Show Car Sunday returns with a lovely blue baby.

TRULY VALIANT

Some cars become classics only due to their long term survival. The car being featured today was as plain-Jane boring cookie-cutter as it gets when it was first released. Finding one in 2015 looking like it just rolled off the assembly line is almost impossible, but here she is! 

This is a 1972 Plymouth Valiant in the very beautiful Basin Street Blue. Every single thing about this car is perfect! Actually that's not true; the dashboard has a crack, the rear deck is slightly faded, and the gas cap is black, but for a 43 year old car that is nothing.

This grill was used between 1971-1972. In fact I can't think of a single difference between those 2 model years to help pinpoint the vintage, but I was lucky enough to talk to the owner to confirm it was a '72. He said it was a literal barn find needing only a repaint and for the bumpers to be rechromed to reach the level of show car perfection you see here.

This was the definition of a midsize car for 1972; a small box on a bigger box with 4 wheels and 4 doors. This car doesn't want to race anybody. This car wants to take you to church and the grocery store.

I love these original hubcaps and their somewhat weird styling. The year before this they had hubcaps that looked like the top of a pie; plain metal with five black circles in the middle like the vent holes on a crust. 

The steering wheel, dashboard, and carpet are all as blue as the outside.

This little cruiser has the Slant-6 engine which earned a reputation as one of the most durable ever produced. In high school I had a friend who owned this exact car in beige with almost 200,000 miles on it. After treating it horribly for a year (racing on dirt roads, driving through the woods, dragging people around on a sled in winter fields, etc) he decided he was going to blow the engine before calling the junkyard because he was inheriting a Datsun. He drained the oil and left the car running with something on the gas pedal and waited. After something like a half hour he was so impressed that he decided he would try to continue driving it with no oil to see how long it could go. He drove back and forth to school for a few days and was on his way to the Danbury Fair Mall when it finally seized! That poor beast should've had a better owner as it probably would be running today.

The Valiant was identical to the Dodge Dart this year, but the Darts are worth more money for whatever reason, making this a great choice for starting out in the classic car game.

The body is straight as an arrow.

I had the sibling to this car in college; a 1972 Plymouth Duster. The only difference was that the Duster was a fastback 2-door body style. I bought it for $60 (as in SIXTY) and drove it from Maine to Baltimore to Lancaster PA, all the while delivering pizzas in Providence with it. It was gold with a green faux-snakeskin vinyl roof, and I wish I had it today.

Nonchalantly outclassing everything on the block.

This was the most conservative car you could get from Plymouth in '72. This was the era of crazy paint and interior choices (like Panther Pink and Plum Crazy Purple for colors and the Mod Flower print or Paisley for vinyl roof and interior!).

Here's to hoping this gets respect from parallel parkers in the big city.

Well there we have it; a quiet, smooth, economical daily driver turned show car on this beautiful Sunday. Next up; something a lot more rugged for sure.

Caged Bird

JUST A REMINDER THAT THE ROCKFORD FILES HAS BEEN CANCELLED

Few things are as dear as real estate in Brooklyn. However, if you head out far enough beyond the reach of the subway you can still find large abandoned lots with random vehicles scattered about.

This is a 1975 Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am wearing the remnants of the factory color Graystone. 

All of the original decals and emblems are missing with the sole exception of this tiny Firebird on the schnoz. When the car was new it sported a full array of the graphics that made Firebirds famous including this iconic "Flaming Chicken" image large enough to cover the entire hood. Since this is a gray car the graphics would have been in blue and silver.

Aww yeah she's got patina to spare, not to mention some '80s Camaro Iroc-Z rims. The spoiler wrapping under the bumper from the front wheel well was included with the Trans-Am option.

This vent behind the front wheel is another component of the Trans-Am package as is that particular hood scoop (the Formula option package had dual hood scoops on the front of the hood above the grill openings). The fact that the hood scoop is sunken into the opening is troubling though. Is the engine not in the car? Is the engine in the car but resting on the ground due to a rotten cross member? Who knows but that engine was most likely the 400 V8. There was a 455 V8 as an option but unfortunately by this year it was no longer the same super high performance unit of the early '70s. If you opted for the 455 in 1974 you got the same engine as the Safari Station Wagon.

Looks like this beast hasn't been on the road for a solid 28 years! Those wheels were actually pretty new when this got parked so I'm guessing something big like the transmission or engine blew and the owner never got around to it.

The lower quarter panel looks solid so the salty winters never got to this ride. The overall rust looks more like a car from the southwest. Due to the lack of decals and a couple of old bondo filler spots I figure someone sanded this ride down to do some paint prep for a paint job that never came.

Check out these totally radical louvers for the rear window! You just don't see this sort of thing anymore. 

The downward sloping taillights with horizontal dividers were introduced in 1974 and continued on up through '78. That wing was a part of the Trans-Am look.

Of all the shows to binge watch on Netflix I recently started watching The Rockford Files. The lead character Jim Rockford (played by James Garner) drove a gold Firebird Esprit starting with the 1974 when the show was launched. For the next 5 seasons he bought a new Firebird in the same gold color. I love the show with it's obligatory car chases in every episode and the fact that it takes place in Los Angeles during the '70s so the cars are amazing throughout. This forlorn little bird with its clipped wings is the same year as the one I'm watching in season 2 right now. I've seen this car explode, crash, drive on the beach, and do countless stunts. To see it all caged up and forgotten is a little sad.

Show Car Friday? Whatever, here's a Bed Stuy Beauty!

SPIRIT OF '76

I've said it before, said it again, and will now say it again-again; the streets of Brooklyn are littered with vintage Cadillacs! If I wanted to do a blog of only 20+ year old Caddys I don't think I'd have a problem. Nevertheless, this big show-stopper caught my eye while riding through Bed Stuy recently.

This is a 1976 Cadillac Coupe DeVille in either Crystal Blue Firemist Poly or something close to it. This is the Devil in a Blue Dress.

'76 was the second year for square headlights. The only way I know of the differentiate this year from the 1975 model is this wrap around turn signal/cornering lamp; the '76 has those 2 slight horizontal bars spanning the length of the lenses while the '75 had none. If you look closely at the lens you can see that  it is actually divided into 2 parts; turn signal in front and a square at the rear that lights up the side you're steering towards when you have your signal on.

These cars are unabashed in their largess! That chrome top of the grill is a common aftermarket addition. That, combined with the weight of this enormous hood, is probably why the hood is sitting a little lower than the fenders.

Someone installed some 28 or 30 inch rims on this beast and it looks kind of normal actually.

In the sunlight this color was really incredible! The name Firemist on several of the Caddy paint codes refers to a special metal flake that catches the light in a truly beautiful way. I had a '74 Coupe DeVille in Seafoam Firemist Green, but being 18 years old I painted flames on it proudly:

R.I.P. The Olympic (as she was known) 

 This beauty still has the original fender skirts mine was lacking. You can see this was a repaint if you follow the chrome wheel well trim from back to front; it looks like they accidentally painted over half the chrome on the rear!

This dual exhaust pipes are no joke. This beast left the factory with a 500 cubic inch V8! While they were only rated for something like 200hp they are extremely torquey motors that have no issue moving this 5,000lb ride around like it was a much smaller car. My '74 got somewhere in the realm of 8-12 miles per gallon though so I had to pay for every burnout.

Somebody just had to swipe the Caddy emblem that covers up the trunk keyhole.
It looks like rust is starting to creep out from under the vinyl roof where it meets the trunk. This is an unfortunate but all too common problem with any vinyl roof of this era.

Those fender extensions are the closest thing to fins you could find on any car in '76.

She's being coy hiding behind the planter like an elephant behind a telephone pole.

Blue cars with white interiors are my favorite. The fact that somebody thought an additional pillow was needed on the backseat means that either someone's sleeping in this thing or the Princess and the Pea sits in the back.

The thing about this ride now is that all you need to do is park it in front of a row of old buildings and it looks like you're filming a Scorsese flick.

You can tell by the lack of leaves on the trees that this was one of the first discoveries of the year for me. I have so many waiting in the wings . . .

That's the last we'll see of Big Blue for now. A doppelgänger of this ride in white with a white vinyl roof pulled into the mechanic across from my shop while I was finishing up, but really; is that very surprising?

Sort of a Twofer Tuesday featuring British royalty!

BED STUY BENTLEY?
Yes indeed! I was riding along Bergen Street where the Bed Stuy, Crown Heights, and Prospect Heights neighborhoods all meet when I just about fell over from shock. Could it really be a classic Bentley holding down some industrial parking spot?

 Ladies and gentlemen what we have here is a 1959-1962 Bentley S2 Standard Saloon. This is a truly hand-built car produced at a leisurely pace by a team of expert craftsman.

I can only imagine the sense of disillusionment that this former member of the upper class is feeling here with a brooklyn phone number filling up its back window.
The S2 was introduced in tandem with the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II to showcase a new V8 engine. These are enormous cars, weighing over 2 tons (tonnes if you will) each. The V8 was a huge improvement over the straight-6 cylinder it replaced.

No matter how beat up this example is it maintains a dignity most cars can only dream of. Bentley was its own company founded in 1919, quickly earning a reputation for building some of the fastest cars of the day. The huge early Bentleys had the primitive looks of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang but tore up the racing circuit for a solid decade. The Stock Market crash of 1929 brought Bentley to its knees however, and in 1931 it was purchased out of receivership by a front company for Rolls Royce.

Bentleys and Rolls Royces of this era are 100% identical save for the badges and grill. The main middle section of the bodies were produced by the Pressed Steel Company (a British car body manufacturer still in existence; they produce Mini bodies for BMW these days). The rest of the car, including the fenders and hood, were produced by hand using traditional techniques. Each panel is signed by the craftsman who produced it so that there is full accountability should any flaws be present. On the other hand it is a point of pride to be skilled enough to build such a machine so the quality is superb.

The famous Bentley grill in its full form. They are extremely rare as you might've guessed. One was for sale recently for a cool grand.

Parking this behemoth in NYC is tough enough, but consider navigating the tiny streets of London in this ride! In person this is a car on an architectural scale.

These two winged B emblems harken back to Bentleys early racing history. The fact that the hood ornament retains its rightful position tells me that this probably gets parked inside at night.

All original hubcaps are present.

Such an insult to be appropriated as an advertisement!

Now we're getting real. Hand built or not that quarter panel is gutted with rot. The rub with cars of this stature is that maintaining them to a high standard is costly and requires somebody who specializes in your make and model. A $300,000 new Bentley very quickly becomes a $80,000 Bentley, and the slide can continue until it's just not worth it to most owners.

I love that the old European plates are still on the car. The AAA sticker on the left is relatively straightforward, but the DAS emblem on the right is a bit of a mystery to me. From what I can gather this car might have spent time in Germany as that's the closest I could find to a description of DAS. Looks like the bumper is partially held on with that blue vinyl strap.

The trunk is truly massive. If you're the owner of this car and you go on a trip it's expected that you won't be traveling lightly.

Hopefully this beast gets patched up at some point.

One last look at this piece of former royalty in its current setting. Now as soon as I rode off I found another black Bentley a block away!

Who knows if it's the same owner? I doubt it, but what are the chances that there are 2 black Bentleys of any vintage on a stretch of Bergen Street that looks almost entirely industrial? This is enough for me to declare it Twofer Tuesday; Bentley edition!
Next up; something definitely not handmade or terribly special I'm sure.

L.A. Rob once again shows us what Show Car Sunday/Monday is all about

FLAWLESS T-BIRD

There have been few cars on this blog as immaculate as the one being featured today (most of the other ones were provided by L.A. Rob as well actually). When one of these pics first showed up in a text I thought the car looked pretty good. After seeing the full size images I realized this is basically as if you stopped by the Ford dealership in 1966 and somehow warped into 2015. Without further ado:

This is a 1966 Ford Thunderbird in the extremely rare color Sauterne Gold. Somebody truly loves this car as it seems to have been restored to better-than-new condition.

Though it looks a bit like the '65 this is a 1 year only car. The '65 had a sort of catfish mouth compared to the clean, somewhat straightforward look of the '66. The year after this the Thunderbird turned into something so different it's hard to imagine they continued with the name! 1967 saw the addition of hidden headlights behind a full-width grill, and perhaps most surprising, the addition of a 4-door for the first time in T-bird history. To add to the craziness those 4 door rides had suicide rear doors that opened at the front. The lines of this 'bird are as crisp and clean as folded paper.

The original hubcaps are gleaming in their perfection. You can catch a glimpse of the leaf springs from this angle, letting on that this is still a 49 year old car.

That generous Cali sunshine really shows off the angles of this ride. Notice how there are no rear quarter windows on this glimmering beauty. The backseats wrap around a bit almost like lounge seating. When you're back there you have almost total privacy. It still wouldn't make the best spot for a liaison though as the console continues from the front all the way to the back, essentially making 2 rear bucket seats. 

I'm so happy L.A. Rob got this interior shot as one of the coolest and most unique features of this car is on display. See how the steering wheel seems slightly askew compared to the dash? This is the Swing-Away Steering Wheel where you could unlock the steering column and swing it towards the passenger seat in order to get out of the car with more ease. It was originally an option on the '61 T-bird but it proved so popular that they made it standard equipment starting in '62. The year after this car was built they redesigned this feature and renamed it Tilt-Away. It was discontinued after '69 as it could no longer meet safety regulations.

*It's interesting to note that you could start the car with the steering wheel disengaged, you just couldn't shift out of park until it was locked in place. There were no manual transmission T-birds in '66.

Here are the fabled sequential turn signals where the inner lens would light first, followed by the center, and finally the outer lens to indicate which direction you were headed. I love these loop bumpers housing the taillights. The whole rear of this car looks like a rocket ship about to take off into space. The fact that the body panel under the bumper is in that condition really brings home the show car vibe.

Finally we'll look this thing head-on! Notice the lack of a passenger side mirror on the door. This, along with reverse lights and seat belts were still options on most cars of the day.

 1966 was the only year for that enormous and very stylized chrome bird on the ice cube tray grill. Little details abound such as the 3 miniature chrome stripes on the front turn signals. This was the top of the heap for Ford back then, and the idea was that you could feel sporty while enjoying full luxury. If you wanted to upgrade from this point you would move up to a Lincoln which added luxury at the expense of any perceived sportiness.

Hats off to whomever is the lucky owner of this sweet ride, and to L.A. Rob for capturing it in the wild.