Danville Street Sighting - 2009 Pontiac G8 GT

Today is my birthday, and it's my party and I'll cry if I want to. It still bums me out that the Pontiac brand is gone, even ten years later. Especially after a couple of bright spots amid the general decline of GM's Excitement division. The Pontiac G8 was a rebadge of the Australian Holden Commodore, engineered for left hand drive and other compliance with American road laws. It lasted only two years here in the states based on the VE Commodore, then enjoyed an almost equally brief resurgence with a Chevrolet badge as the Chevy SS based on the redesigned VF. Today the Holden factory in south Australia is itself shut down, no longer building the iconic rear-wheel-drive coupes, sedans and ute pickups that carried such monikers as Monaro, Commodore, Maloo, Statesman and Caprice. For decades the Commodore platform was a strong seller in Australia, but rising fuel costs, environmental concerns and the spreading worldwide plague of the SUV ate into Holden car sales. General Motors imported some cars into the US, apparently as an excuse to keep the Australian factory open. Frustratingly, the Pontiac G8 and Chevrolet SS were barely advertised and always remained niche products for enthusiasts in the know.

Danville Street Sighting - 1958 Chevrolet Impala

I needed a theme for this week's posts. In the previous feature of the '46 Ford convertible I mentioned that sometimes I find good cars outside of a repair shop in Danville. So I guess that's what we'll do. Second in the series is this 1958 Chevy Impala.

Danville Street Sighting - 1967 Plymouth Sport Fury

Well folks, it's summer and that means warm sunny weather for top-down convertible cruising. At least in the parts of the country where it isn't storming right now. If you're sitting at your computer and it's thundering outside, my condolences. At least you can enjoy California vicariously here.

Livermore Street Sighting - 1987 Merkur XR4Ti

It's the mid 1980s. You're a moderately successful professional in the market for a new prestige car. You could buy a Cadillac, or a Lincoln, or a nice Chrysler. But you want something a little more European, smaller, and sporty. You could buy a BMW 3 Series, but every yuppie buys a BMW. So you bite your lip and walk onto the lot at the Lincoln-Mercury dealer, past the squishy Grand Marquis and Town Cars, past the formal-roofed Cougar and hump-trunked Mark VII LSC with their thirsty V8s. On one side of the lot there's a shiny two-tone hatchback that looks like nothing else there. "What's a Merkur?" you ask the eager salesman who caught you staring at this strange car that says it was made in Germany. A four-cylinder with a turbocharger? The salesman proudly tells you this car shares its 2.3 liter turbo engine with the Mustang SVO and Thunderbird Turbo Coupe. You didn't even know you could get a Mustang with a turbo! So you test drive this unusual alphanumeric car. It ticks the boxes you're looking for. Alloy wheels, moonroof, rear spoiler, minimal brightwork, rear-wheel-drive, sport-tuned suspension, five-speed manual, and it pulls when you stomp the gas and the turbo spools up. You take a chance, sign on the dotted line and become the only person in your neighborhood with a Merkur XR4Ti.

Oakland Street Sighting - 1966 Plymouth Sport Fury

I'm not really sure how the words "Sport" and "Fury" go together. I guess it's something like "Mustang" and "Cobra". When you don't think about it, it makes perfect sense. The name Fury comes from the three Greek goddesses of vengeance. So a Sport Fury must be a very athletic, angry goddess.

Emeryville Street Sighting - 1963 Volvo PV544 Sport

Tucked away on a quiet corner of a quiet street in Emeryville, California is an unassuming brick building with a simple script sign above its door that says "Fantasy Junction". It lives up to its name. Inside are dozens of classic sports cars worthy of anyone's dream garage, and all for sale. And outside... well, usually there's nothing special outside. But on one of my visits there with a friend who had never been, we encountered this cherry red Volvo PV 544 parked across the street.

Danville Street Sighting - 1962 Chevrolet Impala Sport Sedan

It's been a good four years since I last photographed a '62 Chevy Impala for a feature here. I've previously mentioned that old Impalas are such a fixture in California's car culture, I tend not to pay much attention to them. However, they are still historic and still special even though GM rolled out nearly 705,000 of them for 1962. What clinched it for me to shoot this one was its relatively stock appearance and the story it tells.

Danville Street Sighting - 1982 Jeep Cherokee Laredo

I think few auto manufacturers have gotten as much mileage from one vehicle platform as Jeep did with the Wagoneer. The proto-SUV made its debut as a 1963 model based on the J-Series Gladiator pickup truck, and served a long and distinguished career as a go-anywhere station wagon with four doors or two, a utilitarian panel truck and perhaps the first "luxury" SUV (Super Wagoneer/Wagoneer Limited/Grand Wagoneer). The SJ Wagoneer lasted until 1991, with the name appearing again periodically on special models of the compact Cherokee (XJ) and midsize Grand Cherokee (ZJ) through 1993. The two-door Wagoneer was always a slow seller, and only lasted from 1963-68. American Motors purchased Kaiser Jeep in 1970 and in '74 a two-door variant of the Wagoneer was back, now called Cherokee and sporting new side windows and standard four-wheel-drive.

Alameda Street Sighting - 1973 Pontiac Le Mans Sport Coupe

For most car brands, 1973 wasn't a banner year. It's memorable mainly for bad things, like the OPEC oil crisis and the beginning of federal 5-mph bumper standards. A lot of cars that year were retreads of 1970 or '71 models. For General Motors, 1973 brought the introduction of the midsize A platform's all-new "Colonnade" body. Colonnade refers to the style of roof pillars GM employed to allow frameless door glass without building a traditional hardtop. This was intended to allow the car to perform better in a rollover crash. The change was sort of a big deal since it meant a new Chevelle, new Olds Cutlass, new Buick Century and new Pontiac Le Mans. All of these models were huge volume sellers so getting them right was important. All mainstream Pontiac midsize models were now badged as Le Mans, with such option packages and styles as Luxury Le Mans, Le Mans Sport, Le Mans Safari (wagons), and for more adventurous buyers a GTO or new "European-styled" Grand Am could be specified. The Grand Prix luxury coupe was also based on the Le Mans this year.

Alameda Street Sighting - 1970 Chevrolet Impala Sport Sedan

Admittedly I usually don't like photographing really beat-up cars but I do if they're interesting or uncommon. A 1970 Chevy Impala four-door hardtop used to be a common sight on America's roads, but certainly isn't anymore. GM produced over 600,000 Impalas in 1970, the vast majority of which were V8 cars. This number does not even include low-trim Biscaynes and Bel Airs or high-trim Caprices! I have seen an estimate of 46,000 for Impala Sport Sedan production but no actual number seems to be available.

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.

Berkeley Street Sighting - 1989 Peugeot 405 Mi16

When one thinks of European sport sedans of the late 1980s, one might name the Germans first: BMW E34 M5, Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3-16, Audi 4000S Quattro and the like. Then there are the others like the Italian Alfa Romeo 164 Quadrifoglio and smaller 75/Milano, but the French weren't necessarily known for building sporty sedans during most of the 1980s. You could get a 505 Turbo, or if you wanted something that looked like 1990 instead of 1980 you could opt for the smaller and more modern 405. And the hottest 405 sold in the States was the Mi16.

Oakland Street Sighting - 1972 Fiat 850 Sport Spider

The Fiat 850 is a rather interesting car. A lot of older Italian family cars feature expanded lineups with several unique products on the same chassis, and the 850 is a great example of this. It was offered as a two-door Berlina sedan, two-door Familiare wagon, Furgonata small van, coupe and Spider roadster. Two versions of certain models were available, the mainstream Normale and higher-performance Super. Coupe and Spider models received a special engine tuned for even greater power (47 horsepower instead of the Normale's 34 and Super's 37). All models came with a four-speed stick, rear engine and rear-wheel drive. American 850s got a smaller-displacement, 49.8 cubic inch engine to evade federal emissions regulations applying to engines of 50 ci and larger -- pretty sneaky.

Millbrae Street Sighting - 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air Sport Coupe

The Tri-Five Bel Air must really be the low-hanging fruit of the classic-car world. It's beautiful, it's classic, and for the most part I'm completely sick of them. I grew up adoring 1955-1957 Chevrolets, built models of them, drew pictures of them. Now I go to shows and generally avoid taking pictures of them, because they're everywhere and they all look the same. They all end up painted blue, red, aqua or black with white two-tone, and frequently roll on American Racing Torq Thrust wheels or some other shiny billet aluminum five-spoke design. In fact, I made this same rant the last couple of times I featured one of these cars. So imagine my relief when I found this one, which is not only stock but features a uniquely 1950s color combination of Shadow Gray over Coral. I've seen only a handful of cars that wore such a color scheme, and all came from this era.

Castro Valley Street Sighting - 1967 Buick LeSabre Custom 400 Sport Coupe

In fall 2006 when I began going to college in San Francisco, I commuted on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), basically a regional subway/light rail. I always caught the train out of the Castro Valley station, and when there was no space left in the BART parking lot I'd park down the street. It was early on that I'd often see a huge old green Buick LeSabre parked on the same street. It came and went and after a while it disappeared. I never saw what became of it until two years after graduation, when I was exploring a different part of Castro Valley and there it was. This was one of the first cars I photographed in depth with my then-new Canon 60D, as my poor trusty Kodak Z980 had just died four days previously (the power switch broke while attempting to photograph this 1974 Chevy Camaro). So I apologize that the photo quality is a bit poor; I hadn't figured out all the camera settings yet.

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.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1969 Fiat 124 Sport Coupe

I'm hesitant to photograph Fiats most of the time because all I ever come across are the Fiat 124 Sport Spiders. They're cute little cars and all, but they're common enough that I really just don't care (The same is generally true with the Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce). Then once in a while something different pops up and here we go. This is still a Fiat 124, but it's the unusual 124 Sport Coupe.

Alameda Street Sighting - 1965 Chevrolet Impala Sport Sedan

San Ramon Street Sighting - 1992 GMC Typhoon

All-wheel-drive. Six cylinders. Boxy wagon styling. Turbocharged.
By that description alone it sounds like some kind of mythical Volvo. But it's actually a GMC Typhoon, and twenty years ago an SUV based on the Chevy S-10 pickup was one of the fastest performance vehicles on the market.

Danville Street Sighting - 2005 Chevrolet SSR Indy 500 Parade Truck

In 2002 General Motors decided to discontinue the Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird. The F-body coupes and convertibles were popular budget sporty cars, especially among young buyers looking for rear-drive V8 power. But the body and chassis dated to 1993, the interior was hopelessly antiquated and the competition was upping their game. So what did GM build to replace them? Well, in the case of Pontiac, nothing. Pontiac had things like the Grand Prix GTP, but no sporty coupes that could truly replace the Firebird and Trans-Am in the middle years of the 2000s. Nobody thought a Sunfire or Grand Am GT was a substitute for a Trans-Am. For Chevy, though, GM was readying an all-new performance two-door. Hoping to take advantage of the retro styling craze popularized by the 2001 Chrysler PT Cruiser and 2002 Ford Thunderbird, Chevy rolled out the SSR (Super Sport Roadster).
A pickup truck.
...With a retractable hardtop.
...Patterned very loosely after the 1947-1953 Advance Design Series pickups.