Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
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Have You Ever Heard of a _________?!!
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I knew a guy who had two, one for each of his kids, and no one in that family knew which end of a torque wrench was which. He paid me to sell them and I brought one to a mechanic who specialized in British cars. The mechanic told me the heartbreaking thing about working on TR-7s was that the replacement part you put in was likely to be just as defective as the part you took out.
I ran across that head stud arrangement on a Fiat 128 and tried everything up to and including a reciprocating saw to get the head off. (What I lacked in talent I made up for in persistence.) "Welded" is the right word.
Not imported here... Although I know the larger 2000 sedans were.
I'm not sure whether or not they were sold up in Canada, I know the 1300 FWD sedans were (I've seen a picture of one that was LHD in Canada).
Quite a few of the British saloons that are rare or nonexistent here in the States were sold in Canada,(Such as the Vauxhall PA, Ford Cortina Mk3) or sold in Greater numbers there (Austins, Rovers, Vauxhall Victors).
Bill
I tried to post a URL but it was too long. How do you change the name of a link to something shorter? I've seen people do it.
Ya know, what I'd REALLY Like to find is one of the Hawaiian-Market, LHD 1960 Holden EKs
Bill
Clue: 3 wheels
I became fascinated with them in about 1975 when my family went to Bermuda (I was about 13 at the time). Besides the British cars they still used then, I bought a copy of a UK car magazine, and still remember the article on the sprint (it was blue). 2 litre DOHC engine? Just thought it was a neat car, and probably one of the early sprts sedans (4-doors)??
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
Anyway, I was in San Fran last week on vacation, and saw a slew of old cars that you just don't see in NJ. 3 Citroens on the same day (a late 60's-ish Wagon and a 2CV, which must be fun on those hills), 2 Datsun 2000 roadsters in town, some decrepit old Volvos (including a P1800 with plywood and a tarp tied over the rood street parked near the wharf).
Also a few old English cars (just can't remember which ones), a bunch of old Bugs, and probably half the NA supply of old VW vans (Hippie vans as my son calls them), including a very early one in blue and white.
Also seemed to be a lot of classic repair shops down by Burlingame (sp?) and an odd assortment of vehicles running around.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
I don't think they were ever imported... MAYBE to Canada but I doubt it. But now they're old enough to bring over
Actually saw a nice Datsun 2000 roadster at the weekly show in Kissimmee,FLhere last night, and a 67 Toyota Corona of allthings!
Bill
No doubt you'd see all kinds of weird cars in the SF area...this is home to the Arcane Car Club (of which I am an honorary member)...a delightful group of people who own the strangest things on 4 (or 3) wheels. Criteria for joining includes owning a car that people point at and say "What's That?".
Members cars include (as I recall) a Fiat 600 Multipla, Citroen 2CVs, a Borgward, A Bond Equipe, Simca Aronde, Volvo 444, Alfa Berlina, Crosely Hotshot, Citroen Truckette, Citroen Ami6....I'm sure there are more but that's all that I remember right now.
They are a fun club to tour with, as you can imagine. Usually, the casualty rate on the road is pretty harrowing, but everyone chips in and gets the fleet home (usually).
Bill
I still want a Fiat Toppolino however. Keep an eye out Bill
I found a Corona for sale for cliffy... who knows (Albeit grossly overpriced and piggy).
And I know where there's a Toyopet Crown at of all things.
Bill
Probably the oddest one I've seen (and I've seen alot!) is a Peel Trident. This thing is about the size of one of those Little Tikes kiddie cars and looks for all the world like an iMac computer on wheels. A 3-wheeled one seater with a 50cc 2-stroke in the back. I saw a nicely restored one in the pits at the Monterey Historics 2 weeks ago. The guy had fitted an 85cc 2-stroke (Suzuki or Yamaha, don't recall which) and claimed to have gotten it up to 57 mph! Yikes! This on what looked like lawn tractor tires!
My own personal oddball is a Swallow Doretti, not a microcar, it's based on the Triumph TR2.
Those oddball cars from Germany were drastically impotent in many ways, but they did get people to work and the stores in a bomb-cratered Germany, so they did a noble job,and also brought in some US dollars.
Q. Why do Skodas have rear window defoggers?
A. To keep your hands warm while pushing it.
Q. What do you call a Skoda with a sunroof?
A. A skip. (Brit slang for a dumpster)
Skoda is still a big company. Teamed up with VW now, I think, after years of stamping out commie cars. They are also a heavy truck producer I believe.
The Siata was his first and last Italian car, he hated the way it was built. He liked the NSU and the BMW because they were designed pretty well. The problem with all the oddball cars back then was that there were no parts. The dealers would buy a chunk of cars but hardly any parts and they would drop car lines almost as fast as they picked them up. My dad-in-law would prowl the junkyards for parts and even had to buy a complete parts car to get a half-shaft for the NSU.
Skoda is still in business and is part of VW. They are active in rallying. Skoda and Tatra (there's another one!) survived the war making military vehicles for the Germans and then the Warsaw Pact armies. There is a Skoda Felicia for sale on Ebay right now for the adventurous as well as a NSU Sport Prinz! Skoda actually ran a car at LeMans in the early or mid-50's.
The only Dutch car company that comes to mind is Daf (maybe Spyker as well but that goes waaaay back), which was bought by Volvo, which was bought by Ford. Daf's claim to fame was the Daffodil (really!) which had a constantly variable transmission. Subaru used a CVT in their Justy that was built to a Daf design. Williams even developed a CVT for F1 but it was outlawed before they could run it.
DKW's tag line was 3=6, claiming their 3 cylinder 2-stroke put out the power of a 6 cylinder 4-stroke. John and Elaine Bond had a DKW van that they would take to sports car races and hawk copies of R&T in the early days. Maybe Shifty rode in it? There's a DKW Sonderklasse Coupe in a driveway not far from a friends house.
There is a car show that takes place in So. Cal. every 2 years called the Unique Little Car Show. The years it's not here it's in another state. It's put on by the Nash Metro club and they allow only cars with engines below 1 litre. Last time I went there were examples of almost everything discussed in the last 10 messages. There was a guy there who collects Wartburgs! He had 13 of them including a sports car that was one of only 6 built. (And people think I'm strange!) Also Subaru 360s, Honda 600s and an S800. Heinkels, Messerschmitts, DKWs, the lot. Great show!
I remember the Lloyd and Borgward following WWII, the Lloyd had a two-cylinder engine two-cycle, looked like a battery with two spark plugs sticking out of it. The body was plywood with canvas glued on it and then painted.
fowler3
2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])
Skoda is one of my favorite car companies. Their first car that gained respect was the Favorit, which was VW-based but still made at a time when Czechoslovakia was both communist and one country. They were ergonomic disasters but were reliable. This was replaced with the Skoda Felicia, which expounded on all the traits of the Favorit.
The Felicia lasted until 1999 or so, which by then Skoda had a completely new line of VW-based products that are to date rivaling regular VW's (what a concept!)
the Octavia is based off of the Golf/Bora, and is a 5-door hatchback or a station wagon. It has the same engines as the Golf, from the 1.6 to the 1.8turbo
the Fabia is based on the 2002 platform of the VW Polo, and is either a tiny wagon or a 5-door hatchback.
They are going to be making a Skoda Superb large sedan that will be larger than a Passat, based on the Passat/A6 platform.
There you go, kids
One of them was a 1960's era Toyota Van that was mini-van sized and was two-tone orange and green. I think its name was something like the "Town Box" or some really wretched name like that. Its steering wheel was on the right side.
The other car was a Lancia Theta turbo. For those who don't know, Lancia these days is owned by the Fiat Group (with Alfa) and is basically built on Fiat platforms. But the Theta was on a large-car platform that is also the Alfa 164 and the Saab 9000 (which we had many of here in the US). It smelled bad, looked worse, but had very sexy leatherette seats, so I guess it wasn't so bad.
I wonder how she ever got that thing serviced.
My mom reports that she now drives a VW Passat instead of the Lancia and still has the Town Box or whatever.
Looks like a smallblock would fit with many weekends of serious cutting, welding and butchering (put down that gun, Shifty, I'm just kidding.)
My husband is buying a 1966 Tempest. I have seen them listed as Chevy or Pontiac. What is the difference?
Help..
The Tempest was the base mid-size Pontiac back then. The plusher LeMans and high-performance GTO are basically the same car, so if you look for one of them, it'll give you an idea of what the Tempest looks like.
Closest thing Chevy had to the Tempest was the Chevelle. Same platform, but different sheetmetal and a smaller trunk. And running Chevy engines instead of Pontiac.
They are very nice cars and beautifully engineered, which is probably why Lancia didn't do well selling them. Too much quality for the price of the car.
I doubt you'd want to hack one up with an American V8...they are getting valuable, approaching $20,000 for a Zagato version, and a V8 would ruin not only the value, but the beauty and balance of the car. Better to chop up a Fiat or something.
There are still tons of Minis, Morris, Lada, Skoda, and Vauxhalls running around down there.
It had a 425 "Super Rocket" engine. That is a 425 with 11.25:1 compression ratio. It had tons of power. The worst thing was that you had to haul all of that car back down with drum brakes. And it had a crazy amount of top end (I was younger/dumber then), around 160.
I actually bought it from a little old lady in 82. It had 28,000 miles on it.