Well, what do we have here? Looks like Riverside Village, the spectacularly dingy apartment complex of my early teen years, complete with Mom’s ’84 LTD and my ’85 Redline 600c. My guess is that is late May or early June of 1986, because I can see the semi-bent OEM seatpost that I had on there before I got a proper layback.
Mom’s LTD was kind of the Holy Grail of the much-discussed Brown Car Appreciation Society way before such a society ever existed. Tan over brown, tan and brown interior. Insofar as it replaced her beloved 1983 Civic S when said Civic was crumpled into a beer can by a drunk lady in a Cadillac, I can’t say that any of us felt much affection for the aero-styled Ford. But when I see them on the street nowadays I smile a bit.
Alright, let’s check out the Week That Was, including the article that contains the above picture.
Bark was the proverbial busy beaver during this New York Auto Show week. He dropped a mega-popular rental-Camaro review on Monday. On Tuesday, he told the story of two Fiesta STs, each alike in dignity. Come Wednesday, he reached out and offered advice to a Scion-centric young woman. Finally, he took us with him to the premiere of a JF Musial joint about hypercars.
At TTAC, I discussed when it makes economic sense to rent a car and welcomed the Nissan GT-R to its golden years.
For Road&Track, I lectured the readers about the different types of tires you could buy before dipping into shameless childhood nostalgia in a story about a trio of Seventies-era Fiat 124 Spiders.
Last but not least, if you’re on the West Coast I want to invite you to join me for Desert Generator on April 9th in the Joshua Tree National Park. This event, sponsored by Rolling Heavy Magazine, promises to be an unforgettable evening. How cool will it be? Cool enough that I’m going to miss my son’s seventh birthday for it. Don’t worry. I have a few things in mind for the clone that should ease his (completely nonexistent) sorrow at my absence. See you there!
who was the poor schmuck with the Chevette?
Wow Jack ;
that ‘ dingy apartment building ‘ is head and shoulders above any place I lever after leaving home @ 8 Y.O. .
I hate trailers and will know I have failed in life if I ever live in one again .
I’m off the read about Fiat’s now .
-nate
From the outside it looks a lot better than a lot of places I stayed. Who knows about the inside. Every time I see an LTD, I am kind of amazed by how ugly I find it. I usually try to balance things out by reminding myself that it could be full of “Mustang parts”.
The Fox platform == Ford’s K-car.
Suto ;
You ain’t kidding .
Those fucked up trailers were mostly near new , they’d buy them after a fire and gut them , build in extremely crude rooms with bunks , no doors , three drawers per bunk , iffy heating (Rural new England BRrrrrrr) no fans . AC then plop then down near a swamp so we’d get eaten alive by ‘skeeters…..
Oh yeah , they looked nice clean and shiny out side but you men forced to live in slum conditions meant they got very grim insdie pretty damn quick .
Part of why I teach our Foster boys where you come from is no shame , just keep moving ahead .
Poor / uneducated doesn’t mean you have to live like a pig .
-Nate
The LTD LX was something special for sure.
Seems kind of weird that they call it Desert Generator when it looks like its in a bar and not a generator party in the middle of the desert. I’ve only ever herd of Red Fang, Brant Bjork, and Acid King. Are you an avid Stoner Rock listener Jack? I found the song El Rodeo by Kyuss about two years ago, and just over a year ago Stoner Rock almost immediately replaced all nu-metal in my listening rotation. Now me and all my friends can’t stop listening to it. We call it “The Void”.