Minneapolis Street Sighting: Oldsmobile Cutlass convertible

I have always been a sucker for some muscle cars, but like all automotive enthusiasts, I have my favorites; from a young age, the Oldsmobile Cutlass has been a nameplate that I've always loved, no matter what the bodystyle. Even the dowdy Calais from 1985-1991 was sort of a "do want" car for me as a child. There was one particular generation of Cutlass I never cared for, and that was the final generation of the nameplate; in 1997, GM decided to slap the much-heralded name onto a non-descript four-door midsize almost-economy car. But, I can see the logic. It was almost an exact clone of the Chevrolet Malibu. Just as it was 25 years prior to that car's introduction.

 Like its front-wheel-drive counterparts, these 1970s A-bodies could either be had in economical forms (base, six-cylinder, automatics) or muscle car forms (455 cubes and a four-speed sticks), and could be had in a variety of bodystyles (also like the modern front-wheel-drive counterparts). While no real muscle car, the step-down from the 442 was still a nice looking car, and certainly had more attitude than its modern-day counterpart.

 As far as GM's A-bodies goes (and this also holds true for their FWD counterparts) I've liked the Oldsmobiles the best, and this convertible is no exception. I've liked the convertibles more than the fastbacks, but I think I like the notchback best. However, I have not seen a notchback in the flesh, so this one has to do.

I dig the triple white scheme, and the color-keyed rallye wheels are icing on the cake. Oddly enough, the black-on-white collector plates look like they were made with this Cutlass in mind. Paint finish is great, as well as trim, though there are a few things that bug me a bit. First off, this example looks like, while it is pampered, it is also a daily driver. Unfortunately, this Cut has earned a little bit of road rash, but on the plus side, it looks easily fixable

Inside, all was well, too, but there was one glaring problem; the alignment was a bit screwed up as evidenced by the off-canter steering wheel; other than that, the interior was in as nice of shape as the exterior, and its one place I'd gladly plant myself for a nice roadtrip.

I don't see many Cutlasses, but when I do they fall into two categories--half-assed donks, or redneck beaters. I'm glad I was able to shoot a nice one--at nighttime no less. I hope I can find a nicer one now that I know what I'm doing with my camera :)

Minneapolis Street Sighting: Bentley S2

I have a passion for British cars, classic and contemporary; moreso, the classic, and of those, I tend to favor the small, lithe, roadsters and of course open-wheeled sports cars and track cars. But I will not hesitate to turn down a proper British luxury motorcar no matter the stature--as long as I wasn't going to be held responsible for ownership costs.

As far as the twin British marques go, I tend to favor Bentley as opposed to Rolls Royce, even when the two marques looked damn near identical. Plus, saying the word "Bentley" just sounds cool. It's a shame that the brand name has been diluted in recent years and applied to boring, staid-looking vehicles that could easily pass for either bodykitted Chrysler 300s, generic luxury cars from an overseas insurance commercial.

Bentley didn't start out building boring-looking cars (or maybe they did depending on your sector of automotive interest), and I think the past is a great indication of that. While the current crop of Bentley motorcars is far more common (by common, I mean the number of cars produced is more than four digits long), the classic vehicles produced by Bentley were far less so. Case in point; the S2.

After looking at wikipedia and various Bentley fan sites, I can say that the S2 is by far the rarest as a long wheelbase with six made altogether; the more standard version (which I would assume this one is) had a production run of just over 1860 cars; not mega-rare, but not exactly common either, making this one a rather special spotting.

 What struck me first about this clean classic British sedan is the fact that the steering wheel is on the proper side. The license plates were proper, too, suggesting that this example had been recently imported. And it looked to be in wonderful shape, right down to the non-scuffed white-walls.

Paint was gleamy but no overly shiny, and I think the two-tone played a big favor in my decision to shoot the car (aside from the obvious traits of left-alone-Britness; I am a sucker for two-tone cars when done right, and I have never seen an old Bentley in two-tone, so this was a pretty good spot for me.

I enjoyed shooting this, and I have never seen it since, so I'm glad I shot it; I would love to find more classic Bentleys, but living in the rustbelt, I doubt that will happen anytime soon (at least till summer rolls around again.)

Minneapolis Street Sighting: BMW E36 M3

I have written about BMW's famous M3 numerous times, and aside from the much-lauded E30, the E36 is my favorite; I will delve into all of the details why, but I just love these. Rather than write about the car in depth (which I have done numerous times before), I will let the pictures do the talking. Obviously, the pictured example probably makes more than the stock 286 horses, and it probably weighs a bit less, so these two aspects will only enhance its performance.

Rather than ride on the stock wheels, the owner of this example has done it up with a set of E46-spec CSL wheels, and he has fitted the decklid with a M3 Evolution spoiler. Normally, I'd call it out as "rice", but I think it works here, mainly because the stock headlights have been replaced with meaner-looking grayed-out units. Oddly enough, the stock rubstrip has been left in place; and it works.


Normally, I'd reserve space down below to critique this vehicle for all its worth, but here I'll let the (at the time) wonderful photography do the talking. I like these, and this has been my favorite example to shoot.

Minneapolis Street Sighting: Pontiac Fiero

I know I am back on the subject of cliche cars, (and yes, all three of these cars posted recently have been cliched, so what)but I happen to like Pontiac's little "halo" car of the 1980s. I have written about the little Pontiac dozens of times, as its probably the most commonly feature 1980s poster-child on this blog. I can't help it--I love these!

What I don't love is the reception they got when new, and nor do I love what happened to a vast majority of these little sportsters. Unlike their main competition (the Toyota MR2), these Fieros were subject to much abuse; everything from being hacked up into horrible replicas of Italian cars, to being used for scrap fiberglass did these cars in; it didn't help that they supposedly had engine fire problems when new, either.

As a result, most of the Fieros I see around are tired, and are probably on their last legs. Nevertheless, I still love them so, even if they're seen as crappy cars by most. 

First off, this example is far from the nicest Fieros I've seen; I wouldn't call it the worst, because, well, it's still a Fiero, and not a hacked-up replica. The paint color is pretty nice, and far from common, and the two-tone looks decent- albeit from far away.

Up close, though, is another matter. No paint peel, and no orange peel, but the finish itself was sort of...flat.  I didn't care for the generic Pontiac Racing badges, though I suppose its better than being debadged. I do, however, quite like the blacked out wheels; they compliment to lower accenting quite well.  Aside from minor rear damage, this is a clean Fiero, and I am glad its still on the road.

I am glad I shot this, though I haven't shot any Fieros recently. I have a long supply, and I think with the exception of two, this is one of the nicest ones I've shot in my career as a photographer.

Minneapolis Street Sighting: Mercedes 280SL

Throughout the history of the automobile, there are cars that have always been considered pretty, and there are those that have been considered some of the ugliest. Ironically, many nameplates somehow fit into both genres, but one famous marque didn't earn the ugly crown until recently. Always seen as a beautiful car, and the essence of high-class German motoring,  Mercedes' SL has long been a game-changer in the world of upmarket roadsters and hardtops.

In 1954, a star was born; from the racing pedigree of the SLR, a roadcar was carved, and with that roadcar, came bounds and bounds of legacies to fill; each new generation heralded more and more creature comforts, and the bar for luxury motoring was raised a notch above the previous generation. But, like all things being governed, new crash test laws, and laws about pedestrian safety did their best to compromise Mercedes' most prestigious effort to design the best roadster.

In 2009, the crown from Mercedes would be stripped, and they have continued to have a hard time winning it back since then. Rather than lambast the current and preceding generation of what once was the most beautiful Mercedes, I will focus on which generation fits the bill for being the second mot beautiful Mercedes roadster.

Admittedly,  the Pagoda Mercedes is a cliched car, much like any variation of Ford's popular baby, the Mustang; unlike the Mustang, though, I shot quite a variety of Pagodas as they never seemed to get old.  This was one of the only street parked examples I've featured, so I tried to make the best of it. The silver paint was quite elegant, and certainly screamed "class"--and its obvious that the body-colored wheels only helped the case here.  The idea of only having the necessary items caking the exterior is a practice Mercedes could (and should) relearn.

Inside, this two-seat piece of elegance looked just as amazing as the outside; no blemishes in the leather, the dash was in tip-top condition, and even the steering wheel plating was done correctly--unlike quite a few cars I've seen where the steering wheel luster was all but gone.

I had immense fun shooting this, and as these cars creep up in value, the likely that I will see another streetparked is getting dimmer by the day; well spotted, and certainly well shot, I say.  And kudos to the owner for driving it around, and not confining to it a garage like so many of its brethren.

Minneapolis Street Sighting: Ford Mustang convertible

In the beginning of the 1960s, the idea of an affordable sporty car was mostly a foreign concept, with exceptions made by the Chevrolet Corvette, as well as the AC/Shelby Cobra-- scratch that. Those aren't really what I would call "affordable", and those two certainly weren't practical vehicles by any means.

Whether you are a Mopar nut, a GM guy, or a died-in-the-wool Ford fan, you can agree that 1964 was quite a big year for the automotive landscape in the US; that year marked the launch of three very successful (but very different) performance-oriented vehicles.  On April 17 of that year, Ford launched a vehicle that has not missed a single beat-- the same cannot be said of its current (and longtime) rival, Chevrolet's Camaro.

After going through it's ups and downs, the iconic ponycar is going to be redesigned this upcoming spring to celebrate its 50th birthday; something that cannot be said of its Mopar rivals, nor can be said of its Chevrolet rival either.

I was going to walk readers through a brief history of the Mustang, but I realized that would take quite a while, so I didn't bother.  Instead of shooting a nicer, popularly equipped model, or a model up in ranks like a GT or even a Boss 351 or 429, I chose to spotlight a lower-end Mustang that everyone can enjoy (and also afford.)

At first sight, this particular looked well-looked-after, and it was; no obvious rust or bondo, and no real sign of any sort of damage. Good. As I made my way around the car, my previous assumptions were correct. The paint looked immaculate, but was far from show-quality. Minor ripples and orange peel let me know this Mustang has been repainted at least once-- but the color is a fairly pretty color so I'm not complaining.

The hubcaps were a factory item, too, so no real complaints on that front either, though I would've preferred sportier rolling stock; then again, hubcaps provide appeal to older people--those same people are customers of the new car, too, so I guess hubcaps weren't a bad idea.  I could, however, do without the white-line tires; they just scream "geezer alert", as does the luggage rack festooned to the trunklid.

Inside, this example was clean as a whistle, though I'd be hard-pressed to identify what was stock and what wasn't. I can't really say much in that regard save for that it looked like a well-dressed interior, with the automatic, this pony was ready for cruising on a nice day, as opposed to lighting up a Christmas-tree at the local quarter-mile track.

I was glad I shot this car. Why? Even though first-generation Mustangs are extremely cliche cars by now--especially on the West coast where cars don't rust, I rarely see them outside of dealerships here; I'll take any example I can shoot, even if its a base-model destined to be a subject of Wheeler Dealers.