Toyota Tacoma

 

Wheelbarrow or no? Probably not. However, the contemporary 4x4 Tacoma, when delivered in its basic version, is not unpleasing. Reasonably clean and organized. No hyper machismo. Here's more Tacoma. In the last week we've noted a Hyundai Santa Cruz (that is truly a weird name for an SUV!); a Santa Fe, a Telluride, a something Sedona...I guess Asian brands feel they have to try harder, for the American market. There was the Chrysler New Yorker. Mercury Monterey. Chevrolet Biscayne. Also the Cadillac Seville and the Pontiac Parisienne. My favorite was our 1962 Pontiac Laurentian.
How come New England towns don't have trucks or SUVs named after them? Where's the Toyota Nashua? The Kia Eastport? The Hyundai Merrimack? The Chevrolet Truro? The Acura Kennebunk? 

Mercedes Benz 240 D, Cambridge, Mass.

 

We have posted before on the hardy Mercedes Benz  240D. Used to be every taxi is Lisbon was a 240D, probably other cities too. This specimen was in Cambridge on one of those April days you dream of in February.

Alfa Romeo 2000 Tipo 102 Sprint

 

Not sure what the Alfa was doing in Rome Airport, but that is where Henry Behrens found it. We have posted a 1986 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce from Manitoba, and this 2020 Alfa rocket in–of all places-Cambridge, Mass. And, now that we are talking Italians, we do believe the 1967 Lancia Flaminia is perhaps the most beautiful car, ever.

GMC Vandura 4x4

From Reid Cunningham: I caught this 4-wheel-drive van conversion at the Lowes in Amherst NH. A good vehicle for picking up everything you need for a big project in one trip. Most of the conversions I've seen are either window passenger vans or campers. This was a utility van, but maybe it's destined to be a camper once the rust is repaired. My guess is late 80's or early 90's.

AL: For comparison, a 1980 GMC Rally STX van, in Banff.. and here's another 4x4 van from New Hampshire, set up as a shooting brake.

1951 Chevrolet Sedan Delivery, etc., vicinity Grasslands N.P.

From Alex Emond, working pleine aire in southwest Saskatchewan/southeast Alberta last week, close by Grasslands National Park:

"Some drive-bys...the Chevrolet Sedan Delivery is a rare beast. (AL: Here's another s-d, from N.California) Most of them were worked hard, and used up, but this one,  in Bassano , Alberta. still has a future . 

"The I.H. truck , circa mid 40's, was in Lafleche, SK (And a while back, Alex found this original  1940 International Model D tucked away in a barn in (Unrevealed) Saskatchewan.

Speaking of grasslands...here's John Newlove's poem, Ride Off Any Horizon...

...Alberta plates on the '58 Chevrolet Biscayne, which happens to be AL's preferred 50s Chevy vintage. (Seen this '58 Chevrolet Del Ray sleeper?)

...then there was that buffalo Alex painted. We posted the model  a while back. 

1973 Triumph TR6

 

From Michael Moore, in the East Bay: The driver was as natty as the car, and said he bought it new in ’73, right out of college. Always garaged, never repainted, didn’t drive it for many of those years…now has a stable of other exotics, but this is all cute and original. (AL: we caught a TR6 in Center Harbor last summer, and that post has links to others.

1963 Chevrolet Bel Air 409

 

We love a sleeper. This one is on the block at Hemmings.

                                                          

Interior Styling c. 1956

 
                                                                                    

1967 Volkswagen Type 1, Tuscany

 

Henry Behrens photographs. Here's an MG-TD we posted from Italy a while back. I learned about and never forgot the MG-TD and MG-TC while reading Don Stanford's The Red Car when I was 10 or 11. Still a great book; seems impossible, or crazy expensive, to find--though you can stream a copy for free on Open Library. A few year ago, we posted a TC  for sale at Olympian Cars. But, to return to the subject at hand, which is Volkswagens: here's a piece on Carl Hahn, who made the Beetle huge.

1967 Jaguar Mark II 3.8 Saloon, New Hampshire

 

From Reid Cunningham: On the way to a work event, I came across a small repair/restoration/sales auto business that specializes in British cars.  Brit Bits is in Rye NH.  I'm including pictures of a vintage Jaguar that was for sale, out front, and then (later posts) a random selection of cars in various states of repair or decay next to the shop.  I appreciated how ecumenical they are when it comes to British cars: they had MG's, Jaguars and Triumphs. Also a TVR and a Rover!  

Lobsterboats on the hard.

 

Lobsters are getting anxious.

Fiat Fun

  

On I-95 between Boston and Augusta ME,  mega-trucks blast by. Several on every trip. I'm not talking 18-wheelers: those are predictable, and they stay out of the left lane. I'm referring to the testosteroned faux-masculine beefcake pickup trucks, usually 3/4 ton Ram or Chevy 2500s. F-250s. Often the trucks are black. Always jacked up 4x4's on massive tires. White guys at the wheel,  ball caps and beards...okay, maybe I'm racially-profiling. But they seem to radiate a kind of anger, a self-involved fury. Maybe the drivers are very much in debt...with all the gewgaws, those trucks  are crazy expensive, and at 80mph they must be sucking gas. I'll shut up now. But the monstrous trucks are why Autoliterate has been promoting the concept of the wheelbarrow truck, which is not exactly catching on like wildfire. Trucks these days for a lot of guys seem to be more mission statement than tool or transportation device. Sports cars and muscle cars--Healys, Camaros-- rocketing by always looked like someone was having fun;  monster trucks doing the same 80 mph hurtle seem to radiate unease-suggest someone is very pissed-off.  Anyway, as an antidote to such, we happily present the Fiat beach car, photos by Henry Behrens, spotted in Pietrasanta, Tuscany.

Land Rover, Tuscany

 

Henry Behrens caught the Land Rover in Pietrasanta, in Tuscany. We're not experts on these, despite multiple L-R postings on Autoliterate...many from Europe. Guessing this to be a c. 2000 Land Rover Defender. 

1953 Dodge 1/2 ton, Massachusetts

 

Basha Burwell caught this truck in Norwood, Mass.,  pr. Nahwood. We saw a version  in Clayton, New Mexico a while back. Miss that Hi-Lo country.   and a 1948 Dodge coupe in Del Rio, Texas

Surfing Series 1967 Land Rover pickup.

 

Basha Burwell caught the L-R in Boston's Seaport neighborhood. BB's new book, The Maine House II will be out in May. We posted another Land Rover pickup, in Portland ME and many, many others: try Land Rover in the search widget.