Peter Behrens's Blog, page 562

1953 International pickup & American landscapes

I'm in Colorado for a few weeks of teaching. Scale of everything is different here than in the Netherlands. Colorado is beautiful in October, with the cottonwoods flaming yellow, but the raging sprawl of American towns & cities against the front range of the Rockies is dispiriting, especially to an eye accustomed to the careful and respectful way the Dutch treat their country. North American landscape especially in the West is treated so carelessly: with what feels like almost hostile disregard. Our civilization treats our land quite brutally--like the land is an enemy.
            John Brinckerhoff Jackson had a keen, challenging eye for Western landscape. He's always worth reading.
            Old pickups abound. I've had my eye on this 1953--I'm guessing--International 3/4 ton.

Trabis of Berlin (& Morris Minor Estate Car)

from our man in Berlin, Craig Manning, who did a walkabout centered on Prinzlauer Berg-- "old east B.,  but now hipster central. They still love their Trabants."

Girl Car

Not to be essentialist or anything, but women have not been responding with wild enthusiasm to Autoliterate's preoccupation with cheap aged trucks. Time for a female perspective on things vehicular. BB was up in Amsterdam the other day, with her oog* and her iPhone, and caught the Fiat below. Many more fresh images from NL are up on her blog, bashasoog.blogspot.com/


*(Dutch for eye) 

Mercedes Benz 207d Van

I like Euro-vans, always have. Never owned a VW bus but have spent a lot of time following them, on 2-lane roads in the Rocky Mountains. I've been encountering some weatherbeaten but admirable M-B vans here in the Netherlands. Don't know much about them, but I would guess that this one is from the early 1980s. A van for tall people.

Billetproof at Antioch, vol. 1

From our discerning No. Calif. correspondent, Michael S Moore:
"So the Billetproof show or something like it started down around Paso Robles as an alternative to all the bright ‘n’ shiny Hot Rod expos that have burgeoned around the country to give voice to the home-made and idiosyncratic of the hobby over the multi-thousand dollar cookie-cutter rich man’s “collectible” custom made cars.  Or so I understand; I went to Antioch two years ago and found it really interesting and a definite contrast to, well, the one Benicia puts on in the spring [albeit for a worthy cause - the high school band], which is mostly old white guys with lavishly chromed machinery they may or may not have had a hand in building.  Two years on there were a lot more cars and vendors [and old white guys, myself included] at Antioch, and more of those bright ‘n’ shiny street rods despite the strictures -       1964 and prior TRADITIONAL style rods and customs ONLY      No visible billet anything! Especially wheels!      No digital gauges      No IFS on fenderless cars      No trailered cars      No mag wheels made after the 60’s      Traditional looking choppers and bobbers ONLY! (No modern West Coast Choppers, OCC style bikes) ..." --MSM

Detroit Iron. And a 1959 Buick convertible.

I'm not much interested in Fifties nostalgia---& it's been going on way too long, since about 1972, and there ain't nothing new to say. I don't need to see any more fuzzy dice or 1957 Bel Airs at car shows. And the meanings of the cars of that era have been deconstructed too often, and the cars themselves are usually over-restored. But a friend sent me a batch of photos, and encountering images of these lurid beasts here in prim Holland, land of the well-polished Land Rover, just made it plain, once again, how much dreamlife was invested in cars in the postwar era. Maybe nowadays the psychic hunger goes into handheld gizmos, like iPhones, with their apps. Dislike that word, apps. It's unappetizing. But these cars are remarkable and strange, aren't they? I always especially admired the '59 GM cars, all of them. See the Buick convertible below, black with red interior, always loved that color combination.

Rolls Royce Pickup

I don't know how it happened, but here it is. I came across this machine in Wassenaar, NL, a swank little town,basically a bankers' suburb of The Hague. The coachwork was well done. Perhaps not quite up to Mulliner Park Ward standards--but then neither was MPW, always.

Volvo 122 puis un Citroën DS Wagon

Yeah this is an old truck blog but I've always had a thing for Volvos. I pedal my Dutch bike past this 122, between the swimming pool and my office at NIAS. These cars were built in Nova Scotia for the North American market and the cars sold in Canada were badged as Volvo Canadians.


And I have mentioned Le Garage in a previous post. Saw this wonderful Citroën DS wagon there a couple of days ago. J'aime ca. Vraiment. Beaucoup.

Land of the Free

                 Bullet hole, outhouse window.   Libre, Colorado    ©M S Moore 2012

Green on Denman Island

AE caught this green street rod in the rainforest green of  Denman Island British Columbia, and it makes me miss the wild beauty of Canada, and wish I were there.