How to spoil a favourite..

This is a Jeep WJ, better known as the 1999-2004 Grand Cherokee. Big lights, well positioned fog lights, the seven bar grille, slightly flared arches. Yep, it is definitely a Jeep, the kind of vehicle which gives the driver confidence that the journey will be completed in one piece. 

Not particularly cheap from new, and not ‘trail rated’ unless fitted with the ‘country pack’ option, they were solid and practical.

OK, let’s move on.. This is a new Jeep Grand Cherokee..

The seven bar grille is still there, as is the Jeep badge, but what happened to the slightly flared arches, the headlights, the fog lamps, the nicely sculpted front end?

No wheel arch flares is bad enough, the headlights look like they were borrowed from a pimped rice burner (and should be given back immediately), and the fog lamps are not USABLE fog lamps at that height. The idea behind fog lamps is that they illuminate the road UNDER the fog, not glare back from the wall of fog into the driver’s eyes. 

The new Jeep GC is not a go anywhere, get you out of anywhere vehicle. It is a vehicle for the highway or a track, and not the kind of track which leads to one’s favourite fishing spot.

I will admit that inside, the new Jeep is nice, but lots of cars have nice interiors, while not many can get you through the worst of weather conditions. I always promised myself a new Jeep if ever I had the funds, but this one Chrysler can keep. Instead, I will get the WJ fully restored and get the full country pack too.. 

Trans Am..

Specifically, the ‘78 Trans Am Special, immortalized in ‘Smokey and the Bandit’.

This was the best looking American muscle car of its day, and the black colour, gold trim and big bird set it apart. It definitely didn’t look so good in white or gold.

The car was a GM F-body which it shared with the Camaro of the same period, but the four rectangular lights up front suited the styling more than the two ‘rounds’ on the Camaro.

It missed out on the 455 by a couple of years, was never the fastest GM car ever, and was fitted with a Chevy engine for ‘jumping the bridge’ in the movie, but who cared. Needless to say, it was a popular car, and I don’t know anybody who doesn’t like it.

It was a cool car, made even cooler when driven by the ‘Bandit’, and I wanted to drive one too.

This was a second generation car. The generations which followed totally lost the plot, and there hasn’t been a Pontiac to beat the ‘Bandit’ edition since. In fact, ALL GM cars lost the plot in the 80’s and on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_Firebird

Chevy S-10.. the ‘big’ little truck..

I am annoyed that I can’t find a photo of the S-10 that we had. It was a real workhorse and had helped move a few people and their chattels from one house to another. With the extended cab and long bed, it was a real handful to park anywhere.

This is NOT the actual S-10. Ours was two tone Bright Teal and cream, a fairly rare colour combo for the S-10 pickup, but the photo above shows the 1992 type admirably well. There aren’t too many around that look like the one above because the S-10 is a very popular vehicle for customizing, as in low riders, high riders, and the type that can jump about like a scalded cat.

On the topic of scalded cats, the 4.3 V6 could step of the mark very quickly indeed, reaching its top speed in remarkable times. Of course, being a pickup there was little weight to hold it back.

Unfortunately, having little weight meant that wet weather and snow were not the best times to go out. I used to load it up with bags of salt/sand mix and leave the snow in the back in an effort to increase traction, but even that could work against what I was trying to achieve. To suggest that the S-10 was tail happy is something of an understatement.

On the bright side, the cab didn’t take too long to warm up as there was not too much of it, even in extended form.

With all of the options, it was comfortable, fast, and you would get to know every gas station for miles because you would have to pull into one at regular close intervals. Gas mileage was not a strong point of the 4.3, but fun was in abundance. It could pull 6000lbs too, better than many SUVs can do today.

S-10 owners will tell you that it is the best truck they have ever had. I would agree.

Re customizing, there is no shortage of ‘go faster’ parts from just doing little bits to personalize right up to 12 second quarter miles..

More on the S-10, the small truck with a huge heart..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_S-10

The Thunderbird..

I am not a great fan of Fords but on occasion, they get it right. Such was the case with the Ford Thunderbird in 1955.

For an American, front chrome was not overdone and there were no over-extended tail fins, but the design came from the looks of European cars. It was a two seat, convertible, ‘luxury personal car’, originally lined up against the GM Corvette, but it was no sports car, despite the stock 4.8L V8. I saw one of these, just as in the photo, a few years ago in a Canadian mall. It was the prize in a draw, and I have to admit that I really wanted to win it. That didn’t happen by the way.

Unlike European soft tops, the hood folded back into the trunk. It was a complex system and hood down left little room in the trunk sitting ahead of the spare wheel. It didn’t matter though. With a passenger capacity of two, who needed a large trunk anyway.

Changes were made over the next two years to the front end but nothing too drastic. Then. for 1958, somebody had the idea to make it an ugly four seat convertible, and it all went downhill.

This car is an American classic that doesn’t look like it is going to eat the car in front, and it is a size that would fit into a modern day parking space. From ‘58 on, the car got uglier and larger and, by the time that it had completely lost its way in 1997, the name was mothballed.

For 2002, somebody decided that it would be good to resurrect the Thunderbird, and guess what? It was a clean looking stylish two seat convertible with styling cues taken from the original car. Sadly, it only lasted until 2005. With sales falling off, the car was discontinued. Maybe the majority had got used to the big ugly T-Birds and actually liked them. Strange people..

A note for Brits: If you think that you have seen a front like this before, you would be right. The basic design was used as a four seat convertible and regular saloon in the UK called the Consul MkII in 1956, but it lacked the grace of the Thunderbird, being more slab sided and with a rear seat so low that only the tallest could see out over the doors..

The Metropolitan

I was around 5 years old when I first saw one of these. It is an Austin Metropolitan, essentially a Nash Metropolitan but made at BMC’s Longbridge works. I liked it so much that I declared that this was the car I wanted when I grew up.

It never happened. There was a dire shortage of these by 1970, only nine thousand or so ever having being produced and I wanted something that could easily be repaired. Alas I never got my ‘rubber’ car that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a fairground bumper car ride, or maybe even floating in the bath.  

It was not to British tastes for sure, and prospective buyers were few. In Britain, we were still obsessed with cars painted in camouflage colours finished off with a coat or two of laquer. The two tone, bright cheery nature of the Metropolitan was in stark contrast to home grown stuff and the dour post WWII countenance of many a Brit.

Performance wise, it could manage 70mph if you believed the blurb, and could manage 27mpg flat out, again if you believed the blurb.

Basically, it was all just too much, but is a collectable these days.