Peter Behrens's Blog, page 75

1973 Ford F-100. Long Beach.

 

From Jonathan Welsh: "This body style, which I believe is a 1973 model, kicked off the sixth generation of F Series trucks, which ran through 1979. This one has the Camper Special package, three on the floor and a vintage two-color paint scheme. I love how the Southern California climate treats old iron. I would drive this one home as-is."Massachusetts.usetts doesn't treat its F-100s as well, but there are survivors: here's a 1968 F-100 from Leominster, MA. What about Icon Roformer's take on a 1970 Ford F-100? And a pair of Ford F-100's from Saskatchewan, that rest home for old iron. Oh, and here's Autoliterate's review of  the best trucks from our first year online...way back when (2012)

Klaus Frahm, "Automobile'

 

Klaus Frahm 'Automobile' Hamburg 1980.

More of Frahm here. Thanks to Craig Manning for the heads-up on this; he also contributed a post on Helga Paris and  East German photographers.

1962 Dodge Dart 440 wagon

It's on the block today at Hemmings.  Here's the story on those weird post-Exner Chrysler Corp. cars. We posted a 1962 Plymouth on the streets of San Francisco, and a 1962 Dodge Dart sedan that we caught in New Brunswick. The 1960 Plymouth was one of the last Exner cars. Here's a 1961 Chrysler New Yorker we posted from Deer Isle, Maine.

 

c.1965 Austin-Healey, Maine.

Okay, who doesn't want one? They were the most nimble & coolest of British 2-seater era and maybe marginally better-built than some of the others. British Racing Green, of course. We have posted many: here's a 1966 Austin-Healey 3000 Mk III we caught in China, Maine. And a tonneau'd Mk II in Cambridge, Mass. And we happen to know a Nash-Healey in Texas. And by the way,a 3000 Mk III is on the block today at Hemmings.




 Best wheelwell in the business. 

c. 1970 International Travelall

 

From Markus Anstadt: "I spotted this survivor in a Denver city neighborhood. A 4th generation Travelall (1969-1975). Lighting conditions didn't allow for an interior shot, but it was original."  AL: we posted a '66 Travelall for sale in Marfa, Texas a while back. And a 1972 Travelall that was up at Hemmings. And here are couple I-H Scouts of the same era. And a 1972 I-H 3/4 pickup.

1980 Mercedes Benz 240D

 

The 240D was the Euro-taxi of choice for a generation. This one is on the block at Hemmings. We have posted lots of these hardy cars---one in Lowell, Mass. a couple months back, and that post has links to a bunch of others. Autoliterate, by the way, is getting upwards of 6000 viewers a day, and anything you can do to help spread the word more widely is appreciated. I tell people the blog is about exploring the aesthetics of the ordinary, & paying attention to vernacular everything--i.e., I try to sound hi-falutin', but as you know, we are 75% about old trucks

c.1960 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud

From Reid Cunningham: "We were attending a concert in New London NH, which is right by Sunapee Lake, and this was parked on the street across from the venue.  Likely another attendee thought it fine transportation for an evening out.  Very well-kept, and lovely even up close–but meant to be a driver, with its regular NH registration.  No antique plates for this beauty.  It's not the usual work truck I send, but if you like old cars it would be near impossible to not appreciate the fine lines and preservation. "
  

Rivers of Morning in America

 
Rivers of Morning in America
There was beauty in America and I found it.

Everything was free: the deer, the libraries, lunch.

It was a hitched ride with the fire chief, this free

and fine America, there sailor who gave me a ticket

for a Cessna flight up the coast at dawn

the rocks brimming out of the salt blue

like knuckles ruddy with victory-

and the Cessna bounced with every invisible

pothole, every clump of air we hit and the man

next to me read a book and below us

there were islands and mist spidering

like lifelines along the water, best suit blue.

This America a tiller in hand,

bearing away.

There were orchards, bears, rivers

of morning and dusk and rain

and pickups stopping to offer 

a lift as far as the fork in the road-

and there the tamarind-breasted 

warbler would peck at the night's harvest

of skittles junebugs, then the bright rain

and the dark black beauty of the woods.

I found beauty in America

where the daily boxscores told the tale 

of someone winning, and no one got shot

under the large American moon

that sang itself white in the April nights

as though it were made of light,

as though all lies were always

this pretty.

                                                           -Eva H.D., from her collection The Natural Hustle

                                                           More at tribes.org

1989 Volvo 780 Bertone

 

From Jonathan Welsh: This one was around during the heyday of those classic 240s that AL keeps spotting in Cambridge. Nice shape, but seems  a little too  fancy for a Volvo.The Volvo 780 Bertone made its debut at the Geneva Motor Show in 1985 and went on sale in Europe a year before arriving in the U.S. as a 1987 model. Production ran through the 1991 model  year. Volvo jointly produced the 780 with Italian design studio Bertone, which also collaborated in the development of the car's predecessor, the 262C..Both cars were meant to be luxury flagships for the Swedish company known more for safety than style at the time. This example turned up in San Pedro, California.

1975 Ford F-250. Brooklin, Maine.

  Truck was a Vermont original. We caught it in Brooklin, Maine. Very low miles. Doesn't see any winter, despite the period snowplow.Originally a pickup, but nice job on the flatbed. We caught a c.1970 F-250 in Texas that mis mislabeled a '75. There was this '75 F-250 on the block at Hemmings a while back. And the photographer Jarrod McCabe stormed the Midwest in his 1971 F-250.