Archive for July, 2014

Straight Outta Compton – 1965 Plymouth Barracuda

July 25, 2014

Smaller Mopar cars are not terribly popular here, perhaps because for the longest time, you could get stuck behind a smoking one of these doing five under the speed limit. Of course, things are different now, and these cars are mostly survivors that are at least in decent mechanical shape, and driven by young hipsters instead of old grandmas. Both were attracted by some of the key characteristics of these (and the related Valiants), including the distinctive styling and the cockroach-like slant six. The latter is great in terms of its ability to survive adverse conditions, but cockroaches aren’t exactly universally popular. Check out this 1965 Plymouth Barracuda, for sale for $3500 in Mission Hills, CA.

1965 Plymouth Barracuda right front

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Rare Charger – 1982 Dodge Charger Convertible

July 25, 2014

Rare does not always mean valuable. That’s great for people with a small classic car budget, as you can still spend a lot of money fixing up a car, but for a low cost of entry, and it will be worth the same when you decide to sell. Rare in this case means the product of one of the many companies that popped up in the early 1980s to take the place of car manufacturers, who abandoned convertibles due to fears they would be legislated out of the market, and to focus on emissions and safety. Most anything was eligible for conversion, with the main focus on sports cars, sporty coupes, and 2-door sedans. Surprisingly, this industry still exists, and Newport Convertible Engineering has most recently done conversions of the Toyota Prius and Subaru WRX STi (why?). You can find this 1982 Dodge Charger convertible for sale for $2000 in North Hollywood, CA.

1982 Dodge Charger convertible left front

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British Parts – 1974 Jensen Healey

July 24, 2014

While it was one of the last gasps of the British sports car industry, Jensen Healey showed how designers were thinking ahead, beyond the sedan-derived sports cars of the 1950s and 1960s, to something with a truly sporting engine and modern creature comforts. And they remain a truly underappreciated classic sports car, perhaps due to generic (though attractive) styling, lack of heritage, or the legacy reputation for 1970s-British-car quality issues, so their values remain comparable to Fiat and Alfa spiders, as well as wedge Triumphs. Today, though, these are among the most modern and usable among the classic, pre-1980s sports cars – and we do want to drive our cars frequently, right? Check out this 1974 Jensen Healey for sale for $3999 in Ridgecrest, CA.

1974 Jensen Healey left front

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