More From The 2026 Greenwood Car Show

It isn't often I look at a car and have no idea what it is. This is a rare and very cool Brazilian Volkswagen SP2. Made around 1973, underneath the skin it's the same car as the Type 3.

Rare 1964 Studebaker. The South Bend IN plant closed at the end of 1963 and Studebakers were made for two more years in Canada.

Packard straight 8 from the mid-50s. I was just thinking how much it looks like a LEGO.

Pierce-Arrow. The biggest problem driving this car in the 1930s was the starving people throwing rocks at you.

This Ford Model A has had some restoration work but it remarkably original.

Nash Metropolitan built in England for American Motors.

This 1971 Jaguar XKE was the brand's first 12-cylinder car. Congratulations are due to the owner, as this car is almost impossible to keep running.

1955 For Thunderbird with a 1956-7 removable hardtop.

Jaguar XK120 from around 1949. The fastest car in the world when it was made.

VW Beetle from the late 50s. The speedometer is the only gauge. If you run out of gas, you operate a tiny lever on the floor that gives you one more gallon to get to a gas station.

MG TC from the late 1940s. The remarkable thing about keeping this car on the road: the frame is made of wood. The car used a traditional coachbuilt construction method, featuring steel body panels nailed or screwed onto an internal structural framework made of ash. As in the ash tree.

1922 Baker Electric. These cars were popular with women because they were easy to drive, quiet, and didn't break down. It's too bad all the old electric models disappeared by the 1930s.

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1952 Chevrolet 3100 Advanced Design Pickup Truck

This is a very nice truck, and the original license plate is a nice touch. The asking price on the For Sale sign is $30,000. This seems a bit steep to me. It is not the more desirable 5-window cab. The license plate is the only thing to clue me as to the year this was made. These trucks were identical from 1947 to 1953.

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1947 Willys Jeep CJ2A

It's not WWII surplus. The Willys script on the hood and the tailgate tell us this is the first civilian Jeep. There's a myth that after the war military Jeeps were available as surplus for as little as $44. It's true that surplus Jeeps were sold to veterans, but in good condition the government demanded $975, almost as much as a brand new Jeep from the factory in Toledo. This Jeep also has an original 1947 license plate.

The government also sold as surplus, "150,000 rubber life rafts, recouping $3 million on an equipment that originally cost $30 million. Each raft was sold as part of a $105 package containing 143 items, which included a bible, 12 signal flares, a bilge pump, a gallon of massage oil, a checkerboard, and back issues of Fortune, Esquire, Reader’s Digest, and The Saturday Evening Post." As Major Kong from Dr. Strangelove would say, "Shoot, a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff."

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1953 Dodge M37 Ambulance

A common site during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, about 115,000 M37s were built between 1951 and 1968. Hard to kill, many were sold by the government as surplus to public.

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2026 Greenwood Car Show: Chrysler

The red car is a 1970 or 1971 Plymouth Barracuda convertible, the orange car is a Dodge Challenger R/T from the same years. Both are powered by the legendary 426 hemi. These have got to be "tribute" cars. If they were original hemi convertibles, they'd be worth seven figures.

This 1966 hemi-powered Plymouth Satellite is at the show every year. I always love seeing it.

A rare 1971 Plymouth Road Runner.

A very nice 1969 Plymouth Road Runner. This one is the fixed-pillar coupe, not the hardtop.

This rare 1956 Dodge Royal Lancer is remarkable is that it's one of the few smaller Chrysler cars powered by the original hemi-head engine series made from 1951-59. In this case it's the 315 c.i. The hemi engines powered nearly all the Imperials, Chryslers and DeSotos in the 50s, but only a handful of Dodge cars and no Plymouths.

Another very nice 'Cuda convertible.

A very original Doge Challenger.

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2026 Greenwood Car Show: General Motors

It's my biggest car spotting day of the year, the Greenwood car show. Let's start with GM.

With GTOs, you may be looking at a "tribute car" which is a polite name for "fake". Take an ordinary Pontiac LeMans, update the engine and the badges, and you've got a much more valuable GTO. Both this 1969 GTO Judge and this 1968 convertible appear authentic to me, though the Judge doesn't have the correct air cleaner to make the ram air induction system work. Fun fact: When the Judge was first offered, it only came in this color.

I've posted this incredible car before, but there's nothing more amazing than seeing a fuel-injected 1963 Corvette split-window.

Restored 1957 Bel Air convertibles like this one sometimes go for over $100K now. The hardtop coupes aren't much less. Always interesting to compare them to a car that's never been restored, like the sedan here. That off-pink color looks odd today but was popular in the 50s.

Very nice 1966 Sting Ray.

The 1970 Chevelle Super Sport is considered the pinnacle of GM muscle. This one has the 396. The truly legendary examples have the 454.

This 1964 Pontic LeMans coupe has 326 badges, but it appears the owner has dropped a 389 tri-power engine under the hood.

This 1948 Buick is just a great looking car.

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Restoration Shop in Ballard

It's easy enough to sink tens of thousands of dollars into your classic car. When I checked out these vehicles at the restoration shop in Ballard, it struck me that each had some good points and some bad points for your restoration dollar.

1951 Chevy 3100 Advanced-Design truck
Pro: Everybody loves it. Easy to maintain.
Con: Hard to drive.

1962 Ford Thunderbird
Pro: Well-built and powerful. Makes a statement.
Con: Old man's car. Kind of tacky.

1982 Jaguar XJ-S
Pro: It's a V-12 supercar. Surprisingly affordable.
Con: It's surprisingly affordable because it's impossible to keep running.

1981 Fiat 124 Spider
Pro: Fun.
Con: Not very reliable.

1980 MGB
Pro: Fun.
Con: Not very reliable.

1958 Cadillac Coupe DeVille
Pro: Wow power, easy to maintain the drivetrain.
Con: Kind of a money pit - it's got power everything with 1950s wiring.

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In traffic behind a Porsche 914

This will not happen again. Someone has actually taken the insane amount of time and trouble required to restore a Porsche 914. This is a really, really bad car. I've discussed it before when I saw one in Ballard a few years ago. But there's a funny article you should read about the 914 on Hagerty.com: "A few things to know before stealing my 914."

"Once you are ready to again try for second, I can offer some advice. One trick that works is to declutch the transmission, pull the lever from the first-gear position, enter into the aforementioned neutral zone, and then rapidly wig-wag the shift knob side-to-side along a lateral axis. If you move the knob quickly enough, the transmission will be out-smarted and cannot anticipate your next move. It is at this time that you should re-attempt to enter second, and most likely you will do so. Surprise is your best weapon against this transmission."

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Old Cars on Shilshole Bay Marina

A lot of folks store their extra car in the big lots out where Ballard meets the water. There are quite a few curiosities parked out there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three old VW buses in one shot. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chevy redesigned the Corvair in 1965 after the car's reputation was pretty much already ruined. As to whether this second-generation Corvair Corsa was safe or not, I don't really have an opinion. Some of these cars were turbocharged. Those rims are from a BMW.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not the same car twice, just the same color. These old Benz diesels are hard to kill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plenty of old Beetles in the land that rust mostly forgot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This MG is immaculate. It must only be here for the day.

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, on the other side of the road. If you own a 1983 Lincoln Continental Mark VI and a 1966 Dodge D100 van, you are my kind of weird.

 

 

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