1975 Porsche 914 2.0

Developed in the late 1960s to replace both the range-topping Karmann Ghia for Volkswagen and the entry-level 912 at Porsche, the 914 faced big challenges right from the jump-off.

For starters, it was coming into being just as the US auto market, the largest in the world and increasingly important to both VW and Porsche, was mandating a slew of new vehicle regulations in the names of reduced emissions, lowered insurance costs, and increased safety.

Second, while the four-cylinder cars were intended to be sold as Volkswagen-Porsches in Europe, Porsche lobbied to label them as Porsches in the US, fearing that having identical-looking cars with VW badges would dilute Porsche's prestige in the stratified and brand-conscious American market. Volkswagen's new president refused to solely shoulder the development costs, so the cost of the car rose considerably, narrowing the price gap between the 914/6 and the cheapest 911T.

The rubber-covered bumpers with guards and the "2.0" badging on the tail mark this Forest Green 914 as a '75-'76 model.

The 914 2.0 was introduced in 1973 to replace the 914/6 after the latter suffered dismal sales, only moving 3,349 units in the two years it was on the market. Rather than the Porsche-sourced flat six, the 914 2.0 had a Bosch fuel injected two-liter VW flat four making 100 SAE net horsepower.

This gave a noticeable performance bump over the 79 horsepower 1.7L VW four in the regular 914, which struggled to crack the fourteen second mark in the sprint to sixty, despite weighing only 2,075 pounds.

Base price on this car in 1975 would have been $6,995, which comes to about $41,580 in current dollars.

The one in the photos was snapped with an Olympus E-510 and a Zuiko Digital 12-60mm f/2.8-4 zoom lens in April of 2025.

2016 Ferrari 488 GTB

"Entry-Level Exotic" seems like an oxymoron, but that's the job that the mid-engine V-8 powered cars from Ferrari have served since the days when Tom Selleck was zooming around Hawaii in a 308 GTS on television in the early Eighties. 

A late '70s 308 GTB would have set an American buyer back at least $28,850, which is something like $140k in today's dough, but by the time they'd federalized a grey market BB512, they'd be close to double that amount out of pocket. (Just federalizing the Boxer cost something like fourteen grand, or the price of a '78 Corvette and a Camaro Z28 to drive while the 'Vette was in the shop.)

Anyway, the mid-engine V-8 cars continued to be the "affordable" Ferraris through several generations, with the 488 being the most-recent-but-one. It succeeded the 458 and marked a return to more traditional Ferrari nomenclature: Whereas the 458 had been called that for its 4.5 liter 8 cylinder motor, the 488 designation refers to the displacement of one cylinder in cubic centimeters.

The 458 had faced pressure from increasingly potent Lambos and McLarens in its weight class and so the decision was made to drop the normally-aspirated 4.5L F136 F V-8 and go to a twin-turbo 3.9L motor. The  F154 CB V-8 is a gnarlier version of the motor found under the hood of the front-engined California T. In the 488 the F154 was rated at 661 horsepower at an ear-splitting 8,000 rpm, over a hundred horses more than the version in the front-engine car. Ferrari pilots hadn't heard turbo whine coming from over their shoulder since the days of the F40 in the early Nineties.

With that much motor, the 2016 488 GTB put up some impressive numbers when tested by Motor Trend. Sixty miles per hour went past in a 2.7 second eye blink and the quarter mile was dispatched in 10.6 seconds at 135 mph. The car braked from sixty in a retina-detaching 94 feet and circled the skidpad at 1.02g. Manufacturer's claimed top speed is 202mph. All this for a base price of $249,150 in 2016 dollars.

 This one was photographed in April of 2025 using an Olympus E-510 and a Zuiko Digital 12-60mm f/2.8-4 zoom lens.

1995 Cadillac Eldorado Sport Coupe

The Eldorado debuted in 1953 as a sporty convertible coupe with show car styling at the pinnacle of Cadillac's lineup.

From then on, it remained as Caddy's sports-luxury coupe, and often debuted new tech for the company. The '53 had been the first Cadillac with a wraparound windshield, and the '67 Eldo was the first front-wheel drive Cad. The '76 Eldorado was the first with the fuel-injected 500, and the last Cadillac convertible until 1984.

The Eldorado in the picture, I think a '95 in Pearl Red, would be from the twelfth… and final …generation of the Eldorado. While the sportier Eldorado Touring Coupes had the 300hp version of the 4.6L 32V DOHC Northstar V8 along with a silly "ETC" decklid badge, this base ESC model would have had the lower-revving 275-horse LD8 variation of the Northstar. 

While the higher-output L37 and the LD8 shared the same variable valve timing 32V architecture and 10.3:1 compression ratio, the LD8 had five more lb/ft of torque, at 300, that peaked lower in the rev range so that it didn't require as much pressure on the gas pedal from an orthopedic loafer to summon up.

While 275 horsepower may not seem like a lot by modern standards, or by those of the ‘60s Muscle Car Era, the LD8 Northstar was a big bump over the ‘93 Eldo’s 4.9L pushrod L26 port fuel-injected V-8 that only put out 200hp. The ESC ("Eldorado Sport Coupe") could squeak under the 8.0 second mark in the sprint to sixty, and the ETC was quicker. The price on the 1995 ESC started at $38,220, which is eighty grand in today's money.

Alas, Eldorado sales numbers had been on a steady glide slope toward oblivion since 1986 and the Eldorado nameplate went to that Great Country Club Parking Lot in the Sky after the 2002 model year.

This one was photographed in November of 2023 using a Fujifilm X-T2 and a Fujinon XF 16-80mm f/4 R OIS WR zoom lens. 

2004 Porsche 911 40th Anniversary

2003 marked the fortieth anniversary of Porsche's iconic 911, and to celebrate the event, the folks in Stuttgart put together a special limited run of 1,963 (get it?) "40 Jahre 911" commemorative models.

The anniversary cars were all silver and came with GT3 rocker panels, special 18" wheels, sports suspension package, and a bump for the 3.6L DOHC flat six, from 315 to 345 SAE net horsepower.

When Motor Trend tested one of the cars, they managed a 4.7 second zero-to-sixty sprint and a 13.1 quarter at 108 through the traps. Price as tested was $96,765, which comes to just short of $164,000 in today's money.

A quick check of the online 40 Jahre 911 fan club registry suggests that this is car number 0162.

It was photographed with a Canon EOS-1D Mark IV and an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS zoom lens in November of 2023.

1981 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham Coupe

Dating this Azure Blue Firemist Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham Coupe is made easy by the fender badge, which denotes that it had Caddy's V-4-6-8 engine.

While cylinder deactivation isn't especially uncommon now, it was pretty radical back in the days when even really powerful computers still had their memory measured in kilobytes.

The 1980 Caddies had been using the 368 cubic inch L61 V-8, which was the older 425 cube motor with the bore reduced to 3.8 inches. The stroke was left at 4.06", which made for an undersquare tractor motor that got better gas mileage. It was fuel-injected on the front wheel drive Eldos and Sevilles, but the RWD bodies still used Rochester Quadrajet carbs.

For 1981, Cadillac added a complicated cylinder deactivation system that would use solenoids to lock the rocker arms on the deactivated cylinders, creating the 140bhp L62 V4-6-8. Now using throttle body injection on all models, it would theoretically use all eight cylinders for accelerating, six for normal around-town driving, and only fire on four cylinders for interstate cruising.

Car and Driver tested an '81 Sedan de Ville with the V4-6-8 and got a zero-to-sixty time of 11.6 seconds and oozed through the quarter mile in 18.4 seconds at 74 mph. Top speed was 101 and the brakes... 11.7" vented discs up front and drums in the back ...took 233 feet to haul the 4240-pound barge to a stop from 70.

The V4-6-8 motor was a public relations nightmare. It had almost no practical effect on fuel economy (The EPA rating of 15 MPG City, 25 Highway was identical to the the previous year's car) and received thirteen programming upgrades in its sole model year of retail sales, and would probably be remembered as the crappiest artifact of the Malaise Era if it weren't for the fact that Oldsmobile's 350 Rocket Diesel had been an even bigger disaster.

Fortunately, the whole system could be disabled by disconnecting a single wire, which this one has almost certainly had done since the driver does not appear to be gnawing on the steering wheel while shedding tears of impotent rage.

This one was photographed with a Canon EOS-1D Mark IV and EF 24-105mm f/4L zoom lens in February of 2024.

2014 Kia Forte

Thumbnail review from a decade ago:

Rental car for the weekend: 2014 Kia Forte.

Base 148-horse 4-banger with a six-speed slushbox. Lotta slack in the torque converter. It takes it a second to realize you've pressed the gas pedal from a standing start, especially in "Eco" mode, then the drivetrain spins up a lot of sturm und drang that seems oddly disconnected with the languid pace with which the trees are moving past the windows. Solid build quality. Useable cockpit. Driver's seat is reasonably comfortable and the controls all fall readily to hand.

I'm not used to the decoupled feeling of an automatic after so many years of driving a manual. And the six speed box combined with the modest torque output means the gnomes are always busy shoveling gearshifts down in the boiler room.

Photo was taken in April of 2014 using a Samsung Galaxy SII.

2006 Ford Five Hundred SEL

In the early 2000s, Ford had two situations on its hands. For one, the Crown Victoria, whose rear wheel drive Panther platform underpinnings dated to the late 1970s, was largely becoming relegated to fleet sales. For another, they had spent a bundle on Volvo and wanted some return on that nearly seven billion dollar investment.

So Ford took the Volvo P2 platform, which underpinned Volvo's newest transverse-engine sedans and wagons, and developed it into the Ford D3 platform, which would provide the basis for the Freestyle crossover SUV and a new full-size FWD sedan that would eventually replace the Crown Vic.

Inexplicably, Ford decided to call the new car the Five Hundred. This echoed the old 500 suffix used on the top trim levels of Fairlanes and Galaxies, but hadn't been used since 1974, so it was unlikely to be emotionally resonant with buyers thirty years later. Anyway...

It came in three trim levels: SE, SEL (like the Redfire Metallic one in the photo, and Limited.

Power came from Ford's 3.0L Duratec 24V DOHC V-6, making 203 SAE net horsepower. The base SE had this motor backed with a CVT driving the front wheels, while the FWD versions of the SEL and Limited had a 6-speed automatic. All trim levels could be had with an all-wheel drive and CVT driveline.

When Car and Driver put a 2005 Five Hundred Limited with the AWD setup through its paces, they got an 8.0 second zero-to-sixty time and a 16.3 quarter mile at 88 mph.

This one was photographed with an Olympus E-510 and Zuiko Digital 12-60mm f/2.8-4 zoom lens in April of 2025.

1974 Toyota Land Cruiser

The FJ40 version of the heavy duty Toyota Land Cruiser was produced, almost unchanged, from 1960 through 1984, which is incredible longevity for a single generation of vehicle. If you got driven home from the hospital as an infant in one during the Kennedy administration, you could have bought one that looked just like it when you graduated college while Reagan was president.

Oh, sure, the new one would have had front disc brakes, a factory roll bar, the vent windows would have been deleted, and the grille/headlight bezel would have been squarer, but it would have been essentially identical.

This one's been resto-modded heavily enough that it's hard to be certain of the exact model year, but the rear lift gate, rather than a pair of full-height barn doors, combined with the presence of MVSS '68 compliant side marker lights, makes me guess it's somewhere between '69 and '74. (That instrument panel, for instance, is completely aftermarket.)

For 1974, the FJ40 would have had Toyota's 3.9L F engine under the hood, a torquey undersquare lump of a pushrod inline six with a 7.8:1 compression ratio that allowed it to run on garbage gasoline from whatever shady seller you stumbled across while roaming around the outback. It made 138 SAE net horsepower and grunted out 215 lb/ft of torque at only 2200 RPM.

This Freeborn Red example was photographed in April of 2025 using an Olympus PEN E-P5 and an M. Zuiko Digital 12-45mm f/4 PRO zoom lens.

1989 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cruiser

For the 1984 model year, Oldsmobile discontinued the rear wheel drive G-body Cutlass wagon and moved the Cutlass Cruiser wagon nameplate over to the front wheel drive Cutlass Ciera. This was the same model year that all the GM A-bodies got station wagon versions: Chevy Celebrity, Pontiac 6000, and Buick Century.

Facelifted in 1985 and again in 1987, for 1988 all Olds Cutlass Ciera models got composite headlamps, giving the nose a sleeker look.

The row of little flags under the Cutlass Cruiser fender badge were part of Olds's advertising schtick from the late '70s through the early '90s, showing that Olds was trying to position itself as a competitor against sporty European and Asian competitors and set itself apart from its more traditionally 'Murrican-flavored GM stablemates. A tough sell when all you can really do to distinguish yourself from the herd is minor styling, suspension tuning, and powertrain differences.

The base motor in this Light Beechwood Metallic '89 Cutlass Cruiser would have been the pushrod 2.5L Tech IV, the latest evolution of the creaky old "Iron Duke" four banger, now with a balance shaft and throttle-body injection and making 98 SAE net horsepower. Optional motors were the 2.8L 125 horsepower V-6 or the 3.3L 3300 GM corporate V-6, which featured multiport fuel injection and 160 SAE net horses. (Incidentally, this was twenty more ponies than the 5.0L Olds 307 made in the 1988 Cutlass Supreme Classic, the last of the rear wheel drive G-bodies.)

The 14x6" aluminum alloy wheels would have come with the FE3 performance suspension package on an '89 Cutlass Cruiser, and they weren't available on the '88 model, and in 1990 the front seat shoulder harness anchors moved from the B-pillars to the door frames to comply with passive restraint requirements, so that nails down the model year.

It was photographed using an Olympus E-510 and a Zuiko Digital 12-60mm f/2.8-4 zoom lens in April of 2025.

1957 Ford Thunderbird

When Chevrolet launched its two-seater Corvette in 1953, it caught Ford slightly flat-footed. Dearborn was rocked back on its heels briefly before counterpunching with the Thunderbird for 1955.

At the time, neither car was a blood-in-the-eye sportster. The original 'Vette was powered by a moderately sportified version of Chevy's Stovebolt inline six, and Ford's riposte was a body-on-frame grand tourer riding on a chopped 102" wheelbase platform that owed much to the regular FoMoCo sedans of the era.

Of the original first generation T-birds, the '57 was the most numerous. The launch of the second generation 1958 models was delayed and so the 1957 models remained in production for an extra three months, until December '57, with a total of 21,380 units sold.

The base motor for the '57 model remained the 292 cubic inch Ford Y-block pushrod V-8. With a two-barrel carburetor and a 9.1:1 compression ratio, it was rated at 212 SAE gross horsepower. Optional were two different versions of the 312 cubic inch Y-block.

First was the Thunderbird 312 Special V-8, with a four-barrel carb and a 9.7:1 compression ratio, making 245 horsepower, and at the top of the pyramid was the Thunderbird 312 Super V-8, which added a second four-barrel and bumped the output to 270 ponies.

Weight distribution was aided by the engine being largely set back abaft the front axle.

The 292 cube motor could only be had with the 3-speed manual, while the bigger V-8s could also be equipped with the Fordmatic slushbox.

The Torch Red car in the photos has the 3-speed manual with optional overdrive.

Motor Trend tested a '57 with the 245-horse Thunderbird Special V-8 and the Fordmatic gearbox and recorded a zero-to-sixty time of 11.1 seconds. The quarter mile took 18.2 seconds with a trap speed of 77 miles per hour. Braking from sixty took 160 feet with the 11" drum brakes at each corner.

The top photo in this post was taken in August of 2021 using a Nikon D2X and 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6 VR zoom lens. The second one was snapped with an Olympus OM-D E-M1X and an M. Zuiko Digital 12-200mm f/3.5-6.3 zoom lens in October of 2024, while the bottom two were taken in May of 2023 using a Canon EOS-1D Mark IV and an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS zoom lens.

1992 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible

The fourth generation of Corvette was nearing a decade old in the early Nineties, and the next generation had originally been scheduled to debut as a 1995 model, but a soft economy affected sales and so the new 'Vette had to get pushed back another few years and the C4 would linger on.

For 1991 the car received a styling update, with the nose and rear fascia revised, new front fender panels with faux horizontal vent strakes, and new 17" turbine-styled aluminum wheels.

For the 1992 model year, the revised exterior was joined by underhood upgrades to match.

In the '92 Corvette, the L98 Tuned Port Injection 5.7L motor that had powered Chevy's flagship since the 1985 model year was replaced by the new LT1.

An evolution of the previous 350 small block V-8, the new second generation LT1 featured a host of changes, including a revised intake and exhaust, new free-flowing cylinder heads, new engine controls, and a reverse-flow cooling system that directed coolant from the radiator to the heads first which helped enable the 10.5:1 compression ratio.

All these changes bumped the output by twenty percent, from 250 to 300 SAE net horsepower.

Car and Driver's testing of a 6-speed 'Vette coupe with the new motor returned a zero-to-sixty time of 5.0 seconds flat and a quarter mile run of 13.6 seconds at 104 mph, with a top speed of 157. Base price for the coupe was $36,604, or the equivalent of about $83,250 in today's prices.

This one was snapped with a Nikon D7000 and 16-80mm f/2.8-4E in October of 2020.

1967 Chevrolet Camaro RS Convertible

1967 was the debut model year for the once and future arch rival of Ford's Mustang, the Camaro from Chevrolet.

We've actually seen a '67 Camaro convertible on these pages before, but it had the 155 horsepower 250 cubic inch Turbo-Thrift inline six.

Like that one, this droptop has the Rally Sport trim package, with its hidden headlights, special taillights, and other highlights, like chrome trim edging the wheel openings in the fenders. Unlike that one, this Ermine White example has the "V" fender badges indicating that under the hood is a 327 cubic inch Turbo-Fire V-8.

This could have taken one of two forms. The lesser one was a two-barrel motor with an 8.75:1 compression ratio and single exhaust outlet, making 210 horsepower. The sportier of the two had a 10.0:1 compression ratio, dual exhausts, and a four-barrel carburetor and was rated at 275 SAE gross horsepower.

This one was photographed in August of 2020 using a Nikon D7000 and a 16-80mm f/2.8-4E zoom lens.

1964 Chevrolet Impala Super Sport Convertible

The final year of the third generation of Impalas, the 1964 is probably the most desirable. The most desirable of all Six-Fours would be the Super Sport convertible, like this Ermine White droptop with a red interior.

Super Sports came with bucket front seats divided by a console. All transmissions in an SS, whether 3- or 4-speed manual or Powerglide automatic, had a sporty console-mounted shifter rather than a proletarian lever on the steering column.

Despite the name, the '64 Impala Super Sport could be had with the whole gamut of Chevy powertrains, from the humble 230 cubic inch Turbo-Thrift inline six rated at 140 gross horsepower and two-barrel 283 Turbo-Fire 165-horse small block V-8, up through several flavors of 327 and 409 performance mills. Assuming a stock exterior on this example, the lack of "V" badges would indicate that this car began life, at least, with the inline six.

It'd still be plenty fun to cruise with the top down on a sunny day.

This one was photographed in October of 2021 using a Nikon D800 and a 35-105mm f/3.5-4.5 zoom lens.