Sadly, mine was zero rust, the body was like new and had been freshly repainted when I got it. But there was not much that could be done with the 2.3L four cylinder.
I saw two unusual, older cars while running errands yesterday:
- A chartreuse Volkswagen Thing
- A late '50s Chevy Impala
Both were in excellent condition.
A friend had an SVO Mustang and heavily modified it until that turbo 4-banger produced 300+ HP. But it had a tendency to blow up on the track, and ended up being a failed experiment for racing.
This morning I saw, in a garage parking lot in Montreal, a Jensen Interceptor. This is the first time I’ve seen one since 1984, when I saw a fair number of them in Victoria BC.
The one saw today looked like it was in beautiful condition, and I have no idea what year it was.
as well as the SVO Mustang the 87/88 Thunderbirds had intercooled turbocharged 2.3L engines that produced 190 hp and 245 lbs of torque from the factory. It was pretty easy to tweak theses to 250 hp.
Well, in the mid-70s, that 2.3L Lima motor put out a whopping 89 horsepower. My Mustang II was only slightly more entertaining when floored than the Beetle it replaced.
If you get a chance to drive one (or even ride in one), take it. Insanely fast. Fastest vehicle I’ve been in, and we used to have a chipped S4 (and I used to ride sportbikes). Truly impressive.
This 1960 Ford F100.
In Downieville, CA, a 1969 Buick Gran Sport with the Stage 1 400. Not the fastest muscle car you could get in 1969, but no slouch. I talked to the owner for a bit. Real clean car and nearly stock. Looked great.
That 62 year old F100 looks like it’s still on the job.
Perhaps the truck has something to do with that pile of wood next to it.
A first generation Mustang, probably 1969-70. It had a hood scoop and a ducktail, hardtop, but I only saw the front end briefly.
Nice. Love Buick Gran Sports. While I’ve seen a decent amount of 70-71 Stage 1 GSs, I believe I’ve only seen one or two 1969 Stage 1 cars. You really don’t see lots of '68 or '69 GSs in general. quite polarizing body styling those two years.
Yeah, I’ve been to plenty of muscle car shows and never seen one til now. The only visible mod was he’d changed the rims to much wider ones with stock faces, so from the side the wheels look factory, but from front and rear, you can see some seriously wide rubber front and especially back.
I haven’t seen many Lucids out there, but today I inspected one up close and took several photos. It’s pretty sharp.
Lucid Air Dream Edition Performance
Power 1,111 HP
Top speed 173 MPH (by Car and Driver magazine)
Range 471 miles
Cost $169,000
Today in Sunnyvale CA
Still haven’t seen a Lucid, but there are two dealerships close by so I’ll keep an eye out for them once I familiarize myself with the look.
I saw a Kia EV6 commuting today. It’s fairly nice looking, except the new Kia logo is as ugly as the old one (switched out the lambda, added a V).
Pretty sure I saw a Polestar Precept today. I drove by it, and couldn’t see any model name, but I think that it had the Polestar logo, and the car looked like the photo on Wikipedia.
A bright yellow VW Beetle Cabriolet, most likely the same one I saw back on May 12.
Most of the “special” versions had a hood scoop, but not all had the ducktail. Possibly a Mustang Grande.