It’s not often one sees a Renault Dauphine in the wild. Seeing one on top of an Atlas looking figure wearing a W on his belt buckle in Bowling Green, Kentucky is something, that up until recently, was on the very high order of improbable. Even though we didn’t hit the winning numbers on the Kentucky Powerball, we did see this Renault Dauphine atop of what we can only assume is a reasonable likeness of Walt himself of Walt’s Allstates Transmission Service. According to current shop proprietor Carlos, the likeness is in fact supposed to be Walt, who is retired and living in Texas. Is Walt strong enough to hoist a Dauphine over his head? “At one time, he was pretty strong”, said Carlos. No one seems to know where the Renualt came from or how it ended up on top of the sign – which was built in the early seventies. No matter. What better resting place then a roadside sign for an automobile that Tom and Ray from Car Talk said “was truly unencumbered by the engineering process”. Taking this Dauphine off the road may be the only thing that preserved it for future generations to enjoy.
Walt’s Allstates Transmission Service is located at 1724 Us 31W Byp, Bowling Green, KY. Thanks to Carlos for taking the time out to talk.
The drivers and associated crew of this Toyota Corolla had no idea what model year it was originally. Reading the number of dents and layers of paint like tree rings might set the car’s age at hundreds of years old, but they estimated a more realistic late-seventies vintage. These guys bought and brought their Corolla to race after hearing the Friday night mayhem from work next to the Petaluma Speedway. Rather than fight, they figured why not go racing? When co-workers Darian Valestrini, Sam McCloud, and Jason Weaver spotted this former mini-stock Corolla on a local lawn with a for sale sign on it, they knew they had found their race car.
From the Cubists and Fauvists together at last department comes this Citroën Ami Wagon. If art history recollection serves correctly, the Fauvists were all about using paint directly from the tube in reaction to all the fussy mixing and blending at the snooty Academy. A dark shadow? Forget tertiary color relationships. Vermillion from the tube! This strategy was evidently successful. Less mixing of paint left far more time for wine drinking and finding the models. Taking Fauvism from a one-ounce tube to a five-gallon bucket by way of a broad brush is the deep ultramarine paint coating parts of this Citroën Ami station wagon. This spawn of 2CV was sighted at the Wine Country Classic show in downtown Sonoma, California. The mixed-influence Ami evidently got there under its own power and was parked in defiance beside the show, like the wild beasts that rejected the established Academy before it.
The 2nd annual Rod and Kulture Dragfest played host to a healthy number of vintage drag racing heavyweights and freshly rustified kontraptions alike on the hallowed grove of Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield. Any event that combines nitromethane burning t-buckets, jet cars, altered wheelbase stockers, and twin-engine dragsters like the Six-Session just has to be fun. Throw in a few bands and a drive-in movie screen and you have something that was a wicked good time for everyone involved – even if it did rain buckets on Friday. This photo bonanza is a preview of more good stuff to come from the Dragfest. Tune in. Tank up. Hit the loud pedal.
Because Paul Greenstein was able to forge a lifelong dream of a streamlined future and rusting satellite TV antenna together into this beautiful air-cooled V-8 powered sedan is exactly why automobiles will forever be part of our culture. That being said, we bring you Paul and Dydia’s 1941 Tatra T87. Legend has it that a soldier returning from World War II drove this particular Tatra T87 onto a ship, and then back off home to New York State. The T87 then sat at a local dealership for many years as undeniable proof that they really would take any car on trade-in. The Tatra ended up switching hands a few times until in 2001 Paul acquired the rusty T87 after the previous owner had stalled on his restoration plans, and parked the Tatra on a concrete slab shared with a satellite TV dish.
From the twice as good department comes not one, but two Ford Pintos. The ’72 Pinto with the American Racing Libre wheels belongs to Mike Streets, and is an award winning genuine BOSS PINTO – Hot Pants edition. Really. The chin spoiler, body cladding, rear spoiler, and stripe package all add up to factory-original ’70s awesome. Mike infused some of his own Pinto road racing heritage into the 2.0L mill along with a set of Weber side drafts. The yellow ’72 with the Thunderbird wheels tucked up under the fenders belongs to Paul Sanguinetti, who joined Mike out on the lawn at the Goodguys show to help bring the Runabouts back. These guys and a rag tag fugitive fleet of FoMoCo faithful are on their way to to SoCal to make the 24th Annual 
