Rusty But Trusty

You might be asking yourself, why did I come here to view cars from such mundane, mainstream marques as these, when I can see these everywhere? Well, outside of the dry western United States, finding cars like this just parked on the street as people’s daily daily drivers is a lot more unusual. And one of the fun parts of this hobby is finding a new angle of interest in cars you would ordinarily dismiss out-of-hand. For example, check out this 1960s VW Karmann Ghia convertible. It’s had some neat modifications, including Beetle headlights and Porsche 914 wheels. What could be under the hood? Oh right, nothing because it’s a VW! The satin black is a current trend, but ultimately these do look better in gloss colors.

Next up is a Chevrolet. These are strangely common – apparently America hasn’t found a half-car to which it can say no – and I saw two in my neighborhood yesterday. This is the last version of El Camino, based on the compact Chevrolet Malibu of 1978-83. It’s not clear which engine powers it, but the rally wheels and chrome grill might suggest one of the asthmatic V8 engines, which is better than a breathless V6.

Last is this 1985 or 1986 Fox-body Mustang. Ordinarily these aren’t worth a second glance, since so many survive and they were so ubiquitous in the past, but this particular one is interesting for a couple of things. First of all is the nearly stock notchback version of the car with exposed sealed beam lights – most survivors seem to have the later single-unit headlights. Also, without being modified in the traditional high-school kid fashion (spoilers, wider tires, etc.), this car’s two-tone yellow/black paint job and wide black steel wheels with chunky lettered tires looks kind of aggressive and menacing in an unexpected way.

Tags: american, chevrolet, el camino, ford, fox body, german, ghia, half-car, karmann, mustang, on the street, vw

This entry was posted on September 20, 2013 at 1:31 pm and is filed under RustyButTrusty on the Street. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.