1974 Mercury Montego MX Brougham

Launched in 1968, the Mercury Montego was the upscale version of the midsize Mercury Comet line, serving the same function (and sharing the basic mechanicals of) the Ford Torino, which was the upscale version of the midsize Ford Fairlane.

The Montego/Torino twins got a serious revamp for their second generation in 1972, but had the unfortunately clunky mandatory 5mph bumpers added to the front in '73 and the rear in '74. This Dark Green 1974 Montego MX has the opera window and partial vinyl roof of the Brougham, so there's no six-cylinder under the hood.

The smallest motor available was Ford's 302 two-barrel Windsor small block, rated at 140 horsepower. Buyers who wanted more oomph could get the 351 Cleveland 2-barrel 163 horsepower or 170-horse 400M 2-barrel. To get the full throttle early Malaise Era experience, the top-line option was the 460 cubic inch FoMoCo big block with a Carter 4-barrel and 220 SAE Net horsepower...about the same as the 5.0L EFI motor in a late Fox Body Mustang.

This one was photographed using a Nikon D1X and 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6D zoom lens in October of 2015.

1991 Chrysler LeBaron GTC Convertible

Yet another derivative of the ubiquitous K-car platform, the J-bodies were used to underpin the third generation of the Chrysler LeBaron, now a sportily-styled coupe and convertible, for 1987.

It was initially offered with the gutless normally-aspirated 2.2L and 2.5L inline fours, or turbocharged variants of each, which required driving in a fashion unbecoming of a Chrysler customer in order to keep the motor on boost and derive any benefit from the turbo.

For the 1990 model year the 3.0L Mitsubishi 6G72 SOHC V-6 was added to the powerplant roster. While giving up a few horsepower to the turbo fours, the Mitsu six produced comparable torque and, more importantly, delivered it without having to rev it like a banshee, which was important given the buying demographic and the fact that the vast majority of LeBarons were sold with automatic transmissions.

By 1990, the vast majority of LeBarons were also convertibles. The J-platform had been designed from the jump-off to be sold as both a coupe and a convertible and, while in that first model year of '87 Chrysler sold 75,000 hardtops to 8,000 ragtops, by 1991 the convertible was outselling the coupe by a three-to-one margin.

The 1991 GTC convertible in the photo, in the eye-catching Radiant Fire color, has the 141 horsepower Mitsubishi V-6. Figure a zero-to-sixty time somewhere in the eights if you were willing to brake-torque it away from a traffic light.

It was photographed in October of 2024 using a Nikon D300S and an 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR II zoom lens.

1976 Cadillac Eldorado

We've had a look at a 1976 Cadillac Eldorado before, in the shape of a lovely Calumet Cream ragtop back in mid-September, but here's a coupe in the color known as Firethorn.

Under the hood it one of two flavors of Caddy's big 8.2 Litre V-8, producing either 190 or 215 SAE net horsepower depending on whether you bought the base carbureted version or sprung for the quirky Bendix EFI.

Look at that majestic barge, all of eighteen and two-thirds feet long, wafting down College Avenue! Nearly two and a half tons of premium Cadillac luxury. Zero to sixty times were a bit over ten seconds with the fuelie cars and closer to thirteen with a carb, but nobody bought these to go drag racing at traffic lights.

The lack of a "Fuel Injection" badge under the Eldorado script on the decklid tells us this is a carbureted car. The driver is fixing to have a fun time trying to steer that thing into a parking space in the cramped Fresh Market lot.

This one was photographed in October of 2024 with a Nikon D300S and 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR II zoom lens.

1986 Dodge Omni

When Volkswagen's Golf hit U.S. showrooms as the Rabbit in the mid-'70s, it caused quite a stir. Coming on the heels of the '73 Oil Crisis, the front wheel drive subcompact seemed ultramodern, especially compared to the domestic competition.

Chevrolet and Ford had the Chevette and Pinto, both rear wheel drive cars powered by old-tech pushrod motors. Mopar didn't even have its own subcompact, selling a re-badged RWD Mitsubishi Lancer as the Dodge Colt and Plymouth Arrow.

Chrysler huddled with its European subsidiaries and released a little two-box front wheel drive compact of its own for 1978, beating FoMoCo and GM to the punch. Sold in Europe as the Simca Horizon and in the UK as the Talbot Horizon, it was sold in the USA as the Dodge Omni and the Plymouth Horizon.

The Euro cars used little Simca-sourced motors deemed not potent enough for the US market, so the first Omnis sold here had 1.7L OHC inline fours bought from VW and fitted with Chrysler intake systems.

For the '81 model year, Chrysler's new 2.2L SOHC four cylinder, ubiquitous across the K-car lineup, became an optional motor in the Omni and Horizon. By 1986, the 2.2L in this Crimson Red Omni would have seen its 2bbl carb replaced by throttle body fuel injection, giving it a rated output of 93 SAE net horsepower. With a five-speed manual this would have given zero-to-sixty times around ten seconds flat and a quarter in the mid-seventeens. Not scintillating, but enough to merge in traffic without white knuckles.

Best of all, an '86 Omni started out at a mere $6,209, less than eighteen grand in today's coin, and came with a then-exceptional 5-year/50,000-mile powertrain warranty.

This one was photographed in October of 2024 using an Olympus OM-D E-M1X and an M. Zuiko Digital 12-200mm f/3.5-6.3 zoom lens.

1951 Chevrolet 3100 1/2-Ton Truck

The "Advance Design" series of pickup trucks, launched for the 1947 model year, were the first postwar pickups from Chevrolet and GMC and established Chevy as the number one light truck seller in the US from '47 through '55.

It replaced the prewar AK-series with a larger truck, featuring more modern and streamlined bodywork. It was the first Chevy pickup available with an in-dash radio as a factory option, although the floor of the bed was still made of wooden planks supported by wood blocks on the frame.

This Fathom Green 1951 model was the first year the Chevy trucks featured vent windows. Under the hood you would have found the 216 cubic inch Thriftmaster version of Chevy's prewar "Stovebolt" overhead valve inline six. For '51 it had a 6.6:1 compression ratio and a single 1-bbl Carter cerburetor and was rated at 92 SAE gross horsepower and 176 lb-ft of torque.

This one was photographed with a Nikon D800 and 24-120mm f/4 VR zoom lens in April of 2024.

1924 Ford Model T Doctor's Coupe

Some car body styles from the earlier days of American motoring have such interesting origin stories. One example is the "business coupe", a two-door coupe with very spartan features and an empty space where the back seat would normally be, which gave the traveling salesman an inexpensive auto with storage space for sample trunks and merchandise in the back, out of the weather, without the bulk or expense of a station wagon body.

Another example is this 1924 Model T doctor's coupe. The two-seat runabout was one of the cheapest Model T variants, but a little light on weather protection, even with the folding top erected. The doctor's coupe was an enclosed two seater with space for the driver and passenger. A doctor in the more sparsely populated America of the day could toss his bag in the his Model T and motor in enclosed-cabin comfort from the county seat to rural farms or smaller hamlets to make house calls. It was essentially an updated version of the horse drawn "doctor's buggy" or "physician's phaeton".

To really understand what was needed here requires going back to the early 20th Century, before the Depopulation of the Great Plains. If you’ve spent time in one of those county seat towns, you know that their old cores are nearly as dense and compact as any east coast city of the period. The courthouse square is surrounded by a block or two’s worth of two- and three-story buildings, generally commercial fronts with residences above them. The town physician may have had a walk up over his (and he was a “he”) downtown office, or he might have had a house not far off the courthouse square, at Second & Main or Third & Church, but for normal functions in town, no car was required. The Doctor and the Missus could walk wherever they needed to go socially, and the hired help could walk to market or the druggist’s. An automobile was only needed for the physician’s official work and it needed no more capacity than the doctor, his bag, and (maybe) a passenger.

This example was photographed with a Nikon D800 and 24-120mm f/4 VR zoom lens in May of 2024.

1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais

For 1980, the "Calais" name badge signified the tip-top tier of the personal luxury coupe G-body Cutlasses, even higher up the luxo ladder than the Supreme and Supreme Brougham.

$7,199 was the base MSRP, about $27,500 in constant dollars, and it got you a two-door notchback coupe with a Buick-sourced 3.8L pushrod V-6 with a 2-barrel carburetor and 110 SAE net horsepower, backed by a three-speed automatic. Performance was typical Malaise-era, with zero-to-sixty times in the high thirteen second range.

Buyers could opt for a 105hp Olds 260 cubic inch V-8, or a 305 Chevy 4-barrel small-block putting out 155 ponies. (Or an Olds 350 diesel V-8, if they liked long chats with the mechanics at their dealership.)

This Yellow '80 Cutlass Calais with a Light Camel vinyl landau top was photographed in March of 2019 using a Canon EOS M mirrorless camera and an EF-M 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS zoom lens.

2020 Bentley Continental GTC V8

If you're a Boomer or a GenX'er, it's hard to believe that Bentleys have been running around on Volkswagen-designed chassis for two decades now, but here we are. The 2025 Continental marks the fourth generation of Bentley's racy coupe to ride on VW-group underpinnings.

The one in the picture (I believe that color is "Dragon Red") is a third generation Continental GTC V8, the generation that spanned the 2019-2024 model years.

The Continental GTC could be had with either the V-8 or W-12 motors, both of which packed a brace of intercooled turbos. The 4.0L DOHC 32V V-8, shared with numerous Audi, Porsche, and Lamborghini vehicles, was rated at 542 SAE net horsepower as installed in the Bentley coupes. Not bad for a motor whose roots date back to a normally-aspirated 247 bhp 3.6L V-8 used in late-'80s Audi luxury sedans.

The reinforcement required for the folding top adds considerably to the car's already-considerable heft, bringing the curb weight to an eye-watering 4,982 pounds. This being the entry-level droptop Bentley, it was priced at $222k, a nearly twenty thousand dollar savings over the W12.

It was photographed in June of 2022 using a Nikon D7100 and 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR II zoom lens.

1965 Chevrolet Impala Convertible

While Super Sports, like the '65 Crocus Yellow L30 hardtop we saw back in August, get all the attention, a regular 1965 Impala is nothing to sneeze at, either.

'65 was the first model year of the Impala's fourth generation. It saw the car move from the old X-shaped frame to a new perimeter frame structure to aid in achieving those Sixties Detroit goals of Longer, Lower, and Wider.

The fender badges tell us that popping the hood would reveal a Turbo-Fire 283 cubic inch small-block V-8. Rated at 195 SAE gross horsepower, it featured a Rochester 2-barrel carb and a 9.25:1 compression ratio. It was no rocket, but it was definitely up to some chill top-down cruising in your 3,765 pound boulevardier.

This super clean Regal Red example was photographed with a Nikon D7100 and 16-80mm f/2.8-4E VR zoom lens in April of 2022.

2007 Saturn Sky Red Line

Of all the "Oh what could have been..." stories to ever come out of Detroit, the tale of the Sky and Solstice two-seater twins from Saturn and Pontiac is among the most poignant.

Saturn had been born in the Eighties as a response to complaints about the state of American, and especially GM, automotive manufacturing. General Motors started a whole new division and built it a whole new factory in Spring Hill, Tennessee. The cars and the manufacturing process were supposed to be a clean sheet of paper. The first cars, the SL sedans and SC coupe, were produced for the 1991 model year and shared nothing of their platforms or mechanicals with other GM products.

That dream faded over time and by the 2000s, Saturn was selling badge-engineered products like every other General Motors division, albeit the Saturns were generally badge-engineered with or from various European properties held by GM at the time.

Debuting for 2007, the Saturn Sky was on the new Kappa platform, a stubby RWD base intended from the ground up to be used for two-seat convertibles and badged variously as the Sky, Pontiac Solstice, Opel GT, and Daewoo G2X.

Base cars had the LE5 2.4L Ecotec DOHC four cylinder, with variable valve timing and a 10.4:1 compression ratio combining for a healthy 177 SAE net horsepower.

The Sky Red Line, like the Bluestone example in the photos, featured upgraded suspension components and functional cooling ducts in the front fascia leading to the forward brakes. The Red Line also had the LNF 2.0L Ecotec intercooled turbo, a direct-injection motor that made 260 horses and gave the Sky some serious performance.

Road & Track's '07 test car zipped to sixty in 5.6 seconds and through the quarter in fourteen seconds flat at 99 mph, topping out at 142.

Alas, the Sky only lasted a bare handful of model years before disappearing along with the rest of the Saturn division after the '09 model year.

The one in the photos was captured in October of 2024 using a Nikon D7100 and 16-80mm f/2.8-4E VR zoom lens.

1989 Mercedes-Benz 560SL

The primary market for Benz's SL roadsters had long been the US, so it was something of an irony that the best versions of the third generation R107 were, for many years, only available here via gray market importers. All through the Malaise Era, we were officially saddled with low-compression smog motor 450SL and 380SL cars officially, and if you saw a 500SL swanning about at the local country club, it had entered the country via the back door.

That changed in the '86 model year when the 560SL hit showrooms. The top of the line Mercedes two-seater (technically a 2+2 but the rear "seats" were vestigial) now boasted a 338 cubic inch SOHC fuel injected V-8 with a 9.0:1 compression ratio rated at 227 SAE net horsepower at a zingy 5,200 rpm.

1989 was the final year for the R107, capping an eighteen year long run, and Car and Driver put one of those last 560SL Benzes through its paces, recording a 7.1 second zero to sixty time and a 15.6 second quarter at 90 mph. The big V-8 pulled all the way to 136 on the top end, too. The car circled the skidpad at 0.78 g's and stopped from seventy in 178 feet, which figures weren't too shabby considering it weighed in just shy of 3,700 pounds.

Even in 1986 terms they were big bucks, of course. Price as tested was $65,780, or more than $167,000 in current 2024 dollars.

The one in the photos was snapped using a Nikon D7100 and 16-80mm f/2.8-4E VR zoom lens in October of 2024.

1995 Chevrolet Monte Carlo LS

Despite the Monte Carlo nameplate being a consistently strong seller for Chevrolet from its introduction in 1970 all the way through its final, abbreviated 1988 model year, Chevy decided to put it out to pasture when the rear wheel drive G-body personal luxury coupes got the axe.

For 1989, the new Lumina on the front wheel drive W-platform came in both notchback coupe and sedan forms and replaced both the Monte Carlo and the midsize Chevrolet Celebrity.

However when the second generation of the W cars came around for the 1995 model year, the Lumina name was only used for the sedans, and the coupes revived the Monte Carlo name after its half-decade hiatus.

All the attention was on the sporty Monte Carlo Z34, which carried over the 210 horsepower DOHC LQ1 3.4L V-6 from the Lumina Z34. Although the motoring press paid all the attention to the performance version, as usual, the base Monte Carlo LS outsold it by nearly a two to one margin. (As it did most years, sometimes by as much as more than four to one.)

A base Monte Carlo LS, like the Torch Red example in the photo, would have started at $16,760 ($34,675 today) and come with the 160 horsepower 3.1L pushrod 3100 GM corporate V6. The LS Monte had an interior style that was rare in a coupe of the era, with a column shifter and split bench front seat with a folding armrest; the six-passenger coupe was practically a relic of a bygone time by then.

Notably, the one in the picture has the optional 15" five-spoke alloys shared with the performance model.

2015 Alfa Romeo 4C

The first batch of Alfa Romeo 4C mid-engine 2-seaters came ashore in the USA in the summer of 2014, ending what had been a twenty year absence from the American market for the marque.

A little bantamweight coupe with fiberglass bodywork enclosing a carbon fiber monocoque chassis, the hardtop 4C coupe rode on a 93.7-inch wheelbase and only weighed 2,471 pounds all gassed up and ready to rock. The roofline barely came up to a six-footer's belly button and it cast a shadow hardly more than 13-feet long.

Thanks to these diminutive measurements, the 4C didn't need a lot of motor to put up decent performance numbers. Powered by Alfa's turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 16V 1.7L inline four, rated at 237 SAE net horsepower, the 4C managed to crack off a 4.1 second zero-to-sixty time and a 12.8 second quarter at 107 through the traps when tested by Car and Driver.

It was a head to head test against a Porsche Cayman, which the Alfa handily out-accelerated despite a nearly forty horsepower deficit, thanks to a quarter ton weight advantage. Top speed was measured at 159mph and it stopped from seventy in only 144 feet.

Alas, the 4C coupe was discontinued in the US market after the 2018 model year, with less than 2,000 units having sold here. This means the Rosso Alfa Red and Basalt Gray Metallic coupes here are uncommon sights indeed. The red one was snapped with a Fuji X-T2 and XF 16-80mm f/4 R WR OIS zoom lens in July of 2021, while the gray one was photographed in April of 2021 using a Sony RX100. 

1980 Pontiac Catalina

The "Catalina" badge at Pontiac started life in the 1950s as the top trim package on their full-size Chieftains and Star Chiefs.

Beginning with the '59 model year it became its own line, the lowest level of the full-size Pontiac hierarchy, beneath the Star Chief and top-line Bonneville. There it remained for the next two decades, in various levels of sportiness. During the Bunkie Knudsen years, the Catalina 2+2 was the flag bearer for full-size Poncho performance, with wild triple carb "Tri-Power" Super Duty mills until GM forbade multiple carburetors in anything that wasn't a 'Vette or a Corvair.

Going into the Malaise Era of the Seventies, the enormous B-body Catalinas got more formal and sedate and finally got their turn in the downsizing barrel for the 1977 model year.

That final generation of the Catalina, available as a coupe, sedan, or wagon, rode on the same 116-inch wheelbase as the Bonneville, Impala, LeSabre, and Olds 88. 

By 1980, this Mariposa Yellow coupe would have come with the LS5 Pontiac 2-barrel 265 cubic inch V-8, rated at 120 SAE net horsepower, as the base motor, tasked to lug 3500 pounds of Pontiac down the boulevard. Optionally, a buyer could pay for the 301 cubic inch Pontiac V-8, which featured a Rochester QuadraJet and 150 ponies.

Neither of those Pontiac V-8s would meet California emissions standards, so buyers in the Golden State could get a 115hp 3.8L Buick V-6 or a 160hp Old Rocket 350.

After the 1981 model year, the Catalina nameplate was no more, and neither were Pontiac's in-house V-8 motors. Future performance Ponchos would have Chevy and Buick mills until the division's demise in thirty years.

1932 Chevrolet Confederate Deluxe

For the 1932 model year, Chevrolet replaced the Series AE Independence model with the new Series BA Confederate. Under the skin they had a great deal in common but there were noticeable external changes.

While the older car had a vertical windshield and an external sun visor, the Confederate's windscreen lost the visor and gained a slight rearward rake. Also, the fine louvers on either side of the hood were replaced with four pivoting vent panels, which were chromed on the Deluxe model to add a bit of bling and distinguish it from the cheaper Standard trim level.

Under the hood, the '32 Confederate had Chevy's 194 cubic inch "Stovebolt" inline six. In an era when most cars still had flathead motors, the Chevy six was quite modern. The 1932 iteration saw the introduction of a balanced crankshaft, a new downdraft carburetor, and the compression ratio bumped from 5.0:1 to 5.2:1. These changes nudged the output from 50 to 60 SAE gross; a twenty percent boost in power on tap. The only transmission was a three-speed manual.

Sales were still in a slump from the Great Depression, with Chevy only moving 323,000 units for the year, barely more than half of 1931's total. Still, that was enough to leave Chevrolet as the highest-volume automaker in the USA.

The '32 Chevy in the photos it local to me. The top picture was snapped with a Pentax Q7 and 5-15mm f/2.8-4.5 02 Standard Zoom lens in June of 2018, while the lower two pics were taken with a Sony Cybershot W650 in May of 2014.

1965 Ford Mustang 2+2 GT

The Falcon-based Mustang that inaugurated the sporty compact genre named after it, "pony cars", was initially offered as a notchback coupe and a convertible. Those two body styles were joined in its first full model year of production by a fastback coupe that Ford called the "2+2". 

That designation can be seen on the fender badges of the Raven Black 1965 2+2 GT parked on College Avenue in the SoBro neighborhood of Indianapolis back in early April of 2018.

The arrangement of bars surrounding the "corralled pony" on the grille mark it as a GT, and specifically a '65, as the 1966 grille lacked the vertical bars in the center. Amber fog lights were apparently less common than clear ones. This one lacks the rocker stripes usually found on GTs, but some came without them and some owners removed theirs. The rear valance with exhaust cutouts and the grille lead me to believe it's a real GT and not a base fastback LARPing as one.

The GT only came with a choice of 3- or 4-speed manual transmissions. Under the hood was either an "A-code" 225 horsepower 289 4-barrel Challenger V-8 or the "K-code" HiPo 289 Challenger rated at 271 SAE gross horsepower.

The K-code motor had numerous differences, from the special crankshaft and harmonic balancer all the way up to the un-silenced air cleaner. It had a bigger carb, hotter cam, solid lifters, and a 10.5:1 compression ratio and a host of little details garnered from Ford racing motors of the era.

Car and Driver tested a '65 fastback with the K-code motor and four-speed and reported a 0-60 time of 5.2 seconds and a blistering quarter mile run of 14.0 seconds at 100mph through the traps.

While this may sound sus, it was running on sticky (for the time) optional 15" semi-race rubber and, more importantly, swinging a set of 4.11:1 gears in the diff. While a 4.11 rear end would make for extremely unpleasant cruising at anything much over 50mph, it'd launch that thing like an F-18 Hornet off a steam catapult.

The photo above was taken with an Olympus OM-D E-M5 and an M. Zuiko Digital 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO zoom lens.

1965 Ford Galaxie 500 XL Convertible

1965 saw the debut of an all-new Galaxie at Ford. It had much more sharply-creased styling and vertically-stacked quad headlights.

It was available as a two-door coupe or convertible, as well as pillared or hardtop sedan, with each version coming in several levels of trim. In 1965 you could get your Galaxie 500 converible in either the regular flavor or the more bling-y Galaxie 500 XL form. The badges on the rear fenders of this '65 ragtop in Vintage Burgundy tell us it's an XL.

The base motor in an XL convertible was the then-new 289 2-barrel small block V-8, called the "Challenger" in Ford ad copy and rated at 200 SAE gross horsepower. The next step up was the 250-horsepower 4-barrel Thunderbird 352 cubic inch FE big block V-8. Power-hungry buyers could opt for the 300 horsepower 390 or the 425 horse 427 "side-oiler" big block.

The smaller two engines only came with the 3-speed Cruise-O-Matic slushbox, while the 390 could be had with an auto or a four-on-the-floor, and the hairy 7 Liter only came with the manual.

While the car magazines of the time all focused on the wild-eyed 427 monsters, the majority of Galaxie XL ragtops had the base motor or, like this one, the 352 FE mill.

This one was photographed with a Canon EOS-1D Mark III and an EF 28-70mm f/2.8L zoom lens in July of 2022.

1992 Mercury Capri

In a way, I'm surprised that it took FoMoCo until 2011 to shutter the Mercury division. For most of my life it had been struggling to find a real brand identity. I've known Ford fans and Chevy fans, diehard Stans of Pontiac, Cadillac men, and of course the rabid "Mopar or No Car" gang... but I can't recollect ever meeting someone who bled Mercury... Mercury... what color would a loyal Mercury fan bleed if you cut them? Did Mercury even have a specific brand color?

The core of Mercury's lineup always consisted of slightly plusher and more upmarket versions of Ford's sedans. The thing is, by the time you look at the high end of a fully-optioned LTD and the low-end of a base Lincoln Continental, that didn't leave a lot of room for Mercury to run around in.

To pad the lineup of Montereys and Marquises over the years, to stir a little variety into the showroom, as it were, FoMoCo tried various things. For instance, Mercury dealers got to sell various captive imports over the years, like the original Capri and Merkur (née Sierra) from Ford of Europe and the De Tomaso Pantera.

Ford gave Mercury a more well-appointed version of the Mustang, dubbed the Cougar, but it eventually bloated into a more plush-bottomed Thunderbird clone. When the third generation Mustang debuted on the new Fox platform in 1979, Mercury tried the Capri name again, this time as a re-badged 'Stang. They gave up on that after '86, after several years of tepid sales.

Come the 1991 model year, Mercury dealers got a third iteration of the Capri. This time it was a little front wheel drive 2+2 convertible using Mazda 323 mechanicals via the Ford (of Australia) Capri, based on the Ford Laser econobox. Mercury had been selling the Laser-derived Tracer as a subcompact alternative to Ford's Escort, so the new Capri should have fit right in at Mercury dealerships.

The base Capri had Mazda's 1.6L normally-aspirated DOHC 16V inline four, rated at 100 SAE net horsepower. Performance was ho-hum, with Car and Driver recording a 10.0 second zero to sixty time, 113mph top speed, and a decidedly un-sportscarlike 0.79g trip around the skidpad.

There was a sportier XR2 version with a spoiler, ground effects, and a 132hp turbo mill, but even it was no threat to a Miata. Nothing could hide the fact that these were econoboxes with a roofectomy. The same handling that that makes the Tracer/Protege cool is a lot less cool in a car with actual sporting pretensions. The new Capri sank without much of a ripple after the '94 model year.

This one was photographed with a Nikon D700 and 24-85mm f/2.8-4D zoom lens in June of 2020.

1951 Dodge Meadowbrook

While the '46-'48 Dodges were mostly prewar Dodge D-22's with a light cosmetic makeover, 1949 saw the first true postwar lineup from Dodge.

You could get your '49 Dodge in one of three flavors. Lowest on the totem pole was the stripped-down Wayfarer, only available as a two-door coupe, business coupe, or roadster, all on a shortened 115" wheelbase. The top of the line model was the Coronet, which came in the whole array of coupe, sedan, convertible, and wagon styles.

In the middle was the Meadowbrook, which only came as a 123.5"-wheelbase pillared sedan. They were fairly popular, moving ~90,000 units and accounting for nearly a third of the marque's sales that year.

For 1951, the Meadowbrook received an entirely new, more modern-looking front end. Due to Detroit's production being focused on vehicles for the Korean War, the '51 and '52 models were pretty much identical.

Under the hood could be found Dodge's "Get-Away" flathead inline six. It displaced 230 cubic inches and, breathing through a single Stromberg carb, was rated at 103 SAE gross horsepower. 

The only transmission choice was Dodge's Gyro-Matic, which was just the Dodge brand name for Chrysler's Fluid-Drive. Not a true automatic, it was a 3-speed manual with a torque converter. The clutch and column mounted shift lever were needed to select among the gears, but you could come to a full stop and start off again without having to use the clutch.

The upper three photos were taken in August of 2021 using a Hasselblad Lunar and Sony Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* 16-70mm f/4 OSS zoom lens, while the one below was snapped with a Nikon 1 V2 and 1 Nikkor 18.5mm f/1.8 lens.

1991 Volkswagen Corrado

Volkswagen's Scirocco, a sporty coupe based on the Golf platform, had gone through a couple generations when it was supplanted in the lineup by a burlier replacement, based on the Mk2 Golf/Jetta, the new VW Corrado.

Introduced to the US market for the 1990 model year, the Corrado was a burlier, more pugnacious-looking ride than its predecessor.

Whereas the second generation Scirocco had been a graceful wedge, carrying over the general aesthetic of the Giugiaro-penned original, the Corrado looked like someone had stepped on a Golf and then gotten it mad.

It was definitely a more serious ride than its predecessor. You had to pay extra for the swoopy engines in the Scirocco, because in the '80s German automakers acted like 4V heads were special unobtainium and priced them accordingly, while the Japanese companies were sticking DOHC fours in every secretarymobile. The base '87 Scirocco motor was an 8V 1.8L four rated at 94 horsepower, and you had to pony up another $2,300... one fifth the base price of the car ...to upgrade to the 127-horse 16V version.

In the new Corrado, on the other hand, even the base motor was a 1.8L 16V unit, now rated at 134hp. Corrado buyers who wanted to party could order the G60, with had an 8V 1.8L sporting a scroll-type supercharger, intercooler, and 158 SAE net horsepower.

 

In an eight-way comparison test of sporty four-cylinder 2+2 coupes in 1992, Car and Driver gave the Corrado G60 a 5th place finish. The supercharged motor powered the stubby VW to a 7.5 second zero-to-sixty time and a 15.9 quarter mile at 87 mph. With a 130 mile per hour top speed and a 0.81g skidpad performance, these were decent numbers for an early Nineties sporty coupe

When they first came out, I wasn't a fan. They looked so much bulkier than the sleek Scirocco they replaced, but the shape has aged well, and I love the eccentric engine options and funky details like the retractable spoiler.

The one in the photos was snapped in the upper valley region of New Hampshire in April of 2015 using a Nikon Coolpix P7000.

1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am

During the Malaise Era, increasing emphasis on fuel economy and reduced emissions both gaveth and tooketh away. As an example, it was the decision by corporate management at General Motors to cap compression ratios at 8.5:1 so all cars could run on regular unleaded that caused Pontiac to slip a 455 V-8 under the hood of the Firebird.

This allowed for some of the last really blisteringly quick cars of the Muscle Car era, culminating in the '73 Trans Am with the optional Super Duty 455.

However as time went on, mileage expectations increased while allowable emissions decreased. The various special versions of the 455 went away, and by the 1976 model year all that was left was the Plain Jane L75 version of the 455, reduced to a 7.6:1 compression ratio and a 200 SAE net horsepower output, a shadow of its former glory.

1977 saw the disappearance of the 455 altogether. As a consolation prize, Pontiac's engineers worked up a version of the 400 to fill the gap. The top performance option in the '77 Trans Am, the new W72 400 featured a Rochester Quadrajet carb, new heads, and an 8.0:1 compression ratio that let it match the 200 horsepower output of the previous year's bigger L75.

The rest of the Firebird's engine lineup got a shuffle, too. Gone was the straight-six base motor, replaced by a Buick-sourced 3.8L V-6. The base V-8 was the 145hp Pontiac 301, and optional V-8s included the Pontiac L76 350, rated at 170 hp, and the 180hp L78 400.

Firebirds and Trans Ams sold in California got different engines, with the optional V-8 in base cars, Esprits, and Formulas being the Oldsmobile 350 and the Trans Am's V-8 substituted with a 403 cube Olds motor. Towards the end of the model year, the 301 Pontiac V-8 got subbed with a 305 Chevy small block.

Buyers got mad about finding Olds, Chevy, and Buick engines under the hood of their racy Pontiacs, and there were lawsuits and refunds. This is ironic because starting with the very first 2nd Gen Firebirds the base straight-six was sourced from Chevrolet, as Pontiac's own OHC six was too tall to fit under the hood.

Externally, the '77 Firebirds got a new snout with a pointy beak and quad rectangular headlamps. 1977 cars can be discerned from 1978 ones by the grille mesh, which is a honeycomb pattern on the former and a rectangular mesh on the latter.

When Car and Driver put a 1977 Trans Am with a W72, backed with a 4-speed manual and a fairly tall 3.23:1 rear end, through its testing procedures, they noted a zero-to-sixty time of 9.3 seconds and a quarter mile time of 16.9 at 82 mph. The car topped out at 110 miles per hour and, still sporting front discs and rear drums, it took 213 feet to bring the 3,830-pound T/A to a halt from 70 mph. Price as tested was $8,161, or the equivalent of $42,400 current-year dollars.

The honeycomb grille of the Cameo White car in the photo makes it a '77 model, and the "T/A-6.6" decal on the shaker scoop tells us it has the W72, since the lowlier L78 motor would have a scoop that read "6.6 LITRE". It was photographed with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and an EF 24-105mm f/4L zoom lens in December of 2018. 

1981 Volvo 240 GLT Turbo Wagon

By 1981, Volvo had been selling their buttoned-down, sober Swedish sleds in the US for a couple decades. Unless you were into niche motorsports like ice racing or rallying, they weren't generally anybody's idea of sporty cars, either, but for the '81 model year, the Swedes slipped a cheater card into their hand.

Starting that year you could order the four cylinder in your 200-series Volvo with a turbo bolted to it. The turbocharger took the B21F 2.1L SOHC four cylinder from 107 SAE net horsepower and bumped the output nearly twenty percent, to 127 horses (and becoming known as the B21FT in the process.)

That 127 horsepower figure may seem paltry to modern ears, but anything with a three-digit total was doing okay there in the worst part of the Malaise Era. It handily outmuscled the 116hp 2.8L inline six in a Toyota Celica Supra and the 118hp 255 cubic inch V-8 in a Mustang Cobra.

Road & Track tested an '81 GLT Turbo sedan and got a zero-to-sixty time of 10.2 seconds and a quarter mile of 17.5 at 79mph, both figures shaving a full second off the time for the normally-aspirated car.

The GLT package also came with sporty Pirelli tires on five-spoke alloy wheels, a tasteful chin spoiler, and beefier roll bars front and rear to bolster a stiffer suspension. Other than the wheels and a couple little "Turbo" badges, there was no external cue to let the Celica Supra or 924 driver in the next lane know he was about to have a really embarrassing day.

This Richelieu Red '81 GLT Turbo wagon was photographed in July of 2020 using a Nikon D7000 and 16-80mm f/2.8-4E VR zoom lens.

1985 BMW 635CSi

The original version of BMW's 6-series grand touring coupe debuted as a 1977 model and continued in production all the way through the 1989 model year before being supplanted by the V12-powered 850i coupe.

While the E24 6-series was launched in the U.S. as the 630CSi with the 176 horsepower 3.0L SOHC inline six, the best known variant was the 635CSi, which came along in 1985. Featuring the bored and stroked 3430cc M30B35 SOHC six, the North American version had an 8.0:1 compression ratio and was rated at 182 SAE net horsepower. (Euro motors sported a 10.0:1 compression ratio and put out 215hp.)

In 1985, Car and Driver magazine put a 5-speed 635CSi through its paces and recorded an 8.2 zero-to-sixty time and a quarter in sixteen seconds flat at 85 miles per hour. Top speed was 132 mph, while the four wheel discs would haul the 3,375 pound luxocoupe down from 70 to a stop in 189 feet, braking performance equivalent to the contemporary Corvette and only a few feet short of the Porsche 928S.

Like now, it was definitely a premium set of wheels. Base price was $41,315 and the only option on C/D's test car was a limited-slip diff, which brought the total sticker to $41,705, which is the equivalent of $122,000 in today's dough.

The 1985 635CSi in the picture was snapped with a Nikon Coolpix P7000 in December of 2015.

1983 Chevrolet S-10

From the 1972 through 1982 model years, Chevrolet sold re-badged Isuzu Faster mini pickup trucks in the US as the Chevy LUV. It nominally stood for "Light Utility Vehicle", but also for how you'd feel about their fuel mileage and ease of driving and parking. Get it? Yeah, it was too precious.

Anyway, thanks to the infamous Chicken Tax, the Isuzus had to be imported without a bed attached, in what's called "chassis-cab" configuration, and assembled here. By the early Eighties, both GM and Ford, who was doing the same thing with the Mazda B-series as the Ford Courier, realized "Hey, this is America. The pickup truck is practically our national vehicle. Surely we could design and build our own mini trucks?"

Thus were born the Chevrolet S-10 and Ford Ranger, which quickly came to dominate the mini truck market in sales numbers.

The '83 long-bed S-10 Durango in the picture is an example of a vehicle class that hardly exists anymore. Riding on a 117.9" wheelbase, the long bed had a 7'6" cargo box and the whole truck weighed something like 3,000 pounds and had a half ton cargo capacity.

Testing a 1982 short-bed S-10 with the V-6 and a 5-speed manual against an '82 Ford Ranger and Dodge Ram 50, Car and Driver declared the Chevy the winner. The 110 horsepower 2.8L V-6 pushed the little truck to sixty in 11.7 seconds and through the quarter in 18.1 at 75 mph. Top speed was 96 mph which I can tell you from personal experience felt plenty fast with those agricultural underpinnings. Its current descendant, the Colorado, is a "small" pickup that weighs some 5,000 pounds, stretches nearly eighteen feet between the bumpers... and can only be had with a bed that's six-ish feet long.

This S-10 was photographed in November of 2017 using a Sony a-7 and FE 50mm f/1.8 lens.

1956 Chevrolet 210

Few cars are as iconic as the classic "Tri-Five" Chevies, the full-size models from Chevrolet in '55, '56, '57. While the Bel Air, especially in its 1957 coupe form, gets all the ink, the 150 and 210 were the most numerous.

The 150 was largely intended for fleet sales and quite spartan, but the 210 was basically the standard variant; the Bel Air was as deluxe a Chevy as you could buy in those days, but most of its options could also be had on a 210.

The 210 could be had with either the 235 cubic inch "Blue Flame" OHV inline six, rated at 140 SAE gross horsepower, or the (still relatively new) OHV small block "Turbo-Fire" V-8 in one of three states of tune. The base V-8 had a 2-barrel carburetor and 170 horsepower, or a buyer could opt for the 205 horsepower single 4-barrel "Power Pack" or the dual-quad 225-horse "Super Power Pack", complete with a lumpy Duntov cam.

Road & Track tested a 1956 Chevy 210 2-door with a 205 horse Power Pack V-8, a three-on-the-tree manual transmission, and 3.55:1 rear end and it returned a 9.0 zero-to-sixty time and dispatched the quarter in 16.6 seconds at eighty miles per hour. The 4-bbl small block would push the 3,380 pound shoebox all the way to 111 miles per hour before being defeated by the built-in headwind.

Price as tested was $2,064, which comes to just short of twenty-four grand in constant dollars.

This Calypso Cream 1956 210 pillared sedan would have been somewhat slower, and was photographed in September of 2021 using a Hasselblad Lunar and Sony Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* 16-70mm f/4 OSS zoom lens.

1974 Chevrolet Monte Carlo

In 1973, OPEC announced an oil embargo directed at the nations that had supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War. The effects on the U.S. economy were harsh.

"The average US retail price of a gallon of regular gasoline rose 43% from 38.5¢ in May 1973 to 55.1¢ in June 1974. State governments asked citizens not to put up Christmas lights. Oregon banned Christmas and commercial lighting altogether. Politicians called for a national gasoline rationing program. Nixon asked gasoline retailers to voluntarily not sell gasoline on Saturday nights or Sundays; 90% of gas station owners complied, which produced long lines of motorists wanting to fill up their cars while they still could."

The effects on Detroit would trigger the first big round of downsizing and boost sales of compacts, as people suddenly had a reason to avoid "gas guzzlers".

Sales of one model weren't much affected, though.

Despite the embargo and the subsequent gas crisis, Chevrolet sold over 300,000 1974 Monte Carlos, up from the previous record sales year of '73 that saw almost 250,000 cross the curb.

The base engine was a 145bhp 2-bbl Turbo-Fire small block 350, and you could get a Turbo-Fire small block 400 in either 150bhp 2-bbl or 180bhp 4-bbl flavors, or splurge for a 235bhp big block Turbo-Jet 4-bbl 454 V-8.

The Monte Carlo's booming success outsold Ford's Thunderbird by something close to six-to-one and triggered other manufacturers to jump into the "personal luxury coupe" market.

The one in the photos, which has been repainted, was snapped in June of 2022 using a Nikon D7100 and a 16-80mm f/2.8-4E VR zoom lens.

1968 Plymouth Road Runner

Shortly after the release of the deluxe GTX midsize muscle car, Brock Yates pitched the idea of a bare-bones street racer, a stripped Belvedere business coupe stuffed with a Hemi or 440 Super Commando, to Plymouth product planner Jack Smith. Jack Smith, who drove a Belvedere with a breathed-on 383 himself liked the idea.

GTX sales were somewhat soft because they were expensive and Plymouth had a rep as a stodgy brand who sold cars to your maiden aunt and other sober-sided citizens, so it was hard to generate youth appeal. Smith wanted a car that would do a sub seven second 0-60 and a sub fifteen second quarter, right off the showroom floor, with a price tag under $3000. To get interest from the youth demographic, he pursued a character license from Warner Bros, and thus was born the car with the horn that went "BEEP! BEEP!" (Mopar fan lore was that they spent fifty grand getting the horn note just right.)

The side marker lights and grille tell us this Mist Green Plymouth Road Runner with an Antique Green vinyl top is a 1968.

The fact that it's a hardtop means it was made in the latter part of the model year, since the Road Runner was originally only available as a pillared coupe with a bench seat.

The 440 badges on the hood, if they're not lying, mean that someone's upgraded things in the engine bay from the original Road Runner 383 V8, since the '68 was only available with a 383 4bbl or a 426 Hemi. (The standard Road Runner 383 was a 335bhp version, with a hotter cam and other tweaks exclusive to the model, unless you ordered A/C, in which case you got the same Super Commando 330bhp 383 4bbl as in Uncle Lester's Fury.)

When Car and Driver tested the original '68 Road Runner with a 383, four-speed, and optional 3.55:1 limited slip rear end, it cracked off a 7.1 second zero-to-sixty run and a 15.0 quarter mile at 96 mph. It pulled all the way to 114 at redline in fourth, too. They got a little carried away with the options on the test car, like power brakes with discs up front, and the styled wheels like the ones on the car in the photo, which cost $102.05, so the total as-tested price was $3,753 in 1968 dollars, or about $34k in today's dough.

This one was photographed with a Canon EOS-1D Mark IV and EF 24-105mm f/4L IS lens in September of 2022.