“There are more things in heaven and Earth…than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
– Shakespeare
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Welcome to the beginning of the reveal of my highly idiosyncratic Ultimate Garage 2.0. In some instances I cannot really articulate why I included or excluded a particular car. As this Ultimate Garage is larger than the first (which was seven cars), the number of cars that missed the cut is also larger so I decided to show those cars in two posts. OK, without further ado and in no particular order:
1968 Dodge Charger
To borrow a phrase/concept from March Madness/Bracketology this car was the last one out of the Ultimate Garage. Until very recently I was sure this car would be included, but my internal Supreme Court voted 5-4, at least for now, to exclude this car in favor of another.
From eBay a picture of a 1968 Charger R/T. I am a big fan of the styling and performance of the second-generation Charger and the ’68 is my favorite of that generation. The main reason I like the ’68 the best is the grill, which is clean and unadorned compared to ’69 and ’70. If you asked me again in a month this car might be in instead of out.
1962 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk
This car also just missed the cut for my first Ultimate Garage. Maybe the third time will be the charm.
From Bring a Trailer a picture of a slightly modified 1962 Gran Turismo Hawk.
1956 DeSoto Fireflite Sportsman
From Barrett-Jackson a picture of the ’56 DeSoto Fireflite Sportsman; this picture has been shown multiple times before in Disaffected Musings. Why is this car out instead of in? Not sure I can articulate the reason(s).
The next two cars were excluded because familiarity breeds contempt; I’ll explain later.
2006 Cadillac XLR-V
In what I assume is a still from a YouTube video this is a picture of a 2006 Cadillac XLR-V (duh). The “V” designation means the car had a supercharged engine.
2007 Saturn Sky Red Line
From cargurus.com a picture of a 2007 Saturn Sky Red Line. OK, what did I mean by familiarity breeds contempt? The reason I didn’t include the XLR-V—the same reason I didn’t buy a used one in 2016—is that a friend of mine told me he had purchased two XLRs and that both had to be repurchased by Cadillac under our state’s lemon law. As for the Sky, my wonderful wife and I both test-drove one (not a Red Line, though) and the interior of the car just felt cheaply made. I love the looks of both cars and they have enough performance to have made Ultimate Garage 2.0 (in my head I had an informal minimum for HP and torque), but getting a close look revealed some warts.
I heartily welcome comments and it’s not too late to submit your Ultimate Garage if you haven’t done so. Barring unforeseen circumstances tomorrow I will post the second and final list of the cars that missed the cut.
#UltimateGarage
#TheCarsThatMissedTheCut
#somanycarsjustonelife
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Disaffected Musings 
The ’68 Charger IMO is one of the great designs of that era. Sadly, the chief stylist of this car, Richard Sias (who was always careful to give his team credit for the design rather than take it for himself) left Chrysler in an internal political squabble with someone with a larger ego. While Sias remained in industrial design, he never designed another car. He was 26 when he did the Charger.
The ’62 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk is one of those designs that will always look good. Brooks Stevens, working on the clean Robert Bourke-designed ’53 Starliner body shell managed to pull off a miracle in design, working with no time and less money. The ’64 Gran Turismo Hawk will be the subject of this week’s “Gear Head Tuesday” post.
Like you, I like the ’56 DeSoto Fireflite Sportsman hardtop. DeSoto suffered from the same fate as Mercury did with Ford. The corporate parent could never decide what the car should be: which segment of the market it should appeal to. At one time, Chrysler had deftly positioned DeSoto in the commercial chassis market. DeSoto benefited by having a substantial piece of the important New York City and Chicago taxi cab fleet market. They also built long wheelbase cars for the then-growing airport shuttle business. They gave all of that up with Checker being the chief beneficiary. I digress … that ’56 DeSoto you show is still a very handsome car, a fine representation of those happy, optimistic years when our country liked Ike …
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Thanks for the thoughtful reply, sir. I eagerly await this week’s “Gear Head Tuesday” post.
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What a miss list. I can not wait to see the ones that ring the bell!
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Thanks, C/2. Hope you’re not disappointed in Ultimate Garage 2.0.
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