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This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition , where we check out interesting street-parked cars located in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot . Last weekend I was in Denver again, and I ended up on the streets of Golden for the Golden Super Cruise. It was early evening and I didn't have my good camera, so I figured I only had time to shoot a few cars before l ran out of light. We've all seen nine million Camaros and Chargers and deuce coupes, so I figured I could skip that stuff. "I'll just shoot AMCs and any Chrysler product with huge fins," I said, and that's just what I did. Jump away for the rest. galleryPost('GoldenAMCsTop', 6, 'AMCs And A Finned Chrysler At The Golden Super Cruise'); They make Coors beer in Golden, and the brewery is a Manhattan Project-scale operation that looms over the town and fills the air with the smell of yeast. Last Saturday, however, hydrocarbons filled the air! I found this '68 or '69 AMX (AMC experts...
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This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition , where we check out interesting street-parked cars located in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot . Having just read Gordon Bowker's excellent Malcolm Lowry biography, Pursued By Furies , I can't see the word "Consul" without the quasi-autobiographical character of that name in Lowry's masterpiece coming to mind. That's why I imagine this '58 Ford Consul locked in a 50-year downward spiral of ethanol abuse, swilling whatever the Thai equivalent of mescal might be. We also get some bonus cars: an Alfa Giulia Spider and some sort of ancient Mazda wagon. Make the jump to see and read more, and thanks to Arco for sending in these shots! galleryPost('DOTSBEPhuketConsul', 3, 'Ford Consul And Other Cars Down On The Phuket Street'); Hi Murilee, Driving around in Phuket, Thailand, my second home, I come across all sorts of weird and wonderful cars, maybe you are interested in the enclosed expamples...
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This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition , where we check out interesting street-parked cars located in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot . This one isn't really on a street , but TexanIdiot25 's photographs were so beautiful that I'm rewriting the DOTSBE rulebook. Looks like this IHC has been sitting for many years after somehow going down an inaccessible slope in Austin's Green Belt. Make the jump to see all the photos and read TexanIdiot's description. galleryPost('DOTSBEAustinDumper', 3, 'IHC Dump Truck Down On The Austin Ditch'); I'm chillin' in Austin this week, and one of the major hiking/Mountain bike trails here is the Green Belt. The house I'm at is right on it. Less then a 5 minute walk down the path is this 40s-50s(?) International Dump truck. Straight 6 and all. How it got there? No f-n clue, there is no reasonable way now days to get there with a truck. The only way it can be pulled out is by backing a crane down...
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Charles W. Cushman traveled the globe from 1938 to 1969, shooting tens of thousands of photos of what he found interesting. Fortunately for us, he thought scenes with cars were interesting; Indiana University has scanned all the photos, tagged them, and made them available to the public online. Thanks to 57Sweptside for the tip! [Indiana University] galleryPost('CushmanPhotos', 3, 'Car Photos From The Charles Cushman Archive');
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This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition , where we check out interesting street-parked cars located in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot . It's damn near impossible to park anywhere in San Francisco, but the Western Addition neighborhood? No way! That's why we're so impressed by these cars that Rob (you may remember him as the man who brought us the Covered Wagon CRX ) spotted holding down most of the street parking on their block; they're apparently all owned by the same guy, who must be Public Parking Enemy #1 for miles around. Make the jump to see the whole gallery and read Rob's description. galleryPost('TurkStanyanCars', 3, 'Gigantic Detroit Machines Laugh At Your Attempts To Park In San Francisco'); So the Fireflight....that one is sitting in a driveway that is blocked by the Mercury Monterey and the glass in the garage is all smoked out (or maybe just real dirty) but its not easily seen through (not that I tried to get that close!...
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We all miss the inimitable POLAЯ , but at least we've got some DOTSBE photos that he shot on the streets of his native Toronto before running off to become Maximum Warlord of the Trilateral Commission. First up is this remarkably unrusty '59 DeSoto; make the jump to see the entire gallery and read some classic POLAЯisms galleryPost('DOTSBETorontoFireflite', 9, '1959 DeSoto Down On The Toronto Street'); This is one of two beauties that are within a block of each other, parked on a main artery in downtown Toronto! First up, I found what I believe to be a 1959 Desoto Fireflite four door. While taking the pictures at 10:30 a.m., a guy three sheets to the wind stumbles out of the house it's parked in front of, and although he's not the owner, he tells me that he knows the owner and says the car has not been not restored! She's beauty marked with some rust here and there, but aside from that she looks pretty solid for an almost 50 year old automobile. Drunk...
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Time to go west again, as we check out this 1953-55 International Harvester pickup captures by General Dearthair MacArthur . Since he could only get two shots (read the explanation post-jump), he included a Bonus Saab for us. galleryPost('DOTSBEVancouverIHC', 3, 'International Harvester Down On The Prince Rupert Street'); Thought I'd share shots of the sweet beast parked outside my workplace today. I took a whole whack of photos, but the cameraphone seems to have trouble when taking shots into the sun. Or towards the sun. Or facing west. Or during daylight, darkness, movement, moments of happiness, sadness, while smoking, while drinking, while breathing... you get the idea. So to compensate for only supplying two mediocre shots, I included a shot of an absolutely beautiful old Saab that bumbled past us in Vancouver. I know, who cares... but the point is, this was in the middle of shooting a scene of Smallville. (If you notice in the background, there are movie-car definitely...
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Let's leave San Francisco and follow the route taken by gold-crazed sailors who abandoned their ships back in 1849, as we head up into the Sierra foothills and visit the Gold Country town of Placerville. Reader Parrish spotted this Nissan-built Austin Cambridge (sold as the Datsun 1000 in North America in the late 1950s), which isn't so much down on the street as outstanding in its field. Those of you who missed out on the Datsun 1000 PCH entry might still be able to head up to Placerville and make a deal for this car! Parrish's description after the jump. galleryPost('DOTSBEPlacervilleSunny', 5, 'Datsun 1000 Down On The Placerville Field'); I suppose it doesn't really count since I found this one out on delivery (I put in appliances for Sears), but here's a rare one for Placerville, CA, let alone anywhere: Nissan Sunny/Datsun 1000. Last registered in 1997, so it was running not too long ago, too.
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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...
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Those of us who live in Alameda or Oakland might cringe a bit when our Berkeley neighbors once again make the national headlines for something silly, but the hometown of Philip K. Dick (not to mention plutonium) is a no-arguments international superpower when it comes to cool old cars- especially weird European machines- parked on the street. Citröens, 60s BMWs, and Fiats are all over Berkeley, and then there's the British stuff. Our friend and fellow Doctor of Automotive Journalism Davey Johnson was scarfing some grub at a B-town greasy spoon known as Chez Panisse when he spotted this Jag parked outside and was kind enough to send us his photos. Make the jump to read Herr Johnson's description. galleryPost('DOTSBEBerkeleyXK', 9, 'Jaguar XK140 Down On The Berkeley Street'); Saw this parked on the street in front of Chez Panisse yesterday. Chatted with the owner for a bit. He's owned the car for 25 years and restored it twice. In good weather, he drives it three...
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Rickey Henderson, Earl Warren, Too $hort, and Gertrude Stein all came out of Oakland, and now it's the turn of this street-parked Jeep FC170 to put the East Bay's main city on the map yet again. If and when I run out of DOTS cars in Alameda, all I'll need to do is take a quick hop across the Estuary and start photographing Oakland vehicles; as you can see, they don't disappoint. Akier spotted this fine example of forward-control awesomeness in the Temescal district and was on this truck with his camera like Alice B. Toklas on a batch of hash brownies. Make the jump to read what Akier has to say about this find. galleryPost('DOTSBEFCJeep', 6, 'Jeep FC170 Down On The Oakland Street'); So I was cruising around Oakland (Temescal neighborhood) with my girl, searching high and low for an apartment, when on a side street I caught a glimpse of this beauty out of the corner of my eye. It's a Jeep FC170, and I couldn't narrow down the year anymore than '57...
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Much of the old Detroit iron in the eastern half of the continent has oxidized into nothingness by now, but that doesn't mean it's all gone. Virginia-based Jagvar has been kind enough to shoot some quality photos of a very clean '54 Chrysler that parks in his neighborhood. The Windsor was the least expensive Chrysler for '54, and it came with a 265-cubic-inch flathead six engine. Make the jump to read Jagvar's description. galleryPost('DOTSBEVAChrysler', 9, '1954 Chrysler Windsor Down On The Arlington Street'); I live in Arlington, Virginia, where I've spotted a green 1954 Chrysler Windsor parked on the street several times. I've been waiting for weeks for a clear, sunny Saturday, and today I was finally able to make it over to snap some pictures. The car appears to be a daily driver. It's usually parked within a few spaces of the same house, and it's out on the street, rain or shine. As I said, it's a '54, it has a flat-head six...
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Many of you have been kind enough to send DOTS Bonus Edition photos my way, and you're all very good about not raking me over the coals for taking so damn long to get to some of them. Reader Vance, who dwells behind the Orange Curtain , shot this very clean 1955 Ford Fairlane on the streets of Tustin back in October. Now, most houses down in SoCal have garages, so you don't see quite as much old iron on the street... but that desert climate means you just don't get rust. When you're done checking out the Fairlane, make the jump to see the Bonus LTD, with commentary by Vance. galleryPost('DOTSBETustinFord', 9, 'Tustin 1955 Ford Fairlane Convertible'); galleryPost('DOTSBETustinLTD', 6, 'Tustin 1965 Ford Galaxie LTD'); 1965 was the first year for the LTD -- a higher trim level of the Galaxie 500 that competed with the also-new Chevy Caprice (a higher-trimmed Impala) -- offered in a two door or four door hardtop only. Ford sold about 68,000 of...
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Once again, our Czech tipster BobAsh has come through with the Skoda goods for us, this time in the form of a bunch of shots of a Skoda 440 (also known as the Spartak ) from the mid-to-late 50s. Since BobAsh was kind enough to write a lot of description, thus sparing my lazy ass from having to, you know, do work , we'll hear the rest in his own words: When I went car-hunting in my neighborhood yesterday, my attention was grabbed by something familiar looking in the shade of a tree. At first glance I thought it was an old Skoda Octavia , but when I came to have a closer look, it turned out to be something even older and a bit rarer. Skoda 440, also known as Spartak - the name couldn't be used because of possible confusion with similar named Dutch motorcycles Sparta - was made between 1954 and 1959 and during that time it was basically the only automobile that average Czechoslovakian could buy. It was powered with mighty, 40 horsepower and 1089cc four-banger driving of course rear wheels...
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