Mystery Mopar gets a piggyback through Brooklyn.

ABOVE THE ROAD NOT RUNNING AT ALL

Sometimes a vehicle passes by my shop in Brooklyn and by the time I recognize what I'm seeing it's long gone. Other times people are stuck in traffic. This vision presented itself the other day:

 Sweet Mopar relic! What we have here is a 1973/1974 Plymouth Satellite, Sebring, Road Runner, or GTX in what looks to be the color Hemi Orange. I realize that's a wide array of possibilities but this is a beater rolling by on the back of a flatbed! 

One detail that ought to be helpful in identifying but isn't is the Power Dome Hood. This was the standard hood for both the Road Runner & GTX but very well might've been an extra option for the pedestrian Satellite. That should be a '74 if that hood is vented, '73 if not (assuming it's wearing its original clothing).

You have to admit that it's a great silhouette. It's still athletic at this point where as the mid '70s would extend the hoods and shorten the trunks for most 2 doors.

The color looks so Mopar and perfectly faded that I'm inclined to believe it's original or a very old repaint. Regardless none of the identifying decals or stripes muscle cars of this era are so famous for are present so it could be a base model Satellite with optional hood.

The guy in the drivers seat of the truck said "it's for sale; 4 grand" when he saw me taking pics.
I asked "is it a 440 or a 383?"
He checked with is passenger and said "383".
Then I did some research and it looks like the 383 was last available in 1972 so I guess we were both wrong!

Just a quick pass by but the car looked complete and at least had a drivetrain in it. If most of the rarest parts such as interior are present this is a fine project and worth every cent of that $4,000. For now I was just happy to have an interesting ride cruising by that was snarled in enough traffic that I could catch up with it.

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!

Mopar Graveyard roundup!

MOPAR GRAVEYARD UP NORTH

Last year I was kicking around up north with an old friend when he mentioned that there was a gas station that sometimes had old cars laying around. It turned out to be the find of the year because they had the winged '70 Superbird roosting in the gravel lot (that post can be found here: http://nychoopties.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-holy-grail-of-nascar-vehicles-show.html). While the 'bird stole the show there were several other relics hidden about that I swore I'd get to eventually, so here's the Mopar treasure trove roundup!

This great burgundy behemoth greeted us when we first pulled in:

This is a 1976-1977 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham in Claret Red. Everything about this car screams excess.

This is basically the last dinosaur wandering the cooling Earth wondering where all its friends have gone, not realizing it was as good as extinct already. A full 4 years after the gas crisis that shocked the American public into mileage consciousness this beast lumbered off the assembly line. How Chrysler could feign surprise when on the brink of bankruptcy in '79 is beyond me.

Behold the sign of puffy leather sofa seating and leisure suit style!

Apparently this has a Hemi in it (which I seriously doubt). Most likely there is a wheezing and emissions-strangled 400 V8 lying dormant beneath its massive hood.
*It is a bit of irony that this car, while escorting its parent corporation to insolvency, was named New Yorker just a year after the famous "Ford to City: Drop Dead" headline regarding the presidents aversion to helping stave off NYCs own bankruptcy. 

This is a sad image indeed. We were told that this thing runs like a charm and was driven to this spot just so the owner could remove the front end. Here it sits beached with a perfect drivetrain, dead.

The New Yorker was the higher-end version of the Newport. However in this year the New Yorker inherited the front and rear treatment of the mighty Imperial which had just been discontinued. Somehow this registered with the general public, making the '76 model a minor hit. This probably added to Chryslers delusion that they ought to continue building 5,000 lb cars that got 8-12mpg.

Too bad the front end of this yacht was in demand as the body looks cherry.

With all the windows down cruising along in total cushy silence I bet this would be the ultimate cruiser. Fred from the B-52s probably had this ride when he was about to set sail in Love Shack.
Now let's do some exploring around the property . . .

Righteous! This is a 1966 Plymouth Belvedere II 2 door hardtop in Dark Blue Poly. This is a wonderful car identical to one that a close friend of mine drove in high school.

Engine offerings in the brochure went from the 225 Slant 6 all the way up to a high performance 383 V8. However 24 were known to leave the factory with the mighty 426 Hemi under the hood. If you didn't mind special ordering such a thing, almost doubling the price of the car, and agreeing to forgo any warranty they would build one for you in those days.

Beneath the junk and dirt this car seems straight and restorable. The squared-off lines of the '66 model year always looked great to me, especially with this roofline and that circle of brushed metal on the rear edge of the side trim. Cool car but there's more to explore!

I know this is getting a bit ridiculous but that is a 1974 Dodge Charger peeking out from beneath a massive pile of parts (which includes that white grill bar to a '55 Ford Truck). This model year is identical to the 1973, but the Frosty Green Poly color choice identifies it. This was the final year for Charger which went from the General Lee in 1969 to a personal luxury coupe here. The Cordoba took over in '75.

It wasn't just Mopars in the yard; here lies a 1962 Mercury Comet in Jamaica Yellow. The '62 differs from the '60 and '61 by having a chrome spear running along the top of that concave body line. The chrome is missing but the holes where it was attached remain.

Another Chrysler from the "Fuselage Styling" era is on hand without its front clip. This one is a 1971 Newport in Honeydew (though if I ever saw a honeydew melon that color I'd probably pass it up).

Two more '71 Newports are lurking in the back, one in Evening Blue Poly and the other in April Green Poly.

Finally, another '71 Newport being reclaimed by nature, this one in Glacial Blue. *That piece of rusty cocoa on top just past that tire is actually a front fender for a 1971 Plymouth 'cuda with the front gills or louvers. This is a '71-only part for the high performance 'cuda, not available on the base Barracuda. Even in this condition it's worth more that the car it's resting on!

Finally this tragedy is a barely-discernible 1966 Dodge Coronet in Bright Red. Obviously the grill, hood, and drivers side fender are all missing but I'm 95% sure that's what this is. We're deep into automotive junkyard fetishism here but this sort of archeology is right up my alley. I used to clamber around the hills and woods near my house in high school taking pictures of junk cars in the woods so nothing's changed really.
Next post will include real, drivable finds I'm sure.