Key Points
- A father and son’s carspotting hobby highlights rare, unusual vehicles encountered during ordinary commutes.
- Sightings included the rally-bred Lancia Delta Integrale and innovative Nissan Pulsar NX Sportbak.
- The Cadillac Allanté and Lincoln Blackwood stood out for distinctive designs, rarity, and nostalgic appeal.
I love carspotting with my younger son, who’s nine years old and loves cars almost as much as I do. He points out cars so much that it annoys the rest of my family to no end. He ends up learning a lot in the process (and I do, too). The other day we saw a Porsche 930 911 Turbo, and we were in heaven.
Like the 911, some cars make you look twice because they’re beautiful, iconic, fast, or all of the above. Others make you look twice because you can’t believe somebody is still driving one and that it’s actually in running condition. Over the past year or so, four cars have interrupted the typical commuter-car camouflage to make me do a triple-take, and not because they’re 800+ horsepower exotic hypercars. In fact, quite the opposite. These are just a few of the sightings that made an ordinary year on the road considerably more interesting.
Lancia Delta HF Integrale
When my son and I saw the Lancia Delta HF Integrale rally legend in our neck of the woods, our jaws simultaneously dropped. The one we saw was clad in white with Martini Racing livery. To some, it might be a bulgy hatchback, but to those who know, it’s an icon. Beginning with the Delta HF 4WD and continuing through the Integrale variants, the Delta family powered Lancia to six consecutive World Rally Championship manufacturers’ titles from 1987 through 1992.
I’ve seen the same one a few tims now, and every time it creates longing like almost no other car can create, no matter the cost. The car belongs in my mental collection of motorsport legends. Yet there it was, stuck in the same traffic as me right outside a carry-out Thai restaurant.
Nissan Pulsar NX Sportbak
A regular Nissan Pulsar NX would already get my attention. One wearing the Sportbak roof sends me straight into automotive-nerd mode. I used to hate these things when they sold in the ’80s, but now they just look cool with their louver-style taillight covers. This wasn’t simply a small coupe styled to resemble a wagon. The second-generation Pulsar NX had removable T-top panels and a detachable rear hatch. The optional Sportbak roof transformed a rather plain car into something resembling a Euro breadvan.
Nissan actually committed to the interchangeable-body idea, which is downright revolutionary. The Sportbak was a fiberglass roof assembly with side and rear windows. It changed the shape and capacity of the car and made it into something truly unique. In terms of vintage ’80s goodness, this one’s hard to beat. The one I saw was clad in red like this one, and it was positively spectacular. Talk about a proud owner.
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Cadillac Allanté
Cadillac
The first thing that came to mind when I saw this cruising in the western suburbs of Chicago was Sylvester Stallone’s grey version from the movie Tango & Cash. At that time, the Allanté was about as exotic as an American car could be. It was an ambitious attempt to combine Italian style with American luxury. The two-seat, front-wheel-drive convertible featured Pininfarina-designed bodies built in Italy and flown to Detroit aboard specially configured Boeing 747s for final assembly. Talk about a laborious effort. It was also crazy expensive at about $55 grand in 1987.
ts restrained styling had lasting appeal, but the early V8 engines delivered more cruising comfort than excitement. Cadillac finally supplied the performance it deserved for 1993, fitting a 295-horsepower, 4.6-liter Northstar V8, making it the best selling model year. Unfortunately, that was also its final year of production. In the end over 21,400 were made, and one of them drove past me.
Lincoln Blackwood
I point this one out, not because I’m a big fan but because the radical Lincoln Blackwood was just so strange. It was in pristine condition, and it looked like the owner knew what he had with a big smile plastered across his face. My son asked me what it was, and I informed him about the uniqueness, if not the appeal of the Blackwood. He just thought the silver lines on the faux wood bedside panels were cool. That’s not the term I would use, but the look is pretty special.
The Navigator-based Blackwood was offered in the U.S. for the 2002 model year. It paired its unusual luxury-truckness with a 300-horsepower 5.4-liter V8, but the specifications aren’t the big deal. It’s the split, side-hinged tailgate with a hydraulic bed hardtop that made it so different. In the end, fewer than 3,500 Blackwoods were made, and to see one in the wild was quite a sight, indeed.
Final Thoughts
When everyone else seems to care about Ferrari, Lamborghini, and McLaren sightings, I look for the genuinely weird stuff. I’m not sure if it’s just because of the nostalgia factor of some of these cars living in my brain from growing up on them, but they also represent the uniqueness of the automotive industry. These are rare finds, as well as opportunities to talk to my son about them, even if they’re not all considered collectors cars.
About the author
Amos Kwon
Contributing Writer, Autoblog