Chevrolet + NAPCO 4WD

  

From Michael Moore, at the Classic Car show in Benicia, Calif.  "The Task Force Chevrolet is a restored original NAPCO four wheel drive..."

California Dreaming

 

The Benicia Classic Car Show was on earlier this week, and Michael Moore sent these photos from the East Bay. Is that a 1969-70 Chevrolet Malibu wagon? And a Chevrolet 3200 Task Force-era 3/4 ton pickup...

Somehow a Volvo P-544 was admitted to the show. Yay! Here's another P-544 we posted a while back.

Eighties Oldsmobile wagon. Living room on wheels. 

1958 Chevrolet convertible (Impala?). I958 cat's-eye Chevrolet wagon. Here's a 1959 El Camino, up in Vermont.

And a Volkswagen Type 2, reconsidered and  shoebox-styled.  Maybe a European commercial conversion?

1970 Volvo 144, Cambridge MA

 Yona Shapiro has been revising, rebuilding and, piece by piece, reawakening this original. He says the brakes are the strangest system on the car, maybe invented and engineered by Norse trolls. Wonderful car. We posted a later 144 from Denver a while back. And a 1971 Volvo 144, up in Maine.

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.