The “miniature big rig” shape of Ram pickups is familiar today, but in 1993 it was genuinely radical. At that year’s Detroit Auto Show, Dodge’s first totally new big pickup in 21 years dropped slowly…
Browsing Category American Cars
1960: Chevy’s Last Big Sedan Delivery
It says “Bel Air” on it, but those badges were added later. Sedan deliveries became common as hot rods in the 1960s, but they were plain and basic work vehicles first – and definitely not…
1939 LaSalle: Cadillac’s Companion
Recollections of the LaSalle were, for many years, as hazy with nostalgia as the Edward A. Wilson paintings that were used to advertise the Cadillac companions from 1927-33. Born of the boom times of the…
Disco Nights: 1979 Coupe DeVille D’Marchand
“Regional” and “Seasonal” special models were once a Detroit staple, particularly from the 1950s into the 1970s with models as obscure as the fifties Dodge Coronet “Texan” (Texas only) to AMC’s Rebel “Mariner” (Pacific Northwest),…
Prosperity to Peril: 1929 Packard 6-33
Prosperity was definitely not shared by all Americans in the decade that roared – but on the whole the 1920s were, in the U.S.A. at least, a consumer-spending bonanza driven by new technologies and newly-flush…
Square to Flair: 1966 Ford Thunderbird
“Sports car” fans were furious when Ford added two rear seats to the Thunderbird in 1958 – but they were the only ones who disliked it. Ford GM Lewis Crusoe had seen the original T-bird…
Baby Cadillac: 1932 Chevrolet Landau Phaeton
99% of the photos you see here are originals, but sometimes it’s nice to show something else – and today we’re time traveling to NYC circa 1940. Photog Stanley Mixon took this shot on Washington…
The Fancy Small Car: Nash Rambler
Later on, “Rambler” and AMC would become synonymous with “economy,” and it’s true that the original Nash Rambler was economical, but it was much more of a small premium Nash than a bare-bones economy car…
Good Old Days: 1973 Oldsmobile 98
It could be described as the postwar American car mantra – “longer, lower, wider,” even if the trend arguably began in the 1920s. The proportions of “standard” American cars grew progressively larger and lower-slung after…
Ford’s Roadrunner: 1969 Ford Torino Cobra
Despite the slightly earlier arrival of the 1964 Plymouth Barracuda, Ford was the first company to introduce a compact-based “pony car” as they became popularly known – and it took GM, Chrysler, and AMC until…
Retro Muscle: 1968-69 Buick Skylark & Special
They were designed at the height of muscle cars – so it wasn’t any surprise that GM’s 1968-1972 A-body mid-sizes all had muscle car overtones. But one of these cars was not like the others…
Famous: The 1963 Split-window Stingray
The split-window 1963 Corvette “Stingray” is probably the most famous of all of Chevrolet’s sports cars, and it was born from group of people who became famous or already were – Pete Brock, Ed Cole,…