PICS! Wheels Day 2014

[ian65]

Another opinion that's caused no end of arguments is my insistence that E-type coupes are preferable to the droptops. It's not me just being contrary for the sake of it. I just feel the roofline detracts from the styling fails of the car such as the appalling offset fail and just adds to the lovely swoop of the metalwork lines. It's not as if I expect anyone to agree with me, like
my view is that the dropheads are the best looking variant, especially the series 3 with the flared arches and wider wheel base. The original coupe is also a work of art but the 2+2's spoilt the look and being higher and longer, gave the cars a hump back appearance. Another case of market demands ruining a cars initial style...
the are also the only affordable version of the E-Type left, being the least desirable.

[spirit r]

Thank you
Thomas
Escort RS wheels are watanabe RS fake???

[Lucky]

Thomas, I think they're Revolution Minilites. Hard to say who's copying who, there are so many versions of them from so many manufacturers over the years. I think Cooper were the first to use the design on their Grand Prix cars way back in the 50s

[Lucky]

If the old cliche that trucks built America is true then Fords are more guilty than most, since I think I'm right in saying the F1 and all its derivations since is the most-sold vehicle ever still. This is a good thing, because we all love a tidy pick-up. Don't we? There was certainly a massive range of them here, and Fords as much as any. Weirdly, you tend to see Chevy stepsides more often but there you are, life doesn't have to imitate art. Anyway, there was the full range of style on offer from grungy and used/abused examples such as this circa 1950 F1





to this restomod and flamed up '56 F100. And I, for one, love them all. Scooter Boy Dave is going through some kind of truck-based midlife crisis I think, cos every time we found a new pick-up he'd start muttering on about how tidy it was and how useful it'd be. Mind you, he'd need an older one like this, he's too short to get into one without running boards to help him up







and on to a completely different flavour of Ford. This '70 Falcon was suitably Mad Max-ed up, although it did look like it might have had a rather hard life up close



This '62 Falcon Squire wagon is perhaps more representative of the breed, with the iconic rocket thruster rear lights and all. Also have to respect any car with gunsights cunningly disguised as Ford emblems on the fender edges!







Time for a departure from the Fords for a bit (don't worry, they'll be back) and a quick look at cars starting with the word "fire". Firestarters, if you like. Sorry, sorry....couldn't help that one. Anyway, I bet the first thing that sprang to mind then was the iconic flaming chicken...



...and all those childhood Smokey and the Bandit fantasies. Yep, the Firebird has certainly had some pretty attention-grabbing styling cues in its time, and even bereft of the massive decal they could steal the show, as demonstrated by this example rocking the Formula 400 hood look



However, were it down to me I'd have this tidy '68 model back when Pontiac were the performance daddies and this was musclecar nirvana. For me, the styling is spot-on, tough and lithe but without the "look at me" excess it never really needed





However, the most arresting cars with "fire" in the name weren't the ubiquitous Pontiacs, but from probably the last American manufacturer most people would think of. Give yourself several internetz cool points if you came up with De Soto then! The marque was formed by Walter Chrysler himself way back in the 1920s, named for no obvious reason after a 15th century Spanish explorer and coloniser of the Americas and thrown into the Chrysler stable of five marque identities. Specialising in large luxury cars, the company was as much a victim of Chrysler's internal competition as any external pressures. Unlike Gm and Ford, who were careful to price point their products to avoid stealing sales from other in-house brands, Chrysler had no such compartmentalisation and thus the Dodge Custom Royal, for example, muscled directly into De Soto's core marketplace... as did the Chrysler Royal, Newport, Imperial...

Before their demise in the early 1960s, De Soto produced some truly memorable cars and due to their utmost rarity this side of the Pond it was great to see a few at the Wheels Day. For example, this '56 Firedome. Believe it or not, the Firedome was actually the entry-level De Soto at this point. Its name derived from the engine, which was a 291 cu in Hemi! As was essential with 50s American cars, each model demanded its own brand of heraldry and badging, complete with rockets and chrome everywhere











...and as was expected by the car-buying public, the heraldry had to change for each model year... because otherwise, how could the Joneses next door know at a glance that you had this years' model on the drive? This is shown by the remarkable fact that there was also a '57 Firedome here









and the final De Soto was a baby blue Fireflite. This was the range-topping offering from the stable, the longest and widest car, the biggest motors and the most overblown styling. Believe it or not, a '56 model served as the Indianapolis pace car, apparently due to it's "outstanding performance and superb handling characteristics". Weird. I've photographed this example before, so didn't get many pics but now I'm wishing I had.





and to round off the Fire section where we came in, a final Pontiac offering. The Firebird Firehawk is a loathesomely hideous car in almost every respect, but I do quite like the rear lights. Cos they're a bit trippy...



One of the defining street rods of the day was the Chevy Fleetline. A late 1930s design that was interrupted by America finally waking up and realising there was a World War on in 1942, when it was re-released in the late 40s it was with a total re-design to keep the pre-war underpinnings fresh. Thus styling features like the integrated fenders, sloping roof-trunk line and raked windscreen made it eminently suitable for roofchops and hotrodding. A bit of pinstriping never goes amiss, either









It's amazing automotive factoid time! It's no secret that the mid-70s OPEC oil crisis changed the face of car design for ever, particularly in America. The big beast gas-guzzling dinosaurs heard their death knell sounding, and strangling emissions and fuel efficiency measures were just around the corner. All kinds of airpump and ill-conceived bodgery ensued. Cadillac especially were suffering, as the Fleetwood Brougham had just hit the heights of their biggest ever motor. Struggling with the concept of making an eight litre V8 seem economical, some unsung genius employed the corner markers as a sop to the economy brigade. Corner markers were a long-established aid to driving twenty-foot cars, enabling the driver to judge the dimensions when manouvering in tight spaces. The '75 Fleetwoods incorporated three little lights into the corner markers to indicate to the driver how economically they were using the loud pedal. They went from green to amber to red, presumably indicating in miles-per-gallon terms "terrible", "appalling" and "catastrophic" respectively...

[Lucky]

Right, I did say there'd be some Fords along shortly. So here we go. I make no claims to 100% accuracy in terms of model years. Hopefully I've got them there or thereabouts, but don't shoot me if not. As befits the evergreen staple of the modifying world, few of these are as they left Dearborn... so in what I believe to be date order, shall we go on a quick romp through Ford's style evolution through the mid-20th century? Starting with a '28, superb in baby blue and with awesome sunshade?



Your humble reporter's life is made a lot easier when owners kindly put the year on the numberplate, lol. Cheating? Meh. A '30 still rocking a high roof and chubby duck mascot







This grimy '32 pickup had excellent engine detail, after all it's all about the engine innit. Enough carbs for you?







This severely orange (and grey) '33 is a regular at our own show down here in sunny Worthing, so I've a few pics of it before. Again, familiarity breeds contempt and I really should have made the effort to get a pic of its excellent digital instrument panel



another '33. I kinda understand the concept of car bras if you're driving to a show and want to protect your expensive paintwork, but surely once there you'd take it off wouldn't you?



and still another '33. Nice to see flames never quite go out of style



squat red '34 had some presence. Another regular darn sarf at Worthing. As an added bonus you get a generations-of-Mustang thing going on in the background here



Bit of a jump forward to '37 now, and a major jump in styling cues too. This red coupe was a proper American-styled custom (by which I mean in the amount of one-off and ground-up serious work in here) and with some real presence. Every panel seemed to open in a different way to that originally intended, too





this '37 might have been less in your face but was just as arresting for all that in austere black



'38 in a colour you'd have thought only Mercedes had made work in the weirder days of the 80s, but seems to suit the bulbous old Ford very well



'40 (Deluxe, no less)



a couple of different flavours of '46, one a giant sedan complete with lovely colour tones and striping plus extremely emaciated passenger, one a satin black moody pickup. For sale, too. Tempting...







A '50 shoebox. And no, I've no idea why they were called a "shoebox". Write in and let us know if you know, lol. Bullet-nose shows not only Studebaker could rock the jet intake nozzle look. This is the archetypal police cruiser from all those period films. In my world anyway, which admittedly only tangentially impinges on the real one sometimes





By '52 the bullet nose is a vestigial, atrophied remnant of its former glory. All the fenders are smoothed into the body, shock and awe it would seem, are things of the past. Except with hindsight we all know we're on the verge of the most insane styling explosion the automotive world had ever seen, with the fins and chrome extravaganza of the later 50s. Phew.



See? By '56 things were already showing promise again!





and from the same year, a gargantuan panel van that would have been difficult to overlook even if it hadn't been in dazzling red and silver metalflake!



Must be time for a few more pickups, then, segueing from vans. Some details form another '56 and a '61 that was ripe with patination. Funny to think that many more Fords haven't had the blue oval emblem than have, yet it seems indelibly linked to most of us.







I love Galaxies, not just because of their absolute inappropriateness as a race car, but also because I just can't stop taking photos of those rocket thruster rear lights. They make me feel like a kid again. Fortunately, there were several on the day, first a '63 then a pair of '64s; a convertible and coupe. Disturbingly similar photos, admittedly, but I can't decide which I like best so you'll have to put up wioth them all. Another wizened passenger... where is the shop that sells all these complete skeletons for car dressing purposes? And how much?















and just to prove Ford didn't always get it right; from the wilderness years, a Fox-bodied Mustang. Yeah, I guess they can be made genuine performance monsters and yeah, park it next to a poverty-spec Sierra in the car park and it'll rock your world a bit. But in this company... well, no amount of bizarre bas-relief plastic mouldings can rescue it for me.

[DeanRX7]

Awesome thread and great effort on all the pics. Thanks for sharing !

[spoddy]

great photos, thanks for sharing. i love seeing american classics, there are some beautiful designs there.

[Lucky]

Right, let's see if we can get this finished shall we?

Nice to see a proper GMC truck in amongst the Chevys and Fords. This is a '57. I suspect the BelAir hood ornament is a personal addition





Depressing moment looking around this three-litre Granada when we overheard a couple of banger racers complaining about the asking price of a few grand. They seemed to think it ought to be fifty quid, like back in the day when they killed all the others. One of them was proudly boasting how he'd have it stripped and on the track by the end of the day. Pondlife





This coupe goes some way to illustrating the ancient law "if you put big wheels on, put lowers on too". Or words to that effect



This VIP-stylee Granny was different, rocking kerb feelers and whitewalls, too. Righteous, wouldn't look incongruous at a meet full of Toyota Crowns and Nissan Presidents





If the question is "what's the only thing better than a '69 GTO?" then the obvious answer is "a '69 GTO Judge". Which must mean the only thing better than a '69 GTO Judge is a supercharged one! Not sure if this is a genuine one, but it's certainly achingly gorgeous and compelled me to take a LOT of photos! One of my top four muscle cars, all ends up









There were quite a few custom bikes around the place, many Harleys as you'd perhaps expect given the hotrod theme of the day. This billet barge is exemplary of the breed, no expense spared and acres of shiny metal contrasting beautifully with the dazzling paint



I liked the paint especially on this "300" themed Harley. Think the paint effect used to be called vreeble? I say 300-themed, this mostly involved some tooling in the leather but I did like the little Spartan helmet cover thing for the horn





Rare thing to see a Humber Hawk anywhere these days, so this drag strip refugee was certainly different. Huge fat rear end betrayed its ability. Shame some total **** felt the need to jam a beer can into one of the exhausts. I mean, what are morons like that doing at a car show?



I first saw this Healey queuing to get in and was drawn by the big wheels on it. It's rare to see one modified like this in my experience, though plenty of people compete them still in hillclimbs or sprints or whatever, they tend to stay in period. I did wonder if it might be a replica, but even having got up close to it later I'm still none the wiser.





Seen this rod around a few times, and it always draws a crowd, especially when people twig the FirePower V8 engine pulling it along. Yeah, that's a Hemi to you and I! Good job I failed utterly to get any decent photos of it, then...



I love a nice original Mini as much as the next man. Wolsey Hornets I've never been so certain about. Maybe Issigonis got the original so right that sneaking a boot and big grille onto one could only ever upset the pure balance of the car. However, one as well-presented as this one needs some kind of commemoration.





There is, of course, a different kind of Hiornet in the motoring pantheon. Once the most winning car on the tracks in America, and now known to afficianados of quality cinema as Doc Hudson in Cars, the Hudson Hornet is a legend in its own lunchtime. It was awesome to see no fewer than three of them here, including one painted up in Carrerra Panamerica livery. It's certainly interesting to compare the lines of the four-door sedan with the two-door coupe, too. I never would have noticed how different they were if I hadn't fluked a photo perfectly illustrating it. Gorgeous cars though, in either flavour. Ground-breaking in design in so many ways, both aesthetically and in engineering terms



















I think this is a Hillman Hunter. Must be pretty rare nowadays. Even rarer with such sympathetic modifications!



here's another rare truck on the heels of the GMC. Certainly less well known outside their native USA, International Harvester made some of the best-designed, rugged and durable trucks in their day. Eventually a victim of stifling corporate structure and lack of forward thinking, in their heyday they were the Rolls of trucks!





Always nice to see a bright, pert Imp. This one would appear to be packing a GSXR1300R engine... or Hayabusa, to you and I. I guess that rather increases not only its original displacement by half as much again but also its specific power output by some considerable margin. So crisp and clean, too. Lovely





This IROC Camaro is probably best known to Top Gear victims... errr, I mean viewers as the car Clarkson crossed America in. Partially with a cow on the roof. This particular example, however, is a proper cookin' Z28 with all the bells and whistles and is also rather bizarrely the pride and joy of one of our depot managers at work. She used to race CBR600s too, so I guess it's fair to say she's pretty cool as managers go





Jaaaaaaaag. Posh!



Everyone loves an Impala, don't they? There were none of the early ones with humongous fins here, but the later models still impress. Rare to see a car that managed to maintain such heavy presence throughout all its incarnations. First a '62, then '67 and finally a '68

















Often irredeemably linked to the white elephants of the Gremlin and Pacer, it's sometimes worth reminding ourselves that AMC managed some serious musclecars in their time. Fortunately this '68 Javelin was there to demonstrate this





The Karmann Ghia; once marketed as the slowest sportscar on sale, but time has proved it as one of the most enduring and best-loved of designs. This one was especially well-presented. Shiny paint is shiny!









and speaking of standing the test of time, I guess for some people it'll always be the 60s in some way, shape or form...



That most European of Japanese cars, the Nissan Laurel. '81-ish, I think? Mercedes want their ruler and set-square back...



Another car I've photographed several times before is this bright mustard '69 Mach 1. But I generally can't help myself



Not so this "got-presence" '72 beast. I think it was one of these in the original of Gone In 60 Seconds, wasn't it? I just remember a car chase that seemed to last an entire week





I reckon this must be Mark_Bognor's Micra, then? There can't be too many like this around!



Easily one of the cars of the show was this lead sled Mercury. It really was just perfect in every respect, so much custom one-off work in here. It was deservingly rammed with crowds around it all day, had to be very patient to get any pics, lol











Almost as though it's the Mercury's smaller cousin, this Moggy showed almost the same cutwork and paintscheme. And y'know what, works almost as well, too! Cobra Halibrand wheels set it off perfectly



Another chop-job that took me a while to work out was this little thing;



No, not a 1/3rd scale Willys, but award yourself several thousand internetz cool points if you twigged it's another Moggy Minor! Pretty much all that's left unmolested and recognisable are the door swages. The owner and his wife were happy to chat about it. Apparently when they first bought it, it turned out to be riddled with rust. So this was the only logical solution. Gotta love car people and the mad way they can justify anything



I guess this Mini drew inspiration from bigger brother Metro and the bonkers 6R4. This seems to be a homebrewed homage to that maddest of mad Group B homolagation specials; a Clubman with mad bodywork, a Cosworth V6 and ITBs. Inspiring





The Montclair was a short-lived model for Mercury. This '55 was the first of the breed; by '61 the model was dropped, only briefly resurrected as a trim package for other models. Shame. Superb '50s Wurlitzer-stylee dash sells it for me on its own









Blessed of a rather longer lifespan was the Monterey, which for a while was Mercury's top of the range cruiser. As befits a prestige model, they came with a bewildering array of bells, trinkets and trim levels. My favourite probably being the preposterously named "Sun Valley" bubble-top! Anyway, here we have for your viewing pleasure a '55 in lovely maroon and a '62 Custom in... well, it's pink









This is one car I wish I could have found more out about. I reckon it must have an interesting tale to tell if the Morris radiator shroud is anything to go by