Peter Behrens's Blog, page 194

1963 GMC 1500

 

Q-Class sailboat

 That's a Q class boat, "Hope", a John Alden design built 1929 at Hodgdon Bros., East Boothbay. Looking for an overhaul at the Brooklin Boatyard.

#vanlife in Maine VW Bus and Sprinter

We've seen many a Sprinter this year. I guess people are hitting the road instead of the airport. This unit was stationed in front of the Friend Memorial Library in Brooklin ME, bingeing on the wifi.Here's another Sprinter we spotted in Cambridge. And another Sprinter, same neighborhood. Plus this supersized edition. Then--below-- there's the more traditional #vanlife unit, a Seventies VW Bus in a gorgeous Floridian turquoise, spotted in Blue Hill.



 

1969 Chevrolet Nova

Henry Behrens spotted the Nova in Freeport. Me. AL has posted several of these cars, which were marketed mostly as plainjanes but have great bones. The Nova has aged well. It morphed from the early-Sixties Chevy II. And  here's  a Supernova we saw in Blue Hill, Maine a while back. A Chevy II survivor in Banff. And this wagon in Santa Barbara.




 

1948 Oldmobile

Those turtlebacks of the '40s were soon to be extinct.



 

Big 'Birds Don't Fly

 

1958 Thunderbird at Twisted Iron,in Edgecomb,  Maine

1976 Toyota Corona

 from Reid Cunningham: "For a mid 70's car, brown is the appropriate color. I saw this at a garage in Franklin NH, current registration and looks driven. I like that the transmission is worthy of its own tag on the car."

Morris JE

From Automobile (thanks to Alex Emond for the heads-up): "Van life doesn't get much more O.G. than this Morris JE—or, more accurately, the J-type that inspired it. This wee unit first hit the mean streets of the U.K. in 1949, sold by Morris Commercial, and featured sliding doors and an endearing, vaguely egg-like shape. It wouldn't be replaced with a more modern, less cute design until 1961, but today it lives again as the "JE," an all-new, fully electric commercial van from a reborn Morris Commercial that's styled to resemble the post-WWII original.

"Looking for all the world like a loaf of bread on four wheels, the JE wears an upright, retro grille and two round, protruding headlights. Buyers can specify a number of fun paint colors, and even a contrasting-color roof, body-side scallop, wheels, and dashboard. The interior is clean and minimalist, with a retro, banjo-style steering wheel and a single infotainment screen. It's all very . . . jolly good.



"On a practical level, the cargo area can swallow a claimed 194 cubic feet of stuff, along with two standard "Euro" cargo pallets. The cargo floor can also accommodate items measuring just shy of eight feet in length. As did the original J-type, the JE includes a sliding side door (it's on the left side because the driver is positioned on the right, because Britain). The cavernous body is made of carbon fiber (to save weight) and sits atop a skateboard chassis with an unspecified battery and motor setup. Morris Commercial does claim that the van is capable of reaching 90 mph, and can separately travel up to 200 miles per charge. As is increasingly common amongst today's EVs, the JE can be recharged quickly, in this case to 80 percent of its capacity in 30 minutes.


"Morris Commercial notes that the electric JE can be outfitted and upfitted any number of ways for a variety of business purposes beyond mere package delivery..."

Chevrolet Apache 31

Michael Moore photo.

1958 Ford Skyliner, 1956 Fairlane, 1956 Bel Air

 Stephen Hendrickson spoke to the owner at a small car show at an ex-Walmart parking lot in PA: 'Sometimes it works' he told me.  Jacques Tati would love this modernist fun car. And good old boys are drinkin’ whiskey and rye..Asking 27,000. I wonder if that’s what he’s put in...


Is the truck a '39 Ford?
1956 Chevrolet  1955 Ford Fairlane