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Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Can you believe, with all the first-generation Camaros built, that we're on the 327th Alameda DOTS car and we're seeing our very first one? Are they just too valuable to be allowed on the street? Or did they all go out in blazes of hoonic glory back in the day? If either is true, why do we see so many early Mustangs still on the street? I found this car parked at a meter in front of Jim's Coffee House downtown. Realizing I didn't have time to run home and get my good camera, I decided to make do with the camera in my cellphone . The General made 235,151 Camaros for the '68 model year, compared to Ford's 317,068 Mustangs that year. A V8-equipped Camaro hardtop went for $2,727, versus $2,708 for a V8 Mustang hardtop. With both cars offering roughly similar performance (i.e., terrible handling and braking, decent acceleration...
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Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Can you believe, with all the first-generation Camaros built, that we're on the 327th Alameda DOTS car and we're seeing our very first one? Are they just too valuable to be allowed on the street? Or did they all go out in blazes of hoonic glory back in the day? If either is true, why do we see so many early Mustangs still on the street? Note: Yes, I was off by a year on this one, which is what sometimes happens with cars I assume I know well enough to allow me to skip the reference books. Apologies to all you first-gen Camaro fans outraged by my mistake. I found this car parked at a meter in front of Jim's Coffee House downtown. Realizing I didn't have time to run home and get my good camera, I decided to make do with the camera in my cellphone . The General made 230,799 Camaros for the '69 model year, compared to Ford's 299...
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There's just something right about a primer second-gen Camaro, isn't there? Add the obligatory GM rust around the rear window, hang a pair of handcuffs from the rear-view, stop by the 7-11 to grab a pack of Marlboro Reds and a sixer of Mickey's Big Mouths and you're set! Now, we don't know for sure whether the owner of this '77 fits the Ideal Camaro Demographic- hey, maybe this car is owned by a 68-year-old veterinarian who favors those three-dimensional sequined sweaters- but it's more fun for us to assume we're looking at an ICD car here. In 1977, the standard engine in the Camaro... well, you don't want to know. Let's just say that the super high-performance optional 350 put out 170 horsepower and leave it at that. Not only that, the F-body's weight had crept up to 3,500 pounds by '77, about the same as the '65 Impala 4-door and a good 400 pounds more than the '70-1/2 Camaro. Still, I've driven quite a few of these cars and...
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57% of answered in the negative when asked whether third-gen Camaros belong in this series , which means that it's been well over half a year since our most recent DOTSworthy Camaro (though if I can find the right '82 I'll go ahead and shoot it). Second-gen F-bodies are fairly plentiful on Alameda's streets, so it was no sweat finding a good example of an Early Malaise machine for today's post. I ran across this '74 in the vicinity of the '50 Dodge pickup and at least a half-dozen other DOTS vehicles; truly, this car's neighborhood is a rich vein of street-parked classic iron. The Camaro for '74 hadn't quite reached the overwhelming level of Malaise tape-stripe/plastic-snout overdecoration it would achieve a few years later, but you could see it coming. The 5MPH crash bumpers weren't quite as tragic on this car as on many of its peers, but the 145-horse 350 engine (185 horses if you went for the optional dual-exhaust powerplant) moved the car's...
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When I posted the DOTS Bonus Edition Abandoned Oakland Camaro , I wasn't prepared for all the emails I got pleading with me to add third-gen GM F-bodies to the Eligible For DOTS list. I'm still not 100% convinced they belong in DOTS proper, because they're still pretty common even in rusty parts of the country, but we'll give it a shot for today (and those of you who wish to make your feelings known on this important issue can go ahead and vote in the poll below the gallery). I picked this '89 RS, which was parked near the Bay in Alameda's West End, because it's so, well, Eighties . The Rally Sport designation had become more or less meaningless by the time George Bush Senior took office... oh, wait- it was always pretty much meaningless. Seeing the USS Hornet (and San Francisco) in the background reminds me that the Camaro was once the car to have for sailors stationed at Alameda's now-closed Navy base. You spent 9 months at sea in the Enterprise or Coral...
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