Peter Behrens's Blog, page 95

1985 El Camino, Virginia

From Matthew Sheehey: "The El Camino from the 80s brightened my spirits during a visit to Anita's in Springfield, VA. Famous for breakfast tacos, but the nighttime food is also very good, especially the pork tamales."AL: some El Caminos we have known, like this 1970 El Camino SS,  and the 1959 Cat's Eye El Camino. A plainjane 1969 El Camino in West Texas, and another '69 in Ventura. A 1960 El Camino at a paint shop in Reno. And out personal favorite, the 1960 El Camino bought at Greene Avenue Lunch & Soda for $3 (CDN)

Ford Maverick truck

 

Below is from Dan Neil's  Rumble Seat  review of the new Ford Maverick pickup, in WSJ Weekend. Sounds as if Ford is finally trying to restore a wheelbarrow truck to an honored place in the US truck line-up. Buyers are clamoring for the Maverick. Given that this is FoMoCo, a brutally mismanaged company lately, it's hardly a surprise that the big problem with the Maverick is that they don't have any to sell at the moment. Oops. AL only wishes that Ford was willing to produce the little-ish truck in a true wheelbarrow edition, losing the yippee-yi-yo nomenclature (Lariat, Maverick--hell, call it the Wheelbarrow) and the club cab, and maybe stitching on a longbed. Here's Dan: "The few days  I spent in the company of Ford's new Maverick Lariat Tremor compact pickup ($37,465, as tested) left me with questions. Are those “Tremor” graphics on the bedsides an optional delete, I wondered? If not, can they be gently removed? Because I’m not 12 years old."Second, with respect, why the hell aren’t more of your pickups like the Maverick—affordable, approachable, applicable, and that’s just the As? The Maverick with the Tremor package is a little knucklehead, a daily delight, as perky and over-performing as a Jack Russell Terrier that got into the freeze-dried coffee. Powered by a not-overly refined turbocharged 2.0-liter four (250 hp) and eight-speed automatic transmission, the Tremor Off-Road Package ($2,995) adds a sophisticated all-wheel drive system with a torque-vectoring rear differential, running modified code from the retired Focus RS.
"Pictures fail to convey the weeness. With four front-hinge doors and seating for five, the Maverick measures 31 inches shorter and 9.8 inches lower than the F-150 Tremor SuperCrew with 5.5-foot cargo box. It’s not even a midsize, to be cross-shopped against the Toyota Tacoma, Chevy Colorado, Honda Ridgeline or Ford’s own Ranger. The Maverick is a true compact, 10 inches shorter between the bumpers than a Ranger SuperCrew with 5-foot bed..."

Ford Crown Vic Police Interceptor

 

From Reid Cunningham, in the student parking lot at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio.  "A while back there had been a discussion of Crown Victoria service cars.  I ran across this decommissioned Police Interceptor version, still retaining a fantastic front push guard.  It brought back memories of high school.  My friend Doug bought a former state police 1974 Ford LTD police cruiser at the state auction.  It had a police interceptor 460, which no one in their right mind should give to a teenager, but there we were."  

AL: See Martin Gotfrit's AL piece on the Crown Vic and his father. And in my Montreal, police rides could be a little different...how about a Renault 10?  And here's a Montreal Police Service Dodge Polara.  Plymouth Fury I was the standard issue NYPD car of that era. And another Montreal Police ride, c. 1940

Jeep Comanche 4x4 pickup

  From Markus Anstadt: "Interesting find on the streets of Denver. The Jeep Comanche edition produced from 1986-1992. This particular model was AWD with a 4 liter, inline 6 cylinder engine. This was the top of the line variant. Pretty rare in any form today."We posted a Comanche pickup in NH last summer, at the same time noting a book on the Comanche Empire.

California Dreaming Jaguar

Okay, it's February, I'm in a coffeeshop on Tremont Street beside Boston Common, it's been alternating freezing rain & snow since last night, the world is grey slush, and I used to live in Santa Barbara. Where Vincent Stanley sent this photo from (Montecito, actually--Shoreline Drive). I used to dislike February out there. Blue sky and 72 was so boring. 

Vincent does report snow at +1000' elevations in Southern Cal yesterday.

 

Ram SWB

A contemporary truck without a crewcab and the other ungainly add-ons; a truck without braggadocio, faux-machismo, or a series/edition moniker out of the manly West (Laramie, Silverado, Telluride, Texas Adition, Santa Fe, etc ) is a rare sight. We were glad to catch Devta Doolin's on a winter day in Blue Hill, Maine.

X. J. Kennedy poem, "Cross Ties"

Cross Ties

Out walking ties left over from a track
Where nothing travels now but rust and grass,
I half-believe in something that would pass
Growing to hurtle from behind my back
And when the night wind slams by, give a start:
Out of its mass the disembodied wail
Of a far night-shift like a bag of mail
Is flung. Moon looms, her headbeam rips apart
A cloud and strews it. Wings thrash: down to strafe
The crouched grass drops a mousehawk. There’s a screech
As steel stretched taut till severed. Out of reach
Or else beneath desiring, I go safe,
Walk on, tensed for a leap, unreconciled
To a dark void all kindness.
                                                                         When I spill
The salt I throw the Devil some and, still,
I let them sprinkle water on my child.
                                                              -X. J. Kennedy

From Paris Review issue no. 31 (Winter–Spring 1964)
Thanks to Eva H.D. for the heads-up 

1974 Volkswagen Sun Bug

The Sun Bug was a Special Edition VW on the market for 1974 ..."special gold paint, a special badge on the rear, black body side graphics, unique shift knob, and even a rosewood dash. The brochure reads 'let a little sunshine into your life.' ” Henry Behrens caught this one (above) on the plaza at Harvard. The Sun Bug convertible below sold for $33k at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Las Vegas last summer.

Ineos Grenadier

 
Dan Neill of the WSJ, who writes about cars and trucks. is Basha's favorite writer, period. This from his review of the fancy-pants 2023 Ineos Grenadier after driving the thing around Scotland.

"...Then they said something that, had I not been sitting down, would have blown my kilt over my head like Marilyn Monroe’s dress. In the U.K., the base model starts at 49,000 GBP—about $60,000. The schoolboy-fantasy Fieldmaster I was using for the day retails for 73,000 GBP, or $87,700 in real money. The company stresses that U.S. prices have not been set, but anything close to those numbers is practically grand-theft auto.
How? I wondered impertinently—and still do. How could this beyond-niche start-up, with manufacturing in France, compete on price with mass-market off-roaders like Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, Ford Bronco and even the current Defender? Where the hell is the margin? I’m sorry. Did I just shout that out loud?"

Chevrolet 3100, Carrabassett Valley, Maine

 

Caught by Henry Behrens, on the road to Sugarloaf