I HAD one of those Tercels...a four-door version that I retroactively call the "Anton Martin" because its previous owner was a classmate of mine named Anton. It replaced my first car (an AMC Concord) and it kept me running through most of college. Took it on a couple typical Florida adventures too.

When the Concord…

My family's rides as of my start of college in 1986. The red AMC Concord station wagon is mine; the MG Midget was my father's weekend car and in the throes of decadence. The Oldsmobile Royale sedan was Mom's. Not shown, my father's pickup of the moment...he was a foreman at a lumber yard and wore them out pretty…

I recall a beer ad on TV circa 1979 about somebody who had a broken sofa he tried to get rid of. So he took out a classy ad in the paper with all sorts of sophisticated language to describe it—and somebody stole the sofa.

Just a few minutes ago I saw the Chevy Van that the fellow sang about making love in...getting taken on a flatbed truck to the recyclers.

Being the Mad Scientist type that I am, I think if I somehow acquired the Kar Manufacturing body shown above, I'd throw some modern Westfield XTR mechanicals under it. Just for the shock value.

Richard Petty Plymouth Satellite. The car that made me love NASCAR.

He looks like the actor who plays the mob boss Elias on PERSON OF INTEREST.

Heck, that wonderful gauge of automotive culture—the product lines of Revell plastic model kits—includes "Donks". The kits Revell sells/sold for their Donks series include Pontiac Grand Prixes, Buick Grand Nationals, and Cadillac Coupes DeVille. I am somewhat surprised they didn't include a Lincoln or Chrysler in…

I used to own a sedan version and by the placement of the fuel filler, I think the featured vehicle WAS a wagon originally and then converted.

"You've Never Seen/

At the Flea Market (spell check wanted to call it "Flea Malarkey") today, there was a stall that sold nothing but little strobe light LED modules...I imagined that somebody was just going to show up, plunk down some hundreds of dollars and rig up his vehicle to look like an escapee from a Disneyland night parade.

*plays "Hot Rod Lincoln" on the stereo*

Ideas: 1) Lotus Ford, anyone? 2) MG Midget replica, based on a body-in-white from BMH. 3) Model A replica, or possibly that '40 replica that Ford is now offering; 4) Mustang II.

Next Week on NCIS: Los Angeles...

*plays the "A Prius For Everyone" jingle on the Muzak*

Because how evil can anything be in this nation if it doesn't come with bacon on it?

Exactly my point!

I own a Prizm...and it's been very good to me. But I don't think it deserves to be a Chevy. For a while I wanted to personally re-badge it as a Vauxhall or Opel or Holden or Delta or somesuch. Just to freak out the rednecks.

When I was a boy I was addicted to J.C. Whitney's catalogs. In fact, I still keep some from the middle 1980s. Hood ornaments, window louver sets, sun shades (both the stick on vinyl and the big visor things), faux spotlights, hood scoops, air dams, spoilers, graphics stickers, mud guards, fender flares,…

A few years ago when the Tennessee Air Guard put a Dolly Parton nose art graphic on one of their tanker jets Parton herself made a big publicity thing about it. So it isn't exactly "dead" Stateside.