The Truth About Cars » truck

Want To Impress The Swells At the Country Club? Hemi-fied Custom Dodge A100 Pickup!

Murilee Martin — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:00:50 +0000

Of all the racing venues I visit during my travels as Chief Justice of the 24 Hours of LeMons Supreme Court, the ritzy clubs tend to be the weirdest. We went to the Monticello Motor Club in New York a few weeks back, and twice a year the LeMons Traveling Circus rolls into the Autobahn Country Club in Illinois. The reaction of the members, who must navigate the madness of the LeMons pit scene as they drive their GT3s and Facel-Vegas to the clubhouse, runs the gamut from loathing to delight. Most of the time I ignore these guys— I always feel like we’re caddies in the pool in that setting— but as the owner of an A100 I just had to talk to the owner of this truck that showed up at the 2012 Showroom-Schlock Shootout.
I didn’t get the guy’s name, but I recall that his passenger was a veteran of the 1949 Indianapolis 500.
He was on his way into the clubhouse, but told me to go ahead and open up whatever I wanted and shoot whatever photographs I felt like shooting. The bodywork was flawless, all the chrome was perfect, and the truck was full of custom touches like this aluminum instrument cluster.
Yes, that’s a modern 5.7 Hemi under the doghouse. There’s barely room for the LA-block 318 in my van, so I know some serious fabrication went into making this swap fit.
This setup isn’t quite as extreme as the one in the Little Red Wagon, but it would take a very brave man to stand on this pickup’s throttle.

It’s No Mahindra, But How About Great Wall?

Derek Kreindler — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:09:15 +0000

American consumers may have been robbed of a chance to buy the Mahindra pickup, but how about one from Great Wall?

China Car Times has a quote from Great Wall CEO Wang Feng Ying (lifted from the paywalled Automotive News China) about possible plans for Great Wall products – made in America, no less.

Great Wall Motor Co., China’s largest SUV maker, expects to begin selling SUVs in the United States around 2015, making it the first Chinese automaker to enter the American market in volume, the president of the company says. The automaker is also actively exploring whether to build SUVs in the United States. “Since the United States is far away from China and its import tariffs on vehicles are not particularly high, we would prefer to build the vehicle locally,” Wang Fengying told Automotive News China on Sunday at the Shanghai auto show.

Great Wall is apparently preparing a pickup truck for the U.S. Market as well. Already on sale as the “Great Wall Steed” in the UK, reviews have been particularly dreadful. While the British motoring press are hardly paragons of objectivity, a recent report by Bernstein Research, involving a complete teardown of a Great Wall SUV followed by a road-test, found that their products are far behind the standard that Western consumers are used to. Combined with a fairly ambitious timeline for launch and the notion of Great Wall products on sale in the US looks somewhat far-fetched.

GM Will Introduce Two Mid-Size Pickups For 2015

Derek Kreindler — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 15:48:55 +0000

GM will have two new mid-size pickups out in 2015, just in time to steal the spotlight from the all-new Ford F-150. And according to TTAC Commenter and GM exec Mark Reuss, the two trucks should have fairly different missions.

Speaking to the Detroit Free Press, Reuss said that the Chevrolet pickup will be a “lifestyle” oriented truck, while GMC’s truck would be aimed at fleets and small businesses. Reuss also said that the new trucks would have all-new powertrains and be slightly larger than a Toyota Tacoma. We can only hope that this includes some kind of diesel, perhaps the Duramax that’s offered in the Thai version of the Chevrolet Colorado.

Perhaps our Aussie/global readers can fill us in on the subtitles of the Colorado vs. Hilux debate as well.

Junkyard Find: 1980 Datsun 720 King Cab 4WD Pickup

Murilee Martin — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:00:38 +0000

I see a lot of old, totally used-up Toyota and Datsun pickups in self-service wrecking yards (though any of these newer than about 1984 is a rare sight), so it takes a fairly special one to make me shoot some photos. This extremely Malaise-ated ’80 King Cab 720, with its brown paint, huge “4X4″ door decals, and excrement-inspired tan/yellow/brown tape stripes certainly got my attention last week.
It’s bashed up, the interior is toast, and the rust indicates an origin somewhere east and/or north of Colorado. Must be a million miles on this thing, eh?
Nope, just 155,221 miles on the clock. Either the odometer broke in 1992 or this truck drove a lot of very hard miles.
The full changeover to the Nissan marque was still a few years off at this point, but Nissan was laying the groundwork with these “Datsun By Nissan” badges.
Electronically protected! No doubt the alarm was a variation on the Taiwanese National Anthem theme.
The King Cab wasn’t very kingly. In fact, it would be considered utterly intolerable by present-day truck buyers. You could sort of squeeze a couple of passengers back there, if everyone involved was very motivated, but in practice the King Cab mostly served as a place to store stuff out of the rain.
Some good patina on this thing.
Even though this type of self-service yard charges about the same for a whole long block as for a wheelbarrow full of carefully selected engine innards, whoever pulled this L20 spent a lot of effort grabbing just the parts he wanted.
Here’s an option you don’t see very often on small pickups of this era: air conditioning!

The Datsun Value Phenomenon continues!

Piston Slap: A Power Ram Split Decision?

Sajeev Mehta — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 12:19:27 +0000

Douglas writes:

Sajeev,

Here’s some fodder for Piston Slap. Situation: I have a 1993 Dodge Power Ram 250, 103k miles, base model, so about the only thing it has in the way of amenities is AC.

It’s got a 5.2l Magnum (318), mated to a NV4500 with a NP241 transfer case. It came from Arizona where it saw light duty on a ranch of some sort. Overall, it is a excellent shape. All mechanicals work, body is in great shape, no rust, a small ding or two on the tailgate and by the bumper. I’ve replaced the shocks, new radiator, new AC condenser, installed new AC compressor, converted to R134, new tie rod ends in one year ownership. Still need to tear out the old headliner backing, and fix the 4WD light (bad switch on the transfer case top). Maybe a coat of paint, too.

It took me a long time to find this truck – manual, stripper, 4×4 in great shape. I use to make dump runs, tinker around, and help out friends.

Here’s the dilemma. It will need new tires soon, and since I want to replace the spare, I’m looking at around $700 for new tires. At some point, I’ll need new brakes, and I’ve been thinking about getting a donor engine to rebuild and replace the one I’ve got in there now. (Small rear main seal leak, plus twenty years of use on the existing motor.) I like to tinker and wrench, and this truck provides me that opportunity. But I wonder if I’m a fool for thinking about new rubber and a rebuilt engine in a twenty year old truck. On the other hand, I think I’m a fool for wanting to move onto to something newer when I’ve got such a great setup in my driveway now.

Thoughts?

Thanks
From a Fellow Texan,
Douglas

Sajeev answers:

Now you could be considered foolish on either side of the split decision presented here. But combine the relevant and necessary parts you’ve already replaced (nice job on the shocks, that gets neglected far too often) with the need for new rubber on any vehicle, and keeping the truck is far from foolish. It’s the right move.

Do you need a spare motor to rebuild? Probably not. But that shouldn’t stop you from tinkering and having fun in your spare time, while preparing for a future mechanical failure. If you want to rebuild a spare motor in your “spare” time (sorry), go right ahead and do it.

Old trucks never die, they just get better. Even Dodge trucks, which are rarely loved like their GM and Ford counterparts. Keep it and get new tires, for sure.

Send your queries to sajeev@thetruthaboutcars.com. Spare no details and ask for a speedy resolution if you’re in a hurry.

Junkyard Find: 1971 International Harvester Scout

Murilee Martin — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:00:54 +0000

Because I live in Colorado, I see quite a few Scouts in wrecking yards— this ’70 and this ’73, for example— and most of the time I don’t photograph them. IHC pickups and SUVs, sure, but the Scouts just blend in like DJ-5 mail Jeeps. This ’71 had a cool custom paint job, plus I’ve realized that all Scouts are interesting, so we’ll check it out.
It’s disappointing that you can no longer buy a new street vehicle made by a farm equipment manufacturer.
Did all Scouts get the Canadian seal of approval?
I’ve never been much interested in off-road machinery, but I must admit I’ve been tempted to buy a Scout (or a Subaru Justy 4WD) since I moved to Colorado.

NAIAS 2013: GM Locks Us Out Of Their New Full-Size Trucks

Derek Kreindler — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 15:43:58 +0000

Any hopes of taking a look at the interior of GM’s full-size trucks were dashed, as GM briefly opened the doors up for pictures and then promptly locked them. Come on guys, what have you got to hide? Even Lexus had the doors of the $445,000 LFA Nurburgring Edition opened.

QOTD: What Are You Looking Forward To At NAIAS?

Derek Kreindler — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:12:10 +0000

As I gear up for NAIAS (read: do laundry, look for my passport), I am scanning the schedule for what press conferences are worth going to and what’s worth skipping? If you have any special requests, speak now in the comments or forever hold you peace. Personally, I’m most looking forward to seeing the new GM full-size trucks. I liked the old GMT900 pickups, but the bar has been moved forward consecutively by both Ford and Ram. The old formula of a simple, honest no-frills truck may not be enough – and that could be a disastrous miscalculation by GM, leading to a Civic/Malibu-esque need for a mid-cycle refresh.

Monday Mileage Champion: The Year In Review

Steven Lang — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 17:43:10 +0000

It’s time to make a confession to the good folks at TTAC.

The mileage game is rigged.

How so? Well, approximately two-thirds of the vehicles that reach the 300k+ mark at an auction I attend will usually belong in one of four categories.

Ford truck or SUV. Chevy truck or SUV. Honda car. Toyota everything.

There you have it. Nearly two thirds of the vehicles that I see with serious high mileage credentials will belong in one of those four categories.

Yes I do see the occasional V8, rear-wheel-drive Ford car. Nissan seems to do well with their mostly -90′s Altimas, 10+ year old Maximas, and their wonderful small trucks. A few Jeeps and Cummins diesel trucks also fly into the high mileage radar.

But everyone else? Just little glimpses every now and then.

The old school German machinery will sometimes score a 300k+ model with a level of maintenance receipts that could do damage to your next door neighbor’s window.

VW does well with the TDI, the too slow 2.0, and nothing else. Audi, Jaguar, Land Rover, SAAB, and Volvo have become a big fuhgeddaboudit for our weekly mileage contest. Volvo would probably field a few 300k vehicles if the odometers on all their 1990′s models didn’t break with a near 100% level of consistency.

In my experiences, Subarus can get close to 300k, But they will often have massive oil leaks and repair records that will rival the Germans.

Mitsubishi makes some decent cars as does Mazda. But the former are almost always eventually skirted away to the abuse oriented rental fleets and buy-here pay-here lots. While Mazda suffers from a nasty long era where many of their automatic transmissions simply did not hold up.

Then we have Chrysler. The 2.7 Liter engines rarely makes it past 120k miles and are virtually non-existent at the auto recycling centers. Even though they made millions of them, you may as well be asking the guy at the junkyard counter for a 20 year old Peugeot with a dancing unicorn on top of it.

The 3.7 Liter and 4.7 Liter engines are also becoming increasingly expensive due to sludge issues and the fact that they’re difficult to rebuild. Chrysler transmissions for their minivans are also becoming a rarer sight. Although they are far easier to rebuild.

Finally, it seems that Chrysler could never design certain basic parts that were worth a flip throughout the last two decades.

For a while at the auctions, I began to think that Chrysler engineered a whining noise into all the power steering pumps in their minivans and differentials in their luxury Jeeps. Chrysler wouldn’t even arbitrate certain Jeeps for differential noise back in the mid-2000′s.

However, a Dodge truck with a Cummins diesel remains a recipe for success, and the Hemi engine seems to be long lasting along with the old 5.2 Liter 318 engine and the 4.0 Liter inline-six.

Finally we are back at GM and Ford, again. I will give special kudos to the GM 3.8 Liter V6 and the Ford Vulcan V6. The former was a marvel for the time. While the later represents the ultimate in amortization costs and continuous improvement. Everything else ranges from above average (GM 2.2 Liter engines and early non-plastic intake 3.1 Liter engines), to problematic (Ford 3.8 Liter engines, GM 3.4 Liter V6 models, Northstar V8′s.)

Sometimes these issues had to do with the overuse of cheap plastic in the engine bay and coolants that gel up. While other times it has more to do with basic bad design (Saturn and Freestar CVT transmissions) and planned obsolescence (Aveos, Neons, PT Cruisers, last-gen Festivas, last-gen Metros).

I expect that the Koreans will likely join the fray of 300k+ in the coming years. But a lot of just plain bad Hyundais and Kias were made until recent times. I can’t recall a single model from either brand with a notably high mileage at the auctions.

As for the Honda Accord with 403,817 miles? It was followed by a Toyota Tacoma, an Acura TL, and a Ford Explorer. All with over 390,000 miles. The durability quartet took 8 of the top 10 spots and 22 of the first 30.

Not bad… and not unusual at all.

What Happened To GM’s Hybrid Pickups?

Derek Kreindler — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 16:24:40 +0000

One of the most conspicuous absences from GM’s full-size truck reveal was the lack of any hybrid variants. The highly-touted but slow selling hybrid full-size trucks and SUVs were never intended to be the darlings of America’s truck space, but they played an important behind the scenes role for the company.

A hybrid truck may have been as appealing to the average truck buyer as a camouflage tutu, but under the arcane CAFE rules, there were plenty of credits to be had by producing a hybrid truck or large SUV. For the nitty gritty details, a longer summary is available here. For those with an aversion to long, complex explanations of government regulations, let’s just say that the “credits” applied to every hybrid truck or large SUV produced would help a given auto maker reach its CAFE target, because the credits can not only be applied to the trucks themselves, but to other “underperforming vehicles” – or retained for use in later years.

But with GM cutting its R&D budgets, the “two-mode hybrid” system is set to die. In its place is a new Gen V small-block V8 with direct injection, variable valve timing and cylinder-deactivation. Final fuel economy numbers aren’t available yet, but we do know that GM is going at it alone with their “two truck” strategy, offering the large trucks alongside a smaller pickup with superior fuel economy. Unlike Ford and Chrysler, the V6 Silverado/Sierra won’t play such an important role for the General.

Junkyard Find: 1982 Dodge Ram 50

Murilee Martin — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 14:00:11 +0000

There was a time, when American truck shoppers were willing to tolerate the shame of driving small pickups, when the members of the Detroit Big Three couldn’t/wouldn’t build their own and thus sold rebadged Japanese trucks. GM had the Isuzu-built Chevy LUV, Ford had the Mazda-built Ford Courier, and Chrysler had various flavors of the Mitsubishi Forte aka Mighty Max. In 1982, you could get your Forte as a Mighty Max, a Plymouth Arrow, or a Dodge Ram 50. Though you could buy the Ram 50 until 1986, examples of this truck are very rare these days. Here’s one that I spotted in a Denver yard last week.
There was no mistaking this truck for a luxury vehicle. Cloth bench seat, manual transmission, no air conditioning.
Power came from the 2-liter Mitsubishi Astron L4 engine, which wasn’t quite up to, say, Toyota R reliability but made decent power.
The tape-stripe graphics were very much of their time.

Whitewall tires standard, in the “Ram 50 Royal,” whatever that was. One of the weirder ads of the Late Malaise Era.

Is This The Best Muscle Car Deal That Nobody Knows About?

Derek Kreindler — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 18:59:30 +0000

Two doors. 390 horsepower. 8 cylinders. Two seats. Just a hair under $25k. Sound too good to be true? It might be one of the best muscle car deals going, as long as you’re willing to drive a pickup.

While perusing the Ram website for someone looking to buy a pickup, I came across the Ram Express; with a regular 6’4″ bed and rear-drive, it can be had with a 5.7L Hemi engine and a 6-speed automatic transmission for just $24,825. Next year, the 8-speed automatic will be the sole option. For those of us in the snowbelt, four-wheel drive will bump the cost up closer to $28,000, which makes it less of a value proposition. Note that in Canada, the Express starts at a mere $22,395 for a 4×2 single cab – the sole option is four-wheel drive, and a bigger cab is not available.

The V6 Mustang is rightly touted as the muscle car bargain of the century, but the Ram Express offers its own proposition. No, it won’t handle like a V6 ‘Stang, nor will it return the same fuel economy. But it can haul more, carry people in greater comfort (if you opt for the Quad or Crew Cab versions) and can be had with four-wheel drive. Like the Mustang V6, the base price merely serves to get buyers in the door – the real desirable versions need more options and dollars thrown at them – but the intent remains the same. And while a truck may not put up the same on paper acceleration numbers as a conventional car, they can still haul ass just fine. The Express is also extremely basic. If nothing else, it’s an intriguing, all-American alternative to the traditional muscle car – one that can tow 9200 lbs, should the need ever arise.

Junkyard Find: Old Truck Door Signs of Colorado

Murilee Martin — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 14:00:22 +0000

I found a nice assortment of truck door signs of the 1930s through 1960s at this old-school wrecking yard north of Denver last year, and I just had to shoot a few more at this yard south of Denver last week, while picking up my ’41 Plymouth project. The Colorado sun is hard on paint, but I was able to find some legible old signs.
I wonder what the Men In White did. House painting? Moving? Surgery? The seven-digit alphanumeric telephone number suggests that we’re looking at a truck that was retired no later than the mid-1960s.
It appears that this is the door from a Ritz Cab Company taxi, though it’s tough to read the first word. 1947 Chevrolet? 1946 DeSoto?
I can’t find much trace of the Pacific Fruit and Produce Company, though this truck shot in Seattle looks like the same outfit as the one that owned this truck door.
Seeing a reference to an ICC number reminds me of the old Dave Dudley classic.

Junkyard Find: 1984 Isuzu P’up

Murilee Martin — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 14:00:04 +0000

All right, we saw one of the rarest examples of Detroito-Japanese badge-engineering of the 1980s in Sunday’s Junkyard Find— a Chrysler/Mitsubishi truck— and today we’re going to look at GM/Isuzu truck that’s a bit less uncommon (but still not something you see every day): a Chevy LUV wearing its original Isuzu badging.
Chevrolet stopped selling the LUV in the early 1980s, but you could still get the second-gen Isuzu Faster in North America for the 1983-88 model years, now badged with an equally cute name: P’up!
I drove a Diesel P’up when I had a job delivering tropical fish in the early 1990s, and the thing— which had about 400,000 miles on the clock— was miserably slow but got absurdly stingy fuel economy. This P’up burned gasoline and didn’t even make it to 150,000 miles.

The P’up was cheap, and it had Joe Isuzu as pitchman.

Piston Slap: Lifespan of the Suburban Tranny?

Sajeev Mehta — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 12:55:15 +0000

Duncan writes:

Hi Sajeev,
I have a question about a 4L60-E transmission in a 2001 Chevy Suburban K1500. The truck has 159k miles. The previous owner purchased the truck 7 years ago with 90k miles and hasn’t changed any fluids in that time other than oil – I don’t know anything about the truck’s early history.

The transmission feels fine, but the fluid is dark and doesn’t smell great. The pan looks like a deep (vs shallow) pan and has a drain plug – my internet research leads me to believe these trucks came without a drain plug, but it’s a recommended upgrade – does this mean the transmission has been serviced at least once in its lifetime and the pan swapped with an aftermarket one, or did Chevy deliver some trucks with and some trucks without plugs?

Onto the meat of the question – I’d like the transmission to last forever – what can I do to ensure that? Can I change the transmission filter and replace the Dexron III that I drain out of the pan with Dexron VI? Should I do another drain and fill soon after to increase the ratio of fresh fluid to old fluid? Will I do damage by drain, filter, Dexron VI? Are $50 electronic shift kits that program the transmission to be a little more aggressive worth anything for longevity/fuel economy on a transmission that already has so many miles?

I won’t be driving the vehicle much, so I don’t want to go overboard on maintenance/upgrades, but it’s really a nice truck and I don’t want its life to be cut short by neglect.

Thanks for the advice,
Duncan

Sajeev answers:

Not being an expert in Mr. Goodwrench related products, I poked around Rockauto.com to see what tranny pans are available for this rig. Sure enough, the cheapo part has no drain plug, but there are several alternatives that are deeper with a drain plug. Gotta love the aftermarket. YOU LOVE IT RIGHT NOW!!! (shakes fist)

I say this as I put on my flame suit: this ‘burb either has a factory towing package that mandates a better oil pan (possible) or its been serviced once before. And serviced quite well, considering it takes forethought to feel the need for an upgraded pan.

Your question: what can you do to make a transmission last forever? Answer: Nothing. It will normally be the weakest link in a powertrain. I suspect more older vehicles wind up in the junkyard from a bad tranny (i.e. a $2000 repair on a $1000 car) than any other automotive malady.

So what’s my advice to improve the life of the tranny? If you can electronically speed up the shifts for $50, do it. Slow shifting is the worst enemy to a transmission’s lifespan, and its never too late to fix that. Now about the fluid: go to Dextron VI if you believe GM’s recommendation. I believe in a fully synthetic fluid from any big name manufacturer that’s reverse compatable with Dextron III. Read the bottle’s label thoroughly and buy the brand you want…

And finally, the $64,000 Question: change the fluid at this mileage or not? Who knows if the fluid’s been changed on a regular basis, but from your assessment, I suspect its been changed at least once. If so, another fluid service will extend the life of the tranny, not shorten it. Should you trust my suspicions? That’s a very expensive question that only YOU can answer.

Good luck with that.

Send your queries to sajeev@thetruthaboutcars.com. Spare no details and ask for a speedy resolution if you’re in a hurry.

Junkyard Find: 1971 Ford F-100 Pickup

Murilee Martin — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 13:00:05 +0000

We saw a 1979 Ford F-series pickup in Denver a couple of months back, and now the very same yard has this ’71 as well. It’s eight years older, but appears to be from an entirely different era… which it was.
In 1971, emission-control hardware was starting to make some inroads on engine performance, but compression ratios were still reasonably high. Nobody imagined that the Arabs would jack up oil prices in just a couple of years, either.
Pickups weren’t intended for use as daily-driven, amenity-crammed suburban commuters, as they are today, but someone went to the trouble of installing seats out of a conversion van into this one.
Designer Craft!

Ford F-Series Outsells Entire Minivan Market

Derek Kreindler — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 13:00:41 +0000

The Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country accounted for 49 percent of all minivans sold in America last month – and their year to date sales total isn’t that far off either.

With nearly 196,000 minivans sold through the end of September, the Chrysler twins make up 45 percent of the total minivan market. Broken out individually, the Dodge Grand Caravan has close to a 10,000 unit lead over the second place Honda Odyssey, and almost 20,000 units on the third place Chrysler Town & Country in terms of year-to-date sales.

Of course, this starts to look insignificant when you look at the data laid out by Timothy Cain. Year-to-date truck sales indicate that the Ford F-Seres, America’s Sweetheart on four wheels, has sold 463,733 units. The entire minivan market has racked up roughly 421,000 units so far. The dominance of pickup trucks is nothing new, but this puts in into perspective if nothing else. Not even record gas prices seem to be able to stop the full-size truck’s hegemonic stranglehold on the American auto market.

Review: Piaggio Ape 50 Europe

Murilee Martin — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 14:30:23 +0000

Last weekend, I rode a boxcar to Joliet, Illinois, with the rest of the 24 Hours of LeMons hobos and helped put on the third annual American Irony race. Traditionally, the justices of the LeMons Supreme Court travel around race-track grounds in some sort of Judgemobile appropriate to our exalted station, and this time we had the use of what turned out to be one of the greatest motor vehicles in the entire world: a 2008 Piaggio Ape (pronounced “ah-peh”) 50 Europe with just 21 miles on the clock.
I also had the use of this much less interesting (though still fun) machine for the weekend, but it remained parked off to the side of the paddock while the Ape flew the flag of the LeMons Supreme Court. Yes, a review of the Mitsubishi is coming soon (spoiler: the Big Nose HVAC Guy hasn’t made a comeback for the 2013 model year).
When you’re putting on a race with more than 100 teams competing, the pit scene sprawls like no-zoning-laws Houston suburbs. I’m wearing two hats when I’m there— race official and journalist covering the event— and that means I need to be able to zip around the facility in (or on) a vehicle that can squeeze between broken-down race cars, broken-down trailers, broken-down tow vehicles, and broken-down racers.
For pure function, the best pit transportation I’d used at a LeMons race had been the Honda Metropolitan scooter. The Metropolitan always starts, it’s quiet enough to sneak up on unsafe race-car fuelers and bust them, and its 30 MPH top speed is nice when you need to drive several miles around a vast compound such as Road America or New Jersey Motorsports Park. Given my respect for the Honda Super Cub, I’d take one over the Metropolitan any day… but so far no team has loaned us a Passport C70.
Style is very important to a LeMons judge, however, and that’s when such fine machines as the Volkswagen Shorty Transporter— which wanted to kill its occupants as well as any luckless pedestrians within its reach— really come into their own as Judgemobiles.
The Ape manages to combine function superior to the Metropolitan’s with style at least as dignified as the Shorty Transporter. Of course, the ideal Judgemobile combination would be the Ape and this bagged Cadillac limousine.
While the Ape is nearly as maneuverable as a scooter, its cargo bed means you can load it up with timing-and-scoring gear, boxes of Penalty Box equipment, or bribe-beer-sodden coworkers.
The rear wheels get some serious ~~negative~~ positive camber when the cargo bed is empty, but the unladen handling still feels much less scary than that of, say, a Reliant Robin. The reason I can make that comparison is that the same Volkswagen Squareback-racing team that loaned us the Ape has also let us use a Robin and an even sketchier Invacar three-wheeler.
The driver sits in the middle of a little seat and operates scooter-influenced hand controls and a foot brake. Allegedly, you can squeeze a second person in the cab— there’s room, if you really like your companion— but controlling the thing might get dicey.
On the left of the handlebars, there’s a normal motorcycle-style clutch lever, and there’s a traditional twist throttle on the right.
To shift, you twist the entire left grip (clutch and all) and look for your gear in this little pinball-machine-style mechanical display. First gear is best suited for climbing steep grades; starting out in second works fine on flat ground.
So driving the Ape is sort of like riding a scooter, only you’ve got a roof over your head and a windshield in front of you. It rained most of the weekend, and the Ape didn’t care about rain or mud. It even has an excellent windshield wiper/washer.
The instrument cluster tells you everything you need to know. The 40 MPH top speed on the speedo is pretty optimistic; I never got the Ape above 20 MPH and never got into fourth, but it felt obvious that the 50cc engine wasn’t made for sustained high speeds.
Because it’s Italian, there’s a lighter and an ashtray.
The window-latch mechanism was about as simple and failure-proof as it’s possible to be. If you need to reach out of the window, you just unlatch the hook and push the plastic all the way out.
The door latch/lock mechanisms are also very simple and elegant. The entire door assembly might weigh as much as five pounds.
It keeps you dry in the rain, you can drive it through spaces meant for pedestrians, and it can haul a respectable cargo load. The only real drawback of the Ape, for an American, is that it’s not street-legal anywhere in the country (unless some states have a loophole you can drive an Italian three-wheeler through).

Here’s some in-Ape video of an inspection tour of the Autobahn Country Club pits.
The Ape 50 is about the simplest motor vehicle possible, yet it does most of what a much larger urban-delivery truck needs to do. I think the 24 Hours of LeMons needs to buy its own Ape for California races!

1971 Dodge D-100 Pickup

Murilee Martin — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 13:00:54 +0000

After yesterday’s 1972 Dodge Tradesman van, we might as well stick with Dodge trucks of the Nixon Era for another day. Big simple pickups remain relevant long after their car counterparts get discarded, but sooner or later every 11-miles-per-gallon old work truck develops some expensive problem and becomes worth more as scrap than as a vehicle. This Dodge held on for 41 years before washing up in this San Francisco Bay Area self-service wrecking yard.
The addition of a camper shell to your D-100 gives it a bit of protection for cans of paint, ladders, and so forth. You’d think that intact camper shells in junkyards would get snapped up by bargain-hunting truck owners, but this seldom happens.
I wonder how many Chrysler LA-block 318s get crushed every week.
Here’s a good example of California-style body rust. It takes many decades of sun and rainy winters to do this.

PickupTrucks.Com Tests New Pack Of Global Mid-Size Trucks

Derek Kreindler — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 12:51:07 +0000

Ford Ranger. Volkswagen Amarok. Toyota Hilux. Chevrolet…err…Holden Colorado. These are the mid-size pickups that are unavailable to us Americans, a once thriving segment now hollowed out by market economics and unfavorable CAFE regulations. But the crew at PickupTrucks.com managed to wrangle the four up in Australia, and pick a winner in the segment. Read all about it here. We won’t spoil the surprise.

Junkyard Find: 1983 Dodge Ramcharger Royal SE

Murilee Martin — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 13:00:41 +0000

In the final year of the Malaise Era, truck shoppers could still get a Chrysler SUV that wasn’t trying to be a tall New Yorker. Because the echoes of the vans-and-Quaaludes ethos of the 1970s were still quite loud in 1983, this Ramcharger came equipped with groovy earth-tone stripes.
The Royal SE package came with all sorts of options that seem fairly primitive by 21st-century SUV standards: cigarette lighter, bucket seats, and so on. I am unable to determine whether the stripes were factory-installed or applied by a custom-minded owner with vivid memories of steamboating Acapulco Gold through a toilet-paper tube.
Power came courtesy of the same 318 or 360 engine that motivated variations of just about every rear-drive Chrysler product from the late 1960s until well into the present century.
It is a disappointment that no Royal SE Brougham Edition was ever sold.

Junkyard Find: 1979 Ford F-150

Murilee Martin — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 13:00:40 +0000

Writing this series has made me start paying more attention to types of vehicles I’ve long overlooked. Say, the early Nissan 300ZX, or the Mazda-based Mercury Capri. Then we’ve got the beat-up work trucks that still roam the streets in large numbers but are finally dying out, e.g. the Dodge D-100 and the late-60s GM C-series. Today, it’s the turn of Ford’s workhorse from the darkest days of the Malaise Era.
The F-150 has evolved very slowly over the decades. The 6th-generation F-Series truck weren’t much different from those that came before and after.
These gauges should look familiar to anyone who has ever driven any American Ford product built between about 1975 and 2000.
This yard has plenty of older F-100s and F-150s, but something about this ’79 grabbed my attention first.

Junkyard Find: 1968 Dodge D-100 Adventurer Pickup

Murilee Martin — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 13:00:39 +0000

I’ve been finding quite a few vintage D-Series Dodge pickups in Denver-area self-service junkyards lately, which reminds me that I’ve spent too long ignoring Detroit pickups of the 1960s and 1970s in this series. I see them, but (unless an old truck has a GMC V6 and a bunch of ancient Deadhead stickers) I usually don’t photograph them. So, the Dodges: I shared this ’74 D-200 Club Cab and this ’73 D-100 Adventurer last week, and now we’ve got a ’68 Adventurer that shares quite a few components with my ’66 A-100 van.
The Adventurer trim level got you some features that seemed quasi-luxurious 44 years ago but would seem cruelly Spartan to today’s exurban-commuter pickup buyer.
Here’s the “entertainment center.”
Bench seat, four-on-the-floor manual transmission, vinyl-covered-cardboard door panels. No air conditioning, no power steering, no power windows.
With a 318-cubic-inch V8 and a 3.91 differential gear ratio, this truck could climb any mountain… at about 5 MPH. Real-world sustained top speed was probably about 60, and fuel economy would have been barely into the double digits (downhill, with a tailwind).
Still, this here is your apocalyptic survival vehicle. Immune to nuclear-weapon EMP pulses, zombie attacks, magnetic-pole swaps, and asteroid strikes!

Junkyard Find: 1974 Dodge D-200 Club Cab Custom

Murilee Martin — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 13:00:07 +0000

When you write about one Malaise Era Dodge pickup, you might as well follow it up with another on the very next day. These days, crew cabs are nearly ubiquitous on big pickups, but the idea of a truck with a back seat in the cab was still something of a novelty in the middle 1970s, so this truck is an interesting truck history lesson.
The idea of using a 3/4-ton pickup truck as a commuter to one’s suburban office-cubicle job hadn’t taken over the country in 1974, and so these trucks were made for hauling construction supplies and large sweaty dudes with hardhats and Thermoses full of bad coffee.
Thus, luxury touches were minimal, and the space behind the front seat was intolerably cramped by 21st-century standards.
Also intolerable by current standards would be a mere 180 horsepower— which is what you got out of this smog-strangled 360— for such a big vehicle.
With a granny-gear 4-speed and a 4.10 gear out back (if we are to believe this truck’s equipment-identification sticker), however, this ’74 probably did just fine hauling cinder blocks around a job site.
Those days are over for this truck. Next stop: The Crusher!

1973 Dodge D-100 Adventurer Pickup

Murilee Martin — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 13:00:33 +0000

Dodge’s D-Series trucks of the 1970s are still on the roads in large numbers, since there’s always someone who needs a simple work truck and doesn’t care if that truck is 10 or 40 years old. Still, you can always find another sturdy (if thirsty) Detroit pickup if something expensive breaks, so this Adventurer is now Crusher-bound.
The Adventurer trim package got you some comfort and appearance upgrades, though shoppers for 2012 trucks would find this machine intolerably primitive.
Here’s the one-speaker sound system.
This vinyl bench seat was impervious to spills from any component of a typical fast-food meal, tall cans of Schlitz, and other substances likely to be found in a Dodge pickup cab.
Chances are that this 318 or 360 still has some miles left in it. Most do.