Beauty. Tranquility. Power. These words in the modern age are generally directed to three car companies: Civetta, based out of Rome, Italy. ETK, based out of Berlin, Germany, and McLean Motorsport, based out of Ogden, Utah. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, however, this was very much... Different.The words of Beauty, Tranquility, and Power, belonged to the Big Three: Gavril Automobiles, the Bruckell Motor Company, and Texas Moterwerks, all based out of Detroit, rather ironically for TMW, but that is not the point. The point is, those three companies were once great juggernauts of the American motor world, dominating car shows with wild styling, aggressive lines, and big V8 motors. A shining example of the wild styling, aggressive lines and big V8s of this era is the Gavril Barstow. While I must admit, Gabriel Gavril must have been off his head to name the automobile Barstow, it's nonetheless one of the most iconic vehicles of the 1960s, appearing in movies, television programs, and even music videos, most famously being used as the Pursuit Interceptor in the 1974 action-thriller Bad Bob, in which the main character, Robert McCree uses a jet-black Barstow, modified with a non-functional Bandito Motorworks 1:11 blower, featureless grille, and matte black racing stripes to exact revenge on the mobsters who killed his family. By the end of the 1960s, however, times had begun to change: No longer were people looking for the loudest, fastest muscle cars. No longer were they looking for which car had the fastest quarter mile, or the largest fuel tank with the largest motor. No, they were looking for cheap, affordable cars, thanks in part to the Oil Crisis of 1971. Most cars had been changed drastically by this point: The Barstow's base 353 V8 was swapped out for a 291 with fuel injection, the Moonhawk had been given an inline-six as standard, with a 378 V8 making only 210 horsepower as an option, and the Confidence, along with its uglier, faster brother the Vengeance, had ceased to exist, as did TMW, which is a shame, really, because my first care was a Confidence. The only real survivors of the 1970s were Gavril, with its sporty Mako two-seater, and New-For-1980 Marshall sedan and D15 pickup, revived from the original D1 of 1940. Bruckell, meanwhile, unveiled a redesigned Moonhawk III, which took cues from the original Moonhawk, and the Moonhawk II. Gone was the era of the Bluebird, gone was the era of the Muscle Car. The hip and sporty 1980s had arrived, but nobody was overly excited. The specific model of Barstow I drove was a 1970 RS, or Roadsport, with the 423 cubic inch, or 7.0L V8, and I must say, it was... A bit disappointing, to be honest. Granted, the vehicle was 46 years old, but it had been kept in immaculate condition, with no faults in the body, motor, or interior. The steering is sluggish, the interior a little cramped, and the car is, quite frankly, hideous. The lines are very flat and unappealing, the roofline slopes down at an almost rakish angle, leaving very little headroom for passengers in the back, and very little rear visibility, in case you find yourself parallel parking. Aside from those faults, the car was nonetheless fun to drive, especially getting to hear the V8 rear its ugly head as I drove along the highways used in Bad Bob as filming locations, even where the Interceptor Special rolls over. It felt like the car had come full-circle. I had been told, by the owner no less, that the car I was driving was the base vehicle for the Interceptor special. It felt... Welcoming, knowing I was driving a vehicle as American as baseball, apple pie, and suing your neighbors because their house isn't the specific shade of creek brown you want it to be. - Gordon
