1) By next winter, I want me one of these.
2) "Like a gleaming pink blob of chromium-trimmed condescending misogynistic marketing fail." The Dodge La Femme, a car designed just for us women! (Which I guess meant it didn't have urinals, or something.) The whole concept is so tacky that it sails clean past "gauche" and circles almost all the way back 'round to "cool". Plus, it's from the height of Virgil Exner's "Rolling Wurlitzer" period at Chrysler.
And new, Car for Girls!
ReplyDeleteSad to say, the Snow Cruiser didn't actually work very well. Those slick Goodyear didn't ave much bite on the ice.
ReplyDeleteSupposedly it's still down there somewhere.
Just another reason to go after the marketing geniuses after the lawyers are free diving the ocean floor with weight assistance.
ReplyDeleteGmac
I think it looks pretty tough...
ReplyDeleteWhat? No gun rack? Tam, it's not for real unless it has room for the Mosin-Nagant and 500 rounds of ammo!
ReplyDeleteIf you want "real", then you might look at a Ural GearUp! I've seen some with an AK stashed in the sidecar, and the available two-wheel rear drive is a plus in bad conditions (like Krauts shootin' atcha!)
ReplyDeletePretty elaborate tow dolly for a staggerwing Beech...
ReplyDeleteThat snow cruiser turns up in one of Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels, IIRC.
ReplyDeleteDid Dirk "grin wolfishly" a lot while driving it?
ReplyDeleteY'know, I don't recall. He probably got loaded on Plymouth gin, shot his old Doxa dive watch with his vintage .45, then gave in to his latent urges and ran off to a cozy love nest with Al Giordino.
ReplyDeleteI read Cussler enthusistically as a teen, but my interest waned when Cussler started appearing in his own books. By the time Dirk's kids showed up and guest authors appeared on the scene, I swore off 'em altogether.
Did you notice that in all the photos, it never showed the cruiser actually driving "in snow?"
ReplyDeleteThey can keep that Snow Cruiser thing. I'd like that Staggerwing Beech though. It is number two on my wish list after the slower but more manageable Gullwing Stinson.
ReplyDeleteI agree about wrapping back around to teh kewl. La Femme would be a righteous ride for the part of me that enjoys being a girl.
ReplyDeleteI know. I find myself wanting one, and yet being afraid that some zombie suffragette is going to leap out of the early 1900's and beat me with a stick for doing so...
ReplyDeleteThe accessories are so kitschy that they're awesome. All the kids at the vintage clothing joint would hate me for my retro-chic.
One is placated to learn that 'LaFemme' is not roundly comdemned by the proponents of pink rifle stocks.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Poulter is quite famous in the explosives business and in oil (where I work).
ReplyDeleteHe developed the "Poulter shot" which is a seismic shot on the surface or it is sometimes called a surface shot.
Basically you put 5 lb bags of gel explosives ("dynamite") up on 3 foot lath and link them with prima-cord. Put say 20 to 30 of them spaced maybe 5 to 10 ft apart and fire the shot.
Don't be close and cover your ears!
It is actually a very envonmentally sensitive way of shooting seismic data for oil exploration. Explosives are basically fertalizer so a year or so later all you can see is the extra green of the path of the line.
Another aside. I believe these cars were taken to the DEW line on the north slope in the mid 60's and used as tractors for the snow trains. I never personally saw them on the slope but I heard about them.
My parents had a '56 Plymouth Savoy which looked like a four door version of the La Femme. It went through the same tailfin mutation as well. My sister wrecked it in 1970 just after she got her license. It had an AM radio with station search and blew tubes every six months.
ReplyDeleteHow can you females forget the more recent example of womynizing the automotive marketing: the Ford Probe, which lacked only the cold sterility of its OB-GYN inspired name to make sales go through the roof! The past is a different and perhaps indeed a better place.
ReplyDeleteThat isn't a snow machine. This is a snow machine.
ReplyDeleteThat is an Idaho license plate by the way.
And here I thought that the Mazda Miata was the first car designed for women.
ReplyDeleteLook, a Miata - now girls can have sports cars, too!
Making a true "women's vehicle/gun/whatever" takes a hell of a lot more than lace and pink paint. Here's an example of how to do it right: http://www.trekbikes.com/women/wsd_products/wsd_difference/
ReplyDeleteThe La Femme, for a chic chick car it has a rather toothy and aggressive grille - or is that passive-aggressive?
ReplyDeleteYes, they still make cars especially for girls. Except now we're all expected to buy them.
ReplyDeleteWomen, to their credit, often demur.
Interesting. A neighbour has a nice '56 Dodge that's the same colour as the La Femme. I'll have to check it out.
ReplyDeleteI know. I find myself wanting one, and yet being afraid that some zombie suffragette is going to leap out of the early 1900's and beat me with a stick for doing so...
ReplyDeleteYa know, for a few years I lived in a loft in the space where Jack Ruby had his first Dallas hoochie-mama joint back in the day. If the ghosts of strippers past never paid me a visit, I think you're safe from zombie suffragettes. Still, zombie suffragettes would be pretty awesome to dispatch...
wv: flogings
I wonder if anyone with experience driving in the snow was involved in the design of that Snow Cruiser? As someone who learned to drive in northern Michigan, one look at it and I'm thinking it had better stay to paved, plowed roads. Which are rather rare in Antartica...
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