativity, and engine swapping was as rampant as wife swapping (supposedly) was in certain parts of the country a decade later. We looked at a Cadillac-powered 1946 Continental here recently, but here’s another one that involved a brand new car, the 1953 Studebaker, which was of course the most dramatic new car that year, and certainly the most aerodynamic. That made it attractive to those looking for some serious speed, both on the salt flats as well as the highway. Bill Frick created a cottage industry, first with a Fordillac, but then turned his attention to the new Studebaker coupe. Tom McCahill tested on for Mechanix Illustrated.

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Vintage Snapshots: Car Washing In The ’50s & ’60s

With winter well in the rearview mirror, it’s time for a little of car washing in the old-fashioned way. No pressure hoses, no power tools. Just buckets, bowls, sponges and additional period gear. And in that spirit, here’s a gallery of vintage images of that inevitable automotive activity, the wash.

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CC Global: 2023 Trucks@Twenthe – Happy Hunting Ground (For Truck Enthusiasts, Anyway)

Hunting - Scania tractors

No fear when these guys show up in your rear-view mirror, it’s just that family names ending on -ing or -ink are commonplace in the eastern regions of the Netherlands, where they speak Dutch Low Saxon. So far for some geography trivia, it’s about time to focus.

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Curbside Classic: 1980 Toyota Truck (N30,N40) – HiLux Day!

It was late 2021 and the time had come to deal with matters that had been put off long enough. The mission? To move out a bunch of personal stuff that had remained in my dad’s home since his passing in 2018. A task that had been deferred time and time again, delayed by legal matters, a busy schedule, and well… that once-in-a-lifetime 2020 pandemic.

Clearly, the move was more than I could handle on my ’96 Golf, much less on my ’68 Beetle. Enter a 1980 (or so) Toyota HiLux to the rescue. Or just Toyota Truck, as it was known in North America.

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14

Auto-Biography: Volvo and the Odd Man Hypothesis

The “odd man hypothesis” was first advanced in Michael Crichton’s 1969 seminal techno-thriller novel The Andromeda Strain.  Crichton presented it so convincingly that for decades afterward, I believed it to be an actual theory. However, according to Wikipedia, ‘The “odd-man hypothesis” is an entirely fictional construct stating that unmarried men are better able to execute the best, most dispassionate decisions in crises. In Crichton’s novel, the ‘odd-man’ hypothesis is explained by a page in a RAND Corporation report detailing the results of a test series wherein different people were to make command decisions in nuclear and biological wars and chemical crises.

Just to be sure, I searched RAND and found no connection to that hypothesis. (Now I’m just waiting for the D.C. “suits” to arrive here in a black SUV…) How did the odd-man hypothesis apply to me? Read on…

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Curbside Classic: 1977 Lincoln Versailles – Pig In A Poke

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(first posted 4/17/2013)     Deception–and self deception–is a very significant factor in the automobile business, maybe the biggest. Unless we buy a stripper Corolla (so conveniently parked here) or the like, we’re happy enough to pay more to feel like we’re not just getting basic transportation, but something that enhances our sense of well-being and social status.

One of the biggest questions for automobile executives forever is how much of a premium folks are willing to pay for that. What’s the upper limit you can charge strictly for the sizzle when there’s no steak? The folks at Ford wondered that too, so they decided to turn this question into a research experiment, using real buyers. The name of the project was called Versailles. Read the rest of this entry »

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Automotive History: 1946 Lincoln Continental – Customized and Updated by George Hurst

(first posted 4/27/2018)      Jason Shafer recently wrote an excellent post on the 1970 Chrysler 300 Hurst and in it he included an early historical account about George Hurst.  As I was reading this post, I had started researching information for my Lincoln Continental article.  These two articles instantly triggered a memory about George Hurst’s early years.  While George Hurst will forever be associated with Oldsmobile and high performance shifters from the muscle car era, how many know that the first car he specialized in was the Lincoln Continental?

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Vintage Snapshots: Cities And Towns Across America In The ’60s & ’70s

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Trackside Classics: Steamrail Victoria Newport Workshops — Open Days 2024

This has taken ages to write. What an experience! Just the program ran to eight pages. What to include? What to leave out? I had just got a new phone, but my son had a separate camera. Most of these pictures are his.

Steamrail Victoria is ‘a volunteer organization dedicated to the restoration and operation of vintage steam, diesel and electric locomotives and carriages’ (their website). They also run tours around the state every few weeks, and hold an annual open day in the Victorian Railways Newport workshops, which date back to 1884. Regular maintenance was transferred from here about a hundred years later. Various historic railway organizations now share the facilities. My son Ben, who works in loco maintenance, is a great rail fan, so we went along to this year’s open day. I hadn’t been for about ten years, and was keen to attend.

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