blips

A trainload of new Land Rover Defenders sits at a platform in Aschaffenburg, Germany—the town of my birth. Will these Defenders ever see real, hard-core off-road use? Do they resent that Discovery behind the white Defender on the top level, since they were born without solid axles but rather with numerous suspension…

A preproduction Ford Mustang Mach-E sits at a stoplight on fabled Woodward Avenue in metro Detroit. Notice how the grille shutters at the base of the front fascia are open, allowing airflow to the radiator and condenser. This makes sense, as it’s hot in Michigan, so I bet the driver has the air conditioning on. Plus,…

Totally normal context for an Oldsmobile Delta 88. That’s exactly where every one of those ended up.

Behold: The worst Ford Mustang Ever. It’s the second-generation “Mustang II” model built between the 1974 and 1978 model years. The 1977 car shown here is called the “Ghia,” and it was meant to be the luxurious trim (other body styles included hardtop and “2+2" fastback, which could be had in Mach 1 or in Cobra…

In Hong Kong, a right-hand-drive 1966 Ford Mustang convertible sits next to a Pagoda. That’s the nickname for the ’60s-era W113 Mercedes-Benz 230 SL with the concave roof that resembles “curved roofs of Far Eastern temples.” I honestly don’t know which 1960s “2+2" I find more beautiful.

This 1991 Dodge Caravan does not deserve such a fate. Despite its longtime Michigan residency, the van isn’t completely covered in rust; its awesome, sporty “ES”-trim lower body cladding and grille still look great; and even the interior remains a thing of beauty. A 3.0-liter V6 sits under hood, and though its…

Here’s a great page from a brochure for the U.S. market 1974 Triumph Spitfire 1500. It shows and describes the full powertrain and drivetrain layout (pushrod inline four with a “Stromberg 150 COSEV” carburetor, four-speed manual, rear drive) and suspension setup (double wishbone up front, swing axle out back). But the…

A 1994 second-gen Ford Taurus SHO sits at a junkyard just outside of Ann Arbor, its beautiful Yamaha-designed variable-length intake manifold having mercifully been yanked and spared from the crusher. The vehicle—sadly equipped with a four-speed automatic—had a few rust spots, but appeared to be in decent shape.…

I fell in love this Valentine’s Day. While visiting my coworker Jason in North Carolina, my fellow Jalop pontificated about the virtues of Renault’s trusty R4, a basic french car introduced in the early 1960s as the “blue jeans” of automobiles. It was simple, durable, practical, accessible to the masses, and became so…

A Tesla Model S sits atop a shipping container in Hong Kong. Not far away is a Tesla repair shop containing a number of Tesla parts cars. In Hong Kong, it’s not uncommon to find highly desirable vehicles sitting on shipping containers. (A few years ago, my brother and I spotted a Honda NSX stored in similar conditions)…

One of the most famous automobile roof designs ever debuted at the Geneva Motor show in 1963 on the Mercedes-Benz 230 SL, also called the “W113.” The lid, with its concave shape, earned the car the name “Pagoda,” a term alluding to “curved roofs of Far Eastern temples.” But the shape didn’t exist for just aesthetic…

A truck loaded with ten mid-engine Corvettes sits at a stoplight just outside of General Motors’ Milford Proving Ground in southeast Michigan. I wonder what will become of these machines. Will they get hooned around a test track by engineers? Will they be run through a rigorous dyno test regimen? Or will they somehow…

My first car was a blue 1984 Volvo 240, which lasted about a year, before a leaky gas line totaled it. My second car was a silver 1986 Volvo 240 in considerably better shape, which lasted about a week, after lightning struck a tree near my house and the tree fell squarely onto the 240's roof.

I recently spotted a Plymouth Neon at my local Taco Bell, and had no choice but to exit my truck and take photos. The Neon is a vehicle that I didn’t appreciate enough when I was younger, and so I will repent by repeatedly expressing my newfound love for the awesome front-drive compact sedan that Chrysler took a…

Here’s my thought process lately: the C8 Corvette is cool. And it’s made me start thinking about other Corvettes. Even at $60,000, the C8 is out of my reach. But maybe an early base C7 will start to slide into striking range soon? Probably still no. But a boy can dream.

I drove a 1977 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40 earlier this week, and now my life will never be the same. That incredible 4.2-liter inline-six, that satisfying long-throw four-speed manual, that overall mechanical simplicity, that excellent off-road geometry: It’s no wonder this machine is such a legend.

I’ve always had a strange admiration for the Ford Streetka, the weird, convertible, Pininfarina-built version of the Ford Ka compact car. I think the tiny Ford Ka is itself a cute little machine, but I’d never have guessed a roadster version would look this good. The car is based on a the Ghia-designed Ford Saetta…

Gurgel was a fascinating Brazilian company that, in the late 1960s, began building its own dune buggy-like cars based on the Volkswagen Beetle platform and powertrain. Later, things got more exciting when Gurgel built machines with bold-looking bodies made of a material called Plasteel, which was a blend of fiberglass…