How We Roll

A lurker's view of the interesting cars in the American Southeast, but mostly in Richmond, Virginia. Inspired by Other People's Things. If you see your car here and would like it removed, please drop me a line. [email protected]

[howwerollin]

OMGOMGOMG.

Summer school is over for me but I still head to campus to hit the gym - it keeps my doctor off my back - and on my way in, I saw this first gen Honda Accord. My current Honda Fit and my first Honda Prelude (4ws) were both made in Japan. It's one of the things they have in common with this, one of their ancestors. There was a stack of books about how to repair it in the back and the interior was in great shape. Someone has a beautiful car there.

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This is a 1991 Nissan Homy. Its from the Nissan Caravan line and it’s designation is E24. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I was in a hurry. I was trying to get back to my parking space before the enforcement people did. VCU is prime hunting grounds for them this time of year.

That’s when I saw this thing making its way down the street. I was completely unsure of what it was. The front marque was foreign to me, the shape was alien.

I was thrilled when the driver parked a couple of cars up and was on the right side. I know! Right hand drive?! Super weird!  I asked what this thing was and how he’d come to be in possession.

He told me that he’d gotten it really recently from a place in town that specializes in Japanese imports cars. Here’s its original page there. You can read a better write up about it there than I can give but I can tell you, I was totally geeked to see it.

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I had just finished a meeting at a local coffee shop and was late to lunch with a buddy when I saw this 1969 Ford Bronco.

I’m a Scout guy. We’ve covered that. But man, these first generation Broncos always make my heart ache. And this one was in great shape. Whoa.

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This 1960 Chevrolet Corvair didn’t look unsafe at any speed as I passed it near the border between the City of Richmond and Chesterfield County. In fact, it looked pretty freakin’ awesome. And for a mere $5,000, it can be yours because it’s for sale.

I’ve talked about Corvairs here before and I still maintain they’re sexy little cars. They look retro futuristic and I’m a huge fan. It’s just my wife isn’t gonna let me buy another old car.

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It was the middle of warm afternoon and the sun was really high in the sky. I’d stopped at a sandwich place to get some lunch when I saw this 1966 Lotus Elan. At least, I think it was a ‘66. The owner was standing there and told me but I was trying too hard to get the pictures right to pay the attention that I should have.

In doing a little research, I was surprised to find that this car sports a backbone chassis and a fiberglass body. I’m not sure I’ve come across that before. That sort of setup ought to shave a lot of weight off which’d be useful in a roadster like this.

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Though it seems to bear no resemblance to most of the other cars that share it’s name, this is a second generation Ford Mustang, better known as the Mustang II. It’s one of the few cars I’ve come across that look like automakers were paying attention when the Oil Crisis hit. It’s actually shorter than its predecessors. It seems like everything else I see from the mid 70s (and this ranged from 1973 to 1978) got bigger.

I came across this little gem in Chesterfield. The kids and I were getting cat food for our mean cat.

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Turns out it’s really true: you learn something new all the time. I remember these fairly unassuming Nissans as Datsuns 240sx-es, like the badge says. A little sleuthing on the web says it’s real designation was as the NIssan Silvia. What’s more, this is the second of six generations, meaning it’s from somewhere between 1979 and 1983.

This one was near VCU when I saw it on a damp day. I didn’t linger to look really hard but the whole car seemed to be in remarkably good shape. Wow.

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At this point, it kinda feels like I’ve seen all the old steel in this town. The blog’s been a thing on and off for like three years and even though I always look, I don’t stop much. 

But I was heading home through the Fan yesterday and I saw this 1963 Buick Skylark and something clicked. I knew I hadn’t seen it before. Sure. There are other Skylarks on this blog but I’d never seen this one before. So here it is.

I was especially pleased to see the bottle of fuel injector cleaner on the front seat. I know how comforting it feels to have things like that close at hand. Gotta love an old car, man. Gotta love it.

[howwerollin]

I came across this Volvo 740 Turbo near VCU awhile back. it marks the last of the Volvos that I truly loved. Those quad sealed beam headlamps still have a kind of austere majesty, if you ask me. The 700 series was a logical progression from the 200s and they’ll always hold a special place in my heart.

My mom drove a 780 for couple of years (It was coincidentally, the first car I ever got up to 100 mph. She still doesn’t know about that.) and I loved it. This car looks grown up and sophisticated, especially in this immaculate red.

There’s no way for me to date this one because these were made between 1984 and 1992 with only minor yearly updates. 

[howwerollin]

Whoa.

I forgot I had stuff in the queue here.

First, this (1971?) Ford Mustang Mach 1. It never ceases to amaze me that when the US auto manufacturers were confronted with the Oil Crisis in the 70s, they continued to make big cars like this. Now don’t get me wrong, big as this is, it’s a really cool looking ride. I’m sure it’s loud. This one was out in Short Pump a few weeks ago.

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When I tell you that this is the best looking Volkswagen Type 1 I’ve ever seen, I’m not exaggerating. It’s license plate indicates that it’s a ‘63 and it’s gorgeous.

I pass it in the parking lot of a church on my way to school pretty often. This time, it wasn’t wedged in between two other cars and I could get a clear shot.

Wowzers.

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I’d dropped my kids off at a church camp in Bon Air and was running late to get to a photo shoot half an hour away when I saw this 1968 Chevrolet Impala Super Sport. Convertible.

When you’ve run a blog like this for this long, you can’t just let something like that go. Or at least, I can’t. So I stopped. And the owner came out while I was looking.

He told me that the car, minus the dashboard (which is from a 427 rather than the 327 that this one was) and the grille (which he’d had chromed) were the only things that weren’t original. He showed me the original bill of sale and paperwork in a frame in the trunk. I learned that the difference between the ‘67 and the ‘68 is that the ‘68 has 3 tail lights while the ‘67 only had two.

We talked for a long time. It was awesome. And in the end, I wanted to make the 30 minute drive to take pictures in his car, not mine.

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We were in Shockoe Bottom helping my wife bring stuff to her new office when I saw this first generation Ford Probe.

On the surface, there isn’t much interesting about this - it was made between 1989 and 1992 - but there’s a bit of nostalgia at play for me. Most importantly, when this car was new, it looked like the future. We get that all the time these days but in 1989 it was something special.

The sexier version of this and the subsequent second iteration was the GT model. The tail lights were to die for.

[howwerollin]

As we pulled up and saw this in North Chesterfield, I was sure it was a Studebaker Avanti. That’s what I told the two friends I was with. Having hunted the design down from when i first saw them in the Ethan Hawke movie, Gattaca, I had grown reasonably familiar with them. There’s even one on this blog already.

This one however, is badged Avanti II. And that makes for a more interesting story: The Avanti was originally a car made by Studebaker but in 1963, when they closed their facility in South Bend, IN, they sold the name of the car and the rights to some local dealers. Those guys, Nate and Arnold Altman and Leo Newman, adjusted the design some, made more Avantis from leftover parts, and changed the name to Avanti II. In 1982, the rights were sold to a guy who was the first of three other owners (one of whom would own the company twice).

Probably more than you wanted to know, but all of that is to say that this one was manufactured somewhere between 1963 and 1982. And it’s gotta be one of the coolest cars on the road to me.

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I’d gone to have cocktails at Ruth’s Chris Steak House with a couple of friends from the neighborhood and as we pulled in to park, this 1968 Jaguar E-Type pulled in to park.

Given this one’s birthday, it’s a Series 1, which was designed for export. Moreover, the major design change was for the hood latches to be on the inside rather than outside.

The owner, after graciously consenting to some photographs, told me that this was a daily driver. He’d been to Home Depot earlier in the day. I can’t imagine that you can fit a lot of home improvement materials into a car like this, but I’d be up for riding along, just to watch. And ride, of course.

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My son and I were headed to a record shop downtown when we saw this BMW 2002. I've been in love with the lines of this car since my preschool teacher in Germany took me on a ride in her blue one almost 40 years ago. My six year old son liked the fog lights.

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I was visiting some buddies who work at a killer little design shop here in town and I'd parked my very pedestrian Honda Fit when I saw this Volvo Amazon. 

 If you are the sort of person who cannot stop to admire the lines of such a car - this one is a 123 GT which, as far as I can tell, marks it as a 1967 model - then I'm afraid we can't be friends. Because this car practically oozes cool. It's funny to think that the now iconic 240 series could have come from this lineage. There's nothing that's boxy or utilitarian about this little coupé. It's only fitting that someone who studies architecture drives it. Cheers to you, friend.