1961 Ford Thunderbird, Schermerhorn Street and Clinton Street

This is without a doubt my favorite space-race cruiser. Its powerful (for a tank), big, two-door, two-tone, and most importantly, rocket shaped! Whereas the Cadillacs of the era stopped with Soyuz fins, Ford started with the enormous circular taillights like a Saturn V rocket and ended with the pointy nose cone at the front end. Ridiculous and brilliant. Cars like this let Brezhnev know who wore the pants in the cold war.

1961 Cadillac Coupe de Ville, 23rd Street and 3rd Avenue

Despite the poor quality of this photograph, this Cadillac is in amazing condition. A testament to its enormity is the fact that the piddly camera on my iPhone was unable to capture its great bulk, particularly the evocative tailfins. Not a particularly rare car in and of itself, it is nonetheless a brave feat to own one in New York. Oddly enough, a virtually identical one can be seen in the East Village from time to time. Similarly, the Fiat 124 shown below also has a companion car in white that can be seen in Cobble Hill. With millions of motorists in New York, it is refreshing to know that not only are vintage cars still on the road here, they exist in sufficient numbers to ensure duplicates. One hopes that the trend will last through the winter, but many of these models will take their usual place under cover in garages.

1988 Mercedes 560 SL AMG, 6th Street and 2nd Avenue

I was intrigued by the AMG badging I saw on this car. AMG was in its infancy when this car was made, and really hadn't emerged as a brand like it is today. Most likely someone put a subtle body kit and sporty trim in the interior and an AMG badge on the boot lid, but perhaps this is one of those fabled, legendary models? If true, it would be an exceptionally rare car with epic performance for its day (and even for today), and given how much of it is original, and how well it's cared for, it may not be completely beyond the scope of reason. The vigil has begun in order to interrogate the car's owner.