Peter Behrens's Blog, page 104

Erwin Wurm and Fat Cars

 

Thanks to DC Denison for the heads-up on this, from Public Delivery: "The first sculpture of the Fat Car series was designed and created by Opel designers but didn’t really achieve the shape and size that Wurm wanted. He admitted to an interviewer in Austria that he wanted to mix something like a biological system with a mechanical one...the Opel designers computerized the process and could not deliver the kind of “natural” smooth-edged shapes that Wurm wanted. So he ended up using only the chassis of a real car. To create a sculpture he had in mind, Wurm ended up using polyurethane foam and Styrofoam framed with lacquer..."

Independent Auto Volvo Service. Augusta, Maine.

 
I was heading to Brooklin ME from Cambridge MA on a cold clear December Sunday. My Volvo 850 has over 200k miles and has always been the most dependable of cars. I've owned it since it was new. I was on Route 3 heading east from Augusta to Belfast when the throttle seemed to lurch itself into wide-open. The gas pedal had no feel; it was just hanging there, with the engine howling maniacally and the car accelerating in an unhinged burst of speed. I threw it into neutral and the RPMs zoomed, the engine screaming even louder. The brake pedal felt weirdly stiff–probably from vacuum pressure. Steering to the shoulder, I was able to brake and shut it down. Yikes.

I spent 10 minutes on my back trying to figure out the problem by feel but that was impossible and traffic on Route 3 was zipping by uncomfortably close to my outstretched legs. What do you do on a Sunday afternoon in December on the roadside in Vassalboro, Maine with a car problem that you can't solve,  without hope of a garage being open and most of the country hunkered down in front of their massive TVs, watching moments of football genius wedged between a serial barrage of dreadful commercials?You call AAA, that's what you do. The Towtruck operator arrived forty five minutes later but I had no idea where to ask him to take the car. "There's a place in Augusta," he said, "with maybe a couple hundred Volvos parked outside."

Okay. That sounds like a plan. It was 12 miles away and AAA covers you for only five but there weren't many options.

He hooked up the car and we pulled it down a network of backroads until I saw the big old brick building looming ahead on Riverside Drive. The scruffy outskirts of Augusta, not far from the Kennebec River. There really were what looked to be a couple of hundred Volvos strewn over couple of weedy acres. A high proportions of boxy 140s and 240s, a few 122s, and several newer cars. There was no sign saying anything about services offered but according the Internet, this was Independent Auto, and Volvos had been repaired here, and not just archived. So I scrawled a note outlining my problem and asking whoever read it to please take a look at my car. Then I prowled the field for a couple hours until my friend arrived to give me a lift up to Brooklin, 100 miles northeast. I had no idea what to expect from the Volvo shop if it was, in fact, a Volvo shop and not someone's weird Swedish obsession written on a landscape.Next morning I spoke to the owner, Tom Broome. By then he had already diagnosed the problem (stuck throttle linkage) and resolved the issue (by lubricating the linkage and cable). And I realized how lucky I had been to break down within 10 miles of an amazing, original, independent Volvo shop run by a young man who may not speak Swedish but certainly seems to know his way around a Volvo. I picked up the car that afternoon. I plan to get more work Doneonce n figure out the geography and logistics of dropping off the 850.  Maybe I'll try to book it in for a couple weeks this winter, if Tom has some time. Amazing place.Looks like there must be a lot of parts on hand. Check it out. Independent Auto 683 Riverside Dr, Augusta, ME 04330

Phone:  +1 207 622 4563

1970 Volkswagen. Alpine, Texas.

 

From David Branch in Alpine, Texas: "Fewer and fewer of these in the wild."

Last we posted was a '65 Beetle, also West Texas.

1952 Dodge

 

From Michael Moore, in Benicia CA. 2nd time up for this truck. Another Dodge in--where else--Saskatchewan was rated Off The Patina-Meter.

New York Times wagon

 If you are really autoliterate, you ought to be able to identify the make and year of this wagon; though I cannot figure what it was doing at the head of a NYT column about the low rate of personal saving.

Okay, here's a hint.

Return of the Station Wagon: 2023 Cadillac Lyriq

 

from Dan Neil's column in the WSJ Weekend, December 3, 2022:

"...I’VE LIVED THROUGH a promised renaissance of the Cadillac brand so many times I should be wearing pantaloons and a leather jerkin. The story is always the same: a lot of talk about Cadillac being the “Standard of the World,” in founder Henry Leland’s happy phrase, but precious little evidence. But this time, and this car—the 2023 Cadillac Lyriq, the first battery-electric vehicle from GM’s upscale division—feel different.
"Really. For starters, Cadillac’s foray into the electric SUV segment isn’t an SUV or even a crossover, despite the company’s assurances. The proportions, silhouette, and hatch breakover point are those of a big touring wagon. Abandoning the naive, easy and obvious, endlessly iterated SUV/crossover phenotype was the Cadillac hive-mind’s best and boldest decision. I can’t believe it got by the board of directors..."

1986 Chevrolet C10, Marfa

 

                       

1968 Ford F-100. Leominster, MA

 

From Reid Cunningham: "I caught the F-100 in Leominster MA.  Given the location, day, time, and its regular registration, it looks like someone's summer daily driver.  Fix the fender rust, freshen up the bottle caps and, with some new paint on the bumper, it would be very sharp."7

Our favorite F-100? Maybe this 1967 Ranger.

1937 Chevrolet 5-window Coupe

From Michael Moore, in the East Bay: "This ’37 Chev 5-window street rod was leaking coolant across from Lucca’s on the weekend. Not entirely to my taste, but a beauty nonetheless…"

1962 Chevrolet C10, Los Angeles

 

Becky Jean Smith caught the C10 in LA. More photos of the truck– misidentified as a 1963–up here.