Autoblog

While Ford was first to market with the pickup-cum-car Ranchero, and El Camino has attained universal descriptor status, like Kleenex, it looks like Kaiser presaged the idea in 1954 with this one-off. Kaiser was one of many smaller independents that had yet to die off in the early 1950s. The independents were often more creative than the big three, pushing innovation with limited resources. This extra-special Special-based vehicle is sporting "Barris Kustom" badges on the B-Pillars, glossy light yellow paint on the flanks, and a iron-irrific Continental L-head 6 underhood. You may not be torching the wide whites off the Kelsey Hayes wires with the 118 horsepower, but it's definitely adequate, even on today's roads. Current bids stand at $7,300 for what looks like a driveable classic. It'd be an interesting vehicle to poke around at and uncover the provenance, and the story would be way more entertaining than "It came down the line in Arlington one day."

Thanks for the tip, Mike!

Time to stretch your legs! Head to the snack bar and get something to munch on. Suggestions pop up on the screen in case you need some inspiration. The concessions are multitudinous, from sweet candy bars to crispy fish sandwiches (don't they look scrumptious?), you can push your cholesterol way into bad numbers for just a few bucks. If the first horror show got you all wound up, there's even a smorgasbord of cigarette selections to soothe your frayed nerves, just in time to run back before The Terror starts!

Missed Part 1? See it here.

If you miss drive-ins, we've got it all worked out for you. How you recreate the experience is up to you. The simplest method would be to just plop your laptop on the hood, but the screen is a bit small for that, and the sound would be worse than those little speakers that clipped on the windows. Kicking the video out via HDMI to an LCD or plasma would be better, you could even mount the screen in the garage! We don't recommend idling the motor, though.

Most drive-ins now have either been turned into bumper crops of McMansions, or stand barren. It's an eerie sight to see orderly rows of 1-meter high poles standing at attention in a sea of failing asphalt, vegetation pushing through the cracks, detritus blowing like tumbleweeds across the sun-bleached decay. Back in the day, double-features of spooky movies were de-rigeur at drive-ins, it's ironic now that the drive-in would be a perfect setting for one of those creepy films. Details of what's on the marquee are after the jump, and it's double-feature night (Well, day, really. -Ed.) at the Autoblog Drive-In, so be sure to be back from the snack bar for Part 2, coming soon.