Peter Behrens's Blog, page 43

1994 Dodge Dakota 4x4 (Wheelbarrow)

 

Not bad for 30 years old. Before Dodge became Ram. We would consider granting this unit Autoliterate's prized Wheelbarrow Truck designation.  These trucks were about the right size. And what about the Dodge Dakota Sport convertibles we posted a while back? And this Dodge Dakota Beach Home we came upon in Santa Barbara. Whenever I'm on the Maine Turnpike one of the Gargantua Ram trucks seems to be chasing me.

Alfa Romeo, Naskeag.

 

We got lucky out at Naskeag. Gorgeous evening light, blowing maybe NW12k –and then this 1972 Alfa Romeo turned up. Don't often see Italians out there. We think Italian cars are understated and  do much right that contemporary Detroit was doing all wrong. Further examples: Here's a 1967 Fiat 1500 Cabriolet by Pininfarina. And we think the Lancia Flaminia we posted from the Netherlands is maybe the most beautiful car ever. In the mid-Sixties the Italianicized Lincoln Continental beats the gargantua Cadillacs by a country mile, we think.

Land Rovers of Naskeag

 

After all the polished and pampered Land Rovers of Nantucket, it was nice to see one earning its keep out at Naskeag Point.

c.1988 Jeep Comache Pioneer

 

Was it the best Jeep pickup truck ever? We caught this specimen in Blue Hill, Maine.

Colorado Italianità

Joe Hughes sent these photos from an Automezzi show in...Denver? several years ago. For some reason they got lost in the Autliterate files, but here they are. No one does cars like Italy does cars. This from Rachel Donadio's New York Review of Books piece on contemporary Italy,  Meloni's Cultural  Revolution  :"When I asked him to define Italianità, he told me, rather enigmatically, that it was “that special condition unique to our people in which being accustomed to beauty creates an almost innate propensity for the well made.”

 



 

1961 Chevrolet Apache 10

 

In Maine. We have posted several '61 Apaches. I learned to drive a standard shift on one....GH Ranch, Sundre, Alberta, 1973. More Apaches posted here.

The Nantucket Land Rover herd.

  

It's not exactly the Serengeti out there. Remember Robert Bateman's L-R, Grizzly Torque?

c. 1989 Mercury Colony Park

  

From Reid Cunningham: "I have a love for the woodgrain vinyl-sided wagons that existed in my youth.  This Mercury I saw in South Hero, VT is the last gasp of those wagons before they all disappeared under the onslaught of the ubiquitous SUV. (AL: At first, the minivan) The liberal use of chrome on bumpers, door handles, the wheel arches and siding surrounds, the roof rack, along with the small opera lights on the B pillar and what must be the last standing hood ornament on any car just make me love this wagon even more.  The Mercury cut out in the bumper rubber is the kind of whimsy by some Detroit designer I just have to admire."  

AL: we posted a 1990 Ford Country Squire XL, last of the Bombasts.

Plastic-fired Volvo 240

 

from the story in Dezeen:

 :Dutch designer Gijs Schalkx has retrofitted an old car to run on an unusual fuel source: waste plastic that is turned back into oil.

Schalkx's DIY project, titled The Plastic Car (Is Made of Metal), consists of an old red Volvo with a roof-mounted "de-refinery" that heats plastic to obtain oil for the fuel tank.

The project began as a follow-up to the Sloot Motor motorcycle that Schalkx made as part of his product design course at the ArtEZ University of the Arts, which runs on methane harvested from local bogs...:

1969 Rambler American

 

From Jonathan Welsh: "Downtown Montclair, N.J. The Ramblers were not much for style during the 1960s and often seemed to be five years in or so behind the aesthetic trend. This one caught my eye because of its originality, right down to the "dog dish" hubcaps. See Bruce Willard's poem about the Rambler: The Rambler, the Sommelier and You. And a restored 1964 Rambler American. Some snowbound Ramblers on Deer Isle, Maine.