1929 Ford Model A Tudor Sedan

The Tudor sedan (get it? "Two door"? Yes, there was a Fordor) was the cheapest version of Ford's Model A, with prices starting at $500. Even adjusted for inflation, that's only about $9,500, continuing the Model T's trend of putting America on wheels. Ford sold a couple million model As in the first few years.

Under the hood was a 200cid flathead inline four putting out forty horsepower, driving the rear wheels through a three-speed manual transmission.

The slight blue cast to the photo above, as well as the low viewing angle, is due to the fact that I snapped it through the windshield of my BMW Z3 while sitting at a traffic light, using a Nikon D2X and 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR II zoom lens.

1932 Cadillac Series 452B Fleetwood Madame X Sedan

Walking home from brunch at the Gallery Pastry Shop one fine June day in 2017, I spotted one of the rarest and most unusual cars I've ever run into just out and about. Built in 1932 for the president of General Motors of Canada, this is one of the last Madame X Cadillacs to be sold. (It's car number 5131 at this online registry.)

The "Series 452" referred to the displacement of the mighty V-16 OHV engine in cubic inches. There was also the V-12 Series 370 and the V-8 Series 355. It wasn't until 1936 that Cadillac switched to the two-digit Series designations that they used for the next forty years and the V-16 halo cars became the Series 90.

The V-16 was a narrow-angle 45° vee pushrod motor in an era when most American cars were still using flathead valve-in-block powerplants. These early Series 452 engines were essentially two separate straight-eight motors driving a common crank and made 165 horsepower, which could propel these massive cars to eighty or a hundred miles per hour, depending on the axle ratio ordered by the purchaser. 

With electric start and Synchro-Mesh manual transmissions, these were truly advanced vehicles for the time, and priced like it. The top-of-the-line Madame X series cars were essentially bespoke creations that went for over $7,000, which is as close to $180k in today's money as makes no nevermind.

This one was photographed using a Nikon Coolpix P7000.

1967 Jaguar XK-E

This car has an unusual combination of features. It has the old-style Series 1 bumpers & taillights, and no side marker lights. It also has no "wings" on the knock-off hubs and no headlight covers, but the headlights lack the prominent raised mounting of the later cars.

I'm no Jag expert, but I think that makes this 4.2L E-type a very late Series 1 car and not one of the interim cars dubbed the "Series 1½" that preceded the Series 2 cars in the '68 model year. It would have still had the triple SU carb setup and brought the full complement of 265 ponies to the rodeo.

Like a C2 Corvette, just seeing an E-type in the wild justifies having dragged the camera along with me all day.

This one was photographed using a Nikon D7100 and a 16-80mm f/2.8-4E zoom lens in June of 2022.

1969 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray

We've had a 1969 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray coupe on these pages before. It was even a small-block car in Can-Am White...

But this particular example illustrates why the vacuum-operated pop-up lid that concealed the windshield wipers from the '68-'72 model years was eventually dropped. It was unnecessarily complex in operation and had a tendency to get stuck in the wrong position.

This one was photographed in May of 2015 using a Nikon D1X.

1967 Cadillac Eldorado

The Eldorado nameplate was used for prestige coupes and convertibles hovering around the top of Cadillac's lineup starting in 1953. While these shared their underpinnings with GM C-body Series 62 Caddies, the eighth generation of the Eldorado saw a real change.

For 1967 the completely redesigned Eldo (formally the "Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado") was moved to a chassis shared with the Oldsmobile Toronado and Buick Riviera luxury coupes. Like the Toronado, but unlike the Riv, the Eldorado was now a front wheel drive car.

The powertrain was a unitized power pack mating the 429 cubic inch Cadillac 390 Series OHV V-8, with a 10.5:1 compression ratio and making 340 gross horsepower, to a Turbo Hydra-Matic 425 three-speed automatic transmission. This was essentially a mirror-imaged TH400 that was bolted below and alongside the engine, driven off a chain on the output side of the bell housing.

While the 429 Caddy was a beefy motor that muscled out 480 foot-pounds of torque, it had its work cut out for itself with a two-and-a-quarter ton coupe with a 120" wheelbase. Zero-to-sixty times were typically reported in the low nine second range, even with the 3.21:1 axle ratio. Top speed was something like 125-130. Power drums were standard for the braking system, although front discs were optional and became standard the following model year.

Base price was $6,277, which comes to something like $61,500 in today's money.

This example, in a color Cadillac called "Doeskin", was photographed in Springfield, Missouri in April of 2026 using an Olympus PEN E-P5 and an M. Zuiko Digital 12-45mm f/4 PRO zoom lens.

1971 Pontiac Grand Prix Model J

The third generation of the Pontiac Grand Prix, which had been new for 1969, received a pretty serious nose job for 1971. The quad headlamps were replaced by larger dual headlamps faired into the hood on either side of a jutting grille, giving the snout a sort of neoclassical appearance.

It was available in two levels of snarliness, the regular "J" model, which came with a 400, and the sportier "SJ", which had a 455 for a base motor. If the retro prow and SJ model designator made you think of the vanished Duesenberg, well, all the better. (Besides, they weren't around to protest, anyway.)

Personal luxury in the sporty grand touring mode was the name of the game, and plush bucket seats were separated by a console, while the instrument panel curved, cockpit-like, ahead of the driver.

The V-8 under the hood of the regular Grand Prix Model J was Pontiac's small-journal 400. For the 1971 model year, General Motors ordered all engines must take a compression haircut so as to run on regular gas, so the 6.6L Poncho motor now sported an 8.2:1 compression ratio. Horsepower was advertised in both gross and SAE net terms for '71, which meant 300 and 255, respectively. The standard transmission was a three-speed manual, with a four-speed and a Turbo Hydra-matic on the options list.

The hot-rodded example in the photo was snapped with a Canon EOS-1D Mark IV and an EF 24-105mm f/4L zoom lens in October of 2022.

1974 Mercedes-Benz 450SL

I'm totally spitballing on the year here. The R107 version of the Mercedes-Benz SL class was produced with only minimal cosmetic changes for almost two decades, from 1971 to 1989. The fact that this one's a 450SL, plus the color and the bumpers, narrows it down to the '74-'79 model year range.

Something like two thirds of all SL-class production went to the US market, and the 450SL version itself was a response to changing demands due to US regs. The 3.5L M116 Benz V-8, with its 9.5:1 compression ratio, wouldn't make it past American emissions standards and so, to make up for the lower 8.0:1 compression ratios necessitated by the unleaded gas used on this side of the pond, it was punched out to 4.5L.

For the 1974 model year the SOHC M117 V-8 put out 190 SAE net horsepower, although that number would slump as the Malaise Era deepened, reaching a nadir of 165.

Road & Track put a '74 450SL through its testing procedures and recorded a zero-to-sixty time of 10.2 seconds, a quarter mile elapsed time of 17.7 seconds at 81.5 through the traps, and a top speed of 124mph. Price as tested was $16,748 gradually-inflating early Seventies dollars, which equals $111k in current money.

This one was photographed in September of 2021 using a Hasselblad Lunar and a Sony Zeiss 16-70mm f/4 OSS zoom lens.

1995 Porsche 911 Carrera 2

The 993 generation of the 911 represented an almost total redesign of Porsche's iconic rear-engined sports car. Almost everything was new for 1995, with Porsche claiming only 20% of parts carrying over from the previous 964 series.

The rear-mounted SOHC flat six was still air-cooled and still displaced 3.6L, but output was upped to 270 ponies versus the previous car's 247. The motor was now backed... er, "fronted"? ...with a modern six-speed manual gearbox, or a four-speed Tiptronic automatic if you were dead inside. 

The rear suspension was completely redesigned, replacing the previous semi trailing arms with a multilink design that made it much less likely to deposit a 911 novice in a ditch ass-end-first.

Identification of the year on this one is easy as only early '95 models had the third brake light in the little "basket handle" spoilerette used on cabrio models; midway through the model year it was moved to a faired housing along the upper edge of the rear window.

Car and Driver's test of the then-new 1995 911 Carrera 2 returned a zero-to-sixty time of 4.7 seconds and a 13.4 second quarter at 104mph. Top speed was a buck sixty-two and the as-tested price was $66,775, which comes to $143k in today's money.

The lower two photos were taken in April of 2015 using a Nikon Coolpix P7000, while the top one was snapped the same day using a Leica Z2X on Kodak Portra 800 color film.

1968 Chevrolet Camaro Convertible

Chevrolet's entry in the pony car class received a few mild styling changes for its second model year. FMVSS-compliant side marker lights were added and the vent windows were deleted and the v-shape of the grille became more pronounced.

The fender badges on this Sequoia Green droptop say 327 but the hood has the chrome fake velocity stack looking dinguses from the SS350 and SS396 models. This one has the snappy-looking optional Rally wheels, too.

The LF7 327 cubic inch Turbo-Fire small block was the standard motor. With a two-barrel carb and an 8.75:1 compression ratio, it was advertised as thrifty but still reasonably powerful, making 210 gross horsepower. The other 327 in the catalog was the L30, which had a 10.0:1 squeeze and a four-barrel carb and put out 275 horses.

A three-speed manual was standard, and a buyer could opt for a four-on-the-floor, a two-speed Powerglide, or a three-speed Turbo Hydra-Matic.  

This one was photographed with a Nikon D2X and an 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR II zoom lens in November of 2022.

1980 Datsun 280ZX 2+2

Nissan's Z-car had featured a 2+2 version since the 260Z version of 1974, but when it was completely redesigned for the S130 series as the 280ZX, it was clear that the four-seater version was taken into consideration from the start, with the car morphing from a harder-edged sports coupe into a plusher grand tourer. Magazines at the time noted the more boulevardier nature of the car, even though the S130 2+2 was no heavier than its S30 forebear. 

By the '80 model year the Z-car was already badged in the North American market as a "Datsun by Nissan", and under the hood was Nissan's iron block L28E SOHC 12V inline six. With electronic fuel injection and an 8.3:1 compression ratio, the 2.8L six made 135 SAE net horsepower and could be backed by a five speed manual or, if the buyer had no soul, a three-speed auto.

Motor Trend tested a 1980 2+2 with the five speed and recorded an 11.3 second zero-to-sixty run and managed a quarter in eighteen seconds flat at 77mph. The four wheel power discs hauled the 2,910 pound car down from sixty in 160 feet.

Price of the test car, with the Grand Luxury Package, was $13,203, which comes to $52,360 in 2026 dollars.

The Golden Mist car in the photos was snapped with a Nikon Coolpix P7000 in White Rock, New Mexico back in October of 2015.

1958 Edsel Ranger

Edsel was slotted into the Ford corporate hierarchy between Mercury and Lincoln. In fact, you'll see the MEL abbreviation used for FoMoCo big blocks into the latter half of the Sixties, years after the E was gone.

It turned out that there wasn't enough space between a high-end Merc and the cheapest Lincoln to support a whole-ass automobile brand.

The original lineup for 1958 had four models: The high-end Citation and Corsair riding on 124" wheelbases, and the cheaper 118"-wheelbase Pacer and Ranger.

The Ranger was the most basic model in the Edsel catalog. Even things like a windshield washer or seatbelts were extra cost options, although a cigarette lighter was standard. it was the 1950s, after all.

The Snow White '58 Ranger four-door sedan would have had only one powerplant available, the E-400 pushrod V-8, a 361 cubic inch version of Ford's FE-series big block. With a four-barrel carburetor and a 10.5:1 compression ratio, it made 303 gross horsepower at 4600rpm. Ranger buyers got a three-speed manual for nothing, or could pay for a three speed slushbox with a standard column shifter. For a bit more money, they could opt for the Teletouch pushbutton gear selector in the steering wheel hub.

When Motor Trend tested a 1958 Ranger four-door hardtop with the automatic transmission, they recorded a zero-to-sixty time of 10.1 seconds. Base price for the bare-bones Ranger pillared sedan was $2,592 in 1958 dollars, which comes to something like $29,300 in current dollars. Seatbelts cost $22.50 ($254) extra and were only for the front seats.

This one was photographed in Pryor, Oklahoma in April of 2026 using an Olympus PEN E-P5 and an M. Zuiko Digital 12-45mm f/4 PRO zoom lens.