Pleasanton Street Sighting - 1967 Plymouth Barracuda Convertible

The holiday season is nearing the home stretch now. Time for another replay of "All I Want For Christmas is 'U'". Are you sick of it yet? Buick, Datsun, Peugeot, Austin-Healey, Lotus, Triumph, and now back to America with a 1967 Plymouth Barracuda convertible in a seasonably festive downtown area. While the other cars this month were dug out of my archives, this one was just spotted a week ago as of publishing.

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.

Pleasanton Street Sighting - 1973 Dodge Royal Sportsman

My last post here dealt with a 1973 Ford Econoline van. In that post I mentioned that Ford's van sales were down that year. Now we look at its primary nemesis in the marketplace, the Dodge B-Series. I see this fantastic Royal Sportsman passenger van on the road often in my area, much more often than I ever see it parked. This van even popped up in traffic while shooting the 1957 Austin-Healey 100-6.

Pleasanton Street Sighting - 1988 CMC Tiffany Classic

This week we're looking at cars from the 1980s that are uniquely a product of their time. Well, maybe not. Neo-classics have been a thing for decades. Ever since the Excalibur of the 1960s, people have been building cars that evoke the golden age of 1930s luxury and sports roadsters. Over the years we've seen the Clenet, Spartan II, Sceptre, Zimmer Golden Spirit among dozens of others, even such modern oddballs as the Mitsuoka Le Seyde and the SixTen Spirit. More exacting or approximate replicas of 1930s cars were also made, like the Auburn Speedster, Cord, Duesenberg II, Bugatti 35X, Mercedes 500K and Jaguar SS 100. Usually neoclassics use fiberglass parts on a donor body with contemporary chassis and drivetrain. They range from professionally coachbuilt cars to do-it-yourself fiberglass kits. A company called Classic Motor Carriages offered numerous products during the 1980s, ranging from Shelby Cobras, '34 Fords, Porsche 356 Speedsters, MG TDs and Gazelle "1929 Mercedes" roadsters. Perhaps the most extravagant of all of these was the Tiffany Classic.

Pleasanton Street Sighting - 1967 Triumph 1200 Sports

This feature was several years in coming. I first saw this 1967 Triumph 1200 Sports roadster in March 2008, parked on the street near the Alameda County Fairgrounds during a Goodguys Rod and Custom Association car show. Back then it was wearing a set of vintage silver turbine wheels. The next time I saw it, in 2010 in Livermore, the Triumph was sitting on English-made Cosmic Mk1 road wheels painted white. I photographed the car that day but it was in angled street parking and I couldn't get a good profile. That, and the owner showed up during my shoot and needed to leave. I finally got lucky in summer 2015 when I was returning to my car after another Goodguys show and the Triumph was sitting near a railroad crossing a few blocks from the fairgrounds.

Pleasanton Street Sighting - 1988 Lotus Esprit Turbo

One of the first cars I photographed for this blog was a red 1988 Lotus Esprit. Now here's another. For some reason all the Esprits I find parked on the street seem to be red, as this is our third one. It's a very nice one, too.

Pleasanton Street Sighting - 1954 MG TF Roadster

I guess I went hog wild photographing this one. I typically don't pay much attention to old British sports cars but this first-year MG TF caught my interest. Where I work, a fellow comes into the shopping center occasionally with a beautiful black '55 TF roadster, and since I first saw it I've wanted to spot one on the street to feature. This one was out on Pleasanton's historic Main Street and it is lovely.

Pleasanton Street Sighting - 1991 Alfa Romeo 164S

I've never known what to think of the Alfa Romeo 164. The Italian sport-luxury sedan has a look all its own, courtesy of Pininfarina and the last days of an Alfa Romeo independent of Fiat influence. There are some interesting shapes going on in the design, thanks to the overall square shape, bold triangular Alfa grille and deep character line that blends into the narrow strip taillights out back. The 164 featured a lot of technology and a variety of luxury and performance packages. It was available in base, 164L, 164S and 164 Quadrifoglio Verde (as well as a late-model Q4 variant with all-wheel-drive). The S featured a body kit and rear spoiler, 15-inch alloy wheels and a higher-performance version of the 3.0 liter V6 good for 200 horsepower.

Pleasanton Street Sighting - 1978 Ford Ranchero

I have a mild interest in late-model Ford Rancheros. The mid-to-late '70s utes are big and boxy, coming in two flavors mostly. There's the '72-76 model, beginning with the fish-mouth Torino-based front and evolving into the Starsky and Hutch '74-'76. An all-new Ranchero bowed for '77, based on the new LTD II. It used the same taillights as before, but the rest of the body was new and featured the LTD's coffin nose, pointed fenders and stacked quad headlamps. The body had more of a linear fuselage appearance as well, where the outgoing Torino-based pickup had a sculpted quarter panel.

Pleasanton Street Sighting - 1973 Ford Pinto

The first thing viewers may notice about this shoot is that the lighting varies wildly among the pictures. Yes, it does. I shot this car basically three times on two different days, several months apart with two different cameras. Now that we're past that, this is one cool little Pinto.

Pleasanton Street Sighting - 1968 Chevrolet Van

I must say this is a new one on me.

General Motors turned out a fair number of Chevrolet and GMC vans in the 1960s to compete with Ford's Econoline and Dodge's A100. They followed the same formula: forward-control design with the engine located under or between the front passengers, rear-wheel-drive usually, and two wheelbase lengths. A cargo or passenger variant was always available. But I don't think the factory ever turned out anything like this.

Pleasanton Street Sighting - 1972 Ford Galaxie 500 Coupe

It's taken a long time, but here it is. Street Sighting number 500. To celebrate, I picked a car with that number in its name. Here's a 1972 Ford Galaxie 500 coupe.

Pleasanton Street Sighting - 1967 Ford Mustang

I must admit I'm disappointed. When I was driving through the neighborhood and rolled up on a pretty blue Mustang California Special I grabbed my camera immediately. A GT-CS is pretty, well, special. They were produced originally for one year, 1968, and were the closest thing to a notchback Shelby that a customer could buy. The GT-CS was based heavily on a 1967 Shelby design study called "Little Red", and received many of the same Shelby fiberglass pieces for the side scoops, taillight panel with '65 Thunderbird taillights, trunk lid and ducktail spoiler. Up front, the Mustang running horse "corral" was removed and two rectangular foglamps occupied the otherwise empty black grille opening. Unique "California Special" script badges and side stripes were also created and stuck on the cars. Only 4,118 were built including 251 cars marketed as "High Country Specials" for the Denver, Colorado area.

Pleasanton Street Sighting - 1967 Chevrolet Biscayne

The concept of building a performance car from a base model vehicle isn't a new one. The most basic trim level typically is the lightest. Today we expect even the cheapest new vehicles to have a complement of features. The base versions of older cars tend to be free of air conditioning, sound deadening and even a radio in some cases. All of that contributes to weight. Muscle cars are all fine and good, but those who want a fast big car would want something like a Chevy Biscayne two-door sedan with a four-speed and the biggest V8 they could order or build.

Pleasanton Street Sighting - 1967 Ford Mustang GT Convertible

Regular readers of this blog may know that one of my traditions is not shooting and featuring every classic Ford Mustang I see. This is California, land of the rust-free classic, the muscle car, and the surviving old Mustang. The early ones are a dime a dozen, figuratively speaking, yet late first-generation cars don't show up as often. Post-1966 convertibles are quite uncommon out my way. So in keeping with my other tradition of photographing whatever car evokes a reaction from me, we examine this '67 Mustang GT.

Pleasanton Street Sighting - 1967 Chevrolet Camaro RS

I've been hesitant to go after Camaros for this blog. They're not bad cars; they're not even bad-looking cars. I actually like them to an extent. They're attractively designed and are a great option for a classic performance car with a huge aftermarket and tuning potential. I just don't have much interest in them because they're such a common sight at every local car show. Almost all of them seem to be Super Sport clones in cliched color combinations with rally stripes and big engines. Less common are the subtle Rally Sport builds with a 327 V8 and muted colors.

Pleasanton Street Sighting - 1977 Mercury Monarch Coupe

I've always kind of thought that blatant rebadge jobs were a bit silly, when a vehicle is sold under two different names in the same market with only minor differences between them. It works great if you're the manufacturer and your two models have simple bolt-on pieces to differentiate them; it's a cheap way to create a luxury variant. That's the formula Ford used for the Ford Granada and Mercury Monarch. The Lincoln Versailles was the ultimate form of the Granada, and had some of its own unique sheet metal. But the Monarch was a Granada with a slightly different front clip, slightly different taillights and a Mercury hood ornament and badging. Inside, the Monarch came with special parts like a center console taken from the Versailles, and ... um... Mercury badges. There was a fancier Grand Monarch Ghia from 1975-76, but I assume it didn't sell well enough to continue production beyond that. Engines and transmissions were the same as the Granada, two straight sixes and two V8s.

Pleasanton Street Sighting - 1968 Morgan Plus 4

The beginning of fall brought a huge termite swarm across the Bay Area this past Sunday. Usually that's only a problem for homeowners, and doesn't affect cars. Coincidentally, however, that same day marked the Danville D'Elegance concours car show in Danville, California. And one car present there would be very much at risk from termites - the Morgan.

Pleasanton Street Sighting - 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu Wagon

I have a soft spot for Chevelle wagons, in no small part because my father learned to drive in a base-model '68 Chevelle Nomad wagon and adored it. Apparently other people have a similar soft spot, because while I was photographing this car a man came over and started checking it over for originality, remarking that he had once owned one just like it. Then he wrote a note to the owner asking to buy the car and left it under the wiper. You just don't see completely original Chevelles anymore. Even the wagons find themselves being built up into street machines these days, as the steel wheels and small engines are tossed in the trash for a GM Performance crate engine and whatever pro-touring wheel style is popular these days. Had this been a coupe I might have passed on it.

Pleasanton Street Sighting - 1970 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight LS Holiday sedan

I don't know what it is about vintage full-size near-luxury sedans. The more ornate their ornamentation, the more optimistic the name, the more trashed they tend to be. This one is a 1970 Ninety Eight LS (Luxury Sedan) Holiday four-door hardtop, the top model in Oldsmobile's lineup. The 98 came with a 455 Rocket V8 and was available with a host of convenience options befitting a luxury cruiser, including standard power seats, power windows, power steering and power front disc brakes, available tilt and telescoping steering wheel, 8-track tape player, and of course a luxury vinyl roof. Rear fender skirts were standard.