Magnum Force

Many moons ago a Suburban totalled my 70 Riviera GS (sigh, what a sweet car). The Riviera was almost replaced by a 79 Magnum GT, black with red interior and the 360 cop motor. Very cool car especially with the rough cast mag wheels. A forgotten late model MOPAR executive "muscle car". Home renovations swallowed the insurance check.

I am looking forward to checking out another 79 Magnum, a silver and black XE this time. Back in 1978 Car Craft even built a Magnum magazine project car, yes I have that issue.

Belated Birthday to Elvis

January 8th, Friday was the King's 75th. Did he own a Toronado XS, well certainly not a 78 since he had passed on/gone into hiding by then, but possibly a 77, seriously the guy had a lot of cars. I know he had a 66 Toronado.

And there is certainly proof he purchased an example of another one of my cars, a 1975 Eldorado. Interestingly enough he seems to eschewed convertibles....privacy concerns perhaps.

In 1975 Elvis made some salesman's day at Madison Cadillac when be purchased fourteen Cadillacs including this Eldorado coupe for a Mrs Mennie L. Person of of 1868 Meadowhill, Memphis. She had been admiring the King's Caddy limo when Elvis asked her if she liked it. He said "That one's mine but I'll buy you one." She chose a gold and white Eldorado costing $11,500. He also bought her a new wardrobe.

I looked up the address on Google Earth but the Eldo was not parked in the driveway.

Photos courtesy of Elvis's Cadillacs a great site from a cool cat in Australia:

http://elviscadillacs.tripod.com./

Twilight Time

The Toronado is vexing me today with the failure of its dash and driving lights, a problem I had before but which had mysteriously corrected itself.

Spent my lunch under the dash of the Toro, no fuses blown. The light switch will not override the sentinel, headlights and hi-beams function as does stop, turn signal and back up lights.

I located the sentinel control box by feel but cannot see where to disconnect (hidden by lower dash cover) lots of work to remove. As a temp fix I ran a wire from the headlight switch feed to the rear harness and sentinel to the fuse box, this gives me driving lights when the ignition is on.

Better spend some more quality time with the 78 Olds shop manual and wiring diagram this evening.

Obligatory Toronado beauty shot.

The Sincerest Form of Flattery

The 77-78 Toronado XS and the 77-79 Chevrolet Impala coupe were a showcase for the hot wire bent glass technology that allowed windshields to be curved at right angles.

Although this new look did not catch on as a styling trend in the seventies it did get peoples attention and also the attention of other automotive designers.

Bob Marcks, a Chrysler designer liked the look of the Toronado XS and applied the unique rear glass to an Imperial, looks like be borrowed some of the fenders as well.

I also received some flattery today, from the traffic cop who was admiring my Toronado while he was giving me a speeding ticket!

This Ain't a Drag Strip

It is hard to be a car guy (or gal) in this weather and I was suffering withdrawal symptoms. So I decided that darn the sub zero weather I am going to change the oil in the Jaguar, I had been putting this job off for some time as you have to crawl right under the car to remove the filter. The car has to be jacked up very high as it sits so low (a Ford Cortina once fell on my father…he survived). Well if you can’t cheat death on the first day of the new year, heck what is the point. Made sure the hydraulic jack was supported by two jack stands and had the oil change done in no time. Longest part was pouring in the cold synthetic 10w30. Quick couple of test laps around the neighborhood, finally annoyed the neighbors after 12 years of car shenanigans, “turn that thing off before I call the cops, this ain't a drag strip!” I guess someone had too much to drink the night before ;)

If you took the picture today the Jag would be buried in snow!

Full disclosure, the above XJS has an LT1 and is kinda loud.