1970 Dodge Challenger R/T - Vanishing Point

Gosh, movie theaters. Remember them? I first saw "Vanishing Point" when it first came out in a movie theater with my mother and I couldn't have been more than seven years old. Suffice to say, what with the drug references and use, gratuitous nudity, wanton disregard for authority, romanticizing of radio and of course a ground pounding 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T, it's no surprise it left a permanent and indelible conscious and subconscious impression on me. My mother never did much for me but I will give her mad snaps for dragging me along to see "Vanishing Point". Thanks, Mom! 

A "vanishing point" is defined as being the point at which receding parallel lines viewed in perspective appear to converge. Why "Vanishing Point", the movie, is named such is conjecture, but it's a 1971 film about a guy named Kowalski, whom I swear is referred as "Mitch" in one scene, who works for a car delivery company in Denver, Colorado. What there is of a plot involves him delivering a brand-new  Dodge Challenger R/T to a customer in San Francisco. Why the customer couldn't just buy the car in San Francisco is never brought up although there is some allusion to the car being "super-charged". I guess it's up to us to deduce that the customer wanted the after-market engine work done at a speed-shop he fancied in Denver? Bueller? 

Anyway, Kowalski's got an entire weekend to make the approximate 1,300 mile trip but he's chosen to do so in just fifteen hours because he's bet his drug dealer that if he can do so, he gets the mouthful of "bennies" he inhales at the beginning of his traipse through the far west for free or he pays triple for them. Such a deal. 

On the way to "Frisco", Kowalski's troubles begin when a motorcycle cop tells him to "pull-over" and, inexplicably, he takes off instead. We presume the cop was going to site Kowalski for speeding but because we're so immediately empathetic towards our strung anti-hero, right or wrong, we determine that all authority must be questioned and scorned. Police then chase Kowalski through at least four states, five if he went through Wyoming, and along the way he meets a colorful cadre of characters including a nutty Jaguar XKE driver whom he ends up drag-racing and nearly kills, a couple of hitch hikers who try to "stick him up", a naked motorcycle riding woman who all but throws herself at him and let's not forget about a rattle snake charmer he runs into when one of his Goodyear Polyglass tires blows out. Not sure if it's the drugs or not but he also flashes back a lot about his past seemingly disastrous lives as a motorcycle and race car driver, as a policeman and about a woman who broke his heart when she died in what is implied as a surfing accident. 

What's more, despite being in such a hurry, after all "ups" are expensive, Kowalski always makes time to make sure whomever he ran off the road, like that idiot Jaguar driver, didn't get killed or seriously injured. This guy's a mensch. Oh, did I mention he's a Vietnam War hero and somehow takes a respite from the mayhem to check in with a blind radio disc-jockey named "Super Soul" too? Gotta hand it to Kowalski, brother does a lot in just fifteen hours. 

I'm no film critic but I can tell you that after seeing "Vanishing Point" recently for the first time in, gulp, fifty years, I can tell you that it's pure, unadulterated, thrown-together, senseless exploitative trash. It ain't all bad, though. The upside is "Vanishing Point" is a shameless ninety-minute commercial for Dodge's new-for-1970 Challenger R/T. 

Although the Chrysler Corporation was technically the first of the Big Three to launch what would be known as a "Pony Car", they introduced the Plymouth Barracuda two-weeks before Ford debuted the Mustang, Chrysler's Dodge division was late to the party by six years. They didn't waste anyone's time, though, when they finally got to the rager with arms full with fresh ice-cold kegs, a case of Jack Daniels, a pound of marijuana, strippers and tons of pizza. Problem was the cops where on the way to shut the whole thing down but for 1970, man, that was some party. Folks are still talking aboutt it too. 

Between 1964 and 1969, the pony-car market grew to an amazing thirteen-percent of all vehicles sold in this country. However, the the first "pony-car", Plymouth's Barracuda, sold poorly up against an onslaught from Ford and GM (as of 1967) and to a lesser degree American Motors with their weird but cool AMX'. When Chrysler planned to reboot the Barracuda for 1970, Dodge wanted in and Chrysler obliged with a fairly similar "pony" albeit one with a slightly longer wheel base. By the way, don't feel bad - you wouldn't be the first person to a confuse a Barracuda with a Challenger; their differences are quite subtle. 

How'd it drive? I've never driven one but a late 1969 Car and Driver road test review of a Challenger R/T Hemi tears the car apart for being too heavy and plagued with horrible over and under steer. Even the vaunted 426 cubic-inch Hemi gets a knuckle sandwich with them claiming it idled horribly and was sluggish and unresponsive at low rpm's. Well, it was a street-legal race engine, what did they expect? Furthermore, Car and Drive found that the "smaller-engine" Challengers were better balanced cars but those engines, couldn't produce enough horsepower and torque to compete with the lighter and apparently more nimble competition. They did, however, applaud the styling. So, what's fair is fair - if they were right about the styling they were probably right about everything else. 

Even in the movie you can see that whomever is driving the Challengers, there were four used in the making of it, there's a mighty struggle to keep the things going where intended and in several scenes the cars are bouncing all over the screen. There are a number of shots of Kowalski, by the way he's played by the wonderful Barry Newman, where he's sea-sawing the big, non-tilt adjustable steering wheel while at speed. That's not exactly "sporty" on a car of sporting pretensions even fifty-years ago. 

As for the actual movie cars themselves, Chrysler supplied the producers of the film with four cars with three of them being 440 cubic inch R/T's with a single four-barrel carburetor, pistol grip four-speed manual transmission and "Sure-Grip" rear end. The fourth car was a 383 cubic-inch powered automatic. Rumor has it that as many as eight cars were used in the filming and some where Hemi's but there's little corroboration on that speculation. Mr. Newman has been quoted as saying the Chrysler 440 V-8 was too much engine for the car. 

Producers chose white for the cars because they they'd film better against the desert background that's in most of the film. One of the cars delivered was purportedly green and subsequently painted white. 

All the cars used in the film were badly damaged during filming and Chrysler crushed them after filming rather than repair then and use them for publicity. Allegedly, Chrysler suits were upset at the drug use in the film and didn't care for their wares being associated with such behavior. Umm, did we not ask to see a script before we lent them the cars? 

While the movie, again in my opinion, is a mess, for the most part, the producers did a good job of continuity; if a fender was dented in one scene, it was dented in another and so on. However. in one of the last scenes of film, it's pretty obvious that the car that blows up on impact with the bulldozers is not a Dodge Challenger. 

It is, of all things, a 1967 Chevrolet Camaro. Not a bad way to go but it's certainly no '70 Challenger R/T.  I know they were pressed for time in making the movie but they couldn't rig a Challenger wheel to fit for this scene?  That sucker is pure General Motors. Kowalski deserved better.

To say the least, contemporary reviews of "Vanishing Point", just like road test reviews of the Challenger, where mixed at best. Again, to me the film has a nonsensical, thrown-together, "what should we do next" feel to it but I might be alone in that assessment seeing that "Vanishing Point" has become something of a art-house, cult-classic. I don't get how or why that could be given how nothing in the film makes sense; especially the premise behind Kowalski, who seems like a highly intelligent and wonderful guy, running from police in the first place. Well, drugs can make you do some crazy stuff. Just say no! 

Then again, understanding "Vanishing Point" above and beyond the Challenger is probably like my trying to explain what I see in these lovely cars to someone who doesn't see anything more special about it than that it being an old car. Note the Challenger's body roll in the above screen capture; Chrysler's torsion-bar suspension at its finest. 

Try and dig up "Vanishing Point" and see for yourself what I'm talking about or not. If nothing else, if you're of a certain age, you'll get a kick out of being reminded of the fast cars, drugs, hippies, race riots and more of when we were young. Then again, some things never change. 

There's a 1997 remake starring Viggo Mortenssen that, despite the Challenger R/T used in that movie being a Hemi, is a complete waste of your time. Waste your time, instead, on the original. 

1979 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 - A Lot of Green

As they say, it ain't easy being green. Despite my being 99.99% Irish and a fan of the New York Jets I'm not a fan of it. Especially on cars. This lovely and somewhat over restored 1979 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 can't even sway my feelings towards green either. That's saying a lot as these cars were favorites of my woebegone, misbegotten youth. They still are. 

I take it I must be fairly alone feeling that way since this has an asking price of $25,000. That's a lot of green for a lot of, ahem, green. 

With the third-generation Camaro delayed somewhat, Chevrolet did a great job gussying up the outgoing model. Some deride the added pointless doo-dads, baubles and bits on 1979-1981 Z28's but the boy racer in me likes it all. Color be damned. 

We first find "Z28" on Chevrolet's Trans-Am race series cars in 1969. Those Camaro's, regular-production code (RPO) "Z28", had a unique, high revving 302 cubic-inch V-8, Hurst four-speed manual transmission, power front disc brakes, quick ratio steering and a "special suspension. Without knowing for sure it would seem someone in marketing thought "Z28" catchy and Chevrolet has held onto the moniker off an on for over fifty-years. The current Camaro does not have a Z28 model. Never say never about what they may have up their exhaust pipes for the future. 

Contrary to what some may think, it was the height of the insurance surcharge crazy 1970's that felled the Z28 in 1975 and 1976. Chevrolet brought it back halfway through the 1977 model year and it stayed with these second generation models through the end of its production run in 1981. 

For 1979, checking the Z28 box on the order form got you a one-hundred seventy-five horsepower 350 V-8, this one painted a period incorrect Chevrolet orange as the block should be blue, dual resonator tailpipes that looked like dual exhausts but they really weren't, special springs, shocks and rear stabilizer, white letter tires and a god's green-earth 3.73 axle with the available four-speed manual transmission. Our automatic equipped green-machine here was born with a 3.08 axle. Interestingly, the highest rear end ratio on 1979 Corvette's was a 3.55. 

One-hundred seventy-five horsepower may not sound like a lot these days but back in "my day", when all I had was a ninety-six horsepower in-line six, more than twice the power seemed decadent. My brief time behind the wheel of one of these years ago the type of earth-moving automotive experience you simply don't forget. 

Who knows how much oomph this thing has. Hopefully more than what it came with originally seeing the engine is most likely not original to the car. Note this car has a catalytic converter. Some states, like California for instance, require that if a car was originally offered with one, it has to still have it. 

You buy an old car out of state that doesn't have one and that will run you quite a bit of green to put one back in. Sorry. Couldn't resist. 

1970 Chevrolet Corvette - Well Worn

I never saw many third-generation Chevrolet Corvette's when I was a kid and when I did it was like seeing a rock star and all that entails. Much like many a rock star, charismatic people as well, if anything these cars were best at garnering attention rather than doing anything other than that particularly well. Ok. Some were actually pretty powerful but for the record, most that were sold were relatively tame powered base models like this well worn but still star struck worthy example from model year 1970. 

I believe their apparent scarcity on the part of New York's Long Island I grew up on was due to it being a working class area; a working class area that rubbed elbows with the type of wealth that dreams are made of. So, while traveling with my family in our bone-stripped '68 Ford Ranch Wagon and seeing a car like this was monumental, it was not out of the ordinary. 

If that makes any sense you're probably from the Island or similar communities around the country where us riff-raff and the riche literally sit across from one another. 

That's one of the many crazy things about Long Island - wherever you are you're never far from folks who are really wealthy. Extremely poor for that matter too. My family slotting in between the two universes albeit, frankly, way, way closer to the have not's. 

The weather sucks a good six to nine months out of the year on Long Island too so many of these, not so sure about this one, tucked away in garages and under wraps. They've never been "bad-weather cars".  

My parents knew their plot and position in the world and, I guess, as they got older wanted to "live a little". That's why in the late '70's they ditched the station wagon for a 1970 Buick Electra which was subsequently replaced with a 1972 Cadillac. They bought them very used and on the cheap too but oh, how the neighbors were impressed. Young me, of course, appalled at how pretentious the purchases were and worse yet how the neighbors seemingly bought it into it. Maybe they were just being nice. 

Purchasing a used Corvette as a frivolous toy in addition to the Buick and Cadillac? I can't even fathom how I would have felt about that had they done that; in fairness, if for no other reason than my father wasn't a "car-person". The old luxury cars were purchased for all the wrong reasons as they salved my mother's desire to appear better off than we actually were.  

That notion as off putting to me as it gets. Buy something because you like it and not for what it says about you. Trust me, do so and you run this risk of being sorely disappointed. 

This old rock star has seen better days but it's not like it couldn't be restored to its former glory. That would be expensive, though. I guesstimate you'd need thirty-grand to get this it into proper shape. That on top of the fifteen-grand that's the price of admission. 

I don't understand why someone would spend that kind of money on something like this but bless their hearts, some people do. As they say, it's better to buy something already restored than buy something and have it restored. Often times that's less expensive too. Forty-give grand or so would also buy a late model Corvette as well which does everything at a world-class level of performance that this 1970 struggled so mightily to do. 

Struggled at everything except looking like a rock star. 

Hyundai Genesis Coupe - Imagine That

Sometimes first impression are everything. Back about 1992 or so a woman I worked with asked me if I could look at her car, a first-generation Excel like the junker above, who complained that the steering wheel wouldn't return to center when she made turns. Obviously something was amiss with her power steering hydraulic system and rather than volunteer to investigate further than a brief test drive I told her to get the car to a mechanic ASAP. The worst part was the car had very low mileage and aside from literal killer-steering otherwise appeared to be in great shape. Oh, except for an innate cheapness that permeated every square inch of the damn thing from stem to stern. I thought the styling atrocious as well. The car was a complete turd and  I vowed then that no Hyundai would ever set tire in my garage. 

No Hyundai ever has since although a Hyundai Genesis Coupe like this came close fairly recently when my older son was shopping for a car. He was smitten with his aunt's husband's Genesis Coupe and part of me thinks he went with the 2017 Chevrolet Camaro he ended up buying because we couldn't find a Genesis Coupe for him to even test drive. My sister in law's husband had long given his Genesis back after the lease expired on it so there was no chance at him test driving his. Besides, they live like twelve hours away. However, when my son was looking for a car that Genesis Coupe left a strong enough impression with him that he didn't forget about it. 

I can't say I blamed him for liking the lines of the Genesis Coupe either. Frankly, I like the styling on these cars better than even the 2010-2015 retro-chic Chevrolet Camaro and even more so than the current crop of Camaro's like my son has. His '17 Camaro, incidentally, is a delightful car to drive although I think it ugly and visibility is a joke. He loves it, thinks it's cool and that's all that matters. He's making the payments on it too so I ain't got no dog in that hunt. 

These cars were world-beaters too. A 2011 Car and Driver comparison test of a Genesis Coupe V-6 against a similarly powered Dodge Challenger, Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro had the editors of C&D pegging the Hyundai first. Imagine that. 

Based on the underpinnings of the first Genesis sedan, albeit with a shortened wheelbase and no V-8 engine option, Hyundai checked most of the boxes that fans of sporty or "pony" cars ascribe too. That being rakishly handsome styling with at least a dollop of performance pretense whisked in. However, that's the recipe that us oldster pony\sporty car fans remember and we didn't know better. Our ponies of yore rode and handled like squeaky old trucks compared to even performance cars from a decade ago.  Today's performance cars, even performance cars from a decade ago, perform at levels that exotic cars from when we were kids performed at. Most likely better. 

The Hyundai Genesis Coupe didn't sell well which was a shame and these days they're oh-so-rare unlike dime a dozen Camaro's, Mustang's and Challenger's. Hyundai killed off the Genesis Coupe after the 2016 model year and while they hinted at a replacement model to be launched under the new "Genesis" line, one with a turbocharged 3.3-liter turbo V-6, it never came to be. 

1963 Mercedes-Benz 190SL - Super Bowl (The) Weeknd

If you caught any playoff football recently you had to have seen at least a passing glimpse of the above Pepsi commercial pre-promoting the halftime show of the Super Bowl on February 7th. The literal game-changing show will feature Canadian pop-star "The Weeknd", real name Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, and in the ad we see him driving up to a stadium, it's not Raymond James Stadium in Tampa where the game will be played, in a "wow, what is that?!" vintage convertible.

Clearly the car in the ad is mere window dressing and not a focal point of the ad, as it it shouldn't be, but since you're here you're no doubt intrigued as to what it is. The long and short of it is it's a 1963 Mercedes-Benz 190SL. 

You could be forgiven for thinking it was the 190SL's far more famous big-brother, the famed and vaunted 300SL. While we last saw Mr. Weeknd pitching M-B's all-new EQC 400 4MATIC all-electric crossover in M-B ads a little more than a year ago, have to wonder why the producers of this commercial chose to have him in this old 190 and not a newer M-B. If they chose to use a Mercedes-Benz in the first place. Maybe this is his car? Then again, if they chose to use the EQC there would have been some some co-op dollars involved and that gets messy. In the end, this ad is a Pepsi commercial plain and simple. 

The most famous of the Mercedes-Benz SL's are these "gullwing" 300SL models that M-B produced between 1954 and 1957; they made a convertible or "roadster" version from 1957 through 1963. The 190SL was offered as a less expensive alternative to the pricey 300SL and shared the 300SL's basic styling, engineering and little else. The biggest structural difference between the two is that on the 190, Mercedes-Benz eschewed the 300SL's expensive tubular "spaceframe" using a modified version of the then current M-B "W121" chassis or platform. 

That amalgamation of then existing M-B designs and chassis' explains why the car "The Weeknd" is driving in the commercial looks like all other M-B's of the time period - while simultaneously appearing to be quite different. 

Another differentiation between the two SL's is their engines. The "190" in 190SL refers to the car's 1.9-liter, inline four-cylinder engine like the one in the 1961 190SL above left. The "300" in 300SL denotes a 3.0-liter, inline six-cylinder engine like the engine above right from a 1954 SL300. 

"SL" on both models denotes either "Sport-Leicht" or "Super-Leicht"; sport-light or super-light. I think it was meant to mean "Sport-Light" as it would be odd that Mercedes-Benz would emphasize the curb weight of these cars since, at least relative to the weight of American cars at the time, especially with regards to the 300SL, they were certainly no leicht-weights. The 300SL coming in at approximately thirty-three hundred pounds, the 190 a rather svelte twenty-five hundred. Meanwhile a typical 1955 Chevrolet sedan weighed just thirty-one hundred pounds; a V-8 powered '55 Corvette just twenty-eight hundred pounds. 

Super-leight indeed.