Pleasanton Street Sighting - 1975 Datsun 610

This month we're marking the Christmas holiday season with a silly theme: All I Want For Christmas Is "U". That means cars with the letter U in their brand name. Our first one was a BUICK, now let's look at DATSUN. This is a 1975 Datsun 610 sedan.

Santa Cruz Street Sighting - 1975 Chevrolet LUV Pickup

Today marks the second day of the fabled countdown to Christmas.

On the second day of Christmas my archives give to thee:
A tuned Chevy LUV,
and a Park Lane down on the street.

If the 12 Days of Christmas theme of this series already sounds forced, you ain't seen nothing yet.

The term "tuned" can refer to any number of modification and customization to an existing vehicle and it's not uncommon (especially in Europe) to see something described as such, even if all they did were visual mods. In this case it looks like this compact Chevy pickup had an engine swap that didn't quite fit.

Danville Street Sighting - 1975 Jeep DJ-5D

Remember the postal Jeep? That little plodding truck with sliding doors that used to carry the mail for countless thousands of U.S. Mail customers. They have an unmistakable family resemblance to the famous CJ (Civilian Jeep) series 4x4s that evolved into the current Wrangler, but the DJ (Dispatcher Jeep) series was designed primarily for on-road use at low speeds.

Danville Street Sighting - 1975 Pontiac Astre SJ

It's funny how people lampoon one car for being terrible to the point it becomes infamous, and completely forget that rebadges of the same car even exist. Such is the case with the Pontiac Astre. The Astre was a rebadge job on the Chevrolet Vega, now famous for its rust problems and unreliable 2.3 liter aluminum-block engines. The Astre was sold in Canada only from 1973 to '74, then it came to the US market in '75 as Pontiac's smallest and cheapest model.

Danville Street Sighting - 1975 Datsun 280Z

On an ordinary day, I don't expect to see a lot of exciting cars around Danville, at least not ones that appear to be daily drivers. This customized Datsun pops up here and there on occasion, and I happened to catch it sitting still one day. It's a near twin of the white one I found on the side of the Pacific Coast Highway in Southern California two years ago.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1975 Land Rover 101 FC Military Ambulance

Flickr has been an excellent resource for finding new cars to photograph in San Francisco. Frequently it's because some automotive-minded city resident carries a camera around everywhere and takes a picture or two of almost every interesting vehicle they encounter. I like to challenge myself to figure out where the picture was taken based on the background. Then I go there with my camera. It's a crap shoot, really. The nature of street-parked vehicles is that they move around. It's very common for me to go out in search of a specific list of vehicles to locate and photograph, and I go home at the end of the day with an entirely different crop of cars because none of the ones I planned to shoot were there.
I had a hunch one day while I was in the city with a friend. We were sightseeing and after visiting COIT Tower we explored Telegraph Hill looking for the famous red and green parrots that live there and like to eat berries off of some bushes that grow at the top of Montgomery Street. I also knew from Flickr that a vintage Land Rover military ambulance lived in the area. Lo and behold, I found it.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1974 Chevrolet Vega 2300

Rounding out 1970s Economy Cars week is this 1974-75 Chevrolet Vega 2300 hatchback. It was GM's effort to beat the Japanese at their own game, building a practical, affordable domestic compact with a plethora of body configurations and a lightweight aluminum engine block. The engine was the car's main stumbling block, since its lack of steel cylinder wall sleeves (an $8 per car savings) allowed piston motion and heat to ruin the engine. According to GM engineers, the culprits were brittle valve stem seals and an undersized radiator which, if the owner ignored his fluid levels, together could let coolant and oil run low and make the engine overheat, penetrate the head gasket with antifreeze and cause the pistons to scuff the cylinder walls all to crap. The early cars simply weren't tested for owner neglect and the Vega was designed too quickly and too cheaply to correct everything before production time. The subsequent flood of warranty repair claims cost GM millions. The engine problem was rectified later, as were many other problems, but the Vega never lost its tarnished reputation and was later replaced by the nearly-identical Monza in 1978. The attractive miniature-Camaro styling introduced in 1971 was updated in 1974 to make the car more current, compensating both for the fact that the Feds mandated gigantic 5-mph bumpers and the fact that the Camaro had also been restyled. Still available were the Vega 2-door sedan, 2-door hatchback, Kammback 2-door wagon, and a sedan delivery with blank window panels.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1975 Oldsmobile Cutlass 442

The bigger they are, the harder they fall. This, my friends, is an Oldsmobile Cutlass 442. It certainly looks quick, doesn't it? It has mag wheels, racing stripes, bucket seats! It must surely be a real barnstormer.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1975 Pontiac Catalina

I first found this 1975 Pontiac Catalina in summer of 2007 when I was on a road trip with my friend Colin, who coincidentally operates his own blog much like this one. We had made a grand circle tour from my hometown in the East Bay to Las Vegas to Los Angeles and then to San Francisco before dropping me off back at home. En route to Golden Gate Park, we passed a baby blue full-size Pontiac parked on a street. I snapped two quick pictures of it from the car and never saw it again.
Fast forward to May 2009. I was wandering around the city with my camera as I often do when I have free time, and lo and behold, I happened upon a gigantic baby blue full-size Pontiac parked in a different part of town. I took a dozen or so pictures and went home. Turns out it was the same car. The last two years have been mostly kind to this behemoth. The paint and pinstriping are the same. The original hubcaps and license plate are still intact. The parking permit and bumper sticker are the same ones the car wore in 2007. The front turn signal reflector lenses haven't been fixed. It has some minor rust in the rockers but it appears not to spread since I last saw it. The only immediately noticeable difference is a driver mirror which has been replaced by a Cadillac unit that probably originated on a Fleetwood Brougham.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1975 MG Midget

I've seen surprisingly few British Leyland products in San Francisco, despite many residents' fondness for quirky foreign cars. This 1975 MG Midget is only the second or third Midget I've had the opportunity to find parked, and the first one I've been able to shoot for a feature.

The MG Midget began as a spinoff of the Austin Healey Sprite MkII (not the well-known MkI "Bugeye" model) in 1961. It eventually outlasted the Sprite, continuing production with various changes and improvements but maintaining the same basic body, until 1979.
This one is a later-model Midget from the Leyland era, "federalized" for sale in the US with horrible black plastic bumpers and squared-off wheel arches in the rear for body strength. Power came from a 1493 cc four-cylinder sourced from the Triumph Spitfire and routed through a four-speed manual transmission based on the unit from the rather un-sporting Morris Marina.
And in case you wondered why it's called the Midget, here's why.


The Midget is a tiny, tiny car. That's a Toyota Tacoma pickup behind it, which by pickup truck standards is a compact. Interestingly, this light blue Midget is an earlier model, built sometime between 1968 and 1971 judging by the side markers, Leyland badge on the front fender, and the squared-off rear wheel well (it would be rounded on 1972-74 models). This one also sports the useless but much better looking dainty chrome bumpers that would probably offer adequate protection if the colliding vehicle was a Hot Wheels car.
This cheese-orange Midget featured above is just not beautiful. Never mind the body damage, the real problem is the big ugly bumpers, pressed-steel wheels, and the sheer Leyland-ness of it all. It lacks the elegant simplicity of the quintessential classic British sports car, something the original MGB did so well before it, too, was ruined by the curse of black plastic federal bumpers. Older Midgets look better, though they are simply too tiny for my tastes. Don't get me wrong, I love a number of old British roadsters including the aforementioned MGB, the Triumph Spitfire and TR6, Austin-Healey 3000, Sunbeam Tiger, the [pre-V12] Jaguar E-Type, Jensen Interceptor, various Aston Martins and of course the AC [Shelby] Cobra (which I would consider to be as much American as British after what Carroll Shelby did with it). The Midget is a cute little car in its purest form, but I think it would require a ride in one to convince me that it's an actual, capable sports car and not a toy with license plates.