Down On The Street - Air-Cooled German Two-Fer

This was sitting in the parking lot of the Encinitas Community Center on Saturday afternoon.

It's a 23-window deluxe Samba, but way overdone for my tastes.

Metallic paint just ain't right in this application. It was nicely applied though. And the owner did add some über-cool "safari" windows.

Yep, this Bus is definitely Leucadia material. Surprised that I haven't seen it out and about until now.

The seats and door panels need a good coat of fire.

Blech, too much contrived junk in there...

 ...but the luggage rack is cool

 Up next is a sweet Porsche 914 that I parked next to this afternoon.

 It's definitely a sharp ride, both inside...

 ...and out:

Not considering the much-higher value of the Bus, I'd rather have the Porsche in my garage. Which German air-cooled VW (or glorified VW) would you prefer?

Smug Parking Only

The local Whole Paycheck Foods has a section marked as "Fuel Efficient Vehicles Only". I am under the impression that they are referring to hybrids, diesels and electric cars. Of course the painted markings don't keep my ≈26MPG Miata out.

After all, it's far-more green to properly maintain and keep a twenty year-old car running than it is to consume the materials needed to build a new car. Plus, relative to the van, the Miata goes 60% farther on each gallon of fuel.

Down On The Street

As spotted in downtown Encinitas a few weeks back, a *real* Fiat Cinquecento.
Abarth-edition too!
These original Cinquecentos make the modern versions seem like Hummers in comparison.

Down On The Street

Spotted in downtown Encinitas on a beautiful Sunday morning was this nicely-restored 13-window VW Station Wagon variant of a VW Bus.

Someone put please replace that missing hubcap!

It's hard to beat an ivory/green combo. And hey, look, it's my friend Graham popping out from behind the drivers-side mirror.

Not captured - the smell of fuel leaking on the pavement. Hope they get that fixed before they end up with a car-b-que.

But not to be outdone, this even-finer specimen was captured in the wilds of the Del Mar dog beach six days later.
Yeah, people like my mom will scoff at the notion that this Bus, rich with patina, is nicer than the green machine above...
...but with wrap-around rear corner windows (and jailbars)...
...Porsche Fuchs wheels and an Baja excursion-sized luggage rack, I certainly know which one I'd rather have in my personal fleet.
Oh, and for those keeping score, it's a fifteen window splittie.

Down on the Street

Celeste and I ran down to El Nopalito in Encinitas Sunday morning to pick up some of their fantastic homemade tortilla chips and salsa.
This Ford Thunderbird Fordor was parked just outside the strip mall, so out came the crappy cameraphone.
I'm pretty sure this one dates to 1967. Like many cars of the era with the feature, the flip-up headlight covers appear to be inoperable. At least they're stuck open.

1967 was the first time the T-bird was available as a sedan. Ford even outfitted the ride with proper suicide doors.

It's pretty cool to see a 43 year-old car still being relied upon for daily driver use. Too bad the window's off the track.
But check out the suicide spinner knob (matching the suicide rear doors). Look closer for Celeste's reflection.