I haven't been back to Mexico City for more than a day, and already I came across something worthy of posting about. It's a car, which honestly is far from the things I really know much about. But then again, who could deny the beauty of this oldtimer?
A Second Generation Fairlane
Well, at least I hope my sparse knowledge of classic cars managed to identify it correctly. More precisely, it is the 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 Victoria Club Coupe that looks most like the classic taxi I saw parked in my neighborhood of San Miguel Chapultepec. All you car experts out there, please correct me if I'm wrong or otherwise verify my identification of this vintage car as correct. In any case, it most definitely falls into the Detroit clunkers from the late 50's, which in my opinion was the time and the place that brought out the most gorgeous cars.
So far, my only association with Ford Fairlane was the 1990 motion picture The Adventures of Ford Fairlane or as I got to know it in Germany, Ford Fairlane, Rock ’n’ Roll Detective. It was a funny film, which incidentally dates me quite well, together with my lack of familiarity with this car. I could not find a logo, but the lettering Fairlane on the trunk above the licence plate gave me an indication where to start looking.
A Real Taxi???
That's certainly a valid question, because you would totally think so, given this cool looking paint job. However, looking at the current color scheme of taxis in Mexico City, you would notice immediately that it's not. Since 2014 all cabs of the city had to change their colors to the Hello Kitty scheme of pink-and-white. Before that it was Ironman of gold-and-red. But wait, weren't the taxis green before, some long, long time ago?
That's right! When I first came to Mexico in 2005, most taxis were still green-and-white, though some had started to adopt the new color scheme of red-and-white. Also, those memorable green cabs were typically VW Beetles (the old kinds). As it turns out, the green color was introduced in the early 90's to make taxis (as well as city busses) look more ecological. Previously the typical taxi color was yellow, as it is common in many other places in the world.
So while back in the 50's, when this car was new, it may have been a taxi, its colors most probably would not have been this pretty black-and-green combo. Though what I particularly liked in this particular one, are the white triangles running along its side. Kinda like the checkered marks on some cabs, but here they look like teeth of sorts.
In the end I was really happy to have caught a few pics of this unique car, because when I walked by the same place half an hour later, it was gone. Maybe I will see it again somewhere... But even if not, I am most certainly going to come across some other interesting classic vehicle. Mexico is simply full of them.
Edit: El Cocodrilo
Five months after publishing this post, I finally came across an overview of Mexico City's taxi color schemes over the years. Apparently this 1950's design was called the crocodile. Very fitting! The other one I really like is the parrot from the 60's. Interestingly, I even remember the last three styles personally. Does that mean that I've spent so much time in this city, or am I simply getting old? Maybe both...
