Car Lust

Our Cars Week: "1998 Camaro V6"

(Submitted by Car Lust reader "Sir Danley" [Name withheld to protect the innocent])

"Don't feel bad if the car you'd like to write about isn't a supercar; most of us find everyday cars as interesting, or potentially even more interesting, than exotic hardware." --Lindsay Jacobson, Car Lust Editor

...I learned a gigantic amount of the above by driving an '86 Lotus Esprit for a few years; turns out, no one cares if you're driving a twenty year old, Torrid-sized Toyota MR2. This is especially true when most modern, midsized sedans can eclipse it in performance. Only the most knowledgeable nerds will swoon over that car, dumber girls won't notice you're driving in anything special, and the smart girls just think you're overcompensating.

None of which mattered to me; for less than the price of a new Chevy Aveo (and with just as much Giugiaro style), I enjoyed sublimely weighted steering thanks to the MR configuration, a peaky engine of modest HP, and unloaded it before any major bills really came pouring in.

Driving a three-foot-tall black Esprit in Southern California practically camouflages you as a pavement onramp, and I got near zero compliments on the car, ever.  Aside from Roger Moore era James Bond fans and F1 fanatics, a mid-'80s Lotus Esprit is about as utterly un-relatable as a car can get.

…So heavens no, I won’t talk about that.

Our Cars Week: "My Car Lust: Mom's 1972 VW Bug"

(Submitted by Car Lust Reader and commenter Kenny Heggem)

I really don't know what it is exactly. It could be a semblance of different reasons... but I have been obsessing over wanting an early 1970's VW Beetle. A standard little Beetle. Not a Super Beetle, just the standard non-McPherson strut style, flat dash "Bug."

It is likely the nostalgia. Mom had divorced recently, when I was 11. She needed a car, and bought an orange and primer 1972 Bug.

Takes me back a to a time of struggles, but keeping our heads up high. Living on spaghetti every night and struggling to buy school clothes, while Dad partied with arm candy and eating expensive sushi power lunches.

February 6 Weekly Open Thread: "The Winter We Didn't Have"

The Winter of 2011-2012 may go down in the record books as one of the mildest ones ever, at least in many parts of the USA. The folks around Denver may not agree with that right now, but I'm sure the ski lift operators there are happy.

But here in Nashville, flowers and bushes are blooming weeks ahead of normal, and temperatures are near record highs. TDOT has only salted/treated our roads once, and even that was a false alarm.

Today (February 3rd), I changed the oil in the Tribute as the outside thermometer read 63 balmy degrees. We were only 300 miles from oil change time, and I wanted to catch a nice day for the job instead of the $6-a-quart oil pouring out of the containers like molasses.

So, has this warmer weather helped you with any car repairs or maintenance? Maybe a tune-up? Can you keep it washed like you want?

And of course, this Weekly Open Thread is the place for any randon chatter about cars, trucks, motorcycles, streetcars, submarines... ok, maybe not submarines. But then again, why not?

Also here at Car Lust, we're in the middle of our latest "Our Cars Week," and we'll have a fresh post tomorrow. The reader submissions have been superb, and we hope to do this again soon.

--That Car Guy (Chuck)

Image Credit: I took the buttercups picture on February 3rd. Normally these flowers are barely coming out of the ground right now. Mom planted these flowers many years ago and as she said, they have bloomed where they were planted.

Our Cars Week: "My Most Fun Junky Car"

The most fun junky car I ever had was a (originally) gold-colored 1972 Chevy Vega Kammback wagon. Cookie The Dog's Owner's Monza wagon was probably a cream puff compared to this thing, but I had more wrench turnin', parts pickin', shade tree mechanicin' fun on this little car than I ever had on any other vehicle I've owned.

The car was eight years old when I bought it in 1980, so it was tired already. I was a poor college guy, and wanted away from our gas-thirsty, full-size, hard-to-drive (And park!) 1968 Ford Ranger pickup. And hey, what's sexier than the lines of a '72 Vega station wagon?

I had already owned a red '72 Vega Hatchback as my first car, so I kinda already knew my way around these things. We found this Kammback on a used car lot, paid $700 plus tax, tags, title, and license, and immediately went to work. First to go was the cheezy purple rear window tint.

Our Cars Week: "The Ford Mustang: Can you go home again?"

(Submitted by Car Lust reader and Carspotting: Auto Archeology Editor Michael E. Gouge)

For my fellow car lovers, there is no need to explain the bond a 16-year-old has with his first car. Mine was a 1966 Mustang in Nightmist Blue, and it opened up a world of freedom, of escapism, of pleasure in the sound of an engine purring along an open road. In other words, this angst-filled teenager discovered a home, a sanctuary, in a Mustang.  Three decades hence, that old pony car--along with my youth and a new-found euphoria for the open road--are but memories.

Our Cars Week: "Saab 9000 Aero"

(Submitted by Car Lust reader Julian Santa-Rita)

I have been naming my cars since my first one. Each is its own personality to me. My first was a grey Volvo 240 with velour seats, and I named it " Nigel." Later a 1986 RX-7 I named "Chu-Chu Rocket" passed through my hands. There was a Subaru GL called "Roo-Badoo" and a MKII Jetta who was renamed loads of "happy expletives," depending on whether one or both of us was in a saucy mood that particular moment.

But it took me almost a year to understand my Saab 9000 Aero well enough to finally give it the pet name "E.M.," which was shorthand for "Executive Missile." The relationship began as I left college to move to my new home 1,000 miles away, and I needed to replace the "expletive" Jetta. My father brought me to see this somewhat awkward silver Saab which I’d never even heard of before and I’d certainly never seen one in person. Someone had traded it in on a Subaru WRX.

Our Cars Week: "Oh Camry, My Camry"

(Submitted by Car Lust Reader Karen K from New Haven)

 

"OH, CAMRY, MY CAMRY"

Bruises bashed into my head
From banging on the ceiling
Of my pirhouetting car
As it was sent a-reeling,
Into the woods
Down in the ditch,
I sort of had this feeling
That if I lived to tell the tale,
I’d spend some months a-healing.

January 30 Weekly Open Thread: "Our Cars Week"

Well, here we go folks, with another Car Lust "Our Cars Week." We have guest writers from all over the planet contributing their personal vehicles for us to embrace, along with a familiar face or two.

Here are a few images from some previous "Our Cars" articles. This week has some nice ones as well, and with the volume of excellent submissions, we may even go longer... possibly even into a fortnight.

 

 

 

 

 

Just A Little Neighborhood Car Show

It's the dead of winter here on the North American continent, and most of us are stuck indoors for at least a few more weeks. So what do we do to keep our automotive sanities until the buttercups bloom? How about a very short trip down Memory Lane when the days were longer and warmer?

Bellevue, Tennessee is a friendly suburb of Nashville and once a month in warm weather some local folks assemble at the Bellevue Mall parking lot to display the vehicles they've been waxing and/or working on. I had been wanting to see this car show for a few years, but never seemed to catch it. But as Fate finally dictated, I got the location, time, and date for the event together, and this show just happened to be the last one of the season, held on October 1, 2011.

There was taped music from the '50s, and a live band was making cool sounds. Somebody was cooking hot dogs and selling cold drinks, which greatly added to the spirit. Cars of many nationalities and ages were presented, and there wasn't a bad one in the bunch.

The Original Mach 5 from Speed Racer: Mach GoGoGo

(Submitted by Car Lust reader and commenter Tigerstrypes)

Who of us born in the last 50 years doesn’t know who Speed Racer is? And who didn’t want a Mach 5?

Throughout any continuity of your choice that portrays the original silhouette of the trident-nosed homage to hypersonic speeds, the Mach 5 has been raced hard, stolen, sabotaged, shot at, imitated, damaged, crashed, rebuilt, has been in turbulent waters, crashed again, rebuilt hours before a big race, and traded paint with the best and the worst that international automotive racing and shady organizations and individuals could throw at it, among many other things. This two-tone (as it should be) machine is the embodiment of the never-give-up/never-say-die attitude of the Mifune/Racer family.

The Chandelier Tree

(A note from That Car Guy (Chuck): This post is dedicated to my Mother, who just left us recently. She loved all living things, especially plants, and would have been amazed at the sight of this magnificent tree.)

So when's the last time you've driven through a tree and did no damage whatsoever to your car, its occupants, or the tree itself? That's right, a tree, a big, growing, hard, wooden thing that gives you shade in the Summertime, usually drops its leaves in the Fall, and looks so grand in the Spring.

The Chandelier Tree in Leggett, California, offers just that opportunity. There's a small fee as you enter the grounds, where the "natural" potholes enforce a 5 mph park speed limit. And just in case you were wondering, the Tree gets its name from its limbs that resemble an ornate chandelier.

The Tree is a Giant Sequoia, stands 315 feet tall, and is estimated to be 2,400 years old. As a reference, it's the same height as the Old Post Office Pavillion in Washington, D.C. And to gain its claim to fame, an approximately 6-foot-wide by 6-foot, 9-inch-tall opening was cut into its base in the 1930s by Hazel and Charlie Underwood and some helpers.

It has branches so large that they support their own ecosystems with trees of other types growing on them. And though the Chandelier Tree is a spectacle itself, the tallest known living thing is another redwood tree, which is named named Hyperion, and is 379.1 feet tall.

December 5 Weekly Open Thread: "999 (No, Not That!)"

For once, today's Weekly Open Thread is more about the future than today. You see, tomorrow, December 6, 2011, we present Car Lust's One Thousandth Post!

This has taken the efforts of, well, several people. Most notably is Chris Hafner, who started this blog on August 28, 2007. Gradually others joined in, but it's the readers and commentors that have made this blog so special and successful.

But until tomorrow, this is still the place for any random, car-related topic. So kick your racing shoes off, pull up a Recaro, and let everybody know your thoughts.

Or just do nothing and read what the others have to say. It's a free country!

--That Car Guy (Chuck)

Image Credit: The 999 image is from our own Rob Podell.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

We've seen steel cars that run on corn, now here's a corn car that runs on... well, I don't know.

But I'm thankful for what I have. Friends, family, good health, and a full tummy. Oh yeah, and a few vehicles in the stable and hopefully more to come soon.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

from Car Lust

 

--That Car Guy (Chuck)

Image Credit: YolaSite.com.

President John F. Kennedy's Parade Car

It was 48 years ago today, on November 22, 1963, that the world changed again forever. We all know the horrible details of our 35th President, John F. Kennedy's assassination, so I'll refrain from them in this post. But on that day, our nation and the world immediately went into unified mourning and shock, and national television was uninterrupted for four days. Nothing of this magnitude had been repeated until September 11, 2001.

He was riding in an open-car motorcade as all Presidents had done before, and none have done since.

The President's Parade Car, known as SS-100-X (Also X-100) by the Secret Service, began life as any other 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible. Mr. Kennedy loved these cars when they came out, so they made a very special one for him.

After factory assembly, it was shipped to Hess & Eisenhardt in Cincinnati and cut in half (It is a unibody design). The car was then elongated about 3½ feet and modified with special luxuries, plus foldable jump seats, grab handles, rear bumper footrests, special lighting, flagstaffs, and a rear seat that would rise 10 inches.

November 21 Weekly Open Thread: "What A Deal!"

Gosh, it's already that time again. Last year's yucky old models have to go to make room for this year's new and improved ones. And the car companies are promising deals that are just too good to pass up. One company says to "Just sign then drive" your new car away.

So, have you ever got a good deal on a year-end model? Or do you have any stories, good or bad, or funny concerning a "Great Deal" offered on a year-end car?

And of course, this is the place for any other somewhat car-related discussions. Well, nearly any other.

That Car Guy (Chuck)

Image Credit: Wordpress.com.

"The Fast And The Furious" 1970 Dodge Charger

(Submitted by Car Lust reader and commenter Tigerstrypes)

 

It’s amazing how a car steals a scene, even among trendier “hero” cars. The Coke-bottle silhouette of the 2nd-gen Dodge Charger did it again (I don’t know about you but the Charger in ‘Bullitt’ stole my attention from the Mustang) with very little screen-time and no build montage. It sleeps, no, waits, for the moment to get out and beat, no, obliterate new blood (or is it motor oil?) off the streets.

I liked its story: Belonged to Dom's late father and it scared the crap out of Mr. Hi-Performance Imports here of just thinking of driving it (as it should, probably the most realistic thing going on in the movie).

And it’s all downhill from there.

November 14 Weekly Open Thread: "At The DMV"

I'm writing this on Friday, November 4, 2011, just after getting back from our friendly local Department of Motor Vehicles; I was there to renew Mom's handicapped placard.

They had a sign that rudely said, "Cell Phone Use Prohibited," but it didn't matter... they were useless here anyway. Seems it was "Bring Your Squealing Kid to the DMV Day." I think everybody over 30 had a kid tagging along that just didn't want to be there, and were letting their dissatisfaction be well known.

Oh, the lines were fairly short and I got business done quick enough. But the noise was bad and it was right at noon. I couldn't get out of there fast enough.

The 2011 Nashville British Car Club Show

It's déjà vu all over again... 366 days have elapsed, but the time passed feels like it's been about an hour. Even the weather is the same as last year--sunny and 82 degrees.

I'm back at the Parthenon in Nashville to see the 2011 Nashville British Car Club Show, and I'm even looking at some of the same cars from 2010.

You may remember last year's 2010 Nashville British Car Club Show also here on Car Lust. The biggest difference between these two classic car shows was that there seemed to be a lot more cars last year. Or, were these entries just spread farther apart? Either way, there was plenty of room to roam between these amazingly preserved automotive specimens from the British Empire.

The Most Famous Tractor In The World. Well, maybe.

You start it up, and pyrotechnics go off that would shame any fireworks display. Point to one of its wheels, and it falls off. Point to a second wheel, and it falls off too. So does the steering wheel. Grab the wiring harness and the gauges fall out, saying you're flying at 3,000 feet. Whatever you do, don't call it any names or it might chase you around the barnyard.

This is a typical day in the life of a Hoyt Clagwell tractor.

We Car Lusters now travel back in time to the mid 1960s, somewhat abandon our senses, voyage about 300 miles from "Chicargo," and take the Cannonball to the town of Hooterville, which is near Crabwell Corners and Pixley. Then let's take a drive down an unnamed dusty county road and enter "The Old Haney Place," home of Lisa and Oliver Wendell Douglas, which has now been renamed "Green Acres."

We find a ramshackled country farmhouse, filled with stylish, modern furniture that looks like it came out of a Park Avenue, New York, apartment, because that's exactly what it did. Out back is gorgeous Lisa feeding Eleanor the cow and Henrietta the hen and her chicks, who also have individual names. In the nearby barn, poor Oliver and hired hand Eb Dawson (No kin to Jack) are hopelessly trying to get their old tractor going. Mr. Douglas is in his plowing suit today, so we know many of his acres need to be tilled.

1989-1994 BNR-32 Nissan Skyline GT-R

Submitted by Tigerstrypes

Ladies and gentlemen, meet "Godzilla," as coined by the Australian motoring press (allegedly Wheels magazine). Overhyped?

• Nurburging record-shattering  performance (8'20" by Nissan; Best Motoring magazine managed was 8'22"38)

• Japan Touring Car Championship dominator from the get-go (29 wins out of 29 races!)

• 1991-’92 Bathurst 1000 winner (with a turbocharged 2.6 I-6 vs V8 equipped competition)

• First Japanese car to win Spa 24 hours in France in 1991.

• The Heat Treatments Drag R32 Skyline GT-R, driven by Reece McGregor of New Zealand, broke the world record for the fastest AWD over a 1/4 mile with a 7.57 at 305.96 km/h (190.11 mph) at the Willowbank Dragway in Australia in 2007.