Tuesday, June 28, 2022

1969 Dodge Charger Daytona

After a two-year absence, the Greenwood Car Show is back and the weather was perfect last Saturday. This car was probably the biggest "wow" moment for me. So if you've got at least $250K to spare, you should be able to pick up one of the few '69 Charger Daytonas still in circulation. That year, Nascar required that 500 copies of a "stock" car be made for it to qualify for the track, so Dodge dropped either the 426 hemi or 440 V-8 engine into 502 copies of the Charger, then added a fiberglass nose and outrageous rear spoiler. I've heard the reason why the spoiler was so high was that it was set at the height needed to allow the trunk to be opened. In 1970, Nascar increased the minimum production for a stock car to qualify for the track from 500 copies to 2,000, so Chrysler built 1,920 Plymouth Road Runner Superbirds very similar to this car. The following year Nascar dropped the whole "stock cars have to be actual stock cars" requirement.











Wednesday, June 15, 2022

1964 Lancia Flavia Vignale Convertible

The Greenwood Car Show will be back in a few days after a two-year absence, so I'll get to see some more cars I've never seen before. Lancia is one of the oldest automotive brands and used to sell hundreds of thousands of cars per year. Yet this example at Greenwood a couple of years ago was the first Lancia I'd ever seen. Unlike other Italian brands, it's never been sold here even in small numbers. The Flavia was Italy's first front-wheel drive car, and this model was designed by Pininfarina.














Friday, June 10, 2022

1979 Lincoln Continental Town Car

Well if we're gonna have inflation like it's 1979, let's have a car from 1979. People, the 1970s were very brown. Does anybody still sell a car this color?
* This was the largest car made in the world at that time.
* Engines getting smaller - This car had the 400 c.i. V8, as compared to the 460 in the previous generation. By 1981, it would be the 302 and in 1991 the 281 engine that would carry the Town Car all the way to its final edition in 2011.