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I spotted an (insert obscure car name here) classic car today! (Archived)
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Awesome car that Packard, if you had a garage big enough. Strong powerful car. You could tear down a building with that thing. I wonder if that one has AC?
I also wonder what Hawk Hagerty was talking about? Their database shows most Hawks as very flat or dropping in value. I don't necessarily believe that, but that's what they show.
(https://us.v-cdn.net/5021145/uploads/editor/xn/ypa4ntk83y7j.png "
This is why I don't rely heavily on price guides. I need to see real auction prices, plotted over time, and that takes quite a bit of research.
I was reading that article Tuesday night. The pictures of the car are interesting. They made minimal effort to disguise the fact that it is really a '60 Ford - the dash is identical, and the body is virtually identical, although they say the wheelbase was adjusted just slightly longer on the Edsel for some reason.
The front end design of the '60 Edsel is good, probably better than the '60 Ford. But that rear end... I don't know what they were thinking. The rear end body design would have let them do a variation of the earlier Edsel "hockey stick" taillights if they wanted to but instead they did those curious dual upright lights. And the filler panel just above the bumper would look so much better if they had just made a bit of effort in designing it. Maybe they ran out of money.
I understand the '60 Edsel taillight lenses were used on the first-generation Comets as well, identical right down to the part number molded into the plastic.
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A 60 Edsel would be cool to have, especially a Starliner style hardtop, a wagon, or a loaded 4 door HT. Not a bad looking car from some angles (not the rear). Then again, I kind of like 60 Fords.
Saw an 80-83 Civic wagon and a pre-86 W126 today.
Fin, you like the 60 Ford and Edsel, I like the 59 Chevy - we're outliers buddy! Man, I do miss styling differentiation from the old days.
Once in awhile at a local car show and Edsel retractable convertible shows up.
I have to assume someone modified a Ford but it really looks real!
Yesterday, I spotted an immaculate AMC Gremlin sitting in a parking lot!
It was either a fresh restoration or it had been sealed in a plastic bubble since it was new.
It was orange with the "X" package white decals. It looked just great!
I remember when they came out I wasn't impressed but for the same money as a Pinto or a Vega they were MUCH better cars.
Back in the early 70's street racing was common in Hawthorne CA (home of the Beach Boys).
A guy would show up in his stock looking V-8 Gremlin and he would take on and beat the GTO's. 396 SS Chevys and anything else. I'm not sure what size V-8 it had but it was said he could run the quarter mile in the mid to high 11 second range.
For a street legal car, that takes some doing.
I loved my 72 Gremlin - my first ride. I had the 232 and had to be careful at stop lights or I'd spin the wheels. I believe all the "X" models had the V8.
However, it was a real Frankenstein if I recall correctly. They used various manufacturers for the different parts. I think it had a Chrysler starter and transmission, but I don't recall the exact details that well.
High 11's? For a domestic car of that size, that might require close to 500HP. Not likely but you never know. Sounds a bit like beer HP.
I had a yellow (5 shades!) with black stripes gremlin X in college. 4.2l six and a 3 speed stick. I actually liked it. Maybe a 1974?
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I was thinking the same thing until one night I watched it make a VERY FAST GTO look like a six cylinder! To the best of my knowledge it never got beat by anything.
A LAPD cop back in the 70's once told me that the Matadors with the 401 engines they had were much, much faster than the 383 Plymouths that preceded them.
And...we didn't drink beer in those days. That came later.
Those 232/258 six cylinder engines were powerful and long lasting. They had seven main bearings.
You are right about the Frankenstein part. When I ran a shop it seemed like every time we ordered a part such as a brake drum for an AMC car they were never right. Usually we had to send the old part to the parts house so they could try and match it up.
High 11s is mighty fast. He would need at least 400HP at the rear wheels with a great chassis set up and perfect launch.
Yeah, I don't think there was an Edsel retractable. Kind of cool idea though, a way to give the car even more kitsch value.
As someone who was a kid in the 80s, Edsel convertibles make me think of this:
Speaking of 60 Ford, I was just thinking how the design kind of links to the Continental, and to European Fords. This 1961 British Ford Capri has a lot of Starliner in it:
Oh, I agree.
My buddy's '62 Biscayne with a built 327 Rochester Fuel Injection, 4.56 gears and many mods was barely street drivable and he could do high 12's.
He never got to race that Gremlin though. He would have had his hands full had that happened.
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Unless you moved the engine to the back you weren't ever getting a high powered gremlin to hook up. Maybe running funny car slicks. That was a light rear end and a short car.
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Yep, there's the super rare convertible - I mean retractable metal roof, like a 57-59 Ford.
Spotted a black 1973 Chevrolet Impala near Rhawn and Eastwood and a black Ford Model A Tudor near Rhawn and Dungan in NE Philly.
V-8 gremlins came with 304 cubic inches, but I believe all V-8's were the same block and would interchange. Not all Gremlin X's are V-8's, my Dad had a'73 X, yellow with orange stripes. 232 six with a manual three-speed.
Daewoo day - saw a Nubira wagon (!) and 2x Suzuki Reno.
Spotted a Subaru Brat----done in yellow and silver? Did they really come that way? This one was very tidy indeed, with the entire Subaru accessory catalog bolted onto it. Had everything except a team of huskies leashed to the front end. Definitely a loving Brat enthusiast.
This afternoon I saw an immaculate maybe 86-87 Audi 5000, in a parking lot. I had a peek inside - very clean cloth interior, and a 5-speed.
I went down to Virginia Beach on Friday to see some friends. Spotted this old beast on I-95 just north of Richmond...
I guess '56 Chrysler New Yorkers aren't such a common sight these days, despite IsellHondas and Fintail having their spottings...
Down at VA beach, I spotted this nicely preserved '73 Electra...
Fairly basic model, as it just had vinyl seats. Still, a very nice car, and one I wouldn't kick out of the yard.
On the way home, I spotted a couple Camaros at a Shell station about 20 miles north of Kings Dominion...
Wow. Two door hardtop. Perfect colors that I recall from the era when they were new! I loved those with the taillight lenses built in with the shape of the rear fin. I remember building a model of a 66 Chrysler when I was doing plastic models.
I found a black 4-door Chrysler 66 sedan nearby stored in a yard. Can't find the picture but I believe I had posted it years back.
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k110/imidazol97/DSC05219.jpg
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Now that I think about it, I saw a black '56 Chrysler New Yorker 4-door sedan sitting for sale, in a front yard on Route 2 in Maryland a few weeks back. Unfortunately I wasn't driving, and my friend who was knows of my addiction to old cars, so he refused to stop.
I can only imagine how much a car of that type and era weighs. I suspect the gas mileage is close to single digits also for when it is driven.
I see few of these '66 versions at shows. There probably will be some Imperials and Chryslers at the car show today. There were some last year, but in this salt-ridden area they are rare.
I did see a 1955 IIRC Chrysler or Desoto outside a wooden farm barn and I meant to get a picture of the car, bad paint with surface rust showing. But it was moved inside the barn. Now the barn has been razed.
But I saw a large Thunderbird Continental Mark X that looked like Thunderbird outside doors of a metal pole barn adjacent to the farm wooden barn
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Not sure about a '56 New Yorker, but the base weight of my '57 DeSoto Firedome is 3910 lb. I don't know how much it would weigh as equipped (automatic, power steering/brakes, heater, etc)...maybe 4100 lb? It has a 341 2-bbl Hemi, rated at 270 hp gross. 3-speed Torqueflite, and a 3.31:1 axle. I never was able to really figure out its fuel economy, as the odometer was broken, but I'd keep track of where I drove it. I estimated that in local driving, I'd get around 12-13 mpg, maybe 16 on a highway run, when I'd go to a car show. It didn't seem like that much of a guzzler, even for a college kid.
A '56 New Yorker was probably more of a guzzler though, as it had a heavier 354 Hemi, and in '56 they just had the 2-speed Powerflite. I think the Chrysler Hemi outweighed the DeSoto unit by around 100 lb. On the subject of guzzling, I was pretty impressed with my Ram. It managed to pull about 20 mpg on that trip, which is what its highway EPA estimate is. And even though that trip was mostly highway, there were some stretches with traffic backed up. And other stretches where I was running along at 75-85 mph with an occasional romp to 90. And a/c running most of the way, because it was a bit humid.
Oh, yeah, one old car I saw yesterday, but almost forgot about...unfortunately wasn't able to get a pic. A Mercedes Benz Ponton, in a really pale silvery champagne sort of color. Saw it about a mile and a half from my house, so it must be a local car. Looked like it was in pretty good shape.
Went out in the Magnette today into Essex (visited some gardens) and on the way back seemed to see a few old cars - a Ford Capri that must have been very early 80s, couple of MGBs and a real old car - well, it was older than the Magnette by a couple of decades - a Wolseley Wasp saloon - about 1935 - in fact I think I have a picture of the same car in a book.
Went to a car show a couple of weeks back which was a get-together for MG Magnettes - it was fairly local, only about 40 minutes drive away. I was expecting to see perhaps 6 or 7 other cars at most - and I've never taken the MG to a Magnette event before. Anyway, there were 26 cars- only about six ZA's like mine, but a similar number of ZB's and a larger number of the ZB Varitone (two - tone paint, larger back window). There were also two of the later MG Magnette Mk IV (the one that looks like a Morris Oxford)...
My one was on the right on that photo above... This is another view showing the other end o
f the field
Very nice!
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Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
Looks like a fun show, and a really good turnout!
That is the only color combination I ever saw on the X...
Strangely the black car on the left in the top shot has a Virginia plate on the back as well as regular British ones - I think it was over there at some stage.
Cool lineup there, really reinforces the back window difference, too.
I laughed at Andre's Buick in "the yard".
I'm liking that 56 new Yorker coupe Andre!
That '56 New Yorker was driven by an older guy...not ancient, but looked to be in his 60's...so probably someone who wouldn't have bought that car new, but remembered it from his childhood. He wasn't poking along either...probably moving at around 65. Everybody else was doing around 80 though...I had to slow down to get that pic!
I hate that stretch of 95, because the exit to get onto 295 around Richmond is a left exit, so sometimes you'll get people poking along in the left lane because their exit is coming up. Fortunately, I've never hit that stretch of road around rush hour, so traffic has always been fairly light.
On my recent (and soon to be much more frequent) trips to NC, that stretch of 95 (from that 295 split to where 85 comes in) and of course the mixing bowl up to college park are by far the worst parts to drive. Nasty and dangerous.
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I know that Richmond bypass split very well.
Today saw a decent Vanagon, a lowered VW T2, Solstice coupe, 86-89 911 cabrio.
I took my wife's LaCrosse to the local mechanic for state inspection/emmissions and spotted a black 1964 Plymouth Valiant covertible with a white top on the lot. It is most definitely a project car. The last inspection sticker was from 1974. It must've been sitting in a leaking garage for the past 40 years. This one had a V-8. Probably a 273.
Yeah, that would be a 273 V-8...most likely the 2-bbl version. If it's stock, at least. I'd imagine a '64 Valiant V-8 would be fairly rare. IIRC, when that style came out for '63, a V-8 wouldn't fit, but they modified the engine bay for 1964 to accommodate.
The 273 was the first of the "LA" series of smallblock wedge-head V-8's. I think the 318 version came out for 1968. Earlier 318's are of the "A" block, poly-head variety, and at a quick glance, look like a big block. Even though the older poly-head looks a lot more massive, there's not a huge weight difference. I've seen the LA listed at 525 lb, while the A is listed at 575 lb.
Unlikely it would ever be restored, which is unfortunate. Maybe a dedicated hobbyist who could do his own work could make a really nice pro tourer out of it.
My cousin, who was almost exactly my age, got a '66 Valiant with the 273 as her high-school graduation present (I got a watch). Anyway, that was a remarkably nice little car. Refrigerator white 4-door, looked like a pup, but could run with some fairly respected contemporary cars. It appealed to my love of sleepers. It appealed to her love of barreling down the highway at socially inappropriate speeds while listening to the radio and singing along. Lord I envied her (I was driving a hand-me-down '60 Falcon that couldn't do socially inappropriate speeds if its life depended on it.)
2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])
Sightings today while on sales calls:
1970 or so Cadillac de Ville Convertible in a mint green color
1974 or so Ford Ranchero Red with white striping down the side
a sad looking Corvair
1965 or so Ford Thunderbird in white looking as sad as the Corvair but with a for sale sign on it.
Out before the rain today, saw a ~65-66 Chrysler 6 window sedan in nice condition, a brown 65-66 Mustang coupe similarly nice, and rode in a friend's spotless 240D that has 245K miles on it - but looks like 40K.
I took the old car out on a rare weekday drive, as the weather was nice, and I wanted to talk to my indy mechanic about the generator light. His shop is adjacent to a well known specialty dealer, and their secondary showroom was full of unusual cars, not on their website - many going to auction, I think. They were really crammed in there, not easy to photograph. First off, this Dodge:
With a record player:
Top of the line
Rumble seat:
Camelot:
Lark I mentioned to uplanderguy earlier:
Twelve cylinder, maybe 1936:
There was also a 62 Cadillac convertible parked outside on another part of the lot, maybe something Andre would want.
And running fine today:
Oooh, that Dodge...
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I agree on the Dodge. Right color for a convertible in my area when it was new. I wish we could see the wheels better that are on the car.
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