Classic car collection featuring a 1936 Oldsmobile
A car enthusiast in New Port Richey, Florida, shared photos of his classic car collection despite selling some of his cars due to illness.
Fox – 13 News
Earlier this year, we heard that Cynthia Clapham had bought the new car she’d been thinking about for more than 25 years.
I previously wrote about the Bloomington, Indiana woman and her 1972 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado. It is a convertible with a white and red interior that is one of the longest cars ever made.
This nearly all-original Cadillac is turning heads in Bloomington. Clapham loves driving old cars and keeps his late father’s ashes in a plastic container on the floorboards, so he can get into the car whenever he wants.
But this story isn’t about classic convertibles. Instead, the focus is on a 1982 Datsun 280ZX 2+2 Clapham that was tracked down in Nebraska, purchased secretly, and transported to her driveway.
It was one of several vehicles loaded onto a car carrier that arrived in the early morning hours of July 19 after a long journey. The transport driver finally delivered the Datsun after several days of delay.
“I can’t believe you own two classic cars,” Clapham told me when I tracked him down. She was driving a Z car when I first called and called me back later to find out more.
In 1998, she received a call from her son informing her that he had flipped his mother’s car on Lostman’s Lane near Ellettsville. He crawled out of the T-top unharmed, but his mother’s 1982 Datsun 280ZX was totaled.
“I really loved that car, its style and the way it drove,” Clapham recalled. “This was the closest I’ve ever come to owning my dream car, a Jaguar XKE.”
She forgave him, and 20 years later, after his death in 2022, Clapham thought more and more about her son and the Datsun four-seater sports car they both loved.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been to Ohio, Northern Indiana, Kentucky, etc. over the last three years to see them, but there’s always something about cars that just blows my mind,” Clapham said.
There aren’t many 2+2 models with automatic transmissions like the one she was looking for. But she didn’t give up.
An online search in June revealed it could be the right car for Clapham. The car was for sale at a used car dealership in Gretna, Nebraska, 531 miles away and three states away.
“I did a lot of research to see what kind of reputation they had, and it was good,” Clapham said.
She talked to the salesman for several weeks, and he sent her multiple photos of the low-mileage car, close up and from underneath, from all angles. He guaranteed its mechanical stability.
“Buying a car without driving it was a big deal, but getting it here was something else,” she said, describing her relief when a transport driver sent her a photo of the car parked in the driveway with the message: “Keys under the floor mats.”
She hosed off the road grime from the long trip, backed the SUV out of the garage, and parked the Datsun right next to the Cadillac.
It’s a strange combination with a vintage car.
She sent me a photo with a caption.
“Sister, little sister”
Want to talk cars and trucks? Contact My Favorite Ride columnist Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.
