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

kyfdx

explorerx4 said:

Tomorrow I'm going to my 45th High School reunion.
Going to take the Mustang.
It's about 50 miles each way, so I'll stay off the interstate.
Will be fun to bring the same car to the 45th that was at the 20th.

45!

Oh wait, that’s next year for me.

xwesx

My truck turned fifty (50) this year. Should I celebrate?!

As with your experiences, mine is likewise with this particular rig; the others tend to take a little more elbow grease.

tjc78

Understood, probably better keeping speeds low on something that doesn’t see much activity.  

Great thing about Fox body Stangs is that the 5.0 /AOD combo is pretty much bulletproof. 

kyfdx

kyfdx

kyfdx

tjc78

That 88/89 Mercury wagon is in nice shape.  White with turbines, great combo.  

tjc78

Edit.. super hard to tell but that Merc May be a 90

imidazol97

It is a beautiful car. The styling is still timely. Big wagons!

@kyfdx
On the first second picture, Beechmont Dragway? Cummins Powered?

I never knew it existed despite some years in that area.

At about 4:30 in the first video of old Beechmont Dragway action, there's a delivery van type
vehicle like t he one labeled "Beechmont Dragway."

Lots of classic cars in these videos. Edit: they're actually old 8 mm videos converted.
With age and deterioration they're not up to the videos we have today even from my
phone... ever seen a 1958 Buick doing a quarter mile? LOL Lots of heavy chrome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS7jwmTmCpQ

Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTo8ddJoIms

roadburner

I'll take the Mini and the TVR...

kyfdx

@imidazol97 Yeah, before my time. I've seen that rig many times at the old Cars N Coffee, but never talked to the owner.

kyfdx

roadburner said:

I'll take the Mini and the TVR...

I think those TVRs just became eligible for import, recently

fintail

"J" prefix on the TVR makes it ~1991, so importable, yes.

ab348

Saw a '61 Chrysler like this one in traffic today. White, very shiny, newish chrome, obviously restored. Stands out among today's cars.

thebean

Is that an Exner design?

ab348

I believe so. Or at least one he was credited with, since I would guess he merely set the tone for the staff designers to interpret.

berri

The interior dash is what really sets these out - domed and backlit gauges. very cool at night.

thebean

ab348 said:

I believe so. Or at least one he was credited with, since I would guess he merely set the tone for the staff designers to interpret.

Thanks.

sda

berri said:

The interior dash is what really sets these out - domed and backlit gauges. very cool at night.

I think those dashes are really cool and we’re futuristic at the time. I also liked the push button transmission and pop up ac vents.

andre1969

I don't know how much truth there is to this, but supposedly, Virgil Exner had a stroke, and some of the more outlandish styles are tastelessly credited to his post-stroke years. Exner was replaced in 1961 by Elwood Engel, a stylist from Ford, and Engel almost immediately went to work cleaning up and de-Exnerizing the cars, making them crisper, cleaner, and some might say, a bit more Ford-like.

I think the last cars attributed to Exner were probably the shrunken '62 Dodges and Plymouths. There were supposed to be DeSoto, and I believe Chrysler versions as well, but the DeSoto version was thankfully put out of its misery, and at the last minute, they made the decision to simply de-fin the 1961 Chryslers and pass them off for '62s. The shrunken Dodges were a pretty big failure, so partway through the 1962 model year, they took a '62 Newport stuck a '61 Dodge front end on it, and called it the Dodge 880. It wasn't very popular either, but still sold better than the shrunken Polara.

sda

Of the big 3, Chrysler and GM had some innovative and futuristic dashboards. Ford was a lot less inspired and boring in comparison. Olds from ‘59-62 had the ribbon speedometer that changed from green to orange to red the higher the speed. Buick had a reverse mirror that was adjustable to show the speedometer in ‘60. Edsel did have the rolling drum speedo, and steering wheel push button tranny...so I give them credit for that. On some models Chrysler had the review mirror mounted center dash instead of the windshield, and the driver seat back was higher than the passenger’s. GM and Chrysler did a much neater job of integrating ac in the dash than Ford’s typical lazy under dash mounted box. And I could go on...neat stuff.

ab348

When I go to car shows these days and see vehicles from the '50s and '60s in large numbers all in one place, the interiors of most of the Ford models do not match up to those of GM and Chrysler for the most part. That is most notable in their bread and butter mainstream fullsize cars. The compacts from the early '60s were all pretty basic inside, and luxo cars like the Lincolns and T-birds were nice inside. But when you look at a Ford and still see things like the separate column shift rod on the steering column you wonder why they weren't keeping up. It took them until the mid to late '60s to catch up.

berri

I think a few things impacted Virgil Exner. Perhaps first and foremost, after the huge success of the new style setting 57's, he was probably under immense pressure to come up with something all new again after the big impact on Chrysler from the '58 recession, as well as the rushed to production quality issues that hurt the product's consumer reputation. Second, the fin thing was short lived with the public. Finally, senior executive interference, such as the leadership decision to downsize the 62 Fury and Polara on very short notice after bad information, or interpretation of information, that GM was downsizing the big Chevy's. Those 62's were designed to be full size and then with little lead time changed to their downsized version. I think the 62's would have looked better if they had not been suddenly truncated, but they still may have been a little radical for the buying public. I don't mean to take anything away from Elwood Engel because he was also an excellent stylist and designer who did a good job, with limited resources, keeping that shrunken chassis going while the 65's were being developed. The move of the 62's in 1965 to intermediates provided Chrysler a cash cow for many years. The chassis was well engineered.

andre1969

In an oddball sort of way, I think the shrunken '62 Dodges actually worked. They were wild and off the wall but still, somehow it worked. The Plymouths, in contrast, I thought were just kind of ugly. They weren't offbeat enough to be cool, just kind of ugly.

Still, I guess this shows my conservative nature, but if I was going to buy a Mopar in 1962, it would probably be a Dodge Custom 880. I thought the '61 Dodge front clip worked well with the Newport body. And if you got the Custom, rather than just the regular 880, the interiors were pretty nice. Plus, you could sort of look at the 880/Custom 880 as the last vestiges of DeSoto, in a way.

berri

As you probably know Andre, the 62 Dodge 880 was an emergency effort to recoup some sales volume on the cheap, and I think it kind of worked. I saw some pictures of the 62 prototypes for DeSoto including one with stacked and angled headlights and with an irregular taillight set up, One on the left I think and then two on the right. The one little round light really didn't seem to reflect a mid priced DeSoto, so I'm thinking it was a deliberate offset rather than a choice of two different taillight alternatives. The 62 Polara wasn't a bad looking car if you could get by the irregular looking front end. As for the 62 Fury, I didn't mind the rear, but the tractor blade front end was a bit odd. Personally though, I think both of them stretched a bit and widened might have smoothed the design out a bit. Hard to tell from pictures of clay's though. The greenhouse on the DeSoto 4 door may have influenced the one they used on the 63/64 Chrysler.

fintail

On the road today" Trunkback Suzuki SX4, 63-67 Corvette convertible (too far away to tell), pale yellow Karmann-Ghia, nice looking W123, and the big sighting, a kind of gunmetal color 60 Caddy convertible, top down, sticking out like a parade float in a sea of forgettable cloned CUVs and doddering Civrollas.

berri

Fin, you keep upsizing those MB and soon you'll be ready for nice boat

fintail

I suspect the difference in mass between an S-class and the wagon isn't huge.

explorerx4

Drove the Mustang to the 'reunion' late yesterday afternoon.
My graduating class was 660, although the numbers after that dropped off.
The 'reunion' spanned 8 classes(4's and 9's).
When I got there, there were about 30 cars in the parking lot.
Thought to myself, maybe I got here too early.
Decided to drive around to see some of the houses I had lived in, plus my grandparent's house and some other places I remembered.
When I got back to the 'reunion', there were maybe another 10 cars in the lot, so I decided to just head back home.
The car was running hotter than usual, so I was kind of worried and when I pulled over to text my wife, the idle as around 900 rpm's, usually about 600.
Made it back after putting 111 miles on the car and was able to enjoy the Bruins/Blues game. so not a total washout.

fintail

That game wasn't very enjoyable

I remember going to my 20th, a very drunk girl/woman who I knew a bit back in the day begged to drive my car. - she said she watched me pull up. I vetoed that. My mom lives in the same town, and in the same house as when I graduated, so I get the trip down memory lane every time I visit. Not a lot changes in the small towns outside of the rat race areas here. Graduating class under 200, maybe 40 people showed, a few good friends from way back, but many were absent. Life makes it hard, I suppose.

stickguy

I have been to most of my college reunions. But mostly to see the handful of friends I kept up with that also attend. The rest of the class that shows (not a huge number, and it was a small school) I can do without, so nothing new there!

Never been to a HS reunion though. For some reason, my "inner circle" never chose to go, and I had moved away by the time they rolled around, and the ones I remember were always over Thanksgiving when we hosted family. So that was not going to happen. This many years down the road, I think it would just be too bizarre.

uplanderguy

I've only missed two high school reunions in 43 years, and we've had one every five. My wife's class had their first at 30 years, LOL (she's from Michigan). My class was the biggest in our town's history at 201 then, but the classes are less than half that now.

We were a close-knit small town that wasn't a suburb so it wasn't like you drove two miles down the road and there was another town. There was (and is) like ten or so miles of nothing between it and the next town.

I'm happy to see anybody and everybody from my class, as even if we have nothing else in common, we share that same time and place and I'm glad we've made it this far. There's a handful of classmates still local who will meet at a local coffee place there every three or so months, and I'll usually try and drive over (an hour-and-a-half) for those too. For the big Heritage Days Super Cruise that's happening on July 6 (usually 700 cars; this year being filmed for the Lokar car show on Motor Trend network), there'll be a class coffee too and I'll make that.

berri

I think class reunions are on the way out because most who want to get together use alternatives like Facebook.

Michaell

I skipped my 10 year reunion, but attended both the 20 and 30. 40 is in a few years (2022), but a lot of us are connected via Facebook. Be interesting to see if one is scheduled.

We didn't have a very large graduating class (185 or so), and I know we've lost a few classmates along the way. I think there were maybe 50-ish in attendance at the 30 year reunion.

berri

I think as they go on in years that the BS factor keeps dropping and in the latter ones people are more just themselves.

kyfdx

Michaell said:

I skipped my 10 year reunion, but attended both the 20 and 30. 40 is in a few years (2022), but a lot of us are connected via Facebook. Be interesting to see if one is scheduled.

We didn't have a very large graduating class (185 or so), and I know we've lost a few classmates along the way. I think there were maybe 50-ish in attendance at the 30 year reunion.

I went to 20 and 30, which were specific to my class.

35 yr was a multi-class reunion, with two years on either side, and that was sort of a mess. 40 was the same way, so I skipped it.

My wife is from a small town, and her reunions are a blast. I think only 60 in her class, and over half attend. Usually, at someone's farm/home.

fintail

My 20th college event will be in a couple years, if such an event takes place. There's a yearly alumni gathering for all classes, but I've never attended, figuring the chances of finding someone I know would be slim. If there's a 20th and I attend, I'd probably take the fintail - drive should be doable on backroads, and anyone I was friends with would probably remember the car.

imidazol97

High school? Never went back. I never felt the need to see any of them again.
College. Grad school. Jobs.

I did run into a fellow student a year older than myself when driving my son around the
old stomping grounds a decade ago. He was out in his yard and the mailbox name said it
was him, so I turned around and went to visit. He updated me on who had died from my
class of 30 (32, but two were pregnant and didn't seem to make graduation),
along with a few names from classes one young and one older than mine.

I may go back to an open house of a one-room school that became part of the
school district. It's being restored. I may see a couple of fellow students then.

berri

Sometimes it can be a bit tough meeting old school friends you haven't seen in a long time. Interests and lives can change making a conversation longer than 5 or 10 minutes a little hard. But once in awhile it all clicks and comes back.

imidazol97

Duplicate>

xwesx

uplanderguy said:

I'm happy to see anybody and everybody from my class, as even if we have nothing else in common, we share that same time and place and I'm glad we've made it this far.

An excellent sentiment; that's how I feel, too. Last year was the first I have attended, but then I come from a *very* small school: My class size was seven (7), of which six remain. So, having half of them show up (including me) was not too bad of a showing!

Given the tiny school size, this was an "all years" reunion (oldest attendee graduated in the '40s), and my class, 23 years past at the time, was one of the youngest in attendance.

It was fun to see some people I was aware existed while growing up, but they were the "big kids" and I never knew them. Now, just other adults who have lived lives as varied as they come.

tjc78

I never went to any of my reunions and am not active on FB.... so don’t hear from nearly anyone from school. The one exception is I actually work with someone from school.  We weren’t really friends then but get along well now. Funny story I actually took his wife (also from school) to prom.   We were just friends. 

kyfdx

Sure.. let's go with that story..

roadburner

I still keep in touch with a couple of my high school friends, but I haven't been back to a reunion since my 20th.

andre1969

The last school reunion I went to was, don't laugh, my grandmother's! She graduated high school in 1942, in Harrisburg, PA. I took her up for a reunion two years in a row, but I can't remember WHICH years, now. Maybe 2003 and 2004. Anyway, the first year, her three best friends from high school were still alive, and still there. They all had a great time, seeing each other and catching up. And, I'm glad I took her up, because the next year, one of them had passed away.

I think the second time I took Grandmom up was also the last reunion her class had. By that time, the ranks were pretty thin, and I guess after that, there just weren't enough of her class who were not only alive and mobile, but also interested, to make it worthwhile. Grandmom ended up passing away in 2015, at the age of 91. I'd imagine her two friends have passed as well, but, who knows? I still have two relatives left from that generation. One of them is 94, and I think the other is 96.

xwesx

My wife had a friend who lived her whole live in Brookville, PA. I'm not sure how they met, but she introduced me the first time we visited PA as a couple in 1999 (year before we married). I believe the friend was around 80 at the time, and she had recently moved into a "retirement home." We visited a time after that, but then went many years without visiting PA, or on fairly short trips that did not allow for the extra drive to Brookville. They kept in touch via letters until the friend could no longer write (though she tried for a time... we just could not decipher the writing!).

After a time, my wife assumed the friend must have passed....

But.... no! We rediscovered her when he was around 96.... but she was so bitter at that point. All she talked about was being lonely, everyone she had ever known had died by then, and she just felt it was very unfair that she was still alive. She wasn't very mobile, couldn't see very well (not well enough to read letters), couldn't hear well either, was snappy at every one around her, so people didn't *want* to be around her....

It was sad. I think she finally passed in 2016, about four months after her 100th birthday. We stopped in to see her in May of that year, just before she turned 100. My wife was feeling frustrated, because she didn't feel like we could get through to her. She tried a different tactic and had me sing to her. Scary as it sounds, this actually worked, and, for a few minutes at least, we clearly brought some joy to her life. It was really moving, I think. I'll never forget it.

----

So, I guess the takeaway is that sometimes living a long life isn't all it's cracked up to be. Living a full life wins, regardless of how long it lasts.

stickguy

I think the best option is to live a reasonably long time (whatever you can make it to) while being independent, active and alert. Then go peacefully in your sleep. Skip the whole getting decrepit and falling apart stage.

it's just like a car (keeping to our theme!). Old but well maintained and reliable is fine. But when the body is rusted out, it smokes and smells, the interior is trashed and all the mechanicals are failing, it's off to the knackers yard.

ab348

My next-door neighbor is a widow, age 94, who still lives by herself in the home her and her late husband bought new in 1955. He died in the late '70s. When I first moved here 2 decades ago she was in her early '70s and absolutely amazing in terms of her vitality. She would be out in her gardens whenever the weather permitted working away, would mow her own lawn, etc., and maintained a beautiful property About 10 years ago she had a stroke, bad enough that she was in hospital for a couple of weeks and then rehab for a time after, but seems to have recuperated from whatever that did. However the last number of years she has slowed down markedly and now does not do very much herself. She also had to give up driving (she had a mid-80s Dodge Lancer that she would drive mostly to the grocery store once a week until the stroke). She gets home care people in 4 times a week although she still does some of her own cooking and cleaning too. I speak to her daughter fairly regularly when she visits, who is frustrated that she is so stubborn and will not agree to move to a facility (which apparently they could well afford).

She has had a remarkable life. She in English, and a couple of years ago when I was visiting, she pulled out some scrapbooks and photo albums. During WWII her and her sister had a musical act, and performed for the troops in England. There were pictures of them performing on various stages and venues that were astounding. She was telling me about all of the proposals and propositions they got from some of the GIs at the time. She ended up falling for a Canadian soldier and that was who she married and why she is here.

PF_Flyer

stickguy said:

I think the best option is to live a reasonably long time (whatever you can make it to) while being independent, active and alert. Then go peacefully in your sleep. Skip the whole getting decrepit and falling apart stage.

it's just like a car (keeping to our theme!). Old but well maintained and reliable is fine. But when the body is rusted out, it smokes and smells, the interior is trashed and all the mechanicals are failing, it's off to the knackers yard.

I hope I don't live forever. Where would I keep all the stuff that would accumulate??

stickguy

out driving, a gen 1 Supra (the jelly bean hatchback style). Light blue. Looked pretty clean. have not seen one of those on the road in ages.