By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

Love for the Colonnade? Koch’s 1974 Buick Regal driving impressions last month brought it out; let’s see if today’s HFOD, a four-speed 1974 Pontiac Grand Am, offered for $15,000 out of Hopkinton, Massachusetts, does the same. From the seller’s description:

Very rare Factory 4SPD one of only 146 made, Rebuilt 400 motor, rebuilt Muncie trans, Matching numbers drivetrain, new exhaust, etc. Rust free body, New paint/vinyl top, Oxblood interior in great shape with some wear on front seats. Runs well. Two owner car, Turn key.

See more pics at Hemmings

By David Belau

dartslantsix

In the movie Gone in 60 Seconds, the main character has a car that always gives him trouble when he tries to steal it. Its name is Eleanor. My Eleanor is the 1974 Dodge Dart. While I don’t make a habit of stealing cars, the 1974 Dart has given me plenty of trouble.

My first experience with a 1974 Dodge Dart was ten years ago. She came to me with knife stab holes in the hood where a ritual sacrifice had taken place. The previous owner had left some pictures of head wounds in the trunk. The car would die randomly and start randomly. This should have been a sign to me.

When my friend Art called me and said, “Hey I found a 1974 Dart for $100! Wanna help fix it up?” I should have warned him. I should have known better. After helping him, I now know without a doubt that all 1974 Darts are possessed.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "My Eleanor: the 1974 Dart" »

By Mike Musto

RideLust.com

If you had to go out right now and buy one car to own for the rest of your life, what would it be? Exotic, muscle car, hybrid, import… what? Think about the basics like reliability, practicality, comfort, looks and ease of maintenance. It would not be an easy choice, I assure you.

Continue reading after the jump.

Continue reading "35 Years Owning a BMW 2002" »

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

How cool is this pristine ’74 Malibu spotted at Lowe’s Motor Speedway by Jim Donnelly of Hemmings? Yes, 454s were pretty anemic in 1974, but you gotta love the taxi cab interior with the factory four speed floor shifter. Two more pics after the jump.

Continue reading "1974 454 Malibu with Hurst 4 Speed" »

During the 1973-4  oil crisis, Car and Driver took a Pinto and modded it for improved fuel economy. By spending $11 on improving the aerodynamics, removing two of the four fan blades, and switching from bias ply to steel belted tires, they were able to improve the Pinto’s gas mileage by 25%. More at Ecomodder.

Hemmings has been doing a whole series on Ferrari, but this one stopped me in my tracks. The Boxer is my favorite Ferrari, and I think these early two-tone red/black 365 GT4 BBs are just about perfect. I have three more pics after the jump, but you should really go to Hemmings to see them all (where you’ll also be able to click through to big high res images for your desktop).

Continue reading "1974 Ferrari 365 GT4 BB" »

Everyone hates Nazis, especially Illinois Nazis. Too bad their cool orange Pinto wagon had to die with them. Believe it or not, the producers of the Blues Brothers had to get a special airworthiness (or unworthiness?) certificate for the Pinto from the FAA to certify that the car would not fly off-course when it was dropped from a helicopter in the famous scene. As a result, they first had to drop a duplicate car in a remote area to see how far off from vertical it would travel while falling. So two Pintos died for the sake of art. Oh well… Sadly, I could not find a photo of the actual drop.

Update: check out this site. Thanks for the link Gary!

Check out this sweet eBay find–a 1974 Caprice with just 38,000 miles. So, does this car just need a lift and 26s? Or leave it alone? And who else besides me likes green?

Check out this 1974 Dodge Colt that was found in a San Francisco junkyard wearing its original paint, with all the paperwork from the original owner. Nice score!