Archive for June 15th, 2008

newVideoPlayer(”Transporter3_gawker.flv”, 506, 300,””); Friday we showed you the Death Race trailer which, for the most part, saw a fairly positive reaction from the Jalopnik commentariat rather than the savaging with reckless abandon we expected. But we’re a fickle bunch round these parts so we should have expected nothing less than going against the grain…. »

When was the last time you saw a Vauxhall VX220 in North America? ß®@Æ’Æ’ managed to find one in California, Newport Beach to be exact (we’re starting and ending the Down On The California Street DOTS-O-Rama Sunday in Orange County). The VX220 is a Lotus Elise chassis with an L61 engine from The General, and… »

We’re still in lovely Costa Mesa, California, where Tomsk photographed this ‘67 Plymouth Fury for us. The hood ornament and “Commando V8″ badging indicate that the car shipped with a 270- or 325-horsepower 383 under the hood (although there’s no telling what sort of powerplant lives there now, what with the ready availability of so… »

Tomsk sends in these photos of a very, very nice ‘61 Pontiac Bonneville, which he shot in- you guessed it!- Orange County. Yes, we’re back in Costa Mesa, where just $4,200 will buy you this seriously original sedan (well, it would have bought it a couple months ago, when Tomsk shot these photos). galleryPost(’DOTSBEOCBonneville’,… »

Two-thirds of California’s population lives in the southern part of the state, so it stands to reason that the Down On The California Street series would have to return to SoCal after a few Bay Area machines. Makeopalpyse, of Team Make:Way fame, shot this car in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles. Yes, folks,… »

Let’s leave San Francisco and follow the route taken by gold-crazed sailors who abandoned their ships back in 1849, as we head up into the Sierra foothills and visit the Gold Country town of Placerville. Reader Parrish spotted this Nissan-built Austin Cambridge (sold as the Datsun 1000 in North America in the late 1950s), which… »

We’re going to leave Oakland and head across the Bay to San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood, where The Man forces me to work in his cruel salt mine. Only crazy people or drivers with handicapped parking permits try to park in SOMA; the ‘67 Olds Delta 88 we saw a while back is owned… »

We’re escaping from behind the Orange Curtain- for the moment- and heading 430 miles north to Oakland. Oakland is just across the Estuary from Alameda, and it has nearly as many old vehicles per square mile as the Island That Time forgot; SuperCarnitas found this nice-looking Ponton not far from Oakland’s Auto Row. Make the… »

There’s no escape from Orange County (yet), because we’re heading down the 405 a ways and getting off in Laguna Hills. Laguna Hills is the relentlessly stucco-and-cul-de-sacs home of the Leisure World retirement community, where all manner of original-owner old cars may be seen… gathering dust. OC-based Vance shot this Avanti- which may or may… »

We’re going to stay in Orange County a while longer, heading from Costa Mesa to neighboring Huntington Beach. We’d mention that Huntington Beach is the official Surf City USA, only we’d probably get howls of outrage from Santa Cruz; in any case, HB’s climate is great for preserving old cars. ß®@Æ’Æ’ spotted this unsafe-at-any-speed ‘61… »