Something Detroit around my town.

[Whitehouse]

This afternoon I went to the city center of Leeuwarden to do some shopping. On top of one of the parking garages there was an old-timer meeting taking place and there was enough Detroit steel to admire. Here's a photo collection of today.

Right off the bat is this stunning looking Cadillac. The owner told me this is an unrestored example! Hard to believe but he told me that every day he's polishing something on it. And the result is there.








Didn't know about that one. A rather advanced technique where the lights dim a bit as not to blind oncoming traffic.


Here's a nice looking 1979 Firebird. Also looking pretty smart and no rust [[though there is some chipping on the bumper).





This one must be quite common over there in the US. A Chrysler New Yorker, actually imported from the New York area. The previous owner was a gay man. [[Dunno why that info was relevant for the present owner, but I guess gays tend to look well after their cars...) Anyway, he bought it for his wife... because it was smaller than his own car, which follows this car in this series.





And indeed, compared to the New Yorker his car is an aircraft carrier. This beast is a bit rare around these parts of the world, and certainly in this condition! A 1973 Chrysler Imperial. After the purchase he found a birth certificate in the glove compartment of a woman born in 1911. She was the previous owner so she bought this battleship when she was 68!
Right near by there was a Fiat 500 parked. This car could park on the hood alone.






I knew the head lights were hidden in the grill but the owner was so kind to show them to me.


The owner of this baby blue Chevrolet doesn't give a rat's ass about how his car is looking, he enjoys it and calls it his Smurfmobile. It doesn't show, in fact this picture is a bit generous, but the paint is done... with a brush. It's got a parking sensor when backing up into his garage; when the bumper hits the wall, he's in.




Here's another beast. This Chevrolet used to work at a funeral parlour and is now just a ship of fun. Als quite a challenge to park over here.




Interesting hood ornament. The top of a Grolsch bottle

More muscle from the seventies, a Trans Am.




More to follow.

[rb336]

Why can't you find Grolsch in the brown bottles over here anymore? I used to have about a dozen of them, I would fill them with either water or iced tea. Got pulled over for drinking out of one, the officer was annoyed that it was water

[Whitehouse]

From the Dutch Wikipedia:

Op 12 februari 2008 heeft Grolsch naar buiten gebracht dat de bruine beugelfles zal verdwijnen. In plaats daarvan komt er een nieuwe, modernere groene beugelfles met een design dat aansluit bij het vernieuwde pijpje.

Translated:
On the 12th of Februari Grolsch announced that the brown bottle will go off the market. In its place will come a more modern green brace bottle with a design that matches the new regular bottle.

[[Also the cap that used to be made out of China us now made of plastic, which makes the recycling process of the bottles more easy.)

And from the English wiki:

In 2007 Grolsch also started using green bottles for the home market. Grolsch was the first major brewery to stop using the brown refillable bottles which are used by nearly every brewery in the Netherlands. The new green bottles have the Grolsch logo marked in the glass and come in a new package. The label is now placed higher at the neck of the bottle, and the bottles contain 10% more beer [[now 33cl). The new bottle was introduced through the slogan 'Bier mag weer gezien worden', which translates roughly as, 'Beer is fit to be seen again'.

[Jimaz]

Heh. You're focusing on the cars while I'm admiring the background scenery.

Thanks for the photos, Whitehouse!

[subsidized]

Heh. You're focusing on the cars while I'm admiring the background scenery.

Thanks for the photos, Whitehouse!

I was doing the same, quite the range of architectural style going on there.

[Whitehouse]

The building in the background of the back-end picture of the yellow Chrysler is the Tresor building. It houses our province's archives. In the same picture just right of the New Yorker is one of the entrances of the parking garage below the square. Feel free to ask me about buildings. Here's were you can wonder around my city on Google Streetview.

And now I'm here, why don't I start with part two of the pictures.

Here's another 1970's battle cruiser. A Ford. You tell me the details, I don't know them.


It was not all American tin that was lined up. There were some other rare bird I've never seen before. Take this for instance.

Ever heard of a VW Nova? This is it. It's a British kit based on the humble Volkwagen Beetle. The only things Beetle on this car are the bottom, steering and suspension set-up. It also had the engine but the owner switched that one in for a water cooled VW Golf engine. Still capable of going 180km/h but your teeth will rattle out of you skull!





And this is how you enter.


The never finished Oldehove church steeple. And you can guess why they stopped with the build. It actually leans over more than the tower of Pisa.


Another exotic arrival. A Lotus Europa. Behind it is a Citroen HY van.


An ancient Mercedes. Ironic that Hitler chose the Mercedes as his favorite car. Had he known that the brand was named after the daughter of the Jewish member of the board Emil Jellinek, I wonder if the brand would have been renamed for it.


And how could I not finish with the star of the afternoon. This Tin Lizzie was spotted by my brother on a motorway. Still huffing and puffing it's way through traffic. At 97-years old this was the star of the show. Totally original and unrestored but still going! Just this afternoon I saw the magnificent movie "There will be blood" [[highly recomended!!) and the main character was driving exact the same example.

[Whitehouse]

I found a picture in a newspaper about this meeting. Here's picture of the driver of the t-Ford.