Brooklands Autumn American meet PICS!

Late homework, as usual...


Banking by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

It’s been a bit of a lean year for shows for me. I haven’t even made it once to the Pod for the first year in a good many, I missed the Mopar Nationals, and the early Brooklands American day. So I was long overdue for a dose of good old fashioned Yankee iron. It seemed a no-brainer to make the short hours’ trek up to Brooklands for the autumn American extravaganza. And here are some photos, in no especial order of preference or significance

It’s nice that they’ve opened up the pit straight at Brooklands… ish. Or at least, moved the Wellington hangar a few yards to the left so you can see right up to the hallowed banking. Or, alternatively, it’s a shame they sold 75% of the original lands the circuit stood on (and still does in places) to an evil triumvirate of housing developers, Mercedes-Benz and Tesco. Oh well, I suppose that’s very British after all… money over heritage every day. Never mind, have a Bel Air


Bel Air 53 post by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

In fact, there were a lot of Bel Airs about, I believe that the “theme” was Tri-Power Chevys (the three years ’55-‘57 when the bow tie ruled the roads with their amazingly modern and stylish cars). Oddly, I probably loved that ’53 post four-door most of any of them, which seems to buck the usual inherited wisdom. But there you are, I like to plough my own furrow as it were. There were plenty of tri-power cars worth a look, if you fancied it but all crammed together in the members carpark, you got a bit Bel Air blind. Do love a Nomad, though


BelAir 57 Nomad r by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Funnily enough, considering there were gazillions of them, all I seemed to photograph were wagons. I’ll make up for it with a bit of top trivia; if you struggle to tell a ’55 from a ’56 (the ’57 is the easy one with all the aluminium siding down the fins) then remember the Bird shrunk with age. On a ’55 the hood ornament has a long rocket tail but on the ’56 it had shrunk to a vestigial stump. There you go, cheat at Chevys, amaze your friends


Chevy 56 wagon racer by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Rather like Bel Airs, Corvettes are the American lingua franca of car shows, to mix metaphors. Or to put it another way, there are always a lot of them about. I guess because they’ve been around in one shape or another for so damned long. Still, it does mean there’s something to suit everyone’s taste (or lack of) from earlier 2nd Generation Stingrays…


Corvette 65 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

…to over-the-top 3rd generation Sting Rays…


Corvette 68 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

(don’t care what anyone says, sidepipes are awesome. They just are even if you burn your leg getting in and out of the car)


Corvette 68 d by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

…to plastic 5th gens, based on Mazda’s RX-7 with a vulgar engine instead of a refined rotary, of course


C5 Corvette by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

…to ultra-modern …where are we now? 7th gen?... things with, like computers and everything!


Corvette 17 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

But we’re not here for all that, are we? We’re here for humongous landyachts made from STEEL by men and be-drenched in bedazzling chrome and acres of finest synthetic errrmm vinyl. Better have a Caddy then


Cadillac 58 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

No idea what model… well, it’s a ’58, but other than that I dunno. Cadillacs are a bit of a specialist subject that I don’t have the specialism in. Something about 60 Specials had chrome on the rear light fin strakes and Eldorados and 62s didn’t and some had the side-detail mouldings and some didn’t. Ahhh, google it for yourself


Cadillac 58 fin by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

This one’s a ’59… you can tell cos they had the best fins. And an Eldorado… you can tell cos it says so on the trunk moulding


Eldorado 59 r by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Eldorado 59 fin by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

And this one’s a ’65. Year, not model. The model’s Coupe de Ville, which I know because it says so on the slightly less good fins. You say cheating, I say using all the clues available to me. Still well finny after all these years, even after everyone else had decided maybe cars that looked like spacerockets weren’t what everyone wanted after all


Coupe de Ville 65 fin by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

On to more familiar territory, then. It may have taken Chevy a whole two (two-and-a-half if you want to be pedantic) years to catch on to the fact that the Mustang was a Good Idea, but when they finally swept in with the Camaro they certainly made up for lost time. And the military-grade Penske team turned the “little” Chevy muscle car into a purebred track weapon in the hands of Donohue on the TransAm circuit. But never mind its prowess, what you really want is hidden headlights to guarantee the zenith of cool. Best be the RS pack then


Camaro 68 RS by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Camaro 68 RS bdg by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Camaro 68 RS d by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

See, with the open lights they just look a bit… beaky. You still would, mind, but rather like being with Betty Rubble, you’d be thinking of Wilma


Camaro 69 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

And just to prove that Corvettes aren’t the only fruit that’s evolved beyond all recognition,


Camaro ZL1 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

I mean… it’s got LEDs and everything. Damn, where will it all end. In contrast, here’s a Nu Challenger that someone’s gone to a lot of trouble to make look as if it’s been sat rotting on a driveway for decades and then given a new lease of life via the local Halfords and some DIY essentials


Challenger 12 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

I love the low front splitter but the sink drainer grille and random tiebars sorta upset me a bit. There were a whole phalanx of Nu Challengers but the owners were doing that thing of spending the whole day standing in front of their cars making photos tricksy, so I didn’t really bother.


Challengers by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Fortunately there were also some real Challengers for some proper Mopar goodness


Challenger 71 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

A ’71 such as that (especially in Plum Crazy) looks great from any angle. A ’72, mind you, needs to be carefully photographed from certain angles only in order to avoid being depressed by its sooooooo sad guppy face


Challenger 72 r by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

although I’m afraid little can be done to mitigate the utter yellowness of the poor thing. Anyway. Now for something completely different


Champion by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

This Studebaker’s been around for ages, and I remember it being immaculate and … well, blue all over. I’m not sure what’s happened to it in the meanwhile, but I still love it just for its mad 50’s excessive styling points. I can’t help but feel it’d be better for either being heinously scruffy and ratted or back to immaculateosity (actually a word) rather than this halfway house, but looking at how much work would be needed just to get the nosecone alone up to a chrome-ready standard (if it’s even possible) … and just how difficult it must be to source any kind of decent replacement… I suppose we have to accept it for how it is


Champion d by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Ooop, back to Mopar then. Yes, I’m just following the album in alphabetical order, so sue me. Path of least resistance and all that. Right. We all love a Charger anyway, don’t we?


Charger 68 grunge by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Personally, I especially love a ’68 Charger; the best grille, the best rear lights, no silly Confederate association etc etc. And even better if it’s grungy as hell with little clumps of vinyl top still clinging on, like it’s the vanguard of the zombie apocalypse or something and is shedding tiny bits of sloughing meat as it plots the demise of mankind via brain-eating


Charger 68 grunge d by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

But if that’s not to your taste, you can have a tidier one if you insist


Charger 68 orng by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

See? Best rear lights. Fact. Scat-pack bumblebee stripes too (errrrrmm… not pictured)


Charger 68 r by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Of course, no gathering of Mopars is complete without a General Lee clone. But I wish it was. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the DoH… in context. But that was forty odd years ago, and I’m now haunted of images of what Catherine Bach’s done to her face with injudicious surgery. Honestly, it’s like a melted horror film prop. Very depressing. Anyway, here’s as much of a ’69 Charger made into a General Lee rep as I’m prepared to allow, and we can all marvel at how tame an MOT tester the guy must have to allow ironmongery like that out onto Her Maj’s Highways


Charger noses by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

By ’70, as with so many muscle car brands, the writing was on the wall for the Charger and though the nosepiece went back to the single iconic full-width grille, it was really the last “proper” year of Chargers before they went weird and really massive. I mean, yeah, you could still get them with a 440 Six-pack but y’know, they looked wrong and the first bite is with the eye, yeah? Anyway, this Special Edition was gorgeous, especially in 1970s Brown… perfect in every detail except those inexplicably bad wheels


Charger 70 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Charger 70 bdg by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

In fact, although most works on the subject will cite the federal law changes and the petrol crises of the mid-70s as the death knell for muscle cars, I think it doesn’t take much looking to see that even if they didn’t let on, the manufacturers already knew the end was nigh long before. And of course they didn’t let on, they wanted you to buy their new cars every year. Even so, the kids won’t be fooled and sales numbers were well down year on year as the 70s began and except for certain models, the era of the muscle car was already in decline. Sad but true. It’s how weird, bulbous-fendered AMX Javelins managed to dominate the Trans Am races; everyone else decent had already packed up and left. So. Here’s a ’68 Chevelle then.


Chevelle 68 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

In fact for me, ’69 was the best year for most of my favourite muscle cars… Chevelle, GTO, 442, Cougar... It was like the world was busy making itself beautiful in preparation for my imminent arrival. And just because I’m clearly demented doesn’t mean I’m unanimously incorrect. But this'll have to do


Chevelle 68 r by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Here’s something a bit different then


Chevy 37 gasser by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

Always nice to see a) a Gasser, b) a bare-metalled patinated old car, errm 3) a rare 1937 Chevy as opposed to endless Fords and ummm iv) all of the above. What a mad thing… clearly as mad as he owner who drove it there and back, despite the pram wheels up front and the teeming rain!


Chevy 37 gasser r by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

I’ve delved before in these threads into the labyrinthine convolutions that make up Chrysler’s naming policy for the 300 series of cars... whether they’re Letter cars or non-Letter cars and when a 300 C isn’t a 300C or might actually be a C 300 and all that gubbins. Suffice to say it’s too elaborate and baffling to go through again and accept that this is a 1963 Chrysler 300 and not a 1963 Chrysler 300 J. It‘s nice though innit


Chrysler 300 1963 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Chrysler 300 1963 d by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Chrysler 300 1963 dash by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


More to follow, when I get a mo