Here Are All The Old Cars From The 2021 LA Auto Show

I spent the better part of yesterday wandering the halls of the Los Angeles Convention Center at the first Post-COVID era LA Auto Show. It is an interesting time to go to a manufacturers sponsored auto convention because of the events that have shaken the world — starting with shutdowns that put every new vehicle development on hold and followed by supply chain disruptions that have taken the industry into unknown stormy waters. The LA Auto Show for 2020 was canceled and this year’s show was the smallest I’ve ever seen, attendance was light, and the floor was missing many notable car companies like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Audi, Volvo, Mazda, Honda, and Acura. In the place of these industry titans were various electric vehicle startups, but I found myself wandering the show searching for cool old classics that have been restored and are here to help fuel some nostalgic buying frenzy. But personally, I find the classics in the booths to be a reminder of when the automobile wasn’t a nightmare buffet of artificially flavored, hyperpalatable, yet ultimately bare-marginally satisfying, pseudoabundance. So I went around and took photos of classics to share with DT readers.

First up at the Nissan booth was a scrumptious S30 generation Datsun 240Z. I think Nissan had their latest version of the 400Z or whatever it’s called, but for the same cash, I’d take this.

Hidden in a central hall with a number of other classics was this hella patina’d Porsche 356. If it drives 1/10th as good as it looks (which is asking a lot for an old 356), I’m in.

Speaking of Porsches, I found this 1990s Porsche 911 in the actual Porsche booth…wait a minute. This might be a newish model…hang on…gotta check my notes.

Sorry. Here is the 993 generation Porsche 911 GT2, which was one of the more insane offerings from those wacky Germans back in the 1990s. The GT2 took the 911 Turbo, added some more horsepower, and removed the helpful all-wheel-drive system for the ultimate in driver involvement and danger.

Over in the Ford booth that had this sweet old Ford F-Series pickup that has been restomodded and looked amazing compared to the silly grilled things that you could buy new from the dealer if they hadn’t run out of microchips.

Strangely enough, there was a cool looking custom modern pickup in the Ford booth, so I’m going to include a photo of this thing as well.

In the Lincoln booth there was a giant Navigator on a rotisserie that was audibly groaning from the weight of the new beast, but there was also a cool looking Shinola bicycle. Contrary to popular belief, I do know shine from shinola.

I really don’t know how new or old this Kia is, but I appreciate that it was covered in dirt, so it gets a picture in this article.

In the middle area between the halls there was a company that does high-end Porsche 911 restorations (I forget the name) but it looked expensive.

In the Jeep booth there was the usual array of forgettable SUVs, but there was also a really nice McIntosh super high end audiophile setup where you could sit and listen to music with audio clarity that was phenomenal. I’m not an audiophile, but I know people who are into this stuff and it does sound special.

I do enjoy the look of a nice classic Cobra kit car, but this Cobera was advertised as a clean energy version — isn’t the a big part of the Cobra experience the scream of a V8…not sure how they would work with some fuel cell or electric hybrid powertrain.

Finally, I just want to say that this shifter on this Subaru BRZ is totally and completely a fraudulent piece of garbage.

And people wonder why I look at old cars when at a new car show…

There were a few new cars that were cool at the show, including the TacoZilla. I can get behind this sort of thing.

Comments below.