1997 Lexus ES 300

Like Honda and Nissan, when Toyota launched a new luxury marque for the US market, they knew that dealers would need something to sell besides just the flagship luxobarge, so at Lexus stores the all-new 1990 LS 400 rear-wheel-drive V-8 sedan was backstopped by the ES 250, essentially a gussied-up Toyota Camry.

After two model years, the ES 250 was replaced with the ES 300, iterated from the latest version of the Camry. The second generation of the ES 300 launched for the '97 model year and can be told apart from the '92-'96 models externally only by minor details.

The new 1997 XV20 models, like the Diamond White one in the photos, were powered by a transverse 3.0L DOHC 24V 1MZ-FE all-aluminum V-6 that sent its 200 SAE net horsepower to the front wheels through a four-speed automatic transmission.

Motor Trend's test car managed a 7.9 second zero-to-sixty time and ran the quarter in sixteen seconds flat at 87 mph. Base price was $29,900, which is about sixty long in 2025 dollars, although the as-tested price for MT's test ride was $35,592.

This one was photographed with a Pentax K20D and a 16-45mm f/4 zoom lens in July of 2025.

1939 Ford Tudor Sedan

Ford's lineup was revised for 1937 with new, more rounded lines, and the addition of a smaller 136 cubic inch flathead V-8 as a cheaper alternative to the 221 cubic inch original.

Over the next couple years the external changes were mostly cosmetic. The 1939 Fords continued with both standard and Deluxe trims. The Deluxe had lower, chevron-shaped grilles which were different to the taller grilles on the regular cars like the one in the photo.

Behind that grille, the base motor was the 136 cid Flathead Ford V-8. Undersquare, and with a 6.6:1 compression ratio, it was rated at 60 SAE gross horsepower. If you were willing to add a few bucks to the $700ish base price of your 1939 Tudor Sedan, you could spring for the optional 85-horsepower 221 cubic inch motor.

Ford marketing materials of the day heavily touted the compactness of the V-8 relative to the competition's inline six- and eight-cylinder powerplants. They also boasted about the car's big, powerful new hydraulic brakes (the previous year they had touted the cable-operated brakes as having "the safety of steel from pedal to wheel".) The ride was "triple spring" for smoothness and comfort: There were springs in the suspension, shock absorbers, and the seats.

This example was photographed in July of 2022 using a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS zoom lens.

1962 Buick Invicta

Buick used the Invicta nameplate on its middle tier of full-size cars from '59 through '63. Less expensive and slightly sportier than the full-luxe Electra 225, and better appointed than the LeSabre, the Invicta was distinguishable at a glance from the Electra by having only three Ventiports on each front fender rather than the more expensive car's four.

Under the hood, the Invicta had the same Wildcat 445 Nailhead OHV V-8. The engine displaced 401 cubic inches, actually; the "445" in the designation referred to the torque output in pound-feet. With a four-barrel  carburetor and a 10.25:1 compression ratio, the 401 was rated at 325 SAE gross horsepower.

Standard transmission was Buick's Turbine Drive, a dual-stator automatic that delivered a driving experience very similar in feel and soundtrack to a modern CVT. It could even be push-started, which was seen as a plus in those days. The whole engine and transmission sat relatively car forward and, combined with the positioning of the driveshaft, resulted in a negligible transmission and driveline "hump" in the floor, which Buick hyped in its ad materials.

Buick referred to this forward engine placement as "Advance Thrust" design and explained it thusly in brochures:

Where and how a car's engine is mounted has a great deal to do with how that car handles, so the engineers tell us. Buick engineers thought that Buick's already superb handling could be improved upon by a change in engine location. And they were right! (They usually are.) It had been the custom to mount the engine aft of the front-wheel suspension. This year, Buick's engine is mounted slightly over the front-wheel suspension. We've called it "Advanced Thrust." The way the Buick engineers explain it, this movement of the engine toward the front is like putting more weight in the head of an arrow. It makes the arrow (and the Buick) travel truer and straighter with far less susceptibility to veer, drift or sway in strong crosswinds-the kind you encounter in most all high- way driving. Other important benefits of "Advanced Thrust" design include a dramatic reduction in road shock a n d vibration transmitted t o t h e steering wheel as well as a snappier come-back of the wheel after turns. Front-end traction is better, too. It stands t o reason, the more weight on the front wheels, the better they grip. "Advanced Thrust"-only Buick has it!

Sounds kinda understeer-y to me, but I'm not writing the ad copy.

Car Life tested a 1962 Invicta convertible, with the same drivetrain as the Cadet Blue hardtop sedan in these photos, but weighing fifty pounds more (4,390 vs. 4,340) due to the top mechanism and structural stiffening. It managed an 8.5 second run to sixty and put away the quarter mile in 16.7 seconds, hitting the traps at 82.5 mph. Over the course of the test the car returned fuel milage in the 12-15mpg rang, as the Twin Turbine gearbox was not known for its parsimony with the petrol.

This one was photographed with a Pentax K20D and an 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom lens in June of 2025.

1992 Acura Vigor

All through the Malaise Era, while the US domestic automakers floundered through quality control problems and a crisis of relevancy as the market sought smaller, more fuel-efficient cars, the Japanese automakers gained ground in the American market. By the mid-Eighties, they'd surpassed the domestics in consumer perception of quality and were starting to challenge some of the revered Euro marques.

A Road & Track comparison test of a Benz 190E and a Honda Accord SE-i from 1985

Honda was ready to move upmarket, but knew that the badge-conscious US market wouldn't know how to deal with "luxury Hondas", so they created a new division of the company, Acura. It sold the new Legend, an upscale V6 midsize sedan, and the Integra, a sporty hot hatch derived from Civic genes.

For 1991, Acura dealerships also got the new NSX mid-engine sports car, and then for '92 came the Vigor. Honda had been selling the Vigor, a sportier and more luxurious Accord derivative, at home since the early Eighties, but this new third generation (CC2) version was its first appearance on US shores.

Slightly wider than an Accord, the CC2 Vigor was also stretched forward of the firewall and, unusually for a Honda, featured a longitudinally-mounted engine driving the front wheels. Even more unusually for a Honda, this engine was an inline-five cylinder, the company's G25A1. A SOHC 20V motor with Honda's PGM-FI and a dual-stage induction system, the 2.5L I-5 was rated at 176 SAE net horsepower at 6300 rpm. The Vigor could be had with a standard five-speed manual or an optional four-speed auto with a lockup torque converter.

Car and Driver tested the Vigor in a six-way shootout of sub-$25k sports sedans against the Audi 80, the Mitsubishi Galant VR4, the Nissan Maxima SE, the Subaru Legacy Sport Sedan, and the Infiniti G20.

The Vigor's performance was only moderately...er, vigorous, laying down a 7.7 second zero-to-sixty and a 16.1 quarter mile at 88 mph through the traps (although it did not, notably, proceed to go back in time.) It got dinged on its handling, posting subpar slalom numbers and a second-worst 0.76g skidpad performance, but mostly on its price which, at $23,575, was the highest base sticker in the batch. That's $54k in 2025 bucks, by the way.

In the end, the Vigor finished third in the test, behind the Mitsu VR4 and Nissan's "Four Door Sports Car", and it also finished third in Acura showrooms, behind the plusher Legend and sportier Integra. The Vigor didn't set the world on fire sales-wise, and its tenure on our shores was brief, being discontinued after the '94 model year, making this Cassis Red example a rare sight.

It was photographed in July of 2025 using a Canon EOS R and an RF 24-105mm f/4-7.1 IS zoom lens.

1978 Chrysler Cordoba

The Chrysler marque only sold full-size Mopars in the U.S. during the postwar years. While Dodge and Plymouth offered a full range of compact, mid-, and full-size autos, the flagship label only peddled 300s, Newports, New Yorkers and other big C-body cars.

After the first fuel crisis of the Seventies, and with the burgeoning popularity of the personal luxury coupe, however, it was decided to bolster the lineup at Chrysler dealerships with something smaller and more modern. For the 1975 model year the full-size behemoths on the lot were joined by a B-body coupe, kin to the Dodge Charger.

The new luxury two-door was marketed a compact Chrysler, and by the marque's standards it was, riding on its 115" wheelbase and with an overall length about a foot shorter than a Newport coupe. It debuted with a standard 400 cubic inch big block V-8 with a two-barrel carb and single exhaust, rated at 165 SAE net horsepower. There were a variety of optional 2- and 4-barrel small block 318 and 360 V-8s on offer, and a top option of a four-barrel 400 with a dual exhaust making 185 ponies.

The interior could be had with either a 60/40 split bench seat or buckets and a console up front and the dash came with a full set of gauges, with only the tach being optional. The dash trim was baroque, with lots of faux Brazilian rosewood burl plastic wood and weird faux-Aztec motif edging, and of course the ad campaign is famous to this day for Cordoba pitchman Ricardo Montalbán extolling its optional "rich Corinthian leather", a term made up by an ad copywriter out of whole... er, cloth.

The 1978 models, like the Caramel Tan Metallic one in the photo, had a heavily-restyled front end, with stacked quad rectangular headlamps that did nothing for the car's looks. By this time, the 2-barrel 400 had left the lineup and the base motor everywhere but California was a single-exhaust 400 4-bbl making 190 horsepower with an optional 200hp Heavy Duty version at the top of the range.

Sales had been strong, but the homelier snout and the availability of a new, svelter LeBaron coupe on Chrysler lots caused the big B-body Cordoba to get a downsizing after the '79 model year.

This one was snapped in November of 2016 using a Sony NEX-5T and a 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom lens.

1969 Buick Electra 225 Limited

1969 was the second-to-last model year of the third generation of Buick Electra. The C-body Electra was the more upscale full-size Buick, above the B-body LeSabre.

The Electra 225 came in three trim levels: regular, Custom, and Limited. We've seen a 1969 Buick Electra 225 Limited here before, in the shape of a Twilight Blue hardtop sedan. The one in this post, on the other hand, is an Antique Gold sport coupe with a Buckskin vinyl roof.

The '69 models have the side marker lights as required by the FMVSS regs of 1968, but in a slightly different location to the ones on a '68 model. It's got the classic Buick styling cues: the chrome "sweepspear" running down the flank and the row of four chrome Ventiports on the front fenders, allowing you to lord it over LeSabre drivers with their mere three.

Under the hood was Buick's 430-cube big block V-8, making 360 SAE gross horsepower and backed by a TH-400 three-speed automatic. Standard final drive was 2.78:1, with a 2.56:1 Economy rear end, as well as 3.08:1 and 3.23:1 options available. There was also a 3.90:1 optional final drive with a mandatory A/C delete. That must have made some noise at freeway speeds.

The bottom photo was taken with a Canon EOS 1D Mark IV and EF 24-105mm f/4L IS zoom lens in August of 2022, while the upper one was taken in June of 2025 using a Canon EOS R and an RF 24-105mm f/4-7.1 IS zoom lens . 

1966 Datsun Sports 1600

Nissan started its Sports line in 1959, with the very limited production S211 Sports 1000, of which only 20 copies were produced. It evolved into the SPL212, which was imported into the US in 1960 (the L signifying left-hand drive.)

These were tiny little cars based on a pickup truck chassis and using a 1.2L engine, sold as the Datsun Sports 1200 here and the Nissan Fairlady back home.

The second generation of Datsun Sports for 1964 had a longer wheelbase, a fraction of an inch shy of ninety inches, derived from the Bluebird sedan and a 1500cc motor.

Restyled for 1966, it got a displacement bump to 1.6L, sporting a pair of SU carbs and making 95 horsepower.

The dash-mounted mirror and lack of side marker lights tell us this Silver Gray example is a pre-facelift car, unlike the 1969 model seen elsewhere on these pages.

With a live rear axle on leaf springs, a pushrod four, a four-speed manual, and a curb weight right around 2,000 pounds, they were cheerful, cheap little sports cars that laid the foundation for the Z-cars to come.

This one was photographed in June of 2025 using an Olympus OM-D E-M1X and a Panasonic 12-60mm f/2.8-4 Leica DG Vario-ELMARIT ASPH zoom lens.

1986 Ford Mustang GT Convertible

When the Mustang II launched in 1974 it could be had as a notchback coupe or a three-door hatchback with a sleek fastback roofline. What was missing from Ford's pony paddock for the first time since the debut of the first 1964½ 'Stangs was a convertible.

It wasn't until the fifth model year of the third generation "Fox body" Mustangs that the convertible made its return after a decade-long hiatus. For 1985, the Mustang got a newer, more aerodynamic nose, with a little mailbox slot in the fascia replacing the eggcrate grille but retaining the inset quad headlamps because the government was dragging their feet about approving modern composition headlamps.

In 1986, the droptop model was available in both LX and GT trim levels, like this Oxford White example. (Only distinguishable from the '85 by the third brake light integrated into the standard decklid-mounted luggage rack.) Under the hood, the new standard motor for the GT was the trusty 5.0L "Windsor" 302cid pushrod V-8, now featuring sequential fuel injection and rated at 200 SAE net horsepower, backed with a 5-speed Borg-Warner transmission.

Car and Driver tested an '86 LX 2-door coupe with the EFI 5.0 motor and the five-speed gearbox and and it returned a zero-to-sixty time of 6.2 seconds, only a tenth of a second slower than the 5.7L IROC-Z Camaro in the same test, although the gap opened to four tenths in the quarter, with the 'Stang's 14.9 second E.T., and the Camaro's better aero and bigger motor paid off the most on the top end, where it exceeded the LX's 132mph top speed by an even ten miles per hour.

The convertible in the pictures here would be a couple hundred pounds heavier than that LX coupe, so adjust expectations accordingly.

It was photographed in June of 2025 using a Canon EOS R and an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS zoom lens. 

1995 Buick Roadmaster Estate Limited

For the 1991 model year, General Motors heavily redesigned the full-size body-on-frame rear wheel drive B-platform that underpinned the Chevrolet Caprice and (in a longer wheelbase form) the Cadillac Brougham. The previous version had been around since the 1977 model year and was getting long in the tooth, stylistically.

While Buick and Oldsmobile had shifted their full-size sedans over to FWD platforms in the mid-Eighties, they retained full-size RWD B-body wagons, the Electra Estate and the Custom Cruiser, respectively. Oldsmobile continued with the FWD luxury sedan and only offered the new car as a wagon, but Buick revived the Roadmaster nameplate, dormant since 1958, and offered it as a sedan as well as a wagon.

The 1991 Roadmaster Estate wagon came with a 305 cubic inch Chevy small block with throttle-body fuel injection, rated at 170 SAE net horsepower, while the sedan was powered by a 180hp TBI 350 V-8. These 1991 B-bodies saw the end of the division-specific V-8s, with everyone getting Chevrolet small blocks.

The faired-in side mirrors came along in 1995, as seen on this Bright White Roadmaster Estate Limited. Unlike the Roadmaster sedans, the 15" alloy wheels were standard on the Estate wagon.

By 1995 the sole powerplant in the Roadmaster was the 5.7L LT1 V-8 with Tuned Port Injection, derived from the motor in the C4 Corvette, and making 260 SAE net horsepower.

1996 would be the last year for the big RWD B-body GM cars, freeing up factory space for the increasingly popular SUVs.

This one was photographed in June of 2025 using a Sony a700 and a 16-80mm F3.5-4.5 ZA Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* zoom lens. 

1993 Chrysler New Yorker Fifth Avenue

The Chrysler New Yorker nameplate was moved to a front-wheel-drive stretched K-car platform for the 1983 model year, but the old rear-wheel-drive M-body car, a platform mate to the Dodge Diplomat and Plymouth Gran Fury, soldiered on through the rest of the decade as the New Yorker Fifth Avenue.

For the 1990 model year, the old RWD platform was finally put out to pasture, having lived long enough to become the last passenger car in the US with a live rear axle located by a pair of semi-elliptical leaf springs. 

The New Yorker Fifth Avenue nameplate was now used on a FWD New Yorker that had been given a 5" wheelbase stretch for more rear legroom. It can be distinguished not only by the "Fifth Avenue" script badges, but by the longer rear door with its opera window, like on this Bright White 1993 car. This sample has aftermarket wheels, the headlight doors have packed it in, and it's a little tatty around the edges, but it's still out there fetching groceries.

So in the early '90s the New Yorker nameplate was used on the cheaper New Yorker Salon, the regular New Yorker Landau, and the glitzier, stretched New Yorker Fifth Avenue.

Under the hood was Chrysler's all-new 3.3L pushrod V-6, featuring sequential multiport fuel injection and making 150 SAE net horsepower.

1993 was the final year for the C-body New Yorker. It was already sharing space on the lot at Chrysler dealerships with the new cab-forward LH-platform Chrysler Concorde and would be replaced with an LH-based New Yorker in the 1994 model year.

This one was photographed with a Sony a700 and 16-80mm f/3.5-4.5 Zeiss lens in June of 2025.

1949 Ford F-1

The Ford F-series pickups were launched in 1948, with that first generation being known as the "Bonus-Built" line. They replaced the previous pickups that had been basically carried over from the prewar line of Fords.

Much was made of the new cab, which was roomier, had better visibility, was easier to enter and exit, and generally a better place to spend a work day. So much had been spent developing the new driver's accommodations that it was referred to in ad copy as a "Million-Dollar Cab". Other innovations included telescoping shocks at all four corners (earlier trucks had used cruder lever shocks) and V-8 engines available at every level of truck from the heaviest-duty F-8 all the way down to the ½-ton F-1, like the Fox Red 1949 model in the photo.

Available powerplants for the '49 F-1 dated back to the prewar era, though, being either a 226 cubic inch (3.7L) flathead six making 95 SAE gross horsepower or the classic Ford flathead V-8, which displaced 239 cubes (3.9L) and was rated at 100 horses. Both three- and four-speed manual transmissions were on the menu.

This one was photographed with a Nikon CoolPix P7000 in April of 2015.