The Yugo thread got me thinking. What unusual cars have you seen on the roads recently?
Yesterday I saw a bright orange '57 Chevy coupé going from the 405 north to the 605. There was a nice-looking Nomad not to far ahead of it. Going north on the 405 near LAX I saw a big red 1940s car. I don’t know what kind it was. It was a big bulgy thing with “Super DeLuxe” on the bonnet. I generally call these “Bulgemobiles”.
Earlier, on the 22 westbound, I saw a white Sunbeam Alpine. That one got me anxious to drive my '66 MGB that is undergoing restoration with excruciating slowness by a couple of hobbyists.
And of course I drive around in a 1946 Willys CJ2A on weekends sometimes. People seem to enjoy seeing it. They smile, honk, give me the “thumbs up”, shout “Nice rig!”, etc. A friend of mine calls it a “happy car” because she says it makes people happy to see it.
There are so many Porsches, Mercedes, Volvos, BMWs, SUVs of all makes, Hondas, Toyotas, and so forth that crowd the local freeways that it’s fun to see something out of the ordinary.
I saw a silver Rolls Royce a couple weeks ago. Especially unusual considering that I live in a semi-rural area and it passed me by on one of our many two-lane country back roads here.
I saw a white Citroen of some type in Cambridge MA, heading out of town on Route 2. I didn’t get a good look at it though, it was nighttime. First one I had seen in years, they were never common in the US. Some friends of ours when I was growing up owned a Citroen Maserati SM, which is probably the most unusual car I have ever ridden in.
That reminds me: I saw a silver early-1960s Rolls Royce on the freeway last week. I usually notice newer Rolls Royces because they’re so ugly. They don’t make 'em like that silver one anymore!
Based on the few I’ve seen, they are either too slow to be driven safely on an expressway during a northern Illinois winter or their owners are trying to actually achieve 50+ miles per gallon on said expressway and are willing to risk lives to save a gallon of gasoline.
Late 70’s Lamborghini Countach stuck in bumper to bumper traffic. I assumed it must have been a convincing kit car until I noticed a Lamborghini dealership up the street.
Oh – In December I saw a white '72 (?) MGB by Santa Monica airport. Several weeks ago I saw two MGBs on the way to work. One was a green chrome-bumper, and the other was a marron rubber-bumper that was broken down.
For the past couple years I’ve been going to the 24 hours of Le Mans with friends. We usually take the ferry from Portsmouth to (the French port I can’t remember right now). The queue at the ferry port is a huge car show, Ferraris, Lambos, Porsches, Astons, old Jags, and a couple of Ford GT40s.
A burgandy Auburn just crusin’ down the highway – The other day I saw three blue soft top corvairs pulled up at a drive-in. I imagine it was some sort of club - or Shriners or something.
I saw a Delorean a couple of weeks ago - I wasn’t positive that was what it was (I’d never seen one apart from the Back to the Future movies) until I came home and looked up pictures online.
It was kind of neat to see.
