And yesterday I saw a 63-66 Valiant parked on the street, same basic frame but they took all the Wow Factor out of the body. Still, a good looking car that I later saw driving around.
On the same walk I also spotted an early '80s blue Chevy El Camino hiding in a garage. It looked pretty good, and had a vanity plate MDYBLUE.
According to legend, a Chrysler executive overheard GM executives talking about their newly-downsized cars, not realizing they were discussing the Corvair, and scrambled back to his bosses with the story. Chrysler immediately embarked on a crash program to shrink their cars, only to find out that they were now the smallest of the Big Three. The styling, odd even on the big cars, looks positively weird on the smaller ones they came out with.
The early ‘60s were a lean time for Chrysler. They couldn’t give these things away.
A Volkswagen Squareback.
Also a Volvo V70 wagon, which isn’t interesting on it’s own. The interesting thing was that it had a European license plate underneath the California license plate. At first I thought it was a European spec model imported under the 25 year rule, but the oldest V70s are still a year too new for that. Maybe the owner just stuck a European license plate on there because he thought it looked cool. It had a European front plate as well.
I saw one of those on the freeway last week. A girl in high school had a fastback. You never see those.
In Sandy, Utah today in a Walmart(!?) parking lot–a Lamborghini Diablo
And in an amazing coincidence, I saw one of those today.
And hers was that colour, IIRC. (If I don’t recall correctly, then it was off-white.)
Today I saw four Miatas parked in a row along the beach, with eight people enjoying the low tide.
Tonight I saw a late 1950s Ford convertible. I’m pretty sure it was a '59. I couldn’t tell if it was the famous retractable hardtop because the top was already down.
This morning I saw a 1980ish Datsun 210. Come on, when was the last time you saw a Datsun branded car that wasn’t a Z car?
Yesterday I saw a new Ferrari (or ‘new-ish Ferrari’ – I’m not up on the models); and later, an '80s Alfa-Romeo Spider. Both cars were white.
Last Tuesday I saw a very noisy, silver Lamborghini (I think) that was missing its bumpers.
Yesterday in the MG we saw a Rolls-Royce, which I think was a Silver Cloud. I couldn’t catch up to it though, because Mrs. L.A. was in the car.
Today I saw a baby-blue Porsche 356 coupé. Yesterday I saw a red Meyers Manx dune buggy at the brew-pub. Today on my walk I saw it parked in someone’s yard. Also on my walk, I saw my neighbour driving his gold 1968 Ford Galaxie 500.
On a flatbed truck, a butternut yellow 1965-ish Buick Riviera with black vinyl top. Looked really nice and original except for the overly dark, non-factory, window tint.
On a small highway, west of town this time, I saw what I guessed to be a Jaguar D type (or replica) coloured green with a big number 8 in a white circle on the bonnet. It had the speed pod behind the driver’s head, but not the big fin you see on some of them.
Black VW beetle. Most recent models were 2003
I saw a car yesterday that they didn’t even sell here in the US: a Nissan Figaro. I can guarantee that car gets a lot of attention.
Yesterday, driving down highway 1 I passed an MG A heading the other direction.
Today probably the most interesting was a 1958 Impala that drove by while I was sitting on the motel patio having breakfast.
Other honorable mentions are a 2nd gen VW bus with Mercedes hubcaps, including on the front mounted spare tire, and a mid 1960s Rambler American. The Rambler was rather rusty for a California car, but it was 2 blocks from the beach.
A 55 Chevy wagon (not a Nomad), with patina’d paint and a ladder tied to the roof.
It wasn’t a full-on rat rod (thank goodness), but I’m not sure what they were going for. If I owned it, if nothing else I’d give it an Earl Schieb job to tide it over until a real paint job.
Yesterday on my bike ride I saw a red Viper with a large wing, looked like one of the special packages or a really nice aftermarket addition.
Later in the ride I saw a canary yellow Lamborghini Huracán, at least I think that’s the right model. I don’t think it was an Aventador.