Category Archives: Classic Cars

29th Annual Chevy Showdown – Corvettes

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There is almost never a bad day for a car show, especially here in Southern Arizona.  Today was cool and a bit overcast, but extremely windy and so much tree pollen (as well as other stuff) it covered anything standing still.   That may have what caused the light turnout for cars as well as spectators for the 29th Annual Chevy Showdown, which is limited to classic cars (up to 1972 with a category for 73-89).  This is put on by the Classic Chevy Club of Tucson and there were a few sub-clubs attending like the local Corvair and Nomad club.

But I’ve never had a bad time at a car show and this one had a lot to offer.

I attended the 27th Annual Chevy Showdown here in Tucson, AZ and the turnout was much higher that year and I saw at least one familiar car – I’ll cover that later.

I wanted to share the Corvettes that showed up. So here are some shots.

The only C3 to show.

The only C3 to show.

 

C2 Showed up in forces. Sorry I didn't get a good shot of the C1's.

C2 Showed up in force!

 

Sorry I didn’t get a good shot of the C1’s and no C4 showed.

More coming up from the Chevy Showdown.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

 

 

Amelia Island 2014 Preview | Mind over Motor

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Amelia Island 2014 Preview | Mind over Motor.

 

A great car show with some excellent photo ops for cool cars!!

 

Amelia Island

BMW

Amelia Island

Lambo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading.

Tim

 

 

BMW displays Calder art car, racers and classics at Amelia Island

The first BMW art car — a 1975 3.0 CSL wearing a paint job designed by Alexander Calder — headlined a class of significant cars from the German automaker at the 2014 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance. It was joined by a BMW M-powered McLaren F1 …

 

A Mini Documentary on the National Corvette Museum Sinkhole

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Watch the video, you’ll see a good close up of the first three cars and seem them on display “as is”.

 

 

Thanks for reading.

Tim

 

 

Five of eight Corvettes pulled from museum sinkhole; photos show heavy …

National Corvette Museum’s effort to remove the eight cars swallowed by a sinkhole last month got off to a triumphant start: The 2009 Corvette ZR1 “Blue Devil” pulled from the hole earlier this week drove away from the scene of the disaster under its …

 

 

National Corvette Museum Sinkhole – Update 3/2/2014

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I spend sometime with the live feed at NCM and I watched as they placed the Blue Devil in a sling to be hauled up tomorrow (3/3).

2009 ZR1 Blue Devil.

2009 ZR1 Blue Devil.

 

Blue Devil

Blue Devil – will be raised from his current rest place.

 

Thanks for reading.

Tim

wildheart4vr

RT @CorvetteBlogger: Two Ways You Can Help the National Corvette Museum Right Now http://t.co/nmpvqvtt69 #Corvette @CorvetteMuseum #NCMSink…

 

 

 

Parking Lot Spot Light – 1965 Caddy DeVille

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Spotted this 1965 DeVille outside a local CVS.  Nice long  2 door convertible, as god intended Caddy to be configured.

There were about 19k Caddy DeVilles Convertibles produced in 1965.  These were all powered by a 429 cid, V8, overhead cam, iron block engine.  The bore and stroke were 4.13 x 4.00 with a compression ratio of 10.5:1 and topped with the a Carter 4 bbl (Model 3903S) it produced about 340 hp.  That’s not much considering the weight of the car was over 4500 lbs.

 

191

I love two vertical headlight look on most cars.

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Still sporting fins. The back of this car is just as impressive as the front and that’s not always the case.

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Love a two door DeVille

This one is a daily driver and could use some freshening but it is a fine automobile.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

 

 

 

 

 

Lost Classics – Trucks – Corvair Rampside

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I love classic trucks and in my 3 plus years of bogging in this field I haven’t done much on trucks. Yes, you’ll see some in my Parking Lot Spot Light pieces but not much else.

Then I got to thinking about doing some articles to make up for that and I realize, after I picked up a book (“Collectible & Classic Trucks” by The Auto Editors of Consumer Guide) at one of my company’s stores (we specialize, among other things, used books) that even those in to the classic truck scene, often over look some really cool trucks.

So I thought I’d cover a few.  First up is one I forgot was ever made, much less have seen (in person) any in the past 20 years or so.  The Covair Rampside trucks.

This is a 61 Rampside

This is a ’61 Rampside

This are rear engined, air cooled workhorse that are clearly Corvair all the way.

Fully restored they look great.  But leaving them survivor style is really cool as well. Like David Hopkins’

David Hopkins "Everything mechanical is new, but when it came to do paint and body we just couldn't erase all the history."

David Hopkins “Everything mechanical is new, but when it came to do paint and body we just couldn’t erase all the history.”

These rough and tough working guy trucks were powered a by rear-mounted, horizontally-opposed six cylinder, air-cooled engine that delivered 80HP and 128 ft-lbs of torque with 145 cu-in of displacement.

This wasn’t the only truck that was Corvair based.  We’ll look at the others coming up.

Thanks for reading

Tim

corvair truck

Chevrolet Greenbrier

A Corvair truck could be ordered as a “Loadside” or “Rampside”. The Loadside was essentially a pickup truck with a standard tail gate. …

BEST Car Show in Southern AZ!!!! Tucson Classics 7 Annual !!

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I kid you not…this is one of the most enjoyable car shows.  You get to park your classic, muscle, racer, import or special purpose vehicle on the grass (yeah…lots of it) – no nasty dirt or melting tar parking areas.   Grab that blanket out your trunk and spread out under a tree and enjoy!!!!

Oh….did I mention that for $5.00 you get into the show and you get a change to win this!!!!!

Win This Car

Go to Tucson Classics Car Show and get a ticket!!!!

I’ll be here.

Thanks for reading

Tim

 

Buying a New 1963 Corvair at the Lambrecht Chevrolet Auction

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Buying a New 1963 Corvair at the Lambrecht Chevrolet Auction.

 

I watched the event on History Channel – more thoughts on that later.  I didn’t actually see this particular Corvair, but I thought, wow that is a lot for this car.

$40k Corvair. I wonder what the largest sum every paid for a Corvair?

$40k Corvair. I wonder what the largest sum every paid for a Corvair?

 

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Recap: the Lambrecht Chevrolet Auction | Mac’s Motor City Garage

A crowd estimated at 10,000 people, including 3,400 registered bidders, helped to shape the spectacle at the Lambrecht Chevrolet auction in Pierce, Nebraska this past weekend. … 1963 Corvair Monza Coupe, 6 cyl. 4-speed …

 

Ford Falcon – 2005?

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I really perked up when I ran across a web site that offered repair details on the Ford Falcon.  So I called up the URL and saw Ford Falcon 2002-2005 repair manual and that’s got to be a mix up at the programmers desks.  There aren’t any 2002, 03, 04 or 05 Falcons…come on!!!    Well  it just goes to show that we Americans (or maybe it’s just me) are a bit U.S. centric when it comes to cars.  Then I Googled and realized that the folks ‘down-under’ do some cool stuff and Ford is a big part of that.  Yeah..they are still using the Ford Falcon moniker.

But don’t expect to see that boxy little car that we stuff V8’s in and cram headers between the around the suspension, nope that’s gone.  But you will find a couple of surprises.

Ford-BA_Falcon_XR6_Turbo_2002_1600x1200_wallpaper_02

Looks pretty pedestrian, doesn’t it?  What if I told you it had….

Barra straight-six 4.0-litre DOHC VCT (turbo)

OR….

Barra 220 producing  300 hp and  348 lb·ft or  Boss 260  producing 350 hp  and 370 lb·ft or Boss 290 producing producing 390 hp and 380 lb·ft.

NOT BAD!!!!

Or maybe you’d like a UTE – a WHAT?   Well a Ranchero of sorts:

Ford-BF_Falcon_XR8_Ute

Including the first US models the Ford Falcon is now in it’s 7th Generation.  Which includes and not so great looking new model (not even gonna show ya a pic)  but this will impress you – The 5.0-litre ‘modular V8’ engine is currently the Ford Performance Vehicles’ V8 engine of two varieties, one rated at 422 hp and 402 lb·ft of torque (“Boss 315”) and the other at 449 hp and 420 lb·ft of torque (“Boss 335″).

Ok Ford – Down – Under….let’s see something retro!!!!  Come on you can beat Chevy to the punch by creating something Felcon- Ranchero-ish before they bring out the El Camino!!! (I’m going to blog about Chevy later and use the line in reverse)”

Thanks for reading

Tim

 

ford falcon

Alan Mulally talks about why Ford’s Falcon had to die – Autoblog

Ford CEO Alan Mulally gives a pretty succinct explanation of what lead Ford to end Australian production, while trying to minimize the collateral damage to those invested in the manufacturing.