one of the cool things about walking around midtown is you never know what you are going to see coming up or down the street…. a snaggly-toothed urban pioneer, a startlingly attractive supermodel, or a mclaren sportscar piloted by some illuminati eyes-wide-shut fuck.

(photo courtesy boice tomlin) boice was prowling the mid-american streets in indiana’s biggest city and spied this majestic el camino sporting “trick van” 1970′s style graphics. nice shot boice!

i spotted this ford mustang heading south-bound on interstate 5 in seattle. not sure what the deal is with the passenger but there is a slim chance it might very well be the grim reaper being driven to the next appointment by his muscle car lovin’ crony.

(photo courtesy boice tomlin) CIHS booster boice tomlin was kind enough to apprehend this majestic muscle-bound chrysler product whilst driving in the indiana-ohio corridor. not being schooled in the art of sass nor in the idiosyncrasies of american muscle, i have nary an idea what i am looking at though i think its a dodge challenger or charger or some such fuck.

every once in awhile a scene appears before the iphone lens here at CIHS that exhibits nice aesthetic attributes, though the vehicular subject is under-whelming… such is the case here with the everyday ford spotting whilst being transported via taxi to the airport in hong kong. savor the mundane! appreciate the mediocrity!

(photo courtesy of matthew mcneil) matt mcneil spotted, aprehended and submitted this shot heading Eastbound on US60 in Mesa, Arizona, in his own words, of a “55 survivor with a few rat rod touches…. lowered, mirrors moved etc.” thank you matt !

sometimes you see sublime vehicular stories on the road that are so intriguing you find yourself reaching for your camera out of rote. in this instance we find a mind-jarring avacado green oldsmobile cutlass hatchback with a curious red steering wheel piloted by a man who definitely looks the part. straight outta central casting i tells ya! whats the story ? unless i followed him home i wouldn’t know and frankly i wasn’t that curious.

this car may not be in “who’s who” but it certainly qualifies for an entry in “what was that ?!?!” not sure really what else to say, i’m rendered speechless aside from mentioning it reminds me of a tex avery cartoon.

i spotted this dog taking his old man out for a ride here in portland…… thatsa gooood buoy!! Evoking the mythological creature of Indigenous peoples of North America, the Thunderbird entered production for the 1955 model year as a sporty two-seat convertible. Unlike the Chevrolet Corvette, it was not marketed as a sports car. Rather, Ford created a new market segment, the ‘Personal Car’ to position it.

while not as rare a sighting as the tatra, i don’t see too many vintage airstream trailers in these parts. my only wish was that it was towed by something more period than the yawn inducing suburban. In 1969, upon their return from the Moon, the crew of Apollo 11 were quarantined in the Mobile Quarantine Facility, a modified airtight Airstream trailer, until it could be determined that there was little likelihood of their having brought back lunar pathogens with them.

i was headed north on a beautiful country road in monmouth oregon when what did i spy but a genuine farmer on a genuine tractor. the rural areas to the west and southwest of portland are quite intriguing……. so much so that i am considering trying to purchase a few acres where i can plant my survival seeds prior to the impending societal collapse.

The Impala was introduced in 1958 as a new, upmarket, sporty trim package created for Bel Air coupes and convertibles. From the windshield pillar rearward, the 1958 Chevrolet Bel Air Impala differed structurally from garden-variety Chevrolets. Hardtops had a slightly shorter greenhouse and longer rear deck, giving the impression of an extended body, plus bright rocker moldings and dummy rear-fender scoops. Three taillights each side would become an Impala trademark whereas lesser models had two, and wagons just one. Special crossed-flag insignias sat above the side moldings. With a six-cylinder engine, a Chevrolet Bel Air Impala started at $2,586, while $2,693 bought a V-8.

i initially had “57 chevy” as the title of this post and then realized within a couple of seconds how hackneyed that phrase is….. almost as played out as a rolling stones or beatle song…. do we really need to hear it again ?? anyhoo, i spotted this example cruising down highway 26 with a creepy robert blake looking guy behind the wheel and a six year old boy riding shotgun….. they did not look happy despite the gregarious color of the car, i reckon the burden of living up to america’s expectations of the 57 chevy mystique takes it toll.

(photo courtesy of jason mcginnity) jason mcginnity spotted and submitted this photo of a rare beast indeed….. lets hear it in jason’s own words, shall we ? “i heard this one coming while i was sitting at a light in downtown Portland. it is manufactured in the u.s. by tmi autotech under license from ariel atom, england. I’d never seen one in real life. amazing sound. luckily I was able to snap a couple photos as I heard him accelerating from down the block.” thank you jason…. this is an extremely interesting car, it does 0-60 in 2.9 seconds, has a minimalist exoskeleton and you can see all the controls and mechanical parts as you drive. very nice.

i like the cadillac seville with the bustle-back. it symbolized a rare stroke of risk taking by the milque-toast and soul-dead general motors corp. when i was a kid my step-mom had a lemon meringue diesel example that i once drove as a hired 16 year-old chauffuer to a prince concert circa 1984. the car was subsequently sold to a good friend of the family who attempted to drive it back to atlanta…. needless to say it completely shit the bed somewhere around tennessee and after that the friendship kind of soured. herve villechaize would look good behind the wheel of this weird american ‘luxury’ car.

relying exclusively on the iphone to shoot photos has its hazards and can produce random accidental results. i have positively identified the subject as a 1964 cadillac de ville based on forensic research of tail fins. this car was heavily modified complete with a sawzall convertible top and outrageous paint…… so i scrambled to to get my iphone ready to shoot. the iphone can have unpredicatble shutter speeds and though the car was in frame, by the time the shutter opened and closed we were left with just a tiny snippet of fin. but damn it all to hell, i do like it !

aaahh, it’s so nice that this car has its make and year printed right on its license plate……. makes for quick and easy identification for feeble car spotters. this car reminds me of Lumpy Rutherford for some reason….. dunno why, must be sort of glitch in my synapses.

(photo courtesy mark ford) the official guidelines at CIHS dictate that images be shot with an iphone in horizontal position, not cropped and/or manipulated in any way. we weren’t able to verify if this photo exceeded our low standards, but it is jolly good and is included for all to enjoy. cruising joyfully along in beautiful lands, it is as if these desert dwellers discovered santa’s deposits sitting beneath the joshua tree. apparently the fellow was a very good boy so he received his wish amongst santa’s droppings: a 3.7 second 0-60 mph all electric tesla roadster. ho-ho-ho !

well, whooptdee goddamn dedoo !…. what do we have here?!?! this fancy top-sirloin cutlass supreme was evidently wrassled from a mild mannered insurance salesman uncle when he was put in the retirement home and then it was seriously schooled in the art of ludicrous sass as you can see from this here photo.

with its iridescent orange paint, large 20" wheels and incongruous cultural trust license plates, this 1968 chevrolet impala cut a flamboyant figure whilst cruising through the highway 26 tunnel. fortunately i was there to bear witness with my trusty iphone camera and apprehended it for your viewing pleasure. gawk all you want.

(photo submitted by ali rahimi) this 1956 t-bird was skillfully apprehended by ali who kindly turned over this photograph to authorities. the coloring in this leafy scene is awesome and almost looks as if the photo was taken in the olden-days but t’wernt, this t-bird was captured just today. oh yeah that reminds me….. one more thing: Don’t you know about the bird? Well everybody’s heard about the bird ! Bird bird bird, the bird is the word ! Bird bird bird, the bird is the word ! Na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na Bird bird bird, the bird is the word.. Bird bird bird, the bird is the word.. Papa-oom-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow-mow !!!!

judging by the golden rays of light fondly beaming down onto this 1955 chevrolet bel air, i can only surmise that god is sending his love down from heaven blessing the car and its occupants. the only thing missing from this scene are birds fluttering about and cute juvenile fauna prancing alongside the vehicle. i have to wonder why the occupants of the car have the top up… are they trying to prevent god’s love from penetrating ? are they some sort of ungrateful atheists? or perhaps fearful albino’s who burn easily ?

(photo submitted by mark ford) this massive windmill blade was spotted creeping along I-84 and mark had the where-with-all despite the brain-freezing spectacle to pull out his iphone and capture this image to share with all of us homely ghouls. hopefully this was a vestas wind system windmill as they are made in denmark and are the most aesthetically pleasing of all windmills if i may humbly opine.

i like to brand sightings of cars so old they clearly belong to an era that few can remember as “phantoms“….. ambassadors from another time sent to the future to remind us all of our own mortality and impending obsolescence. they help to put things into perspective and hopefully remind us to enjoy life a bit more and not take everything so seriously, for soon we will all be DEAD ! (or ideally ghosts driving phantom classic cars)

a 1967 chevrolet chevelle malibu in full honyak regalia sporting patriotic flags, loud mufflers and a myriad of motor-head stickers on the rear wind-screen. kind of reminds me of a tom waits song………. “and it’s a skid mark tattoo on the asphalt blue….. was that a malibu?”

before lee iacocca’s ‘K’ car, traction control, anti-lock brakes and power-every-thing they made solid, simple and interesting american cars like this 1968 dodge dart convertible which was spotted lumbering home from the forest grove concourse d’elegance. this shot conjures up images of an andrew wyeth-esque world where time ran along a more simple line.

photo and testimonial provided by mark ford: i was on the freeway when this fairly new geo metro driven by two honyaks with their hats turned backwards entered the roadway and cut across two lanes of traffic. it looks like they bypassed the catalytic converter and ran basic steel exhaust pipe out behind both doors and up the sides of the car and over the roof line… the car had a ‘hole in the muffler’ sound upon acceleration and when I pulled up next to the driver for a closer look, he gave me the ‘rocker’ hand sign…. priceless!

this shot is ostensibly of the new camaro in the lane ahead, though it is also a nice shot of the nether-regions of my 1970 mercedes 280se. the new camaro is a very well executed design and the quality seems good, though i notice that american and japanese cars seem nice when they are new, but after a few years the designs look crude and the cars themselves are falling apart. contrast this with my 1970 mercedes which is about 40 years old and still looks and drives new…. the fact that the design has stood the test of time is really just the ‘icing-on-the-gravy’.

i guess this begs the question, are rams really that tough ?? aren’t they related to lambs ? are lambs tough ??? feeble philosophic wonderings aside, this macho looking truck was captured pushing through the highway 26 tunnel. (love the grisly grease drippings oozing down the side of the tunnel wall) i didn’t get a good view of the driver so i don’t know if he was an ironic hipster or a genuine handle-bar mustachio’d libertarian NRA member preparing for the apocalypse.

spotted heading west on highway 26, this car has a lot of appeal, though “deluxe” is a corny american term commonly used to specify hamburgers and what-not. the design of this car is quite good….. the sleek proportions demonstrate a ‘form-follows-function’ sensibility. perhaps this vehicle was a last hurrah of ‘good design’ for american cars before the 1950′s begat superfluous fins and other gimmicks & gewgaws.

this car appeared as an apparition in the west-side majestic forest of portland. it lingered just long enough for me to snap this reckless photo out the back of my 2009 911 S before it vanished into the forest mist. ghostly phantom !