1985 Rolls Royce Silver Spur - Would You?

After you've bought your mansion on Lake Road, your sprawling villa in South Beach, flats in London, Paris and Manhattan, along with multiple yachts and who knows what else rich people spend their money on, what do you drive? Or what did you drive if you were Mr. Got Rocks in the "Go-Go"  '80s?

 

If you had about $110,000 to spend on one car in 1985, perhaps you found the Rolls Royce Silver Spirit to your fancy. That would be approximately $240,000 in today's money. $240,000 would buy a nice house here in Cleveland.

Perhaps it's just me and my Chevy Impala taste in cars but, I'd rather have the $240,000 house. If I was smart (or lucky) enough to have that kind of money to buy something so utterly ostentatious, showy and ridiculous, it would go against those smarts to spend that much money on a depreciating asset.

I did a nationwide search on RR's of similar vintage to our '85 Silver Spirit and I couldn't find one that broke the $20,000 asking price threshold. Ruh-roh. That's not good.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, if you dropped $110,000 in 1985 on a house facing Lake Erie in Bay Village, Rocky River or Avon Lake, chances are you're in a position now to spend $240,000 on a new Rolls.

 

Would you?

 

I wouldn't.

Although I would love to try and get the best price I can on an old one like this. After I found a good mechanic who could work on it for me.

 

 

How much you asking?

Dodge Challenger - My Favorite Car

 

  

Like most car people, I don't have a specific car that's my favorite but instead have a favorite genre of cars. Try having that conversation with someone who wants a specific answer and doesn't want a twenty minute soliloquy on the state of the automobile.

 

However, most times, my favorite genre, "muscle cars",  doesn't do for someone who wants a specific answer. So, I have the usual suspects. '57 Chevy. '69 Camaro. '67 Mustang fastback. Ferrari 458. See? I can go Euro with the best of them.
 

  

Sometimes, though, if I feel the person is really interested in what I have to say, I will give them as close to an honest answer as I can and tell them, "I'm a big fan of the original Chrysler "E-bodies".  For those playing along at home that would be the 1970-1974 Plymouth Barracuda and Dodge Challenger not the extended K-car platform from the '80s that was also christened, "E". The Challenger, in particular, the appleest apple of my eye.
 

 

I've loved the Dodge Challenger since I first saw one in the original, (yes, there was a remake) "Vanishing Point".  Vanishing Point was a meandering tale of amphetamine dependent "Kowalski", a Vietnam Veteran who's  also a dishonorably discharged police officer. To make ends meet, he's been contracted to transport a "supercharged" Dodge Challenger from Denver to San Francisco. Oh, and  he gets into plenty of trouble along the way. But of course.

To make Vanishing Point even more interesting, during his journey, Kowalski is kept company by "DJ Super Duper Soul" on "KAY-OH-DOUBLE-Ya". Kowalski either has an appreciation for the wham-bam, wake up music that Super Soul is serving up on the ones and twos or its the only station the Chrysler Solid State AM radio can get in clearly. 

Either way, Super Soul, along with the Challenger, are the highlights of the film. In case you were wondering, Mr. Little went onto great fame as Sheriff Bart.

 

The film features breath taking cinematography of the wild, wild west and shots of the "supercharged" Challenger being driven to an inch of its life. Incidentally, Chrysler didn't offer a factory supercharger on the Challenger. It's plausible, though, that the car could have had an after market blower installed. Let's leave that creative bit of screen play to poetic licence.

 

 

I saw this movie with my mother when it came out in 1971 and I loved it. It is, however, a "mature audiences" film although it is rated, "GP". Brimming with  sex, drugs, sex, violence, sex, drugs and violence, I  wonder what my mother was thinking when she took her 7 year old to the Baldwin Century that Saturday matinee forty plus years ago. I'll give Crazy Betty a hall pass and leave it at that she believed she was treating me to a "car movie".  Thanks, mom. I have no doubt that Vanishing Point helped cement my life long appreciation of cars and in particular, the E body Dodge  Challenger. 

  

 

One day, perhaps, I will splurge and drop nearly 40 grand on a new Challenger. It would be cheaper than buying Kowalski's. A new Hemi Challenger is on my bucket list and one of the few cars I'd buy if I won the lottery. Until then, I'll keep dreaming, imagine what it must have been like to be Kowalski and make believe as I do each day that I'm "DJ Super Duper Soul".

 

Five "Alpine White", 1970 Dodge Challengers were used to make Vanishing Point. Four were equipped with 440 engines and four speed manual transmissions. A fifth, was a 383 car with an automatic. Barry Newman, who played Kowalski, remembers that the 440 cars were so powerful that, "it was almost as if there was too much power for the body. You'd put it in first and it would almost rear back!"

 

Today's Dodge Challenger shares many design cues with Kowalski's Challenger. Kowalski's rode on a special version of Chrysler's midsize chassis (E-body) while today' Challenger uses the Chrysler's "LX" chassis, a rear wheel drive version of the LH chassis. The LX is  also used on the Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 sedans. Many suspension components are "borrowed" from the Mercedes Benz S and E classes.

 

1988 Mitsubishi Starion - And the Demise of the 2+2

 

Several years ago, a chance encounter with a 2003 Honda Accord V-6 sedan convinced me to trade in my 2002 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 2+2 sports coupe. The Accord was comfortable, fast, handled flawlessly, had brilliant brakes. Like that high school "senior celebrity" who did everything right, that Accord even got good gas mileage. That Accord was spectacular and everything I wanted my Camaro to be but it wasn't. Weeks later I traded the Camaro for that bastion of practicality, a Chevrolet Tahoe. It was less expensive than an Accord.

When our Mitsubishi Starion was young, sports coupes did everything better than "ordinary" cars. They were faster, handled better, had better brakes and many times, depending on the engine they had, got better gas mileage. Buyers bought them because they offered performance above and well beyond what ordinary cars could muster. They also looked great. Bonus.

The only thing they wasn't, was as practical as a sedan. 2+2's, 2 people up front and 2 in back, might have been comfortable for the front passengers but not so much for those subjected to the torture chamber "back there". While many 2+2's came with a handy hatchback (like our Starion) to give a modicum of practicality, many did not instead offering a trunk that was vestigial at best.

Fast forward a generation or so and sedans do everything well that "sports coupes" did years ago. What's more, they do it with zero compromise. Cars like our Starion offered huge helpings of compromise along with a whoosh of turbo power. That was, honestly, part of what what drew fans like myself to them. After awhile, though, that compromise had us scratching our collective heads asking, "why am I doing this?" You scratch harder when you drive a four door, "family car" that sucks the doors of your "sports car".

Are today's sports coupes better than sedans? Some are, yes, but...where they excel is at the outer limits of performance; places where people rarely push their vehicles. Today's "sports sedans" are so good, that more than ever, a "sports coupe" is more of a fashion statement than ever before. Who needs a sports coupe when sedans offer everything a coupe does without any compromising? Slaves to fashion and image, yes. But those folks are few and far between. Niche.

Those "sports sedans" and let's not forget, "sport utility vehicles" (SUV) pushed sports coupes, metaphorically, to the back of showrooms. Dealerships still put them at the front of their showrooms but they're at the bottom of the monthly sales ledger.

 

The Mitsubishi Starion was born into a world (1982) where the sports coupe market was healthy and strong. In fact, the market for two door cars in general was still vibrant although it was beginning to wane after the boom in the "personal luxury car" market of the 1970's. Still, the Starion was a bit of an oddity. A styling mashup of part Toyota Celica Supra, Nissan Z, Mazda RX7 and even 1984 Chevrolet Corvette.

While the Starion's styling was derivative, a turbocharged 4 cylinder engine was a point of  differentiation. Many consider the Starion one of the originators of the modern Japanese turbocharged performance automobile genre, and the first to use electronic fuel injection.

Many of the performance features of the Starion were integrated into later vehicles like the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and Galant VR-4. Both of which, for those keeping score, are four door sedans, not two door coupes.

pictures words Charles Connolly 

1996 Buick Skylark - Every Car's Purchase Has Its Story

There were six Skylarks offered by General Motors' Buick division between 1953 and 1998. Our homely red coupe here was part of the last generation of Skylarks built between 1991 and 1997 and was built on GM's "N-body" platform. It's mechanically identical to the Oldsmobile Achieva and Pontiac Grand Am.

It's rude of me to ask, "who would buy this car"? Apparently someone did and assuming its still in the hands of its original buyer, that person has taken very good care of it. As well they should. As well we should all take care of our vehicles as well as this little appliance has been cared for.

Again, this is rude of me, if I had the chance, I would like to ask the owner why they bought this car. Every car's purchase has a story, you know. I found these 1991 vintage  Skylark to be ugly as sin. The styling was, allegedly, to evoke the spirit of Buicks of yore.  This is an "updated" '96-'98 version where Buick much of that avant garde styling to make the car appear less weird. Maybe, just maybe, this otherwise non-descript Buick Skylark was the apple of someones automotive eye. Or someone liked red. Or someone got a good deal on it.

Folks are leery of people they see taking pictures of their car. The owner of this car, a pleasant woman who looked to be in her early sixties, was at first incredulous when she came out of Auto Zone and saw me walking around her car snapping pictures. After I explained that I blog about cars and offered to delete the photos off my phone, she shrugged her shoulders and said she was fine with my picture taking. Between us, I think she was actually quite flattered. Taking advantage of our chance meeting, I asked her how long she had the car and why she bought it. Turns out she bought it brand new in 1996 from a dealership that was in walking distance from her home. That worked our nicely since she didn't have a car nor anyway to get around at the time. She said her salesperson was very nice and gave her good deal on it because it was red. 

2001 Dodge Neon

When I was working in the sports department of the Vignette, the student run, faculty supervised, Nassau Community College newspaper, I came to the realization that I wasn't cut out for a career as a sports scribe because I don't like all sports. Sure, football, baseball and hockey are passions of mine and my articles about those sports wrote themselves. However, having limited to no interest in basketball, tennis, volleyball, fencing...badminton...my covering of those sporting events was laborious, boring, tedious. In my youthful effervescence, that some mistakenly believed was arrogance, I quit the newspaper rather than subject myself to covering sports I found less than interesting.

 

Fancying myself an automotive journalist of sorts, I've also come to the harsh realization that there are cars that are just like covering women's basketball or water polo. Take this Dodge Neon for example. If I was working for an auto rag, no doubt I would have to write about it or something equally uninteresting to me. It's at that point that a compassionate editor would have to take me aside, put their hand on my shoulder and whisper gently, "writing about things that don't interest you is part of the job, son". With that in mind, friends, my personal assignment today is to write about it. Write anything about it.

Really? Well, yeah. Let's give it a shot. At least to say I did. Bear with me. Here goes. Ahem.

This is a 2001 Dodge Neon. I know. It looks older than that, doesn't it? It's an unreliable, poorly built piece of junk. It's boring and I hate it. There. Can I go now? Please?

Hardy-har-har. Ok. Let's be serious for a minute or two. Now, actually, when it first came out, nearly twenty years ago, "The Chrysler Neons", Chrysler sold a Plymouth and Dodge Neon that were the same car, were quite the revelation. They were  stylish, roomy and spirited too, thanks to a power to ratio that we take for granted today.

Chrysler sold buckets and buckets and buckets of Neons. Had they finally figured out a successful American recipe for building and selling a small car? No. Of course not. They moved the quantity they did because they wisely priced them lower than both foreign and domestic competition.  This made Japanese auto executives nervous since small cars had always been their bread and butter. They really had nothing to worry about, though.  The Neons flickered and stopped working while Japanese cars built during the mid 1990's may never stop running. At the end of the day, quality always wins.

The Neon had its fair share of problems. As cute as a button as they were, when the head gaskets blows around fifty or sixty thousand miles into ownership, that's not so cute. And when a model is first starting out, any bad press is not good press. 

 

If you've ever shopped for an older used car, as I do seemingly on a constant basis for one reason or another, you'll come across these puckish little scooters. Do some research on them and you'll quickly find yourself searching for a Honda Civic of the same vintage. 

 

Well, there you have it, America. I did a blog about a car that I could care less about. For my next trick, I'll contact my editor at the Vignette and tell him that I'll gladly cover that badminton match. 

 

Cheers.

 

 

Porsche 944 - There Is No Substitute

Save for the 914, Porsche does a great job of offering "entry level" models that are desirable above and beyond a price point. 

 

The Porsche 944 was an "entry level" model sold 1982 and 1991. While not a Porsche in the traditional sense, that being an automobile with an air cooled, rear mounted engine, the 944 was a fantastic piece of design that transcended a sticker price thousands less than that of the iconic 911.  

 

 

The 944, like the 924 that it was based on, was derided by Porsche purists for its water cooled, front mounted engine. That engine mounted up front helping to give the 944 excellent balance and an overall demeanor that was more pleasant than the tail wagging 911.

 

 

Most importantly, the 944 was bought by many that wanted the 944 for what it was and not just because it was a Porsche. Or a less expensive one at that.   

 

The turbo models making a desirable car even more so.

Porsche. There is no substitute.

 

Red Camaro

I saw a red camaro today
And I did a double take
  

                                                                             -Rascal Flatts

 

Buying an (almost) 18 year old Camaro on the cusp of a Northern Ohio winter may not seem like the most practical of purchases. However, with the modest budget we had our options were fairly limited. Also, remember who you're dealing with here. Life's too short for boring, normal cars.

We started down the "Camaro Path" about three weeks ago after I stumbled across a 1986 Camaro Sports Coupe in what appeared to be mint condition. It had only 22,000 miles on it but don't get sucked into the low mileage vortex when buying an old car. The older the car, the less significant the number on the odometer is. On a non Z28 Camaro this old with mileage this low, chances are the car is all original. I mean, all original.

That means twenty seven year old fuel injectors, computer, spark plugs, tires, bushings, belts, hoses. You get the idea. This car ran horribly and the dealership was inflexible on the price. Well, I should say, not as flexible on the price as I wanted them to be. They quietly shipped the car to auction before I could up my offer. Just as well. Even at a number for the car that I was comfortable with, I wasn't convinced that what ails this car could be fixed economically.

I did learn something, though; Chip and Will, who didn't even know what a Camaro was beforehand, now had Camaro fever and they had it bad. Will's still talking about the stripes.

Our next speed bump on the way to Bitchin' Camaro Nirvana was a purple/blue, '93. On paper or computer screen, this car looked great. These fiberglass bodied Camaros tend to hold up better, at least appearance wise, than their steel bodied forebears but just like with the '86, looks aren't everything.



While the engine ran better in the '93 than the engine in the '86, this car had front suspension problems, bad brakes, the AC didn't work, the exhaust was shot, the power locks didn't work, the driver's window wouldn't go back up after it slithered down, the driver's door wouldn't open from the outside and the after market radio was installed haphazardly. That's what I could tell in just a five minute test drive. All this on a car with just 79,000 miles on the odo. Remember what I said before about mileage and old cars.

Oh, and there was no power seat. That's important to me on any car because I like to sit high in the saddle. It's really important on this vintage of Camaro since without one, I feel like I'm sitting in a bathtub.

 

 

A week ago Friday night, after some miscommunication between me and Janet, I arrived to pickup our pizza order thirty minutes early. Rather than go home and come back, I fired up the iphone and did a search on cars.com for Camaros. A freshly listed, red, '96 "RS" popped up with just 76,000 miles on her. It has an  automatic transmission and was powered by the muy fabuloso, 3800 V-6. I forwarded the info to Janet and the boys, picked up our pizza and sauntered home.

 

 

Janet was really stoked by the Red Camaro and the boys emotions were mixed. Chip was giddy, Will, our dark, moody son (J/K), was somewhat incredulous. We had been down this road before, you see. Could this be the one? What's wrong with it? There has to be something bad about it, right?

 

  

I contacted the dealership and found that the car was, to my surprise, still available. I made an appointment to see it the next afternoon all the while telling myself repeatedly that the only reason it was still on the lot was because it had been smoked in. Or it needed a lot of work like the '86 or the '93. Or no one drives these cars in Northern Ohio this time of the year.

 

 

Much to our shock, the Red Camaro was even better than advertised. Like the rescue dog we recently adopted, it did everything it could to make us fall in love with it immediately. It's in very good condition, has no obvious needs and most importantly, it has a power seat! Oh, one more bonus was it had a  fairly detailed maintenance record going back about 10 years. Everything from recent brakes jobs to the water pump and both power window motors being replaced. It's all there. Sweet!

 

  

A week of gentle back and forth negotiating (our salesman was a real gentleman), hemming, hawing, more research, hand wringing and declarations to the boys about responsibility and accountability and, ta-dah! we have our latest "family car".

 

 

Welcome to the family, Red Camaro. Rescue Dog (Jax) approves!