A new car in the Old Cars Weekly family
Not everyone can afford to sustain a collector-car-a-week habit, but luckily, retired Old Cars Price Guide editor Ken Buttolph (yes, the famous Kenny Buttolph), has more than enough cars in his collection to trade cars on a regular basis. (For those counting, he’s up to 110 cars. This week.)
Whenever Kenny scoops up a new collector car (or even a new $700 Chrysler Fifth Avenue winter beater), he swings it by the Old CarsWeekly office so we can all take a spin or get behind the wheel.
Last week, the “car of the week” was a 1966 Chevrolet Caprice with 19,000 miles on the odometer. Kenny acquired the car from Bob Lichty, another former Old Cars staff member, who now runs Motorcar Portfolio out of Canton, Ohio. To complete the trade, Bob traded Kenny for his gorgeous lipstick red-and-white 1956 Oldsmobile 98 Holiday coupe. Now, I’m a Caprice lover (heck, I’ve got three and almost enough parts to complete a fourth), but I was appalled to see Kenny let the Olds go for some cash and the Caprice.
Regardless of my feelings, I wasn’t going to pass up the chance to drive a 40-year-old car with 19,000-miles. To its credit, the car handled really well, but its strong point was the power out of its 300-hp 327-cid V-8. After some encouragement, Kenny had me shove the power pedal to the floor to get the ol’ Caprice scream like a clown with its tail on fire. And oh, did it holler! For such a large car, the Caprice could hold its own, and probably beat my 325-hp ’62 Coupe deVille!
On the inside, the Caprice caught me a bit off guard with its buckets seats, console and gauge cluster, which included all the required info for a car with 300 solid horses: oil pressure, temperature, etc.
Before he trades this car away, I figured I’d shoot a few pics of Kenny with his car. I still think the Olds was a bit cooler car, but the Caprice is no slouch. What do you think?
