Sixty8panther

This is what the Automotive hobby is all about. Looking great so far. Now bolt in a 5.7 liter Hemi out ofa wrecked RAM, hook it up to a 6-speed manual trans & run a driveshaft from the trans to IRS/rear pumpkin scavenged from a BMW and you'll be in Hot Rod magazine.

Like most things BMW they'll prob. grow on me. (not that I'm disliking them now)

WTF drug are you on? Honestly??? f@#king pretty snide for a pizza delivery boy.

Excellent examples of "obscure, never seen weirdness" not necessarily great style. A guy in my neck of the woods has one of those Jaguar coupe hardtops... it's FLAWLESS!!! ESp. the 350 sbc under the hood. What the F___ ? The Type-34 is 1st for me too!

Speaking of '70s Datsun oddballs: I was looking through one of the shelves of Matchbox /Hot Wheels /Corgy /Majorette & other brand 1:64th cars & found this GEM amongst my ancient collection of oddballs. (photo of the '74 Skyline, not of my model but I'll photograph it next time i'm there.)

I guess. BUT remind me again why i should have hope for a future that has all the promise of a plane crash??? Our entire country has been hollowed out like a Jack-O-Lantern and is a shell of it's former glory. Now it's about to get smashed with Aluminum baseball bat. Except it will be a slow and painful death. Just like Rome... they had their power & glory and also pissed it all away.

Welll, most Japanese cars from that era were fastbacks and/or emulated Moparsof he late 1960s & early 1970s. Are you thinking of the '70s Toyota Celica notch-back?

Wow... I'm just glued to my monitor reading through this & soaking up the tragic, beautiful & disturbing photos. To think these former plants, these buildings that are now basically just ruins, just $h!piles of dirty filth & or gone forever all together were once the mighty backbone of the industry of the world's leading Superpower. This mortar, brick & steel: what used to be GM, Studebaker, Dodge, Packard, Fisher Body Etc. is now left to just implode, burn or rot like in some Post-Apocalyptic movie. The Rome analogy is apt. Behold the 20th century Equivalent of the Colosseum. Just like a train wreck... I have spent about two hours sifting through this gut-wrenching site. It's both the former beauty, majestic glory & current strife that fascinate me. I came || close to moving out to Detroit in 2002 to just break away fro it all here in Mass & seek employment at GM. I wonder if I would have done better or worse than I am today... Anyway check out this link, this site is one of the best, most interesting & informative little corners of the WWW/'net I have found in months! http://onlyndetroit.com/html/decay/ond-0016-all_abord.htm then & now:

Hope springs eternal. (that was not a jab at Cory so much as my lack of faith in the "economic recovery")

Well yeah... the first three are Hardtps, but the "chopped" looking last one, white body/black roof is a Karmann bodied DKW and as such might not be, despite the No.2 pencil thin B-pillar. Notice the Karmann has a diff. grille, suicide doors & a lower greenhouse with a unique C-pillar.

The title of the thread read "Flagship Sedan" not mainstream Sonata-territory, high-volume FWD $h!pile. Hyundai has a decent looking RWD flagship now, so it's not entirely stupid for one to assume that Kia is also trying to move up in price/class. And for the record mainstream cars did not always have crappy, pathetic copycat styling. e.g.

It's not kind of close, it' not ALMOST close... it's just NOT CLOSE. I guess if these two look alike to you than you must think your cab-forward Intrepid a spittin' image of the Chrysler/Lamborghini Portofino concept. http://www.lamborghiniregistry.com/Portofino/index.html

I want it back!!! I want to be reimbursed for it. (the 12 minutes I just wasted on youtube/google) To think I was told Chuck Norris jokes are retarded? These YouTubers need a life. Get laid, Holy Krisst. :rolleye:

Better than their current Econobox portfolio!

Yeah well we live in a mediocre world. So it's no surprise many of you deem mediocrity & awkward half-assery as acceptable &/or even commendable. Either the rest of the wolrd has gone blind or just REALLY lowered their standards quite a bit. Either way it is quite funny what is considered stylish or attractive these days. Maybe the overexposure to the ugly crap that has become commonplace is to blame...? Sure, horse shoes & hand grenades. And you call yourself a Graphic Designer?????? (j/k ..kind of) You know what? If GM had the balls to build more of their "styling exercises" they would be in much better financial shape! It's not like I'm asking for the damn '55 Firebird II concept car complete with turbine power & a f@#king Cessna tail section! Gezus there HAS to be a middle ground somewhere FAR right of the production LaCrosse.

What can I say... this is an apt analogy for our Country as a whole. . http://onlyndetroit.com/html/decay/ond-001...yunderworld.htm . I wonder how much manufacturing will remain state-side when my daughters are my age...? On the other hand the city of Detroit seems to be the most amazing & interesting example of decay & urban ruins. I would have a field day there with a camera. I bet i would fill up a 200GB hard drive with photos in less than a week.

LoL Good stuff. I should like to come visit Mr.LastFirehawkEverMadeCamino again soon.

Q-tips & used syringes would be more your style... no?

Really? Well I guess lots of "retards" purchase Infiniti FX45s and other convention shattering products. But have fun living in your safe, predictable, quasi- futuristic but status quo-compatible world. If you think the production Lacrosse was not a bad, unoriginal & uninspired design than I can understand why you loved your Solara and wax poetic about a pathetic Prius.

WRONG. It's a concept car. This means NOTHING. Talk to me when the PRODUCTION car is compared to something other than an ugly Toyota Camry or the awkward Honda Accord. Concept =/= production. The concept Lacrosse was sex on wheels. The production... about as exciting as stale, soggy Wonder Bread. Or, better yet: The devil is in the details. (e.g. proportions, chrome trim, lighting, stance, greenhouse) I may HATE the Camaro's B-pillar but to the average slob it's just as if not more attention grabbing in production as the concept car was. In fact the headlights were IMHO a big improvement over the slightly awkward Concept's headlights.

You know how I get those really good deals? Patience. It took about 3 years to find a dirt cheap 500SEC. (I was actually hoping for a 560SEC) You gotta hit up Craigslist every day, write down phone numbers in a notebook and then do a process of elimination. Before we bought the BMW 735iL I had about 40 phone numbers in my journal. I called the top dozen or so. Once I decided to go forward & pull cash out and actually go look I lucked out and bought my No.1 pick, but if I had decided to pass on the 735iL there were a few more I had in mind.

Exactly. That is (or at least WAS) the whole idea of this country.

PS: the X6 is really growing on me... looks way better in the flesh.

NO, you're right. It's not a blatant ripoff... but still I'm not one to go all goo-goo-gah-gah over a warmed over imitation. Even in 2009 there's still many BOLD, striking & very original designs out there. Just some awesome examples of cars that were designed by creative "out of the box" thinkers: - Art & Science Cadillacs, esp the 2nd gen. CTS-V - Mercedes Benz CL600 hardtop - Infiniti FX35 / FX45 (as well as the new FX37 / FX50) - 5th Gen. Camaro - Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34 & current gen...) - Dodge Charger & Magnum - Last Gen. Celica GT-S & of course there's the stunning, inspirational exotics. - McLaren F1 - Bugatti Veyron - Koenigsegg CCX

The Audi TT's Great-Grandfaher. Auto Union / DKW coupe 1000 of the early 1960s. Not sure if the Karmann bodied coupe was a true hardtop. It DOES appear to be but I've never seen a photo of one with the rear windows down.... Anyone know about this?