Can a refrigerator white English car steal the limelight from a sea of predominantly red exotic Italians? When it’s the brand new and drop-dead gorgeous Aston Martin DB 11 it sure can.
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Image: 2017 Redusernab/Robert Emslie, All Rights Reserved
A lot of people malign American cars from the ’70s, and for good reason. What most people might not realize however is that this was the decade when it hit the Big Three that the concept of both luxury and performance was being redefined by European and Japanese manufacturers.
Ships of industry are hard to turn and so small measures were put in place to make the America products more palatable to this new breed of car buyer, who expected tauter handling, less ostentation, and more compact dimensions. The result were a series of “Euro” models from both Ford and GM. These featured black trim in place of bright work, black sidewall tires and maybe even alloy wheels in front of their “heavy duty”suspensions. In case that was all too subtle, they even took the step to literally name them Euro models.
Here we see the Ford Granada ESS or Euro Sport Sedan being compared to a far more expensive but according to Ford almost indistinguishable Mercedes. Tell the truth, can you see the difference? What’s even goofier, Ford had a Granada on sale at the time that actually was a Euro model, and a car that likely could have been compared favorably to one of the smaller Mercedes models.
Since it’s Monday, lets look back on what’s now a very silly-seeming ad and wonder what might have happened if the reversed had occurred. Could you picture a European car with an ALS (American Luxury Sedan) package?
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With the recently introduced second iteration of the GT, the Ford Motor Company has now offered the car buying public—or at least a very small but wealthy segment of them—the opportunity to own their interpretation of the V8 mid-engine hyper car.
Ford’s first dalliance with this sort of high-performance automobile came in the form of the GT40 MKIII, a 335-horsepower 4.7-litre monster with just enough civility to qualify for road duty. They built seven of those. The company waited nearly four decades to revisit the formula, and they didn’t stray very far form it either. The newly branded 2005 GT offered 550-bhp from supercharged 5.4-litre V8 and was hailed for its 200 MPH performance and nearly perfect retro-mod body. A little over 4,000 of those made their way into buyers’ hands. Now we have the new GT, a car that while reverent to its predecessors is also wildly original in both its look and how it gets its job done. This latest GT comes with a twin-turbo 3.5-litre V6 offering a remarkable 647-horses. The first production models will be released to their lucky—and rich—owners soon.
Okay, that’s three models and right now a total production of under 5,000 cars. And that’s from the same company that once wanted people to buy something called the Aspire, which was not inspirational at all. Ford also is the company that builds a ton of trucks, can they also be a Super Car company?
Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, even Mercedes Benz… these are all companies with the bonafides to build super cars, and they all have done so at one time or another. Still, as Volkswagen proved with the unloved Phaeton, the badge has meaning and whether or not a marque is legitimate or just a pretender has a lot to do with their overall corporate policy, and not just one-or three-cars.
What do you think, is Ford 2 legit 2 quit? Can they rightfully take the title of super car maker?
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If you’re going to live in a cool mid-century modern abode, you simply must also choose to drive the most fashionable of mid-century rear-engine, air-cooled automobiles.
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It was 60-years ago today that A.J. Foyt caught his first chequered flag after turning pro, taking the win at a USAC Midget Race in Kansas City Missouri. Let’s see if you can channel A.J. and bring home a win with this week’s Mystery Car contest. Make and model if you feel up to the challenge.
Also, since no one got last week’s Mystery Car, here’s the answer.
Image: ©2017 Redusernab/Robert Emslie, All Rights Reserved.
When I’m out on the road I like to look at other cars. I don’t mean check out the cool ones, I mean I like to see which ones are running expired tags and who hasn’t checked the air pressure in their tires all that recently.
The former issue I let slide. I mean, what am I, a cop? The latter however does often times elicit from me the routine gaining the driver’s attention, pantomiming the rolling down the window, and then letting them know that I think their tire pressure maybe dangerously low on one of more of their corners. I get a good number of appreciative acknowledgements of my civic concern and an occasional mind your own business. That’s okay though, I know the latter ones aren’t long for this world.
Alerting other drivers to situations involving their car that might be outside of their awareness is a duty that we all share. After all, we’re all in this together! With that in mind, what’s the most dramatic alert you have ever had to bestow?
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Apparently, it’s not Hammer Time.
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Welcome to Thursday Trivia where we offer up a historical automotive trivia question and you try and solve it before seeing the answer after the jump. It’s like a history test, with cars!
This week’s question: what was the first car to run the Indianapolis 500 nonstop?
If you think you know the answer, make the jump (or scroll your mobile) and see if you’re right. … Continue Reading
I’m sure that somewhere out there exists the Amilcar in which dancer Isadora Duncan lost her life when her hand-painted Roman Chatov scarf got caught in the spokes of one of the car’s rear wheels. How cool would that be to have?
Infamous memorabilia like James Dean’s car—above—is a macabre form of collectible, but there’s a whole industry dedicated to its obtainment and trade. Are you an aficionado of dead celebrity automotive memorabilia? If so, what’s your white whale?
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Whether your tastes and budget leaned towards Comet or Continental, O’Connor appears to have been the place to go. They wouldn’t even look askance if you wanted to wear your hat while driving off in your new car.
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