Antique & Classic Cars Blog

This sedan attracted the attention of a friend visiting Laos. He’s a car buff but has no idea what it is. Given its apparent build quality, it’s probably a major manufacturer’s creation rebadged for a foreign market.

Looks BMW Bavaria-influenced, though I don’t know of Bimmer pulling off its well known badge for an “m.” The front end suggests a bit of Lancia, though some googling around turned up nothing especially close to it.

One approach might be to knock on the door and see if the homeowner speaks a common language and has some background. My friend’s son found this, however, which suggested the car’s owner might not be up to talking.

They left well enough along. Quickly.

…That could be emblazoned across your gas tank, these two are very, very hard to beat.

This bike is going in my new book on unrestored motorcycles. (Pro shots–not these little pops from my pocket digital.)

For when you’ve got that really important meeting and you’re getting out the door a little late…get one of these.

A 2,000-plus bhp car would make a great sleeper, though not much about this one’s potential remains hidden.

If you read about Cars and Coffee, the first Saturday of the month gathering for enthusiast cars and their owners, note that it kicks off again on Saturday, April 4, at the Automotorplex in Chanhassen.

It’s up to you whether you find it essential to come each month. Regardless, you should definitely check it out at least once, as there are many, many exciting cars and lots of nice and knowledgeable folks to have a cup of coffee with and talk collecting, racing, repair and modification.

This blogger made most of them last season and it was worth it. Good people, good cars.

If you’ve thought about getting a motorcycle but are worried drivers won’t see you, your answer might just be the Gunbus 410 (when nothing less than 6.7 liters will do).

(Gotta say, though, if I were that young woman’s father, I wouldn’t be so thrilled about her ankles being inches from those big, open chain drives.)

There was enough sunshine and warm weather to make a drive to Red Wing–specifically Treasure Island Casino–a pleasant outing.

It’s entertaining on such journeys to go light on the pedal, linger here and there and snap a few photos.

Stay in the greater metro and it seems there isn’t a farm left that isn’t crowded by highway or malls or new housing. Not so. And a beautiful old church, free of the same encroachment, may be found among Minn.’s small towns as a reminder of simpler days.

This garage in New Trier, founded around 1856, may be the oldest one in Minnesota. Our best guess is that it was once a fire station, or perhaps stables. Could have gone into the New Trier Trophy House Restaurant next door for the answer, but I was convinced a quick Google search would unearth it. For once, there was a factoid the internet would not yield.

This has been kicking around the internet for a while, but I hadn’t seen it until a friend and blogger here sent it along: a WWII tank, submerged in a peat-bottomed lake in Estonia, was pulled free by a large bulldozer.

A little searching seems to confirm that this is a true story. About the only think I could think of to produce fake footage of this type would be if the tank were used in a movie and was being newly recovered.

I apologize for the Russian dating link that may appear on the page. Please ignore. The rest of the site is informative and includes both still photos and video clips of the tank extraction.

It’s in extraordinarily good condition and may have had to wait so long, for, among other reasons, a really powerful modern bulldozer to pull it out.

In a prior post, we showed a Ural motorcycle and sidecar out for a cold winter spin. I had said it was a driven-wheel sidecar and Paul asked if I was sure.

This rider is rugged, so I found the bike again by Diamond’s Coffee Shop on Central Ave. This Ural is a powered-sidecar model. Pictured is the driveshaft arrangement from the motorcycle to the sidecar wheel.

There was another bike there this visit–a 1944 Harley Davidson WLA, stilled owned and ridden by its original buyer. Its sidecar is the typical non-powered kind.

A full restoration is a fun project to undertake and to watch. Seeing everything so clean, like you’re the original builder, is a nice experience after years of oily wrench turning or rust dropping on your face when you scoot underneath.

This is a ‘62 Karmann Ghia owned by my friend John, in whose heated garage my ‘69 MGB GT is quietly slumbering over the winter. His mechanic, Matt, has just fitted the wiring harness.

The black car in the back corner is a parts car John bought for $300. He’s going to take everything mechanical off of it, plus the full interior, but there’s a guy who still wants what remains. John told him, “It’s really rusty,” but the guy claims, from photos, that the car he owns is far worse.

Kinda cool that many stylish old cars are worth something even as stripped-down hulks. It encourages folks to keep reviving them, which preserves history and makes the roads at summertime more interesting, when the old collector stuff comes out to play.

Had to shoot this picture of cat and apprentice mechanic (cook, writer, package wrapper, shoe-tier, dish washer…), Dean.

How much does this look like a guy with his elbow out the window of a car?