My calendar informs me that today is July 4th; a date on which some of our ex. Colonials use the word 'party' as a verb; shocking behaviour which I can not condone.
I will, however, wish all my friends in the Colonies a very happy 4th of July
and celebrate with a Carnival of Colonials.
The Yanks were here in force for the Festival of Speed.
From a nation not known for its love of subtlety, Colonial representative Ty Dillon parked his NASCAR Chevy Silverado in front of Goodwood House and proceeded to do a mile long burn-up, shredding his tyres in spectacular fashion.
An act that started a day-long craze for burning rubber.
There were many other Yanks tearing up the hill climb course, including this spiffy Vette.
I tend toward the retro, as you well know, so I headed for the showground to see what Americana my groats could buy and found this pristine Mustang much to my liking.
Sweet …
How sexy is that?
Don't you just want to lick this car?
Modern Mustangs - even those bearing the name of the late, great Mister Shelby - are somewhat lacking in elegance.
This T-Bird, on the other hand, produced drool by the bucketful.
It's a wide ass but it's a sexy one.
I'll finish up my 4th of July celebration of Yanquidom with one of my all time favourite Americans:
Precursor to the incomparable GT40, the drop dead gorgeous Ford Mk.IV.
Happy 4th of July, Colonial folk!
7 comments:
I'm glad you're having a good time, Dive.
The Mustang reminds me of a time when American cars were interesting. These days I'm car-blind. They all look exactly alike to me. Someone drives by and waves and I have no idea who it is because their car looks just like the one that just went by the other way.
The US produced some seriously beautiful cars in the fifties and sixties, Petrea; I do wonder what on earth happened to bring us to today's sorry state of affairs.
The only remotely good-looking American cars these days are those that have tacked on retro touches to remind us of those glory days.
Still, at least we have events like Goodwood to bring back the thrill and exhilaration of seeing and hearing those awesome machines tearing up a racetrack.
Woohoo!
I've been thinking about this because, like Petrea, most street cars don't do a damn thing for me.
I think the changes came about 1)because of OPEC, Americans no longer could pay only 29 cents per gallon for gas for cars that only made 10-12 mpg, and 2) Ralph Nader. Here's the first video clip I could find:
http://youtu.be/Lmd3I3Q33zE
Then there were some supremely ugly cars manufactured that were also pieces of shit in manufacture. I remember some Chrysler products made in the 70s that looked sort of like Mercedes, even down to the model plate on the, er, "boot,"
that rusted out in a minute (one I was in that stalled frequently enough it was scary). Around this time, I think, too, Americans began buying more foreign-made cars for the above reasons.
I'm not an expert, of course, just adding my observations
Oh, and let's add high interest rates, a huge strike by the United Auto Workers as well as changes in the steel industry. When did the plastics industry start making inroads (tee hee) into auto manufacture? Wouldn't there have been some sort of learning curve as engineers/designers learned to work with the new materials? And robots in manufacture - when did they first appear on the assembly line?
I pegged that first car for American right off. Just too easy. The red one is indeed lickable.
Here in Cali, where the weather is forgiving, you can see quite a number of old cars around still.
We yanqs had some serious car design back in the heyday. There are car shows down the road from me every weekend. Should I take a few pics for you?
Speedway, you present some extremely well argued and convincing arguments, but being a facetious git I think it really boils down to the fact that when 1970 rolled around the whole world threw taste and style out the window and we all went to hell in a handcart (a badly designed one at that).
If there's one thing I've noticed about design over the past fifty years it's that "good design never dates but nothing dates as fast as 'fashionable' design" … and it's 'fashionable' design that the car industry has embraced. Sheesh, just looking at all the concept cars and bikes that look like rejects from Transformers movies makes me physically sick.
By next year they'll look as stylish as a mullet hairdo with flared trousers … or indeed as unfashionable as Transformers movies.
Hey ho …
Vanda, there's something about a NASCAR vee-hickle that says "Decidedly not an English motor car."
I'm kinda glad of it as I love watching the lumbering beasts.
This one might go great on an oval track but after it's fabbo burn-out and a much needed tyre change it tore up the hill and drove straight into the barriers. OUCH! Messy.
Anf yay for California weather and glorious vintage cars basking in the sunshine. You lucky gal!
Woohoo, Neetzy! Yes, pur-lease! The more photos of vintage cars and hotrods I see, the happier I am. And I could do with lots of happiness right now.
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