Today, a beautiful green Chevrolet 3100 ½-ton pickup.
But, what’s the year? I’m guessing around 1949…? Do you know what year this pickup is?
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Remaining pictures:
Chevy trucks remained virtually unchanged from '47 to '53 but it appears that '47 & '48 had a different hood ornament.
I did not see this in person, but I saw this picture today.
I believe the split windshield is also a clue. I’m pretty sure the later ones had a single piece windshield. But right now I can’t be bothered to look up what year they made the change.
Ok, I had to look it up, and I discovered Wikipedia has a pretty good list of the changes from year to year. Assuming Wikipedia is correct, they added vent windows in 1951, and switched to push button type door handles in 1952.
Since the truck in @Bullitt’s pictures has the older turn-down type door handles, but it has vent windows, it must be a '51. (Or it at least has the doors from a '51).
(And they didn’t change the windshield until 1954, when they also changed the grille, so that wasn’t as much of a clue as I thought)
Wow, thank you @WildaBeast !
My personal favorite electric car comes from Sweden and is the Polestar 2 (a close second is the Lucid Air). I saw this gray one just now, and the 2 white Polestar 2s are web pics.
Do you have any favorite electrics? (not to hijack @Telemark ‘s thread!)
One of my personal favorites, a 2nd generation 1992 Toyota MR2, t-top. The kid has owned this one only 4 months. It wasn’t running but he got her back on the road.
Beautiful.
Today — a beautiful, yellow Fiat 850 Sport Spider in fantastic condition.
The Fiat 850 was manufactured from 1964 to 1973 to compete with the Austin-Healey Sprite and MG Midget. At just $2,100 (or around $17,000 in 2021 dollars) it was America’s cheapest sports car at the time.
Designed by the famed Giorgetto Giugiaro (named Car Designer of the Century in 1999 and inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2002), the Fiat 850 was a predecessor of my beloved first car, the Fiat X1/9. When the Fiat 850 was launched, it became wildly popular. The Sport Spider was produced beginning in 1968.
Designer Giorgetto Giugiaro of Bertone in Grugliasco of western Turin, Italy created some iconic designs during his career, including the DeLorean, the Iso Grifo, the Volkswagen Golf Mk1, the Lotus Esprit S1 (from James Bond and Roger Moore’s “The Spy Who Loved Me” [1977]), the 1963 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GT, the 1966 Ford Mustang concept car, the 1981 Isuzu Impulse, the 1993 Lexus GS, the 1976 Maserati Quattroporte, the 1984 Saab 9000, and the 1974 Volkswagen Scirocco. Many are beautiful cars to this day.
In 1967, Road & Track magazine called the Fiat 850 coupé “one of the handsomest, best-balanced designs ever seen on a small car”.
The tiny Fiat 850 Sport Spider was a risky ride in the 1970s United States because the roads back then were dominated by much bigger and faster cars. But the little Fiat offered cheap and fun entertainment, especially with the Sport Spider’s wind-in-your-hair and sun-in-your-face transportation.
I saw an Alfa Romeo Graduate yesterday, similar concept to the 850 but with any pizazz or soul.
I saw a Saturn Sky in the parking lot at work this morning. The Sky was a two seat roadster (It looks like we have a roadster theme going) that Saturn briefly sold in the late aughts. It was sort of their last ditch effort to generate some enthusiasm for the Saturn brand before GM finally shut it down. It was basically a twin of the Pontiac Solstice.
Yesterday, two Dodge Vipers: a red Dodge Viper GTS coupé, and a green Dodge Viper SRT10 roadster spotted in San Jose, CA.
I’ve never driven a Viper, have you? What was your experience? Because of the engine’s geometry and firing sequence, the sound of a V10 is one of the sweetest sounds made by a car ICE engine. Have you driven any V10 car?
After the anemic cars of the 1980s when manufacturers were figuring how best to navigate major emissions control requirements of the 70s and 80s*, Dodge made a big splash in the 1991 performance sports car world when it introduced the Viper with its 90° 8.0 liter V10 engine. Lamborghini, then owned by Chrysler, helped in the design of the Viper’s V10 engine that was based on a Chrysler V8 engine.
The new Viper debuted in 1991 that included a pre-production example for the pace car for the 1991 Indy 500 (red, web photos), and Vipers first went on sale in January 1992 as RT/10 Roadsters. Dodge built about 32,000 Vipers through 3 generations from 1991 to 2017. Today, more than 30 years after being introduced, random Viper sightings are becoming increasingly rare.
Web photo, 1991 Indy 500 Pace Car:
The red Viper GTS is the coupé version of the Viper RT/10 that was introduced in 1996 with the 2nd generation Viper. The GTS (Gran Turismo Sport) can be recognized by its ‘double bubble’ roof that provides some cockpit room for occupants with helmets.
The green Viper SRT10 roadster (SRT for Street and Racing Technology) has a unique color that’s beautiful.
* — in the 1980s, cars really… shall I put it bluntly? … well, cars in the US mainly sucked. This period in is known as the Malaise Era for US Cars. There’s even a wiki page for it ➜ Malaise era - Wikipedia ■.
With very few exceptions, after the glorious muscle cars and pony cars of the 1960s into the 1970s, 1980s cars were anemic and humble. But air pollution was becoming a serious problem and changes were needed. Major emissions controls changes included the Clean Air Act from the Kennedy administration (and signed into law by LBJ less than a month after JFK’s assignation), the catalytic converter (largely from 1975), and the “check engine” light from the early 1980s that can catch when the engine is not running optimally.
Exceptions to those humble cars include the Lamborghini Countach, Chrysler and Plymouth Conquest TSI (aka Mitsubishi Starion), Toyota MR2, IROC-Z Camaro, Chevy Monte Carlo SS, and the Buick Regal Grand National GNX (the FBI bought those for its pursuit cars).
My father-in-law once had a beautiful bright red turbo Plymouth Conquest TSi. It was an awesome car and I once got to drive it from San Francisco to Salt Lake City that included a 100+ MPH run on I-80 through the Bonneville Salt Flats. A fantastic car for its time! I was actually doing about 130 on I-80 and got stopped by Utah Highway Patrol! I got off with a warning, but that is a story for another time (with thanks to Bill and Edith Hoch from Ohio).
Web photo, Plymouth Conquest TSi:
With thanks to the air pollution controls for cars, air quality in US cities has improved dramatically. Fuels are much cleaner. Lead has been eliminated and sulfur levels are more than 90% lower than they were prior to regulation. According to the US EPA (signed into law by the Nixon administration in 1970) US cities have much improved air quality despite ever increasing population and increasing vehicle miles traveled. As an east coast boy, I used to make fun of California’s air quality restrictions, but now I see the wisdom and am grateful for our bluer skies and cleaner air.
All photos, IRL and web:
I don’t know what’s under all the stuff on this vehicle, or what statement it’s trying to make, but it’s definitely the most interesting car I saw today.
At first I thought those were flowers glued to the van, and I was thinking parade float or wedding car. When when I viewed the full sized image I realized that’s not what that is. It looks like that foam sealant used to seal gaps around pipes and stuff, with color added.
As to why? Hey, someone had a beater van, and some foam stuff, and a creative spark. And maybe some controlled substances.
What does is say on the rear window? I can just make out “[something something] orange [something] and back.”
Whatever is under there is about 10 years old. Taillights are almost but not quite Honda Odyssey from that period.
no 1st hand experience with the Viper, but I heard that they had a nasty habit of “breaking out without prior warning” (IIRC: tire-related - as there were very few tire options available in this size and they pretty much all sucked) and hence were very difficult to drive “spirited” (they often stopped spirited, as well in a ditch), and that this fact contributes to the low numbers in existence.
yep, hearsay …
I had two 1989 Dodge Daytona Shelbys that have similar hatchback profiles and style notes. I do miss some things about those cars, especially the considerable boost after the considerable lag.
Those sidepipes, mrrrw, yes. Those dated 3 point wheels, erm, no.
I saw one in Bandon last year. It was the first time in many years that I had seen one in the wild. Very impressive car:
It’s only a model.
A Dodge Custom Royal 4-door hardtop, 1955
