It's been fun exploring what began as a silly holiday gimmick, "All I Want For Christmas is 'U'." If you're just joining us, every feature this month is a vehicle from a brand with the letter U in its name. Our world tour comes full circle where it started, back in America, with a gorgeous black 1950 Mercury coupe.
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.
There's something wonderful about a well kept vintage European sports car. The Continent produced so many classic and beautiful shapes from the postwar years leading up to the early '70s. They seemed to lose the plot a bit around that time, brought on by American laws for lights and bumpers. I've always liked the Triumph Spitfire roadster, but it's easy to forget that a fastback coupe version exists.
We're on the final countdown to Christmas which means only a few dozen more times having Mariah Carey forced upon you, and a few more installments of "All I Want For Christmas Is 'U'". By now you know the drill: car brands with the letter U in their name. Buick, Datsun, Peugeot, Austin-Healey, and now Lotus. This is a 2005 Lotus Elise.
This month in honor of Christmas we're looking at cars with the letter U in their brand name. It's part of my "All I Want For Christmas Is 'U'" series. It's silly, I know. And I hate that Mariah Carey song. But I committed to the bit and we're going to follow through.
They say Santa has to travel all over the world and so will we. This time we're landing in the UK with a 1958 Austin-Healey "Bugeye" Sprite.
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. We started with BUICK and DATSUN. This one is a 1984 Peugeot 505 STI.
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.
We find ourselves once again in the holiday season, a time when stores finally stop stocking Christmas and Halloween products side by side and instead stock Christmas and Valentine's Day. Casual readers may be confused as to why I would do a holiday special series when I haven't posted anything on this blog for most of the year. I can't blame that on COVID either. I admit I've had many other priorities, ranging from an increased work schedule to a rekindled interest in combing junkyards. The latter of which may inspire a new series of features in the future. But in any case, it's Christmastime. And like every Christmas season, there's one song you have likely heard.
All I Want For Christmas Is "U."
I blame the documentary I watched the other day on the history of the PBS TV show "Sesame Street", with episodes 'brought to you by the letter __". Basically my gimmick is that all vehicles featured this month have the letter U in their brand name. First up, BUICK. Enjoy.
If there's one thing about me that drives my friends crazy, it's my tendency to be a purist. I generally prefer a vehicle to be kept visually stock or minimally and tastefully modified. With custom cars, beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. Rarely have I been more conflicted about a feature car than this 1974 Datsun 260Z.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you.
See you in 2023!
November 11 marks the Veterans Day holiday in the United States. Unfortunately I don't have any military vehicles in my archives to commemorate the day, but here is the next best thing. It's one of the earliest examples of a civilian Jeep, a Willys CJ-2A.
I'll be the first to admit that the post-1967 front-wheel-drive GM luxury coupes aren't on my short list of cars I'd have in my garage. But I do respect them. It takes a particular sort to fall in love with a big, floaty couch on wheels. The personal luxury coupe market segment enjoyed a couple of decades of popularity in America, largely supplanting the muscle car during the 1970s. The king among these was the Cadillac Eldorado, billed as the World's Finest Personal Car. And this one is amazing.
Remember the Plymouth Satellite? Lots of folks don't. But I do.
I wanted to do something special for the holidays this year, but lacking anything Christmas-themed I decided to dig into my archives for a subject I really enjoyed documenting. It's a 1971 Chevy Camaro Z28.
I've previously said that when I don't know what to post, a Tri-Five (1955-1957) Chevrolet is a good choice. But in this case it's a 1954 Chevy.
Here's another old shoot from the archives. It's a 1967 Chevy Impala wagon with some pretty wild patina.
This one is a really old shoot, from 2014, but I haven't seen one of these since. It's an Opel Manta Rallye.
It's Halloween season as I type this, and I had to think about what to post for the occasion. What did I have in the archives that looked scary, or was trying to be something it's not? This.
It's a 1964 Cadillac Series 62 sedan with the roof cut off into a full-time roadster.
I don't always have access to my DSLR when I find cool vehicles on the street. This was one of those moments when all I had available was a potato iPhone 4. I'm trying to use up some of the older shoots from my archives, so today we have some unfortunately subpar photos of a really cool 1967 Pontiac GTO.
