1972 Buick Skylark Custom

1972 would be the final model year for the third generation of Buick's midsize Skylark. In fact, it would be the last model year before the Skylark nameplate itself took a couple year hiatus, with its midsize job taken by the Buick Regal. When the Skylark moniker returned to the Buick catalog for the '75 model year it would be hung on a Chevy Nova-derived compact.

The Muscle Car Era was singing its swan song and the Malaise Era was in the on-deck circle, if I may mix my metaphors. Horsepower was now advertised in net rather than gross terms, and compression ratios were slashed across the board to prepare for unleaded gas. You could still get a 455 in a Gran Sport, but for regular Skylarks the biggest mill on offer was a 350.

The Skylark for '72 came in three trim levels: The base Skylark, the Skylark 350, and the Skylark Custom.

The Skylark Custom could be had as a convertible, a pillared sedan, a hardtop sedan, or a hardtop Sport Coupe, like the Fire Red example in the photos.

The base motor would have been Buick's 350 small-block with a two-barrel carburetor rated at 145 SAE net horsepower, with an optional four-barrel 350 making 180 ponies.

This one was photographed in May of 2026 using a Canon EOS R with an RF 24-105mm f/4L IS zoom lens.

1978 Chevrolet Corvette Indy 500 Pace Car

Sunday afternoon, not long after the dramatic photo finish down at the Brickyard, this 1978 Indy 500 Pace Car edition Corvette came tooling up College Avenue, probably on its way home from the track.

1978 was the Silver Anniversary year for the Corvette, and saw some styling changes for the C3 body style, most notably with the tunneled rear window being replaced with a compound-curved glass fastback (which was fixed in place and not a hatchback.) In addition to a Silver Anniversary edition, every '78 got 25th Anniversary badging. 

That wasn't the big special edition for 1978, though, because Chevrolet got the 'Vette in for its first appearance as the Official Pace Car for the Indy 500 and commemorated it with a Pace Car Limited Edition replica.

The Pace Car Limited Edition came with the L82 350cid V-8. With a dual-snorkel air cleaner feeding its four-barrel carb, 8.9:1 compression ratio, and dual exhausts, the L82 made 220 SAE net horsepower at 5,200rpm. A period test by Road & Track returned a 0-60 time of 6.6 seconds and a 15.3 second quarter at 95mph on the way to a 127mph top speed.

MSRP was $13,653 ($68,400 in today's money), but Chevy's decision to produce enough for every dealership to have one makes this one of the least-limited Limited Editions ever. Chevy hyped its special edition status in advertising, yet when all was said and done, with 6,502 examples produced, better than one in ten '78 Corvettes sold was a Pace Car. 

A quick googling shows there are a ton of nice, really low-mileage ones floating around out there, since a large number were bought and parked as "sure-fire future investments" that haven't even halfway kept up with inflation.

As you can see from this photo of a different one, with added side pipes, photographed back in August of 2022, they're not terribly uncommon. I've spotted at least four distinct ones in the neighborhood over the years.

The one above either never had the door decals applied or lost them in a repaint. I'm going to go with the latter, since it has neither the rear quarter IMS logo decal nor the Limited Edition decals on the fenders, both of which were installed at the factory, unlike the door decals that were dealer-installed. Also, the fender badges seem oddly placed and the rear spoiler's not there. It's possible that it could be an attempt to create a Pace Car clone, but why clone such a common car?

The one below was snapped in the summer of '22, like the sidepiped car.

The top car was photographed with a Canon EOS R and an RF 24-105mm f/4L IS lens in May of 2026, the second one with a Fujifilm X-T2 and 16-80mm f/4 R OIS WR lens in August of 2022, the third with an Olympus OM-D E-M1X and a Panasonic Leica 12-60mm f/2.8-4 lens in June of 2024, and the last one with a Nikon D7100 and a 16-80mm f/2.8-4 zoom in September of 2024.

1960 Austin-Healey Sprite

While we've had an early "bugeye" Austin-Healey Sprite on these pages before, that one was all dolled up with a roll bar, racing stripe, and alloy wheels.

This Colorado Red example still retains the factory wire wheels and the front bumper, plus it sports a natty-looking pair of driving lights.

Photographed with a Canon EOS R and a 24-105mm f/4L IS zoom lens in May of 2026.

1965 Chevrolet Corvair Monza Convertible

1965 marked the first model year of the Corvair's second generation. While it retained the basic air-cooled, rear-engined flat six layout of the first generation, the styling was completely refreshed and way ahead of its time, with clean, attractive looks.

The lineup began with the fairly spartan Corvair 500, moved up through the Corvair Monza, and was crowned by the Corvair Corsa.

The middle-of-the-lineup Monza could be had as a hardtop coupe or sedan or as a convertible, like the Regal Red example in the photos.

Base engine in the Monza was the 95-horsepower version of the 2.7L Turbo-Air 164, with 110- and 140-horsepower versions available as options. The 140-horse version had four single-throat carbs and dual exhausts, and the car in the photos has a lone tailpipe, so it's got either the 95 or 110 pony motor. The fact that it has optional wire wheels with knock-off hubs and a four-on-the-floor would have me betting it's got the optional engine.

This one was photographed in May of 2026 using a Canon EOS R and an RF 70-200mm f/4L IS zoom lens. It had just sold at the Mecum auction.

1962 Cadillac Sixty-Two Sedan

We've had a 1962 Cadillac Sixty-Two sedan on these pages before, but it was the shorter four-window Town Sedan, whereas this is the full-length six-window Sedan.

Like the shorter car, the six-window is powered by the 390 cubic inch iteration of Cadillac's 331 Series overhead valve V-8, rated at 325 gross horsepower.

This example, painted in the color Cadillac called "Sandalwood", was photographed in May of 2026 using a Canon EOS 5Ds and an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS zoom lens.

1963 Buick Riviera

The Chevrolet Corvette and Ford Thunderbird, both of which began life as sporty two seaters, quickly diverged in their evolutionary paths. The Corvette got more serious about being a sports car, while the Thunderbird acquired a back seat and became an entirely new thing: a "personal luxury coupe".

It retained a sporty vibe, but put an emphasis on plush, high-tech accommodations for two... plus maybe a couple of friends. The new category was a winner, with the 1958 and 1959 T-birds selling 37,892 and 67,456 units, respectively, vastly outperforming its two-seat predecessor in the marketplace and completely crushing Corvette sales numbers.

General Motors could not let this situation stand and launched a personal luxury coupe of its own. The task was handed to GM's second most prestigious brand, Buick, who launched the 1963 Riviera with unique sheet metal and on the all-new E-platform chassis. Even as far back as the early Sixties, that was a rarity for GM. (Prior to this car, Buick had used the "Riviera" badge as a trim level on other models.)

The standard engine was Buick's "Wildcat 445", which was what Buick called the 401 cubic inch version of its Nailhead V-8 with a four-barrel carburetor and 10.25:1 compression. The "445" was its output in ft/lbs of torque and it was rated at 325 SAE gross horsepower. Optional was the "Wildcat 465", which was a 425-cube Nailhead making 345 horses. Both engines were backed by a Turbine Drive automatic, which is what Buick was calling the old Dynaflow in the early '60s.

The license plate says this one has the 401, as did the car tested by Motor Trend when it was new. The crew at MT managed an 8.1 second zero-to-sixty dash and a 16.01 second trip through the quarter, hitting the traps at 85.71 miles per hour. Observed top speed was 115 and the finned aluminum drums brought the car to a standstill from sixty in 151 feet.

Price as tested was $5,159 in 1963 dollars, or about $55,100 in current bucks.

This example was photographed in May of 2026 using a Canon EOS R and an RF 24-105mm f/4L IS zoom lens.

1986 Chevrolet Suburban C20 Silverado

The seventh generation of Chevy's Suburban nameplate stretched from 1973 all the way to 1991 with only minor changes every few years. Going by the cosmetics, this one could be an '85-'87 and it's the Light Blue Metallic and Frost White two-tone paint job that has me leaning towards a 1986 model.

Not a diesel, so it's got one of two carbureted V-8 options: the 5.7L motor making 165hp or the 7.4L 240-horsepower big-block. 

This one was photographed in May of 2026 using a Canon EOS R and an RF 24-240mm f/4-6.3 IS zoom lens.

1993 Saab 900S

The owner had de-badged the decklid of this super-clean '87-'93 Saab 900 making precise identification tricky. With the alloy wheels I'm thinking it's a 900S and the Ruby Red color I think marks it as a 1993 model.  I'm not enough of a Saab nerd to pick up the subtler details.

The normally-aspirated 16V longitudinal inline four under the hood had received a displacement bump for 1991. Now called the B212, the 2.1L made 140 horsepower.

It was photographed with a Canon EOS-1D Mark III and an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS zoom lens in April of 2024.

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.