Mystery car pix

stickguy

Is that a white Corvair van behind the green motor home (guessing it is a Bedford?)

and what the heck is the red rear engine car next to the tan beetle? Does not look right for a Corvair.

fintail

No clue on the green motorhome, but the van appears to be a Corvair, while the other van with an open door looks like an Econoline.

Red car is indeed a Corvair.

stickguy

oh. just seemed proportionally wrong. Probably the angle of the shot.

texases

Yeah, the angle, not many pics like it:

andys120

We've seen this one before but I'll call a couple, the big bus is a Mercedes-Benz (don't recall the model name).

Back in the day I did some surfing off Gilgo Beach LI, our surf wagon was a '61 Falcon 6 similar to the beige one next to the blue /white Country Squire.

Pic must be from '61-'62.

fintail

I try to avoid duplicates, didn't remember this one. Pic is titled San Onofre, 1963.

Big bus and green motorhome do have a foreign look to them. I can tell the shoebox Ford woody beside the Corvair, a typical surfer vehicle of the era, is a 51.

tmart

56 Ford tu tone wagon next to the Falcon wagon.

Michaell

fintail said:

I try to avoid duplicates, didn't remember this one. Pic is titled San Onofre, 1963.

Big bus and green motorhome do have a foreign look to them. I can tell the shoebox Ford woody beside the Corvair, a typical surfer vehicle of the era, is a 51.

Can't get to the beach there, now. They built a nuclear power plant there.

omarman

Did anybody ID this one from previous pic?
Profile looks like a '70 Firebird. Earth tone 70s bronze.

andys120

stickguy

Pontiac assembly line. It’s a Gran Prix. ‘67?

andys120

stickguy said:

Pontiac assembly line. It’s a Gran Prix. ‘67?

Close, it's a 1966 Pontiac Grand Prix.

andys120

tjc78

1950 Studebaker Champion

magnette

On the beach view the small station wagon to the left with the box/case on the roof is an Opel Rekord Caravan

tmart

andys120 said:

Nice looking. I like the color.

fintail

Some variety here:

andys120

tjc78 said:

1950 Studebaker Champion

Yup.

stickguy

Orange Datsun 510 in 2nd row. I want it.

And I think a white Austin marina 2 door off to the left, between an AMC sedan and I think an early corolla.

andys120

Mostly it's ordinary iron you'd see every day in the late 60s/early 70s but under the lampost furthest left you can see a white hatchback. I believe that is an MG 1100 or an Austin America, the only variants of the ADO16 sold in the USA. Most likely it is the Austin.

stickguy

I got Austin part right!

fintail

I see one unicorn in that pic I have to try to pick out. 4 cars to the right of the Austin, I see a big ~70 Country Squire. 3 cars to the right of the Squire, there's a slightly smaller sedan with a rear door window more upright than the angle of the rear windshield. I believe it's an early 70s Toyota Crown - sold in the US in extraordinarily small numbers, but they do exist, although maybe enough to count on two hands these days.

stickguy

I thought that was a big Toyota. Forgot about the crown.

And next to the squire is a general lee vintage charger.

transamsd73

The Firebird in the photo is, I believe either a 70 or 71. It is a base car, in bronze. The wheels are steel with poverty caps in the centers. There are a lot of cars that bring back a lot of memories! It looks like a 73-75 Maverick or Comet next to the Bird. Nice Chevelle and a couple of Vegas in there too. Looks like a Pinto four from the left of the blue chevy pick up. Also a Dart or Valiant in front of the brown chevy. They had similar tail lights in the 73-75 vintage.

magnette

The ADO16 range was the best selling car in Britain throughout the late sixties and through to about 1971. It was of course a wide range of two and four door cars and also two door Estates, and they were badged here as Austin, Morris, MG, Wolseley, Riley and Vanden Plas, in 1100 & 1300 variants.
The rust in the rear subframes did for most of them.
My mother had one of the Vanden Plas 1300's in 1973for about three years - an automatic one - but it always felt like it needed more gears and screamed everywhere on main roads. They generally cornered well on Welsh winding roads though as basically a large Mini.

magnette

The green car next to the Yellow Austin America is a somewhat older Austin Seven. There were lots of those and they are among the most common surviving cars of the prewar period here.
I think this one would be a Seven CRV - named the Big Seven or Sixlite - there was also a Forlite which I think was the CRW. These models were the last of the prewar Sevens from 1937-39.

andys120

The Austin Americas sold here all had automatic transaxles. It was probably the only subcompact sold that was so equipped at that time but very few were sold.

ab348

My two older brothers each bought one new! They had the British car bug back then. Each was their last as a DD, although my oldest brother did get his son into a used Mini when he first began driving and then later on rebuilt one as a hobby project.

andys120

Curious AB348: did your brother's cars have automatics?

ab348

andys120 said:

Curious AB348: did your brother's cars have automatics?

I don't think so? Will check.

magnette

My recollection was that Mum's V-Plas 1300 had a Borg Warner 35 auto box with 4 gears but my father had a similar box in his Wolseley 18/85 and that only had three gears I believe. Only other difference was the V-P had its gear selector on the floor as usual while the Wolseley had a selector on the dashboard - to the right of the steering wheel (ie on the offside as RHD)

ab348

One thing I do recall about the automatic transmission in the Austin 1100 we had was that it was a 4-speed and was made by a company called Automotive Products.

andys120

Michaell

Lotus Eclat of indeterminate year.

fintail

Japan plates. I'll guess 1985.

andys120

fintail said:

Japan plates. I'll guess 1985.

You guys are close, it's a 1987 Lotus Excel SE. Lotus has produced an amazing number of different modelsfor a small independent maker. They keep reusing the sme model names which creates mucho confusion.

Curbside Classics tell us the Excel is a JDM only version of the Eclat. They don't explain how a JDM car with Japanese plates, made by a UK maker could be LHD???

https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-european/cc-capsule-1987-lotus-excel-se-brutish-ricing-green/

ab348

andys120 said:

Curious AB348: did your brother's cars have automatics?

OK, so my brother was familiar with 3 Austin Americas back then, his and 2 others. All of them were manual transmission cars.

fintail

stickguy

the cars from my early adult period! a couple red fieros (one with a GT spoiler), at least 2 SAAB 99s, and top left a yellow 4 door Volvo 240 brick.

Yellow or white Subaru GL up top next to one of the Fieros.

fintail

Cars from my childhood. Pic can't be older than 1987 due to a facelift 80s Ford truck and facelift Mopar minivan.

I'll just pick off a few . At right between an Astro/Safari and Fiero is a Saab 9000, and at upper left next to the yellow Volvo is a Ford Fiesta. In the upper row nearest the street, right, to the right of a GM A-body woody wagon is a Nissan Pulsar.

fintail

LHD was/is a status symbol in Japan, maybe custom ordered that way, or brought in from a LHD market.

andys120 said:

Curbside Classics tell us the Excel is a JDM only version of the Eclat. They don't explain how a JDM car with Japanese plates, made by a UK maker could be LHD???

https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-european/cc-capsule-1987-lotus-excel-se-brutish-ricing-green/

magnette

It is possible the AP firm made the V-Plas transmission - I always thought both my parents cars were equipped by Borg Warner but that may be wrong.... I'm fairly confident about Dads Wolseley though.

magnette

The Lotus Excel was sold in Britain from 1982-92, evolving from the Eclat, and it included lots of Toyota parts - transmission and suspension mainly.
They would have been exported LHD in Europe too.
I did read somewhere in the 80's Minis were sometimes sold to Japan in LHD as there was a market demand for imported cars to be LHD for some reason, although it made more sense for them to go RHD financially. In the 90s the Mini sold more units in Japan for some years than it was selling in UK.

ab348

andys120

fintail said:

Under the lampost closest to camera: a pair of Gen 2 Honda Accords both light blue metallic.
One is a 4dr sedan the other a hatchback. Another Honda is the red one parked in the row closest to building, looks like a Gen 2 Prelude ('85-'89 IIRC)

magnette

We didn't get this one in UK although this car which is RHD must have got here as an import.

Its an Austin Apache - when assembled in South Africa - and an Authi Victoria assembled in Spain when LHD

Basically a booted 1100/1300 but with styling by Michelotti.

I've seen one of the Spanish ones in Spain but never a South African one.

andys120

Brochure art>

ab348

Well done @magnette , I have never seen one until tonight when I found that one online. It is a S.A. model whose owner relocated to the UK at some point and brought it with him. Built in the early '70s until '77 or so. BL should have picked that up for the UK market as it is not a bad-looking car at all, another Michelotti design.

Lostwrench3

1953 DeSoto Firedome.

fintail

I think those are Gen 3 Accords (gen 1 76-81, gen 2 82-85, gen 3 86-89). Prelude is right, those were 83-87 IIRC.

I assume this Burlington airport is in Vermont, which probably explains the Saabs and Volvos, and even a few Subarus (which of course were a very specific regional thing then). I see only one possible MB, in front of the building at far left in front of a big Blazer kinda sorta resembles a W124.

There's also one car in the pic a bit older than the others.

andys120 said:

Under the lampost closest to camera: a pair of Gen 2 Honda Accords both light blue metallic.
One is a 4dr sedan the other a hatchback. Another Honda is the red one parked in the row closest to building, looks like a Gen 2 Prelude ('85-'89 IIRC)