I normally eschew cars shows but today went to a Sunday Cars & Coffee at the Connecticut Valley Brewing Company in South Windsor, Conn. with my elder son and was glad that I did.
There were some other Porsche's there, including a 991 GT3, a nice stock (with sport seats, yummy) 85-86 (?) Carrera cab and a couple of 930's, one also a cabriolet (seems goofy to me, but ... ). I have to say I wasn't too interested ... I know "our" cars pretty well and would rather look at other stuff. So I did:
This 84 RX7 has >100K miles and original paint, looked new. Great care over its life, of course, but higher-end Japanese cars of that era were build with incredibly fine materials. I understand why people are into them.
When I first my wife, she had an '87 Accord hatchback, LXi, stick. It too was made similarly this this Mazda, a great dash, carpets, door panels; a memorably fine automobile. Honda went "cost down" for the next gen Accord. I can't speak to how Mazda made subsequent cars but this one was a gem. Yes, it has a live rear axle but it's a better copy of the Porsche 924 ... prettier and a way better interior IMO.
Cool Buick GNX engine. Remember when these were among the fastest production cars and Buick motors were still competitive at Indy?
I guess this is why they call them Stepside
We appreciate today that a machine so prosaic and utilitarian can have such artful design. No wonder so many folks want to restore or retromod them.
The fellow who brought this delicious Lincoln had literally pulled it out of a barn. Worlds apart from the Mazda, it too nonetheless impressed me with the quality of certain components. The leather, the stitching in the vinyl roof and the (apparently, factory applied) pinstriping were all top-notch. I watched the TV series "Cannon" as a kid and the central character, Frank Cannon, drove something like this. As his car came to a stop, you could see the shocks doing their work for a good second or two to arrest the motion of the body. We used to laugh at cars like this, but ... nowadays I think they're rather cool and speak to an era that looks pretty good through my rose tinted memory specs.
I cropped the photo this way to show just how long this bad boy is.
What does the Opera window make you think of? I think of the behavioral liberties folks got to take in the early 1970's in places like Marina Del Rey in SoCal. Life in the naughty lane, everyone else was doing it, too. But maybe a Lincoln is actually more redolent of a golf club in Orange County, filled with Nixon fans, or the thoroughbred track at Santa Anita.
This T-bird was bodacious ... and pure Jet-Age in design and detail. The panels in which the taillights sit are metal, beautifully cast with an almost Moorish pattern. Those would have been expensive for FoMoCo, but these cars likely had fat profit margins for the factory AND the dealer. And when you have, say, 30% market share, you can keep the accountants at bay when it comes to spec-ing-out your top model.
Here's my (dirty) SC, just to keep the pedants happy that there is really some Porsche content. I love the brand's history and meaning but was happy to see these other vehicles today. I like that F-body next to my car, the accessible and likely better-engineered Aston Martin V8 for the regular guy. That 240Z was getting a fair amount of attention, and that Studebaker was sweet.
My stock-other-than-964-cams-and-SSI's SC ran perfectly. I don’t have to drive it fast to appreciate it. Ummm, I like CIS/K-Jet. As noted before, the equipment looks like a science experiment but to me it's the perfect ha;fway point between carbs and EFI. Your views may vary.
John