We can thank Wimbles for getting these high-quality photos of a car not often found in nature these days, particularly in a town with 95% garage-equipped modern houses. Maybe there's an even nicer Minx inside the garage!

I was digging through my hard drive looking for DOTS candidates I've snapped in San Francisco and I remembered one I saw right in my own hometown of San Ramon, in the East Bay. It appears to be a 1961-63 Hillman Minx Series IIIC judging by the lack of chrome trim and the "1600" badging on the door which indicates the 1592cc OHV 4-cylinder engine. Beyond that I don't know anything about it. This car appeared in my area for about a week or two in March 2007 and I haven't seen it since.

We had our second-ever first-gen Camaro yesterday, and this Porsche- which happened to be parked less than a block away- is our second-ever 356 (after this '63 autocross veteran; this Speedster replica doesn't count, though it's still a cool car). What are the odds that both DOTS 356s would be green '63s?

Actually, I'm not 100% sure this is a '63; it's definitely a T6 Karmann-built 356B coupe, but it could be a '62 (though I'm pretty sure the engine lid badging on the Super didn't read "S" that year) or a '64-65 (but this car appears to have drum brakes, which were dumped after '63). Obviously, this is the sort of thing that must be correct, lest Porsche fanatics- who make Detroit muscle car worshipers seem like well-balanced, reasonable individuals, which is saying something- make me write "I WILL NOT ACCUSE FERDINAND PORSCHE OF RIPPING OFF HANS LEDWINKA EVER EVER AGAIN" 988 times (one for every year of the Thousand Year Reich that didn't happen) in every Porsche post I write in the future. Right. So, Porsche experts, is this really a '63?

Something that you Citroën fans might find disturbing is the fact that this car appears to have replaced the 1969 DS wagon; this Porsche lives at the same house and I haven't seen the Citroën for quite a while. Which would you prefer as your daily driver? Tough call for me, but I think I'm leaning more in the direction of the French wagon.

These two classic Ford cartrucks have been picked over pretty well, so at least we know that other Rancheros (and probably Falcons and Comets) will benefit from the resulting organ transplants.

Autocar has been around forever- since 1895, in fact- and even has the distinction of having fired James May (for inserting a secret message in an issue reading "So you think it's really good yeah you should try making the bloody thing up it's a real pain in the arse"). I'm definitely looking forward to some enjoyable reading with this haul; just a quick flip through the stack produced this sextet of PCH Gold machines, including the 1951 Hillman Minx Magnificent, the 1950 Vauxhalls, the 1962 Triumph Herald, the 1951 Singer 1000, the 1957 Daimler One-O-Four, and the 1961 Wolseley Hornet. Whoa, it's a red-letter day for Wolseley Hornet aficionados! Enjoy:

Within days of its arrival, I must have received a half-dozen phone calls and emails alerting me to the super-rare Corvair Greenbrier in my neighborhood. Naturally, I had the camera in hand and was walking the several blocks to its parking space right away. Hooray, our second DOTS Corvair, not long after the first one.

From what I can tell, the external appearance of the Greenbrier didn't change much during its 1961-65 production run; I'm guessing it's a '62, and maybe I'm right! There's some good Greenbrier info at this site.

We've got a reasonably intact '62 Bel Air sedan, a beautifully battered '63 Biscayne sedan, and a diamond-in-rough '66 Biscayne sedan (I may be off by a year on the first two, so correct as needed). All three appear to be daily drivers; I think this group goes well with the Denver Ford Grab Bag we had last year.

We'll start off with an octet from Discontinuuity, who has a knack for finding some great machinery down on the streets of the home of Coors: Golden, Colorado. Discontinuuity brought us these eight Golden vehicles plus this dignified Golden Mercedes-Benz Ponton a while back, and now we've got another round for you:

Nova Station Wagon: I've got a couple of good DOTS cars here for you. First up is a 1962 (or maybe '63) Chevrolet Nova station wagon gasser. I talked to the owner, Mike, who also owns a 1946 Austin hot rod and takes both cars out to the local Bandimere Speedway for Wednesday night drag races. The Chevy sports a 327 small block, not the stock I6, and has a killer stance in my opinion. More photos of an IH Scout coming soon.
International Harvester Scout: About a block away from the Chevy was this International Harvester Scout in fairly good condition. All I know is that it's driven by a School of Mines student and that it was probably built between 1965 and 1970.
Subaru Leone: I finally got around to photographing this Subaru today. From what I can tell, it was made between 1975 and 1978 and has every Malaise-tastic tape stripe and chrome option checked off (along with "5 speeds" and "Front Wheel Drive"). It looks like a pretty competent little daily driver though. Now I just need pictures of the much rustier BRAT last spotted at Taco Bell.
Volkwsagen Beetle: I saw the Beetle you posted for DOTS a few days ago with the engine cover propped open, and it reminded me that I needed to photograph this flat-black Beetle. I'm not sure of the year; it's probably from the mid 70s. Whatever the vintage, I think it captures the spirit of a college car pretty well: the Libertarian party bumper stickers, subtle yet somewhat half-assed mods, and the pile of crap where the back seat used to be. You also might note that it's parked on Illinois St, right in front of the MG from the original DOTS Golden post.
Toyota Starlet: I saw this Starlet parked on the street while on my way to a friend's house, and knowing the love that many Jalops have for the little Toyota I had to snap a few pictures. From what Wikipedia tells me this is an 81-84 model, and from what the bumper sticker and rust can tell me this little car has been driven hard through Alaska and Colorado since the Reagan years.
Ford Model A: I hope I'm not sending you too many photos from Golden, but I couldn't pass up this great vintage-styled hot rod I saw in a parking lot today. It's a 1931 Ford Model A (although the owner wasn't sure exactly what year it is, the title is for '31) with a chopped top, a 302 Ford V8, and some sweet pinstriping, all sitting on a '32 Ford frame and bias plys. I love all of the little details like the structural wood and fabric in the roof, flat green paint, dropped axle with hairpins, and the lakes-style pipes. Probably one of the oldest cars I've seen around Golden this year, and definitely one of the coolest.
Ford Thunderbird: I've got a couple more DOTSBE cars here for ya. The first is a beat to hell old Thunderbird I caught being transported on a flatbed, parked in front of this creepy industrial building. Whether its destiny is a full restoration or The Crusher, we can only guess.
Volkswagen Transporter: The second car is a newer VW Bus with a wikkid flame paint job, photographed near where I found the MG previously. The paint and aftermarket exhaust give it cool points in my book; however it also looses a few points because of the PRNDL between the seats. From the stickers on the back window, I infer that the owner (or previous owner) is a Christian, works on power lines, and has been a student at the Colorado School of Mines for the last three years or so.

That means it's time for another example of The General's early-60s Falcon fighter. The Corvair was supposed to take on that role, but sales were nowhere near Falcon levels. You conspiracy theorists might take note that not only was the Corvair the victim of a Nader/hippie/Trilateral Commission cabal (out to undermine innovation and style in the American Way Of Life, and those of you who claim the Trilats didn't even get their start until 1973... well, that's exactly what they want you to believe!), but the Falcon was the product of a Robert MacNamara/liberal/Federal Reserve conspiracy to destroy the Edsel. That means the Nova is the car in the eye of the Automotive Conspiracy hurricane!


This Chevy lives on the same block as the '71 Valiant and just around the corner from the '71 VW Squareback. I'm on the road and don't have my reference library handy (yes, actual books) at the moment, so I'm going to go with my gut feeling and say this car is a '62 model, the first year of the Nova. Yes, I'm leaving myself open to the scorn of Chevy II fanatics the world over if I'm off by a year or two, but I can take it.

We've got representatives of each of the Big Three (sadly, no AMC products), from the days when Detroit ruled the automotive universe. Four from GM and one apiece from Ford and Chrysler. Tomsk writes:

1964 Buick Riviera: This second-year example of Buick's personal luxury coupe has arguably seen better days, but you've gotta admit, it looks positively menacing.

1963 Mercury Monterey: With Mercury having been against the ropes since...well...a long-ass time now, it's worth remembering just how rad their products once were. Take this 1963 Monterey Custom 2-door hardtop, complete with the "Breezeway" roll-down rear window and the accompanying oddball roofline.
Am I alone in having a burning desire to cruise this baby down the main drag on Saturday night with a certain J. Wagner snuggled up next to me on the big bench seat? Didn't think so.

1965 Chrysler: This majestic child of Ma Mopar, though clearly fallen on hard times (Dig the precision-engineered driver's window repair!), still has that certain presence about it. That certain GIGANTIC presence about it.

1956 Chevrolet: Considering how much coin Tri-Five Chevys command these days, you'd think a clean, stock looking '56 Bel Air 2-door sedan would at least be hidden under an industrial-strength car cover and parked in the driveway. Well, that isn't the case with this one, which apparently calls a Costa Mesa cul-de-sac home. I've always thought the '56 was the best looking of the three shoebox Bowties; how about the rest of the Commentariat?

1968 Pontiac Catalina: The current Pontiac advertising tagline is "Pontiac is Car." Unfortunately, the models other than those belonging to the G8 and Solstice families are not Car; they're things you use to cover the oil spots on your driveway.
However, there was apparently a time when all new Ponchos were indeed Car. Exhibit A: This 1968 Catalina ragtop. If Oprah had given these things away, she'd be President Winfrey now. Stick that hyperbole in your pipe and smoke it.

1962 Cadillac: This 1962 Cad (I'm fairly sure it's a Sedan deVille) has seen better days, but what state would the true Jalop rather have it in: An over-restored beauty you'd be scared to take out of its plastic bubble, or this property-value-sucking, pseudo rat rod form? Exactly.

Last time, we had a momentous upset in the Choose Your Eternity poll, with a Detroit car somehow managing to beat two French cars! Granted, no Citroëns were involved, but we're sure there's some weeping and gnashing of teeth in Paris right now. Not like France loses its PCH SuperAwesomeMegaPower rank, of course, but for now that turbocharged Falcon has brought a bit of the pride back to the reeling Motor City (and we're going to have a Detroit-on-Detroit matchup in honor of that accomplishment). Today we're returning to a level of the underworld we haven't visited since the Octo-Door '57 Chrysler took on the Stretch Ferrari 400: Hell Limousines!

Chrysler never built a Hexa-Door Dodge Dart station wagon- which we think was a terrible miscalculation- but when the Vatican demands such a machine for nunly transportation, American free enterprise leaps into action! Such is the story behind this 1962 Dodge Dart stretch wagon, and maybe it's even true! The seller states right off that it's "in poor shape," and that's definitely the truth, but who cares? In addition to his distressing honesty, he seller also violates all the eBay traditions concerning grammar, spelling, and capitalization, but we'll overlook that because this thing is a Hexa-Door Dart Wagon Alleged Nunmobile! How could you pass it up? There's rust. It's been sitting since 1979, most of that time outdoors in rural Kentucky. The engine is a poly 318, which is sort of like the LA block 318, only way heavier. The good news is that you'll be able to find every possible mechanical component without half trying, for cheap, and along the way you'll discover that you might as well upgrade to a 500-horsepower 360. You might not want to invest too much time and money into the running gear, however, until you've vanquished the Rust Monster, and that might take decades some time, plus a few million Hail Marys. Thanks to ArmyOfChuckness for the tip!

A Pope-approved 6-door Dart wagon limo from Butcher Holler would be quite a daily driver, sure, but what if you must kick up the mud whilst blasting beer cans out the window with a shotgun? For that, you want a genuine, built-by-crazy-Minnesotans 4x4 Monster Cadillac Limo. Now, at this point you might be saying to yourself (in your best Upper Midwest accent) "OK, but where could I find such a car, then?" Hey, this is Project Car Hell, where eternal torment is conveniently located, and we've managed to find this 1981 Cadillac stretch limo mud truck (go here if the ad disappears), built on a Suburban chassis. You get your 36" swampers, you betcha, and your hoon-proof 350 engine, and it even runs and drives! The seller admits that it "Needs TLC," which you're free to interpret as you choose (we choose to believe it means you'll be ready to take on the gnarliest swamps of the Amazon Delta with little more than a tuneup). The seller wants $3,000, but if there ever was a price that screamed "negotiable," this is it!

The Olds and Plymouth wagons were shot by Kitt.






Here's what EJacobs has to say about this Chevy Biscayne wagon: This sucker still does trailering duty for lawn mowing equipment. Much respect for being such a raw, old working 'mobile. Probably would survive most apocalypses. And it's a wagon. The interior is disintegrating. And the rear seats are...folded down, I guess. Somehow, I think that's a permanent feature.

1962 Bentley S.3 - Down on the street in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago, IL. Lazily parked behind a construction debris dumpster and includes not only a nice little door ding, but a spatter of bird do-do as well. Daily driver??? Who knows....Not afraid to be driven and parked in an insanely street parking challenged neighborhood.

Isn't it great how Ferrari has never built any car you can buy for nickels and dimes nowadays? Maserati has the shameful Biturbo episode cheapening even its best products to this day, but every single Ferrari- no matter how wretched- is worth quite a bit (with a few notable exceptions, of course). You might think this would keep you safe from a vintage Ferrari project; regardless of the strength of your yearning for a prancing horse, it's just not possible! There is no safety, my friends, because anything is possible; how about a genuine 1962 Ferrari 250 GT/E for under 30 grand? OK, we'll allow that perhaps it needs a few parts, and that said parts might be on the pricey side, but how bad can it be? Ferrari purists are no doubt pouring quadruple shots of Sambuca to settle their nerves right about now (that is, if their hands can stop shaking enough to hold the bottle), having read the description of such desecrations as the Chevy 327 engine transplant and the junkyard BMW sunroof. You have two choices with this project: pay what it takes to get a proper Ferrari V12 under the hood... or put a bigger V12 in that baby! Say, this Mercedes-Benz unit, which we think would look really good with six Webers.

Does Enzo Ferrari's arrogance with Ferrucio Lamborghini piss you off, even after nearly 60 years? Why, owning a Lamborghini would be your way of saying that nobody can give you the high hat! Only thing is, only coke dealers and entourage-laden rappers can afford the things... but wait- is it possible your pals at Jalopnik have found an affordable Lamborghini for your garage? Yes indeedy, 'tis true; here's an honest-to-God '95 Diablo with a Buy It Now price of just $45K, and it runs! We're not so sure the fact that it runs with "NO ENGINE LIGHTS" means a whole lot, given that the electrical system might be a bit on the shaky side, and the statement "The steering and main running gear have been restored to close to factory specs, however I don't think I would try for the advertised 200 mph" gives one pause, but: real Lamborghini (though it's technically a Frankenstein made from a coupe and an SE). The seller is even thoughtful enough to provide a Fieroborghini body kit, so you can avoid those costly trips to the Lambo dealer for body parts. Are you thinking what we're thinking? Put a Fiero body on the Diablo chassis for the ultimate Fieroborghini!

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Love it or hate it, but you can't ignore this face. Like the nose of a space cruiser! Maybe Chrysler will retro-ize this look at some point.


And the taillights- wow! These cars didn't just look good; the 300s could get going pretty well, too. The standard engine was a 305-horsepower 383; if that wasn't enough, you could spring for the dual-quad 413 in the 300H, which gave you a mighty 380 horsepower... and if that wasn't enough, a 405-horse version was available. Sadly, you couldn't get a 4-speed from the factory, but dealers back then were generally willing to make such an option happen for those willing to pay.


The interior is very nice, although that can of starter fluid on the seat isn't a good sign.

I'm not 100% sure that this Dodge is a '62; it might be a '63. Year-to-year changes were pretty subtle for work trucks back then. This example has the classic California body rust, which generally takes decades to get all the way through the sheet metal (unless you live right near the ocean, in which case the process happens much more quickly).


Sheet of plywood, air cleaner element, random junk? Present and accounted for!


The standard engine in these trucks was the 225-inch Slant Six, with the 318 A engine available for those who wanted more power. Imagine a truck this size today being sold with just 140 horsepower, two doors, and no chrome- unacceptable!

Many of us took a look at the DOTS '56 Willys Station Wagon and imagined ourselves tearing through the woods or desert in such a fine specimen of vintage off-road machinery. Thing is, parts are getting tricky to find for these proto-SUVs, trickier even than fitting a Super-Fructo Distendo-Abdomen™ five-gallon soft-drink bucket into an undersized European cup holder. What you need is a parts car! That's why you'll be overjoyed to find this pair of Willys Station Wagons, a '51 and a '58, for the survivalist-friendly price tag of one thousand dollars (or a bit more than an ounce of gold, for those of you who fear the Trilateral Commission/Federal Reserve cabal and their so-called "currency"). One of them has a complete-looking Tornado 6-banger (and is "Tornado" one of the best engine names ever or what?), and both have at least half their components; you might even find enough unrusted parts to assemble one good body! Oh yeah, and with a Willys Station Wagon, you don't use a goddamn cup holder for your drink of kiddie sugar-water- you use a canteen full of manly swamp water!

But let's say the SUV/cup holer stigma is so powerful that it manages to taint even such an excellent motor vehicle as the Willys Station Wagon (impossible, but just for the sake of argument). You want cars for your Two-For-One Hell Project, do you? Step right up for this Mercedes/Pontiac deal, folks! For a very optimistic- yet subject to relentless downward negotiating pressure- price tag of $4,000, you could have a 1958 Pontiac "Fire Chief" (we're assuming it's actually a Star Chief or Super Chief) and a 1962 Mercedes-Benz 220. The Benz "has not run in a few years," but we're talking about a car that's just getting broken in at 500,000 miles! How hard could it be to get this Heckflosse rolling again? It's in Reno, so maybe rust isn't a problem... in fact, think of all the things that might not be problems here! Then, once you've finished getting your Mercedes-Benz into perfect condition, you can look forward to many happy decades weeks working on your '58 Pontiac. It "needs engine and rearend," which doesn't make it clear whether you get any rebuildable components. That won't matter, however, because you'll be building up a monster Tri-Power 421 with the biggest, shiniest blower your food money can buy sticking through the hood, and the factory differential might as well be carved from Velveeta when it comes to dealing with all that power. OK, so this project might cost a few bucks, but your Mercedes will give you the requisite feeling of wealth to keep the stress down.

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Normally I'd say nonfunctional hood scoops are lame, but the one on the Falcon looks great.


Here's where you Edsel aficionados can tell us about how Robert McNamara (who grew up a couple miles away in Oakland and married an Alameda High girl) killed the Edsel in order to push the Falcon... right before he switched to the Vietnam War as his next big project. Did the Falcon lead directly to Khe Sanh? In any case, I recommend The Fog of War to anyone interested in Falcons and/or the Vietnam War.


I saw a '62 Falcon parked side-by-side with a Prius not long ago, and the Prius is huge next to the little Ford. This car really was a radical step for Ford back then, although like most car models it got bigger with every successive model year. If Ford brings back the Falcon name, it will likely be on a crossover monster with cupholders made for 5-gallon buckets and an air suspension that will enable it to squat down to clear freeway overpasses.

So... the weather cooperated yesterday and got some shots for you. Couldn't get in to see the engine, but I believe it's a straight 6. It stays parked on the street in a Seattle neighborhood, gets driven every few days. It appears to be the original color - it's a little faded. Very little rust as well. The smoothside bed is interesting - I believe it's the original instead of a stepside.