Six months back, Nick, Shane, and I were all in attendance at the 2015 Concours of America, over in Plymouth MI. Nick’s shown us all the highlights and I’ve done a few features on one or two muscle cars and a set of dry-lake race cars, as well as a very unique Corvette. However, nothing gets in front of Best of Show, and at this show, one award is given to the best American car, and one is given to the best imported car. The winners this year genuinely embody the best of what the pre-war world of cars had to offer 80 years ago. Continue reading Best Of Show Winners from the 2015 Concours of America at St. John’s→
Feast your eyes on the king of Plymouth stock cars. Back in 1970, Plymouth was racing in NASCAR, and the Dodge Charger Daytona was winning big the previous season. Of course, they wanted in on all the fun, and the top brass was only more than happy to oblige, gifting them the Superbird. The nose cone, massive rear wing, and flush rear window all contributed to a massive aerodynamic advantage at the time–allowing these cars to break to nearly 200 MPH on the oval tracks of the day when equipped with the 426 Hemi. They were so dominant that NASCAR got sick of seeing Mother Mopar basically destroy everybody every Sunday afternoon, so 1971 brought in a rule change that forced Plymouth and Dodge to either ditch the aero body or ditch the Hemi–effectively dumping cold water on the party. Continue reading 1970 Plymouth Superbird at the 2015 Concours of America at St John’s→
Roadkill is probably my favorite YouTube show at this point–and even when the post a video on Christmas Day, people still watch it. This time, they take the stock car that’s been hinted at for the entire series on-and-off (which their lawyers refused to let them put on the street for very obvious legal reasons), and make a “street legal” car out of it, by way of using a body with a VIN and a license plate, and dropping it on the chassis. They then take it to a dirt track–but I’m going to say no more so you, dear viewer, can find out what happens.
Being at Lead East for the first time in 3 years was a great experience, even if I eventually ran out of steam and had a few issues getting good pictures thanks to the glare around the show. Luckily, that didn’t affect my chances of shooting this 1968 Plymouth Road Runner. Continue reading Sox and Martin 1968 Plymouth Road Runner Replica at Lead East, 2015→
Packard was one of the great American luxury car brands in the first half of the 1900s. Many would even dub Packard “the American Rolls Royce” because the two companies shared much in their ideological approach to building the highest quality automobile.
This is a bit of historical glamour for us all to lust over. It’ll have us wishing for Packard to make a comeback someday.
On our way home from Radnor, Nick and I were looking for anything interesting on the highway, and this old Nova turned up making quite an entrance. I’m a sucker for the compact Chevy from the late Sixties and early Seventies–because of their low weight, a built small block or most mild big blocks can turn a rather ho-hum little car into a terrifying little rocket of a car. This brown one packed a loud V8 and traction bars underneath the leaf springs, as well as some sweet torq-thrust wheels and nicely-done white letter tires–all in all, a clean looking old Nova packing some punch. I genuinely wish I saw more of these.
At some point, I’ll make my way out to Las Vegas and attend SEMA. I’m a sucker for any well-modified car, and SEMA has morphed into a showcase for not only aftermarket, but also for OEM folks to show off their best ways to mess with the showroom guys. Mike Finnegan shows us his favorites, then goes out for a shootout between a few awesome classic Datsun 240Zs.
I’ve featured quite a few Chargers here at Mind Over Motor over the years, but I think this one might be the best one I’ve seen over my life. In 1968, Dodge took their Charger fastback coupe and gave it exclusive Coke-bottle styling, a tunneled rear window and grille, hidden headlights, a flip-top gas cap (taken right from the racing circuit), and a mean bumblebee stripe down the back. This one’s packing the baddest engine on the block–the 426 Hemi. Continue reading 1968 Dodge Charger R/T Hemi at the 2015 Radnor Hunt Concours→
So, as all of you readers know, I was in Los Angeles during Thanksgiving week visiting my brother Matthew and his fiancee, Rachel. After a delicious meal of sushi that evening in Burbank, we started to notice a whole bunch of American hot rods (old and new) passing us by on the streets outside. It didn’t take long for my interest to become piqued by the sounds of pushrod V8s and high-lift cams, so my brother said, “Let’s go check it out after dinner.” Thankfully, my flight wasn’t slated to leave until midnight, so we went out to the scene over at the original Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank, where the meet was going down.
Over Thanksgiving weekend this year, I finally got to cash in my birthday present from last year–my brother Matt agreed to take me to the Los Angeles Auto Show if I’d come visit him. I decided that it would be foolish to say no–after all, I’d been going to the New York Auto Show for a decade and a half, and I’d never seen the show in Los Angeles. Sorry, New York crew–but the LA Auto Show is indeed better. It’s cleaner, the city doesn’t smell like a New Jersey sewer, there’s real parking (and they charge only twenty bucks, whereas New York charges whatever they darn well please), and there’s even some ride-and-drives (which I did only two, but will definitely drive one of those two cars again soon). Continue reading 2015 Los Angeles International Auto Show General Gallery→
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