Archive for February, 2010

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Geely-licious! 1972 Volvo 145E

February 5, 2010

There’s been quite a bit of talk about Volvo lately, what with the sale of the company to Geely wrapping up, and in my little world, a recent feature of a 142S on BringATrailer.com. So I thought I’d try to find an interesting Volvo built in the times when things were simple. When Geely was just a glint in Li Shufu’s eye, and when Volvo was a purely Swedish company. When selling 3 versions of the same brick-shaped car (and a mildly sporting coupe/shooting brake) was considered sufficient to run a business.

So here it is, the 1966 Teknikens Värld car of the year, the fuel injected Volvo 140-series wagon, or 145E. My fantasy has always been that one of these might be fun to drive, or maybe to flog on a dirt road in the mountains. Like many older Volvos, it’s well-used, but underneath it appears to be a well-loved car that’s had some cleaning up already done to it. You can find this Volvo in North Portland, OR for $1500.

1972 Volvo 145 front

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Euro Ford Fever – 1987 Merkur XR4Ti plus bonus Capri

February 2, 2010

Along with the Alfa Milano and Peugeot 405 Mi16, the Merkur XR4Ti imported by Ford in the second half of the 80s is an under-appreciated alternative to more common cars in its category, such as E30 BMW 3-series or M3, Mercedes 190E 2.3-16, and Saab/Volvo turbos. It’s got unusual styling that was very modern in the 80s, keeping up with the baby Benz but making the 3-series and Swedes look very dated. Nonetheless, it did not get the same kind of popular appreciation, no doubt thanks to poor marketing on the part of Ford/Lincoln-Mercury, who were as excited about pushing high-margin floaty-boats like the Town Car and Cougar (couldn’t sell a car with that name nowadays!) as they were in the days of, say, the Capri.

As with many under-appreciated cars, good examples are hard to find. I’ve been keeping my eyes open for a clean example of one of these for many moons now, and this is the first one I’ve found which I would take seriously. Most are project cars that have blown turbos, missing exhaust components, and faded paint. The bonus of being under-appreciated is that even the really nice cars are affordable, and this one seems to be a case in point. Behold, for $2500, this solid looking example in Mesa, AZ. With only 123K miles and running great, it looks like a decent deal.

1987 Merkur XR4Ti front

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On the Road – Bernal GT 100 in the 1979 Alfetta GT

February 1, 2010

Just to prove the cars all work, occasionally they actually get to do more than just run out to the shop for maintenance and smog-related work (don’t ask me what I’m currently doing to get the Beta through smog). The message came through late last week that the weather was good enough for the inaugural run of the Bernal GT100, and since the spider hasn’t been out in a while, we picked it to be the car for the day. So you might ask, why are there no pictures of the spider? Well, at 8:45am on an empty stomach, the battery (despite being disconnected) decided to fail after a bit of cranking the car over on the starter. So the Alfetta got the opportunity to step in, which was just as well since it ended up being rather cold & foggy on the early part of the run. And of course, being the scruffiest looking car I own, it fired up on the first try!

Luckily I’d had the foresight to fill it up last week, and since I hadn’t cleaned up the fuses or grounds, which has been causing some brown-outs with headlights, radio, and radar detector on, I cracked open the windows and listened to Alfa music instead. After grabbing some breakfast at our favorite coffee shop near Kim’s old place, we headed up to the Diamond Heights Safeway for the meet-up. Yup, the Bernal GT 100 started in Diamond Heights – I’m guessing because of the convenience of parking, coffee, and pastries all in one place.

Bernal GT 100 Porsche 914

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