I have never heard the term barge used in relationship to an American motorcar before, the term tank is often used but not in a detrimental way, tongue in cheek perhaps or in praise of the build quality.
There was a time when, this side of the pond, we thought the American motor industry had gone bananas your cars seemed to be all chrome & fins with softee softee suspension, we I assumed that was where "Rock an Roll" came from!
The love of old vehicles is good here in the UK, every weekend in summer there is a car show of some type or other. A lot of my work involves traveling the main motorway to the continental ferries & the channel tunnel & this time of year there is always a group of vintage ,veteran or classic cars to admire en route to France & beyond or entering England from the tunnel or ferries.
This past week the motorway has a number or WW2 vehicles going to a gathering here in Kent. The vast majority are American, I suppose it was not worth taking them back with you after "You won the war!" :grin:
In my local there is two general American car repair / sales & two Chevrolet repair / sales. One specializes on Stingrays.
I know of two vintage race car specialist & a number of other classic car repair & dealers. This is a very rich area for old tin!

kipper
[Linked Image from aardvarktravel.net]


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