PICS! Sunny Sunday Car Show 2013

[Lucky]

Welcome to another of my occasional and very irregular show threads, lol. This actually happened back on July 27th but hey, better late than never. Still, it was nice and sunny so that's worth revisiting on its own. It's a rare treat to have a quality car show right on your doorstep, so I always try to enjoy it to the maximum. Usually I have to be driving six hours round-trip to get to the Pod or some far-flung hellhole, so the fact that this is literally a 15-minute walk from my front door is a massive bonus.

It always used to be called Sunny Sunday and indeed there seemed some kind of cosmic law that meant it's always...well, sunny. Recently the name has been changed to something clumsy like the "Worthing Custom, American and Hot Rod Car Show" or some such nonsense, but to be honest it's still Sunny Sunday to most of us. As the new name implies, much of the field is filled with Americana, though not all. If there are any downsides, they're very minor. One is that if anything the entry list has outgrown the venue (crammed in on the Steyne, a small rectangular gardens on the seafront) and the cars tend to be squashed in together a bit. The other is that there's a tendency to see the same cars every year, though this year there were quite a few vehicles I'd not seen before.

So, tiny niggles aside, it's a top day out. I went down this year at first thing, took some photos of what was there before it was rammed with punters, and chatted to some of the owners about their cars and so on. Then I went home for lunch, collected the family and went back to enjoy the Worthing Festival (bit of a grandiose name, it's mostly a fair and market along the seafront plus the car show, but y'know... we'll call it a festival). So, in no particular order, here is some cars what I liked the looks of;

Starting with something fairly unusual in the scheme of big-finned 50s beasts, a Pontiac Star Chief. In general terms, how interesting I found something is directly proportional to how many photos I ended up taking of it. Although there are other considerations, such as how long it took me to get pissed off waiting for the crowds to part for a clear shot, how adenoidal and inescapable the owner turned out to be, that sort of thing lol













Little Anglia was beautifully repainted and finished. Never found the owner to find out exactly what kind of Twin-Cam lurked within though





No show with Americana in it is complete without at least one Stepside. Or Chevrolet Advanced Design pickup, as they were rather more grandly called when new



Or two. I love the humongous chromed grille on the older ones.





The Advanced Design range was eventually supplanted after about ten years or more of service with the Task Force range, this Apache C10 being one example. Cool patination, albeit helped along a bit, extremely cool dropped low on juice or air





Of course, the most-sold vehicle ever isn't a Chevy pickup, it's a Ford. So we have to have a nice Ford shop truck for balance really





The range of cars here is pretty broad, hotrods, sedans, coupes, pickups (obviously) and of course, SUVs. This is the absolutely daddy of all 4x4s, complete with siren and Thompson and factory-fitted Coke bottle opener!







And its younger brother arrived later. Pretty much unchanged from the GIs choice of chariot except for a stereo and slightly posher upholstery. Amazing how little the design needs to change when you get it right first time. This one got the seal of approval from the li'l uns. Kids love Jeeps. Dunno why, they just do





And speaking of 4x4s that get the kiddie stamp of approval, there was one of a completely different flavour drawing quite a crowd;



Once a reasonably humble Toyota HiLux variant, it's been changed quite a bit! The mini monster truck stance and airbrushing would probably be enough to attract attention even without the flaming "exhaust" stacks. I'm not generally a fan of mods just for the sake of it, I prefer them to have some function beyond just shouting "look at me" but I have to concede things like this just work somehow. Even if the guy must get through loads of barbecue gas canisters keeping the fires lit, lol









Mr C absolutely loved this thing, even to the point where he felt the need to cuddle it. In fact, all the kids loved it and I often think if kids think a car's cool then it must be. If they like something then they like it, without needing to consider peer pressure or naffness or marque loyalties or reliability or economy or build quality or any of the other tat we clutter our adult opinions up with



This is one of the nice things about this show; it's a proper family day out. Because it's right in the town centre and there's a funfair and everything it appeals to everyone on some level. By way of proof, here are the lady folk enjoying themselves, lol. Much like the kids, when they get bored and irritable they can be quite cheaply bribed with a Flake 99 from one of the ice-cream vans. In fact, the kids are more expensive to bribe, I had to get them a Hot Wheels car each from one of the stalls as well as an ice-cream



So we've had American, Japanese and British cars already so we really ought to have something European for balance and to show how cosmopolitan a show this has become. How about a nice German?



There is usually quite a Beetle contingent and I thought I'd taken more pics of them than I actually have. However, this Webasto-roofed LHD one is pretty funky on its own. The interior was excellent, with classic woodrim wheel and retrim in a sort of hessian complete with Wolfsburg-logoed lap belts. Just new enough with materials to be fresh but still clearly an old car interior.





On any other day this BelAir would be getting plenty of its share of attention. After all, it's the one you want; white on red, trim complete, two-door. What's not to like?





Unfortunately for it...



This blue example kinda trumps it on every level. The only thing I'm slightly ambivalent is the Braid-style billet wheels but that's just a personal taste thing. Every other thing about it is like the distillation of BelAir cool for me. Even the digital instruments don't seem to jar too badly. Superb car













One of my absolute favourite cars of the day was lurking under the trees at first, which made it hard to photograph. For my feeble skills, anyway. In fact, when I say it's one of my favourite cars of the day, it's actually easily one of my favourites of the year...



I've muttered on about the relative merits about patina, especially about faux versus genuine so I won't blather on about it again here. Suffice to say, with some cars such as this excellent Oldsmobile '88, you really don't need to do anything other than clearcoat it and call it done. I love the interior easily as much as the outside, too. It's more sumptuous than my lounge, with original features but just the right amount of retrimming to keep it from being too distressed. Marvellous.

[Lucky]

Wood and leather and mad wide arches. Not a combination you often see. No, not some weird JDM carpentry project, but of course a Broadspeed-kitted Jaguar XJ. Manual gears too. Righteous







And in contrast to probably the fastest gentleman's club on wheels, a car with almost no interior at all. Well, car isn't perhaps the right word. Nice to see the old staple of beach buggy is still alive and well. Massive rear wheel and dish is massive! I very much like the impossibly thick metal flake and the eye-level exhaust. Wonder what the IVA bloke would say about that one?









This dude had a reasonably cool pickup, but to be fair it was his wares that drew the eye. He makes up lowrider and ghetto stylee pushbikes, all in twisted steel, chrome and velvet. Some really nice detail in here if you look for it. I like the kinda leading-link and springer front ends, just like old skool Harleys and suchlike







This Ford Consul Classic is a great example of how sometimes it makes more sense to buy a car with all the work done and then put your own stamp on it. The owner was happy to chat about it (in fact, it was a bit tricky getting away once he'd started, bless him but I can understand him being proud of it). He bought the car having already been magazine featured whilst in the care of its previous owner, and it was 100% mechanically and cosmetically. Even though it didn't need it, he resprayed it and it looks a totally different car to what it did before, and I have to say is better for it. The candy red really suits. So he's got a ride that's completely his own taste and personality but at a fraction of the cost and hassle of building it himself from a shed. The Classic is a slightly clumsier shape than the fastback Capri Consul for me, but this one is undeniably a really nicely sorted car.









We all love a nice Cobra rep, don't we? Deep blue with white Shelby racing stripes, Halibrands and sidepipes... just so right





I almost didn't take any photos of this Dodge Coronet purely because the owners are the sort of people who "show" their car by parking up, taking folding chairs out of the boot and then glowering disapprovingly and with a distinct lack of welcome at anyone who comes nearby. I find this very odd, in fact I'd go so far as to say it's one of my pet hates at shows. However, here it is anyway...









This Cortina was well done, the way it paid homage to the Lotus Cortina colourscheme without actually claiming to be anything it wasn't. In fact, it's a different take on a performance MkI variant, with a well-installed Essex v6 lurking under the bonnet. Not completely sure about the decal strategy, but then as a serial sticker fashion victim myself I can hardly comment, lol









Here's something a bit different, then. The Chevy Delray was intended as a low-budget mid-sized range filler, below the Biscayne, BelAir and Impala full-size and full-trim options. As such, it was often plain and unadorned and sold as fleet cars or to police departments. However, given that the range began in 1958 even a "plain" car still seems massively ostentatious to us today, and especially considering you could spec a 348 or 283 ci v8 engine! Anyway, contradictorily, it's a much rarer car than any of the other models on these shores, maybe exactly because of its humble status meaning people were more willing to scrap or abandon them than preserve or rejuvenate





It's a shame to see a once-glorious icon stagger on long past it's sell-by date. One of the reasons James Dean will always be cool is because he never turned into a fat, bumbling, mumbling buffoon like Brando did, for example. In many ways Caddies are like that. Lost in the styling wilderness and power-emasculating emissions nazism of the 70s and 80s perhaps it would have been better to burn out than fade away. At least there are now people like Hennessey willing to make 1200hp monsters out of CTS-Vs (check YouTube for a good laugh) and suchlike now. However beige a starting point the original car might have been however, paint anything black and make it low and even this Coupe de Ville (or De Vill as it says on the badge) convertible immediately swell their coolness quotient by a considerable margin







OK, now for something completely different! Over the years a smattering of alternative makes and models have crept in, to the point where Japanese cars are now not exactly abundant but at least represented. With this in mind, there were a couple of MX-5s;





Now, I'd just like to make it clear first up that in no way would I normally want to even go anywhere near cars like this. Fun though M*x P*wer was in its day, its day has passed and its probably left in the past, lol. However, on rare occasions you find cars where too much has gone beyond being too much and actually becomes strangely groovy, appealing even. I saw the Kandy-painted car before at one of the Japshows when it was white, though the owner told me he'd always wanted to get it painted in a Kandy. The level of intricate detail he's put into it is breathtaking; I don't think there's a single component not adulterated or tinkered with in some way. He's even had the clocks apart to put in pictorial dial backgrounds.



I'm properly impressed with the rear window treatment, the technique of perforating an image with thousand of tiny holes a bit like a fishnet so that you can still see through from inside but from outside all you see is the picture



although it must be said the subject matter is a bit odd for a grown man to have on their car. Maybe for a Dungeons & Dragons playing teenager, yeah...



actually, teenagers probably don't play D&D any more do they? I guess it's all Call of Duty and that now. Anyway, the airbrushing is rather less good than the pierce-work, sadly. But hey, Evil Rocks. Apparently



The underbonnet and little detail touches kinda make up for the 80's metal band album cover artwork. Lots to admire scattered around,t he crystal skull washer bottle being my personal favourite, I think that mod alone makes the whole car worthwhile











The other car was owned by a lady, perhaps not surprisingly, given the gentler nature of the genre. Suffers from the same airbrushing overload on the rear end, mind, not especially technically brilliant, albeit better than the other car, and certainly not my choice of subject matter (as if that matters). I believe it's some character from the interminable and utterly execrable Pirates of the Caribbean franchise? Not sure, I've tried my hardest to blank those appalling piles of utter turd from my memory, leaving just the itchy resentment that it's about nine hours of my life I'll never get back





However, once away from the paintsplatters, things look up. The lady was very nice and extremely enthusiastic about her car, as indeed was the bloke who owned the other car. Which counts for a lot. Even though the cars are massively over-the-top, I got the definite impression that they weren't that way from a desperate need for attention, but rather the owners had modded them because that was how they wanted them to be and that was what gave them pleasure, which is clearly the only way to go really. And in that case, who are we to judge? Anyway, she went into great detail about how she'd even opened the sidelights in the oven to insert the little oyster shells and pearls before gluing them back together, and essentially it's that sort of manic attention-to-detail and dedication that once drove the hotrod scene and many other expressions of automotive modification. Personally, I can respect this even if it's not to my taste...



Not sure how annoying it would get having a dolphin glued onto your rearview mirror, mind? Bonnet is a wrap, apparently to be airbrushed when she can afford it. I'd leave it as a wrap, personally....







She also spent ages gluing all the tiny Swarovski crystals everywhere herself. Which is something I thought only rappers and West Coast Customs did, but it's undeniably effective. Shark rear screen uses the same piercing see-through technique as the red car





Right, that's probably enough of that, lol. I won't let it happen again, but y'know, one man's meat and all that. It's the duty of your humble scribe to bring you all the nooks and crannies of the modifying car world. Or something. By way of compensation, have a more traditionally modified MX-5 just to prove they are actually nice little cars done right

[Lucky]

....aaaaaaand you're back in the room! Better put something severely old school and austere in, quick, for the sake of restoring balance. Huge white Olds is huge and...errrr, white



In actual fact, this big old '40 Oldsmobile gave me quite some trouble. It was sooooooo clean and crisp white and the day was so beautifully bright and sunny that no matter what I tried it just blew the pictures out. Had to cheat and kick all the gamma into touch in photoshop, lol. Or you'd need sunglasses to look at these pics. Oh, if only I knew how to use a camera.









There are always plenty of 'Vettes around. After all, it's the longest-running sporstcar evarr and the beauty is that if you don't like the one you're looking at, the next generation will have changed beyond all recognition. Here are a few high points; although for me they lost some of their gorgeous style when they stopped mounting the cassette players vertically and "Sting Ray" became one word, but you can't argue with a 427 Cui motor in a (relatively) lightweight body. Plus voluptuous curves, of course













Plenty of "mainstream" muscle cars about of course. Loads of Mustangs, as always. I made a special effort to take some pics this time, because I generally end up thinking "oh, they're just Mustangs, you always see loads of Mustangs", ignoring the obvious facts that there's no such thing as "just" a Mustang and that this invariably means I never get any photos of them, lol. However, vive le difference and that, so here's a nice Buick, lol. A Special that probably wasn't that special in its day judging by the low trim level and austere interior but nowadays you definitely stop and look twice!





And I always have time for a nice Camaro. I'll leave it to Peedey to tell us what year it is, he's the expert hahaha. Suiting the clean and de-dumpered look with big Rally stripes, I think.





Not exactly a muscle car, but as I've frequently pointed out, in SS trim a late-model El Camino could set elevens out of the box. Basically a Chevelle with a load bed, Chevy did that rarest of things and invented an entire new genre when they coined the performance pickup.



...and as promised, some Mustangs. I vacillate on the subject of the new GT models. It depends mostly on how sympathetically modified they are, I think. To be fair, I'd still rather have one over just about any other modern car



but I'm guessing this sort of thing is what most of you picture when someone says "Mustang", yeah?



I needed Rich/Phil's amazing ability to decipher VIN plates and tell me whether this "Shelby" GT350 is genuine or not. Me, I'm voting "not", although it is undeniably rather lovely





An emerging theme in this thread could well be "cars that should have bowed out gracefully" and the Mustang has certainly got some bloated, corpulent horrors in its history. No fox-bodies here to show you, but here's an example of how even the later, less uglified models could be made to look quite nasty



...and by way of apology... One of my favourite colours of the day on this Fastback. Gorgeous, especially in the bright sun





This CobraJet is the pick if the crop for me. Not just because of the distinctly hairy-chested motor, but this is the one you want. Huge grunt, Mach1 spec, great colour, '69 great body shape, louvre rear window, winning!





Not wishing in any way to neglect our domestic fast Fords, of course, I feel it incumbent on me to offer first off a MkII Escort complete with even colour-matching errr....orange blue oval



and MkI Escort "Mexico" van. I suspect this thing surprises some people in the traffic-light Grand Prix. We all like a nice sleeper, don't we?







Halfway between a proper Ford muscle car and the humble British Granada was the German oddity of the Taunus. A strange breed that occupies so many middle grounds it ought to be a compromised irrelevance but somehow pulls off being a pretty cool beast in its own right





...and speaking of German oddities, this little red roadster is here most years;



I've never been sure if it's real or not, given the prices that genuine Speedsters go for nowadays it would be an expensive thing to park up and let ill-mannered chav children bump their mucky hands all along it. But it does purport to be in the Speedster register, and it does wear plates from a German body works shop, so who knows. I'm not sure if I care, if it's a replica it's a damned good one and I could make do...









A bit of local colour, then. Here you go;



I'm sure that merman used to be a proper fountain when I was little, presumably now shut off due to Elf and Safety measures. *sigh* Anyway, the last few years an excellent band have given a bit of background to the show. A local band playing a mixture of folk, blues and Cajun-inspired stuff, Rough Chowder are well worth a listen should you get a chance. Some truly unusual traditional instruments and a sound and style all their own make for a funky mix, and I'd heartily recommend them if you like something a bit old-skool with a modern flair. Her you go, have a listen... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCs1KK2Fs3w or here at our local http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md78Ti9rvAQ It is actually a tiny bit bigger than someone's front room, honestly











I have no idea why I took pictures of these dogs, as anyone who knows me can attest, I hate dogs and have even been banned from forums because of them, lol. However, something about the flabby awkwardness of these things appealed to me



As I've since been informed, these are apparently pedigree Sharpies (thought that was a kind of pen) but it should be obvious, I guess. The more pedigree something is the more freakish and mutant it looks, seems to me. Anyway, I love a dog that looks like it's havin an allergic reaction to it's own skin



I've bored everyone with my Betty Boop perversion before. One day I will manage to justify spending like over a hundred quid on one of these lights, lol. Zoinks. How much!



A few stands sell stuff like this along the periphery of the green. Mostly die-cast cars, in fairness, which is always a source of negotiation with the kids, lol. I really should have made the vendor an insulting offer on this broken light and bodged it back together, but even if the repair had turned out invisible, I'd always have known deep down in my heart of hearts that she was soiled goods hahaha



Speaking of the kids, why is it that their definition of how cool a car is realtes almost exactly to how big it is? Here Mr C learns about the idea of "dressing for a show" from this giant Ford F100 Ranger and whilst he's disappointed to learn that you can't eat the burger, he's rather taken with the idea of drive-through fats food joints!





This little Fiesta almost sneaked in unnoticed by anyone amongst all the huge Yankee barges, but it caught my eye. Great little car, and the clean white Wellers really suit it. A lesson in how a very few choice mods can make a great car. Just needs more lows



And speaking of huge barges, as always it amazes me that the epic girth of a Ford Fairlane could ever have been considered appropriate for a race car! Not totally sure about those "spoked" wheels. Epic rear lights are epic







Another car I've photographed here before but never get tired of is this massive Edsel coupe;



This is of course, Ford's greatest white elephant, an epic failure to rival Chevy's Corvairs or AMC's Pacers. Despite being named in honour of Henry Fords dead son and given their own "luxury" marque identity, no-one bought the Edsels. Let down by reliability issues and that ...errrr.... striking horse's collar grille (cruelly nicknamed the Vulva back in the day!), they bombed and even hasty re-styles couldn't save the marque from execution after a three brief years. Of course, nowadays they blow our skirts up with their mad styling, impressive size, and technologies (push-button steering wheel-mounted gearchange, anyone?). Awesome car, all the more appealing for being such a catastrophic disaster







Making the 50s excess of the Edsel look distinctly modern and current was the oldest car in the show. This Dodge is an amazing survivor; given it's age it looks like its hardly been used! Lots to take in here... bolt-on wheelrims for easy tyre changes; bizarrely ammeter is seemingly the most important instrument; electric lighting all round; central accelerator (!); food treadle starter; internal gear selector; very early patent and vehicle numbers. This car is on the cusp: the changing point between old vintage things - where you needed a degree in physics, the brute strength of a powered-up Streetfighter combo and the manual dexterity of an amphetamine-riddled squid to drive them - and the modern ease, accessibility and comfort that we expect now.















Continuing our occasional series of "cars that should have known when enough was enough" we bring you the original chest-wig chariot, so beloved of Burt Reynolds admirers everywhere. The archetypal Flaming Chicken express, none other than the Pontiac Firebird TransAm. Of course, the Firebird started life as a relatively sober muscle car very much in the 60s motif and sharing a platform with the Camaro. It had wonderful frenched-in slit rear lights. By the 80s it had swollen and mutated into the styling excess that spawned a thousand Smokey and the Bandit replicas, complete with the famous Firebird "flaming chicken" decal sprawled across the bonnet. I have a lot of love for this one, because they've taken that motif and run with it, converting block-colour line graphics into arty airbrush wonder, with la Vallee-style realistic flames. Excellent job, not seen it before and like a lot. Top work, fella







OK, slight change of tack now. I'm going to utter a four-letter word now; Bike. Haha, weren't expecting that, were you? The show isn't just all about four wheels, Many pretty cool two-wheelers make the effort to turn up, and even some three-wheelers. No, not Reliants. Here are some that caught my eye. Harleys can't fail but attract attention; after all, they're slow, badly designed, have truly terrifying brakes and are based on hundred-year old tech so they kinda have to look and sound groovy instead. I like the paintwork and chrome, hate the riding experience, but kinda "get" the appeal.





Triumph's Rocket III (not to be confused with the old BSA Rocket 3) is the biggest-displacement mass produced bike engine, at a frankly daft 2,294cc spread over three cylinders. I always think of a tractor engine when looking at them, but with a bit of customisation and chrome dress-up they can be made to look pretty funky;





Of course, we're only eleven miles from Brighton and it wouldn't be a trip to the seaside without some old-skool scooter action, would it?



OI! Bell-boy! lol



And we can hardly have Mods without Greasers, can we? This is more like it, the sort of bike I grew up coveting, a proper old alloy-tank Triton, drop clip-ons and everything. Lovely!







The V-rod was the first properly modern engine Harley had built. Ever, really. Certainly the first water-cooled one, as designed by Porsche. They took a while to catch on but nowadays people have stopped being afraid of being ostracised for modding them and having to hand their embossed Harley-logo leather wallet on a yo-bro chain back in at the clubhouse door. Liking this wideboy one, motorsport stylee exhaust wrap is a nice touch







In much the same way as the V8 ended up as the ubiquitous motor across American car makes, the V-twin became de rigeur for American motorcycles. Back in the day there were literally hundreds of small-volume marques. Only Harley limped on through the hard times, buoyed on by protectionist Government tax incentives, but nowadays there are a whole new crop of which possibly the most "American" in looks and vibe is the Victory. Ironically owned by Polaris... who are owned by Fuji but at least they're made in Iowa. 100 cubic inches is a lot in a bike!



The Yamaha V-Max is a legend in the bike world. A monstrous engine in a terrible chassis, its USP was that when a certain rev range was reached, a flap opened in the carburettors on the V-four arrangement, thus meaning each cylinder was being fed by two carbs instead of one. It was like a Knight Rider turbo boost button, and the bike was essentially a two-wheeled drag hotrod. The roadholding was awful, though; with a tiny 15" rear and gurt big 18" front wheel, torque reaction from the shaft drive, bendy feeble-gauge steel tube frame, and under-seat fuel tank doing aberrant things to the weight distribution. They were a right handful; a case of hold on and hope when on full honk. There's a whole aftermarket dedicated to making them handle like a motorbike should, and perhaps no surprise that many have found themselves adulterated into the more staid but ultimately safer genre of being trike-ed. This one is good enough, though I often think trikes have all the disadvantages of both bike and car and none of the advantages. I like the bombsluts and the beer barrel fuel tank

[Lucky]

OK, enough with the bikes, I can sense eyes glazing over out there. Back to four wheels then, and unless I'm much mistaken what's this lurking under the trees out of the way? Seems to be one of Luton's finest HC Vivas. Once ubiquitous street furniture throughout my youth, now a rare and exciting exotic. Funny what a few decades does...



Funnily enough, the Z-cars also were everywhere in my youth... and still are today> Dunno whether they were better made than many cars of the time and have thus lasted, or owned by the sort of people who really looked after them, or simply that there were so many made that some have inevitably survived or what, but most broad-spectrum shows seem to rock several. Which is no bad thing. Here's a hare-lip Zodiac in fetching primer grey, lol





...and to complete the ensemble, a rather natty Zodiac Zephyr in pleasing two-tone. Chubby bum on 'er




...and finally a V8 Zodiac that's rather more hotrod. Might have just rolled off the set of Grease or American Graffiti... were it not 1/3rd the scale of the Yank cars around it, lol. Loving the louvring all over!







Since I keep mentioning hotrods I guess we'd better have some proper ones so I can betray my helpless incompetence at identifying the origins of them, lol. This is a '34 Ford. Little red deuce coupe. Says so on the numberplate







This is a '33. Maybe







and this high-roof pickup is a '32. In the words of Cyrus from the Warriors... "can you count, suckers?" Cos I make that one...two...many... lots of carburettors! Can you dig it!?









Another '32 pickup, again with roof defiantly un-chopped. Not sure what you'd call the colour, apart from great. It's a sort of metallic version of the colour of our downstairs bog. One day I'll have to post pictures of this much-copied loo colourscheme



Another '34, in glacier white. So crisp and clean that for em it kinda really doesn't need the graphics along the side





much like this vivid American Graffiti-yellow beast, complete with Tonka toy rear tyre profile! Can't help but feel the graphics do nothing for it, neither being particularly nice or matching colours, nor really complimenting any of the lines on the car. After all, it's hardly a shrinking violet, you're going to notice this thing anyway!





Remember our series of "cars who are old enough to know better" style disasters? Well, arguably the IROC Camaros represent some kind of styling wilderness even as standard (eminently capable car don't get me wrong... just distressingly ugly). However, a convertible sets some new benchmark in awkwardness. Combine it with a gold and purple colourscheme, add a white vinyl interior and to be honest, you've got a major problem. Sad times



A couple of distinctly British conceits now... the first is one of the most defining parts of the heritage of motorsport this sceptic isle has produced. Note the cheeky supercharger hidden away in the back there





the second is definitely not a motorsport contender, lol. I never got a chance to find out what was rumbling away under the bonnet of this roof-chopped Moggy, but it certainly wasn't an asthmatic period Morris four-banger, lol. Love the oddity of Halibrand Cobra wheels on a car like this, and the frisson of the centre-mount Minor speedo and big drag racer tacho...but they just work somehow. Think when it's finished this will be a truly scene-setting car. Lots of likes!









Back over the Pond, one of the stars of a certain seminal John Landis movie was of course... Carrie Fisher. Mmmmmmmm. But also a 1974 Dodge Monaco. The one here today was a bit brighter than the excellent ex-pursuit special that featured in one of the most expensive movie car chases of all time. That one didn't feature pinstriping, candy paint and metalflake, after all. Mmm, Carrie Fisher.....









Despite apparently having the aerodynamics of a Vogon Constructor fleet, the Chevy Monte Carlo has been a mainstay of NASCAR racing for many years. They reach ridiculous velocity on the banked ovals, a triumph of brute grunt over slipperyness. In his time, Dale Earnhardt was a legend of the sport, and his winningest Goodwrench-sponsored Monte is a much-imitated car. Here is a local Worthing car builders' homage to the great man. To be fair, this thing is really not far from being a genuine out-and-out race car, featuring a big block built motor, LOTS of nitrous, quickshift drag transmission, stripped interior, ignition system that could power Oxford Street at Christmas, slicks.... it's a monster, running tens on the strip.











At the opposite end of the show versus go spectrum sits this next car, a Mercury Monterey. Again, I took plenty of pics of this last year, so hunt down that thread if you fancy more. It's worth another look anyway; I respect any car that has kerb feelers. And a rocket down the side moulding that incorporates the rear lights!





We all love a nice sit-up-and-beg Pop don't we? Yes, we do. Here's one, then. Excellent period slotmags, too. Someone told me you can make these centre caps from the recesses in a baking tray, anyone ever tried this? I need something sorted for my Compomotives, and now they've gone into receivership there's no chance I'll ever get an official solution now.





Late model Plymouth Roadrunners are amongst my top muscle cars; the '72 low-slung nose that's so reminiscent of the RX-4 is a properly cool look. This is an earlier car, when they were a pretty anonymous mid-size B-platform based on the Belvedere. This is a '69, I think. Of course, they did go on to spawn the Charger-platform Superbirds of legend and the Richard Petty-driven NASCAR-decimating 70s monsters. And they all had a licensed "Voice of the Roadrunner" horn franchised from Warner Brothers that went "MEEP MEEP"!





From a more elegant time at Chrysler comes the Royal, a model designation that ran from the early 30s until the late 50s before being resurrected by Chrysler Australia for a coupe that bore more relation to a DeSoto Diplomat than the original. Anyway, history lesson aside, what a grand car. This is a real limousine to be seen arriving at the opera in! Any car that has enamel and engine-turning in the badging is cool by me. And as for those instruments! Gorgeous Art Deco works of craftsmanship. So cool











Right, we're just about done now. Only a couple of cars left to look at. But they're worth waiting for. Here's a genuine hot rodding legend, the excellently named Willys-Overland Americar Coupe. Oh, yes. Actually only 1941 and '42 models were given the "Americar" name. The car was made from 1937, and was actually a development of a primitive Willys 77 incorporating the popular Ford styling of the time. After the War when pre-war cars were cheap and undesirable the returning GIs needed cheap cars they could race. The Go-Devil Jeep-derived Willys engine was a total calamity in the Americar, always breaking. The solution was obvious; broken Americars were snapped up cheap, hopped up with big v8s and stripped out, drenched in lairy hotrod paints and a dragstrip legend was born. This one is exactly as you'd want; if ever a car suited a flamejob this is it. Most of the day it was basking with it's mouth gaping open like a sleeping crocodile, potent blower poking skywards as a reminder that despite the dumpy and chubby flanks, this is a genuine performance icon. Awesome











And so to my absolute favourite car of the day...



This is a serious performance street car, but it's likely not one you've really heard of. It's a true genre-defining muscle car but it's rare as an honest politician. It took the fight to the Chargers on the ovals and made them look silly, but it's no Chevy or Plymouth. It's not even (really) a Ford



Always end on a high, as my old granny used to say during her 'ludes and methedrine phase, and this car gets me high as a speedball. This is the Mercury Comet-derived Cyclone. And it's awesome. In 1968 this was named the fastest car of the year because it set a speed of 189 mph at Daytona! That made the Superbirds look pedestrian with all their alleged aero aids! They only came with the most cooking engines; Cobra Jet 429s and Boss motors. This special edition trim level, the Spoiler, was a true competition car that you happened to also be able to drive on the road. You could get Dan Gurney or Cale Yarborough homage decals, that's the level of driver these things attracted. I have so much want for this thing.

Epic. Really. In fact, these cars are even rarer than you'd think because Mercury were guilty of fudging the homologation production run, and some hundreds were badged up as '69 Spolier II cars when they were auto boxes and all sorts of random trim levels. Despite this, prices have never risen as high as the more outre and ostentatious Superbird and Dodge Daytona aero cars; even though the Cyclones were often faster and just as banned by the NASCAR rules that limited aero cars to tiny engine displacements, bringing their era of domination to a close.













That's me done. Sorry for the late homework (again), I've been snowed under this year with one thing and another and pic threads have had to wait for completion a bit. Still, it's nice now the weather's on the turn to have a reminder of a beautiful sun-drenched day, massively cool cars and happy times. Thanks as always for reading.

Now go away