Finding any Kaiser-Frazer automobile is not easy these days, sixty-three years after the last U.S. made motorcar was sold to its new owner. But the rarest of all is likely the Kaiser-Darrin sports car. A fiberglass two-seater meant to draw folks into K-F showrooms to ooh and aah over, and maybe drive out in a…

For the first time in my life, I commute by train. Some of you, knowing that I have spent more than a decade living in Japan, are going to call bullshit on this statement, but it’s true. I do admit to riding the occasional train, of course, but at no point did I use Japan’s…

In the early Sixties, Cadillac Motor Division received a bit of flack from some of their customers as to the growing girth of their offerings. Said irritated customers, living like Mr. Burns from The Simpsons in their Victorian era mansions in New York, Philadelphia and Boston, were finding that their new Cadillacs were too big…

Aaron Diehl’s 2013 CD The Bespoke Man’s Narrative, his début on Mack Avenue Records, fell like a thunderclap upon the jazz landscape, reaching No. 1 on the JazzWeek Jazz Chart. Something about the advance publicity must have caught my eye or ear, because I asked for a pre-release press copy of the CD. Upon playing…

Note: It has come to my attention via my network of loyal spies (they have a fleet of Lincoln Town Cars and Cadillac Broughams) that a certain aging, angry blogger likes to give the impression that I continue to write for his questionable, increasingly histrionic site by re-running stuff of mine that I wrote years…

In the 1970s, the watchword for mid-size Ford Motor Company rolling stock was Torino. Gran Torino. Of course, most of us remember a certain Gran Torino made famous on Starsky & Hutch, and who knows how many 1974-1976 Torinos have been saved and restored thanks to that classic detective show? A lot, I’d guess. That…

Back in June of 2013 the Antique Automobile Club of America decided to have their Grand National Meet right here in the Quad Cities, in downtown Moline. I was excited, because in general, AACA shows have some pretty cool cars, and no hot rods or customs. Ha ha! No 2016 Mustangs, Resale Red 1969 Camaros,…

The Imperial. No, not Chrysler Imperial. From 1955 to 1975, Imperial was a separate marque, above Chrysler, above even the tony New Yorker. But try telling that to Google, eBay and myriad car flippers who just can’t handle it! Yep, do a search for Imperial on a classic car search engine, and odds are it…

Despite the old adage, “If it works, don’t fix it,” I have never been able to keep my hands off of things that aren’t broken. That’s bit me in the ass more times than I’d like to admit, something I was well aware of when I decided to “improve” our new Nissan Versa. I’m not…

If you’re in the market for a midsize car today, you have plenty of choices. Well, for now, as the ever present crossover is rapidly compelling the manufacturers to kill off the traditional midsize sedan. Several nameplates from which to choose–Camry, Impala, Fusion and Optima and of course Accord, to name a few. And they…