As is my usual Friday routine, I headed to the In-N-Out drive-thru this evening. And also made a stop at the ATM on the way this time. Waiting at the light leaving the bank, a red early 1960s Mercury Comet convertible turned the corner in front of me. I thought that would be the most interesting car, but there was more…
While I was waiting in line at the In-N-Out drive-thru, a whole stream of classic cars drove by. It had to have been some sort of car club out driving around or something like that. Among the cars I identified were:
-Several mid 1960s Impalas, including a convertible.
-Several 1930s car based hot rods.
-A Plymouth Barracuda
-A First generation Buick Riviera
And it wasn’t just limited to American muscle cars. There was also:
-A Volvo Amazon station wagon
-A Volkswagen Type 3 fastback
-A modified 1970s era Datsun pickup.
And others that I’ve probably forgotten to list.
Also worth noting was what I’m pretty sure was one of the new mid-engined Corvettes. That would be the first time I’ve seen one of those “in the wild”.
If I have to pick just one as the most interesting, I suppose it would be the Buick Riviera.
It’s finally spring in TOC-land, and the classic car owners are getting antsy. A few of the local Friday park-and-chat group were gathered-with-distance. There was a car I hadn’t seen before there.
An early 60s Triumph Spitfire, outfitted for drag racing. Wheelie bar, roll cage, doors welded shut, just-barely street legal wide slick tires in the back, and beefed up engine that I didn’t get the specifics on.
Out for a walk today and saw a brand new-looking Toyota 1980s Celica GT convertible. It was in phenomenal condition, notable because I had friends with Celica GTs back in the day and theirs were all ratty by the early 90s.
In San Francisco there’s a company called Love Tours and they drive you around in groovy painted VW Busses. They are fun to see around The City! (ETA-1, their busses are from the 70s, not 60s)
I actually had to go into the office today, for the first time in over a month. On my morning commute (which went much faster than normal) I passed a 1970s Buick Century. It looked quite a bit like the one featured in the Wikipedia article, except the one I saw had a black top. I’d bet the one a saw was a Gran Sport like the one pictured, too, since performance models tend to have higher survival rates.
Last year or a couple of years ago, I saw a white Ford Model T pickup driving around the neighbourhood a few times. Yesterday on my walk, I saw it in someone’s garage.
Indiana is scheduled to start “opening up” gradually this weekend, and after over a month of no noteworthy sightings, today I saw three late '50’s-early '60’s cars within a few minutes. First were two Corvettes going down the street one after the other, then a Pontiac turning the corner as I was waiting to cross the street. I’m guessing the drivers were all members of the Lafayette Kroozers, who have tentatively scheduled “Hot Summer Nights” festivities for July 24 and 25.
This morning while working from home I looked out the window and saw a beautiful restored VW Karmann Ghia convertible drive by.
Then I had to go into the office for a bit. On the way I saw an old Beetle. It looked pretty original except for the fact that the headlights had a ring of amber LEDs around them that flashed in sync with the regular turn signal on top of the fender.
A weird little flatbed minitruck. I think it may be a version of this: TruckAll
I’m not sure though since what I saw had the flatbed a lot more integrated with the body up front and the wheels and tires looked almost like for a gocart. And the tires were slick. It sounded very much like a sport motorcycle. It was really, really small, so small, I thought it couldn’t be street legal and just out for a joyride but it had a license plate.
Ok, weird enough that I have two interesting cars in as many days but this was at the very same intersection as the minitruck from yesterday. As before, I was in the middle lane and the interesting car went past me on my left in the turning lane. Weird.
Anyway, I saw what I think was a Daewoo Nubira. Def a Daewoo and the model name begins with N. Not many of those still on the road, that’s for sure.
A very heavily modified Toyota FJ-40 Land Cruiser, with big off road tires, raised suspension, what appeared to be aftermarket seats, and a piece of shiny diamond-plate steel in place of the tailgate.
I also saw an otherwise ordinary Ram pickup with a sign on the tailgate that read “Cribbage. Do you want to play? Can you play?” and a phone number. There was also a dollar symbol with a circle and slash through it, I assume indicating that you don’t need to pay. I’m not certain if this guy is just looking for people to play cribbage with or if he’s hustling people somehow.
And this evening I saw a Volkswagen 411, aka Type 4 wagon. Old Beetles and Buses are fairly common, but you don’t see many Type 4s. IIRC when they were new they didn’t have quite the same popularity in the US as other VW models.
ETA: They say that if you spend enough time in California you’ll eventually see one of every car ever made. I’m beginning to think that’s true.
I’ve been having to go into work frequently to do stuff in the lab lately, so I’ve been out and about more and spotting more cars. Tonight on the way home I passed a 1957 Chevy Bel Air convertible, yellow and white, and an old Fiat Spider.
