It's been lowered a bit and sports the obligatory large exhaust tip, but overall it looks quite intact. Perhaps it spent the first 20 or so years of its life as a sedate daily driver.


I saw quite a few of these emblems at the Motoring J Style show a month ago. Hey, do you think we'll start seeing Echos with Platz emblems? Avalons with Pronard badging?


Yes, that's a NorCal Drift Academy T-shirt being used as a seat cover; let's hope the owner of this car keeps the body in one piece and the engine block unventilated as he slides around the track.

Yes, it's what appears to be a genuine first-generation BMW M6 (or a really, really good fake). I was out for a walk and spotted this red shark parked in a handicapped zone next to Alameda Hospital. You see, handicapped drivers here in the Bay Area don't allow their disabilities to dilute their love for fast German cars.


Fewer than 2,000 E24 M6s were sold in North America during the 1983-89 period. The '87 came with a 256-horse six and a price tag of $55,950 ($106,695.07 in 2008 bucks), just a few grand less than a new Porsche 928S.


This example is in very nice condition for a street-driven 21-year-old car. Sure, 256 horsepower in a 3,570-pound car isn't such a big deal nowadays, but this thing was a fearsome factory hot rod in its time.

Looks like this van wasn't actually sold in North America, according to the Guamanian dealership emblem. Back when the Alameda Naval Air Station was in full effect, you used to see plenty of license plates from Hawaii and a few from Guam in town, as the Navy would transport sailors' vehicles when they got transferred from base to base. Most likely this Mitsu was originally brought to Alameda in that fashion.


It sure looks a lot like the Toyota Van Wagon, doesn't it?


I believe this van is powered by Mitsubishi's 4G64 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine, but information on this boxy little beast is sparse indeed. Looks like it's possible to get a few extra ponies out of them...

The K platform was quite versatile, but Chrysler only seemed to show off "K" emblems on a select few vehicles. There's a Turbo Caravelle in my neighborhood that I might shoot as well, since those hood louvers are extremely Turbo Mullet Era-esque.


The LE was the upscale Aries, and the standard engine was the 97-horse Trans Four. The plastic grille and the last of the Sealed Beam Era headlights really tend to remind us that the Malaise Era was only three years gone in '86.


The gray color may suggest Navy origins for this car, though a lot of San Francisco government agencies had gray Ks as well. Alameda had Aries police cars for a few years in the early 80s, if you can imagine such a thing. Now, on to the poll, and stay tuned for something older, sportier, and more German tomorrow.

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Last week while driving through my old neighborhood in Anaheim, CA, I saw this parked over in an industrial parking lot. Yes I know it's cheating but given the expiration date of the plate this car has not moved in a while (Expired in 94). It looks factory but I have been having a hard time finding an example online to verify. Anyways, onto what it is... THis appears to be an 84ish Holden Stateman Caprice. Basically a Aussieamino on US soil. This one appears to be pretty well optioned for a "truck" of its vintage but that just makes it a little bit cooler.

Hasn't every true car geek toyed with the idea of buying a genuine Roller? You'd be able to contemplate the insect-like scurrying of the proles from the leather-and-hardwood comfort of your own living room on wheels, chuckling indulgently at the lesser beings in their above-their-station Benzes and nouveau-riche Acuras. It's a fine dream, all right, but even a project Rolls-Royce costs at least 15 grand. Right? Welcome to the recession, folks- you can now buy this 1982 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur for only $6,950 (and maybe a lot less, as the seller has unwisely disclosed "I am in the car about $5000 and want to make a profit," which isn't the best bargaining position during tough economic times). Just look at this beauty- why, there's no evidence of fire or high-speed collision, and we're sure you'll have no problem fixing the rust. Even the hood ornament is still there! The interior might be something of a challenge, since the seller says it's "blue leather and not in good shape" (in car-seller-ese, that translates to "a pack of coyotes was storing roadkill raccoon carcasses inside, until chased off by all the yellowjacket nests in the A/C vents") and the condition of the wood doesn't sound much better. As for mechanicals, the car had been sitting for "over four years" (probable translation: 15 years), but the seller "put a new battery in it, fresh gas and it started right up." What could go wrong? This car sold for $116,000 new!

What are you, some crass insta-tycoon who struck it rich selling travel stomach pumps that plug into a car's lighter outlet? The forgotten third cousin of a Qatari oilman? You wouldn't be caught dead in a Rolls-Royce from the Malaise Era! No, what you need is a genuine postwar Bentley, from a beat-to-hell Britain that was still digging itself out from the wreckage of the Blitz. They still had wartime-style food rationing in the UK in 1950, so you have to figure an ostentatious luxury car back then made a statement about your rightful place in the social order. Why, you could toss a few shillings out the window as you pass the wretches gnawing their stale breadcrusts at the roadside and bask in the warm glow of your munificence! Thing is, fast-forward to 2008 and- while it's no sweat finding wretches to receive your shillings- it's tough to find a postwar Bentley that's still a project; all you get is those damn concours machines, and where's the hell fun there? Fortunately, Jalopnik is on the case, and we've found this 1950 Bentley Mark VI for you. The seller says it's an "SS1," whatever that is, but there's no arguing with that crazy price: 8,500 bucks! Much like the Silver Spur, it's been sitting for years, yet- miracle of miracles!- started right up. You'll have that big F-head six purring in no time! Then you'll be able to start on the body, which we admit needs some TLC. It appears that the interior isn't so bad, though the blurry photographs make it tough to be sure (where do car sellers get these terrible cameras?), and you should be able to find any missing component on eBay.uk for next to nothing. We're making this too easy!

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This was found in the Western Addtion, on Lyon I think it was. Looked like they used old bowling lane or basketball court wood flooring for the majority of the constuction. It was covered in a layer of thin fiberglass in an effort to water proof it....??? I took 2 fotos at different times of day. I particularly liked the little wagon doors in the rear with small round windows!

135 horsepower from a sub-2-liter engine was pretty good in 1978, and that's what the Saab 99 Turbo managed that year. In a car weighing just 2,600 pounds, 135 horses gave a power-to-weight pretty close to what you got from a '78 Corvette... at a price tag $500 higher than the top-of-the-line Chevy. Thanks to the magic of depreciation, however, it's possible to get a Saab 99 Turbo project for a fairly reasonable price nowadays. They're not so easy to find, what with the rust and breathtaking repair costs over the decades, but we've managed to find one for- you ready for this?- just 600 bucks! Yes, this '78 Saab 99 Turbo (go here if the ad disappears), which appears to be reasonably complete (if you count random parts in boxes), is available for just six Benjamins. The seller was going to put in a black interior and paint it metallic burgundy, and that plan must add value, right? It's got rust, including an 8" x 8" hole in the floor, the engine is out of the car and has a crack in "the manifold" (we're guessing exhaust). No problem! It's been sitting for years and the registration seems dodgy, but don't let that scare you away from the incredible Swedish potential of this Hell Project!

When you're talking about Turbo Malaise Hell, is there anything that can beat a carbureted draw-through turbo system? Why yes, there is: a draw-through turbocharging system that uses a computer Quadrajet! The computer Q-jet is fun enough when naturally aspirated, but bolt it to a hair-dried Pontiac 301 (an engine which itself is the essence of V8 Malaise) and the fun really begins. That's right, we're talking about the notorious Turbo Trans Am... and not just any Turbo Trans Am. We've found a genuine 1980 Indy 500 Pace Car Turbo Trans Am (go here if the ad disappears) for you! The price tag is a grand higher than the Saab's, but that's just because this car is more complete. Now, we're not musclecar purists around these parts, but there's really no choice with a Turbo Trans Am Indy Pace Car but to restore it to its full Malaise glory, 210 unreliable blown horses and all. Oh, sure, you could drop a modern fuel-injected turbocharged small-block Chevy in there and get reliability and power, but then you wouldn't be experiencing the full nostalgic impact of 1980. This one needs some work, no getting around that; first, there's rust (from the car "sitting for years back east"), and we're not talking about harmless surface rust. It doesn't run, but the seller seems to feel that it'll fire right up with the addition of a new distributor, and maybe he or she is right!

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You want a genuine right-hand-drive, straight-from-Japan R33 Skyline GT-R, don't you? Of course you do! A 250-horse twin-turbocharged 2.6 six (which is eager to be boosted up to ridiculous power numbers using off-the-shelf components and well-known tuning tricks), all-wheel-drive, and JDM-only prestige that will leave jaws dropping in your wake. You could take your rapidly-eroding dollars and attempt to put together enough yen to get one shipped over from Japan... or you could buy this 1996 Skyline GT-R (go here if the ad disappears) right here in California! No, you're not allowed to buy it just for the RB25DETT engine (although we'd certainly approve of a Honey Bee B210 with such a powerplant)- you need to fix this car! We don't know how much the seller wants for it, but you can tell by his tone ("Don't waste my time. Serious buyers only!") that he or she means business. It's only got 10,000 kilometers on the clock, so the question is: was it hooned to death and wrecked in Japan, or was it hooned to death and wrecked over here? You'll have plenty of time to contemplate that question as you deal with layer after layer of state and federal bureaucrats, all of whom will disapprove strongly of the idea of you registering your Skyline for street use in North America, and all of whom will treat the car's sketchy lien-sale paperwork as being moderately radioactive. Oh yeah, the seller can't say whether it runs or not! Thanks to Jonee for the tip.

The last time we saw a Lagonda in this series, it stomped an Alfa Romeo Giulietta into a heap of rusty scrap metal in the poll. We thought maybe we'd save this '83 Lagonda to do battle with a Citroën, but then figured the horror of registering the Skyline, coupled with undeniable coolness, likely puts it on the same level as the Aston Martin. The best thing about this Lagonda is that it has the full-on electronic dash, which makes ordinary Lucas Electrics look downright bulletproof. And you know how much its price tag was in 1983? $150,000, which seems utter lunacy even before you convert it to the 2008 inflation-adjusted figure of $323,529. This car's auction has no reserve and is currently bid up to just $4,000; we may be looking at the ultimate in car-value depreciation here... which is bad news for the seller, but great news for you! Now, those of you who don't know Malaise Era British cars may be scoffing at the idea of this beautiful, fully-functional Aston Martin as a "project" car, but we guarantee it was a Hell Project the moment it left the assembly line (if not before then). You'll be lucky to get it up your driveway and soon-to-be sulfurous garage under its own power (four carburetors on a British DOHC smog V8- cue evil laughter). Thanks to UDMan for yet another great tip!

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Malaise or not, the B310 Sunny (as it was known in Japan) got the job done. You got the gas-sipping 1.4 liter A14 engine and pretty solid reliability. It was crude by the standards we've come to expect in an econobox these days, but you weren't paying to haul around 800 pounds of sound insulation and fake wood interior trim.


Not only is this one of the last of the rear-wheel-drives, it's one of the last of the import station wagons; the Turbo Mullet Era was more about minivans and proto-SUVs than wagons.


I suspect this car has spent some of its life in an area with salty roads, because this isn't California-style rust (we tend to get top-down rust here, starting around the windows). OK, time for our Datsun poll! What's your favorite DOTSun so far? I'm including the '83 Sentra because it's got Datsun emblems in addition to Nissan ones.

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We've seen an '89 Graduate already in this series, but the 1985 was the first year for the "entry-level" version of the Alfa Romeo Spider and that makes this example seem more significant.


You didn't get alloy wheels or luxury goodies when you bought a Graduate in '85, but you did get a real Italian sports car for just $14,395 (two grand more than the V6-powered Fiero GT). Which would you buy?


It's in pretty decent shape for a street-parked 23-year-old Italian commuter car. Good enough shape to win our first-ever Favorite Italian DOTS car poll? Let's find out! I thought of including the Pininfarina-styled Datsun 411 and MGB-GT in the choices, but decided against it.

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When a car ad leads off with the statement "This is another car that I have exhumed from my graveyard," you know you're in for a real treat. Better install some good air-conditioning in your garage, because it'll get mighty hot in there once you drag this '76 Lancia Scorpion inside! You Yurpeans might know this car as the Montecarlo, but don't let the similarity fool you- the US version had 81 horsepower instead of 120, because Yurp decided it would be better to allow asthmatic children to die horrible hydrocarbon-enhanced deaths than to strangle car engines with emission control hardware during the Malaise Era. Naturally, that means you'll need to do something about the 1756cc engine currently in this car, but it's probably a boat anchor by now, anyway, as the car "has been sitting out in the weeds and weather for many years" and probably wasn't running when placed in its weedy home. We suggest installing a supercharged Toyota 4A-GZE out of an MR2, which should be a no-sweat swap... right? You know it! The seller claims it's a parts car, but we know you'll be able to bring it back to life in a couple of weekends.

So the Toledo 24 Hours of LeMons race is coming up and you still don't have a car? How about a Merkur XR4Ti, such as the one the confusingly-named Team Flying Hyundai drove in the Altamont race? Come on now, you might whine, nobody really sells an XR4Ti that cheap! Au contraire, my skeptical Midwestern wannabe-racer friend! Just take a look at this '89 Merkur XR4Ti, which has a price tag of just 600 bucks and actually runs! Well, to be honest, the statement "Runs and drives, but needs work" generally means "it makes noise when you turn the key," but that's better than a car that doesn't do anything. It's priced $100 over the 24 Hours of LeMons limit, but we suspect the price is negotiable (besides, if I can sell $280 worth of parts from a $100 Volvo, you should be able to squeeze a measly C-note out of a Merkur). Many, many problems bedevil the electrical accessories, but all you'll need to do is tear out everything a race car won't need and then pray that you can still get the engine computer to work. Thanks to SundaySunday for the tip!

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Porsche definitely got into the 80s thing with the sell-the-brand-name backlit PORSCHE lettering on the back of the 944.


The 944 is a beautifully engineered car, with near-perfect front/rear weight distribution and lots of shiny aluminum stuff... but just try to work on one! No, don't! You can buy a pretty clean 944 for peanuts (the '87 944S listed for $28,250 new, a few hundred bucks cheaper than the '87 Buick GNX), but the bill to replace a timing belt or clutch pushes the cost of ownership orders of magnitude higher.


This example seems to drive every day and looks decent in spite of paint fried by the California sun. Now I need to find a 924, of course, so we can look at some Porsche Malaisitude.

You've got your Simcas and your Peugeots, your Renaults and even your Matras... but when you're talking serious French Project Car Hell, you're talking Citröen. When you're Citröen shopping in North America, you need to ask yourself: Do I want a car that was imported by Citröen, or do I want a crazy gray-market car with zero parts availability and questionable street-legality? Do I even need to answer that question? What any Project Car Hell masochist aficionado worth his or her salt yearns for is a nice long-wheelbase Citröen CX, suitable for use as a chauffeur-driven limousine. Better run to your bank for $8,500 in cash and catch the next flight to Denver, because we've found this '87 Citröen CX2500 Prestige (go here if the ad disappears) for you. Gadzooks! I know you're still staggering back from the magnitude of this find, so you'd better grab onto something solid before you read this statement from the seller: "This stealth body design is virtually invisible to radar." Yes, it's a stealth Citröen! No word about the running condition, other than the tiny fly-in-ointment of "Unresolved intermittent ignition circuit problem." Hey, that won't be hard to fix, right? Walk in the park, Billy! Thanks to Davey G for the tip!

We love that CX Prestige, of course, but doesn't the truer, more pure Hell come from a German car? Built with relentlessly excellent engineering and quality control, a Mercedes-Benz gives you no excuses for not finishing the project... which means you'll have the character-building experience of weeping hopelessly over a nightmare of unobtainable parts and maddeningly complicated leading-edge technology, while all your friends think you're just inept. And how about a Mercedes-Benz Ponton? They built 'em in huge quantities, and most of the W121s are still around... easy, right? Then you should have no problem getting this 1960 Mercedes-Benz 190 station wagon back in top shape, ja? The asking price is a bit higher than that of the Citröen, sure, and it's been sitting for a seal-shrinking, fuel-system-corroding, upholstery-ossifying 15 years, but don't let that scare you. Only 65,000 miles on the clock! One owner for the last 25 years! No mention of rust, but such mention really isn't necessary when you're talking about a 48-year-old New York car. We're sure body parts will be no sweat to obtain, and you'll be able to put off a complete fuel system rebuild during the weeks decades you spend trying to find correct 190 wagon interior parts. Thanks to Teargas for the tip- and that reminds me: those of you who have sent me tips used in two separate PCH episodes need to remind me when you've earned the PCH Tipster T-shirt.

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Honda was still branding the CRX with Civic emblems in the mid-80s, but the little two-seater felt like a totally different car. The HF got a mere 58 horses from its 8-valve 1300 (compared to 91 in the hot Si's fuel-injected 1500), but 58 horses is plenty with a 1,713-pound car.


I've had a couple of these cars, and they'll keep going forever if you don't blow the head gasket (i.e., don't overheat it), change the timing belt when the time comes (interference engine), and can get it to pass the smog test (mind-bogglingly complicated emissions gear). The two-seater part is somewhat limiting, but it will haul plenty of stuff; I've used a CRX to bring home large items of junkyard loot, including a Chevy 350 short block and a variety of transmissions, and you can fit 8' long 2x4s in the car with nothing sticking out (run them from left rear corner to right front corner, between the seats).


That settles it- I'm going shopping for an HF right now... and I'm gonna convert it to run on propane!

I had the use of an X-1/9 for a couple of weeks when I was a teenager, and I recall thinking "Cool! Italian sports car! This will be much fun!" Then, a few minutes into driving the thing, I thought "Damn, this thing is miserably underpowered... and why are all the dash switches, window cranks, and climate controls broken on a 3-year-old car? And what's that unpleasant noise from the transmission?"


I grabbed a couple of these scoops from a junkyard to use on the Black Metal V8olvo, but we ran out of time to install them. Maybe we'll have them rigged up as brake vents for the Thunderhill race.


The '82 X-1/9 listed for $10,990, a bit more than the Mazda RX-7 GS. The Mazda was orders of magnitude faster and more reliable (provided you treated the Wankel right), but the Fiat got better mileage and came with Bertone styling. What would you have taken?

Ah, the Fierrari! Do a search for "Ferrari" in any online classifieds, and you'll find that most of the results are Fiero-based cars. Your Fieroborghini tends to be more crass, less refined, but a good Fierrari is always a joy. You get the attention-grabbing looks of the real deal, but you can get parts for chicken feed at your nearest junkyard. Better still is the Fierrari with V8 engine, because then you get extremely manly handling characteristics that permit you to show off your skid- and spin-recovery skills just driving down to the corner store. The key is to get one with a body kit that isn't too slavish a ripoff of a real prancing-horse machine, and we've found just the thing with this Fiero convertible with kit (go here if the ad disappears), with a clearly-negotiable asking price of 10 grand. We're not sure what the "kit" involves, but maybe it has something to do with the engine. We're hoping it's a V8, but that's just one of many questions you'll have for the seller, because other than the wheel sizes (18s in the rear, 17s in the front) and the paint color, we really don't get much information about this Fierrari's story. But don't worry about its condition, because this car comes from a private collection!

You're a big fan of the Zimmer Golden Spirit, but need something a little easier to park? Just step onto the steal-packed lot of Lowball Lucifer's Quality Pre-Owned Automobiles, my friend, and see how you feel behind the wheel of this 1986 Zimmer Quicksilver. Yes, in addition to the Golden Spirit, Zimmer manufactured 170 Fiero-based Quicksilvers in the mid-1980s, and were they lookers or what? The only problem with this one- well, aside from the trashed interior and body damage, that is- is that it has the low-po V6/slushbox combo. You'll need to do something about that, first thing, and we suggest a nice Cadillac V8 swap, maybe even a Northstar swap if you're feeling ambitious. We don't know where the reserve has been set, but the current high bid is only $1,225 at the time of this writing, so we think you'll be able to get quite the deal on a genuine Zimmer.

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Check out that super-80s decal emblem! Pay no mind to the large-diameter tailpipe; that fad will be gone long before all the old Supras disappear.


The hatch spoiler! But don't laugh- a Supra just like this one won the Flat Rock 24 Hours of LeMons last year.


This one is on the battered side, but you know there's plenty of life left in it. Being forced to choose between one of these and a Starion would be quite the 80s dilemma.