Although it wasn’t the case here in the U.S., this 1974 Porsche 914was sold overseas as aVW-Porschein both VW and Porsche dealerships (see German brochure cover inset).Early iterations which didn’t come with alloy wheels even had VW hubcaps adorning their steel wheels (bottom photo).Apparently the higher-ups at VW didn’t think we Yanks would pay Porsche prices for anything in a V
Came across this 1978 Mercedes-Benz 300CDover the summer in Lockport. For those of you not up on your Benz nomenclature, the 300refers to the car’s engine size — in this case a five-cylinder 3-liter unit; the Cindicates a coupe, or pillarless two-door hardtop; and the Dat the end tells us that 3-liter motor runs on Diesel fuel. Other coupes in M-B’s 1978 lineup included the 2+2 2
This 1986 Maserati Biturbo Zagato Spyderwas seen a month or so ago in a Lockportparking lot. It’s the two-seat, open version of the Biturbo Coupe, which was four inches longer than the Spyder, allowing for a back seat. One of the standard features of the Spyder as described in the brochure was “prearrangement for radio, cassette and speakers.”I’m going to go out on a limb h
If you’re face-to-face with a 1963 Studebaker Avanti, odds are you’re at a car show or in a museum. But every once in a while you come across one in the wild, like this one, seen a few weeks ago in a Lockportparking lot. The Avanti was certainly one of the more stunningly designed American cars of 1963, but a series of production problems led to only 3,834 of them being produced in thi
One thing about riding a bicycle — you often find yourself on streets you’d probably never go down in a car. So it was a few weeks ago when I trekked up to Lockport, turned down one of those side streets, and, voila — a 1953 Packard Patrician. The ’53 models were the first under new Packard head James Nance, who was not enthralled with Packardhaving wadedinto the medium-pri
From where we sit, this 1956 MeteorVictoriaseems to be an anomaly. There were three series offered for MY 1956: base Meteor, Niagara, and Rideau. All of our sources tell us that the Victoria (two-door hardtop) was offered only in the top Rideau lineup. Today’s RealRidehowever, has the side trim of a Niagara. You can see the difference in the brochure illustrations above. And it’s not l
At the time this 1964 Ford Fairlane 500was new, it was considered a mid-sized car. As Ford described it in that year’s Buyer’s Digest, “It’s a car, first of all, that appeals to families. It’s sized just right for them; not too big, not too small.”If that doesn’t help you figure out just how big (or small) the Fairlane was, consider that it was over a foot
This 1968 Plymouth Fury IIis a real step back in time to what we like to refer to as the Mom-And-Dad-Car. You know, the kind of car most of our parents bought instead of the car we kids would rather have seen in the family’s driveway. This one was seen a week or so ago in Lockport, and as cheap as it was, it wasn’t even Plymouth’s least expensive full-size car. That honor went to
This 1939 Packard Sixis still getting a workout. Notice the kayak racks in place. In some circles these cars are referred to as the Packard One-Ten, but all of the literature I’ve seen uses the Six moniker, which differentiates it from the Eight & Twelve series of cars. One ad told us how the ’39 Packards had been voted as America’s handsomest car in an unbiased national surv
Chevy told us that the 1976 Chevelle Laguna Type S-3was “The Sportiest Chevelle.”If nothing else, it appears to have been the Chevelle with the longest model designation. A couple of things immediately made the S-3 stand out from the other Chevelles: “…an aerodynamically styled urethane ‘soft’ front end that [told] anyone watching you’re not about to go t