You guys ripped the Handi-van clue apart on the first guess, by Dave Skinner. And I predicted it would take twelve guesses! I’ve got to keep reminding myself this is the Major League. Well, I’m going to (try to) crash your party this time. Have fun.
Meanwhile, after six months of Curbside Classics, how about a little customer feedback? Do you like them long, medium, short, or a mix? Is there too much detail and historical information or not enough? Prefer to see a particular brand or popular car (Mustang, etc.) done randomly or in chronological order? More virtual comparisons? Are you ok with the boring and mundane finds, or should I be more selective? Are trucks good? A fairly even spread of cars from the fifties through the eighties? Anything else I should know?
It’s a good series, but in particular I’m looking forward to more GM Deadly Sins.
It’s my favourite recurring series on this site. Just keep doing what you’ve been doing. Personally, I love the detail and historical information, but that’s just me. Really, I’ll just go with the flow.
Eagle Vista hatchback?
Ford Fiesta (Mk 1)?
I like finding a random selection of stuff, ’40’s through ’80s. Finding a pristine example of what was mundane at the time, or a hard-to-find in any condition is of particular interest (i.e. – I loved the Caddy with a manual; I did like comparing the ’59 Chevy and Ford). Generally, length seems sufficient. The B&B tends to fill in any gaps.
I first thought of the Buick/Oldsmobile Aeroback sedans of the 1980s, but the taillamp lens don’t look quite right.
I think you are doing perfectly fine. It’s a beautiful mix between facts, history, nostalgia and harsh reality. Prose-wise, it’s some of the best writing on these pages, if not THE best writing. I trust you judgement on subjects, editorials like this comes from the heart. Call them as you see them, I say…
Early 1980s Oldsmobile Firenza?
I’d like to see the Deadly Sins expanded. Also, a suggestion on a new series of topics, GM’s Hail Mary-projects, all those very next big things that were supposed to save GM’s ass but never did, everything from the Corvair through to the Volt.
On the car, it looks European to me. Late 70’s french.
I like the longer articles, particularly those that give us some background on how the car came to be. The history and personalities involved are always interesting. I believe that these are my favorite articles on the site. I have read a lot on this stuff over the years (and lived a fair amount of it) but I always learn something new.
Selection? You are doing just fine.
Ford Fiesta, 1978-81, built in Saarlouis, Germany (others for the European market were built, in the new purpose-built Fiesta plant in Valencia, Spain) … 1.6 litre “Kent” engine w/Weber 2bbl carb, manual 4-speed …
I had a “Decor” model, Ice Blue with tan and black houndstooth seats. My sister had a “Ghia” model, Dark Blue with tan velour seats. Hers with factory a/c (installed at the port), and both with glass/metal sunroof panels.
Fast, confortable, fun … I always thought of it as a modern-day Model-T … simple and robust.
And when the cat failed, and was replaced with a straight pipe, the EGR unit was removed, and the Thermactor pump, plumbing, and associated hardware was removed, this little hot-rod would out-drag a contemporary Camaro…
Only downside was the brakes needed frequent servicing (the old Ford brake engineer who lived a couple of doors down told me “the Europeans seem to like to replace pads at nearly every oil change…”).
I bought mine for 1,200 bucks with 70k miles in 1985, sold it for 1,700 bucks with 120k miles in 1988!
btw, there was an excellent biography, Project Bobcat, on how this car came to be… it was developed by the father of the original Taurus (the late great Lew Veraldi) while he was doing a rotation through Ford of Europe. Ford went to extreme pains to minimize weight, trimming sheetmetal edges to the minimum, without skimping elsewhere… as I recall (no longer confident though) the effort, by Ford OPEO (Overseas Product Engineering Office) to federalize the car resulted in over 150 parts having to be re-engineered to meet US-norms … at a cost of something like 30-50M USD…
oh, and I just remembered, I think this was Ford’s first FWD vehicle!
Yes, I concur. Ford Fiesta it is. It will be interesting to read what Mr Niedermeyer will come up with on the subject. As I have understood it, it was more or less concieved and developed in the US, as Project Bobcat. Thus, one of the few instances were a very successful supermini have been developed stateside. At least it was so, according to an article I read somewhere back in the 80’s. But I don’t know if that is true? I’ve been trying to read up on the subject, but I end up with conflicting information.
Why, that’s a first gen Ford Fiesta. I had a silver ’78 Fiesta in high school. Beat the crap out of it daily.
My best friend at the time had a green VW Rabbit and we’d rat race all over town, always with Boston, Led Zepplin, Foreigner or Kansas blaring through the 8-track. Used up at least 5 of my 9 lives in that little bugger. And my old man thought I couldn’t possibly get in trouble with a 84hp 4-banger. Ha!
Party on!
I don’t know what that car is, but I love CC, and look forward to many more. One of my faves, however, was the TranSport convertible monstrosity. If you can find more crazy rides like that, I’d be on board. And the rustier, the better. I love seeing the natural look of the years beating down a once pristine finish!
I love the feature too. Keep it up.
I agree with the Fiesta gang.
Always liked the 70’s Fiesta, looked like a Rabbit with just a touch better exterior styling. Simple, basic, and one of the better Fords from the era.
The CC series is one of my favorites — I look forward to each installment ( I prefer the longer articles ).
Just keep varying the subject matter — from mundane to exotic and the space between……
I enjoy the feature…
And my money’s on the Mk1 Fiesta as well.
Crap. Ford Fiesta, should’ve got this one right off the hop as I had a ’79 back in ’82. Imported from Germany; it was a veritable rocket on wheels. It smoked almost anything on the streets then. I always felt sorry for Americans, as the US version was dumbed down. Of course it went through brake pads and CV joints at an alarming rate, but I loved that car. Drove 1500kms to Calgary (900 miles) during winter one year with the temperature in Regina at noon at MINUS 46 celcius, and our little Fiesta sailed on through with nary a problem other than the heater couldn’t keep any more than about 4 inches of windscreen clear of frost.
Late to the party. Mk1 Fiesta (’76 to ’83) or possibly Mk2 (83 to 89)
Love this feature. Not much I would change. My favorites are the more unusual cars from the 80s that I didn’t know about like the 4WD Tercel wagon. Keep it up!
It’s definitely a Mk.I Fiesta…a car I know quite well having owned several of them. These little suckers respond quite well to engine and chassis mods.
I had an “S” model with a Ghia interior from a junkyard car. Engine mods included a ported/polished European XR2 intake manifold with a big (well, bigger than stock anyway) 2bbl Weber carb, exhaust header, punched out cat and an Ansa cat-back system on it. Other mods included a ported/polished head and a decked block to raise the compression ratio (the cylinder head was dead flat – combustion chamber was in the piston). Man that car went like stink and embarrased many a muscle car off the line with it’s relatively short gearing.
Add to that Koni struts, strut tower braces, XR2 triangulating brackets to beef up the front end and poly bushings throughout and it really was like a go kart. I never did have the budget as a kid to take the next step and put 13″ (or larger) wheels on it and upgrade to the XR2 brakes with vented rotors, but the good news was that the rotors were around $12 each and pads were cheap too.
I will say this much, the rear drum brakes were one the simplest designs (from a repair/serviceability perspective) I’ve ever seen without all the fiddly springs criss-crossing everywhere, unlike the typical bendix design on most American cars of the time. I often wondered if the Fiesta rear drum design would have worked well (if scaled up size-wise/proportionally of course) on a larger car/truck – if so, I wouldn’t mind doing a rear drum brake job anymore.
It certainly reminds me of the piece-of-crap Oldsmobile my carpool-mate drove, but I must agree with the Fiesta guys. On a lark, one of my Mopar buddies and his wife drove their Fiesta to Hershey one year and came back with Mopar parts strapped all over the outside of it. He thought it was a hoot to drive too.
Oh, and on the series, I enjoy the hell out of it, and wouldn’t dream of substituting my judgment for yours re which cars to write about. Keep surprising us!
I love this feature too. I don’t get to play very often, because I didn’t grow up in the US and have a different (British) set of automotive ‘features’ etched into my memory.
So more ’70s and ’80s Brit cars would be right up my street (if no-one else’s)
I’m pretty sure Edward is giving us clues at the start of these articles e.g. crash our party (Fiesta), can’t say I get them all though.
Oh, and I’d like to see some examples of Chrysler Deadly Sins. There are plenty and it would be an interesting spin-off of the series.
CC’s are great, a bit more history would be nice, or a move to more cars that were sold/produced in several markets with their individual name changes, i.e. Mitusbishi Sigma, which became the Australian Magna which became the North American Diamente which became the Galant which was a the name for a small Australian Chysler/Mitsubshi..
Monty: If you had done the ol’ “cardboard in front of the radiator” trick, the windscreen would have been clear, and the whole iterior would have been toasty warm…
Wheeljack: Regarding the rear drum set-up … the adjuster mechanism was prone to rusting-up and then disabling the parking brake system … I devised my own solution … 1. remove, clean, degrease, 2. deposit in acid (can’t remember if it was HCl, or H2SO4), 3. neutralize in a baking soda dip, 4. bake in mother’s oven (when she was not around), 5. spray with LPS Cold Galvanizing compound, 6. lubricate piviot points, 7. re-install, 8. never worry about again… This procedure was proven on our entire Fiesta fleet (ok, well just the two of my sister and me.)
The 1.6 engine was the same displacement as the XR2 Fiesta sold in Europe …
The only two components on that car I considered to be crap were the water-pumps (both failed in the dead of winter, and were amazingly difficult to replace due to extremely tight clearance to the strut tower, and the rear-window defroster switch. Ford had economized by eliminating a timing solenoid from the circuit, so the switch was on until you remembered to turn it off, and by which time, it melted itself into non-functionality…
I also came across a pair of front shoulder-belts in a junked Fiesta, and with a little creativity, installed them in the rear seats (as RR shoulder restraints were required in Europe but deleted from the US-model.)
BTW, there is an interesting video on YouTube of a MkI Fiesta, in the days before Boron-steel, ramming a lamp-post … glad I had never seen this while I owned mine!! Perhaps someone can provide the link.
Oh, and Paul, love the series! Please keep up the good work, and use your best judgement!! Thanks.
Like CC…I prefer 60’s to 80’s…any older I don’t stand a chance. One of my favorites here.
Since others are adding additional comments, how about a series that singles out an import brand for bashing, much like the GM series…they, too have had their headaches. I suggest VW because amongst the stupid business decisions and lame products, there were some really good bright spots. Just like GM…
Rented a Fiesta for a week in the UK in the mid 80s, man was that fun on those narrow country roads!
Paul, I really enjoy the CC’s from the 70s, when I started driving. It’s fun to see those cars again, even though we knew they we crap back then.
BTW, 10 seconds flat 0-60 time, U.S. spec per C&D. Oh, the Fiesta stories I could tell. Like being stranded when the clutch cable snapped, so I rigged a bypass with some picture-hanging wire out the back of the hood and through the driver’s side window, and manually clutched. Had to move my left foot though — force of habit. Then there was the occasion where I learned the hard way what a ‘lipped’ windshield meant, and that I nearly knew what I was doing replacing it. Best $1200 I ever spent. Still waiting for the spiritual successor of that car to show up, probably in vain.
Yeah, Fiesta here. Had two of them in my life, a ’79 S while I was in England, than a used American ’79 S a couple of years later. Likewise, lots of wonderful stories. And no, they’ll never make one like that again – the federal government wouldn’t let them. Not enough ‘nanny’ gear to allow it on the road.
As to the series, I’m also a big fan. Enjoying everything you’ve written, individual articles can be of whatever length is necessary to tell the whole story. Subject matter? I’m enjoying the GM stuff, but some of these boneheads on the blog need to find out that there’s equally entertaining stories that don’t chronicile every mistake GM ever made.
Ford Fiesta.
And I’ll wager that’s a NW car… the telltale green slime around the edges gives it away. Cars don’t rust here, they mold and rot. I’ve washed that stuff off of all my cars way too many times, but it beats iron oxide any day. It’s kind of an exponential thing, once you get a base of it, more dirt and biomass collects. Pretty soon, you’ve got a nice crop of moss, or even a plant growing! Nice thing is, it usually comes off easily enough.
CC is a great series. Keep ’em coming, the wider and odder the spread, the better. One man’s mundane is another man’s cool, so don’t let that stop you, either. Length, history and obsessive detail is a plus to me, as I always learn something new.
I’m saying an Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, just because. I love the mix you have so far the only way it could be better is finding obscure trim packages, like Ford Maverick with the upscale luxury interior, I think they called it the “European Package” or something like that, but I think that would be damn near impossible to find.
How bout set of GM vehicles with their rediculous sport packages? Remember FE3 and GS? I laugh at them but if I found a 90 Olds Delta 88 with the FE3 package and factory cross lace aluminum wheels in good shape I’d by it in a heartbeat just for the oddballness of it.
Robert.Walter:
I agree about the water pumps – pure junk. I think the issue was that they had to shorten the water pump so much to fit in that transverse application that it didn’t have enough bearing surface area to live a normal life. Because of this, I was very careful not to get too aggresive when tightening the belt. I lived out west at the time so I never had corrosion problems with the rear brakes. Had I lived then where I live now, you advice would be quite useful.
Other issues included interior door release handles that snapped off (later redesigned, thankfully), failure prone radiators, weak wiper motors that would slow to a crawl the hotter they got and parking brake handles that would tear the floor sheetmetal below it. On the US spec cars, the heads were well known for cracking in between the exhaust valves on cylinders #2 & 3. I also remember this car being particularly sensitive to aftermarket vs. OEM parts – I learned the hard way when I tried to save a few bucks on an aftermarket thermal fan switch ($7 vs. $40 from Ford) which only survived about 3-4 months before failing again. The Ford replacement last for the remainder of the time I had the car, which was about 7 years or so.
On the plus side though, the 4-speed transmissions were very robust (rumor had it that the teams that raced Fiestas in Europe preferred the 4-speed since it was much more robust than the supposedly fragile 5-speed that replaced it) and the halfshafts were equal length (intermediate shaft with a support bearing for the passenger side shaft) and featured way-overbuilt rzeppa style joints on both the inner and outer with allen head bolts at both ends so they were easy to remove in-car without disturbing too much – I had to put boots on mine but the joints themselves never failed. The steering rack and tie rods seemed much sturdier than most typical FWD cars too.
I was way into these cars and had both the BAT and Forparts catalogs that I would drool over and would occasionally order something crazy from one of them when money permitted and sanity abated…
I am leaning toward early Fairmont. As another 1st gen Fiesta driver (bought mine new in Madras, Oregon) I’m having a hard time seeing it.(This may just prove that I am old.)
Mine was also red and a kick to drive, although headroom challenged. Drove it on my first honeymoon and first trip driving to California. Winding down Highway 1 was a kick all the way, the flight back up on I-5 was not.
I could do without the trucks; otherwise I like the feature as it is.
more nudity please, an early Subaru Justy
My gut reaction, before reading everyone else’s suggestion, was Ford something, ’70s, early ’80s.
As for CC, keep it up. I’d like more ’50s and ’60s, ideally ’55-65. The mix of info is generally quite good. I’m happy even with dull-looking vehicles if the info is really good. Characters connected with the cars always adds a nice dimension. The Eugene backdrop is good. Try not to let them run too long. The greater the density of really interesting info, the better.
I love the series.
What would I add? Hmmm, a 75-79 Cordoba. I had to ask. Or an AMC Ambassador/Matador. 66-67 Plymouth Belvedere or Dodge Coronet.
And oddball English stuff…a Vauxhall Viva if there is a single example left running. Your chances of finding Eldorado…oh, wait, yes, a 76 Eldo.
I’d love to hear a review of a kit car. No kidding. Not long ago I was sauntering along and saw a GT40 replica with V Dub power. Never heard of them before. It looked kind of funky, in white, with a red and a blue stripe running the whole length of the car down the middle. That would be an awesome CC, I thought.
Cordoba: yes
’67 Coronet: yes
’76 Eldo: yes
Justy: yes
Fairmont: yes
late 70’s Ford: yes
AMC Matador: looking
Chrysler Deadly Sin: yes
Eagle Vista hatch (Canada only) Colt hatch ok?
VW kit car: yes
Your patience is appreciated, and will be rewarded.
And thanks for all the good vibes! But how about holding off on all those Fiesta comments until tomorrow? Oh well…
Don’t change a thing. but i was wondering, would you accept to get photos of an old curbside car, you have to decide if it’s a worthy classic, and do the write up on it….
just a suggestion, and if yes, I’d like to be the first to submit photos…
Keep it just as it is. This is one of my favorite features of TTAC.
Report on what you find. Or rather…. what finds you.
Cannot wait for “Chrysler’s Deadly Sin #1”.
Robert Walter
I was an unbelted rear seat passenger in my friend’s 1978 Fiesta Popular Plus back in 1987 when he crashed it into a lamp post (outside our rival school, no less). Not much fun. I actually remember seeing the front of the car fold up in slo mo and the washer bottle burst and send its contents over the front windscreen. Then I headbutted the (belted) front passenger. No serious injuries I’m happy to say, the crash was at about 20-25mph. Car was absolutely totaled.
You Tube Video you mentioned
Rough way to learn how to use a seat-belt!
BTW, “folding-up” absorbs energy … this is what intelligent crush and crush-zones are about! If the car had been more rigid, you may have suffered a much greater injury due to a much more rapid deceleration of the vehicle… consider yourself lucky in any case!
jacksonbart :
October 12th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
more nudity please, an early Subaru Justy
Justy was going to be my guess. The car I learned to drive on. Turbo, AWD Inline-3 5spd. Bulletproof. Parent’s first new car when they bought it for $6200 in 1988.
Re: CC
Subject matter is dealer’s choice. You need to have something worth saying about the subject to make the peice interesting. Format and length have been pretty good. I’ve never been bored by one, and relating the subject to real life experiences always makes the pieces more relatable.
There’s a lot to dislike about this site but Curbside Classics as it’s currently constituted is *the* reason to come here.
Whatever you’re doing, you’re doing it right.
Definitely a Fiesta. My first car, a 79 Ghia I got going in to my senior year of high school. The car was so light you could light up the tires and not move, and even chirp the tires in 2nd…
I totaled it, unfortunately.
Love the segment, yes.
You should leverage your readers, and let us send in similar pictures (no promises you’ll use, obviously), so you don’t do all the hunting. Then you’ll get the variety people are looking for.