On the way home from work tonight I saw a Studebaker Avanti coming the other way. It appeared to be pretty “straight” but unrestored.
Today on my trip to the corner shop I saw a Lamborghini Huracan Spyder going round the roundabout… it was getting a bit dark so didn’t get a good look but it was a dark blue/green colour with a black top.
(This probably represents a higher rate of seeing random supercars within a minute’s walk of my flat than I’m used to even despite my comments above…)
Yesterday, a guy wearing a Grinch-as-Santa outfit, riding a Harley.
^ Anything looks cool when you’re riding a Harley.
This morning I saw lovingly restored (or extremely well preserved) mid 1970s era Ford Mustang II. First generation Mustangs are pretty much a dime a dozen, but you don’t often see probably the least loved generation of Mustang given that treatment. In true 1970s fashion it was painted orange, with a white top. It was hard to tell from the distance I saw it from, but it may have been a vinyl top. On that generation they did offer a more luxury oriented “Ghia” trim, which included a vinyl top. Very 1970s.
I saw a late model pickup, think 2017 f150 or so, with a prairie schooner-style cap on the back. Think 6 foot diameter white (fabric?) cover on a new, bright green truck.
This morning I saw a late 1950s Ford Fairlane being hauled on a trailer. Since it was up on a trailer I couldn’t see if it was the retractable hardtop version.
Also, an especially old VW Beetle with very small taillights. I think those lights would make it a late 1950s model, or 1960 at the newest.
Saw one of these today, or at least very similar. It was done up as a hot rod, big tires in back, sounded very healthy!
Struggling to recall all the unusual cars I saw today, beautiful sunny, warm day. Everybody getting their toy-mobiles out for a last hurrah before winter. Ah, every time I see something interesting I think of this thread, but I’m blanking on the others I saw today.
I saw a Lamborghini Urus today, in bright yellow.
I almost want to say Lamborghini Uterus.
Last night I saw a Lotus of some sort. All I really saw was the rear as it passed me while I was waiting to make a left turn, but I could see L-O-T-U-S spelled out across the rear and a large rear wing. I think it might have been an Evora, but it’s hard to tell.
This morning I saw a new Acura NSX. I’ve seen a few of the the first generation ones on the road before, but I think this was the first time I’ve seen the current version “in the wild”.
Not much recently, but over the weekend I saw a lovely C3 Corvette Stingray in white. I suspect most of the nicer cars will be going in the garage for the winter soon.
Yeah, there are a number of cars where I know the vintage versions (from obsessing over them on Jalopnik and Road&Track, and from dreaming about them).
Then I see a current one, and I feel shocked, then intrigued, then betrayed: “WHY did no one tell me that they still made these?”
I’d been looking at '91 NSXs, then saw a 2020 one, and went through all those emotions… in addition to “Damn, it was such a sleek car in the 90s, why did they give it all that Angry Origami and make it look like the current Pissed-Off Civic?”
Made a shopping trip into Rhode Island today, and on the freeway on the way home I got passed by a Porsche 911 GT3 RS. Bright blue, with that big wing making it stand out even more.
When I heard that this classic vehicle was putting in an appearance at the Beach Boardwalk, I had to drive over to Santa Cruz to get some pics:
I saw a red SUV parked at Lowe’s with the license plate “SANTA C” with cartoon Santa and Mrs. Claus on the rear window. I guess I should watch out and not cry.
That reminded me, when I was a kid there was an old man on our block who had a long, white beard, owned a Santa suit, and played Santa at local holiday events. All the neighborhood kids, including me, believed he really was Santa, even though our neighborhood wasn’t at the North Pole. You reminded me of him because his car also had vanity plates that read “SANTA”. Although nothing else about his car was particularly Christmas-y; as I recall it was just a fairly boring Oldsmobile or some other typical old man’s car.
On our drive home from the mountains today I was passed by a recent vintage yellow Lamborghini Huracán weaving in and out of traffic.
This doesn’t really count, since I saw it in a dream last night. Mrs. L.A. and I were escaping from a bizarre cult that had a mad scientist doing unspeakable things to animals and humans. We came to a garage or gas station that had a mid-'70s T-top Pontiac Trans Am. It was metallic teal with white tuck-and-roll upholstery. And it was stretched. The front of the car (complete with the ‘screaming eagle’) looked like it was a couple of feet longer than it should have been. The back seats looked more roomy, too. Suddenly there were four of us: Me, Mrs. L.A., Burt Reynolds, and that female captain from Alaska Gold Rush or whatever it’s called. Her nose, which in real life is rather large, was larger in the dream.
Now that you mention it, I had a car dream last night as well. And there was also a train involved. I showed up to my old high school summer job as a groundskeeper driving a car that was sort of a mash up of the Buick Park Avenue I drove back then and the Miata I have now. It looked kind of like a late 1980s LeSabre coupe painted red with a black vinyl top and a stick shift. The boss has acquired a very large log, like a redwood or something. It’s so heavy it’s can’t be hauled by even the largest truck; it’s got to he carried on top of a railroad locomotive. And so railroad tracks have appeared on the grounds, and I stand as watch as the train hauls the log down the the sawmill that that also had randomly appeared.
And then the work day must have been over, because the next thing I remember was that I was driving my car, which had reverted to being entirely a Miata, down some steep twisty mountain road. I downshifted into second gear while descending a steep grade and rounding a hairpin turn, and the engine revved to 9000 RPM.* Also, the road has been coated with fresh tar, which is great for traction around those curves, but then it hit me that it’s going to get all over the paint. So I go searching for a car wash, but at the bottom of the mountain the road leads directly into a car dealership. I had to make a u-turn in their service center, and headed off in the other direction searching for a way out.
*Because of the dream I actually took note this morning that in reality the tachometer only goes up to 8000, with the red line at 7000 RPM.
Out on a walk this morning I saw a Land Rover Evoque convertible, one of the most ill-conceived car ideas ever hatched.