Shitbox Saturday: Show & Shine X-Car Engine Blow Edition

This 1983-84 Pontiac Phoenix, seen at the 2013 Bethel Boosters Show & Shine in Eugene, Oregon as an engine blow contest car, is a spectacularly bad car, albeit a rare one, since any Phoenix is rare in the first place, but a late notchback SE with a 4-speed, V6 and spoiler is scarce as hell. Sadly, this car's engine blew up on the afternoon of May 11, 2013 and will end up crushed by B&R Auto Wrecking of Eugene.

(an engine blow contest is an Oregon show & shine phenomenon started in the 70s, a junkyard employee from the yard that provided the car or a show marshal floors the accelerator on a car with petrol or diesel but no oil and coolant, after taking numbers for how long it'll take for the engine to blow up, person who guesses the correct time it takes for the engine to blow wins $50)

Wouldn't You Really Rather Have A Buick?: 1977 Buick Regal Coupe

Details are scant on this listing, and the picture is poor-quality, but if the mechanicals, body, top and interior are any good, here is a great beginner's classic, vintage daily driver or lowrider fodder. The car has a Chevy 350 V8, rebuilt transmission & carburetor and is said to run great.

The A-Special and Colonnade body GM midsize cars from 1973-77 are only now starting to be recognized as classics, and are a great alternative to a modern or semi-modern sedan (Taurus, Camry, Avalon, Passat, Intrepid, Sonata, etc.) for a daily driver if you can put up with rear-wheel-drive, fewer creature comforts, somewhat worse spare-parts availability and lower fuel mileage.

Find it here in Corvallis, Oregon for $2200

Eugene Parking Lot Find: 1979-80 Ford Pinto Runabout

The Ford Pinto, along with the AMC Gremlin, are perhaps the most familiar and most loathed cars of the Malaise Era, and the Pinto will forever be remembered as the "firebomb", the "barbecue that seats four" and similar names due to a cost-cutting measure on 1970-76 Pinto and Mercury Bobcat sedans and runabout hatchbacks. This cost-cutting measure created catastrophic fires upon high-speed impacts (the most notorious of which, a case in Elkhart, Indiana in the mid-70s, killed 4 people, a railroad tie-bumpered Chevrolet G20 van hit a rusty 1971 Pinto sedan with no gas cap at 60mph and then backed away, killing all four occupants, but the G20 drove home with a cracked bumper, bent grille, one broken headlight and a scorched hood after the driver's questioning).

Most surviving, non-wagon 1970-76 Pintos and Bobcats will have had the brace and baffle between petrol tank and rear bumper and baffled petrol tank installed by the dealer, and that is a good thing since Pintos are finally starting to be taken seriously as a collector car.

Aside from being dirty, this appears to be a nicely preserved stock example of the final Pinto, with the two-year-only front-end design that appears to hint toward its replacement's styling as well as nodding toward its European cousin, the Cortina. 

Shitbox Saturday: 1985 Classic Motor Carriages Tiffany

Looking fresh off the set of Dynasty or Dallas, is this neoclassic CMC Tiffany, based on a Mercury Cougar and assembled in Miami, Florida. With 6 bolt-on wire wheels on gangster whitewalls, dual sidemount spare tires, a state-of-the-art (for 1985) digital dash & sound system, a staggering 145-inch wheelbase and acres of cheap chrome & fiberglass, this car exemplifies the 1980s' soaring excess and questionable style, and allows you to drive around looking for nonexistent jumbo parking spaces and burning enormous amounts of petrol whilst looking like Alexis Carrington, J.R. Ewing, or a Miami coke dealer. That said, it is still an impressive car, if you like looking like a time warp from the bad old days.

If you are interested, find this car here, in none other than Clearwater, Florida, for just under $28,000 USD.

SCCA Rarity: 1981 Plymouth Horizon TC3 Race Car

This 1981 Plymouth TC3 was built in 1984 for the Sports Car Club of America's Improved Touring B (ITB) class and won numerous regional championships in Colorado and New Mexico into the 1990s, then was put into storage. Owner has done lots of work, has numerous parts, log books and documentation, has done lots of work, and even says the car could be returned to street-legal (which is a big deal considering the rising values of Malaise Era cars)

Find the car here in New Mexico for $3000, (or go here if ad disappears)

EV Rarity: 1980 Jet Industries Electravan (Subaru Sambar)

Meme face added to protect owner's privacy.

Compare size to a modern "minivan"


In the late 1970s, at the beginning of a second fuel crisis, a company in Austin, Texas saw an opportunity in importing engineless "glider" versions of the Subaru Sambar, a vehicle that had failed marvelously less than a decade before in an earlier iteration, then converting them to electric power. The finished product was a tiny 5-seater minivan with a short electrical power range and a diesel-fueled heater/defroster, that sold poorly and was withdrawn after a few years and not many made.

Here we have an updated, fully working, presentable 1980 Jet Electravan, for sale by an owner who seemingly knows his stuff, despite its short range and odd looks, it is still a great piece of EV history and a good alternative to a Zapcar, Kandi Coco or Zenn, since unlike those, the Electravan can go more than 25mph and is built well. However, there is no known tax credit for buying a classic EV. Replacing the existing bank of salvaged batteries will give a greater range and increase its reliability, but may be costly.

Find it here for $5000 in St. Paul, Minnesota (or go here if ad disappears)



Here is a video of an Electravan, showing us what it's all about. (not the vehicle on offer)

Eugene Winter Sighting: Malaise Era VW Bus

This tattered Type 2, one of many in the Emerald City, has seen better days, but is most likely still reliable transportation and is known to be drivable.

Classic Ads: 1973 Chrysler Newport

It's been the same old story for decades. What's an innovative luxury feature one year frequently becomes mainstream standard equipment in another year or two. In 1973 Chrysler trumpeted their new electronic ignition system, digital clock and additional sound deadener which contributed to a quieter ride. Other quality construction details included rustproofing body dips and more welds instead of bolts. Chrysler would perhaps do well to remember their slogan of the time: "Extra care in engineering... it makes a difference." Indeed it does. Maybe Chrysler wouldn't have needed that bailout if they had kept those words at heart.

This ad appeared in the December 1, 1972 issue of Life magazine.

Insomniac Garage Presents: Blues Brothers Dixie Square Mall Car Chase

At Insomniac Garage, hooning and car chases are always appreciated, and this is one of the best Hollywood car chases. Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi and a slew of Chicago and Illinois State police officers going through the Dixie Square Mall at high speed while destroying merchandise and risking lives. The Malaise Era cars in the Dixie Square parking lot and the mocked-up Oldsmobile dealership are remarkable, as are the stunt driving, the filming and the audacity of using a disused commercial space that parts of were being used as a school at the time of filming.

Diecast Car Review: Corgi "Kojak" 1970s Buick Regal (1999 issue)

   

This casting was a 1999 partial retool of a classic 1970s Corgi casting, with added details, and manufactured for collectors. It originally retailed for $36.99, but has been on markdown status at my local hobby store, Eugene Toy & Hobby, for at least two years and was purchased on January 9, 2013 for $18.59. 

Onto the review... proportions are nearly spot-on except for a highly arched roof with no rear vent windows. Tampo details and cast-in details are as much as one could want, save for no detail to the bumper guard rubber and no detail on the stamped rear taillight trim. There is also no glass in the left rear door. But it is a retool of a 1970s Corgi toy car, not a Franklin Mint or other high-end collector diecast, so that is excusable. 8/10.

Interior leaves a lot to be desired, but again... par for the course on 1970s Corgis. The seat and seat upholstery designs are reasonably accurate, the cast-in door panels on the opening front doors are accurate, but the dashboard is quite crude, the steering wheel the typical 70s Corgi four-spoke black plastic piece, and no door panel detail at all for the rear seat area. 6/10.

Fit and finish are first-class and are everything expected of a Corgi diecast. 10/10.

The less said about the included hand-painted white-metal figure of Detective Theo Kojak, the better. Homies minifigures are well-suited to this scale of Malaise Era American diecast and are fairly easy to find (I bought a huge bag of them for 99 cents at Goodwill just before Christmas 2012)

All in all, a decent little casting, and just about the only medium-scale casting of a Colonnade-body GM car available, but be prepared to pay big money for one online, these are not normally available in stores over 10 years after they were issued. 

Second Junkyard Photo Feature

All photos by Chris Garza and Creative Commons Attribution licensed.
Prints will be made available on Chris' deviantART page.

Old walk-in vans, truck parts and a steel building.

1955 Pontiac station wagon and Fiat 850 Spider hardtop

1963 Dodge Dart

Malaise Era bustleback Cadillac Seville

Missed Opportunity: 1974 Lotus Elite

(all photos from former seller, wirewheel.com)

While this car may no longer be available, and the "wedge" Elite may be polarizing, one still cannot deny that this was a milestone car for Lotus. 

The car in question here, recently sold by wirewheel.com, was far nicer than most other Elite projects seen on the market, had unusually good paint, fiberglass and trim for the model, which could be explained by long storage, the car has factory air conditioning and has had the ghost of Joe Lucas partly exorcised with a Crane Fireball electronic ignition and MSD coil, has had dual electric cooling fans and has only 36,000 original miles. 

Unfortunately the seat upholstery was worn and it needed work from having been stored, and I don't know the sale price, but one could do a lot worse as a starting point, and these cars are great with Ford small-block or Rover V8s.

Find the sold listing for this Lotus here.

The Last AMC Dealership: Collier Motors, Pikeville, North Carolin

The legend of one remaining AMC dealership in the world is widespread in the classic car hobby, but this video along with the two linked sites prove its existence.

The cars are all supposedly to be sold off as complete units, but many are usable only as parts donors by now. Hopefully the AMXs, the Javelins, the Nash-Healeys and the 1957 Rambler Rebel will be saved at the very least...

Find an article about Collier Motors here, and the Collier Motors image gallery here.

Malaise Era Mopar: 1976 Dodge Royal Monaco

Those who know our authors' tastes will know that we love Malaise Era cars, and I am a Blues Brothers fan who grew up around a friend of the family's 1975 Dodge Coronet four-door, so I had to post this Monaco. It is a 1976 Royal Monaco with the police speedometer installed but not working (proper wiring included), already has steel wheels, and with the proper paint scheme, vinyl top, hubcap and extra chrome delete, a pushbar made, the woodgrain trim painted to match the interior, regular Monaco badges, and an 8-track stereo installation (check eBay before buying at a wrecking yard or thrift store), this is an excellent Bluesmobile clone project, or just have the dash wiring installed by a specialist, put the rear-view mirror back up and drive as-is.

Those who are interested in building a Bluesmobile have all the reference they need and more here at the Blues Brothers Central Bluesmobile forum, and you can find the car here in Oregon for $1500, (or go here if ad disappears)

From The Days of Disco: 1977 Ford Pinto Cruising Wagon with Vintage Paint Scheme

One may not think of the Ford Pinto as a collector car, but the wagons had a better solution to fuel tank placement and were no worse than their rivals. The Cruising Wagon was a rare variant on the Pinto wagon that was offered as a smaller alternative to the custom vans that were popular in the 1970s, and while it was not exactly popular, it remains an interesting piece of 1970s automotive history, and ones in this nice of condition are scarce. The car needs some mechanical attention, front carpeting, an appropriate 70s AM/FM/8-track stereo system (check eBay before buying from a junkyard) and front door panels, but the remainder of the car looks great. The 2800cc Cologne V6 and automatic transmission are a great combination, hop-up parts are still out there, but may be easiest to find through a Capri specialist in the US or the UK.

The price may be all the money for a Pinto, and between the 1976 model year and nearly $500 in back registration due in California, where the car is located, it is not ideal for Golden Staters. But if you live in one of the other 49 states or in another country, can do your own mechanical and interior work, don't mind salvage titles and like this type of car, it will be a great project and you will not see others like it.

Find it here for $5000 in Marysville, California, (or go here if ad disappears)