Classic Cars

NEW MILFORD, CT – It’s a muscle car with a criminal past that did hard time in an impound lot. It was then surreptitiously sprung and sold to an unsuspecting buyer who didn’t know that it had been stolen – a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T.  For the past 22 years …

Each of the classic vehicles owned by Mike Peters of Burlington, CT has a nickname. His 1970 Chevrolet Monte Carlo goes by “Rodney,” while his 1968 Mercury Cougar is known as “Freddy.”  Even his 1977 Datsun 720 pickup has a playfully scatological moniker, “Chitbox.” The reasons are “because it’s a …

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 …