classic car

It's no secret that The Car Blog is constantly gaining more and more ground on the Internet, and we've decided to introduce annual awards this year. We've been going back and forth with ideas for Best DIY Project, Worst Performer of the Year, and this award, the Best New Automaker of the Year. We were going back and forth mainly between Devon, Artega, Zenovo, Fisker, and our winner, Tesla. We had many reasons to pick Tesla as our winner. First of all, Devon, Artega, and Zenovo haven't made any production cars yet and Devon is based off of Dodge Viper components. This left Fisker and Tesla. We chose Tesla because they have had major sales success and made many gains in technology. Though the Fisker may look better in your opinion, the Tesla has made more strides and good sales, meaning they have a constant flow of money. For these and many more reasons, Tesla is our award winner this year.

As I picked up the duPont Registry I bought while grocery shopping today, I thought the same Asanti ad for its latest ultra-exclusive wheel set, the Asanti Black Series, would appear. As I paged through, I saw the same ad, but something was different. There were three other sets of wheels at the bottom, which turned out to be their uber-ultra-mega-expensive Diamond Collection. The base wheel, made of cubic Zirconium, was priced at $250,000, a quarter of the price of the wheel we all know of, the famous $1,000,000 Diamond/Sapphire wheel set that was displayed at SEMA and comes with a free Bentley. But there was also another wheel on the page, which hasn't gotten any of the attention of its $1 Million brother. The Asanti AFS 103 Series, made of nearly six times as many Diamonds as its brother with 1,200 Rubies sprinkled in, is priced at a monstrous $2,000,000! This is the flagship wheel set of the top series of the most expensive brand of an ultra-lux wheel company. In other words, Lexani makes Asanti which makes the Diamond Series which makes the AFS 103. These wheels eclipse their half-price brother to become the most expensive wheels on Earth. According to many reports, the Diamond Series is dead, but this ad in the January issue of the duPont registry tells otherwise. I wonder if it comes with two free Bentleys...

  Ah, Iola Old Car Show and Swap Meet. The meeting point of every car-obsessed person in the Northern section of the Midwest. For a weekend, the tiny town of Iola, WI is lit up with gleaming chrome and trailers full of rusting vintage Cragars, wheels, bumpers, and any other automotive item you could need. A full-fledged car show, a giant swap meet, a car corral, and an auction all packed into one three-day-long event that attracts thousands of men carrying their reluctant wives and the occasional genuinely interested woman. There are Dodge Chargers, Kaisers, BMWs and Duesenburgs, and all of them are interesting to anyone who loves cars. Its almost impossible to resist coming each year. Of all these cars, you'd think that the most interesting would be some classic Ferrari of Duesenburg, but this July it wasn't so. This year, the car that stole the show wasn't a car featured in multiple magazines, not a historic Bonneville racer, but a 1998 Chevy Cavalier.

  Yep, you heard that right. Walking among the many drivers for sale in the Car Corral section, near the end of my day in Iola this July, I was pretty bored and feeling kind of down. We had just been by the auction section, where the economy had lead to only one out of 10 cars we saw go up on the block sold. All of the cars I was around were drivers, with the top price being around $50,000 for a '57 Corvette, and I was going to leave in about half an hour. I was heading back to the swap meet section when a crowd obscuring a car caught my eye. The crowd was larger than the one around the featured driver Auburn/Cord/Duesenburg collection, larger than the one around the custom '54 Kaiser Manhattan featured in Hot Rod Magazine, and larger than the one around the highest-mileage car in the world, a Volvo P1800 coupe. I rushed over to see what all the fuss was about. Was it a used Bugatti for sale? A Fiat 500 with an Enzo motor? As I got closer I saw the truth. It was a Cavalier, decked out in custom gear making it a rolling tribute to Chevrolet coupes. It had '54 Corvette headlights and grille, '57 Bel Air-style rear fenders, '63 Corvette split-window rear glass, Impala hints and more. It's powered by an unknown motor, hopefully a V-8, with a nice blower on it, and it was being offered for an amazing deal of $4,000! Thats 5 different cars with a total value of $301,692 for just $4,000. No, just kidding. I wouldn't buy it either, but it does make for a good conversation.

I was on my way home, when I saw somebody driving a car I'd always thought was an eighties Mustang out to his yard to sell. On my way past, I saw it had a different grille and said RS on the side and the hood. The possibility of it being a Mercury Capri crossed my mind, but I'd never heard of any RS version of the Mercury Capri. I began my search when I got home, searching for "Mustang RS" and even "Escort RS" on Google Images. I knew there had been an Escort RS since the first-gen European Escort in the sixties, but this car was too Mustang-like that it had to be a Mustang or a Mercury. So I finally searched "Mercury Capri RS. And what do you know, many 1980's special edition RS Capris pop up! So I found the identity of the car, and I also knew it wasn't actually the signature RS engine, a 2.3 turbo, because it had the optional 5.0 and all the badging that goes with that. The photo above is from ascmclarencoupe.com. You can figure out what it is by the screaming letters.

Today we went on a day trip to Madison, the capital of Wisconsin, and saw many, many cars along the way. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, but I did list down every interesting car I saw. Here's a list with comments on the cars:

2010 Chevy Camaro SS (you have no idea how good this really looks. I think it's the best-looking new car EVER, I'm that serious. Also, get it in orange)
A Custom Dodge Magnum (complete with fake strut grille and two-tone paint, it probably had a base four-banger, which makes no sense)
Mercedes-Benz CLK350 coupe (silver, needs a redesign)
Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG (a real looker, the CLK designers can learn from this car)
1971 Oldsmobile 442 (A custom orange and custom wheels, may be a clone)
Four brand-new 90's Geos abandoned on a car hauler at a truck stop in the 90's
A brand-new Audi S5 Coupe (light silver, still with window sticker, being test driven)
1970 Chevy Nova SS (yellow and black with a Yenko sort of look, but not really a Yenko)
2001 Porsche Boxster (silver, custom rims, sitting out in the rain all the time)
1981 Monte Carlo SS (teenage custom, 30" wheels, two-tone purple and green)
1969 Chevelle SS396 (lovingly restored, bright blue)
Two 1981 El Caminos (one restored, one, um, not. It was horrible, to say the least)
Late 80's Toyota Celica (sitting under a cover in somebody's garage, I asked about it)
1974 GMC Pickup (it had collector plates, but wasn't a real looker. brown)
Two late 60's Ford Broncos (one restored, one a parts car. owned by a die-hard Ford guy)
1988 Toyota Supra Turbo (daily driver, stock, ugly)
Two 2004 Toyota MR2 Spyders (this a car that should've been. a real economical looker)
Two 2008 Porsche Cayman S (very nice, cruising around Madison)
Two Cadillac Escalade Limos (same company owns them, rented to collegers at Madison)
2010 Honda Insight (blue, being test-driven)
1968 BMW 2002tii (I've always liked the 2002 series. A lovely red example)
1980 Mercedes-Benz 450SL coupe (actually a removable hardtop, white)
Three 1950 Chevy "Sedanette" fastbacks (two together, one at a gas station, nice!)
1932 Ford 3-Window Coupe (a nice, if unimaginative rod. Your usual bright yellow)
1969 Oldsmobile Cutlass (customized, lowered and chopped, which is odd)
Two Audi TTs (one new, one first-gen. They were both silver)
2009 BMW Z4 (This is the only car that I see as an "ugly" Chris Bangle Design)
Early 70's Pontiac Conv't (red, for sale, project)
Six new Kia Souls at a dealership (A nice compact for teens or mid-life crisis people)
1967 VW Beetle (designed to look like a GB Packers helmet, at a repair shop)
1957 Chevy Bel-Air (this is actually in my neighborhood. It belongs to a woman, but her husband takes it to car shows on the weekends)
1962 Cadillac Coupe (to sqaurish for my liking, neglected by its owner)
1967 Chevy Slabside P/U (in the process of restoration, blue)
Lincoln Town Car limo (at the mall, who would rent a limo to go to the mall?)
1959 Dodge P/U (sitting out, looking forlorn. Somebody should rescue it)
1984 AMC station wagon (at a repair shop, an 80's AMC's perpetual home)
1964 Ford Falcon custom (hood scoop, black, T-bird roof)
2009 Nissan GTR (at a dealership to attract customers. Next to a 370Z)
2009 Mercedes-Benz S600 (a really expensive sedan, humongous. The only color for these is black)
Tons and tons of Corvettes (from 2005-2010, including one ZR1)

Wow, that was a handful to write!

On Saturday, I went to a farming area near Fond Du Lac to look at a project car found on Craigslist with no photo. This was what the ad said:

1972 240z datsun. Was a project i dont have time to finish. Solid body. Motor is bad but comes with a good motor with 70,000 miles on it. Car has manual trans and extra parts. Car is orange.

Even though it said it was solid, I was suspicious, as the 240z and the later variations had very thin, rust-prone body panels that generally ended up falling apart and rusting very quickly. But I was interested, and we decided to go take a look at the car along with a VW Beetle on that Saturday. What we found was, like the ad said, an orange 1972 240z with an extra engine in a separate garage. But, to my surprise, the Z had barely any rust on it at all, just some surface rust on the hood and a very small spot in one of the fenderwells. It also turns out the car had THREE motors: the original one, which was non-running, a running one from a later 260z, and the third was in parts, but missing a few pieces.
Needless to say, we purchased the car, and it is being hauled to my house in a few days. We will restore and modify the car (there aren't very many 240z purists out there to yell at us) so it can be used as a driving car, and basically learn as we go. We have never attempted a restoration before on any car, but we will try very hard for it not to be another "I don't have time to finish it" story that ends up selling three months later. These photos are of the actual car, so you can see it is in good condition for a project. I won't tell you the exact price, but I feel we got a very good deal on this well-preserved Datsun.
One of the only major problems with the car is that the interior is in shambles. There are engine parts ruining the floors behind the seats, the vents have fallen out, and though the seats are in the only desirable color for a '72, black, the are worn and torn. We are thinking about putting in a custom interior and carpet to remedy this. Also, the transmission is not original. The former owner thought that the original trans was lying around with the parts that make up the third motor, but we'll have to see. You can track our progress through the restoration blog at projectzcar.blogspot.com.

Here are some tips and tricks I've learned from my on-going search for a project car:
1: When there's a chance to get a dialog going between an owner who has a neglected car that is not necessarily for sale, take that chance. There was a woman owner of a 30's coupe that I was very keen to see who was out getting her mail one day when I drove by. Later I regretted it because I almost never saw her outside. If I would've taken that chance and talked to her about the car right then I may not have still been searching for a project. I DID start a conversation, which I told you about in the past, with the owner of a blue 1950's Chevy Panel that was not for sale, but was worth the conversation because I discovered that their hobby shop sold hundreds of model cars and die-casts.
2: Don't let a good deal pass, even if you're still waiting for pay day. This rule is mostly directed towards Ebay. Many owners of cars understand and are willing to wait a few days while you receive your pay. There was a very nice-condition Porsche 914 with a possibly one-off body and very minor damage for sale with no reserve on Ebay Motors. It sold for a very low price, and I missed out because we didn't have the money for a few days after the auction.
3: Take the back roads. Especially in rural communities like the state of Wisconsin, this tip can lead you everywhere. I was going along the back roads one day and saw not one, not two, but three forgotten projects in about five minutes. Only one had a for sale sign on it, but on one other one the owner was outside, and I could've used tip #1 and therefore gotten a good deal on a 20's two-door sedan.

As anyone who's seen my album on Flickr knows, there are tons of unrestored muscle cars just sitting in Moyock, NC, ready for somebody to bring a trailer an resurrect their 455s or 390s. There are places like this all across the nation. In Newton, WI there is Newton Classics, which deals largely in unrestored muscle cars, though they have restored beauties inside their showroom. There are Country Classic Cars in Staunton, IL, Classic Cars of South Carolina with their "Field of Dreams", and many more.
Sadly, the business has slowed and many of these cars are just sitting out slowly rusting away. There are also restoration businesses, such as the Corvette restorer I saw in North Carolina, that have many parts and body shells lying about. There was even a '54 body lying around at that Corvette place that would probably go for a lot of money, even considering its bad condition. Save a muscle car (or anything else) and save the world and a classic car business. Photo is of a Buick for sale at Classic Cars of S.C.