What do you call a car that’s not quite hatchback and not quite station wagon? If you’re from jolly old England you might say shooting brake. If you’re a Ferrari history devotee you might say breadvan. Toyota called theirs the Liftback, and Anton Gross calls this 1979 Toyota Corolla SR5 Liftback his car. Anton picked up the Toyota a few years back from its original owner in Huntington Beach, California with a tick over 100K on the clock. Some aftermarket springs up front and some lowering blocks on the leafs out back give the car its lower than usual Corolla stance. Anton drove the Corolla with the factory AC on chill from Las Vegas to Irvine to represent the mighty Liftback in the Toyota section at the JCCS as shown here. The seventies-style grille pattern on the SR5 Corolla alone is enough reason to make a relaxing time, a Liftback time.
While it may be hard to believe that 1988 was over twenty years ago, the last year of the Pontiac Fiero also marks the first year of Jimmy’s Old Car Picnic. Jimmy’s 21st Annual Old Car Picnic is coming right up this Sunday, October 11th at Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park. That’s in San Francisco by-the-sea. The fun starts at sunrise and meanders through until sunset. All pre-1972 cars, trikes, scooters, trucks, bikes, and even steamboats are welcome. Thirty bucks will get you some choice parking on the meadow along with a goodie bag. Walking down onto the grass and checking out the rides while the Blue Angels soar overhead for Fleet Week is free of charge. Here’s a roundup of just a few rides from last year’s picnic.
Rick Nightingale’s 1965 Chevrolet Corvette is a California custom time capsule still rolling strong. Rick bought the car in 1969, and took until 1970 to bring the car to the customized state it remains in today. He’s owned, driven, and raced the American sports car for the forty years since. Along the way the custom Corvette has been shown at the LA Roadster Show, and graced the pages of Wild World of Corvettes magazine. With the exception of some nitrous oxide fog and a replacement set of Mickey Thompson tires, the Corvette is largely the same as it was when finished in 1970 – 427 cubic inch big block V8 and all.
Because we need Cressida station wagons with genuine simulated wood grain paneling and Datsuns with honeycomb hubcabs now more than ever before comes this photo roundup of the 2009 Japanese Classic Car Show. Over 400 cars from as far off locales as Pennsylvania lined up early on Saturday to descend into the Hidden Valley in Irvine, California. Everything from trailered in over the top drag race specials to motored in under their own power low mileage survivors made it down onto the breezy lawn. Throngs of fans that think cars should be at the least interesting and at the most a wicked good time walked in to enjoy the show. The head spinning number of Japanese classics was almost overwhelming, but the variety of styles proved that no matter what sort of econobox or race car turns your crankshaft – finding, driving, fixing, and showing them off can be entertaining for all.
Tomorrow marks the fifth consecutive year of the Japanese Classic Car Show. Owners and fans of old school Japanese cars will descend into Hidden Valley park in Irvine, California to bask in four hundred or more examples of classic Japanese car goodness. The show promises the always unique mix of museum quality survivors and legendary vintage race cars along with daily driven and modified classics. Be forewarned that attendance at the JCCS as a spectator may result in obsessive scouring of the classifieds and internets for a Toyota Starlet or Datsun 610. Some mining of the vast Clunkbucket image archives produced this small retrospective from previous Japanese Classic Car Shows. Take a gander at what happened a few years ago to get an idea of what will be going on in the Hidden Valley on Saturday, October 3rd.
Angelo Limnios’ Datsun has a story to tell. It involves two cars, a few transmissions, one worked 1200 cc engine, multiple trips to the boneyard, and about 160,000 miles of commute drudgery turned into daily entertainment. His 1973 Datsun 1200 is currently driven 25 miles each way from home base to work at NUMMI in Fremont, California. What started out as a weekend race car project has since become a workday commuter, and a rewarding hobby.
