My local corner shopping center has a mixture of shops; anchored by a semi-bougie grocery store there’s a distillery, a few eateries, an actual butcher, a baker, a pharmacy, a shipping store, of course a couple of coffee places, and assorted other outlets totaling about one and a half dozen all told, it’s almost an all-needs-in-one-location.  What it also has is a parking lot large enough to never require circling for a spot, and most days there is at least one interesting vehicle amongst the population, a number of which I have featured here over the years.

Today after I was running my errands in one of the stores I almost tripped over this little 1985 Pontiac Fiero GT, an example of which I haven’t seen a running one in some time, let alone one in pretty much pristine condition.  Yet there it was, parked less than a carelessly thrown door’s width away from other cars.  This certainly called for me to memorialize the occasion, and after doing so I spied some other lot-candy within eyeshot so took a quick walk around to add to the collection.

1985 was the second year of Fiero production, and the last year that the 2.8l V6 of the GT model shared the same rear sheetplastic as the 4-cylinder.  It’s actually quite attractive in white, which wasn’t a very common hue as I recall in the early years of the model, they all seemed to be red.  I’m still not a fan of the ubiquitous GM rear luggage rack thingy but at least it’s black rather than chrome in this iteration and I certainly wouldn’t refuse this (particular) car due to it.

The GT did get a different nose.  It’s a little longer and maybe a little bulbous, pondering it maybe it does work better with the forthcoming different rear, which was also a little more rounded.  But whatever, I shan’t be picky, there aren’t many running Fieros left; not that there are that many first generation MR2s or CRX’s either for that matter.

A bird on a spit?  At least the GT got its due with its own badge.

The arrowhead works well on the B-pillar, and the GT applique as well on the rear side panel.  Bodywork was all composite material, so no worries about door dings and such, however the paint could still fade; this one however displays no such issues.

14″ alloys used to be a desirable upgrade.  It can’t be easy finding 14″ tires anymore, these are 215/60-14 on this one which is quite chunky given that a VW GTI of the same year for example used a 185/60-14.  White-letter BFGs score all the period-feel points, and that design of Pontiac wheel was used on quite a few models, it looked (still looks) quite good.

Here’s a terrible shot through the windshield showing what appears to be an interior just as remarkably preserved as the exterior.  It also shows that the owner didn’t wuss out and option an automatic transmission, but instead went for the manual.

Sharp-eyed viewers will note however that the shift pattern stops at 1-4 and R, yes, GM didn’t see fit to equip their sporting runabout with a proper 5-speed a la Toyota MR2 and even the Fiat/Bertone X1/9, CR-X, and pretty much anything else that a buyer might choose to compare the Fiero with.  For shame.  But look at that interior!  It’s perfect.

One last glance and then we’ll let the eye wander a bit a few rows over.

Ooh, here we go, the polar opposite of a Fiero, a Mercedes W123 in the immortal Hellelfenbein (Light Ivory) color so beloved of the German cab driver.  You can’t go anywhere in the world and not see at least one W123 if you keep your eyes open.

This is a fairly late-model example given the Bundt wheels and the fact that it’s labeled as a 300 with the TurboDiesel engine, so I’ll guess it’s maybe a 1984 or so, someone else might know better.  This will outlast even the cockroaches after the world ends.

Meandering around a little more revealed this 1993-ish Cadillac Seville SLS, Cadillac’s first real “import-fighter”, never mind what their marketing had been saying previously.  In very period-correct emerald green, this is a dead ringer for the car the owner of the first company that I worked for after college purchased for herself.  She purchased it over the weekend after the Friday that she announced to the entire company that there would not be a raise for anyone that year due to “economic conditions”.  I realize now I may have been a “quiet quitter” three decades before that was a thing.

This one has the Northstar engine which debuted for 1993 in this model (the old 4.9l was in the 1992), so it’s a little surprising that it’s still on the road.  The SLS was the softer traditional version, while the STS was the juicier one in regards to suspension tuning etc.  I guess the SLS would be the Mercedes competitor in Cadillac’s mind while the STS chased after BMW in Cadillac’s dreams.  Alright, I don’t mean to be catty, these are actually quite nice cars and I admit to a severe soft spot for the successor generation (’98-’04).  Cudos to the owner for keeping it going, I believe they work in one of the shops as I see this one here regularly.

See what I mean about W123s?  This lot had two of them, this one is at the opposite end of the spectrum relative to the 300 TurboDiesel we saw above being a 240D without a turbo and an older model with the color-matched hub caps.  It appears to hail from Washington State, driving this here would have left the occupants with a lot of time to admire the scenery in detail as it slowly glided by.

What’s not to like?  Well, besides the lack of urge, of course.  Still, this base model (in the USA) has the same phenomenal build quality, solidity, longevity and whatever other superlatives one would care to lob its way as its slightly more motivated (motorvated?) brethren.

Hey, a Woodgrained Whale!  Yes, this is the type of shopping center that was built in the early 1970s with lots of low buildings and a wide sort of promenade sidewalk in front of the shops that owners of all manner of woodgrained wagons would frequent.  Here’s the last of the species doing yeoman duty.  I think its owner works here as well as it’s a common sight, but the first time I’ve stopped to digitally harpoon it.

This one does have the later mirrors so it’s a 1995 or 1996 and would have the Corvette-related 5.7l LT1 engine along with the dual exhaust.  When properly equipped, the wagons like this one could apparently tow up to 7,000 pounds.  It’s always parked under this same tree, perhaps birds of a feather flock together…

Leaving the whale alone to take a gander at this relative plankton in Classic Red, an early Miata never fails to deliver a smile.  And this one looks virtually new although it’s a 1992 at best if I’m not mistaken due to it not having a chrome Mazda emblem on the front.

It’s a dead ringer for the one I used to own.  Well, except for the fancier wheels, far better paint, and nowadays much greater rarity.  What a fun ride, and thank you all for wandering around the parking lot on this fine fall day with me.  Which of the above selections would you like to take home after running your errands in the center?  I don’t think there’s a wrong answer, actually.

The post Parking Lot Classics: 1985 Pontiac Fiero GT And Friends – There’s Always A Memory Or Two In My Local Shopping Center’s Parking Lot appeared first on Curbside Classic.

Lord, won’t you buy me an Oldsmobile sang no one ever, certainly not Janis, and not any of the legions of artists since.  Yet here we were in the times of the New Wave, with Japan Inc. well in its ascendancy, the thawing in relations with the Soviet Empire making global warming look like a hoax, and perms with shoulder pads all over the place in Los Angeles.  Yet what might have been considered a chic little squared-off coupe wearing one of Detroit’s most storied badges barely made a ripple.  At least not on the best, er, I mean West Coast of these here United States of America. 

I don’t know that I was quite aware that the Olds Firenza even existed.  Sure, there were J-bodies all over the place, many of the winners of The Price Is Right’s Showcase Showdown did live in SoCal after all or at least had to drive their “prizes” back home from the Television City Complex in Los Angeles through the local area to whatever place they came on down from.

Cavaliers were like cockroaches (and to be avoided likewise), Skyhawks somehow were attractive to those without the means to acquire a 3-series or Baby Benz or whose corporate lease budgets and edicts only allowed for expenditures from the “Domestic” column, Pontiac’s J/2000/Bird-special-name-of-the-week were for those needing more excitement than a T-1000 and my deep thoughts on the Cimarron will remain unwritten this time, it’s a new year.  Did I forget one, I can’t keep track of all the rungs on the ladder, frankly one rung in a ladder looks, feels, and performs much the same as any other when you consider the analogy.

I earned (ha, more like was assigned), my United States resident birthright golden ticket, AKA my driver’s license, the same year this particular car was built.  I certainly was enamored of cars that a man with a moderate I.Q. wearing a blindfold might touch the sheetmetal of on a dark and stormy night and think were the same as this in 1985, i.e. the Celica, Scirocco, 200SX, etc. and so forth.  I’ll allow those were perhaps somewhat higher priced (to start anyway, yet usually far better equipped), however the Olds badge was at least marketed as somewhat more premium for whatever that’s worth, i.e. not really very much.  Yet those are the rules that are played by so it cuts both ways and the more economy-sized and lower priced offerings were definitely smaller than the Olds.

But rectilinear styling is only skin deep, and garbage goes to the bone.  Or so the saying goes.  There must be a reason my fellow generational peeps are currently bidding up excellent examples of those “competitors” and a myriad of others of the era, yet the J seems to stand for Junk at least as far as those thrusting their money at the online auctions are concerned.

Now, there’s no doubt that the Coupe is the looker of the bunch, after all the J-car was offered in 2-door sedan, 4-door sedan, 4-door wagon, and this coupe form; none of them were ugly, just maybe not particularly inspired.  Oh, and the Convertible, but not as an Olds, which is the only version that might give the Coupe a (visual) run for its money; at least if the top is down.  Even the Olds’ front isn’t the worst of the litter, the grille-less visage with lots of lights certainly was a predictor of the future for many cars.

Maybe that’s the problem, an Olds being futuristic in any way.  While there actually was still a car with a 4-4-2 badge in 1985 coveted by a few people somewhere near the Ohio/Kentucky border, generally an Oldsmobile of the ’80s is the car brand most likely to be sporting doilies (if Tatra87’s neighbors hadn’t stashed them all away by then in their Laurels, Cedrics, and Crestas) if you were to ask most anyone in the teen to very early 30-something demographic.  Come to think of it, perhaps mostly thought of as your father’s car, now how’d I think of that?

Still, as I just said, it WAS the 1980s and Oldsmobile was not yet a complete shadow of its former self.  Anything with a Cutlass badge either front, center, or after the real name still sold like the proverbial hotcakes, and some genuinely interesting shapes and divisional contortions were still in the pipeline before the rocket brand’s launchpad was dismantled for good.  Just not the Firenza.  So what’s the problem?

I’ll tell you.  Or at least give you one opinion.  Here’s the 2.0liter inline-4 engine in this car.  This produced a whopping 88 horsepower on average according to the sources I looked at.  It was the base engine relative to the optional 1.8liter inline-4 overhead (single) cam engine that produced 84hp.  Yeah, four less for $50 more.  Uh, alright, every generation does have to learn the “new math” in school and that wonderful 2023-era word “shrinkflation” certainly applies, everything new is old again.  Or something like that.  There was a 2.8l V-6 available that produced 150hp (according to the brochure only) and presumably more torque.  A 4-speed manual was standard with the 2.0l, and a 3-speed automatic was an option.

This car is equipped with said 3-speed automatic and the 2.0, just like I’m speculating most of its ilk for the entire seven year production run did.  It’s a slug.  Meantime the Japanese were producing gems that purred like sewing machines or bigger fours that had truck-like grunt, Germany had a relative stone axe but it would keep going and overall thrilled more the faster you went, with an unburstable feel.  You don’t need a heavy V-6 in a small coupe if you can properly engineer a good four.  A five speed manual was offered but only for the 1.8.  And the 3-speed auto was $475 back then.  All of the competition offered five speed manuals as standard with whatever engines they offered by this time, most every competitor was also on the cusp (the next year in fact) of launching their next generation cars and drivetrains.  Don’t even mention the Olds Calais, which was new for ’85, also a smaller-ish coupe, yet with the least sporty formal roofline this side of a Cougar.  Seeing that Iron Duke abomination in the showroom didn’t help sell anything but more Toyotas across the street, at least on the coasts where not everyone has a family member in a GM factory willing to give out their employee discount plan credential.

Anyway.  Let’s look inside.  Alright, kind of vaguely promising at first glance.  At least there’s a color, blue.  A lot of blue.  And some black.  Overall it’s actually admirably restrained.  Let’s dive deeper, no letting sleeping dogs lie around here.

Bucket seats!  Too bad they are as flat as the benches in gym class.  Bolsters, man, bolsters!  Sporty coupe, remember?

The back seat does look decently roomy, airy and overall easy to see out of, the cushion perhaps a bit low, but three lap belts to counteract your snapped neck and at least pop out rear windows to vent a little of the baking oven effect all the glass must provide.

In case you forget which J(unk)-car you are in, the name is right there on the door panel, the armrest looks to be located in the right spot, manual locks and windows (it is only the S model after all, and an S is part of baSe), but there’s still carpet at the bottom for that luxury feel that an Olds must somehow provide.  I mean, to me nothing says luxury like effortless and eager thrusting acceleration, but carpet at the bottom of a door may do the same for others, go ahead, rub that bush if you must!

This here though, what’s with the wheel?  To begin, it’s advertised as leather-wrapped, however this one looks to have been attended to by a Jewish Mohel (pronounced “moyle”) soon after its birth on the production line.  And not even on just one end, but somehow on top AND bottom, I’m not even sure how it’s supposed to stay on, it’s shocking, that!

And since I’m already there and can’t be shocked further, the center of the steering wheel looks like two spread legs and a decapitated torso giving birth to a squirming bright red rocket launchin’ right atcha!  Once you see it, there’s no putting that genie back in the bottle.  Yeah, that’s exactly what I want to hold onto and be seeing when I’m trying to slice and dice traffic on the 405 or hang on around the turns of Mulholland.  That thing is hideous, I hope someone got fired.

There’s that inspired 3-speed shifter assembly that looks like some sort of mailslot with someone’s cane shoved through it and felt about the same to use.  The Bore-O-Matic.  At least this car sports the air conditioning option, a Detroit hallmark that was in fact the standard of the world for many years and might still be.  It also still sports the dual key setup with different keys for ignition and doors.  In some Cadillacs they were even gold (colored, the rich and convincing veneer of Liberace luxury).  Olds and the rest of the peasantry brands (remember what I said about the ladder?) else got silver ones whose plating wore off quickly exposing what I assume was dull brass, all featuring the same GM logo.

Someone also stepped up and ordered the upgrade radio, mind you it was a small step only, from AM to AM/FM.  No tapes or CDs here.  Four presets and were these the ones where if you pushed two buttons (i.e. 1-2 and 3-4) at the same time you’d get another station preset for a total of six?  The rear defroster was an option (still?), but I’m sure the cigarette lighter was standard.  Uh, maybe I’m not so sure, actually.

We glimpsed this earlier but here’s the full visage of instrumentation.  Both gauges.  Or “Gages”.  Speedometer and Fuel.  Yay.  And a few lights for the idiots.  Where did anyone in Detroit ever get the idea that a driver was completely disinterested in what their machine was doing?  Oh, that’s right, they could get that but it’d be a few dollars more.  In the meantime let’s remind them with the Dashboard Of Sadness and all of its blank space they could stare at while the speedometer needle inched ever closer to its full monty of 85mph, four full years after the law mandating that was repealed.  By 1985, a Scirocco’s would go to 120mph, a Celica’s to 130, all cars that also were introduced in 1982.  This stuff matters!  Unless, of course, your Coupe has some sort of performance anxiety.  It’s okay (insert hand over mouth coy chuckle emoji here)…

Elapsed mileage on the odometer shows 22,520 and there is no tripmeter, BTW.  I’d like to think this car is on its second go-round of the odometer but it may not be, this may be it for this one.   Maybe that’s why there’s no separate tripmeter, the main one can handle that, nobody wanted to drive this farther than one long trip.  I mean, look at it, it’s dusty inside, somewhat rusty outside, but not exactly “worn” in any way.

The dashboard has lots of faux stitching, but that was a thing back then that somehow is starting to be coming back into style somehow (the double use of somehow is intentional).  It’s relatively low too, at least the part directly ahead of the passenger, not Honda-low, but decent with a sloped top o’ the dash that isn’t seen today at all anymore.  For some reason the passenger gets TWO vents on the side, bonus!  That’s in addition to their half of the center duo up there where now a screen would be perched.  But come on, screen haters, don’t tell me the base of the windscreen is any lower than where the top of a screen is these days!  The top of the instrument cluster with its two miserable gauges is almost lower than that base.  Come on, I gotta step out of this, I’ll hold the door for you.

This is a good a time as any to examine the rolling stock…13″ optional “Rallye”-looking wheels with 175/80 Firestone FR440 tires (surely not original?), making for a sidewall of 140mm height.  It’s almost as tall as it is wide.  That gets you your supple ride, I suppose, and will work fine for driving across the midwest without steering for hundreds of miles, but not for taking a curve with verve.  13s were still seen on base economy car models in the mid-80s but rarely with an 80-series, a 175/70 or 185/70 was far more common with the majority heading toward 60s on 14s.

As a side note and my automotive PSA for the year (and, okay, since we are between friends here, a bit of a pet peeve), it seems a large number of people believe that sidewall height of a tire is a constant measurement denoted by the number, i.e a given numerical sidewall is just too low.  Well, it isn’t necessarily, that number is actually a percentage, the actual sidewall dimension differs based on the tread width number.  It’s a percentage of the tread width.  So a 285/45 tire would have a sidewall height of 128mm (285mm width multiplied by 0.45), almost exactly the same sidewall as that of a 255/50 tire or a 215/60 or a 185/70.  The wheel diameter itself is irrelevant in this calculation and measurement.

What else is there here?  Ah, this one has mudflaps to advertise your steed to all who follow and protect the bodywork from spray and grime, however it seems that horse has long since left the barn.  The whole point of the flap is to divert water away from the metal behind it, adding flaps after rust appears isn’t putting that genie back in the bottle, not even Ol’ Rusty Jones himself could work his magic here.. But if the mileage is low as suspected, perhaps this is more a poor early repair or a leak from the inside out after sitting and leaking in the back?

The derriere here is fairly non-descript and certainly inoffensive, lose the badging and the rockets on the taillights and it could be several other cars (and not just several other J-cars I mean).  It’s not bad but not overly captivating in any way either, not that it really needs to be.  The large rear glass though is attractive, as I recall I didn’t think to use the keys that were in the ignition to open it, being far too used to having a handy latch release to the left of the driver’s seat to open it and annoyed that Detroit cheaped out on that too on this semi-higher-end-positioned manufacturer’s coupe.  Hence no picture of the inside of the cargo area this time.  You can google it if you must, I won’t do it for you, consider it my little instance of quiet quitting.

I’ve actually had this one in the can for some time now, and ran low on gas there for a while.  I’m running a little low again (I can only handle so much excitement!), but perusing a VIN label always perks me up.  It turns out that this one dates from February 1985 and was built in Leeds, Missouri (just outside of KC, MO), apparently the only plant that built the Firenza versions of the J-body, for a total of 282,460 examples over seven model years before the line and the plant itself for that matter were taken down for good.  Look at the bottom right of the VIN label, it says “Pass Car”.  Well, it seems most people did in fact pass on the car.

From 1982 until the end of the 1987 model year when the Coupe was killed off a total of 57,282 Coupes (hatchbacks like this one) were built.  1985 only had 7,684 Coupes seeing the light of day with the following two years dropping those numbers in about half and then half again.  In ’86 the 2-door sedan (confusingly sometimes also called Coupe) joined the lineup and so for a couple of years there were four variants and for the final 1988 year the O.G. Coupe was dropped leaving just the three others to soldier on.

Some will cavalierly debate whether it’s fair to look at a Firenza as a “sporty” coupe like some of the others I mentioned earlier.  In reality, nobody really did, however they could and maybe should have.  Could and should have, that is, if Olds was actually able to add a little verve and zip into its cars (they have the freaking rocket logo plastered all over the car and coming at you from the steering wheel, for crying out loud!).

Yes, there was ostensibly a GT coupe with the V6, how many of those have you seen not in a commercial?  Exactly.  In the end most of the public ignored the Firenza, and likely most weren’t any more aware of it than I was.  Seven model years, four body styles, and just over a quarter million sold.  Few knew, fewer looked, and even fewer purchased.  That spells failure with a capital F.  Hey, just like Firenza itself!

Related Reading:

Ed S. caught a 1986 Coupe and translated its brochure from marketing into reality here

Tom K. was a fan of the Firenza and wrote about its last year here

Paul N. came across what he pondered may have been the nicest one left

The post Curbside Recycling: 1985 Oldsmobile Firenza S Coupe – A 1970 4-4-2 It Is Not appeared first on Curbside Classic.

(first posted 1/3/2018)       Every journey starts with a step.  Or, in our case, replace the “e” with an “o” and make it a “stop” for gas and coffee on the outskirts of Las Vegas.  However daunting our 810 mile journey back home may have seemed that morning, when I turned from inserting the nozzle into our car’s filler I realized our journey was going to be nothing compared to the things this little 1960 Ford Falcon Ranchero has likely seen and is just as likely to still see.

I have no idea where it came from or where it was going beyond that the tow car had California plates and was on the Eastbound side of the I-15, so presumably the Ranchero was heading east as well but where to?  The owner was nowhere to be seen the entire time I filled up and waited for my family to bring me sustenance so presumably it will forever be a mystery.

Less of a mystery is the appeal of the Ranchero itself; this 1960 represents the first year of Ford’s downsized and now Falcon-based trucklet.  Soldiering on through the 1965 model year in the same basic form, this body style does much more for me than the car on which it is based.

This first-year example was likely (originally) powered by the 144 CID inline-6 with a 2-speed automatic transmission.  Hauling around a surprisingly light 2475 lbs, performance was probably at least adequate, maybe a bit less so if the bed was filled to its full 800lb capacity.  Or, if a Niedermeyer disciple was the owner/operator, then likely overloaded by a factor of two to three times that.

30mpg!  And America’s lowest-priced Pickup!  What’s not to like?  The two caballeros in this ad’s, uh, cab, certainly seem to be enjoying themselves hauling what looks be a load of tomatoes.

Our example isn’t quite as shiny, being in what appears to be the midst of an aggressive chemical stripper campaign to remove the paint.  That process is much more advanced on the driver’s side of the truck, but the black paint was bubbling, peeling, and lifting all over, just waiting for some more elbow grease.

The rear shows what is clearly not the factory bumper anymore, but with the step is likely to be more useful.  However, the body is low enough for even a not especially tall child to be able to place items into the bed so maybe the bumper was replaced for a different reason.  But otherwise pretty much all of the trim and odds and ends are still in place which should make restoring it an easier task.  That being said though, it seems like it would be easier to remove the paint if one removed all the bits first but what do I know.

This cutaway shoes the 6-foot bed all loaded up, I suppose the planners wanted to be sure that potential buyers didn’t think it was much less capable than a “real” truck.  Our example is certainly using all of the available space as well with quite an assemblage of random items.

This truck was fairly obviously someone’s pride and joy at one time, the red wheels look great and it still sports a set of BF Goodrich Radial T/A’s.  I don’t think that black was the original color but am not sure what it may have been; there s a lot of red peeking through on the hood though.  The interior is red as well though, so I don’t know.

I think this truck would look great in a creamy white as in the first ad but with the red wheels and interior.  The black is a bit too menacing which really doesn’t work on a Ranchero (for me).  I wish the owner well in his endeavor as the more I look at this little truck, the more I want to see it again at the next stop on its journey.  Carry on, little truck, and may you venture forth under your own power soon yet again!

Las Vegas, NV, December 26, 2017

The post CC Outtake: 1960 Ford Falcon Ranchero – On The Road To Resurrection. Hopefully. appeared first on Curbside Classic.

Sometimes I will be stopped in my tracks while in the junkyard.  At times it’s due to a Maserati, other times a Lancia, and ever so slightly more often anything badged as a Datsun.  This one seems to have undergone nature’s version of a Colin Chapman-esque “add lightness” program, but that’s where any resemblance to any Lotus ends.  Still, the 210 played a strong second Japanese fiddle to Toyota’s Corolla, so let’s take a closer look at this second generation 210 in the relatively obscure hatchback format.  At least, let’s look at what’s left of it.

I don’t really know why I’m a Datsun (and by extension Nissan) fan, I’ve only owned one of their products, which was actually badged as an Infiniti (and was a great car), my wife had a Nissan Murano (which was an alright CUV), I don’t really aspire to own any of their current offerings, but somehow I especially enjoy looking at their ’70s and ’80s cars and trucks.  Maybe because they seemed to be a perennial underdog (except they did outsell Toyota at times), and lately have become a bit of a punching bag, not necessarily always deservedly so.

But somebody here in the Denver area took a chance on one and while on the surface it may initially seem they made a poor choice, looking a little closer reveals that this little puppy was always there for its master.  And then some.  This car gave a total of zero Fs, is still looking proud of itself, and will go down fighting at the ultimate end no matter the visible wounds.  I think The Crusher is going to realize there’s a load of grit in there somewhere and while it won’t choke on it, that’ll be this little car’s goal.  It’ll carry the flag of Nippon Steel high and proud and leave a slightly glittery flaking legacy of itself upon the bumpy soil of the ‘yard as it’s carried to the jaws.

At first glance one might look at this nugget and think that someone at Datsun took the lesson of the Volare/Aspen to heart and made sure that the front fenders wouldn’t rust.  And this one looks good.  Then perhaps it’s more likely that the front fenders actually rotten even quicker and this isn’t the first set that were on this car.  The paint on the passenger side fender looks too good to be the same age.  But not on top, it’s faded there too.  Who knows, maybe the fenders were from a different batch of steel or someone in the paint shop did an extra good job one day.

Overall this is representative sample of a very basic economy car line that’s in that awkward phase after transitioning from a somewhat curvy if not always admired 1970s shape into a more boxy 1980s shape, headlights were transitioning from round to rectangular, bumper forms were being prescribed by federal edict, and like on a gawky teen not all the bits seemed to fit the frame just right all the time.  Still, I wouldn’t say this is ugly per se, and if one thinks so, perhaps I might direct their attention toward several other shapes from the same styling studio just a few years earlier in order to readjust their relative perception?

The grille is gone, and it may have simply rusted loose of its mountings and fallen by the wayside, or the owner may have removed it in order to avoid the necessity of opening the hood to adjust the cardboard blocking panel in front of the radiator.  This car knew cold weather, and then some.

The front bumper still sports this parking permit from 1982 when this car was still shiny (probably), however I can’t figure out what LCRD is, if it’s even local.  Larimer County something something?  Lakewood Community something something?  Perhaps one of our longer-term local readers or contributors knows.  Still, that’s some good glue and ink the sticker people used to still be working and readable after dozens of years and hundreds of thousands of Colorado miles on the leading edge of the car.

The missing grille at least makes it easy to locate the hood release (not rusty), and popping it displays the inline four in all its glory.  Rear wheel drive for its last generation before morphing into the Sentra, the 210 had three engine options, those being a 1.2liter, a 1.4 liter, and what I believe this one to be, the relative “powerhouse” 1.5liter.  I was a little surprised to see that a 1.2 was actually on offer, but it apparently was so on the standard basic 2-door sedan with a four speed manual and clearly performed dealership loss leader advertising duties (that engine was known as the A12.  Or maybe it was known as the A123456789howhighcanIcountuntilIhitsixtymilesperhour… )

The MPG model got the 1.4liter A14 engine and a 5-speed, was otherwise fairly stripped out but returned 40mpg, and the 1.5 A15 engine was new for 1981 with 65 horses worth of power (it sounds stronger if you say it that way).  All three were OHV designs, and like most (all?) older Datsuns sported the light blue air cleaners that add a little visual pop to the engine bay when clean.

The insides are more than a little ravaged, this cloth seems to be from before Japan discovered UV protection methods.  Once the cloth goes, the foam is not far behind.  This car may also have sat for quite some time (I’ll restore it someday!) before it made its way here but who really knows.

I don’t think Datsun offered two-tone interiors on these and it doesn’t strike me as a car that would have much owner intervention done to it, so the only other explanation I can offer for the odd blue to tan color morphing of various components is that Nissan used GM’s plastic supplier for a while.  The two-tone does spice things up a bit in here with the bonus that the dusty dashtop really blends in well with the tan lowers and steering wheel horn hub.  But this isn’t what you came here to see so let’s move it along.

Room for four dials on the cluster, with only the inboard two used for gauges, at least there is a temperature gauge here in addition to fuel and the speedometer….

And there it is, 354,281.5 miles on the odometer.  I love the fact that Datsun has the tenths of a mile readout on the big dial, in addition to a smaller tripmeter that also had it.  It’s always better to be exact I suppose.  Anyway, 354+ big K miles is a big deal for any car, especially one dating to 1981, and even more so for one that was pretty much a disposable good from day one.

This was not a dream car or a luxury family mobile, but a bog simple, get it done cheaply and provide good service for a long time type of car.  The definition of value.  The kind of thing that any car that sells in the bottom quartile of car prices should provide because that’s what the owner likely needs and will bestow honor on the maker. I certainly hope the owner was pleased enough to go and purchase another product from the same dealer and manufacturer after this one.  That kind of service should be rewarded.

No air conditioning on this one but the radio has been upgraded to an aftermarket Sanyo IntelliTuner unit with tape deck, if you’re going to spend that much time in one of these and likely a good amount of it in the mountains without much reception, going higher with your own supply (of tunes) is important.

While the engine was in place, the gearbox was not, the three pedals though confirm it was the standard five speed box.  The glovebox is a little unhinged here, and the passenger seat is in more dire straits than the driver’s one.  It’s pleasant to see color here, I believe the earlier (1970s) models were mostly black inside like many of today’s cars, this is more appealing.  Or I suppose would have been when clean, fresh, and daisy-like.

Circling around the back shows us the original paint color underneath where the license plate resided, and while the badging is gone, the bumper is still connected to the car, even if the fill panel is mostly gone too.  The lights are attractive and somehow detailed nicely, I enjoy the way they curve to the bodywork and then have the clear and amber quadrants, overall the rear is more than vaguely Alfa GTV6-like.

The hatch opened just fine, the struts still worked, and the back seat folded down, leaving a large loading area for whatever might need to be carried.

This hatchback model weighed just over 2,000 pounds when new and shiny, I wonder how many pounds this extreme Jenny Craig diet took off of it.  The rear end is like swiss cheese and I love the way the paint is curling up below the rear marker light as if repulsed by the rust.  I’ll bet that light still works too.

The passenger door has some very cancerous boils going on with more than a little perforation….

…and the fender in front of it looks like Rusty, the Cookie Monster’s cousin, took a big bite out of it as well while the blue paint here looks virtually factory fresh.  Comparatively speaking of course, the bar is pretty low here.

January of 1981, Nissan Motor Co,, Ltd, and J-VINned for Japan.  The tags are usually bright and shiny on Japanese cars, the domestics seem to use some sort of printed and laminated labels that seem to fade over time.  Well, I’m all out of pictures for this one so I’ll just leave you with an example of a bright and shiny one eager to get that odometer rolling along…

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(first posted 12/18/2017)    Back when we lived in Northern California, attending the Monterey Historic Automobile Races at Laguna Seca was on our list of things to do almost every summer.  I recently unearthed a short stack of pictures from one random roll of film that I took during the August of 2000 visit.

Although the featured marque that year was Maserati and featured a huge parade lap of literally hundreds of them, at the time I was still more smitten with Alfa Romeo, of which there was no shortage either.  All of these pictures were (I believe) shot on my new-to-me Canon EOS-1, but I have no idea what film I used and most likely just had the pictures developed at Costco.  Now I have scanned them in here using my Brother scanner and messed with the pictures a bit in Picasa to get them looking (on my screen) similar to how the prints look.  Anyway, I’m no professional but the pictures are fun to look at anyway.

Usually it was boiling hot around the track when we went but on this day it was better than usual and part of the day actually had a lot of shade which is always a good thing when one of the Italians is the featured marque.  We also got to park in one of the “Designated Marque” parking areas trackside this time as opposed to having to park in the dry grass in the canyons surrounding the track and hoofing it in.

What was marvelous about the Monterey Historics back when Steve Earle was still in charge is that spectator entry was reasonable and access was pretty much absolute, there were really no restrictions on where you could walk.  You could roam around the entire paddock and get up close and personal with just about everything and everyone and as long as you kept your hands to yourself everyone (drivers, owners, mechanics) was extremely personable (if perhaps a little busy) and willing to engage in conversation.

While the races take place over several days we usually would only go on the last day in order to see the historic Formula 1 cars.  They would race in one or two heats and obviously would have very large age spreads within each class.  However, seeing (and especially hearing) such machinery would literally cause goosebumps.

You could get very close to the track.  I started taking a few pictures and realized that I was A) way too close standing just behind a barrier rail and B) the cars were going way too fast where I was (past turn 4 after the slight bend closer to the entry of turn 5.)  As a result I have several shots just like the one above this.  The track is flat, the angle is me bobbling the camera.  Across the way you can see where the BMW Car Club always has its parking area. Usually loads of eye candy. Nice cars too.

Three or four pictures later, (which I have spared you the pleasure of seeing) I was apparently (slowly) starting to get the hang of it.  I have no idea what the yellow car was, and if any of you know it, well, maybe you need to get out more… Since it was film I also had no idea what I did or did not actually get in the bag until a few weeks later when I got around to getting these pictures developed.  The old days sucked, give me a digital SLR any day.

Like fellow contributor Don Andreina, I really should be shooting in Panorama mode or some kind of 16×9 format, if only to get the ends of the cars in frame…

That shot right there is speed personified.  Ferrari 250TR.  The engine is at full chat here but getting ready to brake for turn 5 before heading up the hill.

I probably took this shot while turning back towards the bridge to see what was coming next and got overly excited.  A Shelby Daytona Coupe thundering under the bridge.  Walking over the wood-framed (and fully enclosed) bridges was extraordinarily thrilling as well when cars would pass under you at full throttle.  The whole structure would shake and the sound would reverberate through it.

If I am not mistaken that is a 1960 Maserati Tipo 61 “Birdcage”.

A fairly crowded Turn 5.  As with all historic races, contact is an absolute no-no.  Given that, it is astounding how these drivers lay into these practically irreplaceable cars with virtually no quarter given.  I suppose that’s the attraction, (us) seeing and (them) driving these cars, being used as intended rather than just standing around in a garage or a museum somewhere.

Back in the pits you always have to watch out that you don’t get run over with cars always heading off the track or lining up for the hot pits for the next heat or class…

Then you turn around and look who’s just sitting there taking it all in.  Ol’ Carroll Shelby himself!

The diminutive size of some of the racecars is astounding as well.  Today’s models are all so much larger. There’s room for a seat, the driver (sort of), the engine and a place to attach the front suspension to.  Not much else.

I’m pretty sure that’s Alain de Cadenet talking about this marvelously presented Corvette.

Gilles Velleneuve’s 1980 Ferrari 312 T5.  I remember walking all around this and bending over into the cockpit.  Nobody said a word as I inspected the craftsmanship and took a very close look at everything.

Here is Bruno Giacomelli’s #23 Alfa Romeo 182 – This was not a very successful F1 car for Alfa, after a string of DNF’s its eventual best finish in the 1982 season resulted in 5th place in Germany.  I can’t even fathom what it must take to keep a not very successful almost two-decade old F1 car going…But I am certainly glad someone has the funds to apparently do so.  Keeping an Alfasud or a 164 on the road suddenly seems like a non-issue.  It’s all a matter of perspective.

I think I will always be an Alfisti, I kept gravitating to them on this day.  Anyway, it’s time to put the camera away – I hope you all enjoyed this little slice of the 2000 Monterey Historics.

The post Trackside Classics – Monterey Historic Automobile Races, August 2000: Just A Random Roll Of Film appeared first on Curbside Classic.

And clearly, someone to hold your beer.  Ah, America the Beautiful, Land of Bounteous and Unbridled Creativity and Wonder.  Or something like that.  Whenever I have occasion to head up to Wyoming (which is a state I honestly and genuinely like) chances are good I’ll see something on the more unique side of things.

And this trip a couple of months back to my closest Menard’s (kind of like a far better Home Depot / Lowe’s big box hardware store option) up in Cheyenne forty or so minutes away from home certainly did not disappoint as when I exited the store the skies brightened a bit, the heavens focused a spotlight in front of me, and I swear I heard Sweet Baby Jesus whisper a deep and breathy thought in my ear.  And what SBJ said so breathily and deeply was, and I quote here: “Jim, What The F^&%”.  Or something like that. 

So of course I knew I had to document this as none of my overseas friends on CC and beyond would believe a mere verbal recounting of this experience.  The land of the free and home of the brave (visualize some good fireworks here and someone in a densely occupied neighborhood shooting his AR-15 clone in the air while the dog is licking itself and the kids are playing with sidewalk chalk and BabyMama is watching some show about housewives on her iPhone) is all-encompassing but only in certain states; set a good man free with a Sawz-All and a welding rig and there is no telling what he may create between lunch and supper in the barn on his own land with the barbed wire gate and cattle guard and then obtain license plates by mail and be able to drive it all over, even to Menard’s.

After all, America did land a man (or a few of them) on the moon using something not entirely dissimilar to this as I recall.  Or at least drove it across a soundstage, something like that anyway according to 6% of Americans; I wasn’t quite born yet, just kicking a lot and itching to get out I am told.  Although to be honest, this creation has a few more Japanese parts on it.  But only good ones; Japanese cab corners and rear wheel wells don’t rust, apparently, at least not like those from Detroit which I believe is what I was told befell the other half of the star-spangled portion of the donor pile.

I’ll be perfectly frank and hope that nobody will accuse me of being snide when I take the position that styling isn’t really this creation’s strong suit.  If you squint a little, or a lot, or, well, just jab your fingers in your eyes repeatedly there’s a little Excalibur-esque sense of proportion going on here. But that’s about all and assumes that to be a good thing to begin with.  Cab-forward it most certainly is not.

The driver (who is inside currently) sits way back for that cruiser-like feel.  Yeeeeessss. It’s all about the long hood and…and height.  Never mind the Man-Step in the back of an F-150’s tailgate, getting into the cab here is more than just one small step for man or even a giant leap for mankind.  This calls for a ladder.  Or a two handed boost in the buttocks.  Giddy up!

The man watched me bemusedly (suspiciously?) as I tried to inconspicuously circle a time or two (with my shopping cart ahead of me, perhaps an unconscious defensive move), but eventually I abandoned the cart and contents, gestured to ask permission to shoot (uh, photograph, this is Wyoming after all…), this was granted by a sage nod of the man’s head and then he opened the window to say hello.

After polite pleasantries were exchanged it was confirmed that this started out as a Chevy half-ton (Silverado? Squarebody? I forget) chassis mated to most of a Suzuki Sidekick.  The hood is sheetmetal made with standing seams like a metal roof for strength and stiffness.  The engine I believe was the lord’s own powerplant, a small-block Chevy.  I mean, what else would it be.  We weren’t somewhere west of Laramie, in fact we were about fifty miles east thereof…

Lest one think this is an apparition created for a quick fling around town or for a parade of some sort, No Sir!, certainly not, this here ve-hic-le has been on the road for close to a decade and over 70,000 miles if I understood the man correctly which I’m quite certain I did.  And his wife hates it.  Which is apparently all the more reason to keep it in fine fettle.

I do envy the man for the ease of access to all of the mechanical componentry that this vehicle affords him, the apparently slim-of-hand Englanders at Jaguar did me no such favors in our X-type wagon, and while there are no mandatory vehicle inspections in Wyoming (a different seven letter word for Freedom re-using two of the same letters so what else could it mean), it does have lights, mirrors, tread on the tires, and a number of reflectors just as The Man in Washington D.C. decreed in some extremely lengthy numbered and well-punctuated document that only one of our contributors here knows by heart.

A Chevy V8 doesn’t often look small.  It’s right there in the center, that little bitty thing right there.  And the oil filter practically changes itself.

Finally a pod filter design that doesn’t just suck hot engine compartment air back into the engine, this baby can breathe just like man can breathe in the wide open prairies of the Cowboy State (deep and unfettered without anyone telling him how best or when to do so).  And look at the battery, thoughtfully placed low in the chassis and almost amidships.  No throwing out one’s back when it’s time to change it.

Trailer hitch, step bumper, big ol’ mud flaps and what everybody really wants but Detroit is too busy designing golden parachutes to offer in quantity instead, a low pickup bed liftover height along with lockable cabin storage.  Sort of like a Ford Maverick I suppose.  Same same but different. And this one’s built right here in the USA by Americans for Americans (well, okay, by one American for himself), not south of some border where the people can’t come over but their work product we can’t get enough of!

I’m not sure there’s room for a spare tire though but plenty for the two or three bags of mulch that everyone really needs their pickup for.  Wyomingites know their trucks, that’s for sure, and they know what they really need and want out of one.  This one’s not for sale, go find your own barn and get creative.  Or something like that.

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