Cars get more interesting the further west you go
Obvious? Perhaps. But still neat when you actually see it. We spent some time in Denver recently, and saw a number of cars we’d almost never see out east. Why is that?
Well for starters, rust is not quite the same enemy to old cars that it is in the Northeast, we suspect. True, it’s Denver – not exactly Florida or Arizona – but this city (rightfully) likes to trump its 300 days of sunshine in a year, as well as its short-lived winter storms and rapidly disappearing snow. The stuff just does not pile up and linger (for days or even weeks on end) like heaps of dirty laundry the way it does in the Northeast (where remnants of a two week-old storm still remain). Encountering slush and salt spray on the roads is an enviably rare occurrence, and ice on the roads is noticeably short-lived.
One of the end results, we figure, is that interesting old cars are kept on the road for longer. But we’re sure there are other reasons as well – more than meet the eye – and we’d be happy to hear what you think they might be.
Here’s an abbreviated (very abbreviated— we’re sure we left some out) look at some of the more noteworthy cars we saw (not photos of the actual cars, by the way).
Volkswagen Type 2 (T3) Syncro Westfalia Vanagon (on studded winter tires— a nice touch):
Land Rover Defender 110:
Volkswagen Mk1 Golf Cabriolet (3 of ’em):
First generation Honda Civic (a car we wouldn’t mind having, believe it or not):
Audi RS6 (C5):
And that’s just Colorado— i.e., with about a thousand miles further west to go.
It’s been ages since we’ve been out to California – too long to even remember – but from everything we can tell, we really do expect it to be the car guy or gal’s ultimate paradise as far as the United States goes, with interesting cars of every stripe represented out on the road. We’ll get back there someday, if even just to take in some of its world class driving roads.
(Syncro photo by honemastert)
Motoring Con Brio 
“Arizona car” is key phrase that will tack on at least a couple hundred dollars to the asking price of an air-cooled VW, and likely many other classics.
Mike said this on January 12, 2011 at 4:13 pm
Still to this day, A Gen 1 Honda civic (a clapped out one at that) is the only car that has still made me smile directly after test driving a MKV Golf GTi, Definetly a spirited little car
Felix said this on January 12, 2011 at 6:50 pm
there’s a 1st generation civic exactly like the one you posted, in baby blue…parked near my work sometimes. it’s such a cool looking little car…and then i look at the ‘new’ civic concept introduced in detroit this week and think; how far they’ve fallen in inspiration!
Syed said this on January 12, 2011 at 10:43 pm