Friday, June 5, 2015

Closing out the work week with two big mommas

YACHT CLUB
Here's an example of the Chrysler Fuselage Styling that ran from '69 to '73. These cars are on some other gigantic scale that doesn't seem to apply to other cars, but the bodies were still rounded overall like an airplane fuselage.
This particular ride is a 1971 Chrysler New Yorker in what seems to be a 1970-only color Bahama Blue. The build quality for Chrysler in this era was famously inconsistent to the point where if you want to win a world-class car show your restored car has to have certain mistakes accurately portrayed! The fact that the color is from the year before doesn't surprise me.
This isn't the main feature today though . . .
Let me introduce you to Big Connie. She's a bit huge, wears gaudy jewelry, shows her age, and hangs out in dicey neighborhoods, but hey! She's winking at me!
This is a 1974 Lincoln Continental in the awesomely-named color Red Moondust. This is about as big as a 2 door car ever got at a whopping 5,399lbs! You need a lot of engine to drag that tonnage around so a 460 V8 rests under the hood. I believe only the Cadillac 472 and 500 motors were larger for a domestic automobile.
The grill is made of baleen which helps trap the myriad krill and copepods whales need to eat.
Oh the indignity! Someone wanted desperately to get inside and knocked out the small rear window. From this angle you can see the plush ocean of maroon velour just waiting for you inside.
This is the very worst year for the added-on federally mandated bumpers. However, due to the slab-sided Baroque styling of this rolling building the bumpers actually work. They seem a bit like a guardrail though.
This thing looks like it came to the surface to breathe but will be heading down into the depths once again. The trunk is just unbelievable in its scope. This is a 2-door personal luxury coupe people!
We'll leave Big Connie here to roost, somehow without license plates or tickets, on the more industrial part of Atlantic Avenue. The power headlight doors are vacuum-operated so the one open eye is probably due to a missing or leaking hose. The rest of her looks pretty straight, so hopefully she'll be cruising the boulevards again real soon. Chin up, Connie!

1 comment:

  1. "She's winking at me!" is the funniest thing I've read today. XOXO

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