Mercury Grand Marquis, mid 1980s. Just a 40-year-old car someone is using as their daily drive through Los Angeles.
I have a custom plate very much tied to the name of my car. I’ve had people who own the same car not get it.
An old Caddy painted all white with “SCARFACE” written on the sides and hood in huge red letters and Al Pacino’s face from the movie.
I don’t miss the days of being stuck behind one of those old cars at a red light as your car disappears into the cloud of exhaust it’s belching out.
Bonus points if the engine is still cold and running rich or it’s burning oil.
When I owned my 1979 Chevy Impala I always wanted to get VLAD for a custom plate.
My town’s sister city is Pieve del Grappa, Italy, something I didn’t actually know until recently. But to celebrate 25 years of being sister cities, they held an Italian cultural festival today. As part of that, they had this Alfa Romeo Spider on display.
I parked behind a Saturn Outlook SUV XR, essentially a rebadged Chevy Traverse. It was only made from 2007-10, and only a total of 75,000 sold.
Whoa! Didn’t know they existed. I doubt I’ve ever seen one. I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled for one.
Coming home from taking the Miata out for a drive, I was briefly behind a guy cruising in his first generation Corvair convertible. I couldn’t get a picture since I was driving, but this was pretty much what it looked like from my perspective:
a 1957 Pontiac Star Chief, same color as in that photo, too. Restored & just incredible. That car got nothing while somehow, the best in show was a most pedestrian 1988 Ford Mark VIII LSC. Seriously?!?!? I was almost wondering why it was there; there is no way it should have one best in show.
Wow, Willow Glen was the place to be in San Jose today for car buffs. Just a small sample of the hundreds of vehicles on display:
I saw a new-ish Jaguar E-pace in a parking lot this afternoon. Knowing nothing about it I figured it was another electric “suv.” When I got home I discussed my confusion with Mr. Google and learned that the E-pace is a rather generic gas-powered, 2wd (although an AWD versionis available) “suv” with no real defining features that set it apart from every other vehicle in the same class. Other than the premium name, of course.
To me it looked like a ten year old Buick Encore. Kind of boring, really.
I went to a car show and saw a 1930 Chrysler Model 70 Royal Coupe.
what was interesting was that the front windshield had a crank in the visor area and would roll the window up about 1 1/2 inches to allow air in. It also had a lip that caught air and directed it to the floor. Another neat innovation was a mechanism that allowed a chemical to be dumped into the intake and coat the valves so the next time it was started it would blow out the crud that builds up.
I was out in the desert with The Crew in a spot that you could see the highway from. I just happened to be looking at a truck pulling a car trailer with a small tractor. A small puff of white smoke appeared. I thought maybe a tire blew out. Then a giant plume of dense white smoke starting billowing out. It was like a New Pope announcement! But the guy didn’t stop. Jest kept on motorin’ slowly up a small grade. I watched him go about a half mile, with smoke so thick cars in both directions were visibly slowing down. I’d only seen a more catastrophic mechanical failure at the Reno Air Races (which would have been this weekend).
Too far away to catch a whiff, but my first guess is transmission. It was an impressive display.
I know this is a thread about cars. But since you brought up pontoon boats… 
Daughter and I spent the weekend in Vermilion, Ohio. Nice place. We rented a boat at a local marina. Was talking with the owner afterwards, and he mention he’s a dealer for Trifecta pontoon boats. He said he just received one that he will soon be delivering to a customer, and he claimed it was the fastest pontoon boat in the world. He said that this boat has not one, not two, but three V10 engines. I took some pics.
Soon to become the slowest airplane I bet. At least for a… short hop.
3rd generation Chevy Camero IROC-Z (85-92).
For the rest of my life, (and for most of my past life) I’ll never be able to see an IROC-Z without hearing this line from SNL. You’ll have to hear this with Adam Sandler doing a heavy Italian/NY accent on a sketch called Good Morning Brooklyn (and I’ll quote it so it’s not ‘me’ saying it):
I pull up to the aquarium, I’m in my brand-new Z-28 IROC, and this tub of lard goes up to me, “You know what IROC stands for?” I says, “No.” He says, “Italian Retard Out Cruisin’”.
Two pickups on the opposite ends of the spectrum.
First was an older (maybe 2000s) Ford F-150 Shelby. The graphics back then were very simple and plain, not like the flashy ones more recently.
The second was a brand new Chevy Silverado EV crew cab extended range - definately a large vehicle.
I saw a Union Pacific track Hi-Rail truck, with the steel wheels for running on rails fore and aft of the regular truck tires, on city streets far from any railroad tracks. It was also pulling out from the parking lot of an oil change place, which also seemed a little odd. I would have assumed UP did their own vehicle maintenance, although it could have been there for some other reason.
It looked sort of like the ones below, although those are from a different railroad.
