My friend Darrell gave me a free ticket and VIP parking pass to the annual Tucson Classics Car Show, so I spent a happy morning mooning over beautiful metal.

Car shows and auctions these days are dominated by 1970s muscle cars (this one was no exception), but I’m interested in older, stock cars, the kind I used to see on the road when I was a kid in the 1950s, and I’m particularly attracted to the orphan brands: Nashes, Kaisers, Packards, Hudsons, Studebakers, and so on. Alas, the only Studebakers were Avantis, the only Nash was a Nash-Healey, and the sole Kaiser was a Darrin. I was hoping for Champions, Ambassadors, and Manhattans. But by God I saw a Terraplane, and you don’t see many of those!

Enjoy the photos. Click to make ’em larger.

1951 Hudson
1951 Hudson

Hudson Twin H Power
Hudson Twin H-Power

A/C in '51?
A/C in '51?

Kaiser-Darrin
Kaiser-Darrin

Clean '56 VW
Clean '56 VW

Corvair
Corvair

Another orphan brand
Another orphan brand

1930s Stodgemobile
1930s Stodgemobile

1930s LaSalle
1930s LaSalle

Death by dashboard I
Death by dashboard I

Death by dashboard II
Death by dashboard II

Death by dashboard III
Death by dashboard III

1949 Mercury
1950 Mercury

Packard
Packard

Ferrari straight six!
Ferrari straight six!

Cadillac flathead V8
Cadillac flathead V8

Ford simplicity
Ford simplicity

National Runabout
National Runabout

Fins, schmins . . .
Fins, schmins . . .

. . . we want tits!
. . . we want tits!

But this is even sexier!
But this is even sexier!

Veteran from 1910
Veteran from 1910

These were options then
Frivolous options (then)

Pierce-Arrow mascot
Pierce-Arrow mascot

1951 Nash Healey
1951 Nash Healey

Terraplane
Terraplane

GMC cabover
GMC cabover

Jag XK120
Jag XK120

Jag E-type
Jag E-type

Chrysler Airflow
Chrysler Airflow
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