Peter Behrens's Blog, page 108

1968 Volkswagen Bus

                

It was the heyday of the station wagon, so they marketed the bus as a wagon. No one had heard of minivans. All the VW ads of the--even the headlines-were  written in plain simple English, with correct punctuation and set in a clear, clean sans serif type. The print ads all spoke with a straightforward, lightly ironic voice, playing against the hype and bombast that characterized most automotive advertising of the era. And they had to overcome the German thing. This was only 23 years after the end of WWII. We have posted a slightly later-c. 1975-VW bus of this era from Blue Hill, Maine. Maybe out favorite bus is a 1966 VW Transporter from West Texas.

West Texas Trucks (& Wildsam's Field Guide to Big Bend)

Some of the Marfa truck herd. 

If you're planning a trip, Wildsam's Field Guide to Big Bend is precise, pungent and pocket-sized.

Wolseley Hornet Mk 2

Civilized little thing. Caught it at Motorland, in Arundel, Maine.






 

Big Bend

Never yet been to the Presidio International Raceway but it is high on the list. Read about it in the Big Bend Sentinel. Thinking much of the Big Bend these days. Listening to  Taj Mahal's Texas Woman Blues and Michelle Shocked's Memories of (East)Texas.

Okay, the C10's not going to set any records on the strip.


There's a reason the steel contraptions stapled on the noses of most trucks in far-West Texas are known locally as  antelope grilles.
Wildsam's Big Bend. The most lucid, pocket-size guidebook to BB there is. See Sterry Butcher's piece on Marfa, "What You See Is What There is" and my "Gone To Texas".What Would Donald Judd Do?  Well, he did it at least once in copper.

Usually some kind of snow in early January.
Doesn't last.
Near Wild Rose Pass in the Davis Mountains.
That was in the lower canyons, on the Rio Grande, a couple days' paddle below Boquillas del Carmen.
JW Burleson photo©2022Evening on the river.
JW Burleson photo ©2022

French sleekmobiles

 

 "...the René Villemer automotive paint company would create these sketches to show off their latest colors, sometime utilizing real vehicles, but often drafting made up transportation ideas from scratch like the examples below. One thing is certain, the French Art Deco is heavy here, and thankfully that whimsical streamline influence made its way to American auto design in the same decade. Just compare any US car model from 1926 to the same car in 1936..."–Jalopy JournalAL: Art Deco or Art Moderne?AL: See, for example, the 1937 Chrysler Airflow we posted last week. It seems that Chrysler will be launching an Airflow EV in 2025.

1934 Ford work truck, Cambridge, Mass.

Brattle Street, Cambridge and still working. The steel body is on a Chevy S–10 frame. The  truck below, a '33 Ford, was posted on the H.A.M.B.

Brooks Stevens Land Yacht

We know Brooks Stevens as the designer of the Willys Jeep trucks and station wagon. Thanks to Larry Nordell for the heads-up on a Mario the Multipla  post on Stevens' Ford Western Flyer of the 1930s.




 

1961 Chevrolet Corvair Lakewood

Saw the car at Motorland in Arundel, Maine. Air-cooled, too. We have posted another Corvair with a Ralph Nader for President bumper sticker. There was a Corvair pickup and a Corvair/Greenbrier van.




 

Trucks for Leo

                                       

Okay, I like big trucks. So does my nephew. Leo, catch some truck pictures and send them to me.                                        

1962 Volkswagen Type 2 Westfalia

 

These things just look happy. Underpowered of course. Still, getting there would be at least half the fun. The bus is on the block today at BaT.