|
Browse by Tags
All Tags » 1950s » 1956 ( RSS)
-
|
Welcome to Project Car Hell , where you choose your eternity by selecting the project that's the coolest... and the most hellish! Last time we stepped into the garage in which the gentleman with the pitchfork conducts his business, the choice had to be made between two 1973 PCH Superpower machines, one Italian and one British. Only one car can win, and this time Italy triumphs, with the $2,500 Pantera beating the Lotus Elite, with 70% of the votes. Today we're going with a topic that's been on everyone's mind lately: what will you drive after the Fianciapocalypse? The vehicular options readers suggested were sound, but, in my opinion, the best way to ride out hard times is to become the unquestioned leader of a powerful religio-militaro-pharmaceutical cult, complete with desert compound and "soldiers" on dune buggies… and for that, you must drive a car whose mere presence shouts "Warlord Prophet approaching!" For that, only vintage British luxury will...
|
-
|
newVideoPlayer("/56_Dodge_Welk_494.flv", 506, 423,""); Lawrence Welk's band performing a brain-damagingly bouncy rendition of "The Camptown Races" around the campfire with a '56 Dodge as the subject of their serenading? Bring it on! We're a little skeptical about the claim that the Dodge broke all the records at "Bonn-E-Ville" (though a '55 Dodge did set 306 records after driving 31,224 miles in 14 days there); we think Lawrence should have done a big brake-stand burnout with that 315 Hemi on live TV.
|
-
|
newVideoPlayer("/56_Olds_88_476.flv", 506, 423,""); A 1956 Olds 88 was the first car I ever rode in , so it was pretty cool to find this ad, in which "Pete," apparently under the influence of then-legal peyote, speaks of himself in the third person to the local Oldsmobile dealer and explains why GM would never, ever dump the Oldsmobile marque. You got a big (for '56) 324-cube Rocket V8 with your 88, plus the knowledge that the very first rock-and-roll song used the Rocket 88 as its subject matter.
|
-
|
Welcome to Project Car Hell , where you choose your eternity by selecting the project that's the coolest... and the most hellish! Last time we took a lung-charringly deep breath of the sulfur-tainted air in the Hell Garage (where the boombox refuses to play anything other than the 1910 Fruitgum Company), we learned that 54% of PCH readers prefer a Chevy-powered MGA to a Chevy-powered TR6 . Who knew? Today we're going to up the ante and go with a couple of relatively high-buck projects; one is a type of car we've seen before and the other is plenty obscure. After seeing that beautiful DOTS E-Type , it's hard not to yearn for a genunine, pre-Malaise XKE. The prices for nice ones are pretty brutal, unfortunately, but an enterprising gearhead such as yourself should be able to find a diamond-in-rough Jag and turn it into an envy-generator in no time! When you get a California car, such as this '67 XKE coupe , you don't even need to worry about rust... oh, wait. All right...
|
-
|
We're escaping from behind the Orange Curtain- for the moment- and heading 430 miles north to Oakland. Oakland is just across the Estuary from Alameda, and it has nearly as many old vehicles per square mile as the Island That Time forgot; SuperCarnitas found this nice-looking Ponton not far from Oakland's Auto Row. Make the jump to see all the photos and read what SuperCarnitas has to say about his find. galleryPost('DOTSBEOaklandBenz', 9, 'Mercedes Benz 190 Down On The Oakland Street'); If there was ever a For Sale Down On The Street (Oakland Edition) feature, I'd nominate this car: A 1956 Mercedes 180, which has spent the past few weeks parked dangling its "For Sale" sign around upper parts of Broadway in Oakland. It looks really clean inside & out, and the UC Berkeley Central Campus sticker (these pull rank over regular student / faculty stickers) serves to reinforce stereotypes about kinds of tweedy people who own these cars in the East Bay...
|
-
|
Cadillacs aplenty in this series, and a few Lincolns, but how about Chrysler's top-of-the-line marque? I'd been seeing this '56 Imperial around town for years, but only recently was I able to capture it holding still for the camera in a downtown parking space. I'm pretty sure it lives on the island, but it's either hiding on a side street I haven't checked or sleeps in a garage. This 52-year-old is in incredible original condition- not a flawless show car, but as close as you're going to see in a car this old that sees regular street use. Most folks call these cars Chrysler Imperials, but Imperial was a separate brand during the 1950s. Things got more muddled later on when the name was resurrected in the early 1980s, but in 1956 you had two choices: Imperial or Crown Imperial. Here's the only shot I was able to get of this car for quite a while. The '56 Imperial came with a "poly" 354 engine; not a Hemi, but still quite powerful with 280 horses...
|
-
|
We had another close one yesterday, but the '69 Crown managed to edge out the '59 Datsun in the race to the Lake Of Fire in the Choose Your Eternity poll . We've seen some pretty affordable cars lately (well, affordable to start with, before you start buying parts), but what about Hell Projects that raise the pressure in the boiler by starting out with gut-punch price tags? You must finish a project that you spent 30 or 50 grand just acquiring, right? And if you need to spend $5,000 on a windshield or crankshaft... well, what choice do you have? Can't give up now! We've picked a couple of cars that, if restored, would bring tears to the eyes of vintage racers and eagle-eyed concours worshipers alike, and would fetch vast sums from the same crowd. If restored. Those who wanted to buy a new Mercedes-Benz 190SL roadster back in 1958 had to come up with $5,020, about $1,400 more than a new Corvette and about the same as a '58 Lincoln Capri hardtop. We're talking...
|
-
|
When you see an eBay Motors auction with the top bid sitting at $6,000,000 and the reserve not met , you know you're probably dealing with something Italian and bursting with more history than Rome itself. And, sure enough, here's 1956 Ferrari 500 Chassis #0650, one of 20 built and winner of the inaugural race at Laguna Seca. It sure looks pretty, doesn't it? Bet it sounds good, too. If you had the money, would you drop an atomic bid on this lil' red devil? [eBay Motors] galleryPost('56FerrariEbay2', 9, '1956 Ferrari 500 For Sale On eBay');
|
-
|
Our last DOTS Ford truck was a month ago, so we're due for one today. In fact, today we're going to have a nice shiny non-beater Ford truck, with plenty of bright red paint and gleaming chrome. This '56 parks on the street every day, though usually it's under a cover, and its excellent condition makes for a nice contrast with the more weathered look of the '48 International Harvester I photographed a couple blocks away. Sure, they don't look at all original, but I think Cragar SS wheels look good on this truck. The owner can always put tall skinny tires on dogdish-equipped steel wheels back on the truck, so purists need not fret. This truck has some great emblems; in fact, I think the "Fordomatic" emblem shot is going to replace this '50 Pontiac hood ornament photo as the desktop wallpaper on my computer. So now we have two 50s Ford pickups with bright paint colors in this series, the other being this '50. galleryPost('DOTS56F100', 16, '1956...
|
-
|
I'm pretty sure this Willys station wagon is a '56, based on the helpful info at the CJ-3B page , which states that the three-bar grille with the middle bar close to the top was used only in that year. Even if it's not a '56, it's almost certainly from the 1950s , so I'm at least close . Willys experts, now is your moment to shine! Tell us what you know about this fine vehicle. Whatever the year, this is a seriously cool machine. I've been seeing this thing around town since I was a kid, so it's an Alameda institution by now. And, just in case you couldn't tell, Willys wants you to know that it's got four wheel drive. From a distance, I though this thing might be a Land Cruiser/Rover, but up close it was clear this truck didn't come from Japan or England. Seems like there should be winch in this picture, or at least a dead deer lashed onto a fender. Wait, not deer- ducks! While Alameda is pretty urban (population density higher than San Francisco's), you still see a fair number of head...
|
|
|
|