Went to an interesting local used car lot yesterday with roomie, mostly to kick tires. The cars displayed out on either corner of the front row were a Porsche 928 S4 and a '79 MGB...
They had a pretty interesting selection for a medium-sized "tote the note" lot. The 'Vette in the foreground was clean, even if it did come from the Dead Ball Era of automotive performance.
1990 Ferrari 348 ts, from about the time that they started being real cars. Before this? Well...
If you haven't been in one of the Italian exotics from the Seventies or Eighties... Have you ever seen some of the props from a SciFi movie or TV show up close? You know how you were like "
Wow, this isn't the battle steel bridge of a space warship! This is all sheet styrene and crappy off-the-shelf LED indicators from Radio Shack! It's flimsy!"? Well, that's what the interior of a Maserati Bora or Magnum P.I.'s 308 was like. Flimsy trim that fell off if you looked at it funny and switchgear outsourced from some third-rate manufacturer that didn't work or came off in your hand; people would have revolted if their Pinto or Cavalier had been that much of a slapdash, kit car, school play production inside, but... Maserrghini! It's the price you paid for the ride.
1958 Ford Thunderbird. From the Baroque period of Detroit auto design. Interestingly, of the two designs competing to be the new T-bird, the losing one was eventually stretched by a back seat and a set of suicide doors and became the understated, immortal
1961 Lincoln Continental.
The T-bird above is some odd sort of restomod, with a lot of the chrome emblems blacked out and the interior done up in the same yellow-and-black motif.
After walking the car lot, we were a little hungry and ready for some A/C, so...
...we went to
317 Burger. I had the "None the Wiser" burger, which is topped with Swiss cheese, pineapple, bacon, jalapenos, and BBQ sauce, and washed it down with a pint of
Bier's Weizengoot. Bobbi ordered a custom "build your own" burger and iced tea.
On the way home, I stopped to get beer and saw that the store had Zombie Dust! There was a one six-pack per customer limit, and while I was standing in line, people holding smart phones in hand suddenly started streaming through the door and collecting their one six pack. By the time I walked out the front door, they were out. Sure enough, it was a Zombie Dust flash mob. Follow the Twitter hashtags to buy the stuff, I guess...
Up near where 61st crosses the Monon, I asked Bobbi to swerve into the parking lot so I could get a pic of this awesome Mad Max Honda CB650-based rat bob.
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I briefly owned one of the 61 drop tops. best car Lincoln ever made, 430 cubic inches of Detroit iron, 6000 lb curb weight, full frame car. A recently divorced broke guy had no business trying to restore it, and when the oglet came along, I sold it to make room for the wife's Honda, so she didn't have to take the oglet out of the car in the rain and snow. The head roadie for Whitney Huston bought it off me for what I paid for it, and we used the money for baby furniture. You could keep toasty warm with the top down in the dead of winter- I did it several times. The AC was adequate to keep the occupants of the car cool in the warmest of weather, also with the top down. I never found out it's top speed because it scared the beejus out of me. Loved that car, love, love loved it.
ReplyDeleteMy one-and-only motorcycle was a CB650. Holy Dystopia, Batman - it looked nothing like this!
ReplyDeletegvi
There's an old saying "You pay Ferrari for the motor and the rest of the car is free." The switchgear, and gauges were sourced from parent company Fiat's parts bin.
ReplyDeleteMaserati was owned by Citroen in the '70s and the cars were built with French and/or Italian components. Citroen went broke so the French government nationalized it because that worked so well for the British!
Al_in_Ottawa
I've read that it was somewhat common to replace the 928's engine with a Chevy small block, after the German v8 went bad. Did you pop the hood?
ReplyDeleteI've never driven one, but like the style.
One of my co-workers has a 928S4. Engine sounds like a sewing machine, very cool. Fun to drive. Funky headlights.
ReplyDeleteThe honda looks like the seat was wrapped in some kind of vinyl black tape....or is the seam hidden....If anything could get me to move to indy, this kind of stuff would be it.
ReplyDeleteHas any car had such an identity crisis as the Thunderbird? The early ones wanted to be Corvettes; then in the 1970's they wanted to be Continental Mark IV's, then later they started looking just like Mercedes sedans. Then there was a retro period where they apparently had a midlife crisis and wanted to relive their 1950's youth.
ReplyDeleteCrappy body aside, there was a reason folks dropped major bank on the Italian supercars.
ReplyDeleteThe year was 1974, and I accidentally(I stress accidentally) tried a '67 Delta 88 against a Ferrari Dino. So one sided. On my honor, I thought it was a VW with a replacement fiberglas body, until the driver engaged Warp Drive. Why in heaven's name would Ferrari paint their cars purple?
"None the Wiser" is a good name for angioplasty on a bun. Yesterday I took a break from serious house cleaning (as in taking out many trashbags full of raccoon and squirrel-trashed insulation from the attics) and took my father to lunch. He had a pulled pork sandwich, because by the time you hit 88 you can do as you damn well please. Despite being decades away from that excuse I had "The Farm Burger" which was a half-pound of beef topped with bacon, goat cheese and a fried egg. Ate half there and took the rest home for dinner. Alas the days of being able to eat however much of whatever I want (without weight gain that is) are long over.
ReplyDeleteSo Zombie Dust is a thing, eh? Does it just appear in stores semi-randomly or do they also have a release day? Being more of a malt over hops kind of person I'm thinking of Founders KBS, which is seemingly unobtainable (though I once found a 4-pack at Meijers -- a midwestern supermarket/everything chain for you furriners) other than at release day. When I am never in the area. Grrr. Fortunately regular Founders Breakfast Stout (the base for KBS) is not hard to find. A western Massachusetts brewery had their own version of breakfast stout which had not only oats, coffee and chocolate (all good) but also bacon. It was ... interesting. Don't think I'll repeat.
I am very pleasantly surprised by the automotive legerdemain that appears seemingly randomly in Indy.
ReplyDeleteCould be that it also appears with the same frequency elsewhere and there's no Tam there to report it, but I enjoy Indy's retro vehicular proclivity nonetheless.
Thanks.
You spot some interesting iron up your way.
ReplyDeleteNice rides, and looks like the rat bike was leaking 'something'...
ReplyDelete" the Dead Ball Era of automotive performance"
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons to visit this blog is to play "guess what Tam's talking about today!"
I know the 348 wasn't really one of the decently performing Ferraris, but it sure is pretty. It's probably the one I'd pick of the "attainable" models make by those of the prancing horse (sure, I'd prefer an F40 or a Testarossa of the 80s/early 90s Ferraris, but who wouldn't).
ReplyDeleteI'd think a 348ts would be just about perfect for a fun car- not so much power that it's likely to bite you in the rear, but makes all the right noises and looks so lovely. Can't say I'm fond of the red rims on that example though.
" Citroen went broke so the French government nationalized . . ."
ReplyDelete. . . and sold Maserati to De Tomaso.
I had an '85 Biturbo. Among the exotic aficionados it gets no respect, no respect at all, but it was a solidly built and fitted out bit of kit. Nothing crackerbox about it at all.
As long as you're willing to sacrifice your NCRS points and are mechanically inclined there's nothing on a C3 that can't be fixed.
ReplyDeleteEven the handling.
It's worth it because they're purty.
I had an uncle who owned a '59 T-Bird. White with the 430 cid V8 engine. It was low, long and an absolute dream to ride in. That's when cars still had some unique and original styling, unlike today's cars. I smile every time I see a 58-60 Thunderbird as it was probably one of the slickest cars Ford ever made.
ReplyDeleteIn the 80's, my best friend stressed his bank account, savings account and marriage to buy a used '68 Ferrari Dino 206. A joy to work on - NOT. Unlike most Euro or Japanese cars, the Dino owner needs double sets of metric wrenches in 5mmm, 7mm, 11mm and 15mm sizes. Plus Italian engineers much delight in making the fasteners as hard to reach as possible. If you think engine repairs are expensive, buy a Ferrari. But roll down your socks so you can get a good grip on your ankles. Those Italian car mechanics save all the lube for the cars.
For years I considered the first generation of the mid engined Testarossas my grail car. But I would have settled for even a smog dog 308.
ReplyDeleteHowever, as I have aged I've come to realize I'm not an outgoing enough sort to be driving a Ferrari.
I'm more of a Porsche guy I think.
File this one under the 'mental spending of nonexistent money but just you wait a few years' drawer, if you will. I look at that 348 and instantly wonder if such a vehicle would be attainable, as someone else said, after I get out of school and land a decent gig in IT. Being single (and likely to remain so) and of middle age, I'd like to think I'd be relatively unencumbered by modesty or practical reasons. No idea what they're asking for that car (and it so happens I DO like the rims) but NADA valued 348 GTB's from that year from the low 30's to the high 60's. That's a lot of money for any 24 year old car, even a Ferrari. But...so unique, amirite?
ReplyDeleteThen I wake up, slap my face, grin and admit to myself I'd just get a two or three year-old Miata, just because. But only after I replace the motorcycle and get a utility truck, and a place with a garage, and a few guns here and a few more guns there, and....
Tom