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Most new car model names suck. There— we said it. We once lived in a world of cars named for exotic locales and badass living creatures. These days we're lost in a sea of letters, numbers and words that require a dictionary or an marketing degree to make sense of to identify new cars. More »
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It's well known the original Corvette based Chevrolet Nomad was destroyed sometime after it was featured in the 1954 GM Motorama. Since you can't own the original this masterfully crafted replica is about as close as you can get to owning the real thing. This replica took the car's owner and creator over 7 years and almost $400,000 to build and now the amazing result is listed for sale on Ebay. More »
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If you are anything like me, the first thing that comes to mind when you hear "long term parking" is one of the best Sopranos episodes ever made. It turns out it is also the perfect title for this beautiful picture of a 1954 Mercury Monterey. While the title and photo are the work of Flickr user haydnseek, this Mercury also deserves a little credit for its contribution to this picture. The old four door appears, at least from this angle, to be holding up pretty well after years spent sitting. More »
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Let's say you could go back to the early 1950s and snag a super-futuristic prototype automobile as your 2009 daily driver. Which side of the Iron Curtain would you choose? More »
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Brawn GP's inaugural 1–2 victory in Melbourne was no stranger to their engine supplier Mercedes-Benz: it was exactly the same fashion as how they debuted in Formula One in 1954 with their epic W196. More »
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Dculberson was checking out the car deals on Craigslist when he came across a 1954 Ford that looked familiar… yes, it's the DOTS 1954 Ford we saw almost a year ago, now equipped with grille and Carson top, not to mention a nice 302/5-speed combo. I've always liked this car, but the $9,000 price is a bit out of my personal Hell Project budget range, plus I'm still waiting for the owner to put his other car (which is easily one of my all-time DOTS favorites) up for sale. By the way, I've been seeing FOR SALE signs on the DOTS '71 Buick Le Sabre as well; looks like the tough economy has folks in Sell Mode. [Craigslist SF] More »
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Some of our more observant readers noted the presence of a beautiful Mercedes-Benz 300SL in the background of some of the shots of the '66 Ferrari 275GTB taken by Vintage Racer. You wanted to see more of this car, and we don't blame you! Make the jump to see all the photos, and if you're in the Seattle area and want to check out more cars like this on Friday, get on down to Pacific Raceways for the Fourth of July Historics; go here for the details. More »
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The Austin-Healey 100 is a true British sports car, all right, but there's something missing. What could it be? Yes, of course- a Vortec-supercharged 5.3 liter Jaguar V12, which is what Canadian lunatic Martin Jansen has installed in this '54. We don't get any horsepower figures for the engine (which seems odd, considering the engine builder goes by the moniker of "Dyno Dave"), but it's a safe assumption that it's much, much, much more than the 90 horsepower of the original A-H four-cylinder. The build quality here is just staggeringly good and the whole setup somehow fits neatly under the hood. We have no choice but to give this engine swap an extra heavy-duty Jalopnik Stamp-O-Approval™! [BritishV8.org] More »
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Much of the old Detroit iron in the eastern half of the continent has oxidized into nothingness by now, but that doesn't mean it's all gone. Virginia-based Jagvar has been kind enough to shoot some quality photos of a very clean '54 Chrysler that parks in his neighborhood. The Windsor was the least expensive Chrysler for '54, and it came with a 265-cubic-inch flathead six engine. Make the jump to read Jagvar's description. More »
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The Gawker Overlords have so far refused to buy us an Official Jalopnik Vehicle, no matter how much we've tried to convince them that something like a Citröen SM or Tatra 603 would give us such unassailable credibility that our competitors would simply fold their tents and go home. Now we've found what may be the perfect car for the NorCal Jalopnik office (which, conveniently enough, has just one employee): More »
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It would appear that sheer number of doors trumps all other factors when it comes time to pick an airport limo for your next punitive project car, as evidenced by the results of yesterday's Choose Your Eternity poll. And I've got to admit that I almost didn't include the Hexador Suburban... because I was calculating how hard it would be to go up to Boise and get it for myself (still bummed that I didn't buy the 20R-powered Sprite in the first PCH). And today we have another car that presented such a dilemma... but then I came to my senses and remembered that I'm holding out for a Warsaw Pact hot rod project: Zaporozhets with Tatra drivetrain. More »
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Since it seems that just about every '55-57 Chevy coupe ever made is still on the road (well, if you can call cruise nights and car shows "the road," that is), we tend to forget that The General sold plenty of Chevrolet coupes during the years immediately prior to the Small-Block Era. They were lookers, too- even after 53 years, this unrestored '54 really ads some style to its West End neighborhood. More »
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We've seen 11 Alameda vehicles from the 1950s in this series, but not a single one of them was a Ford product. Well, that changes today! I spotted this heavily customized Ford when I was lured down an East End side street by a quick glimpse of a late-60s Dart, spotting this '54 in all its lowered orangitude just across from the Mopar (don't worry, Dart fans, you'll see that '69 pretty soon). There's no telling which model this car is, what with the utter absence of any sort of trim, but I'm hoping it's a Mainline. Damn, that's a great car name- bring back the Mainline, Ford! More »
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We finally had a Mystery Car contest that lasted more than a few hours, with pauln correctly identifying the car as a 1954 Fiat 8V coupe. As promised, here are the photos of the whole car. See, it's actually in pretty good shape, despite the somewhat battered hood scoop. More »
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The $495 Mercedes 230S won yesterday's Project Car Hell poll, beating the VW Type 3 by a decisive margin. It has come to our attention that some of you are confused about exactly what it is we're voting on in the Project Car Hell series- is it the car you'd most want as a project, or the one you most fear? Well, the answer is: yes! Vote for the project you'd have to be a total idiot to take on, but that would also be the most fun when finished. If you could ever finish it, that is... More »
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El Monte, 1954. Mickey Thompson poses in front of the '54 Ford he would drive in his second Carrera Panamericana race. Thompson's Panamericana car from the previous year, a '53 with a 6-banger, was destroyed in an apocalyptic crash in Tehuantepec that killed five race fans. The '54 was equipped with Ford's new OHV V8 (yet wasn't any faster than the six in spite of being thoroughly M/T-ized) and did pretty well up to the point at which a tie rod end failed and sent the car into a stone wall. This photo is pure SoCal Hot Rodding Golden Age, and you'll find plenty more like it at the Thompson Motorsports site. – Murilee Martin More »
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Southern Motor Company, located in South Carolina (and here we were thinking they meant South Dakota), is trying to bring SexyBack (yeah!) to the pickup truck market with its new Southern 358, a retro body modeled after a classic 1954 Chevy truck and powered by a Ford Mustang 5.4-liter 330-horsepower V8. The truck's gonna be featured on the cover of December's Classic Trucks magazine, which is strange because it's a completely new vehicle — equipped with driver and passenger airbags and SRS, complies with federal crash and emissions standards and even come backed by a three-year, 36,000-mile new-vehicle limited warranty — just like the big boys do. The company's taking pre-orders now at a cost of $55,000 — get 'em while they're hot, and maybe we'll be hearing Chevy say "Hey, maybe they're on to something there, 'cause it's sure got a pretty mouth." – Ray Wert More »
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