mod@tech

Lifting economy cars and putting gnarly tires under them seems to be all the rage these days, likely inspired by the overlanding movement, the increased interest in camping due to the pandemic, and the resurgent four-wheel-drive truck and SUV aftermarket, but Volkswagen enthusiasts have been jacking up Beetles—you know, the world’s foremost economy car—for about as long as the Beetle has been around. Longer, if you want to bring the Typ 87 into the conversation. While we don’t know the particulars of this particular safari’d 1971 Volkswagen Beetle listed for sale on the Hemmings Auctions, it appears to have been built about 15 years ago more for tooling around town than for organized off-road racing or other off-road pursuits.

In addition to the lifted suspension—likely accomplished by simply adjusting the torsion bars, given the lack of flashy aftermarket parts underneath—the Beetle’s been fitted with a Scat 1776-cc engine, wide-five wheels on adapters, and an aftermarket steering wheel and shifter. However, the rest of the car looks relatively untouched from its commuter days, down to the tears in the seat fabric and the assorted paint chips from its occasional use since it was lifted. The seller reported that it runs and drives well with no commentary on how the lift, tires, and bigger engine affect performance, though for some reason the headlamps and taillamps don’t work.

With a couple weekends’ worth of work, a fresh set of tires, and minimal outlay, it could be made into a nice beach cruiser. After a few more weekends, along with a roof basket, lightbar, and the other requisite Safari-All-The-Cars aftermarket parts, it could be a capable trail buggy ready for a backwoods camping weekend. Or, for those who don’t care about the latest trends, it doesn’t look like it would take much to return the Bug to stock.

Winter tends to come on somewhat suddenly up here in Vermont— one day it’s a gorgeous “Indian summer” with autumn colors and light jackets and a few days later you’re scraping the windshield under a gray morning sky. Needless to say, the cool cars get tucked away quickly at that point, if you’re the sort who tries to make use every bit of the “good” weather. I had my ’67 Camaro out just a week or so ago as this is written and didn’t even need to slide the heater control over to “warm.” It snowed last night, so that ride was probably the last bit of vintage motoring I’ll get in before spring.

But it’s exactly that notion that gets my mind turning every year around this time —do I really have to give up on old cars altogether for the next few months? Couldn’t I just revisit the time-honored practice of having a “winter beater” and find something interesting yet cheap to bomb about in the meantime?

It’s a premise that sparks naysayers to point out that there aren’t any usable cars from the period prior to, let’s say, the ’80s that can be had cheaply— they’ll insist that if you’re on a budget, you can have vintage or you can have something that runs, but not both.

I’m not so easily dissuaded when it comes to such things, and besides, I’ll take any excuse to do some virtual shopping for an interesting car. What I found was somewhat encouraging, if also maybe a bit dangerous, as I really don’t need to acquire a single additional motor vehicle right now. Still, I couldn’t help considering the possibilities.

To that end, I conjured the notion of a winter beater challenge, wherein the participating contestants would each have to find something to use for their winter commute that was built before 1980 and cost no more than $4,000. Now, at first, four grand may seem a bit steep for anything considered a beater, but take a look around at the used car market today—very slim pickins below that price point. To further justify this scheme, I like to tell myself that an older, somehow interesting car will be more likely to offer a return on investment come springtime.

I hadn’t actually challenged anyone else, so this was mostly an academic exercise… at least for the moment. To keep myself from considering project cars that would need work to be useful as transportation, I added another stipulation: the subject must be already roadworthy.

Right out of the gate, I found a ’77 Olds Cutlass —the last of the colonnade models. This one was a gold-colored four-door with 14-inch wheels, and tan interior… a once fairly common specimen, but not today. It turned out to be a lower-mileage example claiming to still have original paint. The photos weren’t great, and the wording suggested the car was being sold by someone who might have inherited it and who just wanted it gone, which helped keep the asking price comfortably below my $4,000 cap. I bookmarked it and pressed further to see what else was out there.

Soon I came upon a ’67 Buick Wildcat, this one also a four-door, though oddly, not a hardtop. It still had its original 430-cu.in. engine, and though it was a bit beat up, the seller claimed he’d been driving it for the past couple summers with no issues. Delving still further I discovered a ’65 Coronet, a two-door hardtop with the polyspherical version of the 318 V-8, a TorqueFlite, and missing the lower portions of its quarter panels and fenders. This one was also on the road but needed some sorting. Still, it could have made a tough driver with later project car potential—a real contender.

The search continued nightly for a couple weeks, and plenty of other options cropped up, including one very alluring ’62 Cadillac I’m still seeing in my daydreams. I don’t intend to move forward with the beater stratagem right now—the whole “too-many-cars” thing is still an issue —but I was heartened to find so many vintage vehicles still running and reasonably attainable. Even in the Northeast, there’s still plenty of fodder for classic motoring fun out there. Let us know if you’ll be motoring some sort of seasoned-but-interesting beater this winter.

As far as cars in French films go, there’s the bizarre (the flying Citroen DS19 from “Fantomas”), the pointedly comic (anything appearing in Jacques Tati’s “Trafic”), and the absurd (the transparent Cadillac and the backwards Peugeots and Renaults of “Mood Indigo”). But there’s none more iconic than the battered green 1967 Ford Mustang from Jean-Paul Belmondo’s 1983 action flick “Le Marginal” that danced and slid and bashed fenders through the streets of Paris and which will head to auction next month.

If the Mustang in “Le Marginal” comes off as reminiscent of the Highland Green 1968 Ford Mustang GT that Steve McQueen drove in “Bullitt,” that’s no coincidence. McQueen had died just three years prior, so Belmondo and director Jacques Deray wanted to pay tribute to the late actor with the chase scene they had planned for their crime thriller “Le Marginal.” Though far from a shot-for-shot remake of the earlier movie’s chase scene, the Remy Julienne-coordinated chase—complete with stunt driving by Belmondo—still featured a number of similarities from the pair of baddies in the other car to the brutal end that they meet. The other car’s even a Mopar, albeit a circa-1977 Plymouth Volare four-door sedan rather than a Dodge Charger.

And of course, a tribute wouldn’t be complete without the Mustang. Artcurial calls it a 1966, but according to the car’s VIN (7T01A120268), it’s a 1967 model year car that came out of the Metuchen, New Jersey, assembly plant. Apparently sold new in France, the Dark Moss Green car was first registered for the road there in December 1966. Five years later, Parisian Jean-Michel Brault bought it, registered it with the license number 9 TL 75, then sometime afterward commissioned Michel Mokrycki, a French V-8 specialist perhaps best known for preparing a Rolls-Royce for the 1981 Paris-Dakar, to rebuild the Mustang’s A-code four-barrel 289 with some measure more than its stock 225 horsepower.

At some point either during Brault’s ownership of the Mustang or when Julienne began preparations for filming, the Mustang underwent numerous modifications. Barrel flares covered wider wheels and tires, massive foglamps filled the grille, a pair of quarter-panel scoops were reversed and fitted to the fenders, all chrome was painted over, and a piece of clear plexiglass was cut into the roof (the latter reportedly to help shed light on Belmondo while he was at the wheel of the Mustang). The Mustang also underwent a severe debadging, with even the fuel filler removed from the tailpanel so as not to show the galloping horse emblem. It even appears to have yellow headlamps.

Car Chase Collection : Le Marginal

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The movie, described as a typical Belmondo vehicle, nevertheless did well at the box office, and whether it was the star’s McQueen-like intensity, the fact that he did his own stunts, or the Mustang itself, the chase became just as legendary among French film aficionados and gearheads as the “Bullitt” chase did here in the States. As Artcurial’s Matthieu Lamoure wrote, “Le Marginal” is no cinematic masterpiece, but the Mustang and the car chase forever influenced him. The Mustang is “a part of our collective memory, our cultural heritage,” as the Artcurial description noted.

Julienne had Jo Cote—an occasional stunt driver and Julienne’s mechanic—prepare two nearly identical Mustangs for the film. One, reportedly fitted with a 400hp engine, was slated for the grisly end to the car chase and was subsequently destroyed, but the hero car—still wearing the same registration number from Brault’s ownership—survived filming and afterward was parked on Cote’s property. As with the Bullitt Mustang, the Le Marginal Mustang’s whereabouts were unknown for many years while it sat in Cote’s possession. According to Artcurial, Cote had committed the Mustang to a scrapyard when a Mustang enthusiast recovered it, then sold it to a Belmondo fan who recognized it as the “Le Marginal” Mustang.

That Belmondo fan then set about restoring the Mustang to its film appearance, and though it wears different wheels and tires and smaller foglamps, it still has the same low, wide-tired no-nonsense street brawler appearance as when it appeared in the film.

The “Le Marginal” Mustang will cross the block as part of Artcurial’s Retromobile sale with a pre-auction estimate that ranges from €200,000 to €400,000 (about $215,000 to $430,000). The Bullitt Mustang, by way of comparison, sold for $3.74 million, including buyer’s fees, when it went up for auction in January 2020. Artcurial’s Retromobile sale will take place February 3 and 4 in Paris. For more information, visit artcurial.com.

Date: July 1976

Location: Rome, Italy

Source: Leonard J. Currie, via Virginia Tech University Libraries / JStor

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Photo by Leonard J. Currie

Photo by Leonard J. Currie

Rory Carroll is Head of Marketing and Communications for RM Sotheby’s, so he knows a thing or two about automobiles. He’s also an automotive masochist, as he owns, races, and is in the process of rebuilding a Lada Signet, a little Russian box car that looks just like a classic Fiat 124 sedan. More importantly, is that he gets to rub elbows with some of the most iconic and highly valued automobiles in existence, which, let’s face it, is pretty damn cool.

On this episode of the Hemmings Hot Rod BBQ podcast, Rory sits down with us and talks about the auction trends in 2022 verses what we think may happen in 2023, as well as which collector vehicles are beginning to come into their own in the auction world.

Listen here:

Nothing says “performance vehicle” quite like a red disc brake caliper peeking through the spokes of an alloy wheel. But what was once the realm of exotics and track-day cars, is now a little slice of go-fast heaven you can have for your own, no matter what kind of car you drive. As long as it’s running disc brakes that you can see behind its wheels, of course.

The POR-15 Brake Caliper Painting Kit was designed to do two things: protect your calipers from the elements and make you look like you drive a high-performance car every day. Based on the Rust Preventive system POR-15 is known for, the final paint is available in five colors and the kit comes with everything you need to single-handedly turn your daily-driver from zero to hero.

More than just a layer of shiny paint behind your wheels, the Brake Caliper Painting kit gives you a solid base of protection under that new color. After all, your brake calipers are located in one of the most punishing environments your car can serve up: a constant cycle of heating and cooling, road dirt and debris, varying degrees of moisture and the accumulating dust from brake pads that are constantly wearing away. So, when you can protect that hardware from all that punishment and make them look good at the same time, that’s a win all the way around.

The kit comes complete with:

1. Cleaner/Degreaser: a good paint job starts with a clean surface and the POR-15 Cleaner/Degreaser is formulated to remove oils, dirt, greases and other contaminants, ensuring a great foundation for the paint.
2. Metal Prep: this stuff prepares the surface of your caliper for the best adhesion and consistent coverage of the patented Rust Preventive.
3. Rust Preventive: what POR-15 is best known for, the Rust Preventive is not only designed to cover and seal the porous surfaces of your brake calipers, but add a layer of protection from the elements and sets up your final coats of paint for a long life.
4. Caliper Paint: here’s where the magic happens! Choose your favorite color, as long as it’s black, red, yellow, grey or blue and become a driveway hero with this self-leveling paint that not only looks great, but is tough as nails.

Along with gloves, applicators and detailed instructions, the POR-15 Brake Caliper Painting kit is the easiest way to spruce-up the look of your daily-driver with a complete solution. Find more here and you’re five easy steps away from a new look for ride!

Date: April 1985

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Source: Bob Paluzzi, via UNLV Digital Collections

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