[Shadowmuse Blown]

This is a 1940 Bantam roadster. This car was the actual basis for the original GP US Army 4X4 quarter ton truck otherwise know as the Jeep now. In 1940, the US Army asked manufacturers to come up with a light weight 4x4 all-wheel drive within 2 months and the Bantam car company came up with the prototype that met the standards and was then the chosen one. But Bantam was too small of a manufacturer and was forced by the government to share with Willis-Overland and Ford Motor its technology. The company died a few years after World War 2. 

I knew Ford & Willis made the Jeeps in WWII, but I knew nothing about the original design of the thing coming from Bantam.  Thanks for the info, Sol!

[Shadowmuse Blown]

1939 ZIS -101 Sport Coupe

This is the Soviet Zavod Imeni Stalina with a reverse engineered Buick chassis. Apparently, only one or two copies were made. 

[MaxBigfoot]

1939 ZIS -101 Sport Coupe

This is the Soviet Zavod Imeni Stalina with a reverse engineered Buick chassis. Apparently, only one or two copies were made. 

Very neat looking car, Shadowmuse.  Everything I could find on it said there was only one made.  It topped out at 162 kph, which is pretty awesome for the time.  According to a page on Russian cars I found, it ended up rotting in the back of the factory it was created in.   

[solvegas]

A 1956 Buick Roadmaster. A distinctive styling feature which is still used today is the four "exhaust " holes on the front fenders which is from the 1920's when Buicks had exhaust pipes emanating from there. This 1956 was one of the last models with the chunky look when in 1958 and 1959 the vehicles became longer, lower and in Buick's case, the "angry" look grille appeared.

[Shadowmuse Blown]

A 1956 Buick Roadmaster. A distinctive styling feature which is still used today is the four "exhaust " holes on the front fenders which is from the 1920's when Buicks had exhaust pipes emanating from there. This 1956 was one of the last models with the chunky look when in 1958 and 1959 the vehicles became longer, lower and in Buick's case, the "angry" look grille appeared.

I’m sorry, the ‘58s were still rather clunky.  The longer & lower look didn’t come around until 1959 because it took that long for GM to come out with the designs after Chrysler’s forward look sketches were leaked in ‘56, I think.

[Shadowmuse Blown]

This one’s great: a 1940 Packard 90 Tour Bus.

[solvegas]

A 1956 Buick Roadmaster. A distinctive styling feature which is still used today is the four "exhaust " holes on the front fenders which is from the 1920's when Buicks had exhaust pipes emanating from there. This 1956 was one of the last models with the chunky look when in 1958 and 1959 the vehicles became longer, lower and in Buick's case, the "angry" look grille appeared.

I’m sorry, the ‘58s were still rather clunky.  The longer & lower look didn’t come around until 1959 because it took that long for GM to come out with the designs after Chrysler’s forward look sketches were leaked in ‘56, I think.

Remember back in the day when in the month of September all the new cars for the next year came out? So, September of 1958, is when the 1959 models were on the dealers lots. You are right, the 1958 was still fat but the 1959 came out in 1958. I remember the excitement there was in September for the new model cars but that started it to die by the late 70's. 

[solvegas]

A type of vehicle I always liked and wish it would come back, the Chevrolet El Camino, GMC Caballero. Here is a 1964 El Camino. 

[solvegas]

Jay Leno owns a Stanley Steamer of which he would take to the NBC studios in beautiful Burbank when he hosted the Tonight Show. It was about 30 years ago when he replaced Johnny Carson. How time flies. Anyways, this is a 1913 Stanley Steamer, and it did not have an internal combustion engine, but one based on a coal/wood fire steam locomotive boiler on a much smaller scale. My maternal Grandfather showed me once a photo in which he was posing by one when he was a teenager and it was a big deal in the town of Merkel, Texas and it was on the local newspaper. Anyways, here is one which is still functional. 

[solvegas]

Some of the best cars ever produced anywhere in the world were built by Duesenberg back in Indiana in Fort Bend. This is a beautiful 1935 SSJ 557 Speedster La Grande Roadster. It could go over 100miles per hour at the time which was incredibly fast for the time. A true classic. It's a doozy. That is where the expression came from. 

[Shadowmuse Blown]

Two great views of my favorite car: a ‘59 Dodge Coronet

[solvegas]

Two great views of my favorite car: a ‘59 Dodge Coronet

Gosh, it looks so aggressive. 

[MaxBigfoot]

Two great views of my favorite car: a ‘59 Dodge Coronet

A day's production of a chromium mine, right there.   

[solvegas]

Two great views of my favorite car: a ‘59 Dodge Coronet

A day's production of a chromium mine, right there.   

Yeah, I miss those old chrome bumpers and the styling it gave cars and those cars had personality unlike today's cars which are boring in some ways. 

[solvegas]

This past Sunday, I went to the cinema and saw the 40th anniversary of the horror movie Christine. I remember when I read the book by Stephen King in 1983 and the movie came out a little later and I liked both of them. It was about a 1958 Plymouth Fury which had been possessed by a malevolent spirit.