Welcome to Must Read, where we single out the best stories from around the automotive universe and beyond. Today we have reports from Automobile Magazine, DieCast.org and Road & Track.
Future Non-Classics Futures – Automobile Magazine
Jamie Kitman's at it again. He might have taken a detour and written about the UAW earlier this week, but Kitman's back to talking about classic cars. Well, almost-classic cars. And these are the ones I already scour the internet for! Excuse me while I go clear out my mom's garage and search for loose change.
Those who pass time with the great Internet Satan, search engine humming in the Cars for Sale corner, will know the self-recrimination to which I refer. And, yeah, you probably were an idiot, but I'm here to make you feel better, not worse. For, even against a rising tide, there remain cheap cars for, say, less than $10,000, with plausible upsides. Or at least good undervalued ones that are done depreciating. Which, after all, is where upsides begin.
HONGQI CA770 – A Chinese Official Limousine. Chrysler's Chinese Version – DieCast.org
Raph suggested this, of course. Joking aside, it's actually great diecast amusement with photos.
FAW (First Auto Works) looked at United States and obtained the rights in the late 1950 to make Chrysler Imperial in China. After getting an old Chrysler sedan, the Hongqi engineers replicated this US car without producing an exact copy. The factory disassembled the sample car and exhibited the parts one by one in the display window for various workshops to study. The chinese engineers produced a Limousine based on Chrysler's 1950 CROWN IMPERIAL, C-50 and 1955 CROWN IMPERIAL, C-70. The first model CA72 came out within 6 weeks.
The Hot Wheels lifehack – Road & Track
A short but sweet piece from Zach Bowman. It's worth thinking about if you're 5 or 50. I definitely don't have enough loose change floating around to buy Hot Wheels and an AMC.
If it were up to me, I'd never touch another dollar bill for as long as I live. Cash is cumbersome, but in the worlds of Craigslist and manual labor, it's still the best way to pay someone for their goods. The problem? I'm 20 minutes from my closest ATM.