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Meet Mertin Grundy, formerly known for having a weird name and being small change at the bank where he was employed. That all changed when Mertin made the questionable decision to purchase a custom van. Now Mertin has a customized 1975 Ford Econoline featuring plenty of space to do his own thing with his special friends. More »
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To show the acceleration and braking abilities of their 1975 Spitfire, Triumph decided to put the car in a scenario they thought potential customers could relate to—screeching to a halt at the sight of an attractive female and then quickly accelerating away from said female's disgruntled boyfriend. More »
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Welcome to Found Off The Street, our look at cars found on the cape that rust liked so much it decided to summer there; Cape Cod, MA. Today we have a 1975 Ford Torino wagon. More »
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Welcome to Down On The Street, where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the City That Rust Sorta Ignored: Denver, Colorado. Yes, this car is a daily driver. More »
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Swiveling bucket seats in a '75 Cutlass— well, you can't argue with the soundness of that concept, no sir. But when you add reversible vinyl/cloth seat inserts? More »
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It's big, it boasts a body designed by the Italian design house responsible for the Maserati 5000 GT and Alpine A106, and it packed Buick V8 power under its vast hood. And, uh, mumble mumble Lucas Electrics mumble mumble. More »
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Welcome to Down On The Street, where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. We're up to DOTS Vehicle Number 557, and finally it's a Cherokee! More »
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The Illegal Soapbox Derby in San Francisco was fun, but what if the city had actually sponsored the cars? Well, that's just what happened 35 years ago! More »
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This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition, where we check out interesting street-parked cars located in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot. Look what lives near the W108 and the Land Rover Station Wagon! More »
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Scroggs just keeps finding us the great vintage racing videos! How about the final race in Can Am's first season, followed by the Hardie-Ferodo 1000 at Bathurst? More »
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Welcome to Project Car Hell, where you choose your eternity by selecting the project that's the coolest... and the most hellish! You don't need to be a millionaire to own a classic Italian machine. A thousandaire has enough cash! More »
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Welcome to Down On The Street, where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Here's a sight you won't see often: a survivor Datsun 710! More »
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We were a bit shorthanded at LeMons HQ at Carolina Motorsports Park last weekend, so I wasn't able to do the usual Index Of Effluency winner post. Check out the Rusty Bolt Racing E12! More »
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Hood Scoop Of The Week isn't just about factory scoops. We mustn't overlook the excellent aftermarket hood scoops from the Golden Age Of Fiberglass: the 1970s! More »
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Welcome to Down On The Street, where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. The street-driven MGB is nearly extinct these days. More »
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Black Metal V8olvo crew chief and mastermind Hellhammer likes stuffing V8s into cars that never came that way from the factory, and now he's learned a few things about Volvos. Let's get another one! More »
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Now that the '75 New Yorker is quite the collector's car, with original examples changing hands for upwards of several dozen dollars, we can understand why Jack Jones was so appreciative of the deep-tufted velour interior and 230-horse 440 under the hood. But that sticker price of $6,611 was more than a grand more than the Cordoba's- talk about car buying dilemmas! And check out the bit right before the ad- Game 7 of the 1975 World Series! More »
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OK, so the Nova would stick out the back if you tried to stuff one inside a Pacer's shell (though the Pinto and Vega might fit). The point here is that the Pacer was completely crazy- no, wait, we mean incredibly innovative! Tough as it might be to believe today, the Pacer sold pretty well and was once a common sight on the road. More »
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Welcome to Down On The Street, where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. BMW 2002s aren't hard to find on the island, and we've seen this '72, this '73, and this '75 so far. I've built up a mini-stockpile of 2002 shots, so let's check out another '75 Bavario-Alamedan today.
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Remember that 3-Series BMW with a V12 swap? We liked that car quite a bit, but now we've found one of the cleanest engine-swapped BMWs yet, and for some incomprehensible reason nobody wanted to buy it for $24,000! It's got a Chevy small-block stroked to 427 cubes and equipped with all manner of hop-up madness (including a carburetor, which is why this car isn't a 570i), a Tremec 5-speed, and a Jaguar/Porsche/BMW rear suspension with outboard brakes. Thanks to rjones for the tip! [eBay, via Bring A Trailer] More »
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With just one Malaise Nova up until now in this series, it's time to set our thermostats at 66 in winter/78 in summer, lower our expectations of future prosperity, and travel back to the Bicentennial Era... when presidents got impeached, wars got lost, and the base V8 in a new Chevy Nova was a 155-horse 350. Actually, the Nova of this era wasn't a bad car; it was cheap and every component was made by the lowest possible bidder, but it was honestly cheap. More »
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After finding a pair of '77 Celicas parked on the streets of Alameda (this one and this one), I had a first-gen Celica drought that lasted the better part of a year. Had all the rest been crushed? Then I started catching glimpses of this red '75 around town, and I knew it was just a matter of time before I found it parked somewhere. More »
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The low-miles AMC beat the NASA-built Fairmont in the Electrocutioner Edition Choose Your Eternity poll, though the Fairmont did make a respectable showing. Today we're jumping back into a pool of flaming gasoline, because there's no telling how much longer the smell of incompletely burned hydrocarbons will hover around our garages. After seeing a Datsun 610 in the junkyard and then the '78 Toyota brochures over at Japanese Nostalgic Car (thanks, SOS10), we decided to find a couple of Japanese cars built before they'd discovered focus groups (and airtight quality control) over there. More »
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The Mercury Cougar has been reinvented many times, but we've only seen a couple of incarnations in this series. We've seen the lean and mean '68 Cougar and the Bloated Final Year Of The Rebadged Mustang Cougar, but what about the Farrah Fawcett-Approved Cougar? I found this appealingly rough '75 parked across the street from the '82 280ZX Turbo and quite close to one of Alameda's non-Buick Skyhawks. More »
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If there's one wacky automotive fad we missed but wish we hadn't, it'd have to be the vannin' movement. That wacky, proto-dekotora trend fueled by polyester and facial hair just speaks to our better sensibilities. So when we saw this groovy 1975 Dodge Tradesman 200 for sale on eBay, the urge to grow a handlebar 'stache and pick up the latest from REO Speedwagon was nearly overwhelming. This baby has got it all, sun roofs, a fridge, mirrored ceiling over a convertible bed, shag carpet, a CB radio, impossibly bitchin' paint job and matching side pipes. Go check it out over at eBay. (Thanks for the tip Dave) More »
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The '65 Barracuda won our Favorite DOTS Chrysler A-Body Poll back in March, but since that time I've found this '75 Dart Swinger. Would the Swinger, with its name conjuring up images of Malaise Era key parties, have triumphed over the Barracuda? Perhaps I'll have another A-body poll, once we've seen a few more of them; until then, we can only speculate. More »
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In a stunning upset, the Borgward Hansa wagon handed Germany a one-sided victory over the Peugeot 304 in our most recent Choose Your Eternity poll. With France long reigning as the world's lone HyperGalactic PCH OmniPower, we would be remiss if we didn't give the French a shot at prying the oil-leaking, stripped-fastener-thread PCH CryptoChampion trophy from the Germans, in order to prove that the Borgward's victory wasn't just some one-shot fluke. That's why we're rolling out some Hell Project heavy artillery today, with a pair of undeniably cool- yet just as undeniably nightmarish- machines vying for long-term residency in your Garage Of Torture. More »
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Even though Alameda is home to numerous street-parked Chevy El Caminos, I've been guilty of overlooking examples of GM's truckcars so far in this series, with just this '72 so far. That's probably because I consider the 1959-60 and 1964-67 models to be the only "true" El Caminos, for reasons that don't stand up under any serious scrutiny. So, with Maximum El Camino Day as inspiration, I'm going to make sure that we see more of the island's Elcos in the future, starting today! More »
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Now, I used to think the infamous "black-bumper" MGBs of the Early Malaise Era had to most horrible incarnations of the monstrous 5MPH crash bumpers of the period. After seeing this '75 2002, however, I may have to revise my opinion. This car's bumpers are hideous! More »
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So we had our Favorite Detroit Malaise Car poll last week, from which the '78 Cadillac Eldorado emerged triumphant (the combo of a 500 cubic-inch engine and T-tops proved unbeatable). But what about Malaisemobiles from across the waters? This poll includes the rebadged imports sold by Detroit as part of their "if you can't beat 'em, put your name on 'em" strategy of the era, in addition to straight-out imports. Jump like a UH-1 leaving the roof of the US Embassy in Saigon to see the contestants!
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With the Malaisetastic '80 Plymouth Fire Arrow that we saw yesterday on my mind, I got to thinking about the meaning of the Malaise Era, specifically about the American-built vehicles sold during that period. Not captive imports like the Fire Arrow or quasi-domestics like the Capri, but real Detroit (or Kenosha) machinery. And, yes, I know that Jimmy Carter never actually uttered the word "Malaise" in his so-called Crisis of Confidence speech in 1979; what started as a joke term for the cars of the 1973-1983 period has now hardwired itself into my brain). Then I realized that I've forgotten the quasi-tradition of having a Friday poll for the readers to vote on their favorite DOTS machine of the week, so I owe you some DOTS poll action. That means it's time to jump like the late-70s inflation rate to pick your favorite of Alameda's Malaisewagons!
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In our last What To Drive In '75 episode, we saw the 1975 Ford Maverick Grabber beat the 1975 Oleg Cassini AMC Matador in the poll. Today we're going for an all-import matchup, though it's a classic GM-versus-Ford contest as well. The Opel Manta and Ford Capri were bitter sales rivals across the Atlantic, and both had sufficient sales in North America that they were not unfamiliar on our shores. So imagine it's 1975 and you need to buy a shiny new fuel-efficient-yet-sporty machine to drive a long distance to the Led Zep show (hey, it's the Physical Graffiti tour- you need the right ride if you want to groove properly on that 3-hour version of "Kashmir" later on!) So, what's it gonna be? More »
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With the cheapskates showing a slight preference for the free Musclecar Era Impala over the free Malaise Nova in yesterday's Choose Your Eternity poll, you might think that we don't have a place for Malaise in our Hell Garages. Far from it, we're coming right back with a pair of machines from the middle of the 1970s- and not just any machines! What we've found is a pair of prestigious cars that have been treated to some tasteful customizing touches, applied by the hands of artists who appreciate the spirit of the Malaise Era. Thanks (and a PCH Tipster T-shirt) to bzr for the tip! More »
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It goes without saying- well, hell, maybe it doesn't, but that won't stop us- that, after the first installment of What To Drive In '75, we'd want to do a Choose Your Eternity matchup featuring the two selected cars. Unfortunately, we couldn't find an Oleg Cassini Matador at any price, and the cheap Grabber we found was a '74, but we've attempted to capture the spirit of the thing here. Now, the Matador won the WTDI75 poll by a pretty solid 2/3 majority, but that was make-believe... and this is Hell! More »
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Years ago in a grimy Santa Ana thrift store, I spotted it: the Edmund's Car Prices Buyer's Guide for 1975. The year that may have been the rock-bottom nadir for American car buyers since World War II (when you couldn't buy new cars at all). This yellowed paperback immediately became one of my favorite possessions- the humor value of seeing the dollar figure for every crappy tape-stripe trim option, every emissions-strangled low-po engine, and so on couldn't be beat. Soon I developed a game I'd play with my friends during drinking sessions, a game that went something like this... More »
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Once again, I must rail against the sad fact that just about all the Malaise Era Japanese cars have been crushed by now, victims of their own utilitarian reliability and perceived lack of soul. Now that most of what we see from the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere are scientifically de-soul-ified transportation appliances, we realize too late what we lost when the genuinely quirky Japanese machinery got melted down to make... Avalons. We saw a '76 Civic here not long ago, but it's been two long months since we saw a Datsun down on Alameda's streets. More »
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Some of the more observant readers noticed the old Pontiac in the background when the DOTS car was the '70 Ford LTD, a couple weeks back. Well, here's that Pontiac, a beater '75 Grand LeMans. More »
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Yes sir, JC Whitney made it easy for the low-buck dude who wanted the look of some high-buck wheels on his ride back in 1975. Just fork over $19.98 to the helpful folks in Chicago and they'd ship you this fine set of, er... well, we think technically you'd call these things hubcaps, given that they snap onto your factory rim in a hubcap-like fashion. In any case, after a few 6-packs of Colorado Kool-Ade and maybe a blow to the head with a bumper jack, a casual observer would be hard-pressed to distinguish these babies from the real deal! Sadly, JCW no longer sells this particular item, but despair not! They have some snazzy "wheel simulators" that follow the same philosophy. – Murilee Martin More »
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So you want a car with a truck bed and it's gotta be custom, but your pastor would frown if you rolled up to church blasting Venom from your new Satanamino? Hey, no sweat- there's more than one car-with-truck-bed fish in the Craigslist sea. For just 3500 Washingtons, this seller will let you drive off in his '75 Cadillac Carabou (sic) Pich (sic) Up. Yes, a DeVillamino! – Murilee Martin More »
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