I spotted an (insert obscure car name here) classic car today! (Archived)

fintail

It was still on when I was a little kid, and I liked it then (along with Dukes of Hazzard), but I think that was kind of the target market. Definitely not a highbrow high budget affair. To watch it now has painful plots, odd attention to detail, and as you mention, hokey special effects with interstate "chases" featuring normal traffic crawling along, and I think I saw a sped-up scene too.

The car spotting is fun though, I will have to try to catch it again. Being filmed around LA, there is lots of now unicorn 70s Japanese material, unusual cars used in crash scenes, and cars that were new then but might not be the most desired now.

omarman

That's why it's fun to watch the original Hawaii Five-0 on MeTV. Where else can you see something like this now?

andre1969

I think the early episodes of CHiPs were pretty cool, but after maybe the third season, the story lines just started getting stupider, and the car crashes more unbelievable. Plus, it got to the point that every time you saw that '69 GTO, you knew something was going to rear-end the ramp on it and go airborne and flip.

I also seem to recall a '76 or so Honda Accord hatchback, in sort of a bright two-tone blue, that showed up frequently, and across most of the seasons. I always wondered if it belonged to a cast/crewmember? They kept a variety of cars around where they'd often repaint them, smash them up, and if they weren't too bad, slap them together and use them again, until they finally got destroyed, but as far as I know, they never wrecked that Honda.




The first season also showed a Sequoia green '72 Impala wagon with some kind of finned sporty road wheels on it, that looked really sharp. As far as I know, it never got wrecked, either. It might have shown up in later seasons on occasion, as well. I was kind of impressed that they never messed it up, because by then it was just a 6-7 year old gas guzzler from before the oil embargo, and those things were a dime a dozen. But, it was in great condition.



**Edit...went back and found the pics on the IMCDB and added them in.

fintail

I saw that same blue Accord on the episode I watched the other day. The stripe is pretty unique and kind of cool. I noticed a BMW 2002 in several shots the last episode I watched, too - I'd wager it belonged to someone on the crew. IMCDB lists no fintails for CHiPs, which is kind of disappointing, but maybe good, as they might have used it in a crash, Maybe they were kind of aging out by then, too, and were never that common to begin with.

I am visiting family in a small town now, within an hour I saw a Datsun 310 wagon, an early Corolla Tercel, and the jewel, a white B210 fastback - gotta love the PNW. Also spotted a ~78-80 or so El Camino on the road, along with a decent looking Chrysler LHS - not many of those anymore.

andre1969

There's an LHS, or a Concorde (haven't looked at it that close) that I see at work from time to time. It's silver, and from a distance at least, looks almost like a brand new car. And now that I think about it, it's pretty rare I see any of those cars, from either generation anymore. Not only the Chryslers, but the Intrepid as well.

In contrast, I still see a good number of Century/Regals of the generation of my Dad's car ('97-04). Granted, they sold well in most years, especially the Century. But still, the most recent ones are now 14 years old. I wonder if that's a testament to how durable the cars really were, or more like they sold to an older clientele who took better care of them than most, or they were simply cheap to fix when they broke? But, a lot of them were dumped into rental fleets as well, and then picked up on the cheap as used cars. That's how my Dad got his. A lot of Intrepids, and to a lesser degree, Concordes, also got pushed into fleets.

ab348

Neighbors across the street had a Century, probably an '02, for ages. They didn't use it for commuting but it was their everyday car otherwise. They just sold it recently when a new Subaru appeared in their driveway. The Regal still looked very good and I imagine someone got a cheap but good used car.

texases

A blast from the past - a Chevy Citation, moving under its own power, this morning. Can't remember the last time I've seen one. I really liked them when they first came out.

andre1969

I think the last time I saw a Citation was, believe it or not, at a car show! They'll show up, along with other X-bodies of that generation, from time to time at swap meets, and at the GM show in Carlisle, every once in awhile on the show field. Now that I think about it, at Hershey, I think a Skylark shows up on occasion. I think the Skylarks tended to have the best survival rate of those cars.

There's a restaurant in Carlisle where we'll usually eat at after the various car shows and swap meets there, and relatively recently, I remember seeing an Olds Omega in their parking lot from time to time.

roadburner

When we got married my wife owned a 1984 Skylark T-Type(I had coaxed her into buying it). It suffered from the power steering "morning sickness"(no assist when cold) and the rear shocks died at 30k miles. Aside from that it was a really nice car.

fintail

The LHS I saw was an early one, like this:



I see very few of these anymore. I suspect transmissions were their downfall.

Speaking of X Skylarks, I think I mentioned this one in the past, back around 1996 some kids I know, twin boys who were 16, got an 81 Skylark to "share", from their dad. He got it out of an estate, and it had like 10K miles on it, and appeared as a new car - dark blue with matching plush interior, and fairly loaded. You can imagine it didn't stay blike new eing driven by kids. Seeing it slowly destroyed irked me. A friend of mine had a Pontiac Phoenix when he was in high school, early 90s. He loathed it, as it was slow and unreliable.

andre1969

I really liked those first-gen LHSs a lot. But yeah, transmissions were probably their downfall. The 3.5 V-6 was also a bit unreliable initially, but they got a lot of the kinks worked out after a few years. I think water pump failures were common as well. You'd think a water pump wouldn't be that big of a deal, but these days, as complicated as cars are, and as hard as some things are to get to, a water pump could probably darn near total a car once it gets old enough.

My old real estate agent, that helped me buy my condo in 1994, had one of these. It was a sharp looking car. I do remember though, that even as a brand new car, she was having issues with the door seals.

With those early LH cars, if you got a lesser model with the 3.3 V-6, they were actually fairly decent. That was a pretty rugged engine; IIRC it was designed by the guy who designed the slant six, the B/RB (383, 440, etc) Big Block, and the LA (273, 318 etc) engines. It wasn't exactly a pavement shredder, but was probably comparable to similar-sized engines from Ford and GM at the time. And, it also wasn't strong enough to stress out the transmission!

With the second generation, the 2.7 DOHC was the base engine, and while it was a bit quicker off the line, and a lot more responsive at higher speeds, it couldn't take a lot of abuse. Overheat it, run it low on oil, go too long between oil changes, etc, and you'd make short work of it pretty quickly. It was also VERY expensive to replace, to the point that supposedly it was cheaper to swap in a 3.5 instead! Anyway, no doubt that little disadvantage sent a lot of these cars to their grave.

tjc78

I’ve always thought that the early LH cars were all attractive, but reliability was not their strong suit.  

Great observation about the same vintage GMs... the 3800/4spd combo does pretty much run forever if you get rid of the Deathcool early on.  

andre1969

Heck, I even saw a video of some people looting a Dollar General, after Hurricane Michael, and parked out in front was a silver '97-04 Century, looking like a well-kept car just a few years old might! Damn things are everywhere!

I think GM's midsize and larger FWD cars from that era, with the 3.8/4-speed, tended to fall into that well-worn "Old GM cars run bad longer than most cars run at all" cliché. Bits and pieces might fall off of them, the fit and finish might as well say "Body By Fischer-Price", and over time you'll lose the peripheral stuff, like power assists, cruise, random electrical problems, etc. But they just keep soldiering on.

fintail

Looking at my dashcam clips, I see one has the LHS:

https://youtu.be/SkcZHx76CdQ?t=21

Driving around today, saw an Aerostar camper conversion, has to be pretty rare.

fintail

Saw a woody today:



Also went for a drive and saw a 61-63 T-Bird and big bumper 2002 that I have noticed for years - both appear to be heading beyond reclamation, returning to the Earth. It takes some time here.

stickguy

Isn't that a Ploody?

fintail

Gran Detroit Farm and Country wagon

uplanderguy

Someone mentioned not liking big cars, even 'back then'. I typically don't like barges in the era of over-decoration, but I like these barges: Mark II Continental (saw two at Hershey), mid-sixties Bonnevilles and Grand Prixs, '65 Impalas, and '65-66 Cadillac Fleetwoods. I'd happily own any of those cars. Other than that, give me mid-size or so.

roadburner

I'd take a ponycar from that era, but aside from that I like cars under 180" in length and under 3500 pounds.

andre1969

roadburner said:

I'd take a ponycar from that era, but aside from that I like cars under 180" in length and under 3500 pounds.

Lotta cars back in the 60's had a base weight under 3500 lb, even some full-sized cars. But throwing in the 180" qualifier, I guess that might get you an early Falcon, Rambler American, or a Corvair, at best, among American cars.

uplanderguy

I'd add a '65 Chrysler 300 and possibly a '65-66 Imperial sedan to my list, now that I think about it.

uplanderguy

Seen at Hershey--for fin:

uplanderguy

Guilty pleasure. 9K miles. Owner said his first new car out of college was one (not this car) that the dealer still had "new" in 1978!

uplanderguy

My favorite year 'Vette, in one of the only two colors I'd want that year (the other being Fawn Beige):

uplanderguy

Something about this car struck me positively, although I detest that someone put an aftermarket body side molding smack down the side. The Nova had one, but not the SS that year. There is a lot of sheetmetal above the wheel openings though, LOL. Other than the added side moldings, this car looked inside and out like a good 'survivor'. Had the 230 six, white bucket seat interior, Powerglide on the floor. '65 Chevy II Nova SS. The '65 is my favorite of the first Chevy II's. Small revisions to the front and side-by-side lights in back.

uplanderguy

And here is a Cadillac I was smitten by for sale there--'62 Park Avenue (short deck); one owner:

Mr_Shiftright

The big cars of "olden days" are just TOO BIG for modern roads and conditions anymore, IMO. You can't park them anywhere, and they barely (if at all) fit into one's garage in either a very modern, or very old house. They wallow and bounce, and massive understeer greets you at every turn. The hood "oilcans" at every dip in the road. You're forced to "grandpa around" so that you don't get arrested for squealing tires and knocking over road cones. It's costs you $3 bucks to go 10 miles. If it's a droptop, the windshield will do the macarena across your dashboard when you go over a pothole or railroad tracks.

To be fair about it, on a straight flat road in Nevada, with the cruise control set at 75, and you sitting ace-duece with your pinky on the steering wheel and your SO scrunched into your shoulder, it does harken back to the American Dream.

uplanderguy

Sorry I missed andre and lemko and others at Hershey Sat.!
Only at Hershey do you see something like this:

berri

Neat =- takes me back to college days

ab348

I never knew Cadillac had a Park Avenue model. Things you learn...

I always felt that the '65 Chevy II front end was a bit of a step back - it always looked to me like it had a surprised look on its face. That one is a nice car though, too bad it didn't have the 327 that was available.

That SceniCruiser bus must be something to drive. I always visualize them with "Continental Trailways" livery.

uplanderguy

It's weird. The "Park Avenue" only meant the short-deck Sedan deVille. The Series 62 short-deck was called the "Town Sedan" and like regular Series 62 cars, didn't have a nameplate indicating the model name.

Those short-decks were built from '61 to '63.

At a minimum, the info above on the Town Sedan applied to '61, but I think it did for the other two years too.

berri

The Trailways buses were produced by a different company and had a shorter length driver level before going up the stairway than the Scenicruiser. Both were kind of neat in their day though.

berri

I always liked the looks of the 62 Cadillac. I think that interior was called something like Brocade.

fintail

The white fintail is a W110 200D, 1965-68. I don't think the tires would be correct, as I am pretty sure MB moved to narrow band whitewalls for the 1965 model year, but they fit the style of the car. Hopefully a manual, as a 200D automatic might be slow enough to actually be unsafe in some areas.

The cabrio is something on the other side of the spectrum. That's a W112 300SE, model years 1962-67. That was a top of the line car, and would have been over $10K new. It has a much more powerful engine than a 220SE, along with air suspension, and more luxurious trim. That car appears to be a Euro model, the round sidemarker lights I believe were for the Italian market.

The old bus is super cool, and the Caddy is a great color.

uplanderguy said:

Seen at Hershey--for fin

benjaminh

Some pages from the 1946 Cadillac brochure. They are high rez images, and so you should be able to read the text if you'd like if you double click on them....

benjaminh

Some more pages from the Cadillac brochure for 1946....

jpp75

I saw these last week while in Nashville for work.

andre1969

I think Caddy fielded a model called the "Town Sedan" in 1961, which had a shorter rear deck than normal. Overall length was something like 215" versus 222". For '62, I believe the Town Sedan was the cheap version, and "Park Avenue" was a higher trim level of it. I believe there was even a Park Avenue for 1963.

The idea of these shorter-deck Caddies was to appeal to buyers in bigger cities, where maneuverability was more of a concern, and garages weren't always as big. It was probably meant to take a stab at the Lincoln Continental as well, which had shrunk to something like 212" for 1961, which was downright petite by luxury car standards back then. But, it was a limited market, and I think most of the demand for it was pretty much satisfied by Lincoln. And, tellingly, it wasn't long before the Continental started stretching out, so that shows you where the luxury car market was back then.

I'm not that crazy about it in general, because in my opinion, the shorter deck throws off the proportioning. But, that teal one was pretty sweet; the color really makes it. I didn't see it at Hershey, but have to admit, if I had, I might've been tempted. Not at $35K though! Wonder what they would have taken for it?

fintail

Was the 61 Caddy flat top a smaller/basic model, or just something oddball?



I think I've ever only seen one.

fintail

Looks like the wild 58 Buick is from Sweden, as it appears to have a Swedish plate made to look like a US plate. The Caddy has some kind of Swedish flag sticker, too.

jpp5862 said:

I saw these last week while in Nashville for work.

andre1969

That SceniCruiser bus is a regular at Hershey. I always like seeing it. It conjures up romantic, rose-tinted-glasses images of traveling across the country, care-free adventuring. Or even an air of mystery and danger...getting dropped off in a lonely cornfield outside of Bakersfield -er, I mean Chicago for a clandestine meeting, only to get set up and gunned down by a cropduster!

I have a feeling that bus travel wouldn't be nearly as much fun as I like to pretend it would be, and perhaps it never was. But, still, I love seeing that SceniCruiser!

berri

That Caddy flattop reminded me that the large GM cars didn't seem to wear it well compared to the (relatively speaking) smaller Impala's or 88's. Cadillac offered a choice for 4dr ht's of the flattop or a more formal six window version. I don't really know, but would guess the formal version outsold the flattop by 80/20 or so from what I'd see on the highways back then. Now I can't help but wonder whether that 58 Buick, and its sister Olds, has influenced some current day Asian car design

Years back my college experiences with taking long distance bus rides was similar to flying today, but without the rudeness and stress. Also, Greyhound and Trailways seemed more together than modern day airline customer service employees. Back then, Greyhound had a rather large bus terminal right in the Chicago Loop with a lower level area where the buses came into their gates from lower Wacker Drive. It was actually kind of cool arriving that way. Trailways had a much smaller terminal a block or so away where the buses were outside. btw - anyone flying these days notice that emblem near the boarding door on the new livery scheme American Airlines jets? Looks ironically similar to some of the stuff greyhound put on various buses. Some designer had a sense of humor I think

andre1969

I think the '61 Town Sedans were all 6-window models. At least, doing a Google search, every picture that came up was a 6-window. So, that 4-window model (or "flat-top") should be a standard-length model. As for trim level, I think they offered both the 4W and 6W in both the Series 62 and DeVille range, so the roofline itself didn't necessarily determine prestige level.

For '62 it looks like all the short-deck models were the 4-window style, which had a thick C-pillar that year, rather than a wraparound window.

I forget which roofline is considered more desireable these days. Personally, in '61 I think the 6W looks better. That wraparound just doesn't seem "right" on a Caddy in my opinion, where the 6W, with the litle quarter window ahead of the C-pillar, and more squared-up in general, just seems to fit better. For '62, I like the 4W, with the thick roof pillar. They're all cool though.

uplanderguy

I don't know why, but when I've seen "short deck" '61 photos, the proportioning really just hit me in the face. I didn't feel that way about the '62 in the car corral at Hershey.

I'm not a fan of the '59-61 flat tops at GM, period. A lot of folks like them. A friend of mine whose parents drove Cadillacs for 30 years or so said his folks bought a new '60 flat-top and his diminutive Mom (just under five feet tall) really enjoyed the rearward visibility.

berri

Hey, the 59 and 60 Flattop Caddy was much funkier

uplanderguy

jpp5862's photos above remind me how I like the '64 Eldorado because of the unique, unskirted rear wheel cutout, a one-year thing.

berri

Say, I got to thinking. Did the early 60's Buick Deuce and a Quarter or Olds 98 even offer a flattop roofline? I don't recall seeing those models in anything but 6W, but it was a long time ago.

fintail

Another one from the old photos I leafed through over the weekend. Port Gamble WA, February or March 1980:



Last week:

stickguy

that top picture has a 2 door Corolla hiding behind the white barge, that looks just like the 75 (I think) that I had. I liked that car. an E5.

omarman

Top pic has a yellow '72ish Maverick and on other side of the street a '73(?) Montego MX parked behind a white VW Van?