Massachushites

[Karmann Ghiaman]

Was recently in the Boston area (the nice but dull city in America, not the stump dump in Lincs), and found time for a little spotting. Here are a few from the digital camera. More next week (unless anyone posts rude objections) when the SLR films are developed.

 

Just for the boxiness of it.

 

A lot of Scandishite stateside.

 

Nice prangremoval truck.

 

The longest ever Merc with two men delving into it.

 

Oh yes!

 

Bar-B-Q'd car.

 

Nice.

 

Glad to say that they can sit a long time before anyone takes any notice in Boston. (Further return-to-Nature gems to follow in the next batch.)

 

Commonest blightymobile is the Obese Mini.

 

The Golf-in-a-crinoline is also popular. Took a picture of this for the interesting pepperpot lights.

 

If this was Joyce Grenfell's plate then it really ought to be on a British car, but still.

 

Another good personalized plate. BTW, an American friend told me you can tell the age of a car by colour of the lettering on the plates. I fell asleep, but no doubt someone knows about this (red is recent, other older I think).

 

Beautiful Lincoln Presidential...

 

...initials on door as standard. You could get assassinated in this.

 

Nice'n'sleazy.

 

You have to be careful photographing stuff like this. Was about to shoot one beauty in Cambridge but suddenly realised that there were three goodfellas squeezed in it & hid camera just in time. Obviously the Mob drive the best real American cars.

 

Crappy old Golf to American taste. Endless boring Passats everywhere. Sadly, missed two nice real Beetles on the move.

 

Nice Mustang for Daddy-O.

 

More Scandishite. Quite sensible considering the winters they have round there though.

 

Can't they spell ENGLISH?

[michiel]

Nice! Love the orange/primer AMC (?).

[MrRegieRitmo]

My first thought was Mustang, but I suppose it could be an AMC Hornet??I like the gold Audi 90 best.

[MrRegieRitmo]

Can't they spell ENGLISH?

Ahh Yank shop signage....I'll never forget in Clearwater FL in 2000 when we saw a fishmonger with a neon sign in the window "WE HAVE CRABS"

[Ratdat]

The orange car is either a '73 or '74 AMC Javelin.

[mouseflakes]

The Golf-in-a-crinoline is also popular. Took a picture of this for the interesting pepperpot lights.

 

Flowerpot surely?

 

Nice selection - extra points for Joyce Grenfell reference.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Is there such a thing as an AMX Javelin? I'm sure I had a matchbox one of those once.

[Ratdat]

Is there such a thing as an AMX Javelin? I'm sure I had a matchbox one of those once.

yeah, after 1972 there was the Javelin which was a basic spec car and the Javelin AMX which was high spec. Prior to the complete restyle in '72 the Javelin and AMX were seperate models. The AMX being a short wheelbase version of the Javelin.

[andrew e]

Arse a little bit quicker and I could have immpressed... Tony Beadle of Street Machine fame had one as a project car remember?

[Ratdat]

Arse a little bit quicker and I could have immpressed... Tony Beadle of Street Machine fame had one as a project car remember?

Wasn't that an early shape one like mine?

[andrew e]

Could well be, a burgandy thing?

[Richard]

Does anybody recognise this AMX?

 

[Karmann Ghiaman]

The Matchbox selection:

 

[AnthonyG]

When I visited Connecticut a few years ago, Saabs and Volvos were everywhere. My friend explained that there are a lot of university lecturers, doctors etc in these Northeastern states who are affluent but don't want to drive flashy cars, and so Scandinavian stuff fits the bill nicely. If they were Republicans, they would simply drive Buicks, but since they are nearly always Democrats, they drive something 'imported' to show they are not one of the crowd. Peugeots used to sell well in these Northeastern states too.(this social group is easier to categorise in the UK - they are known as 'Guardian readers'!)P.S. The presidental car is a 1990s Buick Regal, not a Lincoln. The 'presidental' stuff would not have been a GM option either, so must be aftermarket. Lincoln did offer a 'Congressional' spec on the Town Car in the mid 1990s, there has been one been advertised in the UK for months now.

[Karmann Ghiaman]

Thanks, AnthonyG; interesting. Well, there are a lot of big, dull Japanese cars in MA too, Camrys, Corollas, etc. 4x4s are (were?) more fun in America where there's plenty of room for them. Saw a big black shiny Hummer in the centre of Boston last year. Mind you, I saw one of them in Richmond (London, not Virginia) once.

[Karmann Ghiaman]

Thank you for your patience, gentlemen. Boots have done their stuff, so here are the rest, all taken in & around Boston:

 

Not sure how this got in. It may have had some sort of crud on the side which hasn't come out in the not very good photo. Oh well.

 

Satisfyingly American.

 

The owner of this out-of-town woody was rootling in a nearby litterbin. Tried to include him in the shot, but discretion proved the better part of valour (or valor as the Yanks would say).

 

Another imaginative registration plate.

 

Found this vaguely interesting, but was caught shitespotting. A smart young man (the sort who stand guarding upmarket apartment blocks) sneaked up & said 'May I help you sir?' I burbled something about what a lovely car it was and scuttled off, stage left.

 

Another New 'Beetle', obviously photographed for the sticker.

 

There was something about this - and the Neolithic parking meters are strangely compelling too.

 

Irritating New 'Minis' with Red Bull advertising skovving around the Boston Fens. Of course I rushed to the nearest 7/11 and bought a few cans.

 

What was it about THAT?

 

Dull VW with some trim ripped off. This illustrates the lack of seriousness with which the Americans take registration plates. In Europe, of course, they are vital so that the police can catch you going at 34mph in a built-up area.

 

Another reverting to nature. This was in a smart street in central Boston & would have been removed months ago in Engerland.

 

Oh dear. Not sure if someone had done this, tidied up & driven off, or whether the unfortunate owner was aware. Lord protect us all from innocently-parked-prangsters.

 

A fine Buick. The badge is clearly designed to maim as well as bruise anyone it runs over.

 

Beautiful truck with engine exposed in church (!) carpark. A very small black woman was working on it, hence the step ladder. Thought I'd better make myself scarce when she came back with a large spanner.

 

Quite nice white Mustang convertible.

 

Students were returning to college that week. These ones had exactly the right vehicle, a respray job I think.

 

Result! Sadly, I was with an American friend when this beauty was spotted, so only able to get the one shot. It would simply take too long to try to teach them the meaning of irony.

 

This rotting Oldsmobile was the Jewel in the Crown of the whole collection. Note that it has Florida plates. Was in the carpark of a block of flats in Wellesley Hills, about 30 miles west of Boston. Presumably the owner's body lies in one of the flats, as yet unsmelt. The car was still full of possessions, but spiderwebs had formed over the doorhandles. (Not that I was thinking of breaking in, you understand.)

 

Classic American schoolbus. This was down by a lake at a golf club. Didn't go to investigate if all the children had drowned or not.

 

Just before I left, discovered this Aston in the garage next door to where I was staying. Definitely not Blighty-shite.

[Torsten2001]

Right Hand Drive though!

[r.welfare]

Tremendous spots, sir. I visited downtown Boston in April 2003 for a long weekend, but we mainly spent our time in an enormous bar called "The Rack", consuming a watery liquid called Bud Light, and hence I have no recollection of motoring memories other than riding in a succession of mechanically-buggered Ford Crown Vic taxis.2nd car down is a Ford LTD circa '83-'86. These things give me massive old car horn, for some reason. Replaced by the roundyround Taurus, dontchaknow.The gold estate that the apartment doorman rumbled you on is some kind of Saturn - I forget which. What makes it interesting to shiters is that it is, in fact, a thinly-disguised Vauxhall Vectra estate. Check the doors and rear window shape if you think I'm talking jive.

[Karmann Ghiaman]

Yes, it was a Saturn. Tried to memorise more details, but that guard frightened me off. Another time there was a rather attractive young lady with a little girl who said 'Mommy, what's that man photographing?' I then had to explain all about Autoshite... Would have invited her for a coffee if it hadn't been for the brat, but she still would never have understood about irony.

 

Bud Lite! Rather you than me mate. Sam Adams is an OK beer they have there (named after a Mel Gibson character out of the American Revolution, is it?)

[r.welfare]

Heh. I had a drunk man heckling me from a pub doorway in Freemantle, when I was photographing a rather fine BX 19TRS, a rare car in Oz.I went to a good microbrewery while in Harvard, but I can't remember the name of it. Long time ago. Great thing about Bud Lite is that you can consume more of it than the Septics can before falling over. They don't tend to like that fact much.

[fordpoplier]

I lived in Boston (Beacon Hill then The North End) from 1995 to 2000, I remember 'The Rack' well. Good microbrewery in Harvard? Grendel's maybe? I fell up the steps there a few times. The Saturn things are indeed common as muck over here although not so the wagons. I remember seeing one once fully trimmed in leather and thought why? The Geek Squad thing is a company who do home PC support, the TV adverts show fleets of Beetles being dropped by parachutes/driven by nerds in 'to the rescue' style. My memory of cars that lived in central Boston was that bumpers were meant for bumping - people would think nothing of nudging the cars in front/behind as they took 15 goes to park, hence front and rear damage was common.Did you see the 'Duck Tour' things? Huge great WW2 Amphibious trucks painted pink filled with quacking tourists driving around Boston/The Charles river? Shite on a stick.

[AnthonyG]

 

 

A fine Buick. The badge is clearly designed to maim as well as bruise anyone it runs over.

 

 

^^^ is a Cadillac De Ville, one of the FWD ones from '85 onward. The badge ornament is probably designed to break off, unlike the spear-like ones from the 50s!

[Karmann Ghiaman]

Oh yes, the DUKWs, well-known to Airfix modellers of the '60s & '70s! They didn't work very well on D-Day, so it seems foolhardy to drive one into the Charles River 7 decades later.

 

Cadillac de Ville? As driven by Cruella de V presumably?

 

First went to America at the end of the '70s when they still had lots & lots of big finny gas-guzzlers & you couldn't get the Jaws music out of your head. But now most of their cars just seem to be slightly larger, ugly-in-a-different way, versions of European & Japanese ones. Should try to make contact with the classic VW crowd, but I've never seen a Ghia in New England (my own's a California girl).