Gaywheels

If you’re a music fan, you probably know all about the Bonnaroo music and arts festival. But what you may not know is that Ford is sponsoring a live video feed direct from the event, starting today at 12:15 CST and running through Sunday evening. It’s part of Ford’s massive marketing campaign for the brand-spankin’ new 2011 Ford Fiesta, and it’s a fairly brilliant idea. Music fans get free concerts, Bonnaroo gets future visitors, and the Fiesta gets loads of visibility among the young, hip demographic it’s meant to reach. True, Bonnaroo probably skews a little older than other music fests, but we’d wager that it’s still within the Fiesta’s ballpark. [...]

A couple of weeks ago, a friend sent me a link to a New York Times article called “Betty White and a Cadillac called ‘Parakeet'”. It was the story of Betty’s beloved Seamist Green 1977 Seville, which she called “Parakeet”. The car had been given to her as a surprise gift by her late husband Allen Ludden. It was intact and original, with just over 18,000 miles, and it had been donated to the AACA Museum in Hershey, PA by its owner in Texas. Years earlier, Betty herself had donated the car to the Humane Society when she decided she could no longer care for it appropriately. And I am the missing link. [...]

One of the most famous cars of the 1950s was the Ford Thunderbird. A low, stylish two-seater V8, with creature comforts like power windows and automatic transmission, it wasn’t a sports car in the European tradition, but rather an American interpretation — and it has a strong connection to the desert paradise knows as Palm Springs. Thunderbird Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California opened in January of 1951 to a swarm of publicity. It was the first golf course in the valley and one of the first anywhere to be surrounded by home sites. It was an instant celebrity hangout, and within a year all of the home sites were sold, many to celebrities of the day…. [...]

Special-edition cars were all the rage in the 1970s, with many successful entries like the Continental Designer’s Series, the Pierre Cardin Javelin, the Spirit of America Chevrolets, Levis’ Edition Gremlins, and even a special-edition Chevette Sandpiper. Most featured unique color combinations, interiors, and extras that commanded a premium over the base version, and they were often eagerly snapped up by a motoring public hungry for some visual distinction. [...]

First it was Plymouth, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac, and now another iconic American auto brand is about to bite the dust. Ford announced today its board of directors has voted to kill off Mercury, halting production by year’s end. Once the middle child between Ford and Lincoln, Mercury cars sold by the hundreds of thousands, spanning a 72-year history that brought us such classics as the Cougar, the Montclair, the Comet, the Monterey, the Marauder and the Grand Marquis. Who among us (over 40) doesn’t remember envying those kids lucky enough to ride in the back of a Mercury Colony Park station wagon, complete with side-facing third row seats and a magnetic checker board table to help wallow away the hours? Farewell, oh winged messenger, you will be missed. [...]

AMC’s Pacer made its debut thirty-five years ago this past spring. It was a distinctive car, a futuristic hatchback with a gigantic glass area and unequal length doors. It is remembered today as a footnote of the disco era, the fishbowl with wheels. But the car that hit the showrooms bore little resemblance to what AMC had intended. [...]

They’re sexpots with wheels: voluptous styling, plush interiors, and lots of automotive jewelry. They drip with chrome and styling gimmicks: monstrous fins, freestanding headlamp pods, swiveling seats, square steering wheels, and eagles literally woven into the upholstery fabrics and embossed into the leather. It’s like Chrysler Corporation meets Imperator. [...]

It was 35 years ago this month that the Cadillac Seville made its debut. The smallest Cadillac since the 1920’s also debuted with the highest price tag in the Cadillac line up — the base price of $12,479 was the highest of any American made passenger car. This was a deliberate marketing move by Cadillac, which knew that in order for the car to succeed, it had to break through the “bigger is better” mentality that had permeated the domestic industry up to that point. [...]