From our rear-wheel drive hatchback division of junkyards past comes the Mazda GLC, or great little car. Like its Chevrolet Chevette and Toyota Starlet hatchback subcompact market mates, the GLC featured a front-engine with rear-wheel drive setup with a solid rear axle. Also like its contemporaries the Mazda was among the last of its kind to feature rear-wheel drive. The … [Read more...]
Franco-American Turbowagon
From the well and truly forgotten department of Junkyard Chronicle comes this once mighty Peugeot 505 turbo station wagon. It is a mystery now why French turbocharged station wagons never quite caught on here in the United States, especially since the imported longroofs were by all accounts competent and stylish machines. This particular Franco-American turbowagon was of 1989 … [Read more...]
Forgotten Datsun
The two-tone paint scheme and space age styling of this Datsun 810 saloon would stun any junkyarder into full stop. While the Datsun might look something like a regular Japanese car of the time, the trick stuff was all there in this mid-size sedan. Under the hood was a fuel injected version of the six-cylinder engine found in the 240-260-280Z-cars, tweaked to kick out a … [Read more...]
The Chevette Continuum
As odd as many of the occurrences that present themselves at the junkyard may be, there has been no greater moment of duality to date than stumbling onto not one, but two Chevrolet Chevettes in close proximity. With a run stretching from 1975-1987, the GM T-platform Chevette was a rear-wheel drive contemporary of the Toyota Starlet, Ford Pinto, Mazda GLC, and even AMC Gremlin. … [Read more...]
Spanning the Globe for the Constant Variety of Vans
The last time that custom vans were the big deal in America coincided nicely into an American automotive industry that had slightly lost course with even the muscle car tapped on power. The van trend began as a subculture in the early Seventies, and had more or less been co-opted by the big three by the latter half of the decade. Before the van craze had largely run its course, … [Read more...]