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.