Every Silver Cloud has a custom lining

EVERY SILVER CLOUD HAS A CUSTOM LINING

It's wedding and graduation season and so I'm featuring two classy visions that happened to cross my path. I can't vouch for the originality of either of these rides but they fit the bill for your prom:

Alright this one is the more interesting of the pair for me! This seems to be a 1959-1962 Bentley S2 4 door saloon that has been converted to a convertible. I'm inclined to think that this car started out as a true Bentley S2 for a couple of reasons. Firstly the driver is on the UK-appropriate right side.

The second reason I'm thinking this is a legit Bentley is that it is a Bentley as opposed to a Rolls Royce. When the S2 was built it was 95% identical to the RR Silver Cloud II. While production numbers were within 100 or so of each other the Rolls Royce name and trademark grill are more famous to the general public than Bentley. It is also Black when most are pearly White.

Both marques sold incomplete cars to independent coach builders for completion so there are several unique and one-off examples out there (one famous example is the 1963 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud III drophead coupe with coachwork by Mulliner Park Ward driven by Rodney Dangerfield in Caddyshack). Chances are better that a 4 door Bentley was professionally chopped into a convertible.
On to a creamier block of cheese:

Alright now we're getting into suspicious territory (although my footnote about coach builders still applies). At first glance this seems to be a 1959-'62 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud II Long Wheelbase. I ain't buyin' it for a second!

There are a few clues that make me think this is a "tribute" Rolls specifically built for prom & wedding use. The big one is the lack of subtlety on that body side swooping line coming off the front fender. It is close to the original but a bit heavy handed. The rear door ought to cut further into that flank of the rear fender. Glaringly this is ride has suicide doors which the original would not have had. The rear roof is too tall to be legit in my opinion as well, and it has a sunroof!  

Don't get me wrong this car would make a man feel like a king and a lady feel like a princess, especially from 30 feet with a phone camera like this woeful shot, but it just isn't the real thing (I think). My thought is that this was probably produced by a company such as this one. *Scrolling through the options on the link above is interesting. I recommend the Armored Vehicle section.
Well that's that for this post. If you're like me and you scroll through Craigslist classic car ads for fun (this is sadly true btw) you might notice that old limos litter the landscape with few takers. The ultra classic lines of Rolls Royce & Bentley will always find a home, but what about the K-Car limo of the '80s? Or any number of square Caddilacs from the same decade? For a glimpse into truly useless vehicles search for "airport limo"; no orphan has fewer adoption prospects than a Cadillac with 6 doors and 3 bench seats.
I'll close this out with my favorite of that weird category; the 8 door Checker Aerobus!

2 cool cars with an identity crisis

NOTICEABLE VERSUS OUTLANDISH

I'm bringing us back to the halcyon days of Summer when I found the following 2 rides roosting in Moosic, Pennsylvania. That's Moosic like "moo-zic" as opposed to moose, ick.

Get a load of this color! What we have here is a 1971-1972 Pontiac Ventura II in Buccaneer Red. This is basically a Pontiac Nova in an early case of badge engineering. The Chevy Nova was so popular that GM introduced almost identical versions in each of their divisions. The Ventura was first, followed by the Buick Apollo and Oldsmobile Omega in '73.

With the quad split grill this is my favorite of the faux Novas. This grill only lasted for the first 2 years. 1973 brought a split grill in 2 larger segments.
The rear side windows come to a point in the rear which means this is a standard coupe with a trunk. Beginning in '73 these were available as a hatchback. You can identify hatchbacks by the rear window being squared off. They even offered a tent that attached to the open hatchback for camping! Those are so rare it's almost like they never existed.

This hood is Ventura-specific and helps to make the trademark Pontiac pointy schnoz look like it belongs on the car. The Nova, Apollo, and Omega all had a single raised line going down the center. Under the hood lurks either the 250 inline 6 or 350 V8. There was a sporty Sprint option that allowed for the 307 V8 as well.

The "II" suffix alluded to the fact that there was an earlier, full size Ventura in the '60s. was dropped after 1972 even though this compact version soldiered on through '77.
Enough with that flashy but correct ride, let's get goofy!

Yeesh!
This sickly looking tough guy is a 1967 Dodge Dart in the unmistakable 1970-only color Sublime Green. The color was one of the High Impact range offered from '69-'72. The High Impact line included Panther Pink, Plum Crazy, Go Mango, and Top Banana as well as others.

I think a 1967 Dart 2 door is a great car on its own. This person obviously wanted a Hemi Dart which was only offered in 1968. However the turn signals are round on the '68 and slightly inset from the location of those above. Who could blame the owner for making a tribute? There were only 80 total Hemi Darts produced and they were reportedly the fastest muscle car of all time. Hemi Darts had the hood with massive scoop as seen above. The hood and fenders were fiberglass, bumpers aluminum, and doors acid dipped to save weight.

Other weight saving details included the omission of a back seat, no arm rests, no window cranking mechanism, and thinner glass. They were sold with no warranty specifically for "supervised acceleration trials" (that's drag racing to you rubes). From the factory the Hemi Dart was good for a 10 second quarter mile at 130 mph!
If you want to be noticed this is a great way to go I suppose. You're setting the bar high though as you'd better have an earth shattering beast of an engine under the hood to back up the look. I have to say the black wheels and blackwall tires look pretty great on this beast.
Well that's that. Summer's coming people just hold on a bit longer!

FAUXBRA?

FAUXBRA?

The automotive world is full of curiosities. The following ride encapsulates several of them and may or may not be what it seems (which is already an approximation of something else). What? Look:

Ok, ha ha ha what we have here is obviously a ferocious muscle car ready to kick ass and take names! It might also be an aggressive Pinto tarted up in sports gear. What we know is that this is a 1976-1978 Ford Mustang II possibly outfitted in the optional Cobra trim package.

This car does share more than a little with the Pinto of the same era. The front fenders and overall look of the body are very similar.

How do you fake something that's already fake? This is one way: replace the non-functioning hood scoop with another, even faker, non-functioning hood scoop. Despite that HIGH PERFORMANCE decal on the side this is just a plastic shape glued to the hood. Look how the front edges are lifting up! Also, if you're going to go this route why continue the bright paint and pinstripe on what is attempting to look like an opening? Come ON people! This car looks 90% correct why drop this ball?

The faux-ness continues under the front. This front spoiler was never offered on a Mustang II. Most of the Cobras had a spoiler that followed that bumper indentation above it, retreating a bit on the sides. The last gasp top of the heap King Cobra package for 1978 had a solid spoiler spanning the width of the car but it was huge and went straight down from the edges almost like a plow.
*I also could find no evidence of the word COBRA written in this location.

When this car was introduced in 1974 it was marketed as "The right car for the right time", and boy were they right. The gas crisis had ravaged domestic car sales and left dealership lots full of the huge full size barges with their 8mpg gallon ratings. In addition the true muscle cars of the late '60s and dawn of the '70s were strangled by federal safety and emissions regulations at the same time insurance providers were tacking on huge premiums for horsepower. This diminutive Mustang is more closely related to the original 1964 version with its small car dimensions and lower horsepower engines.

Say what you want about this being a maligned non-Mustang; this was a massive success with hundreds of thousands sold each model year.
*Genuine Cobras had a decal on the lower part of the door.

Those louvered windows are '70s radical and correct for the Cobra. In this era you could order them for literally any car or van though from JC Whitney and the like.

Just to pile on the minutiae pointing towards this being a fake I'd like to point out that the original stripes on the Cobra should not be on the taillight panel. In addition the stripes never went over the tops of the bumpers, but would run from the bottom to that bumped-out edge.

The COBRA wording always had a II next to it in this location.

This isn't the first time I've featured a homemade Cobra! Witness the Faux-Bra from 2014.

I didn't want to ruffle any feathers by approaching the window for an interior shot.

Being parked in front of an ice cream parlor in front of that green Dodge truck made me think that these two vehicles were on display on purpose.

The grill has a chrome cobra emblem just like this which is correct from the factory. In this Mustang II era though the side cobras would be tall decals. These are widely available as a 3 cobra set that are meant for the 1994-2004 Ford SVT Cobra.

Well that's where I'll leave this little wanna-be tough guy. I actually like some Mustang IIs as well as over the top graphics from the 1970s. However as a stickler for detail my thought is either you do it right or not at all. I would prefer this to be a normal II in regular trim, but who cares? Peace out Fauxbra!