Parked on the same block as that DS (as well as that 64 Riviera) I found this Slant-six '66 Barracuda and I instantly knew it was a car out for my heart. And how did I know all of this about a plain-jane hipstermobile? One look at that hood and I understood completely: Slant 6! Proclaimed loud and proud, this Plymouth will undoubtedly rumble on to the end of days, brandishing its glass fastback style against the cruel winds of the apocalypse. And what a style it has! A walk along the very edge of the car tells its whole story - it has got shoulders that you don't see on a car anymore, save for on prototype-lookalike exotics, and though I'm not a mad follower of fins, that this car has them to form such a sculptured rear and to be just bolted onto the front fenders speaks to the notion of a car as a piece of design, art that you sit in and drive, architecture that takes you to work. That which precisely defines a car eludes easy comprehension, though this barracuda seems to know its place: a righteous herald of the sturdy and spectacular Slant Six.

The Tunachuckers were up late fixing their toasted engine compartment (thankfully, they brought many spare parts), and after a full rewiring job, carburetor repair, and a lucky brake hose find (the fire started when a brake hose burst and sprayed the exhaust manifold), they're back out there. Meanwhile, the Milano team spent all day and all night getting their engine back together- not bad by Alfa standards- and they're now roaring around the track. Things are about to get very, very hectic in the penalty box, so I need to go dispense some justice; check in this afternoon for possible updates.

You'd better approve! V8-powered Chrysler A bodies are fine, but a hot-rodded Slant Six car just seems cooler. I spotted this car in my neighborhood, just across the street from the '66 Ford Ranchero and down the block from the '83 Sentra wagon.
The owner happened to be with the car, so I was able to get its story. This thing is pretty much original, except for the upgrade from 3-on-the-tree to 4-on-the floor and the Offenhauser dual-carb setup. And it's for sale! If you want to work out a deal with the owner (I have no idea how much he wants for it), email him and start makin' some deals!

Well, maybe not quite as numerous as Ford's station wagon replacement is today, but the full-size Ford wagon ruled the family-hauler world during the 1960s and 1970s. While my family had a Chevy van instead of a station wagon, any kid growing up in the 70s was going to spend at least some time in a Country Squire.

This may be the lower-end Country Sedan or Ranch Wagon, but it appears that it has the mounting holes for the high-zoot Squire side trim, and budget-minded Ford wagon shoppers would have been unlikely to spring for the big-block 352 engine instead of the standard 240-cube six or 289 V8. The 9-passenger '66 Country Squire listed at $3,372, nearly 600 bucks more than the six-cylinder Ranch Wagon and 900 bucks more than the little '66 Falcon wagon. Nine passengers and (I'm guessing) 12 highway MPG- that holds up pretty well next to, say, a new Expedition (which only seats eight, albeit in greater luxury).

The real question here is: do you prefer this '66 or the '65 Country Squire Woody?

That was eight months ago, and I can think of at least a half-dozen unphotographed 1960s Mustangs around town, so let's take a look at this lil' red devil with the super-rare horseshoe bumper guards.

This is our third Alameda 1966 Mustang, after this beat-to-hell one and this pretty nice example.. At this point, Alameda has provided at least one example of each first-generation Mustang, with the exception of the '64-1/2 and 1970-72 models. I'll keep my eyes open for those, so we can complete the set.

In 1966, the base Mustang coupe cost $2,416; add a 289-cube V8 and you'd spend an extra $105 (for the 225-horse version) or $433 (for the 271-horse version). If you wanted the 390 from the factory, tough luck- that wasn't an option until '67. The base price on the '66 Ford Falcon coupe- under the skin, essentially the same car as the Mustang- was just $2,060, with the same 289 engine options available. Then consider this: for $2,183, 1966 car buyers could have picked up a Chevy II coupe with a 275-horsepower 327 (and anyone who knows how much the 350-horse L79 327 option cost, please let us know). Clearly, the Mustang's styling made it a huge cash machine for Ford, though this was the last year for zero serious competition from The General.

We see Amazons on the racetrack and in the junkyard, but many of the not-as-old-as-they-look Swedes still see daily-driver service in California. This one is on the rough side, but the rust looks to be of the surface variety and it's definitely a runner.

Some of you may recognize the parking space as the same one in which we captured the donked '76 Buick Regal. The super-mean '69 Lincoln Continental lives just down the block, making this one of the better DOTS locations on the island.

Our new gallery systems still have a few bugs, so I'm forced to do an either/or decision on the new versus old gallery styles in these posts. For those of you who prefer the old-style galleries, you can find one for this car right here. Ideally, the Server Hamsters will permit us to have both types of photo gallery in the same post, but for now we're going to use this workaround.

Click here to get back to the original post with its newfangled hamster-friendly gallery format.

That's what's going on with Black Metal V8olvo team member and four-time DOTS honoree WhatWouldJesseDo, and the car left standing when the music stops would appear to be his frighteningly original 1966 Datsun 411. Bring A Trailer has discovered Jesse's 411, which features Pininfarina styling and an engine based on the BMC B. Sort of a Japanese-Italian-British car here, and not something you see every day. This was the very first car in the Down On The Street series, so I'm hoping an Alameda-based buyer will pick it up and keep it on the island.

[Bring A Trailer, Craigslist]

Alameda has more Valiants than Darts, but we have seen this '64 Dart coupe, this '64 Dart wagon, this '69 Dart GT convertible, another '69 Dart GT convertible, this '70 Dart with Buick hubcaps, and this Malaisetastic '75 Dart Swinger. Today's car, a no-nonsense '66 GT with a nice stance, is either a newcomer or a visitor to my neighborhood; I hope it's the latter.


A Dart is one of the few 60s Detroit cars that gets more coolness points with the six-cylinder engine than it gets with the V8 (the Pontiac Tempest Sprint being another). That's because the Chrysler Slant Six is one of the Greatest Engines Of All Time.

Yes, this Cad should be tax-deductible, because it serves as a realtor's work vehicle. She bought it in rough shape and is still in the process of getting it fully restored, but it starts, stops, turns, and looks good doing it. It sure makes a better impression than, say, a Camry or Explorer. Hmmmm… my Sprite could be considered a "work vehicle" as well! I'm sure the IRS would be very understanding about that concept.


In 1967, a car buyer wishing to roll in top-down Cadillac style had to hand over $5,608 (around 36 grand in today's dollars) to the dealer man. For that price, you got power everything, cigarette lighters all over the place, and a super-smooth, 340-horsepower Cadillac 429. For about the same money, you could have purchased a brand-new Mercedes-Benz 250S, or a Jaguar XK-E roadster. Tough choice!

We get ads for the 1966 (410), 1967 (510), and 1971 (610) Bluebirds here. The last one, for the '71 Bluebird-U, is a masterpiece of bewildering Japanese salaciousness and makes me want to offer the owner of the DOTS 610 too many dollars for his car. Thanks to LTDScott for the tip!

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.

For 1966, Ford based the Ranchero on the midsized Fairlane, rather than the compact Falcon used as the basis for the 1960-65 models. The standard Ranchero engine remained the reliable ol' 200-cube six, but high rollers could opt for the 200- or 220-horsepower 289 V8. The price for the base '66 Ranchero was $2,218, or $133 more than the cost of an F-100 half-ton pickup.


This will be the only DOTS vehicle this week; after posting a street-parked Alameda car every single weekday since May 2007, I need a break. Don't worry, the island hasn't run out of old cars!

Well, it turns out that the 1966 Mustang from Un Homme Et Une Femme was restored a few years back, and we're pretty sure that Vroomscreech has spotted this very car down on the street- in front of a movie theater, of course- in Santa Monica California. Apparently the car in the movie was adorned with both 184 and 145 door numbers, for plot reasons we'll probably never know; this is either the actual car or the work of a heavy-duty SoCal Lelouch fan.

I'm pretty sure this truck is the parts hauler owned by the guy responsible for the '74 Buick LeSabre, Studebaker Avanti, '69 Buick Electra, '65 Ford Ranchero, and '69 Cadillac Coupe de Ville convertible. Each of those cars lived on the block for a few months, then disappeared, so most likely this is a serious car guy who wheels and deals at all times. And for that you need a big pickup!


The 240-cube six was the base engine for 1966 Ford light-duty pickups, but the dual exhausts on this one suggest that it has some sort of V8. The 352 was the optional powerplant for this truck in '66, but odds are good that a larger member of the FE family now lives under the hood. 390? 428?

I found this '66 just a few doors down from the minister's '77 Camaro, and it's in very, very nice shape. It had For Sale signs in the windows (with a $6,200 asking price) and now it's gone, so I assume some buyer has spirited it off the island and into the gilded-cage shelter of a garage, with occasional appearances at car shows and cruise nights. Or maybe not- perhaps it's on a crazed Saskatchewan-to-Uruguay road trip at this very moment!


You could get yourself a new '66 Thunderbird hardtop for $4,395, which was $799 more than a Galaxie 500 7 Litre Fastback. However, the T-Bird could be had with a dual-quad, 425-horse 427, and the 7 Litre Galaxie got only 345 horsepower from its 428… but you could get a 4-speed in the Galaxie at no extra cost, and the Thunderbird was a slushbox-only machine. Let's say your time machine has just dropped you off in 1966, you've parlayed 50 bucks into the "luckiest" sports-betting/stock-market/whatever winning streak in history, and you're ready to head to the Ford dealership for a new ride. Do you get the 7 Litre Galaxie with a 4-speed, plus enough left to buy a 3-year-old Beetle as a spare car, or do you get the Thunderbird with 425 horsepower and an automatic? Let's have a poll!

That's right, the Foster Farms Chickens, aka The Foster Imposters! A pair of Arkansas factory-farmed chickens flee their trailer park and head to California, so that they might be killed, eviscerated, and served up as meals by Foster Farms. Their vehicle? A beater '67 Belvedere! Thus was the idea for Team Faster Farms Chickens born.


Since Adrian had a free '66 Belvedere already, all that was needed to convert it to an Impostersmobile was the application of '67 headlight bezels and trashed grille...



…and some light blue house paint. The Imposters' Belvedere has one yellow door, so the race car's original color was retained there. Now let's watch another ad!




These chickens are serious about winning! You might recognize this bird as Jack Astro, creator of the Project Car Hell Song. Be sure to check out the Team Faster Farms Chickens' website when you're done here!


With 318 screamin' cubic inches under the hood and a car that's already survived a 60 MPH wreck into a row of parked cars, the Chickens fear nothing!


They found a B&M floor shifter on a junked Ranger at Pick Your Part, and the glass doorknob adds a touch of class.


The chicken suits weren't quite up to Foster Imposters specs, so Adrian had to make a few adjustments. First, a little feather trimming.


Then a coat of Farm Equipment yellow paint on the legs.


It's a gas saver!

With UDMan's '63 Corvair raising the Index Of Effluency stakes for next year's New England 24 Hours Of LeMons, anyone who shows up with the same ol' snoozeworthy RX-7 or Camaro will be the object of well-deserved ridicule by his or her peers. You need to limp roar onto the track in a car manufactured by one of the Big Three PCH Superpowers, and we've managed to find one that already has a roll cage! In fact, this '68 Austin Healey Sprite is a proven racing champion, having taken the SCCA Grand National Solo II Class DP trophy in 1978! Since that time, well, there's been near-total a certain amount of deterioration, but who the heck cares about non-structural rust damage in a race car? Of course, there is certainly might be some structural damage as well, but you'll get to fixing that… right after you figure out how to get a new engine installed with the $1 in budget flexibility you'll have after spending $499 on this car. There must be something you can sell off this hulk racer; if nothing else, you can sell off the transmission and use the $75 to buy a basket-case donor car with some sort of functioning engine/trans combo. Thanks to Evil Genius for the tip!

Since the rollcage doesn't count against the $500 LeMons price ceiling, why pay for a car that already has one? Instead, go for a mid-engined Italian machine, and we don't mean some cheapo Fiat X1/9 here. You can kick it up a notch and send your opponents staggering back with a mixture of pity fear and confusion dread when you drag drive this 1976 Lancia Scorpion off the trailer before the race. It's got some accident damage, but so what? You're not racing to look pretty, you're racing to spend an entire weekend turning wrenches and cursing in Italian win! Does it run? Is the Pope Italian? Hey, that Fiat Twin Cam engine is just months minutes away from firing up, you'll see!

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.

When you think about a Chrysler-engined British car, the Jensen Interceptor is probably the first thing that comes to mind. While the Interceptor makes a fine Project Car Hell candidate, its perceived value to Jensen masochists aficionados is such that you'll never find one for anywhere close to the 500-buck 24 Hours Of LeMons limit. Hold on, though- what about the Bristol 408? Powered by the good ol' reliable Chrysler 313, the Bristol combined British style with Mopar drivetrain reliability… but is it possible to find one with a LeMons-legal price tag? Better hitch up the trailer and head for Wisconsin, because this 1966 Bristol 408 Coupe (go here if the ad disappears) has an asking price of just $500! The engine is bad, but there must be sufficient eBay-worthy pieces you can sell off this thing to score a running Chrysler small-block and Torqueflite transmission. Then just knock the suspension and brakes into quasi-functional shape and you'll be raceworthy. You can make it happen! Thanks to Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkey Bret for the tip!

That Bristol would make you an instant LeMons legend, all right, but where's the absurdity? Sure, you'd have to be insane to run such a car, but you want members of other teams to stagger back in a mixture of awe and horror when they lay eyes on your racin' machine. A limousine would accomplish that, but there's the troublesome 4,000-pound weight limit to contend with. Unless… unless, of course, you were to get this 1974 Super Beetle limo (go here if the ad disappears), which has a bait-n-switch price of $8 but will likely go to the first buyer who waves a $100 bill under the seller's nose. There's no engine and transmission, but Pick Your Part is always chock-full of Beetles and Transporters, and any lawnmower mechanic armed with $9.98 worth of Brazilian replacement parts can get a Type 1 engine working just fine. Handling on the race track might be a little odd, since the pendulum with the big rear weight is now longer, but you won't be perturbed by the spinouts once you've got that Index Of Effluency and/or Organizer's Choice trophy in your shaky hands! Thanks to LeMons Supreme Court Justice Loverman for the tip!