OT: They don't style them like this anymore.

[Jay Pique]

I'm LOL for real. Classic.

For your viewing pleasure...

[J. Clarke]

I saw an AMX last summer in of all places Fermont, Quebec.

Guy had driven off before I got to the parking lot to talk to him and get a better angle on it though.

If you liked Nash Bridges for the car, (incidentally in one ep there were _two_ of them, a matched set, or else one and trick photography), you might want to check out "Fastlane" if it's ever reshown--the pilot had an honest to Henry GT-40 (well, it was an exceedingly well done replica, not even Hollywood can pry one of _those_ loose from the owner). And it also has an exceedingly decorative Tiffani Thiessen. Had "interesting" cars from the 60s on.

[Charlie Self]

Lew, it used to. From what I hear, it doesn't today because these kids do it anywhere they feel like it, including in school hallways.

[Charlie Self]

Uh, actually, I had a friend with a Covair and there was NOTHING wrong with the car, and we all drove our cars pretty hard back then, a lot of the time on dirt roads...not in '60, though I was twisting wires on helicopters for the Marines. I have owned at least a half dozen Valiants over the years, and while none provided any excitement, they all did what they were supposedly designed to do, carried five adults in modest comfort over a 200,000+ mile lifespan. That's with the slant

6, of course.

[Charlie Self]

There's a '63-1/2 Falcon convertible with the, I think, 302 engine...

[Charlie Self]

One of the guys who runs Akeda has a Pacer he bought fairly recently, he says in great shape, and I believe him. The price was nowhere near $10,000 never mind 100K. If he weren't so far away, I might try to do a deal, but driving to British Columbia for a Pacer....

[Charlie Self]

Well, actually, that AMX with the 390 was a decent muscle car. I think we need to recall that probably 90%+ of the designs from ANY maker are dullards, aimed at people who want transport, not excitement. They are rather like point and shoot cameras: the makers sell many millions of those things for every million DSLRs they sell, yet if you go to a photo web site (try the forums at

you'll find all sorts of argument over why a DSLR is, or isn't, better than a P&S.

Today's cars are better, no doubt about it, but, and this is my main point, they do lack visual interest. Cars are now generic. Hell, so are pick-ups. The Dodge design of '94 has been emulated by every single pick-up manufacturer going, and the front end was even stuck on GM's Yukons, Tahoes and other gas gulpers. It's on the Escalade, too, in fact, but they squared up the corners a bit.

[Charlie Self]

Quebec.http://www.flickr.com/photos/39383723@N00/2278466802/. Guy had driven

Last June I went to a local (sort of) road racing track for its 50th anniversary. One of the display cars was a GT40 that had been driven to several wins. There was also a Maserati that someone said the owner had paid 6 million bucks for not long before. You guys want to see an interesting track, check out Virginia International Raceway

The new owners have done a job and a half of restoring it to the form Paul Newman is said to have loved not long after it opened.

[Mike Marlow]

This one causes me to trip up a bit. I can believe a Valiant going 200,000 miles if the motor gets rebuilt two or three times, and the tranny replace another couple, but I can't see it going 200,000 miles in anywhere near a reliable manner. Hell, by 60,000 these things were well suited to mosquito control with all the spew coming out of the exhaust pipe. Yeah - the slant six kept running, no matter what, and the damned thing would run forever with no rings at all left in it, but a lot of cars would meet that criteria. Didn't make them good cars. We got by with a lot of junk in the old days by doing things like throwing thicker motor oil at them and not worrying about the blue cloud behind us.

[B A R R Y]

I like the Toyota powered Lotus cars.

A dependable British car!

[Swingman]

"Charlie Self" wrote

You came to mind last evening when I was watching the PBS special "At Close Range", about a guy named Satore who photographs for Natl'l Geographic.

_Excellent_ documentary/human interest. Catch it if you can because I'm betting you would enjoy it

[Frank Boettcher]

260 I think unless they had a special edition model which I don't remember.

Far cry from that earlier entry trim version. My Dad had one of those. What a nightmare.

Frank

[Charlie Self]

The worst of my half dozen Valiant or Valiant based cars went 197,000 miles with a slant 6, no rebuilds, oil changes every 3,000 with filter change, and not much else in the way of care except the occasional set of points and plugs and brake shoes. I got that mileage on a '72 Duster I bought new in Albany, NY, and I got 211,000 on a '65 Barracuda my mother gave me--slant 6--and again on a Dodge Dart, another '72, as well as on a '69 Valiant four door I bought new. Hell, I had the slant 6 in my '87 pick-up, but I sold that at 199,000, with no oil burning or other problems. Though it was a long time ago, I don't recall oil burning problems with ANY of those slant 6s. I do recall the unibody construction not being suitable for northern NY roads and their salt: that Duster was ready to break in two just in front of the rear seat by '78...when I traded it on the '72 Dart.

I don't know where or how you got your slant 6s, or even the 318 (had that in a '66 Formula S before that was such a wild package), but I never have heard of the slant 6s having major oil burning problems.

Now, if you want to talk about my '50 Stude 6, or my '51 Ford V8 and oil consumption, let's do it. I used to use drain oil from the garage where I worked in the Stude. Even low cost oil at 15 cents a quart was too costly for that thing. It really needed a new engine, but instead I put very, very heavy oil in it and traded it on my '57 Chev. That was the only time I went above 30 weight oil...oh, wait: until I got an '81 Olds V8 in '86, which I promptly traded on a '78 Mustang II with the 302. Neat little car that would spin out if you stood on it and the road was even damp. Too much power for the wheelbase, I guess.

[Charlie Self]

You're probably right: this was a special edition, though, and from what the owner told me, Ford didn't produce too many. Ah, from what the records say, Forrd kicked out 4,278 of the Sprint convertible, no numbers available on what engines, though. OK. From what Bobby told me, it was the Challenger V8, 289. Maybe it really was.

I think there is an odds on chance that the car was a precursor to the Mustang, which appeared on the half year (April) of '64.

[Mike Marlow]

Well then indeed - you did have some great performance out of those vehicles.

I never owned one. The only MOPAR I ever owned was a '66 Dodge Coronet 440 with a 361 and a MOPAR factory equipped 4 on the floor. I forget now, how many miles I put on it, but it was under 100,000. My comments on the slant six are just based on being around back then, and being somewhat familiar with the motor based on other people I knew owning them. I do recall the slant six as running forever, but as being a pretty significant oil burner well before 100,000 miles. My father-in-law owned one in a Dodge truck (late 70's I believe). I recall it being all the engine a basic transportation pickup ever needed (not suited though to heavy use like plowing or carrying loads on a regular basis), but his too was a burner before 100,000. To its credit, it just kept right on running for as long as you wanted to keep throwing oil into her.

[Frank Boettcher]

The 289 displacement motor was for sure.

[Frank Boettcher]

Imagine two adults, six kids, one large Russian wolfhound dog, one parakeet in a cage and all the luggage and supplies necessary to sustain them, Biloxi, MS to Severna Park, MD, and back in August in one of those early model, six cylinder, non-air conditioned, Falcon station wagons. I still have nightmares.

Frank

[J. Clarke]

Ack. Horrors. I thought that _I_ had had a bad trip.

[Robatoy]

I will NOT imagine that. Can't. My mind won't let me.

[Robatoy]

Oh yeah? Try crossing the US border from Canada with a load of whisky and a car full of drunk Tommy-gun-totin' gangsters smoking big cigars! In one of these:

I love the looks of that thing... and such a super-cool logo/ badge.