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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. After seeing some kind of weird foreign wagon yesterday, we're going to return to good ol' vintage Detroit iron today. Yes, before The General got all innovative with electron-powered machinery, he was building two-ton cruisers that didn't just park- they dropped anchor. This one is a '74 Buick LeSabre, a car that told OPEC it didn't give a damn about the 1973 Oil Crisis ! I found this car on the same block as the Studebaker Avanti , '69 Buick , and the '65 Ranchero . The Luxus was the high-end LeSabre for '74, and it came standard with a snazzy steering wheel, special hubcaps, and a vinyl notchback seat. The convertible sold for $4,696, about 50 bucks less than the '74 Caprice Classic convertible. Yes, the big Chevy convertible cost more than the big Buick convertible! This example is in great shape, either a low...
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Most of you approved of the super-beater '70 Skylark , with a small but vocal minority who felt physical pain at the very sight of the beat-to-hell Buick. I'm pretty sure that the approval rating of today's Skylark will be be fairly high across the board, given that it's a 40-year-old red convertible that lives on the street and all. This clean-looking Buick parks just across the street from the yellow '72 Beetle we saw last year. The Skylark Custom came with the luxury trim package, including fender skirts and plush padded vinyl interior. The standard engine was a 250-inch six, but just about all buyers opened their wallets for the 230-horse Buick 350 (and some went ahead and paid for the 300 horsepower 400). Mmmm, padded vinyl! This car listed at $3,098 new, which was 97 bucks more than the Fairlane GT convertible (and 700 bucks less than the '68 Lotus Europa). These photographs date from more than a year ago; it was actually one of the first cars I shot for this...
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Alameda has plenty of 1964-73 Mustangs on the street. So many, in fact, that I've been taking a sort of "mañana, mañana" attitude about photographing most of them (this also happens with 60s GM pickups and air-cooled Volkswagens). This leads me to wonder why I never see any first-generation Camaros or Firebirds parked on the island's streets; they were made in vast numbers and aren't worth much more than Mustangs now, so what happened to them? Hooned into oblivion? Feel free to weigh in on that burning issue as we take a look at a nice example of the "big" first-generation Mustang. The '73 Mustang convertible, while based on the same chassis as the original 64-1/2 model, weighed in at a hefty 3,198 pounds. That was 584 pounds more than the first Mustang convertible, and matters weren't helped by the Malaise engine selection for '73: the base six groaned out a miserable 88 horses (versus 101 for the '64-1/2 six), while the 302 V8 didn't...
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For those of you who thought the last '69 Dart GT convertible we saw in this series was just too nice , here's one that's taken a much rougher route during its nearly 40 years. Looks like it already had quite a bit of Bondo-centric rear bodywork when it took some sort of impact above the left rear wheel and went from "slightly rough" to "beater" just like that. Still, it's a convertible and the top still looks intact, so it will stay on the road. Perhaps some ambitious owner will get the bodywork done at some point... or use it as a parts car for a nicer Dart convertible. The "GT" badging means this was the top trim level for the Dart in '69; the GT came standard with a Slant Six, though the dual exhausts on this example suggest the presence of a V8 under the hood. The '69 Dart GT with optional 273-inch V8 listed for $2,976 new. That was 39 bucks more than the 302-equipped '69 Mustang convertible and $330 more than the '69 Corvair...
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Not a whole lot of old British cars remain on the streets of Alameda. We've seen a few Morrises and a couple of Jaguars , but just a single MG up until today. I found this '73 MGB parked just a few doors down from the '68 Pontiac GTO and ran right home to get my camera, in case it was about to drive away any minute. As it turned out, this MG is a new resident, not a onetime visitor. 1973 was the last year of the small chrome bumpers for US-market MGBs, with monstrous Malaise units adding approximately five tons of ugly to the later car. The Malaise Era got an early start on the MGB's engine for '73, though, with a Yugo-like 79 horsepower on tap from the venerable BMC B engine (yes, the US-spec Yugo boasted- if that's the word- only 68 horsepower, but those extra 11 horses probably don't give the British Leyland product much of a performance advantage over the Zastava machine). Still, I used a '73 MGB-GT as a daily driver for a few years, and it felt quick...
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Almost two months since the last Cadillac? That just seems wrong , given how many old Cads still roam the island. That's why today's DOTS machine will be a Malaise Eldorado, similar to the '78 Eldo we had a while back, only this one's a convertible instead of a T-top car. Back in '76, there was a lot of hoopla over the Eldorado convertible being the Last American Convertible ever . As it turned out, it was the last convertible for less than a decade, but back in the Malaise Era you had this palpable sense that everything good was being taken away. The 500-cubic-inch engine in this car was rated at 190 horsepower, which is on the depressing side... until you consider its grunt-tastic 360 ft-lbs-o-torque. This example is in such nice shape that I'm sure the owner doesn't care about the leisurely performance and single-digit gas mileage. I found this car in the East End, mere yards from the '56 Willys Station Wagon (which is visible in a couple of the photos...
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We've seen a few British cars in this series, including a '59 Morris Minor , a '62 Mini , a '69 MGC-GT , and a '78 Jaguar XJ-6 , but it's been months since the last one. That's why I'm going with this very clean Morris 1000 convertible for today's DOTS machine. You British-car experts should feel free to put on your anoraks and make with the exact year identification on this thing, because I can't narrow it down any closer than the 1956-62 range. This car has lived on the island for quite a while, and it runs fine. Its owner also has the '69 Olds Cutlass convertible we saw not long ago, plus a '69 Dodge Dart we haven't seen yet. And that's not all the cool old iron on this block- just across the street from this stable of street-parked classics is the home of the '47 Plymouth and the '54 Ford . Yes, Alameda truly is the Island That Time Forgot! The interior is in excellent condition, and looks all original (except for the aftermarket...
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While the "entry-level" Cadillac 2-door for '69, the Calais, was pretty slick, the one we saw in this series has clearly seen better days. But when you're talking serious Cadillac sporty luxury for 1969, you really need to think more in terms of the Coupe de Ville convertible. This example, spotted mere yards from the very rough '69 Volvo 144 , is in very nice condition, which is impressive for a convertible that parks on the street every day. Although Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was set in 1971, it's possible that the Great White Whale Cadillac rented by Raoul Duke and his 300 Pound Samoan Attorney was in fact a '69 just like this one. I should have checked the power windows to see if they jumped like frogs in a dynamite pond. I could tell that the tires were too soft just by looking at them- the fronts are supposed to be tight as snare drums. All the Iggy Pop ads in the world can't make up for the fact that GM no longer gives that special Cadillac...
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Since we had a Plymouth yesterday, we need to have an Oldsmobile today. I dug through my stash of DOTS car photos and could find only one Olds ready to go (and we've only seen two of them prior to today: a '64 Jetstar 88 and a '77 Custom Cruiser wagon ). Does Alameda have an anti-Oldsmobile bias? Such are the mysteries of the Island That Time Forgot. Anyway, here's a 1968 (or maybe it's a 1969- damn if I can tell the difference; Olds experts, please tell us what we have here) Cutlass convertible, to bring our total count of Alameda Oldsmobiles up to three. I found this Cutlass on the same block as the 1954 Ford Mainline and the 1947 Plymouth (and, yes, that's an old Dart parked behind the Olds). This East End block features two old-car aficionados living across the street from each other, each with quite the impressive stable of street-parked classics. This Cutlass doesn't seem to move much, but at least the shady trees keep damage to the convertible top to a...
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I've been guilty of Chrysler A-Body neglect once again, despite having quite the backlog of Dart and Valiant photos in my DOTS collection. This isn't because they weren't great cars for their time- cheap, reliable transportation, and pretty quick when equipped with V8 power- but, because I see so many of them in Alameda, I tend to forget that they're quite rare once you leave the island. Today we're going to look at an A-Body you don't see every day, even in Alameda: a Dart GT convertible. After you look at the photos, be sure to vote on your favorite DOTS car this week- Friday is DOTS Poll Day! The GT was the top trim level for the Dart in 1969, selling for more than the base Coronet 440. This one is in pretty good shape- not a show car, but a driver in fairly original condition. Too bad it's not a 4-speed car, though it might have a Slant Six. Buyers who opted for the Dart GTS got the 275-horse 340. The single exhaust suggests that this is indeed a Slant Six...
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Even though we had a 60s VW on DOTS just last week , it's been quite a while since our last Beetle . I see 60s and 70s Type 1s all over town, but wasn't putting them up as DOTS cars prior to the Beetle Poll of late August. In any case, this vintage ragtop Beetle is rare enough to have entered this series on its own merits, poll or no poll. 1966 was the last year of the sloping headlight covers for the Beetle, and I've always thought the later headlights didn't look nearly as good. The pre-'68 bumper railings on the older Type 1s looked cool, too. The real problem with these cars was, of course, rust. They even managed to rust in California, though the cause was water leakage from above instead of salt from below. This car, however, is in excellent rust-free condition, which means it's either a restoration or it never leaked. The 1300 was a 1966-only engine for the Beetle, delivering 50 horsepower, zero torque, and wait-for-it throttle response, not to mention valves that went out of adjustment...
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Today's Down on the Street car gets the official Jalopnik Best Hood Ornament Ever Award. I mean, it's a jet plane with a glowing Indian head grafted on! What could the designers have been thinking when they came up with this thing? Best of all, the front...
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