Multipla in the Wild!

Here's something you don't see every day: a vintage Fiat Multipla parked on the street.

When Shit Goes Wrong

I got invited to ride along on a vintage car rally last week. My buddy Marcos takes his old Volvos out whenever he gets the chance, and spending Black Friday tearing around back roads in the wine country sounded like the perfect way to burn off some Turkey Day calories.

Etceterini Update: Great Nardi 750 Crosley Video!

Following up on my post from last week, I'm excited to share this great video on a Crosley-powered Nardi 750 that was for sale not long ago.  I missed this when it was first posted, but H-mod fanatic Richard Campbell pointed it out when he saw my etceterini post.

Etceterini on my Mind

I've been reading an old Fawcett book on the "new" European sports cars (Sports Car Album by John Freeman, 1953) that really delivers a feel for the era -- a time when neither Mercedes Benz nor Ferrari were household names in the US, and the Corvette was still just a show car. The book is loaded with photos, and the author visited all of the major factories and many smaller marques. It's well worth picking up if you like that sorta stuff.

The fifties is my favorite era for sports cars, and the early part of the decade probably produced my favorite designs over all. I'm a sucker for low slung slipstream-bodied cars with skinny tires and a driver sporting a necktie.

Nice Tribute to the Hot Shot

Really nice write up at The Old Motor on the often-maligned Crosley Hot Shot. 

Happy to see the details correct, and snappy writing, too. "Running at a constant 7,500 rpm, the Hotshot screamed like a chain saw on the straightaways and was driven wildly into the corners." 

Gary Gabelich - "Plenty Boss, Man. Plenty Boss."

Unlike most car geeks, I wasn't much of a gearhead when I was a kid. No subscription to Hot Rod or CarToons, no shelf of carefully-constructed Revell car models, no posters of scantily-clad girls posing next to race cars. I certainly noticed old cars on the rare occasions that I saw them, and did have a passing interest in kid-candy like the Munsters Koach, but my Dad was so OVER being an auto mechanic by the time I came along that there was no romance under the hood. 

The only time I really remember being enthralled by a car as a kid was when we stopped at the Bonneville Salt Flats on a road trip. I was fascinated by the lunar landscape - and by the idea of cars going hundreds of miles an hour out there in the middle of nowhere. We stopped at a gas station in Wendover and I bought a postcard of the rocket-shaped car that then held the Land Speed Record: The Blue Flame, driven 622 miles an hour by Gary Gabelich. I still have that postcard.

You can imagine my surprise when I discovered last month that Gary Gabelich got his start in a Crosley.

Nebraska Estate Sale Crosley - 1947 Sedan

Just ran across photos of this sweet lil '47 sedan that will be available at an estate sale in Nebraska this weekend.

SoCal Skorpion For Sale - CHEAP!

I did an old-fashioned spit-take when I saw David Wheeler's recent post on the "Crosley Automobiles... Fun Little Cars page" on Facebook: Crosley Skorpion for sale, $5000.

Wink, Booger & Crosley

Recently bought this 1948 snapshot of "Wink, Booger and Crosley" - with an annotation like that, how could I resist?

META

You thought I was crazy for Crosleys?

Crosley engine whiz Barry Seel recently posted this photo of the time he used his Crosley-powered forklift to lift the body off his Crosley convertible.  

It's Raining Tin Blocks!

Ok, not really.

But once I made that last post a few people have come forward with THEIR running CoBra motors...

Tin Block Triumph: Bone Stock '47 Truck For Sale

"Stock" is a word that is rarely used to describe Crosley automobiles - and with good reason: they are one of the most-modified automobiles on Earth, perhaps second only to Volkswagen Beetle for percentage of modified vs. stock cars. I've been ogling Crosleys for almost 25 years, and I can count the number of truly factory-stock cars I've encountered on one hand.

So, I was happily surprised to see this incredibly period-correct '47 truck for sale in Hemmings.