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'70 Continental Mark III 4-dr sedan, 1 of 2 built ~

A great white whale emerged from her slumber, battery warmed up, took on a payload of fresh Tigerpaws, and trundled over to Costco to be re-shoed. First real trip out since November. It was a gorgeous day and she swims like a dream now. 75 mph and narey a vibration unlike the old shoes. She's running beautifully too. Can't wait to get her inspection done so I can drive her a lot more.

You might consider combining your hobbies; make really really heavy shoes and just lift those. Save some time.

Hmm...I saw the Lincoln, didn't see the Pontiac in the background at first. Googling turned up this pic, neat never heard of that variation of the '62.

^ Pontiac built 68 '62 GP 'street' 421 V8 cars (and 16 race 421SDs). Reputedly, a Daytona Pontiac dealer built about 30 'Fireball Roberts Special Edition' cars, but IDK if they were all 421s OR if the number of them is that high. The gold grille, body insert, 8-lugs, etc were part of that package. This car is the only one I can recall ever seeing pics of with this paint scheme, which is why I doubt "30".

There is a very clean dark green one one street over from me, I've seen it in and out of it's garage a few times, but never seen the grille so I'm not sure of the year. The most recent G8 I've seen was a dark red one in Dunkirk, NY in March.

I saw a 70/71/72 (?) Monte Carlo in olive green. It was in near mint condition. It was driving toward me and I was going the other way. It had that unmistakable grille. This car had an important place in automotive history. It put the personal luxury coupe in just about every new car buyer's reach via the Chevy price point. Within 15 minutes of that, I saw a very clean charcoal Pontiac G8. While I liked the G8s more than the current Chevy SS because they started at $29K (MSRP) and could be had with a V6, I still like the Chevy SS. Either way, the lines on either of these 2 cars are timeless.

Saw a VW Thing on the way to the post office this morning. I had temporarily forgotten that the Thing was a thing.

I don't doubt you at all. I just couldn't find the package on Chevy's UBuildIt site so I wasn't sure if it was still being offered today.

King Ranch, 1794 Edition, Lone Star, Chevy has used Texas Edition in the past. Oh... and Austin.... I'm sure the Brits were honoring the Texas capital. ?

The Texan was a Dodge, '56 for sure. I'm not aware of any other Texas-related post-war nameplates, but there were a bunch pre-war. 1917 Alamo, Phoenix - no vehicles produced.

The name wasn't Opticspark it was OptiSpark.It was exactly a distributor and once they got it right, they are fantastic. The original ones could get moisture into them that couldn't get out. The later ones and aftermarket ones get vents so the moisture can evaporate out. The optispark is situated behind the water pump and connected directly to the crankshaft. It has a disk with 360 slots in it (one for each degree of turn) and an optical sensor could detect the exact position of the crank with high accuracy. This allowed for very precise control of the spark in a time before true electronically timed ignition. Replacing a bad optispark is a pain in the butt... doubly so on cars with the towing packages. To get to it, the water pump must come off. On towing package optioned cars, this means the mechanical fan and the entire secondary belt system that drives it must also come off. For added fun and excitement, if you have a water pump go bad, not only can you count on it take the optispark with it, but you can also lose power steering as the spot where the water pump fails causes coolant to leak right onto the ribbed side of the serpentine belt making it too slippery to run the power steering pump under load. The whole system gets a bad rap even among guys who love the LT-1.... but when you have one running well, they run really really well.

Not aware of an 'Alamo', may have been a San Antonio area dealer special at one time by someone. Someone did do a 'Texan' edition of a car in the 50s, saw a pic of a black one on FB last week. (don't recall what car, though). Jeep has had Laredos for decades, sure there are other Texas-themed names out there that I'm forgetting.

Yes, yesterday was the 4th, hence my comment about 'Cuatro de Mayo' Today I'll probably go to the beach and get some seafood--Sunset Bar & Grille in Fairport Harbor opened for the season yesterday.

More Buicks...stepped outside this morning to walk the dogs and saw a very clean '68 Skylark 2dr ht in medium blue w/ black vinyl top quietly rolling down my street...

I would be constantly "in it" just to hear that 6.2L speak loudly and carry a big stick.

Being BOF or UB is immaterial here, despite it's mention above. A "Silverado SS" with a 6.2L is not going to be in the same high performance ballpark as a Camaro SS. IMO, the SS nameplate should be kept to truly well-rounded Hi-Po vehicles (this, despite the fact that the first SS was merely a trim package and could be had as an anemic I6).

Good thing they did not name this trim level SS. That belongs on high-performance cars (e.g. Camaro and Corvette) --- not a BOF SUV. Ever. NO. Just NO. Bad idea period. It is a rebodied truck, not a street-legal race car.

They should put a Corvette ZR1 engine in the Suburban to challenge the future Demon Grand Wagoneer full size 800 hp Jeep. And it should come with 2nd and 3rd row seat delete to save weight.

1949 Ford convert, bone stock & minty restored, driving for some miles behind me to a local Friday night cruise in.

Haven't seen a Kona on the road yet, but have seen several Kia Niros around. Saw a new brown Panamera in a driveway down my street this evening. Much nicer styling than the 1st gen. Random observation--Buicks seem to be quite popular in Parma, Ohio. At my Giant Eagle grocery I saw a bunch this afternoon--Enclaves of both generations, several LaCrosses of different generations, 3 Encores, an Envision, Also had some tasty flautas and a margarita for cuatro de mayo..

Horses also needed to off-load processed content as well as fill-up also. Non-sequitor, filling up the average car or SUV even from nearly empty is way faster than 45 minutes...

So this is the Escalade power train in a sport package. I dig it. Not everyone needs the lux of Cadillac but would still like the performance. This may become a modern classic. With the next generation of big SUVs so close at hand, this is a 2 year model a best on this platform. The take rate will likely be low.

Saw another '06-07 Monte Carlo, this one silver and very worn--one taillight cracked out, mangled rear quarter, and plenty of rust. Saw a very clean dark gray Buick LaCrosse Super (the V8 model)...haven't seen one of those in years... And in a bit of randomness--saw a couple driveways of cross shoppers---one driveway had a white Grand Cherokee, white Explorer, and white Highlander--all late model. Another had a black Grand Cherokee and a black Merc GLS.

Tesla's March sales were down 39% vs. February's. - - - - -