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IN REFERENCE TO MATTHEW LIT win’s column, “How about Canadian Brands?” (HCC #214, July 2022), if it wasn’t for Tad Burness and his vintage car renderings featured on our Sunday paper, I wouldn’t know any of those Canadian classics existed north of the border in a parallel automotive universe.
This 1956 Meteor from Canada appears to retain its original color scheme but is adorned with new-production seven-digit California license plates. The rake of the headlamp eyebrows and bodyside sweep seem to differ from its American cousin, and from where I sit and scribble this, it has a more sassy, in-your-face kind of design ethic. And so does the front grille. This Meteor also shares the tailpipes emerging from the rear bumper with the Ford Victorias. Also remember, the Canadian Meteor name was subsequently used in the early Sixties for the Mercury Meteor, the Mercury version of the Ford Fairlane. My dad owned one with a 260—his first V-8!
This photo snapshot was taken in March 2022 on a county road in Belmont, California, with a Pentax K-1000 analog film camera using Kodak Gold 200 35 mm film. I try to use film for every automotive occasion and cars like these are an endless inspiration that never fail to have positive results. It’s the most fun a “kid” could have with a camera.
You never really know what cars will appear out of nowhere here in the San Francisco Bay Area. That’s the fun of living and driving here.
Mike Safranek
San Carlos, California
the 1957 Chevrolet Cameo truck. Decades ago, a buddy had a 1955 ½-ton pickup and I really liked it. At
