Peter Behrens's Blog, page 166

1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass

 

From Craig Manning At the car wash, Mar Vista, L.A. See our post on Kristin Bedford and the lowriders of LA.  And see our post Craig Manning and the girl who jumped in the truck.

1980 Jeep J-10 4WD

 

from Reid Cunningham: "Pittstown, NY. I think this is at least the third Jeep J-10 pickup I have found in the last year or so. The last registration was 2015, so not a runner but certainly less rust than the still operating Jeep I found at a sugar house. I do miss two tone trucks, the Jeep lines were made for the extra color."

Technologies and infrastructure: Earth and Mars

Astounding, when ya think of it, that a civilization that can fly a helicopter on Mars gets a significant portion of its earth-bound energy and communications delivered through sagging networks of wooden poles and wire strung above city streets.

Wounded Whale: 1991 Buick Roadmaster

They do make a statement.The GM whale wagons have a cultish following. We posted a while back on a 1991 Buick Roadmaster, rethought. Here's a more strait-laced 1992 we caught up in Beverly, Mass. And another '91 up in Maine.

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Brattle Street, Cambridge Volvo 240

[image error] Once the vernacular car of Cambridge, Mass.. They're not pretty. All kinds of things you can say against them, but I think they are wonderful cars. Maybe the closest you'll come to truck, in a car. Rough ride. Here's another 240 we caught a while back just down the street. And a 1993 240SE. A 1987 240 sedan that was on the block at BaT a while back. Another wagon in West Cambridge.

Vanlife: 1993 Pontiac Trans Port

From Jonathan Welsh: "This one might not hold a candle to those sharp '59 Pontiacs but is pretty stylish for the early '90s. A rare bird for your consideration.General Motors frittered away several years before responding to rival Chrysler's groundbreaking minivans that arrived in the 1984 model year. When the Pontiac Trans Sport and sibling Chevrolet Lumina APV rolled out for 1990, Chrysler was nearly ready with its second-generation model. The pointy-nose GM vans turned heads but their styling proved polarizing. The "Dustbuster" nickname came quickly and stuck. They really did look like the cordless Black & Decker Dustbuster handheld vacuums of the period. Gold trim and wheels tell me this is a '93."
AL: Seems to me in Robert Altman's 1992 black comedy about Hollywood, The Player, Range Rovers were THE car everyone in the biz had to have until, somewhere near the end of the film, Oldsmobile minivans of the Dustbuster era suddenly became THE car. 

Infrastructure:

From Derek Van Bever: "I know that this is not strictly auto-related, but I am obsessed by these driveway markers where the construction companies of old would place their mark on their work."AL: there has to be a noun for these things and no doubt an entire subculture. I think one of the first construction contracts my grandfather took on was building sidewalks for Medicine Hat, Alberta, c. 1910.I wonder if there are any Northern Construction Co. markers still extant?

Now AL has caught the bug:




 

1975 Ford F-250

Those are chipless F-150s stacked up in Detroit. See the piece on new-vehicle shortage in today's WSJ.. One option AL recommends: go ahead and buy this 1975 Ford F-250, on the block at Hemmings.

 

1947 Pontiac Streamliner wagon

 

On the block at Hemmings.

1995 Volvo T5 on the block

AL has a thing for Volvo 850s and this one looks kinda quick. A unicorn of a car these days. On the block today at BAT. We also admire this P210 caught on the other coast, a while back.