Best Of

Uplander, yeah they're called "Rally II." I had been under the impression you couldn't get them until 1969 on a full-size car, but the '68 brochure shows a few full sized cars with them. Here's a rendering showing three different styles:
My Catalina originally had the slotted hubcaps, like what the bottom drawing shows. They were for a 14" wheel. I remember my old '69 Bonneville having hubcaps that looked like what the white Ventura 4-door hardtop is sporting. It can be hard to tell from an illustration where they sometimes distort things, but I wonder if those are 15" rims? If you got disc brakes, you needed 15" rims, as the 14" wouldn't clear the caliper, so I wonder if the bottom is what you got standard, and the middle is what you got standard, if you ordered disc brakes?

I looked through the '67 brochure, and they didn't show any illustrations of the full-sized cars sporting a Rally II. They were all either hubcaps, or those 8-lug wheels. The Rally II WAS offered in the smaller bolt pattern though, as an option for the Firebird and midsized cars.

Hawk sighting at a church car show I hit after the Lincoln Continental regional near Cincy.

Temperature felt like 130 in the sun. The owner didn't seem very friendly and I didn't take any time to disavow him of the idea I was just another idiot gawking at the cars with no appreciation of Studebakers. This was the first car I saw when I got there and the other 80 or so cars didn't impress me. At least they handed me a free water on behalf of the church. Much appreciated.

These pics zoom nicely. I love the cameras in my midscale Samsung phone. I quit using my Sony H5 digital camera.

Warning. Gas mileage post. My 18 year old son has a friend whose Aunt has a house in The Hamptons (out east on Long Island). I told him to steer clear of Diddy’s house, He took the Highlander with him and returned it in 1 piece after driving 3 ish hours there on Wednesday and 3 hours back on Saturday. Then my wife and I took our 13 year old daughter up to camp this morning. I had to fill up before we hit the road on the way back. 26.65 mpg average. Usually when my wife drives we average somewhere between 17-19 mpg.

Is your Highlander the 2GR V6? If so that 26.65 is pretty good.

My wife drives so little there would be no way to log her mileage as I would represent 95% of the tank.

If she has driven 300 miles so far this year I'd be surprised.

Thursday was my 1st experience at a carmax. Made an appointment online and showed up a few minutes early. While they evaluated my Tacoma, I decided to walk the lot and check. Out what they had. Ultimately things looked a little too pricey for my tastes. They did have a few vehicles that I found interesting.

https://www.carmax.com/car/27203113
2017 Honda Fit EX - Manual - 98K miles. The car looked to be in good shape and well taken care of. All 4 tires looked to have a lot of tread life left in them and were the same. Was the sticker price on this car even $18K back in 2017? Even if it was $20K, I know it is a Fit, but at 8+ years old and almost 100K miles is too expensive for my blood at $14K.

https://www.carmax.com/car/26854494
This 2017 Jetta S has a 5-Speed manual and under 60K miles. Looked to be in immaculate shape. It looked like a good buy at under $15K. It’s already reserved.

https://www.carmax.com/car/26723138
https://www.carmax.com/car/27240017
These 2 very close WRXs were parked right next to each other. Both White. Both 6-Speeds. The 2018 is a base that has 70K miles and the 2020 is a Premium that has 76K miles. The ‘18 looked to be in much better shape. The ‘20 had curb rash on every wheel. The ‘18 was $2K cheaper and I thought a better buy. The ‘18 is currently reserved.

I’m holding off on posting the winner of the 2023 Tacoma SR V6 4WD Double Cab Short Bed sweepstakes until I have a check in my hand. To be continued…