In recent days, frequent CC Cohort contributor Jerome Solberg uploaded a nice number of curbside finds from California. Enough so that I feel it’s time for a fresh tour of casual daily finds. We’ll go from the well-preserved to daily drivers, faded glories, and even dubious preservation efforts. A CC kind of mix, all courtesy of images from the Golden State.
To get going, the highlight of the tour; a 1968 Imperial convertible. This one is a very rare one, with only 474 seeing the light of day back in ’68.
For those who are fond of underdogs, the Imperial saga is the luxury marque for them. Sales of Imperials generally paled against those of Cadillac and Lincoln, but now, with all that baggage behind, the rectilinear styling of the ’68 droptop is rather attractive. And well, it’s got the plus of being rarer. For our take on the ’68 Imperial convertibles, you can click HERE.
Talking about Cadillac, here’s a ’76-’79 Seville. Perhaps hard to appreciate now, but these looked quite impressive when they came out. A concept that was hard for me to grasp back in my youthful 1990s, when most were in horrid condition. And well…
… all the very questionable customizing jobs of the period that didn’t do anything to improve them. Then or now.
However, last year I came across one in perfect condition passing me on the freeway, and its profile looked striking in motion. As originally intended. Not that I argue with it being a GM Deadly Sin, but that’s a subject to tackle on another occasion.
More summer views. Now a ’67 Buick GS 400. Yes, horrible wheels and rims. Just toss them (in your mind) and place something else to your liking.
On to the 1980s with this Lincoln Town Car.
In recent times, I’ve noticed pop stars and hip hop artists frequently feature Lincoln Town Cars of the ’80s in their music videos. Have they reached their moment of nostalgic hipness?
I’ve a soft spot for these funky yet dopey Volvos. And my preferred is this, the 1800ES “shooting-brake” configuration. I wanted one back in the ’90s, and I still want one today.
When I lived in Northern California back then, an old Volvo was invariably always nearby. Looks like things haven’t changed.
Old Jaguars were common finds then, too. Often beaten, or non-running, rarely pristine. But a nice part of the landscape nonetheless.
This one looks to be the rundown running type.
Back to Cadillac. I think this is the same ’71 Coupe deVille that Jerome uploaded some time ago and that already got its own post.
Is this too formal a Caddy for you? I’ve got another one coming up:
There! A bright, colorful Caddy to park by the kiddie playground.
There were tons of wonky colors in the ’70s, but this shade was never a Cadillac choice in that era.
And when’s the last time you saw a Mercury Sable? This black and white survivor is a long way from looking like the futuristic pod it once was.
Yes kids, that interior was “the future” back in the 1980s. Or rather, the 1990s, since this is the dashboard for the second-gen. models.
Now to the once-common Cutlass, in Supreme form. How to avoid it, really?
The exterior on this one looks worn, but the interior tells a different story…
Yes, quite a few updates inside. Someone is taking care of this rocket Supreme. Is the exterior waiting for the same treatment?
Clearly, that 53 year old shape looks nothing like the cars flanking it. If you’re too young to get it, you had to be there to make it make sense. Or maybe it never did, but it felt right at the time. And to some, it still does.
That Jag is the uber-rare XJC, coupe version of the more common XJ sedan.
I remember when a clapped out Jaguar would be a MKII sedan, lovely cars that when properly driven went *much* faster in the canyons than you’d ever believe .
I think that ’68 Chrysler rag top could rent out to the Navy for being two flight decks .
-Nate
One doesn’t see cars parked so close behind as behind the Imperial, the Seville and the Volvo very often. Especially the Imperial.
Thanks for publishing some of my photos! That Cutlass is I think owned by a student, its parked downtown next to student housing. Looking at it, one can see why the first generation Cutlass was so popular, among young people too. Very different from the Cutlass of the mid-80s. I have only seen that Chrysler once, but it was parked right there all day that one time.
Finding that Seville parked in front of a W126(?) Mercedes tells quite the story. The folks at Cadillac surely noticed that they were losing customers to Mercedes, and thought that maybe “luxury” no longer simply meant “the biggest car”. I don’t think the original Seville was a brilliant car, but neither do I think it was a “deadly sin”. But at least it showed that someone at Cadillac was paying attention.
Not only are the wheels on that Buick woefully out of place (to put it kindly), but the driver’s also committing the crime of driving with the top *down* and the windows *up*.
Just saw a guy doing that this morning. Was still a bit cool at that time a day though.
Air conditioning is dandy with top down and windows up. But that probably isn’t an original AC car.
Nice, That Imperial is an improvement on the one I saw at a show recently, a 4 door hard top, they dont look good jacked up on donk wheels but hey not my car, derelict Jags yeah not rare near my home burg are several fields of tidy non running Jags scheduled to be wrecked for parts, There must still be a lot of running cars out there that junk yard exports parts all over, and old Jags on the street are still fairly common. Chevrolet make a really good Jag engine.
For the Lincoln Town Car hipness, I wonder if it could be the influence of the movie “The Lincoln Lawyer” who could have played a role where a 1986 Town Car is the main “car star”?
https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_384273-Lincoln-Town-Car-54D-1986.html
Ah, we are in Berkeley. Recognized Euclid Avenue where La Val’s Pizza has been since 1978 at least. Can’t tell about the other cars but the green Caddy is a native of California with those plates. Doesn’t surprise me to find oldies like this in Berkeley especially down in the flats. Although they are getting rarer now as you can’t find anything older then the mid-80s in Pick n Pull anymore. Would be interesting to check out the ride in the Imperial. Was just out in the Polara early this morning before temps hit 98-100 again. Still rides smoothly even at 100 mph. I know only did that for 3 miles before slowing down which allowed the Mercedes and BMW to finally catch up.
You are missing the most famous movie quote for the Mercury Sable.
Ford Lincoln Mercury Sable: A personal conveyance named after its inventor, an assassinated ruler, a character from Greco-Roman myth and a small fur-covered mammal.
Beldar where have you been?
The Buick is a 1967 GS 400. AFAIK Buick considered Special, Skylark, and GS 400 separate models. Buick also sold a GS 340 (with red rally wheels) and a GS ornamentation package that didn’t have performance parts.
Thanks, I missed that. I updated and fixed that typo.
Nice selection, thanks! Just trying to make sense of the last photo, the drooping buildng on the right; or just a optical illusion?
Scary. Google provided the answer without even being told it’s Berkeley. The building is called the Kitteridge and it’s bent.
Student apartments just 1/2 block off the west end of the campus and here is that Cutlass again. Tarp will do no favors to the paint.
SF never fails to disappoint the CC hunter. Those Imperials shared about as much sheetmetal if not less than the GM C-Bodies, including Cadillac. The’66-’67 A Body intermediates were really what our full-size cars should have, and had been.
That’s a pretty rare Jaguar XJ-C coupe to be out on the street, Looks to have lost its vinyl top at some point. Fortunately.
In all my visits, the wildest thing I ever came across was a Continental Mark II on Cole Street years ago.
1957-’68 Imperial convertibles are essentially factory series-customs that harks to the pre-war classic era, included in the model choices simply for their prestige value. Unlikely the tooling and extra costs involved to build the convertibles was ever even a break-even proposition. But no Big Three luxury car maker would have been taken seriously as such if a convertible wasn’t included. When the overall preference for convertibles tapered off in the late 1960s, it was convenient ‘cover’ to drop the bothersome, expensive, labor-intensive convertibles from their product lines.