Mustang Turns 50!

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Mustang debut at the 1964 World's Fair in New York!  Ford is doing its best to mark the occasion and is taking advantage of the fact that it coincides with the  New York Auto Show.....meaning the automotive media is already focused on New York.

Mustang display at the 1964 World's Fair

Ford has also placed a 2015 Mustang convertible on the observation deck of the Empire State Building to recreate one of many publicity stunts carried out half a century ago.

According to a statement released by Ford, the only way to get a car to the deck is to use the elevator of the 80-plus-year-old building. “No portable crane can reach the 86th floor observatory, and the spire towering above the relatively narrow deck makes helicopter delivery impossible," the statement says.

Since the building's elevator can't fit an entire Mustang, the car had to be cut into six elevator-friendly pieces. A team of workers then rebuilt the car on the building's observation deck; though, as the video below shows, the team did at least one practice run beforehand.

What is amazing is the amount of promotion Ford did back in 1964 to ensure the Mustang was a success (maybe the Edsel debacle was still fresh in everyone's mind).  I recently spoke to a friend who remembers when Ford loaned him a new Mustang for him to review and write about. He didn't work for Motor Trend or any other major trade magazine......he was a writer for his college paper. 

GM has even chimed in with a very fun press release:

So happy birthday Mustang.  We've had a few close calls (Ford Probe) but are happy you are here and looking forward to what the future holds.

How it all began:

The Hoff's KITT

The Hoff's (David Hasselhoff) personal KITT is going across the auction block! Need I say more!

Here are the detail:
http://www.juliensauctions.com/press/2014/david-hasselhoff.html

Pimps Everywhere Rejoice

Just saw this on eBay.....and I am baffled!

My car buddies and I have had many discussions about car designs in the 60's, 70's and early 80's when designers were limited to standard round  5 3/4" or 7" headlights or a basic set of rectangular sealed beam units.  We often discussed what we considered creative designs that tried to integrate the lighting units in new and interesting ways (which is probably why just about everything exotic in that era had flip up / recessed lights) .  However, whoever came up with this design wins by a landslide! 

This pimptastic whip is up on eBay right now!  As ridiculous as it is....it really is in immaculate condition.  The scary thing is as soon as I saw the auction listing I knew I saw one of these before. Then it hit me....the movie cover of Super Fly. I'm not sure if I'm proud or ashamed of the fact that I was able to recall this.

So happy bidding!

I Don't Like Musicals

I love car movies! I even love the bad ones (which there are plenty of) if there is enough driving, racing, or hooning on display.  I have a special place in my heart for the classics like American Graffiti, Two-Lane Blacktop, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, Bullitt, Vanishing Point....you get the point.  If I stumble upon one while channel surfing I consider it must see TV till the final credits roll.  However, the majority of the cult classics really only appeal to car-guys at this point in time. My clinical data to substantiate this statement.....of the movies mentioned above I'd probably only gt my wife to watch American Graffiti with me again (yes she has watched all of the other out of obligation).

However, there is one car movie that she absolutely loves and I cannot stand. In fact it was on two days ago and she stopped to see if my sons would be interested and I literally left the room.  That movie is 1978's Grease!

Her and I joke about the fact that there is a movie that features cars, gangs, and Vinnie Barbarino and I can't stand it.  The simple fact is I don't like musicals. I guess that people randomly breaking into song can even ruin Ben-Hur style hub caps.

Honestly, Grease can probably be considered the most mainstream car movie ever made.  The irony goes even further. When I was in high-school the majority of my class was having parties in which they watched (and apparently sang along with) Grease. You know who wasn't at these parties? The socially shunned gear heads (you sense the bitterness) who were literally out cruising/street racing while these private screenings were taking place. And just for some perspective on the movie's staying power.....I went to high-school 18 years after the movie was released!

So why do I bring this up now. As I mentioned, Grease was on yet again the other day, but more importantly, the original 1949 Mercury that Craterface drove is for sale on eBay right now.  So if you have over 100 grand burning a hole in your pocket and aren't revolted by the concept of people randomly bursting into song here's the ride for you...

Gearheads make the best friends

I last wrote about my business trip to Las Vegas and my experience renting  a convertible Camaro SS from   Fantasy Car Rentals. An amazing thing happened while tooling around Vegas in the SS....
I was driving around soaking in the scenery and weather. Periodically, whenever I stopped somewhere to look around, I would check my email via my smart phone.  And that's when I saw an email from my buddy Frank. Frank and I used to work together over six years ago.  When our company relocated he moved to Pittsburgh while I remained in Connecticut. It had been about a year since Frank and I have exchanged an e-mail, but historically, every now and then, Frank and I will shoot each other an email to check in on each other and see how things are going. The second question is typically 'what are you driving?'

So why did Frank e-mail me after all this time?....to show me his new car of course. Frank is a car nut, and even more dangerous, he's an extremely impulsive car nut.  So in the few years I worked with him he owned cars like a 98 Camaro SS, a Supra, a SVT Lightning, an Impala SS, etc. We used to go test drive cars every other day during our lunch breaks (I'll write about this later) which was a riot.  So whenever our stables change we fire off an email to share the news.  Here's Frank's new 2013 SS/RS with 1LE package...

So I immediately fired back that it was pretty ironic that I was literally in a Camaro SS when I received the email. I also sent him this photo...

And these two next emails were priceless. Within minutes I received this:

Shortly followed by this email (diagram and all)

I couldn't help but smile when I read these (especially the second one). Also, makes you appreciate the availability of information and how quickly it can be shared.  He obviously found the information and diagram on a website/forum somewhere and was able to share it with me a few thousand miles away literally sitting in my car via a smart phone.

Something about old Ford trucks - Part II

My posts have definitely been slowing down. Basically, I've really just been posting about past exploits with hopes to make it through the winter so that I can start a more 'real time' blog in the spring.  The problem is that it won't stop freakin' snowing here in Connecticut. Temperatures are still hovering around freezing and last year at this time spring had sprung and we were in the 70's.

So for now, here's another story about something dumb I did. Just a couple years back I came across a beat up old 64 Ford F-100 locally.  The truck was a mess, but relatively complete.  As I already posted, I have s weak spot for old Ford trucks.  So I made the deal. Rented a trailer and took the family SUV to drag the project home....did I mention I forget to tell my wife? Ultimately, to make a long story short, she went nuts when I brought it home.  I think a part of the reaction what based on the fact that the truck was heinous.   Anyways, I spent some time going down the 'rat rod' theme with the project just using rattle cans and junk already in my garage.  I think it started to shape up but then I received an offer on it and sold it......a very happy day for my wife. So here it is....

Before

After

Engine Before

Engine After

I'm sure there is a Something about old Ford trucks - Part III coming some day.

Something about old Ford trucks

I like old trucks.  Maybe it stems from my brother's old truck that got us started wrenching on stuff? So when a friend of mine wanted to get rid of his 67 F100 in a hurry I was more than happy to oblige.  I just purchased a piece of land in which I was going to build a house on....the perfect justification for a tough old truck. The problem was at the time I was living in a condo complex. 

Eventually, my wife's embarrassment of having it sit in the condo parking area for everyone to see reached a level in which she gave me enough hell to prompt me to unload it.....I should have never sold it.  It was very solid, someone already re-did the body at some point. The interior was mint. The engine ran smooth and the cab was really tight.

The only silver lining is that the guy who bought it was a really interesting car guy. He actually hosts a automotive themed radio show. He had a collection of old fords including a Torino, Ranchero, Falcon wagon, and Cougar.

So basically, I finagled into the 'deal' that I would personally deliver an extra windshield I had for the truck to his house....provided he showed me his other rides.  I spent a while at his house and he traded car stories for a bit. His pride and joy was his Torino (white with blue C-stripes if I remember correctly) and he was active in the Torino enthusiasts community. He bought the Torino on the west coast and attempted to drive it back to Connecticut via Route 66.....I think he said he ran into issues midway and let AAA take care of the rest of the trip.  

Anyways, I miss that truck and what could have been.  And since then (to my wife's dismay) I have dabbled in old ford trucks again...so stay tuned for "Something about old Ford trucks - Part 2"

Hell on Two Wheels

I have owned a couple motorcycles over the the years. Bikes have always been a very unpopular topic with the family.  Everyone from my wife to my mother to even my father disapproved. That's right, this guy here didn't like the idea of me riding:

My first foray into bikes was through a group of guys at work. A bunch of guys from the office rode, the majority had Harley's or import cruisers.  At the time I was more interested in crotch rockets than cruisers but my good friend/co-worker sold his Ninja ZX11 and bought a Kawasaki Mean Streak. I didn't know much about the 'metric cruiser' scene. He picked up the bike and installed pipes, a intake system and had it re-programmed and the result was impressive. Shiny, kinda fast and very loud. The other performance metric cruisers at the time were the Yamaha Warrior and the massive Honda VTX 1800....so I started scheming.  That's when I came across the brand new Honda VTX 1300 Retro.  It was big (but not as uncontrollable as the 1800) and had very classic lines (unlike the Yamaha Warrior). It had floor boards with a floor shifter, full fenders and a single pin crank engine to give it a nice lumpy idle.

My only complaint about the Honda was that it was too maintenance free. Actually, the issue was probably more that it was such a new model that there was no aftermarket for it.....so the only thing I could do to it was put gas in it and ride it (sounds horrible doesn't it).  Eventually, I came to the point where I didn't ride it enough to warrant owning it.....so I sold it.

At this time the chopper building TV shows caught fire...so I decided I was going to build myself a chopper. I decided to go British twin even though I knew nothing about them because they seemed affordable (and yet cool).  I started with a old 67 Triumph Bonneville frame that I bought on eBay and showed up at my front door.  I found a sick girder front end, a 750 engine, twin carb head, and invader rear wheel.  Here it is at some point during the build:

My last bike was bought on a whim. I found a dirt cheap Yamaha XS 750 from the late 70's and figured I could do something in the cafe racer motif (way before the Cafe Racer TV show) to make it cool.   I took it home and got it running. I then slapped on some clubman bars and removed whatever other parts I could.  My next step was to modify seat  but then someone made me an offer I could refuse so I sold it.

So as of now I'm bikeless. Will I own another motorcycle at some point? I'm sure of it. I'm still interested in building a cafe racer style bike, I just think I would like to do it with a 60's European bike as by starting point.  Maybe something Italian like a vintage Ducati or Benelli.  I'm also getting into the board track racer replicas people are building and am getting interested in taking a crack at one of those. We'll just have to wait and see what crosses my path.

Grandpa's Stainless Steel Car

My wife's grandfather loved to tell stories (usually the same ones over and over again).  To the surprise of my wife's family, I actually liked listening to them.  I think I was the lone participant in the story sessions for a combination of reasons. First and foremost, unlike the rest of the family, I hadn't been listening to the same tales for the last 30+ years. Secondly, my wife's grandfather (Gene) was a pretty interesting guy.  He was a technical guy who was an engineer at a local steel plant.  Many of his stories involved cars.

One time he told me about the stainless steel Fords his company produced and that he drove. Of course I questioned the validity of the story. When I think stainless steel car I think DeLorean (flux capacitor not included) made famous by the movie Back to the Future. But it turns out in 1935, officials at Allegheny Ludlum Steel Division (where Gene worked) and the Ford Motor Company collaborated on an interesting experiment.

Allegheny Ludlum, a pioneer producer of stainless steel, proposed the idea of creating a stainless steel car to Ford. The idea took shape in the form of a 1936 Deluxe Sedan. That car became the centerpiece of a campaign to expose the public to the new metal and its many uses. The stainless steel cars were perfect vehicles for increasing awareness of the quality of the metal. And over the years, this quality has been shown in its stainless performance.

Of the six stainless steel cars that rolled off the Ford assembly line in Detroit in 1936, four exist today as living proof of the durability of stainless steel.  Each of the original six logged at least 200,000 miles in the hands of Allegheny Ludlum officials before "retiring" to private ownership in 1946. Thousands of additional miles have been logged on the odometers since, and the shiny bodies have outlasted most of their non-stainless steel parts.

The idea was repeated at the end of the run of 1958 to1960 Thunderbirds, since those cars in stock form used a great deal of stainless steel for their trim. Two 1960 Thunderbirds were built in stainless steel. It was necessary to wait until the end of the production run, because the harder stainless steel would wipe out the stamping dies. With the exception of the body skin, bumpers and grille, which are made of T302 stainless steel, every other component is standard 1960 Thunderbird equipment. Also included is the first T409 solid stainless steel muffler released on a production vehicle. Both cars still have their original mufflers and T304 exhaust pipes after 25 years on the road!

Lastly, in 1966, the collaboration produced three amazing stainless steel 1966 Lincoln convertibles.

Of the 11 cars originally built, nine are still in use.  Interestingly, out of the 8600 DeLoreans produced, it is estimated that over 6400 still around today.  That says something about stainless steel.

Last note, only one of the four remaining '36 Fords is presently in road-worthy condition and was allegedly insured for 1.5 million dollars. This would have blown Gene's mind!

Gene's photo of the car in front of his plant:

Gene is the guy with the top hat:

Gene at the Indy 500 (I think):

Arrival of Big Bird

At one point ( I was probably 18) I decided I wanted to swap out the tired old 302 in my '69 Mustang.   I started combing the local paper for engines and came across an old Thunderbird that had a 429 in it.  For some reason,  I thought the 429 would be perfect for my car.   The car was local and the asking price was around $600. I exclaimed to my brother, forget an engine, I'm getting a whole car.   

The T-bird was a 1969 model which I was unfamiliar with. I was thinking it would look like the early 60's square birds...which I liked. Unfortunately, when I went to look at the car I found this monster:  



It turns out that with the arrival of the Mustang in 1964 Ford decided it had to change the direction of the T-bird. To differentiate the T-bird product,  it went upscale with many luxury appointments. It also went 'up scale' as Ford abandoned the unit body construction and reverted to a massive body of frame design.  To call the car big is an understatement.....it was gargantuan.  And it was a two door to boot. One cool thing is that the four door version of these beasts utilized suicide doors.

One of the first things I learned about this car (and quickly came to appreciate) was how hard 'luxury' was back in the 60's. The T-bird was loaded with little simple features that we take for granted today. One example was intermittent wipers. When sitting in the T-bird I realized that the wiper switch in my Mustang only had three settings (off, slow and fast).  Today, we'd hardly consider intermittent wipers worthy of a check box on a new car's option sheet....but back in 1969 this was cutting edge technology.  The scary thing is how Ford executed things like the intermittent wipers, tilt away steering wheel, remote trunk release, sequential tail lights, recessed headlights, etc. They were mostly complex electro-mechanical devices (not solid state) and often depended on what appeared to be countless vacuum reservoirs located throughout the car connected by seemingly miles of vacuum tubing.    

As I became a fan of the quirkiness of the T-bird, the vision of pilfering the engine, transmission, rear end and possibly brakes for my Mustang faded.   I just couldn't bring myself to part out this obscure luxury liner.  This was further complicated by my father's reaction to the beast.  I didn't exactly tell him I was buying it. I just bought it, drove it home, parked it the driveway and split for a couple hours (to avoid the initial reaction).  When I arrived home I thought for sure I was going to get read the riot act.  In fact, when I first saw him I swear I was able to read his lips and it had something to do with killing me.   But as I approached him, ready to face the music for parking a two ton monster in his yard (unannounced), he went into raving about what a nice car it was.  Later at one point, when my brother and I were working on it, we told him our plan to remove the drive train and scrap the car....he just looked at us and said "Fix it."  For years after that, my brother and I would use the "Fix it" quote on each other as a mantra whenever working on projects. 

I never had the time or resources to finish that project (I was focused on the Mustang) but I never had the heart to scrap or part that car out. Instead, my brother eventually finagled a deal to trade it for a Porsche 924....a story I'll tell at a later date. 

  

Drive of a Lifetime - Amalfi Coast

I just received my copy of National Geographic's book called Drives of a Lifetime.  It details 500 of the world's best road trips.

Going through the NatGeo book I came across one of my favorite drives: The Costiera Amalfitana, or Amalfi Coast

The popular Amalfi Coast route follows the shoreline from Sorrento south to Salerno. The roads along the Amalfi Coast are famously winding, narrow, and challenging to drive. Add in drop-dead views and daring Italian drivers, known for their behind-the-wheel bravado, and this road trip offers one of the more exciting driving experiences in Europe.

For the greater part of its route, the road is carved out of the side of the coastal cliffs (built by the Romans), giving spectacular views down to the Tyrrhenian Sea and on the other side up to the towering cliffs above. Add tour buses, cars and scooters all fighting for space on hairpin turns along cliffs and you have a memorable drive. Yet every corner seems to reveal an even more stunning view of the ocean, the villages, the rows of lemon trees and even the clouds above.

  

 In 1953, American writer John Steinbeck, described the road as "...a road, high, high above the blue sea, that hooked and corkscrewed on the edge of nothing, a road carefully designed to be a little narrower than two cars side by side. And on this road, the buses, the trucks, the motor scooters ...!"

A couple of conventional pointers on making the trip...

Locals recommend planning a drive of the Amalfi Coast during the off tourist season, mid-September to October and May, when the road is less crowded and lumbering tour buses are fewer.

It is also recommended to make the drive starting in Salerno (and driving north to Sorrento).  This is because supposedly the tour buses are only allowed to drive north on the route, and this avoids you having to deal with them head on.....by the way, when I made the drive I went south and passing the buses was very interesting.

Here is a list of less conventional rules I found on the internet for driving the Amalfi Coast. They are not likely to be found in any of the standard tourists' guides but I can honestly vouch for each one:

1. Don't look down. 
2. Don't look up. 
3. Don't look--it's easier that way. 
4. Forget about camels not passing through the eye of a needle.
5. Timidness will get you nowhere--literally. 
6. The solid center line in the middle of the road is merely a suggestion. 
7. Whoever gets to a lane first has the right of way--it doesn't matter whose side the lane is on. 
8. Traffic mirrors are put there so that you can see what you are about to hit head on. 
9. Tour buses WILL back up. (This one is true; they don't want a fender bender that will upset the itinerary of all their passengers.) 
10. Garbage trucks WON'T back up. 
11. Motorcyclists are fearless. 
12. Pedestrians are fearlesser.
13. Five headlights coming toward you equal two cars plus one motorcycle, or one car plus three motorcycles, or five motorcycles, all equally probable.
14. The probability of an accident is very low; at 40 mph around a hairpin curve 1000 ft above the sea EVERYONE pays attention. (Same is true for the Autostrada: at 130 mph, nobody's attention wanders.) 
15. Have plenty of limoncello on hand at the end of a day spent driving the Coast.

 

The book also features quite a few routes in the States and I will highlight a few more of them over the next few months. But if world travel isn't your thing you can try Reader's Digest publication called The Most Scenic Drives in America

The Falcon Fiasco

I've always had a soft spot for the Mustang's forgotten sibling.  The Ford Falcon to me has the same appeal as matchbox Novas.  They are small, simple, clean and when tastefully modded just scream purpose built street machine.

One day in my journey through cyberspace I came across a guy unloading two Falcons in upstate New York. So that weekend I hooked up a trailer to the family SUV and headed north. When I found the cars they were in the middle of nowhere!  It was rural farmland and the two cars sat in a field next to what looked like an abandoned schoolhouse.  My plan was to take one of the cars (the blue one in the photos below) and whatever parts I could from the other (the gold one).  As I inspected the cars I found shed snake skins almost everywhere I looked.  Seriously, fold the visor down, snake skins. Open the ashtray, snake skins. Open the air cleaner, snake skins! This should have been enough to make me second guess my plan, but I was determined.  After all, I had already spent days envisioning myself fixing and driving this car.

Both cars were full of boxes of junk, so I started to quickly move the junk from the blue car (the keeper) to the gold car.  As I started moving the stuff I kept finding more and more shed snake skins.  At this point it started to have a minor psychological impact as I started to itch for no apparent reason! I reached a point in the junk migration where I could start to see the car's floor and that's when it happened. It was like a scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom....live snakes everywhere!  I'm not scared of snakes, but the quantity of them, the fact that I couldn't identify them, and the uneasiness of not knowing where else they were became a deal breaker. I quickly shut the car. Once I regained composure I methodically stripped enough parts off the outside of the cars to make me feel like my trip was worthwhile and split.  

So my dream of building a sweet Ford Falcon is on hold, but I do have sheet metal and trim waiting in the garage for when a reptile free candidate presents itself.

How I found them...

The donor...

The keeper. Tons of potential!

The surprise!

Cougar Life

Stuck to the side of my toolbox are a couple old newspaper clippings advertising a few Mercury Cougars. The old yellow clippings were retrieved from the inside of a closet door. The closet happened to be in what was once my bedroom in my childhood home.  I was probably 13 or 14 years old when I clipped these from the 'Bargain News' and hung them in my room.  It was only a few years ago when helping my parents move from our old house that I found them and took them to put on display in my garage.

The Mercury Cougar was always one of my favorite muscle cars.  The electric razor inspired grill with hide away headlight was just plain cool.  The sequential taillights were even cooler.  If you asked me at that age what car I wanted when I grew up I would have said a Mercury Cougar with a 428 in it. My brother's truck had me in love with the Ford FE power plants.  In fact, in 8th grade, our English teacher made us right a letter to ourselves as seniors in high school.  The cool thing was that the school took the letters and gave them to us 4 years later. What was one of the first things I asked the older version of myself? What did I drive!!!  I even asked specifically if I had a Cougar with a 428 in it.  At the time I read the letter I was driving my 69 Mustang with a 302 in it....I think the prepubescent version of myself would have been satisfied with that answer.  So the point is I always wanted a Mercury Cougar.

As I mentioned in my post about my first car, the day came when I was ready to invest time and money to get the Mustang exactly where I wanted it.  This was going to involve updating the Mustang's chassis, suspension, brakes, and transmission.  While researching online (it was now the internet era) I came across a 1967 Mercury Cougar for sale.  It was an original S code car....meaning it came with a big block 390. While not the 428 I dreamed of, it was part of the FE family which I was always fond of.  It came with a 4 speed top-loader and had a complete Total Control Products front suspension on it.  It even had Wilwood disc brakes on all four corners. These were all the goodies I wanted for my Mustang and I couldn't even buy these parts for what the guy was selling the whole car for.  So my plans changed and my brother and I drove to Cleveland, Ohio pulling an empty U-haul trailer behind his V-10 powered  F-350.  We drove straight there, picked up the car, stopped for dinner with some relatives in the area and drove right back with this gem...

 

I still have the Cougar and you will be seeing many more posts featuring me doing dumb things with it as soon as the Spring arrives!!!

Super Troopers (Beater Vehicles are Fun)

It's obvious that there is a sense of pride a car guy has about his cherished ride.  However, only real car people can appreciate the satisfaction and enjoyment of owning a total beater vehicle.  I've had my share of beaters. My favorite probably being my '88 VW Fox that I bought for $100, drove to college regularly, road rallied, auto crossed, and then years later drove to the junk yard and was given $85 for the scrap value.
  
My brother's 'best' beater had to be his first generation Isuzu Trooper.  He scored it from a co-worker for about $125. It needed work before it could even be driven home so he spent some time getting it roadworthy in his friend's garage.  We were introduced to the obscure Isuzu SUV by my godfather. He purchased one of the early 80's models new and loved that thing.   He drove that truck for a very, very long time and liked it so much he ended up buying a third generation model.  We joked that we knew to only person in the US that was brand loyal to Isuzu.

The first generation of Trooper was produced between 1981 and 1991. It began production as a rather basic and somewhat under powered on-and-off road vehicle, offered initially only with 4-cylinder motor, 5-speed manual transmission, and part-time four-wheel drive. The first generation eventually evolved to add both amenities and luxuries, including optional air-conditioning, power windows, and a more powerful V6 engine.

Troopers were plain,  boxy and very utilitarian .  My brother embraced this simplicity and basically stripped the truck down even further.  He ripped out the carpeting and coated the floor in rubberized undercoating. He fixed the exterior rust and covered the lower portion of the body in undercoating. He blacked out the trim and then I surprised him with new tube bumpers.  The only mechanical upgrade was the addition of manual locking front hubs (the auto-locking ones didn't work). And that was it, that truck was abused from there on out as his daily commuter.

As I mentioned earlier, owning a beater can be fun. I think the fun only comes from having the proper expectations. I think the satisfaction comes from knowing you are operating and maintaining a vehicle that cost less than some people's shoes.  The enjoyment comes the fact that you are basically playing with house money and every additional mile you log in that car is pure profit.  My brother and I always joke about our beaters saying, "If it dies on the road, I'm just going to leave it there." Neither of us have followed through with this yet.

Another important factor is that as car guys, we tend to baby our rides. We park in the remote reaches of parking lots to avoid shopping carts and door dings. Tree sap and bird dropping are our mortal enemies in our quest to keep our cars shiny and new.  However, when you're in your beater....who cares.
 
Many years have gone by since my brother sold his Trooper.  Whenever we see one on the road (as infrequent as that is) we always pay homage to his beater.  However, an interesting thing happened in 2010.   I went to Haiti after the earthquake that leveled Port-au-Prince.  As we left the airport and walked to our ground transportation I noticed something.  Our 'rental' car was an old Trooper!  Not only that, almost every other vehicle in the parking lot was either an Isuzu Rodeo or Trooper!  It was surreal.  That Trooper had a tough week navigating the rubble that was still piled in the streets.  The first day the clutch cylinder went on it (which we repaired with the help of a rock). Later in the week the clutch let go in downtown Port-au-Prince. We abandoned that car on the side of the road and took a Tap Tap (a Haitian 'taxi') to our destination.  My point is....if you like Troopers like I do, go to Haiti!


Port-au-Prince Airport Lot (other than the Rav 4 I think everything is an Isuzu):

Our Trooper right where we left it after the clutch let go:

A day in the life of a Haitian Trooper:

Links:
The Isuzu Trooper Owners Guild Isuzu Trooper Owners Club