Reality is stranger than fiction, and Volkswagen’s history certainly fits that assessment. The unlikeliest automotive powerhouse, that rose on the unexpected success of the curious and offbeat VW Beetle. The Volkswagen story is certainly a fascinating one, but nothing would be of the company without those who took to their unique products.
Just a short post for this second installment of “JDM Rarities Week,” but it’s one that really took me by surprise. I assume some of you might have heard about the Tommykaira ZZ, but until I chanced upon this one on one of my regular Sunday strolls at the Jingu Gaien, I certainly had no idea this even existed.
This past March marked the first month since August of 2012 in which I had returned to my hometown of Flint, Michigan twice. Last month was bookended by two trips, the first of which was mainly to watch a new documentary film (Remembering Flint Central) about my long-closed high school. The second trek was to participate in a celebration for a favorite, former teacher and also a significant birthday for one of my best friends, someone I’ve known since our fifth grade year at our gifted elementary school. There had been no formal party plans for my friend, who I’ll call Veronica, but that Saturday ended up being such a fun, impromptu evening with just her, her husband, and a handful of other friends, most of whom had known each other since at least the beginning of high school.
(first posted 5/23/2013, as a follow-up to yesterday’s Grosse Pointe Myopians)
This is the kind of stuff I inhaled as a fifteen year-old: Brock Yates analyzing the British Car industry, and prognosticating. It’s a bit long-winded, from a time when we weren’t bombarded with media flying at us from all directions and we craved long articles to fill the time (and brains). And of course, it’s old hat; we know how the British car industry essentially melted down and away; the few remaining remnants (except Morgan) all in the hands of foreign ownership. But if you have the time, here’s a trip back to 1968, when the British auto industry was really just beginning to face its do or die situation. (from the December 1968 issue of Car and Driver). Read the rest of this entry »
(first posted 4/11/2018) I love visiting Las Vegas as much for enjoyment of some of its many excesses as for cultural observation. It has also occurred to me that I might, in the same way, be the “observee” in the eyes of other another tourist. Though my trips there are usually for participation in an annual reunion of a group of close-knit friends who no longer all live in the greater Chicago area, I also like to take one afternoon to branch off by myself with my camera. I feel as though my sense of what constitutes the “real” Las Vegas has mostly eluded me, as most places at which my friends and I have stayed or visited are, admittedly, tourist traps.
Let’s take a brief look at this Cohort find by nifticus392; a 1973 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser, from the first year the wagon appeared modeling GM’s new colonnade body. Also, the first year the model appeared without the nifty roof window treatment that had once been its namesake. In other words, there were fewer vistas to enjoy on the new for ’73 Vista Cruiser.
But don’t you worry, a new sunroof Vista-Vent came instead of the old window arrangement. Gotta keep a few vistas on a Vista Cruiser, right?
I love museums. Etymologically, “museum” is Latin by way of the Ancient Greeks; you may notice that the root is “muse,” as in “to inspire.” Therefore, the museum is a natural place for introspection and wonder. My favorite corners of museums are the quiet ones, far away from the flashing interactive displays and “flavor of the month” dog-and-pony shows. At the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, this 1963 Studebaker truck prototype (it doesn’t even rate a name) sits in a quiet corner of the storage basement, and it’s a highlight of every visit.
This week, we are going back to the weird and wonderful world of JDM – the twist here being that the cars we’re going to examine are genuine rarities, even in Japan. Today, we pay a visit to the big Nissan store in Ginza, which has a small rotating cast of exhibits from the carmaker’s museum collection. Some of those are fairly common-or-garden Datsuns, but this one was a different (electric) kettle of fish.
(first posted 5/31/2013) I come here neither to praise nor to bury the Pontiac Trans Sport. The market did the latter quite some time ago, not only with this model, but with Pontiac as a whole; no, all I have in mind today is to drink deeply of its, er, singularity for a little while. Read the rest of this entry »
(first posted 4/13/2018) This week’s Curbside Classic has been filled with posts packed full of data and thoughtful perspectives on the decline of Motown’s fortunes through the years. Well, roll the clock back fifty years, and the handwriting was already on the wall, courtesy of Brock Yates in the April 1968 issue of Car and Driver.
Let’s revisit trucks and their people with this vintage image gallery. While the images are rather varied, it’s clear they come from an age when all trucks served as workhorses. Still, they were part of the family, and many folk stood proudly next to them. Yet, on a few shots, one can start to feel their future as not only workhorses, but also as lifestyle vehicles.
Photos from the Cohort by canadiancatgreen.
Whenever I went to a junkyard and came across really vintage iron, I inevitably always wondered: From what barn/remote field did they drag this from? And who finally decided to let go of the old rotten heap?
There are three ways to pick a large dumpster or truck body up from the ground and put it on the back of a straight truck: with a hooklift hoist, a cable system or a chain system. All set-ups were present at the sunny, late September show.
The Hoftrans company opted for a chain system on their 2020 Scania R580 V8 6×2 chassis-cab. Plenty of power on tap for sure, but keep in mind that such trucks frequently tow a trailer with another dumpster/container.
Man, I really hit a nerve with my Audi Fox recollections. Who would have thought that a simple, square-rigged, German two-door would have elicited such emotion? There are more foxy tales to tell, but let’s stay in Syracuse for this week’s post, and the story of a student project that encompassed a significant portion of the 1975-76 academic year in that Central New York city.
