Classic Cars

BARKHAMSTED, CT – It came off the assembly line a decade before Robert Brainard III of Barkhamsted was born – a 1964 Oldsmobile with a seemingly confusing concoction of badges that proclaimed it to be an “F-85,” a “Cutlass” and a “442” model. Brainard’s owned the red coupe since 1987, …

THOMASTON, CT – In “Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade,” it was a humble cup and not a bejeweled gold chalice that Harrison Ford’s character reasoned was the Holy Grail that Jesus used at the Last Supper to serve wine. That’s why Indy selected it to drink from in the …

Car dealers usually take trade-ins and either sell them as used or unload them to be sold elsewhere. Modern Mazda in Thomaston took an imaginative different tack when determining the fate of a 2010 Mazda MX-5 Miata that it took in trade six months ago. The two-seat convertible, bright red …

David Chadderton Sr. wasn’t searching for a restoration project when he spotted a full-size 1967 Ford Galaxie 500 sitting outside a repair shop in Seymour approximately 16 years ago. It was Wimbledon white on the outside with a turquoise interior. Trees were growing up around the two-door hardtop, but it …

WATERTOWN, CT – Emil Mancini of Watertown, CT was 15 years old when he accompanied a friend who was a few years older on a visit to an import car dealer in Fairfield County. It was there that Mancini spotted a Porsche 356 sports car, which sparked an attraction to …

MORRIS, CT – Robin Vogel’s connection to her dark red 1966 Ford Mustang convertible goes back to childhood.  “When I was a little kid, my father bought it as a parts car. It didn’t have any floors. I mean it was basically ready for the junk yard,” the Morris, CT …

MORRIS, CT – David Coté describes his MG – a two-seat 1967 MGB sports car – as a “bottle rocket,” at least when compared to the 1966 MGB that preceded it. With its British racing green exterior and tan interior, it looks showroom new. It also has a beckoning exhaust …

EAST GRANBY, CT – Ask Tom O’Brien of Windsor Locks, CT how many miles are on his sparkling burnt orange and silver 1966 Chevrolet Caprice Custom coupe and he’ll give an answer that’s misleading, spot-on and totally surprising.  “Just under 200,” O’Brien said Tuesday night as he stood beside the …

WATERBURY, CT – Joe Wilcox of Waterbury was a 15-year-old high schooler when his father found him a summer job at a local Hudson car dealer. “That’s where I became a Hudson nut,” the 83-year-old Wilcox recalled late last year summer as he sat on a stool in his driveway.  Behind …

SOUTHBURY, CT – There were probably more Chevrolet Corvettes than any other model at the Pomperaug High School Cars & Coffee show on Saturday, and two of them stood out. There was a sparkling blue 1966 Corvette Stingray owned by John Lanteri of Middlebury, CT. He bought it three years …