July 2010 – CARS-YDSE.com

1958 Plymouth Belvedere

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Here’s another in the long line of Chrysler’s “Skip Year” cars. This one is a 1958 and that was the year that really hurt Chrysler sales because of the decision to skip several years of testing in 1957. Sales dropped as many cars had very bad reliability levels. See the previous article here.

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But you can see that the cars sold because of the look of the line. Too bad they didn’t test these cars more, Chrysler could have been a big winner.

1957 would be a banner year for the Chrysler Corporation, and Plymouth was no exception. Plymouth’s design was so revolutionary that Chrysler used the slogan “Suddenly, it’s 1960!” to promote the new car. The Belvedere line once again included the Fury. This year a new 318in³ V8 with dual four-barrel carburetors was the standard engine in the Fury, and it was available on all Plymouths.

The Belvedere would once again return as a top level trim for 1958. Styling was evolutionary from the sleek 1957 models. Quad headlights were new, as was a big block 350in³ V8 with dual four-barrel carburetors dubbed “Golden Commando.”

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1971 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme

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On a walk to get some morning coffee recently, I almost literally ran into this Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. It’s a 1971 and coincidentally, the year the owner (pictured) was born. She was just returning from the coffee shop and we had a short conversation about her fantastic car. She has owned it for 17 years and really takes care of it. The car looked like it was a year old instead of a having almost four decades of time on it’s side.

The 1971 model shared much of the same exterior sheetmetal as the 1970, but with a new hood, grille, and headlight assemblies, as well as new bumpers and taillights. Four new exterior body colors were offered, Viking Blue, Lime Green, Bittersweet, and Saturn Gold.

The famous “Rocket” V8 continued in several different sizes and power options, with both the large 455 and ‘small block’ 350 available with either 2 or 4 barrel carburetors. This was the last year for the 250 cubic-inch six cylinder engine, as it had not been a very popular offering in Olds intermediates. In 1971, all engines came from the factory with hardened valve seats, preparing for the upcoming mandate for unleaded gasoline that took effect with the introduction of catalytic converters on 1975 models. The 1971 Olds engines also featured lowered compression ratios and designed to run on regular leaded, low-lead or unleaded gasoline with a research octane rating of 91 or higher (equivalent to 87 octane by today’s octane measurements).

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLWCfW_vz1Q&hl=en_US&fs=1]

I Broke My Own Rules, But What A Car!!

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This Website is all about cars you don’t see everyday. It’s done, for the most part, as I walk around San Francisco getting some exercise and taking some pictures along the way. In fact, I have a rule that I don’t post pictures of cars in organized car shows, this time I violated that rule. I think you will be glad I did.

A friend of mine was the organizer of a great little Car & Boat show in Marin County just north of our home. I decided to visit the show and took my camera along. After seeing the collection and seeing which car won the “Best In Show”, I decided it is clearly a car you don’t see everyday and what a fine car it is. It’s a prime example of a red 1941 Cadillac convertible, owned by Al Engel of Richmond California, I hope you like it.

Also, I posted some other pictures here, Click-To-View

P.S. I saw this picture on a site recently and, to me, this 1938 Buick inspired the look of this 1941 Cadillac. What do you think?

OMG, It’s a 1957 DeSoto

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I did a post about a month back about the 1957 Doge that exemplified the radical move Chrysler made that year by skipping a few years of design and testing.
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This piece on the 1957 DeSoto just adds fuel to the fire of the people, who in hindsight, say Chrytler should never have skipped the testing and quality control of the ’57 line of cars.

1957 was a good time for DeSoto. It was also a tragedy. Corporation-wide quality problems resulted in some horribly built cars. It’s said that DeSoto four door hardtops built at Los Angeles leaked so badly in the rain that occupants were wise to exit the car to avoid drowning. One 1957 DeSoto Adventurer was incapacitated for four of the total 18 months it was owned by its first owner. The car went through four transmissions, three power steering units, two new double point distributors, new valve guides and a new radiator. Reportedly, it took considerable effort and the attention of Chrysler’s Chairman of the Board to have the car corrected.

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