Three Photographers, Three Cars: Welcome To Syracuse!

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. We thought the Three Photographers One City idea worked pretty well in Denver, so now we're going to try it with the Central New York city of Syracuse. BZR, UDMan, and Backstept have captured three miraculously non-oxidized survivors for us; make the jump to see all the photos and read the photographers' descriptions.



First up is this Firebird, which BZR says lives outdoors at all times: I drove by this beast pretty much every day, until one day I finally broke down and came around to capturing it via camera. Seeing as it's a baby-blue Firebird, it's pretty hard to miss - and I still remember this post on the limited-edition 'Birds, so I knew I had a sneaking suspicion... Just as I thought, it's not only a 70s Firebird (apparently any old American tanks are rare around here, minus the errant Dodge Dart I see) but it's one of the nearly-forgotten editions, right down the street from me in Syracuse, New York! How cool is that? I was pretty impressed. It's always parked in the same spot. I didn't get a chance to encounter the owner, however. It's a damn shame the neat "Sky Bird", er, bird is missing. It's pretty well-preserved other than that. Check out the fuzzy dice! And it's a 1978 based on the grille pattern too, as I discovered.

Now here comes this sharp Galaxie two-door hardtop, which UDMan spotted while roaming the Northeast: While I was visiting a dealer in Syracuse NY, my right rear tire went flat on the Altima. So, I was at a tire dealer, and a customer came in with this beauty, a 1965 Ford Galaxie 500 XL 2 door hardtop. As you can see, it’s in great shape, but there is a small problem. Apparently the car has an electrical draw because the customer stated that you have to disconnect the negative battery terminal after it’s driven. But look at this car! The details that seem to be lost at today’s car manufacturers, like the tail lamps, the ornamentation, those wheelcovers!

Just to show that Syracuse isn't just about the Detroit iron, Backstept has photographed this very solid-looking early-70s Volvo 1800ES wagon. I think those Draco wheels actually look pretty good on it, correct or not. I don't know much about this car, but it's apparently a '71-73 Volvo 1800 ES sport wagon. only 8,078 were made. I'm surprised at the condition, given the climate here in Central New York.