I dare you to look down any street of at least 6 intersections in all 4 directions and all you see is cars, trucks and hot rods with more coming in all day!
This is the great Cleveland Tennessee monthly cruise that takes over streets like an invasion. Located so close to Georgia and even North Carolina it draws a crazy variety of cars as people flock here!
Even this little rod showed up!
Model A
To Bronco's
To low riders
For small donation you could race some RC cars
This rolled in just after the DJ played the song from the Broadway show/Movie Hair which he admitted never hearing of either nor the song!
There some real pretty trucks here!
I noticed many yellow cars, was it a theme?
Picture perfect, 1950 all over again!
A flock of Falcons flew in
Could it be any old s'cooler
It said HEMI, but was a V6 Chevy
A Chrysler with Chrysler power, that a boy Luther!
Nice Studebaker Wagonaire
Now pick up that new refrigerator on the way home
I bet these 2 guys knew each other, little known by most Studebaker Daytona
Sleeper?
YES
PT Cruiser
With a Wipple Supercharger
Nice convertible
Thrilled to see the 6 cylinder still in place!
71 GTX
Never got the entire story on this in progress build
Looks like the car spent it's entire life right here in Cleveland
Which recently was closed
Mazda Rotary, don't see many of these do ya?
These 2 yellow cars wound up with the other 2
The 71 GTX needed a closer look
He actually drove it in, I mean the cartoon!
If you are near this region I strongly suggest making it to this great cruise in!
CARHUNTER may not be the best place to talk about Toyota's, but I find some interest in almost any car!
From 1936-1942 Toyoda (not misspelled) produced 1404 Model AA cars.
Much a cross section of bits and pieces of American cars for sure. As you may recall 1942 was the start of WWII so Japanese as USA car production ended, many of the AA's were used for scrap metal or put into Military service. It was believed that all examples of the AA were gone!
The 1st year of production only 100 AA's were built and to the shock of everyone this 1936 showed up having been in the pocession of a Siberian Farmer obviously been heavily modified for farm field usage and later moved to Vladivostak still owned by the same Russian family.
After much negotiations with the Russian authorities it was liberated and is now in The Loumann Museum in The Hague, Netherland as the only surviving example of the first *Toyoda (Toyota)
*This was the original name of the founderhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiichiro_Toyoda , later changed much as The Dat motor company showed up in the USA as Datsun (Datson), later Nissan. Ok the guy who questioned it; Honda was founded by Soichiro Honda so put that in your facts book, LOL!
*This was the original name of the founderhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiichiro_Toyoda , later changed much as The Dat motor company showed up in the USA as Datsun (Datson), later Nissan. Ok the guy who questioned it; Honda was founded by Soichiro Honda so put that in your facts book, LOL!
Hit the ABS brakes! How is Jay Leno driving one?
Toyota being such a powerful world manufacturer decided they needed one (or a few) to celebrate their heritage and humble beginnings so they built replicas!
Fast forward after the dust settled and in 1958 the first cars exported to the USA were these cute little Toyopet Crowns which were dismal failure, many think the name was more of the issue.
Recently auctioned off from the closing Tupelo Auto Museum is the first Japanese car registered in the US. It was registered to the Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco. Stored for many years after his death and acquired by the now defunct Tupelo Museum in Mississippi.
It was not until the late 60's that Toyota started to have a serious presence in the USA. Unexpected and unknown to many auto enthusiasts is the 1967 Toyota 2000 GT sports car, I have a seen a few myself, but have you ever even heard of one?
More common and maybe ignored was the 1966 Toyota Corolla, unlike the early Toyota's that seemed to copy US cars these were a new concept that took awhile to grow roots and overtake eventually.
1968 Toyota Corona
2019 Toyota Corolla XSE
2019 Toyota Avalon, they have come a long way baby!
Ian Roussel builds some wild Kustoms and this "Bullet" T' Bird is certainly a wild one!
So much to take in and it looks like it floating!
Every inch of this car customized, we will have to look at more of Ian's creations in the future!
This could have been a very long winded blog on it's own, but I think it is heading in a direction not expected!
The Studebaker Avanti was born exactly when CARHUNTER himself was and believe it or not has been around in some form up to very recently!
Designed in 1961 the futuristic look of Raymond Loewy stayed valid for 6 decades!
When Studebaker went out of business a local dealer bought the rights and continued under the Avanti Motors name.
Fast forward to it's nail scratching attempt not to leave us is this 2001 version based on a Firebird
I actually ran into this one and was not aware in 2005 another version popped out on a Mustang platform.
Finally the concept cars!
This is still hailed as the Avanti III all electric prototype, no never happened! previous owners of the company (there were a few) had died and one bought it again, but wound up in prison charged with a giant real estate Ponzi Scheme!
This concept vehicle popped up in the last decade as the XUV, you say it looks like a Hummer?
Mr. G Motors also noticed that and GM set their lawyers on the Avanti company in full force
Since the Studebaker name was free of any affiliation or owners they decided to punch it on the rear!
This brochure seems to show Avanti's attempt to remove any appearance to a Hummer by tilting the windshield back and trying to bring back the look of the Wagonaire Studebaker wagon of the 60's
Squint a little, nah it never happened!
Swing and a miss, I think that may have been last gasp for the Avanti!
THIS IS MY ALL TIME FAVORITE CRAIGSLIST AD AS I SAW IT
"I am the former owner of this car, and all
that David is saying is a lie. The car is not professionally built. I purchase
it about a year ago from a mexican guy in Fl. that made the car himself and I
tried to finish it but I found out that is is going to cost about $20,000 to
finish the car. The engine is wrong and the transmission and wiring for the car.
It IS NOT SAVE TO DRIVE DOWN THE STREET. This car is worth about $16,000 to tell
you the truth. If you pay more than that. YOU ARE A FOOL. If you have any other
questions, please send me an email. David will lie and trick you."
HUH?
Is it still available? LOL!
