workaround ideas to discuss among friends
Wednesday, February 01, 2023
Volkswagen-based Polauto coupé-utility with the rare regular cab
Access to the engine bay was provided only through a hatch on the loading bay floor, not exactly the most convenient one, and having only the rear wheel wells for air intake and cooling was also quite a matter of concern, no wonder it's so unusual to find a Polauto without any additional air inlet or outlet for the engine bay. Another unusual feature of this Polauto is the regular cab, actually the first one with this bodystyle that I have ever seen, even though the crew-cab model used to be quite popular and some were roaming around until a few years ago in Porto Alegre.
As it used to be made in a rather low volume and more oriented toward final customers who would use it as a private/familiar car, a much larger amount had the crew-cab, still with only 2 doors because it's Brazil and in the '80s the stereotypes about 4-door cars would drop their resale value. Trying to understand the Brazilian car market and its dynamics is frankly a challenge, and models such as the Polauto are there to remind how it used to be eventually harder to explain to a foreigner why some folks would rather get a fiberglass kit car instead of refurbishing a rusty Beetle, not to mention an older beaten frame donor car would appreciate in resale value after being converted back in the day.
Wednesday, January 25, 2023
Would an Opel Corsa B still be a good runabout?
Saturday, January 21, 2023
Mercedes-Benz AGL/Bulldog/Bubble-nose truck with a roof-mounted air conditioner
Sunday, December 18, 2022
Peugeot Partner Rapid, another rebadge of the Brazilian 3rd-generation Fiat Fiorino
Wednesday, December 07, 2022
Humvee with externally-mounted air conditioner condenser
Friday, December 02, 2022
Brazilian Honda CG 150 of the 7th and 8th generations converted from EFI to carburettor
Saturday, November 26, 2022
Another Brazilian Bricknose Ford with a local aftermarket cabin
Friday, November 18, 2022
Prerunner-inspired Jeep Cherokee XJ?
Suspension travel also doesn't seem to be so extreme as in most prerunners, but that front bumper... It's hard to not think of a prerunner while looking at it, seemingly providing an outstanding approach angle.
Tuesday, October 25, 2022
Would the Volkswagen T2 "bus" still have a sustainable market-share in Brazil if it had received ABS brakes?
Commercial vehicle buyers in Brazil tend to have a much conservative profile, so the Kombi had its fair share of suitability to the preferences of many operators, while its size was still more convenient on city traffic than some newer vans and trucks and a rear weight bias favored its cross-country ability without the expense of 4-wheel drive, which is an unusual feature for vans in Brazil anyway. Sure stricter safety and emission regulations would render it harder to keep the T2 up-to-date, such as the recently-enforced evaporative emission rules implemented this year, following the American standard instead of European and dictating the end of the supplemental gasoline tank which served as a cold-starting aid for flexfuel cars in Brazil, which the Kombi retained since the first dedicated-ethanol versions. Seemingly outdated, yet still beloved by operators who keep their Kombis operating instead of switching to newer vans with more safety and comfort features, the Kombi still had a quite sustainable demand in Brazil and little to no investment on advertising since the late-'90s, so most likely it would retain its market share if it had received ABS brakes once they became mandatory.
Tuesday, October 11, 2022
Coachbuilt full-size Brazilian Chevrolet square-body truck from the late-'80s
It's worth to notice the Brazilian truck range used to have a much slower evolution than its counterparts from the United States, or even from neighboring countries which in fact relied on a considerably larger amount of imported parts often including most of the body panels, and a more work-oriented profile of most truck buyers prompted not only GM to offer a much more austere range having fewer options as a factory-fit, which in turn provided opportunities for all sort of aftermarket suppliers. Even though there was the local Suburban equivalent named Veraneio, better known for its large market share both among police forces and other law-enforcemend agencies and as ambulance, it remained stylistically related to the 5th-generation Suburban and 1st-generation C/K from 1964 to 1989, while the trucks switched from the 1st-generation C-series to the 3rd-generation in 1985, so converting a D20 of the 1988 model-year into some sort of van like this one coachbuilt by Auto Renovadora Boff (ARB) in São Marcos city, Rio Grande do Sul state, made sense at all. On a sidenote, during José Sarney's presidential term there were fiscal advantages for trucks, and even the ones with a payload below one metric ton could be converted to run on Diesel fuel while such modification was forbidden (and much harder to circumvent) for cars.