click on images for glorious full size
The site for this small local dealers’ show was Fashion Valley Mall in San Diego’s Mission Valley. I had only recently bought my first real camera, a Minolta SR-T 101, and was trying it out around San Diego. The date for this show would have been February 1972, and that was the last time I looked at these slides before putting them to sleep for 44 years. If I hadn’t splurged for a good scanner they would never have emerged along with hundreds of others.
Throughout the 70’s I only shot Tri-X B&W along with Kodachrome 25 or 64. These shots are one of my first trial runs in Kodachrome 25. At the time I was 18 years old and so focused on the cars as per my age and times. Japanese cars were present but not yet on my radar screen. Clearly the focus was Detroit steel, although no full sized ones were present, along with some British and Italian sports cars. Nonetheless, many sharp eyes will pick out slivers of other cars in the background.
My token GM product.
Roadrunner
Barracuda, and Cricket
Dusters
TR 6 And lots of intriguing cars in the background
Jaguar XK-E Series 3 2+2
MG Midget
MGB
Mustang Sprint
Excalibur SS
Gran Torino Sports
Capri. I never noticed the missing R and I until I enlarged this slide
Pantera
Saab Sonnet
Fiat 850 Spider
Fiat 124 Spider
I still own and use a SRT 101..one of the great classics,..and the photos look great.
I had an SRT 200 way back, now I just got an early 101; they were simple, rugged cameras that took great photos. I’m not letting go of it this time.
I like it. I live near San Diego now, and the mall hasn’t changed that much. If you hadn’t said it was 72 I could easily have assumed it was a recent classic car show at that mall. (Though to be fair I very rarely shop in any mall).
I like the Sonnet. And I’d love to see more of the Jeepish thing behind the TR6. I see the back of a Citroen DS in the same pic.
However, all but the first picture link to one of the Pantera shots, and the last few have no links at all? Is it just my browser?
Not just your browser… I’m having the same problem when I try to click on the pics.
Fixed now! try it again.
FIXED
Living in San Diego, it is great to see these vintage photos of Fashion Valley mall. I disagree with Craig’s assessment though, the mall has been changes drastically (asthetics, maybe not actual floor plan) even since I’ve been living here (16 years). The architecture and the look of the mall definitely has a very retro vibe in these photos.
It would be awesome to have a classic car show like this at the mall.. to mimic an old auto show…. only featuring cars from a particular year (or couple of years).
Stunning photos. Having grown up in the late 70s, I regrettably saw many of these models in their badly deteriorated form. I can easily see their appeal when new. If only the early 70s weren’t approaching the depths of poor product quality and limited longevity for most manufacturer’s cars. As these are some very attractively styled designs.
Older bro had a 71 Fiat 850, same color, in 73. Dealer had to take it back as it was rusted so bad the engine was ready to fall out. Swapped a 72 Chevy Biscayne as a replacement for it
Fantastic shots
The “Jeepish thing” is a Daihatsu Rocky.
The TR-6 has wheels that are completely wrong – though attractive.
The Jeepish thing is a Suzuki Jimny. Awesome pics!
This was still with the 360cc two-stroke engine right? I think they could still avoid emissions laws with the small displacement engine, or were they off-road only in the US or at least California? I have seen a few here but it’s a been a long time. Awesome pics, they bring back the bright colors, chrome, white walls, dealer add-on striping and wheels/wheel covers that were so typical of those times (I got my license in ’72).
If this is February of ’72, yup, it’d still be the two-stroke 360 engine. Not sure how they were legalized for the US, but it was another firm, not Suzuki, that imported them.
And I agree… I’m loving all the goodies on these cars!
‘spiff’, I remember in Oregon in the mid-1980s a small American company buying Suzuki Samurai’s in Hawaii and somehow bringing them into the mainland, so you’re right. I think after a couple of years, Suzuki themselves got on the ball and officially brought them to the US.
And I’m pretty sure the little truck cab seen behind that is a Cony 360 Wide, probably the nicest of the Japanese 360cc utility vehicles, and I believe the only one sold here with a 4-cycle engine, a fine pushrod OHV opposed twin. Henry Manney wrote a road test of a Cony passenger van for R&T; I would like to find a copy of that AND one of those vans! I once had a Subaru 360 van, the only vehicle I know of whose chassis is not up to handling the 16 hp – scariest damn thing I’ve ever driven! – but when I saw both a Subaru and a Cony 360 side by side at an Amazing Little Cars show, it was apparent which one was by far the better built.
Were those little guys actually road legal here at the time?
I seem to remember seeing a few of these being sold as the “Suzuki Brute”. I’m not sure that they were legal to drive on public highways, but they were supposedly great for going off-road.
Those rims were a common after market wheel for British and Japanese cars in the 70’s. Many dealers installed them back in the day. My friend has a 73 TR6 with these rims that were installed by the dealer. Most of the time they painted the spokes gold or dark gray/argent color..
The bullet style door mirror and the bumper over-riders were also dealer installed extras and not factory original.
I believe those are American Racing mag wheels — and they’re really magnesium! The bullet mirror was standard on ’72 Triumphs in the US. Here’s a page from the brochure. 🙂
OOOOOOOH! (Imitating Homer Simpson)
Great shots, all! My favorite was the dark blue Mustang. I remember seeing some of the white Spirit ones back when they were new. That blue Fiat 124 Spyder brings back mostly pleasant memories of a red one a friend had back in the mid ’80s.
Beautiful quality pictures. If it wasn’t for the people in their 70’s clothing and those “classic” vacuum cleaners in the background, I would of thought these were taken recently!
I agree, amazing image quality. The E Type is absolutely beautiful. I have never heard of the Mustang Spirit. Future CC article, perhaps?
It’s actually called “Sprint.” It was a decor option package on the Pinto, Maverick and Mustang for ’72.
And Sprint also was once a high zoot Falcon.
I’ve got a Maverick Sprint.
With Maverick tracing it’s roots to the Falcon, That’s a cool circular connection!
Noticed my error when I looked at it again. The shield on the rear quarter made me think it was commemorative trim.
It’s an easy mistake since Chevrolet offered a similar ‘Spirit of America’ commemorative Impala, Nova, and Vega in 1974. Here’s a link to the CC:
http://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/1974-chevy-nova-spirit-of-america/
Also mentioned is the slightly less commemorative (but similar paint scheme) 1975 Dodge Dart Sport ‘Hang 10’.
The whitewalls on that Jag look all wrong. Great shot of the C3 Corvette, perfect lighting conditions and angle. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the dealer version of the classic California black license plate, the Pantera has one.
‘calibrick’, the black CA DLR and MFG plates carried over for years after the state went to the blue plate for standard registrations. I think I noticed the MFG plates in blue with smaller numbers in 1996! It’s funny that the E-Type Jaguar whitewalls look wrong to you. I see these models at British car shows today, and the blackwalls some of them have look weird to me because I was so used to seeing whitewalls on them when they were new.
California dealer and manufacturer license plates followed the same color scheme as regular plates, on the same schedule. But since they are “soft” plates (able to be moved from car to car), many plateholders have kept them in service for decades. There are actually still some blue dealer plates in service, and even a few manufacturer and distributor (the equivalent for import brands) plates that show up from time to time in the press fleets! Just as you can still drive your own car with its original black or blue plates from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, there’s no legal reason to retire them other than becoming unreadable from wear, as long as the holder is still in business in CA.
Almost every pick i click on for the large version shows the Pantera,,, something’s wrong.
It’s fixed now.
Crazy as it sounds, I spy a wood grain panel Vega wagon next to the Vette.
I’m sure the Vega was reincarnated as a Whirlpool frig and now a Kia Soul:)
That’s a Vega GT Kammback. It has rear windows. The woodgrain must be dealer-added here, as the Estate (woodgrained) model didn’t debut until mid-’73 and had blond trim, never chrome. The Panel Express didn’t offer the woodgrain. It was pretty basic, with only one seat standard!
Something I find quite noticeable with each car, is how the lack of clearcoat makes the paintwork appear much ‘flatter’. Lacking the paint depth we are accustomed to today. The Jaguar appears closest to a modern finish.
I was going to say the same thing! You can really see it in the Vette. Most of the C3s you see these days have been repainted with a clearcoat finish and it doesn’t look the same, too gelcap for my tastes.
I find the paint color saturation very muted as well on many early 70s cars. Especially noticeable, I used to find, on cars from the UK. I mistakenly used to think it was mostly because of the limited technology of early 70s magazine offset printing.
Interesting what you mention about the paint.
My father’s 70 Cutlass Supreme didn’t have very shiny paint. My 74 Vega GT had a nice shine which when waxed, lasted a long time. My 79 Mustang had less gloss and waxing did nothing to make it look better.
Excellent Hope you went on to a career in photography or at least continued with the hobby.
No, I didn’t go into photography. You could say my field involves vision, the eye and it’s health. Photography is only a hobby for shooting pictures using some of my 200+ cameras.
Oooh, loving the Citroen way behind the TR-6.
Great trip back in the time machine. But no Chrysler New Yorkers? 🙂
That Kodachrome 25 was amazing stuff. How many megapixels does this detail work out to today? lol. Of these I’ll take the Mopars. On the MG Midget, Am I the only one getting a Trabant vibe? On the Capri…er, Cap….WTF? I thought trim peices only fell off of American cars. 😉
I remember reading several years ago that a very good 35mm shot would take 13-16 megapixels to capture the same detail, though the nature of grain and such means that they aren’t directly comparable.
True, there’s no actual grain/pixel relationship, My Samsung point and shoot ($100 Wallyworld job) does 16 megapixels, but man, Kodachrome was so much better than any color print process of the day. Of course, mere mortals (like me) could only hope to get such detail at home by processing B&W. And 1970s color prints from a good lab often looked ‘off’ from day one, and then the prints shifted color over time. (another plus for B&W).
Short version: 16 megapixels on a fingernail size sensor and 16 megapixels on a 1.5 square inch area don’t have the same resolving power. There’s a lot at play here, and megapixels have actually passed usefulness by the laws of physics a while back.
Plus, Kodachrome looks like a better world anyway.
+1!
Stunning photography, and many of the best-looking cars of 1972 in this selection.
The pics are so fresh-looking, it’s hard to believe they were taken 45 years ago.
Gotta love that Sonnett and the Pantera — perfect, chrome bumpers, no bulging wheelarches or ugly spoilers… just as T. Tjaarda intended.
Thank you for these treasures!
Wow, fantastic photos of a great selection of late sixties/early seventies cars. Just think how much some of these vehicles would be worth today, if they managed to survive the 45 years since then. I don’t think anything was ever better for color slides than good old Kodachrome.
An Air Force buddy of mine had a Fiat 850 Spider, in that same orangey yellow color, circa 1977. As I recall it lasted about six weeks under his stewardship before the engine blew up. That tiny four banger wasn’t suited for blasting down Interstate 80 at wide open throttle but it was fun in the twisties. Bob replaced the dead Fiat with a late sixties GTO, a vehicle that seemed to only run on six of its eight cylinders. Sure enough, when we checked the compression, two of the cylinders essentially had no compression at all. Ah, sweet youth.
Wow, great photography aside from the fashions and some details in the background you’d swear it was 2017.
I used to see a lot of 71, 72, 73 Mustangs with trim rings and hub caps. Probably because the Magnum 500 wheels were too expensive an option. Flash forward and it seems anyone restoring these cars now has to have the Magnum wheels. Those Magnums sure look good on the Sprint Mustang.
Kodachrome shots always look like they could’ve been yesterday. Just amazing how right they got that. Great job, and thanks for posting!
The corvette is missing some white letters on the front tire…? Between “Wide” and the size. The rear tire appears to have something in that gap. I’m not familiar with that line of tire. Have seen the polyglas lettering before though. And the brown Cuda has GOODRICH tires. Cool. Great photos, btw. What else ya got hidden away????
After these early shots I got more taken with landscapes. Consequently I have many shots, in slides, of the 70’s San Diego skyline, the late 70’s-90’s San Francisco skyline and my New York shots from the Empire State and World Trade Center. The last 18 years have been devoted to my restoration of the USS Hornet and so I have covered it extensively with photos for documentation.
I will shoot the 50th Anniversary of my first car, the Cougar, in Cypress this coming June. Have lots of frozen Kodachrome but no chemicals anymore. So maybe Fuji slide film and probably five different cameras between 35mm and medium format.
The last lab (Dwayne’s) that could process Kodachrome finished out in early 2010. Kodak would no longer supply chemicals, and they were pretty toxic.
I also noticed the Goodrich ‘Performa GT’ tires on not only the ‘Cuda, but the Roadrunner, as well. The Duster 340 had the more ubiquitous Goodyear Polyglas GT tires, which were actually high quality and wore very well for performance tires of the time. I could be wrong, but it doesn’t look like anything has any sort of radial tires (except maybe the Jaguar).
Phenomenal! Such awesome period photographs, TBM3FAN – thank you. That SAAB Sonett III looks positively tiny in front of that storefront.
This reminds me when I was a lad around that time when the North Shore Shopping Center in Peabody, MA had new cars parked all over every fall when it was an open air shopping center.
And the big wooden soldiers at Christmas!
It’s also worth noting that most of these brand-new cars had drip trays under the engine, and a few of the less trustworthy ones (Fiat) had them under the diff, too. I changed the oil in my 2016 Hyundai last month (nearly a whole year old and 12,500 miles at the time), and there wasn’t a drop of oil on top of the aero tray. My, how things have changed.
I noticed that too, gaskets have come a real long way from the old cork and split seal days. Right stuff RTV works better than the factory gaskets in most places in these old engines I’ve found.
Great shots of cars in their pristine new-ness! And there was nothing like Kodachrome; it had believable colors and incredibly fine grain, and as long as one didn’t project the slides very often and kept them in a decent environment, it was very, very long-lasting, with little change in color over decades.
It also captured an enormous contrast range. It can make Kodachrome difficult to scan to keep the dark areas from blocking up. You got some good scans there–may I ask what kind of scanner you’re using?
Epson Perfection V550 Photo
These are excellent pictures, they look like they could have been taken today other than the fashions.
It’s interesting to see the Mustang, I watched the 2018 promo video Ford put out with it in the Farmers market, and the setting and car reminds me of this, as the latest design seems as polarizing as these 71-73 generations, it’s neat to see it when it was still being played up by dealers before enthusiast ire later relegated it to the least desirable of the first gens.
The Plymouths are my favorite. I liked the grille design on the 340 Dusters this year, in fact I feel it was the only Chrysler “muscle car” that didn’t seem to get worse after their pinnacle in 1970-1971.
“The Plymouths are my favorite. I liked the grille design on the 340 Dusters this year, in fact I feel it was the only Chrysler “muscle car” that didn’t seem to get worse after their pinnacle in 1970-1971.”
True that! The ’73-up Plymouth A bodies lost a LITTLE bit of style points to the pre-5mph bumper cars but nothing like the Dodges with that beak/boat prow.
Honestly, I think the B body coupes in ’73/74 are at least as attractive as the loop bumpered ’71/’72 both Plymouths and Dodges also. But it could be the hideousness going on at other companies tempering that.
I was speaking more specifically the 72 model year from 71, the Barracuda looked goofy(IMO) with the round taillights and watered down 1970 style grille, and the Sattelite’s split grille just was over the top on what was really already over the top design. 73 was kind of a wash from there.
Gotcha, Matt. I thought you were talking about the post 5mph bumper mandate. I’m good with all of the Challenger/Cuda grill treatments even if I have my favorites.
The ’74-6 Valiant sedan lost a bit of style but gained some usefulness by going to the 111″ wb Dart body. I’ve read somewhere that that was because Valiants having outsold Darts and the sedan body dies going back to 1967. the tooling was worn out.
What rich, beautiful photos and great scans! Thank you!
Oddly, I want the Capri most of all. But I particularly appreciated seeing the Audi 100 in the first shot, since a consmetically-nice-but-mechanically-clapped-out one of these was to be my first car a few years after these shots were taken …
I’ve got to buy a new keyboard!!! I drooled so much into the present one and fried it!!!! 🙂
BTW: My first “real” camera was the Minolta SR-T 101 as well, which I still have, but, alas! no Kodachrome!! 🙂
I’ll just leave this here: “Kodachrome” Paul Simon
https://youtu.be/qrRRhoS3KFk
If you look at the licence plate on the Mustang in the first pic you see the ‘Little Profit Dealer’ character. I believe this campaign was used throughout North America through the 1970s. Perhaps sooner? I know nothing about the campaign’s history or source, but I seem to recall at least one GM dealership using this character and phrase as well.
Good catch! The quality of these photos is amazing.
The Little Profit genie was an odd character because it was used by dealerships of all makes of cars. I think the character had its origination in the late 1960s with an advertising agency that developed the character and then licensed it to individual dealerships. In a short amount of time, it went national, and licensed dealers used the image in ads, and even gave away Little Profit knick knacks.
I can’t think of any other national ad campaign similar to it, and these days car companies would probably not allow such a character that didn’t originate with the corporation itself.
Thanks for the background! As it struck me as extraordinarily odd that both Ford and GM dealers would both use this campaign. I recall the campaign still being used well into the late 70s and early 80s. It was well associated with specific dealers by then. Including one of the larger GM dealers in my city.
I couldn’t get the Little Profit guy out of my mind, so I dug a little deeper.
The slogan and character were copyrighted in 1967-68 by Baltimore ad agency Leon Shaffer Golnick, Inc. Leon Golnick was the company’s owner and created the concept himself… I have no idea how he set about marketing it to car dealerships, but he sure did a good job, since it spread very quickly after that.
Little Profit wasn’t Golnick’s most famous slogan, though, he also created the ads for Parks Sausages (“More Parks Sausages Please!”).
Below is a copy of one of the Little Profit knick knacks. Sure is a memorable little guy.
Very cool, thank you. I imagine they were especially careful about licencing this campaign. To avoid dealers of competing brands and same brands using it in the same market. As it clearly promotes the dealer brand, and not the brand they sell.
As a kid, I always associated this campaign with one specific GM dealer in my city. As they used it often. I used to think it was a clever campaign for an individual dealer to develop locally. Little did I know.
I guess it’s like local TV news branding: “Action News” on an ABC channel and “Eyewitness News” on a CBS channel in City A, three states over in City B “Action News” is on a CBS station and “Eyewitness News” is on a NBC station and the ABC station goes rogue with “Channel 3 Super Storm Center News of Doom” ™.
As long as there’s no duplication in any one market, who’s the wiser.
Absolutely. Not uncommon.
Like others, I also associate the “Little Profit” character with a Ford dealership in my hometown, and also recall a radio jingle.
It started with, “Who’s the little guy in the baggy pants and turban (can’t recall the rest)” and ended with, “Now, everyone knows, he’s the Little Profit, the wonderful wizard of cars!”
Pics are so crisp. Thank you!
Drip trays at a new car show. That is amazing history.
Think a guy with the initials R I vandalized the Capri?
I’m guessing the missing letters have more to do with the blacked-out hood which may have been added by either the dealer or at the POE. When they went to put the letters back on, they tightened the speed-nuts for the C-A-P, then just said, “Screw it” and left the nuts off for the R and I. They then fell off, soon enough, in transit at some point.
You are likely correct; that blacked-out hood and side window treatment was not an option on US bound Capris that year (it is however in the same style one could option on a German manufactured Capri).
That sounds about right. I’m no Capri expert but this is actually the first time I’ve ever seen the black-out hood treatment on one. I would have remembered, too, since the black-out goes all the way back along the window sill and around the quarter windows. Usually, the paint stops at the fender edges. The only other car I recall that had black-out in the same manner was certain Plymouth Dusters.
Great pics! These look like they were taken yesterday. The orange ‘Duster’ is actually a Cuda. Love that blue RoadRunner and the Dusters. The yellow is definitely a 340, the blue one MAY be a Twister with something less…those aped the 340 models’ styling tweaks in some years, just not sure about those minute details.
The orange ‘Duster’ is actually a Cuda.
I think the author knew that and rightly assumed we would too. 🙂
Well I assumed he did too, I was being a wiseass (imagine that!) in pointing out the omission. The pic above called out the ‘Cuda and the Cricket, which is what I was pointing out.
Both Dusters are 340s. The Twister package included the performance hood treatment” (which was nothing more than flat black paint) in ’72. It’s a little surprising, since you had to pay extra for that on the 340. Twisters also came with bright wheel-arch moldings.
I’m surprised there wasn’t such a thing as a stripe-delete Duster 340. I mean, with Mopar all things are possible, but FWIU it wasn’t a listed option.
It seems odd to see whitewalls on a car like the Mach 1. And that Torino GT Sportsroof, complete with hood scoops, has whitewalls *and* a vinyl roof. Were such things common, or was that a dealer who couldn’t resist checking off every option box?
Depending on what engine is under the hood of that Torino, it could be the equivalent of the 1987-only Turbo Regal Limited which combined the full loose pillow velour interior and comprehensive options of the Limited with the GN/T-Type turbo engine. Wonder if any of those had vinyl roofs?
The one in Diamonds are Forever had white walls to, I always took it to be common on performance Fords based on a lot of vintage footage like that that I’ve seen.
https://youtu.be/Iuh2L-_yf3M
https://youtu.be/R4ou6zhBTNM
I always wondered if these were stunk up by the brougham era, much like vinyl tops, making them purely part of 70s era luxury rather than a universal dress up item.
Whitewall tires were just an American thing well into the ’70s, even on sporty cars. Blackwalls were seen as cheap, so sporty cars might have white letters or whitewalls (or redwalls and other colors on some models, like a TR6 or GTO). They were a factory option on the E-type in the US market (here’s a page from the ’72 brochure).
Vinyl tops were also common on American sporty cars, as well as Japanese ones (which emulated the American ones).
I knew lots of musclecars came with vinyl tops, but it seems kind of awkward on the fastback Torino. And the whitewalls are new to me–I was aware of RWL and redlines on sports/muscle cars, but the whitewalls just look wrong somehow on anything that’s not a sedan or personal luxury coupe. I feel the same thing when I see a pickup truck with whitewalls.
Yet ,oddly, before pickups became “personal luxury cars”, plenty of ’em wore whitewalls.
I think it’s just association. RWLs didn’t seem to start becoming factory equipment on cars until 1969-1970, before that it was red walls white walls or black walls. The few times you see RWLs on anything before 1969 they have the more race like Good Year call out on one end of the tire, seen(only?) on Shelbys. Restorers slapping on BFgoodrich Radial TAs on to everything made between 1965 and 1974 just makes one assume RWLs = Muscle car. Personally I never understood why redlines look sportier to people than white.
To get a good idea of what cars like these actually had, check out the brochures. You’ll find whitewalls on everything from Mustang Mach 1s, to 427 Corvettes. http://lov2xlr8.no/broch1.html
Whitewalls were once very common on genuine sports cars even, like Corvettes and others, in the 50s and 60s.
The only thing that changed that was red-line tires (brief fad) and then later white outline tires. But ww tires were still common on anything other than serious performance cars into the 70s.
What changed the perception of white walls was that the European cars didn’t have them, at least not by the mid 60s. So when folks saw an expensive Mercedes in blackwalls, it started to change the image of white walls.
I wish we could get redlines now.
I remember Goodyear blue stripe tires on some Mopar’s.
FWIW, the 1972 Gran Torino Sport came with F70-14 tires with white walls as the base tire. The hub cup and trim rings shown are also the base wheel covers for this model. To get RWL tires you had to pay extra for the G70-14 tires.
This model actually looks pretty plain from what I can see. Other than the vinyl roof, it has base tires and wheels, and appears to have the base bench seat interior too.
1972 seems like the last year for truly decent car styling, thanks entirely to it being the last year before 5mph bumper standards went into effect. After ’72, auto bumpers were either hideous chrome cow-catchers, or body-color rubber. Soon enough, even the chrome would be gone, and now all that’s left are the monochromatic blobs.
I miss the thin, flimsy, 2.5mph chrome bumpers. They might not have been much good for ‘bumping’ but, man, did they look good.
The sad thing is those thin bumpers do do a better job than the modern plastic bumpers when it comes to minor parking scuffs, which I’m much more concerned about. Finding a 5 year old or older car around here without ugly paint scuffs in the corners and spiderwebbing around it is virtually impossible. Chrome just takes it.
Some aren’t so bad, but it’s limited to base-trim SUVs and commercial vehicles that have unpainted, grey plastic bumpers.
But, yeah, painted bumpers of any sort simply aren’t going to retain a decent appearance over any length of time when compared with chromed metal.
“But, yeah, painted bumpers of any sort simply aren’t going to retain a decent appearance over any length of time when compared with chromed metal.”
That’s why I like the aftermarket beefy powdercoated tubular bumpers that Ive had on a couple of my Jeeps. That look may not fly on a ‘car’ unless its going for the zombie removal/Mad Max look (which I’m a fan of also) but if you DO scratch it you could chalk it up to proudly worn battle scars, or just touch it up. Easy peasy.
Great selection of images. Roadrunner and Torino for me please.
Wow, a Subaru FF-1 “Star” wagon! (in the far background of the Mach 1 shot).
Love those FJ-40 Landcruisers hanging out behind the Vette too. The white one climbing the ramp had me fooled for a second into thinking it was a Nissan Patrol, due to the split quarter window on the soft top. But those were done in the States by 68 or so as I remember.
The one car in this brilliant collection I just can’t warm to is the Gran Torino. An early example of the pending brougham tsunami. I’ve always considered this generation of mid-sized Fords among the most over-styled domestic cars of the 70s. And glorious rusters.
While the 1972 Gran Torino Sport isn’t exactly ‘lovable’, it is a nice transition from the better looking ’70-’71 car to the really obese 1973-76 Torino. At least the ’72 car had better looking bumpers and a fastback.
Great pictures! Thanks very much for publishing.
One minor point though, it’s “Gran” not “Grand Torino”. This car is actually a Gran Torino Sport. Sorry just my pet peeve that everyone refers to 1972-76 Torinos as “Gran Torinos” when the line was actually just Torino. It was typically subdivided into several sub models. In 1972 there were three submodels, Torino, Gran Torino and Gran Torino Sport.
The wheels and black hood on the Capri don’t look right. The wheels should resemble those on the MG’s. The missing R and I as noted in the photo caption indicates as dealer customization gone wrong.
You would be right. The blacked-out hood and side window treatment was not an option on US bound Capris that year.
The Pantera was the object of my car lust back then, and I still like them. Most I saw were that same yellow color.
Wow, what beautiful photos!
And the colors of the cars back then – so cool!
The blue Mustang fastback is stunning, and the white line tires are just right.
The freshness of the images is amazing. I shot several rolls of modern Kodak Color 200 at the Hilton Head Concours in November with my Nikon F and mid 50s Zeiss Ikon Contessa. The new film can’t seem to match the depth of color that was achievable with Kodachrome. I get the film processed to CD at the only local pro photo store because they return the negatives unlike WalMart, Walgreens etc. The negatives don’t seem to have the clarity and contrast of the older films. Well, I suppose we are lucky to still be able to purchase film, for how much longer, is anyone’s guess
For 35mm and 120 (medium format) film there is still a market. In fact film is “hip” right now. I think there will be a small but viable niche market for it. Kind of like “vinyl” records. As far as the color of newer film vs. Kodachrome, Don’t blame the new stuff… Even “in the day” nothing in color films ever touched the detail and color rendering of Kodachrome!
Supposedly Ektachrome is coming back. I do miss Kodachrome. And I still shoot Tri-x in 35mm and 120. But I use Ilford FP4 in the 4×5 and 5×7 Speed Graphics.
Ektachrome (read on a blog.. is expected in large format (all the way up to 8×10) sheets in addition to 35mm and 120! I can’t wait to see if comes about. Kodak admits to 135-36 and Super 8. (Sometime this year.)
Ektachrome was always a good alternative to Kodachrome I will be happy to see it return. Time to stop by Bay Camera.
As I understood it, Kodachrome was essentially three B&W emulsions sensitive to different colors and the color dyes were added at processing, a fairly complex task. Those dyes, however, have proven to have archival stability.
Ektachrome had the color dyes in the film. That is why relatively simple home processing was possible.
You are 100% correct.
The Pantera was the car Canadian hockey icon Tim Horton was driving when he died driving back to Buffalo after a game in Toronto.
I like the Mopars, and a lot of the others, but ’72 was when I turned 16 and began looking for a car to buy. Unlike most kids, I had the money to buy a new car. I worked at my dad’s business for 2 summers before that, and my uncle left me a couple grand, so I had it sitting in my savings account. ’72 was when I really realized that Ford had just lost their minds, styling wise. I’m not talking about the Pantera or the Capri, I’m talking about the Mustang, Torino, etc. IMHO, Ford didn’t regain their styling sanity until well after 2000 or so.
Ford had the temerity to not include a passenger side mirror in those “Flatback” Mustangs in base form. Have you ever tried driving one? I have, and the rear vis
is nonexistant. The one I drove had dual mirrors, but many didn’t. These were dangerous in this for, IMHO.
Excellent photos from back then, Mike. Very impressive, and thank you for sharing them.
I’m amazed at the quality of the photos! The cars were at their styling peak just a couple of years away from the massive 5mph bumper era. By the way there are two Tom Tjaarda designs in this post, the 124 Spider and the Pantera!
Some more observations:
1. The Corvette C3 looks beautiful and it’s probably my favorite in this post with the Pantera. Both in perfect period colors too!
2. It’s weird how much ground clearance the Capri has. Looks awkward.
3. That Gran Torino looks awesome, but the wheels look too small.
4. I wonder if they intentionally wrote SS in front of the name Excalibur to make it look like it reads “Sexcalibur”!
There is a nearly vertical Land Cruiser FJ in the background of the second photo (C3 Vette)
And in the first photo, there is an oil drip pan (!) under the BRAND NEW Mustang fastback.
Unless it’s just a weird shadow, the fit between the driver’s door and fender on that blue Mach 1 is not so great.
There were oil drip pans under every brand new car. Abundance of caution?
Since the cars were driven over, and the mall management would frown on oil stains, it would make total sense for the dealers to be careful. You should see how the Bremerton Naval Base handles one drop of oil on the black top near the water and that was in 2014.
I recently re watched the original 1973 “Gone in Sixty Seconds” where Eleanor was a mustard colored 73 Mach 1. The characters were discussing the fact that the 73 would be the last Mustang and thus Eleanor was extremely valuable. I thought the Eleanor car looked looked pretty ordinary, and was never impressed with those early 70s Mustangs when they were new. The picture of that blue one kind of changed my opinion. Although not Fords best styling effort, in the right color, one would be welcome in my garage, misaligned door and all.
Great quality for scanned photos – well done.
That Torino is catching my eye, to say the least