Category: Old Cars
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Carspotting
I love old cars, and whenever I see one still on the road I try to take a photograph. These are the old cars I spotted in the wild this year. I met a friend for breakfast in the spring and this 1964 or 1965 Plymouth Barracuda was in the parking lot. I was looking…
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Elements of classic cars
My love of old cars is certainly enough to drive me to the Mecum Spring Classic auction every year, but I also go because it gives me a chance to practice my photography. You can walk right up to the cars, close enough to touch them – though out of respect for the owners, I keep my hands…
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Living vicariously through wealthy car collectors
If I could I’d own a house with a twelve-car garage, each bay filled with a classic automobile. I’d drive around all the time in my various cars – posh prewar grand tourers, spry little sports cars, tall-finned and chrome-laden coupes, at least one ginormous 1960s cruisemobile, and a couple old pickup trucks for good…
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When a classic car is not beautiful to behold
I used to love to sit on my parents’ front stoop and watch the cars go by. I counted the Impalas and Furys and Galaxies that were so common during my 1970s kidhood. I got a special thrill from every Mustang and Camaro, and I even grooved on the ubiquitous Beetles. I still love the cars…
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Captured: International farm truck
Though I’m a lifelong Hoosier and have lived in Indianapolis for 16 years, I’ve been to the Indiana State Fair exactly twice. I always figured the fair was mostly about the midway, and rides just aren’t my thing. But I’m always looking for fun things for my sons and I to do, so we made…
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My favorite cars from the auction
These are the cars I liked best at the Mecum Spring Classic car auction, in no particular order. I’m not sure what struck me about this 1970 Pontiac Catalina. Maybe it’s my irrational love of station wagons. Maybe it’s that this one wears its black paint so well. Maybe it’s the “400” badge on the…
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Woozy from the exhaust
My lifelong love of cars has been much more about automotive design than engineering or driving. I certainly appreciate a fast car or one that stays glued to a twisty road, but just looking at cars makes me plenty happy. And so when the Mecum Spring Classic came back to Indianapolis last week, I picked…
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Captured: Chevrolet
If you guessed that this badge is attached to a late-1960s Chevrolet, you guessed right. Specifically, it flanks a 1968 Chevy Bel Air station wagon. I love the ’68 Chevy, especially the hardtop Impala coupe and sedan. My mom’s best friend had one of the sedans in midnight blue and I loved riding around in…
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It’s all in the details
When I was a kid, it was fun to guess the make, model, and year of the cars I saw on the roads. In those days, automobile manufacturers freshened their basic designs every year between major redesigns. Those freshenings often involved some pretty obvious sheetmetal changes – new taillights, revised fenders, that sort of thing.…
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The muscle car auction
I saw my first 2010 Camaro in the parking lot at work the other day. I felt that familiar twinge of excitement I used to get as a kid over each year’s crop of new cars. I was young long enough ago that cars were still facelifted every year, and you could easily tell the…
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A very important Plymouth
I’m a bit of a car nut. Last week I was surfing around Dailymotion looking at old TV spots for cars and found this one for what looked to me like a 1966 Plymouth Fury, but was called the Plymouth VIP instead. I’d never heard of the model, which surprised me, because I’m pretty on…