1955 Chevrolet Bel Air

1955 saw a complete re-styling of Chevrolet's lineup. The new cars had "shoebox" lines that dispensed with the distinctive pontoon fenders of the previous generation, while the rear fenders had a hint of the then-trendy tail fins and the windshield had a pronounced wraparound curve to it. The models, however, retained their previous designations. There was the spartan 150, oriented toward fleet sales, the midrange 210, and the top-of-the-line Bel Air.

The Bel Air featured many items that were optional on the 210 as standard equipment and could be had as a 2- or 4-door sedan, a wagon, a convertible, or a hardtop sport coupe.

The two-tone Sport Coupe in the picture above is finished in India Ivory over Harvest Gold. Under the hood could be one of two "Blue Flame" inline sixes, producing 123 or 135 gross horsepower, or the big news for 1955: Chevrolet's new Turbo Fire pushrod V-8. Displacing 265 cubic inches with an "8-to-1 ultra-high compression ratio" and a two-barrel carburetor, the new Chevy small block made 162 SAE gross horsepower.

Not long into the model year came the Super Turbo Fire version, with a four-barrel carb, performance intake, larger air cleaner, and dual exhausts. If those are factory duals on the car in the picture, it has the Super Turbo Fire, which was rated at 180 ponies.

In a test of the Bel Air 4-door sedan with the regular 165-horse small block and PowerGlide transmission, Motor Life recorded a zero-to-sixty time of 13.6 seconds.

This one was photographed with a Nikon D3 and a 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6G zoom lens in November of 2022. 

1979 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am

This would be the third '79 Pontiac Trans Am seen on these pages. The first was a Tenth Anniversary Trans Am, and the second was a Sundance Yellow coupe on the standard Rally II wheels, indicating that the original owner had been pretty stingy with the options list.

Then there's this 1979 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am here...

It's a Starlight Black t-top coupe and pixel-peeping in on the hood, it looks like it has the gold outline around the opening for the shaker hood scoop, indicating it's a Black & Gold Special Edition car. The "TA 6.6" decal on the scoop is the tell that under the hood is the 220 horsepower W72 400 cubic inch Pontiac V-8, rather than the tamer L80 403 cubic inch Oldsmobile Rocket V-8, which made 185 horses and came with a "6.6 LITRE" decal on the scoop. 

The car has the iconic 8" wide gold snowflake alloy rims that came with the WS6 performance package, which came shod with 225/70R-15 tires, considered quite meaty at the time. The WS6 package also included rear disc brakes and beefier front and rear sway bars. A Black and Gold Special Edition with the W72 is one of the rarest configurations found on a '79 T/A, with only 1,107 configured thusly.

1979 was the last hurrah for the 400 cubic inch Trans Ams, and the 8,672 W72 motors installed that year in Trans Ams and Formulas were actually hoarded from earlier production. Tighter emissions regs for 1980 meant that the most potent motor in the final Second Generation Firebirds would be the 301 Turbo.

This one was photographed using a Nikon D3 and a 50mm f/1.4 lens in July of 2021.

1977 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Indy 500 Pace Car

For 1977, Oldsmobile got the nod to provide the Pace Car for the 61st running of the 500 Mile International Sweepstakes, better known as the Indianapolis 500. It was the fourth time since 1970 that Olds had paced the race, the previous three with various iterations of the midsize Cutlass.

The Delta 88 was a full-size Olds, which was freshly revised for the 1977 model year. The seventh generation of the 88 rode on a 116" wheelbase and stretched 217.5" between the bumpers.

More plebeian Delta 88 coupes could be had with a base 231cid V-6 rated at 105 SAE net horsepower or a couple optional V-8s, namely the LV8 110hp 260 cube Rocket or the L34 170 horsepower 350 Rocket.

 

The Indianapolis 500 Pace Car version, of which Oldsmobile built 2,400 examples, came with the top of the line W44 403 cubic inch Rocket V-8, making 185 net horses. It was backed by a TH350 three-speed automatic and could push the 3,700 pound coupe to sixty in a little under ten seconds, which was decent by Malaise Era standards.

This example was photographed in October of 2025 using a Canon EOS 7D and an EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS zoom lens.

1993 Porsche 968 Cabriolet

When Porsche replaced the little 914, it was again with a car that had been designed hand-in-hand with Volkswagen. The 924 was the first front-engined, water-cooled car offered by Porsche and the trim little 2+2 hatchback coupe with the engine up front and transaxle in the back took up the mantle of "entry-level Porsche". Powered by a 2.0L SOHC four-banger that was also used in VW cargo vans, it was very much a creature of the Malaise Era.

In the early '80s the basic design was heavily revised and the VW/Audi-sourced truck motor was replaced with a 2.5L SOHC four that was essentially half of the V-8 from the flagship 928 grand tourer, with the resulting car called the 944. That car in turn carried the entry-level Porsche banner for most of a decade, receiving a string of upgrades that culminated in the 944 S2.

Rather than releasing an "S3" upgrade, the ultimate iteration of the 924 platform was given an entirely new model designator of 968. The inline four now displaced 3.0L and sported a DOHC 16V cylinder head and Porsche's new VarioCam variable valve timing setup. Like the 944 S2 before it, the 968 was offered in coupe and convertible versions, with the latter being fairly rare at only 4,374 sold from '92 through '95.

The 3.0L powerplant put out 237 SAE net horsepower and was capable of propelling the 968 Cabrio to sixty in the low six second range when backed with the six-speed manual transaxle, and about a second slower with the four-speed Tiptronic auto. Unlike the preceding 924 and 944, the 968 was built in-house at Zuffenhausen rather than at Audi's Neckarsulm plant. The convertible stickered at $51k, so something like $117,000 in current dollars.

This Polar Silver Metallic example was photographed in September of 2025 using a Canon EOS R and an RF 24-105mm f/4-7.1 IS zoom lens.

1973 Pontiac Firebird Formula

1973 marked the fourth model year of the second generation Firebird. It was the first year of the federally mandated 5mph front bumper and, while the Endura snout is externally identical to that on the '72 models, the grille inserts have been moved slightly forward in their opening to clear the structural reinforcement beneath the outer skin. Also, the previous year's honeycomb grille pattern is replaced with a rectangular eggcrate.

The Firebird trim levels remained unchanged for '73, with the base model, the plusher Esprit, the performance-oriented Formula, and the top-of-the-line Trans Am. The Formula came with a standard Pontiac 350cid 2-barrel V-8 motor with dual exhausts, rated at 175 SAE net horsepower. The car in the photos had the optional 4-barrel 400, which put out 230 horses. There were also two versions of 455 on the menu, the 250hp L75 version and the snarling LS2 Super Duty 455, based on Pontiac's racing motors and rated at 310 ponies, the last gasp of the Muscle Car era.

Formulas made up a little less than a quarter of the 46,313 Firebirds sold for 1973, and 4,622 of them were Formula 400s, like the Navajo Orange example in the photos. On a stock Formula the hood scoops were cosmetic dummies, but this one's had them opened up. Off the showroom floor with a 4-speed transmission, you could expect 0-60 times of about seven seconds flat.

The top photo was snapped in May of 2025 using a Nikon D300 and 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom lens, while the lower one was taken with a Nikon D7100 and 16-80mm f/2.8-4E zoom lens in the same month. 

1999 Jaguar XK8 Convertible

By the mid 1990s, Jaguar's big grand touring coupe, the XJS (renamed from XJ-S after Jag was acquired by Ford) had been carrying the marque's sporting flag for two decades and was decidedly long in the tooth.

The cash infusion from Dearborn helped push its replacement over the goal line and into production. The new XK8, internally known as the X100, was a svelter design that was intended to be more reminiscent of the classic XK-E from days of yore. Unlike the XJS it replaced, which came into the world during an era when ragtops were on the outs, the XK8 was intended to be a convertible from the start and in fact the droptop XK8 outsold the coupe version by better than two-to-one over its decade long model run.

Carrying the floorpan (and thus the wheelbase length) and a few structural bits over from the XJS, the XK was otherwise largely a clean sheet of paper. Sharing the design of its independent rear suspension with the XJ sedans, the XK8 was launched with a new all-alloy 4.0L DOHC 32V V-8. Dubbed the Jaguar AJ26,  it made 290 SAE net horsepower at 6100 rpm. 

This was enough to shove a '97 XK8 to sixty in 6.7 seconds in Motor Trend's testing at the time, on the way to a quarter mile in fifteen flat at 95mph through the traps.

This Meteorite Silver Metallic example was photographed with an Olympus OM-D E-M5 and a Panasonic Leica 12-60mm f/2.8-4 zoom lens in October of 2025.

1968 Pontiac Catalina

For 1968, the full-size Pontiac lineup contained a bewildering number of distinct models, ranging downwards thusly: Brougham, Bonneville, Executive, Ventura, and Catalina. The Catalina was the cheapest trim level of full-size Pontiac and represented the entry point for the line; you got all the sporty Pontiac look for the minimum amount of dollars.

The Catalina could be had in 2- and 4-door pillared sedan or 2- and 4-door hardtop form (as well as a station wagon). The standard engine was a 400 cubic inch small-journal Pontiac V-8, with a 2-barrel carburetor and a 10.5:1 compression ratio requiring premium fuel. It was rated at 290 SAE gross horsepower, and could be subbed out for a 265hp version of the same engine that ran on regular.

Optional motors were a 4-barrel 400 making 340 ponies, or two versions of the large-journal Pontiac 428 putting out 375 or 390 gross horsepower.

A base Pontiac Catalina 4-door sedan with the optional Turbo Hydra-Matic stickered at $3,218, which was cheaper than either an Impala or Galaxie 500 with a comparable engine, and is equivalent to about $29,960 in current dollars.

This Cameo Ivory hardtop coupe was photographed in September of 2025 using an Olympus OM-D E-M5 and a Panasonic Leica 12-60mm f/2.8-4 zoom lens.