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

kyfdx · October 6

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture..

Driving down my local interstate, yesterday, big rumbling from a car going by.. Naturally, a Challenger. That seemed to awaken every yokel in the vicinity. Some dark sedan to my right started revving. Very non-descript, and until they pulled forward and ahead of me, I didn't even notice. Seemed to have an aftermarket integrated hood scoop, and four pipes out the back. And, a circular logo on the trunk that I didn't recognize.

I had to go home and look it up. Any guesses on what car would be on the road in the US, with a logo from another country that I had never seen?

stickguy · October 6

A Holden?

kyfdx · October 6

stickguy said:
A Holden?

Good one!

Yes, the logo was Holden, but I'm guessing it was a modified Chevy SS.

ab348 · October 6

kyfdx said:

stickguy said:
A Holden?

Good one!

Yes, the logo was Holden, but I'm guessing it was a modified Chevy SS.

Actually, I think the Chevy SS (along with the earlier Pontiac G8) was a modified Holden.

explorerx4 · October 6

I think retrobadging those Chevies imported for Aus is kind of a thing.

stickguy · October 6

They were both rebadge Holden sedans. And changing emblems does seem popular. And apparently there is a legal way to import and register the Holden Ute.

kyfdx · October 6

ab348 said:

kyfdx said:

stickguy said:
A Holden?

Good one!

Yes, the logo was Holden, but I'm guessing it was a modified Chevy SS.
Actually, I think the Chevy SS (along with the earlier Pontiac G8) was a modified Holden.

True, but getting an actual Holden, here, would be problematic.

explorerx4 · October 6

An imported Holden would be RHD.

kyfdx · October 6

The SS is a very pedestrian looking vehicle. If they hadn’t revved it up, so I noticed the badges, would have guessed it was an Altima. 😂😂

Michaell · October 6

kyfdx said:

ab348 said:

kyfdx said:

stickguy said:
A Holden?

Good one!

Yes, the logo was Holden, but I'm guessing it was a modified Chevy SS.
Actually, I think the Chevy SS (along with the earlier Pontiac G8) was a modified Holden.
True, but getting an actual Holden, here, would be problematic.

I saw a pretty recent Holden Ute at a local Cars & Coffee, a few years ago. Not sure what hoops the owner had to go through to bring it here, since it wasn't more than 25 years old.

stickguy · October 6

One of the YouTube people I follow recently did a segment on a Holden Ute with someone in the US that has a bunch of them. That’s where they explained the loophole. IIRC (a big if these days with scrambled brains) they were somehow federalized because of the GM models (just never imported) so they were able to ring the
In. It was weird but legit.

uplanderguy · October 6

I’m sure known here but not mentioned—a number of police forces, including where I live now, used those Holdens which were badged as “Caprice”.

benjaminh · October 6

When I was a young kid there were two friends of my family who drove Porsche 911s, and I got to ride around several times with them. I could tell they loved their cars. Even going the speed limit was fun in those 911s and felt pretty raw. I can still kinda hear in my mind the sounds those engines and manual shifts made more than half a century ago. Seeing this car at the Euro get together brought back some good memories.

tjc78 · October 6

Had to post this for Andre

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTMkVwkKk/

explorerx4 · October 6

The view from the driver's seat in those old 911's is great.
The two fender humps really keep you focused forward.

gsemike · October 7

@uplanderguy said:
I’m sure known here but not mentioned—a number of police forces, including where I live now, used those Holdens which were badged as “Caprice”.

Yes, those are making them into civilian hands en masse and are common candidates to Holden conversions

fintail · October 7

I saw the clean burgundy 90-91 Taurus I usually see street parked out on the road today, so it's being drive, even had a dog in it. It's in nice enough condition where it isn't that way by coincidence, someone is caring for it.

uplanderguy · October 8

I find it mildly amusing that apparently there's much cachet to the brand Holden. What I mostly think about with them is that GTO they did. Great car, as exciting to look at as a Cavalier.

I do get, of course, that Holden is the actual designer and manufacturer, so there's that.

I enjoyed seeing those cars with bowties and especially "CAPRICE" nameplates, LOL.

fintail · October 8

How about an Opel-badged Catera? This lived down the street from my prior residence, gave me a chuckle:

texases · October 8

Opel + vinyl roof...odd combo.

sda · October 9

Without the vinyl top and multiple Cadillac crests, they may have pulled it off, but no.

thebean · October 9

Submitted without comment. 🙄

texases · October 9

They wish....

fintail · October 9

I think this is at least a minor thing:

explorerx4 · October 9

Maybe because of the Elon backlash?

fintail · October 9

explorerx4 said:
Maybe because of the Elon backlash?

100%. Especially when dementedguy was mouthing off and saluting more he incited some crappy people to vandalize cars - I think some Tesla owners didn't want to risk it or appear to be supporting the nutter.

ab348 · October 9

Took me a while to figure it out. I thought it had become a thing to obscure your license plate.

gsemike · October 9

The last of the Mercury Colony Parks

thebean · October 9

Really surprised both hidden headlights are down and not winking.

stickguy · October 9

what a barge. must be fun to try and back out from a tight spot.

tjc78 · October 9

That’s before the Panther Colony Parks. They ran until 1991

tjc78 · October 9

kyfdx · October 9

thebean said:
Really surprised both hidden headlights are down and not winking.

On my mother’s ‘76, those were vacuum, not electric

tjc78 · October 10

@kyfdx said:
On my mother’s ‘76, those were vacuum, not electric

Yep, my 79 Continental as well. They wouldn’t stay closed for more than an hour or two after the engine was off.

gsemike · October 10

@tjc78 said:
That’s before the Panther Colony Parks. They ran until 1991

I stand corrected. I had thought they dropped the woodgrain abd name for the Panthers.

gsemike · October 10

@stickguy said:
what a barge. must be fun to try and back out from a tight spot.

I stopped and took a look. It really is large. Backseat was folded down. Probably an 8 foot bed. The hood was like a dining room table. A good yard of overhang behind the back axle.

Different time

Was mostly in good shape. Little rust down in the corners. Front seat was not ripped.

ab348 · October 10

Roughly the same size as today's Peterbilt pickups, just not as tall. That one is no newer than 1978. Despite the size, those things were surprisingly popular. There was a 2-door model that is quite strange-looking to today's eyes.

The hidden headlight doors were vacuum operated and will stay closed unless there is a vacuum leak, which over time there inevitably is. They are spring-loaded as a safety feature to default to open, and the vacuum holds them closed.

fintail · October 10

The two door is a beloved movie car too:

tjc78 · 4:58AM

@fintail said:
The two door is a beloved movie car too:

Take this quarter, go downtown, and have a rat gnaw that thing off your face!

tjc78 · 5:00AM

@gsemike said:

@tjc78 said:
That’s before the Panther Colony Parks. They ran until 1991

I stand corrected. I had thought they dropped the woodgrain abd name for the Panthers.

I don’t think you could get Mercury version without woodgrain but the Ford version (country squire) you could.

uplanderguy · 7:46AM

Catera--styling never did a single thing for me.

At the Chevy dealer I used to frequent (didn't make it past the 2009 stuff), they added Cadillac when the dealer across the street retired. I remember saying to my service writer, who was a double of Barack Obama but with glasses, "There's a Catera--'the Caddy that zigs'", he replied disdainfully, "Yeah, they zig all right", LOL.

fintail · 8:00AM

uplanderguy said:
Catera--styling never did a single thing for me.

At the Chevy dealer I used to frequent (didn't make it past the 2009 stuff), they added Cadillac when the dealer across the street retired. I remember saying to my service writer, who was a double of Barack Obama but with glasses, "There's a Catera--'the Caddy that zigs'", he replied disdainfully, "Yeah, they zig all right", LOL.

It must be something specific to the USDM powertrain - that generation of Opel Omega did not have an unreliable rep in Europe (where no doubt most were diesel or 4 cyl).

benjaminh · 8:02AM

I had a dream last night that an elderly gentleman sold me his 1960 Thunderbird at a low price. I was wondering what I was going to do with a car like this, but it was fun to drive in a slow way lol.

uplanderguy · 8:07AM

I used to like those cars, but they look a little cartoonish to me now. I did see one at Hershey in the past two days.

uplanderguy · 8:14AM

Just got back from two days at the enormous Hershey AACA Fall meet. I've been going on-and-off for forty years, but the wife never went. She's retired now, so she went and enjoyed it (so she says!). I'm not looking for parts or memorabilia anymore, so Thursday afternoon we looked at cars for sale in the 'Car Corral', and Friday we did the astonishing car show. I think next year I might try and bring a chair to sit on, getting there as soon as they open the show to cars, and just watch all the cars drive in. You have to drive your car onto the show field; no trailering. So you get a two-hour-plus parade of cars from 1900-2000, with some owners dressed up in the era. To see and hear a Stanley Steamer in operation is astonishing!

My friend's brother bought a nice light blue with white half-top, '83 Cordoba, low mileage (can't recall what), for $4K, good deal IMHO. Same seller was selling a light blue metallic '64 Gran Turismo Hawk with white vinyl half-top, in bee-youtiful shape, for $34.5k. I remember the car from last year. My friend and his brother were lobbying with the seller to knock the price down on my behalf, since I made the mistake of telling them that was my favorite year and model Studebaker. My wife said "If you want it, get it". But I reminded her that we got rid of our last Stude because no one near me would work on it.

Wife's favorite cars in the show were the Kaiser Darrins I'll post pics of below. I like those cars too.

I loved a gold '64 Avanti I had seen the previous year. Also, a goldish '65 Impala Sport Coupe still owned by the original purchaser. I'd seen it last year as well. Wife also liked seeing a '54 Corvette, which she'd not seen before and liked that it was the same color combo as our C8.

Didn't link up with andre; our time schedules were off. But the weather was beautiful.

We drove out across the PA Turnpike, but decided to take the overland route home, up 322 past State College and subsequently got on I-80. We stopped to eat at Clarion, where I'd gone to college. I was stunned to hear that enrollment this year is only 1,578. I seem to remember hearing 5K when I went there--graduating 45 years ago.

uplanderguy · 8:45AM

uplanderguy · 8:47AM

I always say I'm not a fan of very big cars, but something about '60's and '70's Fleetwoods always impress me. Look at the gorgeous seating, and sheer expanse outside, of this '70 Fleetwood Brougham:

In the unrestored class, someone was either being a jerk (was he angry at judging of another car one year? Does he think this is funny? Is he poking his thumb in the eye of other people with cars there?). An early Lumina sedan. It was dirty inside, too. Why bother? I know, I know, his car, his judging dollars.

uplanderguy · 8:54AM

Probably the other car in the show that wowed me the most, was one that would not normally wow me, but this condition was so extraordinary and it was bone-stock, which checks my boxes. Bright red '62 Impala SS hardtop with 409, correct wheelcovers, tire size, and whitewall size. Just stunning. It reminded me how much nicer IMHO, the '62 styling is than '63 or '64. No pics.

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

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