this series, I’ve had no luck finding Chrysler Cordobas from the first couple years of production. We’ve seen this ’78 (which provided me with a beautiful Corinthian Leather garage couch), this ’79, and this ’80 prior to today, and now we’ve got a genuine, Ricardo-approved 1976 Cordoba.Malaise Era) tends to let water into the trunk. So, on cars like this you’ll see pristine quarter-panels and nasty roofs. … [Read more...] about Junkyard Find: 1976 Chrysler Cordoba
1976
Capsule Review: 1976 Porsche 911S 2.7
The 2.7-liter 911S was so problematic that I named it as one of Porsche’s Deadly Sins a couple years ago. Its engine failed with monotonous regularity, often between the expiration of the 12,000-mile warranty and the 50,000-mile mark on the odometer. The 1974 models usually lived a bit longer because they didn’t have thermal reactors, and the 1977 models had improved Dilavar head studs, but none of the “S” cars were reliable in any modern, or even contemporaneous, sense of the world. In the thirty-five years since the model was replaced with the “Super Carrera” three-liter, however, the aftermarket has managed to address the core issues and build reliable replacement engines for these otherwise charming classic coupes.As the snow started to fall in Central Ohio this past weekend, I fired up my own aircooled 911 and took it downtown to meet a restored example of its ancestors.The “Coke-bottle” shape often associated with the aircooled 911 … [Read more...] about Capsule Review: 1976 Porsche 911S 2.7
Evel Knievel’s 1976 Harley Sportster Is Headed to Auction
One of Evel Knievel’s stunt bikes, a customized 1976 Harley-Davidson Sportster XL 1000, is coming up for auction next month in Las Vegas. The infamous daredevil, known for jumping Harleys from ramp to ramp, rode the Sportster while fending off Mexican drug dealers in the 1977 action movie Viva Knievel!The Sportster was custom built by Bud Ekins, a stuntman best known for his work in The Great Escape. It has been on display by a Los Angeles–area Harley dealer ever since filming on Viva Knievel! wrapped in the 1970s.From Our Archives: Evel Knievel—Facing Death, Tempting Fate, and Kicking AssKen Block’s New Gymkhana Car Is the World’s Coolest ’78 Ford EscortYear of the Goose, Part 3: The Graceless Art of Crashing a Motorcycle in the RainKnievel’s patriotic ride will be auctioned at the Bonhams Las Vegas Motorcycle Auction at Bally’s Hotel and Casino on January 7. It’s expected to sell for … [Read more...] about Evel Knievel’s 1976 Harley Sportster Is Headed to Auction
Junkyard Find: 1976 Pontiac Grand LeMans
Personal luxury” became one of the few showroom bright spots for Detroit during the darkest days of the Malaise Era. The definition is a bit fuzzy around the edges, but the basic formula always involved a midsize-or-bigger two-door with a generous helping of disco-grade bling, maybe with some heraldic crests and pleather upholstery. Chrysler had the Cordoba, Ford had the Cougar, and GM had the Grand Prix, to name just a few of many examples of the genre. Why, even dowdy AMC got into the act with their Matador Barcelona. So many of these cars were built that you’ll still find examples now and then at self-serve wrecking yards. By 1976, personal luxury was being applied across whole lines, with broad strokes. Today’s find is one of the last of the big A-body LeMans family, built before the LeMans became a cruel Daewoo joke.Luxury LeMans, of course, but that car just wasn’t grand enough for the America of Watergate and the Fall of Saigon.Chrysler was still using up … [Read more...] about Junkyard Find: 1976 Pontiac Grand LeMans
The Spirit of ’76: Why This 1976 Porsche 911 Turbo Is the Bluest of Blue Chips
Porsche wasn’t the first to apply turbocharging to production gasoline engines. GM had done it a decade before with both the Chevy Corvair and the Oldsmobile Jetfire. Which, in fact, means the 930 was actually the second production turbocharged flat-six. But while GM quickly abandoned the idea and didn’t return to it until the 1980s, once Porsche adopted turbochargers, it never let go. And to this day, its most broadly notorious turbocharged car is its first: the 930.After the overwhelming success of the turbocharged twelve-cylinder 917/10 and 917/30 Can-Am cars, Porsche delved deep into forced-induction flat-sixes with its racing machines, starting with the 934 and 935 sports cars (which the 930 was originally developed to homologate) and the 936 prototype. Turbocharged boxer sixes ruled the Porsche racing roost through the 911 GT1, winning Le Mans outright in both prototypes (936, 956, 962, WSC-95) and outrageous derivations of production cars (Kremer 935K3, 911 GT1). The … [Read more...] about The Spirit of ’76: Why This 1976 Porsche 911 Turbo Is the Bluest of Blue Chips
Junkyard Find: 1976 Plymouth Volaré Sedan
Dodge Aspen/Plymouth Volaré won the Motor Trend Car of the Year award for 1976, and they spent a good decade among the most commonplace vehicles on American roads. Then just about all of them disappeared, no doubt as they depreciated well below scrap value in about ten years. However, the occasional odds-beating survivor shows up in wrecking yards now and then; we’ve seen this ’76 Aspen sedan, this brown-on-beige ’77 Volaré coupe and this ’77 Volaré Premier wagon, and now today’s ’76 Volaré sedan. This one shows evidence of having sat for the last decade or so, but still managed to rack up many more miles than most of its Civic and Corolla contemporaries.This ’65 Chevy Bel Air had a bunch of 1982 Denver papers, this ’60 Plymouth Valiant wagon had a few 1970 issues of the San Francisco Chronicle, and today’s Junkyard Find came with a trunk full of 2004 issues from the now-long-defunct Rocky Mountain News.Toyota … [Read more...] about Junkyard Find: 1976 Plymouth Volaré Sedan
Junkyard Find: 1976 MG MGB
During my 35 years of poking around in car graveyards, one thing has remained constant: MGBs keep showing up. Not in large numbers, but the rate at which these lovable-but-not-particularly-valuable British sports cars get discarded has remained about the same during that period. Here’s a purple model, from the darkest days of the British Leyland era, that I shot last week in a San Francisco Bay Area self-service yard.A previous owner invested a few bucks into this car, as can be seen from this snazzy, chrome-plated roll bar and the luggage rack on the boot lid.There’s not a speck of rust on it, but California MG fanciers tend to turn up their noses at the “black-bumper” Bs of the Malaise Era. These cars were jacked up an inch or so to meet federal headlight-height standards, and the big, rubber-covered bumpers didn’t look so great. Compared to the nightmarishly ugly 5 mph crash bumpers that went on the Malaise Triumph Spitfire, however, these bumpers … [Read more...] about Junkyard Find: 1976 MG MGB
Rare Rides: A Lancia Scorpion From 1976, Regulation’s Puppet
A pleasantly desinged Pininfarina body carves its way up the Amalfi coast in Italy. The sun shines down through the targa roof, highlighting your gold-rimmed aviators. Dropping a gear, you put all 120 mid-engine horsepower to use. The back of your car says MONTECARLO, and you’re winning.But things in reality are a bit different, because this is America and we have regulations. I give you the Scorpion, by Lancia.North America received Lancia’s Montecarlo model badged as the Scorpion, for 1976 and 1977. The Scorpion name was only for North America, as Lancia could not tread upon Chevrolet’s existing use for their small and sporty gigantic coupe.American emission regulations required replacement of the standard Montecarlo’s 2.0-liter engine with a 1.8-liter unit, which featured additional power-choking smog equipment. This combination resulted in an 80-horsepower power figure, down from the 120 in other-market models.Exterior alterations were required for the … [Read more...] about Rare Rides: A Lancia Scorpion From 1976, Regulation’s Puppet
Junkyard Find: 1976 Buick Electra Limited Coupe
Buick Electra for the 1977 model year and then ditched the model entirely in 1990, so the ’76 was the last of the proper single-digit-fuel-economy Electras. These comfy gerontocrusiers used to be everywhere on American roads, even in the dark days after gas prices went crazy, and you still see them in wrecking yards today, but for some reason I’ve photographed just one prior to today’s Junkyard Find.immortalized the beat-up Electra as the iconic hooptie 26 years ago (not long before I photographed this ’73 on a Stockton highway).the base four-cylinder engine in the 2015 Camry), but it still had (and needed) a fairly healthy 345 lb-ft of torque.Gary Wright tapes (although your typical Buick buyer in 1976 most likely listened to something more like this tape). … [Read more...] about Junkyard Find: 1976 Buick Electra Limited Coupe
Junkyard Find: 1976 Buick Skyhawk
The 1975-1980 Buick Skyhawk was a sporty-looking two-door based on the Chevrolet Vega platform, and Skyhawks (and their Chevrolet Monza, Oldsmobile Starfire, and Pontiac Sunbird siblings) were once all over America’s roads. They weren’t build particularly well, and they hemorrhaged resale value in a hurry; by the end of the 1980s, nearly every single one of them was gone.Here’s a very rough example I spotted in a San Francisco Bay Area self-service yard last month.You could get a Monza with any one of a half-dozen engines, including I4s, V6s, and V8s, but there was only one engine available for the 1975-80 Skyhawk: the 231-cubic-inch version of the venerable Buick V6 engine. 1976 was the last model year for the “odd-fire” 231, which used a shortened V8 crankshaft design and provided a not-so-luxurious level of vibration. These cars could be made very quick with the swap of a healthy V8, but few Skyhawk owners performed that modification.I had a high-school … [Read more...] about Junkyard Find: 1976 Buick Skyhawk