Vintage Snapshot: Higher Freight Charges May Apply
– Posted on May 3, 2020
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It’s interesting to see new ’71 Vegas being transported by anything other than Vert-A-Pac. I wonder what the difference was in years between how long they lasted wherever they were headed versus those Chevelles.
However long the Chevelles lasted, I would subtract 1.0 to 1.75 to calculate the difference.
It’s highly likely at least one of those Chevelles is still out there being used.
Or: Charges May Apply When Freight Is Higher
Very cool shot! The airplane appears to be an Aviation Traders Carvair, an air freighter based upon the DC-4. Love these vintage pics, and your great ability to find these obscure images! 🙂
Even into the 1980s, most of my school buses were based on this 1968-73 GM medium truck design. In fact, I never did have a ’73 and later version while in school.
GM used the ’68-72 sheetmetal for the flat-cowl chassis until at least 1983 before finally updating to the by then 10-year-old “new” style because operators wanted a tilt hood.
That’s interesting since they’re overwhelmingly used as school buses with most of the rest being armored cars, you’d think it would’ve gotten to the point of GM losing sales because of the public complaining about their kids and/or their money being hauled in an “old” truck.
Thanks for this info!
Growing up in Southern Ontario, the vast majority of 70s school bus chassis were either this GM design, or the International Loadstar. Ford was quite rare.
I remember watching US television when the 70s ‘busing’ crisis was going on, and being somewhat surprised that a school district in Boston ( I distinctly remember it was Boston), using the GMC 7500 cowl design. With four headlights. As a kid, I was impressed, and jealous! I know the 7500 design was much more common in the US.
For a (very) few years in the late ’60s the GMC school buses used the 7500 cowl while the Chevys had the C50-60 one.
Another view. I don’t know a lot about these, but the cockpit location likely inspired the 747’s design.
Thanks. Now that I see the RR I know where I have seen this before:
James Bond Goldfinger.
After seeing the previous posts about car carriers I splurged 10 bucks on a used copy of New Car Carriers 1910-1998 Photo Album from Iconografix. Amazon has both new and used copies available.
The record loads seemed to be 13 Pintos or Opel Kadetts on one truck-trailer combination. It’s an interesting business.
When I was working at Grumman in the 1970s NASA used the pregnant Guppy to ship the lunar module (base and ascent parts shipped separately) from Bethpage Long Island to the cape.
The Guppy was so weird and so big, that local authorities closed off traffic on nearby roads when the aircraft was taking off in order to prevent traffic accidents due to the distraction.
We Grumman employees tried to find a reason to be within view of the runway when a Guppy departed. Like the carpenter bee, the Guppy did not seem capable of flight, let alone with a heavy cargo on board.
When I was stationed at Davis-Monthan AFB in the early ’70’s Guppies were a fairly common sight, the first time I saw one I said to myself: “That thing can fly?”
It was a great sight to watch one take off.
I took this picture when the model of the Space Shuttle was being “shuttled” around via 747!
Until a runway to land the Space Shuttle was built at Cape Canaveral, regular flights were made to transport the Shuttle from Edwards Air Force Base to Florida. The first 747 Shuttle Transport was purchased in 1974 by NASA from American Airlines, for which the 747 was too big an airliner. American’s tricolor stripes remained after conversion to the Shuttle Transport, until it was repainted years later to white with a blue cheatline in 1983.
In 1988, NASA purchased a retiring 747 from Japan Air Lines as a backup.
Both were made surplus by the termination of the Space Shuttle and were retired, the ex-Japan aircraft in 2012. It is on display in Palmdale, CA; the ex-American 747 was retired in 2013 and is displayed with the non-flying Shuttle prototype Independence at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
When the Space Shuttle Discovery was brought to her final resting place, the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy location near Dulles, my Dad and I were positioned on a bridge just off the threshold for Runway 1R when I shot this picture….
The cheat line looks more like PAN AM to me….
CC effect! I was watching Goldfinger a few days ago and noticed the Carvair(sp?)!
In a perfect world, those Vegas would be on their way to Italy to have Alfa Romeo twin cams installed. And a five speed, strut tower brace, and suspension upgrades. Inside there’d be a full compliment of Veglia gauges and a Becker stereo.
As the past owner of a Vega and two Alfa’s, I’d probably pick a different engine (a DOHC 4, not an SBC of course) and instruments, but I appreciate the sentiment. Nit pick: the Vega didn’t have struts, so didn’t have strut towers. It could have used with some structural bracing though, not to mention a 5th suspension link in the rear.
How about a Dino V6 ?
I mean, in a perfect world it would’ve been born with an Opel-derived (*Assembled by Chevrolet Division) CIH in the first place.
Higher Freight Charges May Apply… for EVERYBODY!
This was probably the load used to calculate and justify higher “baked in” destination charges. LoL
Chrome “gills” on the hood, 427 powered Jimmie.
“We thought you had ramps…”
Paul:
There’s a perfect 1972 Vega I4 for sale right now on Bring a Trailer. I know you’ve mused before if any have survived with the original engine intact…which appears to be the case with this one, although I’m no expert. It really is worth a look – it is very clean.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1972-chevrolet-vega-2/
When I met her in the fall of 1971, my ex-wife had a new ’72 Vega almost identical to this, same green exterior, only hers had the standard interior in green. And hers was a very early ’72 which only offered the Powerglide – the THM was a mid-year addition. Her car was absolutely terrible in some ways, and with less than 10K miles she got rid of it by mid-1973, but I find this one quite appealing, and I’m glad it’s clear across the country.
I hope, for once, it gets left alone. I would fantasize about fitting a W41 Quad 4 under the hood, but would never attempt it.
There was a comment here which came and went just now (I see it as pending) which linked to a Vega for sale. I won’t repost the link, as that may be against the rules, but I looked at it … it’s a non-GT automatic, and on the other side of the country, but the same color as my ‘73 And the current bid is cheaper than any car I’ve bought in decades. Why is nostalgia so effective at blinding one to the reality that these were not great cars? But it would be a good candidate for an Alfa engine swap, or even just an Iron Duke.
Now that my time machine car transporter is ready to depart, there’s only one question… Chevelle or Vega? Vega or Chevelle?
Eureka! The answer is so obvious!!
One of each! 😉
Related article and pictures published today by CNN:
“Car ferries in the skies: The rise and fall of the Aviation Traders Carvair ”
See:
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/aviation-traders-carvair-plane-cmd/index.html