For this week’s AutoHunter’s picks, I’ve chosen one car per decade. Why bother selecting vehicles from the same decade and possibly offering no variety to those in Readerland? There’s plenty of interesting vehicles from different eras on the current AutoHunter roster — which one is your favorite?
1976 Cadillac Seville
There was this older kid named Mark Acree who lived behind my childhood home. His parents had a gold Cadillac Seville similar to this. I used to think they were millionaires because their house had some funky indoor pond and, by golly, their Caddy was gold. It’s almost ironic considering the model was a silk purse made from a sow’s ear.
When new, the MSRP of this Innsbruck Blue metallic 1976 Seville was higher than an Eldorado convertible, believe it or not. It was the Cadillac sized for the 1970s, an 11th-hour creation that was a rousing success. Power came from a 180-horsepower Oldsmobile 350 V8 with Cadillac-engineered fuel injection. You can complain about Malaise Era all you want, but this is one American that got it right in an era when it seemed nothing was right.
1956 Chevrolet “Task Force” Truck
I’ve never really thought what I’d want to drive during the apocalypse, but maybe I’ll choose this since it looks like what I’ve been told a road warrior should be. The patina (who else hates that word?) is the perfect mix of elemental corrosion and kitsch, and what do you think you’d find if you visited Poncho’s Rusted Restorations under the fire-tinged sky? I’ll stop there before I get creeped out.
My imagination may have run dry, but clearly someone had an imagination with this contraption, which is based on a modern (2000-ish) Suburban 2500 chassis. The cab screams 1956 Chevy truck, but the engine screams 6.0 LS V8, though there is no indication which LS (I’ll guess LQ9). The aesthetics inside and out are quite neat.
1966 Shelby GT350
The 1966 Shelby Mustang has a watered-down image compared to the ’65, but there are some ‘66s that are better than others. For one thing, approximately 1,000 Hertz Rent-A-Car examples were built, and reportedly all but 85 of those were automatics. A bonus is that there were more color choices for 1966, though I can’t fault white and blue ‘65.
This Sapphire Blue metallic version was built with the four-speed manual. Additionally, it lacks the Le Mans stripes that seem to be on every other GT350 out there, which gives it a somewhat unique look. The 14-inch Shelby 10-spoke wheels also were a new addition to the Shelby roster. If you can’t afford a pricey ’65 and prefer the small bodies to the ’67, this one stands out.
1998 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra convertible
This totally was a hot car at the time, offering 305 horsepower from its 4.6-liter DOHC V8. Of course, we have sixes that attain that power today, but what six has that V8 rumble? It seems 3,480 convertibles were built, with 555 painted Chrome Yellow and, of those, 542 featured the black interior. Any way you cut it, this is prime 1990s muscle car material.
Even better, it has been driven 7,364 miles since new. That’s awesome stuff, but what would you do? Drive it as if new? That choice is obvious to me, but then it would be a shame to run up the mileage for a car that’s already 25 years old. I remember being impressed with low-mileage 1970s muscle cars in 1980s magazines so this car is ripe for being a preserved specimen in the same vein.
