balthazar

I wish I could dream as normally as you, ocn, but alas, my mind waits like Freddie Kruger for darkness to fall so it can torture me. Wait: who said 'wow look at that rear' about what?

>>"65-68 GM full-size cars were as well."<< NEVER heard of, read about, or experienced this, and I say that having owned 4 '65-66 full-size GMs, plus my buddy has owned 6 of those years. Some of these cars had 150K plus and all ran in PA/ NJ: heavily salted areas. I have the bones of a '65 Bonneville out back, frame is rock solid and doesn't even have heavy scale on it, even tho the car was on the road for 34 years. Would love to see a published reference to this.

A very fond memory: a buddy came up with a small negative of a woman posing for the camera, and in the background, peeking from around the corner of a garage, was just a headlight & bumper corner of a '50s car. We wasted probably an hour, setting up a projector, taping paper to the wall and extending lines, and paging thru books until we ID'd what I remember was a '55 Pontiac. The headlight 'eyebrow' - a dead givaway - just wasn't clear in the shot. I still live for this sort of 'automotive detective' work.

Damn- that was a treat! Just the whole demeanor of the review was a blast of fresh air vs. today's automotive 'journalistic' entertainment. >>"I thought muscle cars don't handle!?"<< I heard that too- must be CGI in that '72 road test... because it cornered pretty damned flat!

I wouldn't know where to begin....

See; I'm in your generation, but my interests have been getting steadily older (and they've always been older vehicles than I am). '70s cars were all around when I grew up, yet -even as a motorhead- I never was drawn to them once exposed to '50s-'60s cars. My 'baby' was my '64 GP (still have it, but have lost most of my interest in it), then my B-59, but my most recent purchase was my '40 Ford.

Why, because Buick & Cadillac have the same parent corporation?

>>"...are any of the parts from the similar age Toronado interchangeable with the Eldo?"<< Transaxle was the same (THM425), and I believe a portion of the brake/suspension was, but undoubtedly Cadillac engineered their own tuning/ dampening, valving, etc. Beyond that- nothing in the interior or on the exterior (maybe windshields) interchanged. XP- can you back me up here?

Was behind what I think was an older Countach tonight (didn't have the preponderance of bumper protrusions/bumperettes), red ( ) with the stand-up wing. Dang, those cars look half crushed going down the road. >>"Well, the # of folks into the 30-40s-50s cars is dwindling (since that crowd is older than the baby boomer muscle car crowd), no doubt, so the shows are going to be reflecting what people are into."<< Actually, the popularity of '50s cars are still definately on the rise; check collector values over the last 10-5-3 years. If anything, it's '30s cars that have leveled off, with the exception of early '30s Fords, which are more popular 75 years later than ever. Other mainstream makes of similar years are also still escalating in popularity because Fords are pricing themselves beyond the average hotrodders reach. But the big '30s classics (Cadillac, Duesenberg,Packard, etc) are leveling off somewhat, yes. A lot of the late boomers are not going to follow suit and pine after cars of the '70s/80s (to the same extent as earlier generations) due to the relative wretchedness of the vehicles and the difficulties restoring them (emissions, computer/electronics, plastics). These car nuts are much more likely to stick with what's far more interesting/ valuable/ restoration-supported/friendly: '50s & '60s cars. No; this car show's turnout is more a product of the show itself (seems they up the cut-off year ever year, and judging by this year's field, doesn't seem to be one anymore), that a reflection of collector interest.

I got it: the car is a '42 Buick. What threw me was that Buick had 2 body designs in '42, where the Super (not all bodystyles tho) & Roadmaster had Airfoil bodies, where the front fenders swept back to meet the rears. This is the only style I've ever associated with '42 Buicks via the print ads I have, but the Specials, Centuries & Limiteds had the more conventional pontoon fenders that reached onto the front doors only. The B&W pic must be a Century Sedanet, since I would have to image the beltline spear is part of the Century, and this pic is supposedly a Special and has no spear: Supers & Roadmaster Airfoil bodies:

Hmmmm.... assuming it's 100% factory.... I believe this must be a '42 Canadian Pontiac or Olds... tho the fender contour still looks wrong (too short). My Canadian reference is relatively sparse. It does not match up for a U.S. Olds or Pontiac (beltline, emblem, fender chrome), and it's no Cadillac, LaS, Buick or Chevy.

>>"Now if GM can back up the looks with killer reliability that no one could call into question."<< "if"? When has Buick reliability ever been a issue? >>"I thought that the Invicta was the big Buick..."<< When the name originally debuted, the Invicta used the 'big car' Electra engine in the 'small' car LeSabre body. But the Electra / Electra 225 were always positioned above the Invicta. Not that this has any mandatory bearing on 2010... I like most of the surface treatments & transisitons on the Invicta concept- it escalates surface development far beyond what the japanese have brought to this segment, that's for sure. The VentiPorts on the hood is a neat throwback to the '54 Wildcat II, plus it differentiates from the current trend of chrome front fender venting nicely, yet still offers detailing expected in this segment- well done. My personal criticism here is the deck is too short; way too short.

'55 Buick 2-dr sedan, modern 'smoothie' rims, white over blue, exc shape. '64-66 T-bird convertible, dark blue top, light blue body, decent. '67 Nova hardtop, tubbed, Impact Red, show. Duece roadster, fenderless, primer Morris wagon with a blown BBC, reall wood trim, tubbed, show. Vespa 2-dr, blown BBC, tubbed, show. Car show today, but it generally sucked. Far too many thumpa-thumpa ricers, lifted 4x4s, modern sh!t .... not nearly eough '30s, '40s, '50s cars. Gets slightly worse every year...

Does NOT look upscale- profile is very generic & homogenous. Headlights are falling out of the fenders just like the accord, I see. Grille/ front fascia has a 1960's futurama/cheese slicer feel to it. Does nuttin' for me.

On the reality show on Vince a few years back, he couldn't sing at all- he sounds much better here, tho of course not the Vince of old- guess he's been working on it. I'll give a listen to the album when it comes out. That said, seems to me most all lyrics these days generally suck.

Of course, Opels were never 'Buicks', just sold thru their dealers. Chinese Buick whasis has an extremely tall nose; the lip spoiler is lower than the rockers- unorthodox in the sedan segment.

>>"Now it was possible to spin the front-driven wheels on smooth, dry surfaces. "<< Right- like it wasn't possible before with a mere 480 TRQ Car Life, April 1967, 1967 Fleetwood Eldorado (429 V-8 ) ~ >>"...the combination of gearing, torque converter multiplication, and engine power was potent enough to spin the front-drive tires, though these fat 9.00x15s were being pressed onto the dry pavement by nearly 3200 lbs of the car's total test weight."<< ... which was 5200 lbs. The E did 0-60 in 9.2 sec. I've seen numerous, completely incidental '70s detuned Eldorados burn their tires ferociously on TV/movies- the cars are heavy but they make formidable power all the same.

Some of the comments over there are fascinating. If this is correct: YTD March '08~ MDX 1396 RX330/400 1119 Enclave 958 X5 785 M Class 678 XC90 302 Q7 264 Toureg 202 LR3 165 ...the Enclave is outselling most of the more "obvious" choices. Someone point me to the DW pieces that likewise use sales figures to justify these sales turkey's discontinuance; like VW couldn't use the R&D & production money from killing the toureg to pour into the quality-control tea cup over there. And NO ONE is buying LRs....

'73 needs a lil more flash, a rear spoiler would be nice but the tapering lines do not lend themselves to it. Thank God it's not wearing the standard 'baby moon' caps- those are reprehensible past the '50s. I too prefer the Can Am over the '73.

I have to see the HFM someday! Looks like my kind of DisneyWorld! Cool- I see the '53 Ford X-100 is well. Olds- I agree- whatever is available FoMoCo should snap up, or at least toss a few bucks to the HFM to help them get it so it's preservation is assured.

See, I wasn't aware Ford even had a 'Heritage Center'... If so, I certainly would hope they'd at least consider it, surviving Ford concepts from the '50s are like hen's teeth.

'68 Dodge Charger R/T, pale metallic green w/ white roof, perfect '53 Packard, black, sleeping in barn '55 Ford F-100, faded red, solid, parked

Ford mght not have the cash to spare plus I don't see what they'd get out of it. Car sat for decades in a farmer's field in MI, how & why it got there I believe is lost to time.

Not sure what's going on with Bortz- his site has been 'undergoing upgrades' or whatever for a long long while, and some of the cars I KNOW he owned have been up for sale. I might be wrong, but I could swear he owned this Merc at one point, plus he sold the '61 Tempest Monte Carlo last year, and there's another one I know he at least put up. I would hazard to guess (& hope) he's loosening up some capital to put into the other 'concepts in waiting' for resto, like the '55 LaSs. Have you seen any old pics from Warhoops, XP? Having been in many junkyards myself, I would have literally fallen over had I even stumbled on an old concept... or even a piece of one.