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

Mr_Shiftright · March 2019

Back when Cadillac was still a very respectable car. These are soooooo much better than the clumsy Eldorados of 1975-76

berri · March 2019

Didn't remember the back fender end being so upright, but they were a nice land yacht (notice I didn't use the term "barge" because I like those Freeway cruisers).

ab348 · March 2019

berri said:
Didn't remember the back fender end being so upright, but they were a nice land yacht (notice I didn't use the term "barge" because I like those Freeway cruisers).

There's a bit of an optical illusion in that pic. These have a really good rear end design:

berri · March 2019

Agree. I think my favorite 60's Cadillac was the 62. I actually didn't mind the a bit trim looking 63/64 either, but a lot of Cadillac customers weren't so nuts of them as I recall at least.

ab348 · March 2019

I read an article where Chuck Jordan, the highly regarded GM designer who rose to be head of GM Design in the ‘90s and who helped design early ‘60s Cadillacs, said his favourite was the ‘63. He thought the ‘61/‘62 were not “Cadillac” enough, looking too close to Chevrolet designs. He thought they went too far with the ‘59 /‘60, but felt the ‘63/‘64 combined the best of the previous 2 generations.

One other interesting note from Jordan was that the ‘63 Caddy Coupe de Ville 2-door hardtop used the Chevy Impala 4-door hardtop roof and C pillar stamping.

I don’t like the ‘63/‘64 as much as the’61/‘62.

omarman · March 2019

He thought the ‘61/‘62 were not “Cadillac” enough, looking too close to Chevrolet designs.

Wow. I had to read that one twice. I never thought those 2 cars looked too much alike. Although I really liked the '62 Impala which a friend of mine used to drive in HS.

And a next door neighbor was an elderly woman who's last new car was a '62 Cadillac Deville. When it was 10 y/o she debated whether to get a new one or have the '62 repainted. She was so attached to it that she decided to give it a high quality repaint and was very happy that she kept it.

The General was really putting a lot of attractively styled cars out on the street back then. Across the board. Maybe as a designer you can get distracted or bothered by details or production issues that leave a lingering negative impression.

ab348 · March 2019

This thing is about as desirable as a case of shingles, but being in South Carolina all its life must have saved it from being one of the epidemic 1973/74 "Rusty Fords" that caused them to dissolve within a couple of years up here in the salt belt:

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1973-ford-ltd/

But the most interesting thing about it is mention of a dealer-installed "Sport Package" (ha!) that consisted of opera windows, trunklid and grille (since removed) from a Lincoln Continental!! Who knew?

stickguy · March 2019

Oh my eyes...

kyfdx · March 2019

Took the back roads home from Lexington, yesterday.

Spotted one of these, for sale, by the side of the road. Looked like it just rolled off the showroom floor.

Michaell · March 2019

kyfdx said:
Took the back roads home from Lexington, yesterday.

Spotted one of these, for sale, by the side of the road. Looked like it just rolled off the showroom floor.

I loved getting those as a rental - even snagged a couple of two door versions occasionally.

Mr_Shiftright · March 2019

stickguy said:
Oh my eyes...

I am.....well....speechless on this one. The Full Elvis.

kyfdx · March 2019

stickguy said:
Oh my eyes...

Why didn't they just buy a Mark IV? It would have been less money.

ab348 · March 2019

What really gets me is the name of "Sport Package". Why not call it Luxury Package or Prestige Package or even Continental Package? But "Sport"???

Mr_Shiftright · March 2019

Sport is to Ford LTD as military music is to music.

andre1969 · March 2019

berri said:
Agree. I think my favorite 60's Cadillac was the 62. I actually didn't mind the a bit trim looking 63/64 either, but a lot of Cadillac customers weren't so nuts of them as I recall at least.

The '61 and especially the '62 are my favorite Caddies of the 60's. Like AB348 said though, I could see some people thinking of them as not "Cadillac" enough. Honestly, to me they bear a resemblance to a 1961 Ford!

Cadillac was probably responding somewhat to Lincoln, which went with much more trim dimensions and a cleaner body for '61...even if the cars weren't particularly lightweight. The '61-62 Caddy did seem a bit more sensible in size, compared to the '59-60. Most GM cars did, actually. I heard it actually hurt the '61 Olds Ninety-Eight a bit, because buyers wanted a car in that class to look a bit more substantial.

The '61-62 Caddy seems a bit sporty to me, or at least as sporty as you can call something that size. The '63-64 seems a bit more conservative. Even a bit stuffy. But, still tasteful. The '65-66 was nice, but I think I like the '67-68 a bit better, with the way the front-end has a bit of a forward thrust to it.

explorerx4 · March 2019

That Ford is an awful color among many things.
Went I walked out the door at work to take a walk, I saw 3 Freestyle's within about 100 yards.

ab348 · March 2019

explorerx4 said:
That Ford is an awful color among many things.

What I find remarkable is that the Continental trunklid was a bolt-on. I wonder if any work was needed to make it fit?

berri · March 2019

kyfdx - I like that Cutlass. maybe a bit of a throwback reflection on the 59/60 Flattops.

As far back as I remember Ford could sometimes come out with some "what were they thinking" colors. I was never a fan of those 73 and out generation big Ford's, but I think they sold pretty well.

As for the Cadillac, I think in general they reflected the excellent Mitchell styling on GM's 1960's decade vehicles.

fintail · March 2019

The hotel I am staying at uses a parking garage shared with some other buildings. Some oddballs hiding out down there - a couple of very clean R107 SLs, a lovely C126 Euro, an Audi Coupe GT, E38 with sport package, immaculate looking Cutlass Ciera. On the road here in Vancouver, quite a few JDM things a expected, also saw a parked 427 badged Stingray and an old Euro G Wagen.

andre1969 · March 2019

Here's a pic that's anything but obscure...the other day in traffic I was stuck behind a clone of my car, right down to the color, and its lack of hubcaps!

I wonder if this is a testament to how good the W-body might have actually been, in retrospect? At least, the Buick version? Now, I know they made a good number of them over the years, so there's not exactly a shortage of them. But, at the same time, I hardly ever see an Intrepid/Concorde/300M of that era. Or a Taurus/Sable, for that matter. Truth be told, it's getting to the point I really don't see a glut of Accords, Camrys, or Altimas from that era either, especially when you think of the volume those cars were sold in?

Part of it could also be, I guess, that Buicks tended to be purchased by older buyers who weren't as rough on them. However, a lot of them also ended up in rental fleets, and then sold as used cars, and probably not really all that pampered.

stickguy · March 2019

What is that, about a 1995? 2000?

andre1969 · March 2019

stickguy said:
What is that, about a 1995? 2000?

That generation of Century/Regal ran from 1997 to 2004, and then GM killed two 'possums with one rock when it came out with the 2005 LaCrosse. Although, I heard there was a limited run of special edition 2005 models.

They changed them so little over the years, that I don't know what details to look for, to spot the model year differences.

ab348 · March 2019

My neighbors across the street had an early 2000s Century until sometime last year. It was their primary car and didn't sit in the driveway very much. Even when it was sold it still looked respectable and seemed to run fine. I think the Buick versions did tend generally to be used a bit more gently than the other W-body brands but maybe GM didn't penny-pinch them quite as much in the manufacturing side. You bring up an interesting point because I still see the occasional Century here but almost never any early 2000s Impalas, GPs or Intrigues.

andre1969 · March 2019

I think I read somewhere that the Century/Regal, and Impala, were built in Canada, in a more modern assembly plant, whereas the Grand Prix and Intrigue were built in Kansas? Or Kansas City? Anyway, supposedly that factory was outdated and in disrepair, and that led to them being of a lower quality.

But, demographics probably played a role, as well. The Grand Prix was a bit more popular with the wanna-be Speed Racer set, and probably abused a bit more. I think a lot of Impalas made it into rental fleets as well. Plus, a lot of Impalas, maybe Grand Prixes as well, used the 3.4 V-6, and I believe it was a bit troublesome, at least compared to the Buick 3.8. Although, the Century relied solely on the 3.1, which was related to the 3.4. My guess is with the Intrigue, it was lower production, plus expense issues when that 3.5 shortstar finally gave issues, that made them relatively scarce.

berri · March 2019

I had a few of those Century's as rentals. Decent car except the seats were too soft for me. I prefer a bit more support.

Mr_Shiftright · March 2019

It's so ironic. In China the average age of the Buick buyer is about 1/2 what it is here.

tjc78 · March 2019

They love their Buicks over there

Mr_Shiftright · March 2019

And I'm sure Buick loves China in return. The history of Buick in China goes way back, and some of the most famous Chinese leaders had associations with the car. Buick is firmly implanted, it seems, in the culture of modern China. It's like saying "Corvette" or "Harley" here in the USA. The brand is aspirational.

ab348 · March 2019

Going back a week or so to when I posted my family's car history as I was growing up, I found a couple more early pieces of the puzzle today in another set of photos.

This is the only pic I've been able to find so far of our '71 Dodge Monaco, my favorite of all of Dads cars when I was growing up:

Story on that pic: we bought the place where that was taken in 1967. Four years later in 1971 I was rooting around in that garage you see, and up on a shelf in the very back of the place was a box. In the box was what appeared to be a new Kodak Brownie box camera, probably from the 1950s. I bought a roll of the film it used to try it out, and being a 14 year old kid with not much walking around money I bought a roll of B&W film with just 12 exposures. I used all of them taking pics of the Dodge that day. This pic is one of those 12. Hope I find the others. The car was Tawny Gold Metallic, code Y9, with a matching vinyl roof and a gold cloth and vinyl interior.

Dad found that Monaco too big for driving around town in his real estate business so in '72 he traded it on this, a '68 Volvo 144. Seemed a big step down to me but he loved that Volvo. I was never a fan of the butterscotch color you see here. After a rogue shipping container fell off a trailer and bounced off the Volvo's roof, he had it painted the 1972 Volvo yellow during the repairs:

The green Volvo 122 in the background was my brother's car for a couple of years. I really liked it but he didn't keep it long, not sure why.

stickguy · March 2019

looks like out 1969 144, but that was the lighter blue color that it seems 1/2 the cars sold by Volvo back then sported.

berri · March 2019

I like the dog and cat, was the latter giving Fido a rough time

explorerx4 · March 2019

Well, those Volvo roofs were supposed to be tough.

fintail · March 2019

Some 122s were Canadian-built, right? Was that one?

A couple spots from my trip, first the C126 slumbering in a parking garage, nice old car with an indicated 80K kms on the clock:

Every year at the Vancouver Auto Show, there are vintage cars on display inside, along with some outside, usually related to a club. Inside was the typical stuff, maybe most unusual was a 73 NYer. Outside was this thing which I could relate to as it is very similar to the car my mom drove when I was a little kid. The owner was very friendly and talked about the car - he got it from the 2nd owner, full history, all original finishes, 80K on it. I looked it over closely, and remembered little details from when I was a kid, like the stitching on the seats, and the rocker cruise conrol switches on the steering wheel spokes. The owner is in a lowrider group (see the wheels), and says he wants to keep it "mostly" original, but wants a dark red top to match the dash:

ab348 · March 2019

fintail said:
Some 122s were Canadian-built, right? Was that one?

I don’t recall for sure, but most likely. The plant was right here, on the waterfront. They would unload the knocked-down kits from Sweden and they would go right into the assembly plant.

An interesting side note about a quantity of Volvos on the bottom of Halifax Harbour:

https://jalopnik.com/there-are-still-at-least-24-volvos-submerged-in-a-canad-1649377938

ab348 · March 2019

berri said:
I like the dog and cat, was the latter giving Fido a rough time

Funny thing about that. The dog was our Vizsla, named Bourbon, just a wonderful doggo. Could run and play fetch all day long. I even used to hit golf balls from about that spot pictured down to the lake and she would go into the water and retrieve them, just amazing.

As you may have gathered from my posts in the past, I am a cat person. Not surprising since in going thru these pictures from an early age, there were always cats in our house growing up and until now I've had cats here myself for almost 20 years. The cats we had in our family as I was growing up I remember well. But I have zero memory of the little gray and white cat shown here. I don't think any of our extended family ever brought their cat to visit that place either. I'm at a loss to explain this one.

texases · March 2019

1980-ish Jaguar XJ6 series III, kind of a beater, some rust, duct taped seats. At least the red duct tape matched the red leather.

Mr_Shiftright · March 2019

Now there's a car you want to run away from screaming.

texases · March 2019

Other thing that surprised me-it was smaller than I thought. It was parked next to a 2010 Malibu, about the same length (a little longer) but lower.

Mr_Shiftright · March 2019

It's a very pretty thing--you know, like a poisonous flower.

tjc78 · March 2019

88ish Park Avenue. Thing was mint. Whitewalls brite, wire wheel hubcaps shining.... burgundy over beige with a beige cloth roof.

Probably the original owner... pulling into Olive Garden around 4:30

kyfdx · March 2019

https://images.app.goo.gl/N4Dngwt5LNbhtb3N8

Spotted one of these tonight. Had to Google it, to be sure what it was.

kyfdx · March 2019

sda · March 2019

kyfdx said:
https://images.app.goo.gl/N4Dngwt5LNbhtb3N8

Spotted one of these tonight. Had to Google it, to be sure what it was.

Google indeed

Mr_Shiftright · March 2019

Huh. Still using the Duratech engine. They certainly put up some impressive numbers on the track. #12 on Top Gear's fastest lap times, and only 3.4 seconds off the leader.

https://www.topgear.com/show/lap-times

kyfdx · March 2019

It’s a tiny car. Doesn’t sound that great for a turbo six. But, you won’t see another one coming the other way.

andre1969 · March 2019

texases said:
Other thing that surprised me-it was smaller than I thought. It was parked next to a 2010 Malibu, about the same length (a little longer) but lower.

The XJ6 has what I call "big car" proportions, even though it's really not a huge car. According to the specs I found, it's about 198" long, on a 113" wheelbase, and around 71" wide. It had a long hood, fairly close-coupled passenger cabin, and a long trunk. And, being low-slung, that made it look even longer.

But then, that illusion of big-ness gets shattered, once you see it parked next to something else, for reference. I also tend to notice the opposite effect, with a lot of modern cars. They look small to me, because they have short hoods and decklids, and large passenger cabins. They basically have the proportions of a small car from the old days. But then, once you see them near other vehicles, and get a true feel for their size, you realize they're not so small, after all.

Mr_Shiftright · March 2019

kyfdx said:
It’s a tiny car. Doesn’t sound that great for a turbo six. But, you won’t see another one coming the other way.

Well, there's that. The website is very odd. They make it difficult to learn anything about the car. It's all marketing.

kyfdx · March 2019

Mr_Shiftright said:

kyfdx said:
It’s a tiny car. Doesn’t sound that great for a turbo six. But, you won’t see another one coming the other way.
Well, there's that. The website is very odd. They make it difficult to learn anything about the car. It's all marketing.

They bought the rights to the first Noble M400. That's what the car really is.

I think they also bought Mosler, but not positive about that.

Mr_Shiftright · March 2019

You like to revel in the American style called Wretched Excess? Well now you can roll in it right here:

https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2019/03/25/hemmings-find-of-the-day-1963-imperial-lebaron/?refer=news

texases · March 2019

I never thought of those separate headlights on those Imperials as 'futuristic'. More like 'retro'.

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

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