I spotted an (insert obscure car name here) classic car today! (Archived)

texases

Michaell said:

roadburner said:

A good friend of mine bought a Europa and eventually whipped it into shape- he even wrote a book about it:

As a kid, there was a house around the corner from us that had a Europa in the garage. Covered with boxes and other junk, I suspect it was someone's project that never got finished.

I did get the Matchbox Europa because I liked the shape of it so much.

But did it have a wing?

Michaell

Not that I remember.

fintail

The Matchbox Europa indeed did not have a spoiler. Matchbox also re-issued a similar Europa in recent years.

I never warmed up to most 60s-70s era Lotus - the closed cars are mostly weird, and good at being that, and I am not a small roadster devotee. I've always liked the Esprit anyway.

I have a diecast Europa made by Tomica, a Japanese brand known for high quality material. I picked this up because it was cheap, IIRC - not sure if this blue and gold JPS livery existed in real life:

texases

I was joking about the wing - maybe a Hotwheels guy got hired by some other toy car maker...

stickguy

I think the Europa is cool. I highly doubt I can fit in it. or be able to drive it if I could get in!

xwesx

ab348 said:

Are you talking about the Europa? It actually was released in the 1960s. Bizarre car and with a reputation for being quite fragile, troublesome and poorly built. Originally it used a Renault 16 engine/transaxle. A school friend of my brother bought one and I don't know if he ever got it running well enough to use very much. I know it languished in my brother's garage for a long time before it finally went away one day.

That Buick Special wagon has been modded to within an inch of its life. The extra chrome strips on the tailgate weren't factory, and those wheels and tires weren't either. I know that is the way people do it these days but I'm generally not a fan. The interior sort of followed the Buick patterns of the original car but those colors are not factory either, and then of course all the aftermarket junk under the hood...

Yes, indeed. A car that looks bad from every angle is truly special.

laurasdada

Today in RI, with NJ plates, a gray BMW Bavaria with a lot of patina.

kyfdx

I've always like the Europa, as well.

tjc78

Some pics from the Wildwood Car Show today.

tjc78

Sorry - terrible pics but it was really busy and tough to get up close so I just snapped a few overviews.

texases

Looks like that is one of those 'Seville Grandeur Opera Coupes'

fintail

Built in FL IIRC, fitting

tjc78

It was

stickguy

parked in a lot, a gen 1 Fiero. Red. Looked pretty clean.

and at a small used lot, which usually has a few PU trucks, a later run (76 maybe) 4 door Nova for sale. very odd.

fintail

Went on a "fun run" this morning and saw a bunch of old cars behind a fence - early Civic, some F-bodies, and a few Vegas. One of the Vegas was a "Nomad" conversion, apparently sitting for some time as it is on streetview:

uplanderguy

That pic one above that shortened Seville, has two cars in it that I've not been crazy about, but the cars in the pics are so damn original and authentic-as-factory, at least from the outside, they grab my attention. First is that '71 or '72 GTX, and the other is the '65 or '66 Corvette with the knockoff wheels.

That Seville--what an abomination.

The original Seville (well, that era) has aged very gracefully inside and out to my eyes, but that special job--yuck.

andre1969

I don't think I've ever seen any type of conversion for the '75-79 Seville that looks tasteful, which is interesting, considering how nice the source material is. You'd think that if there's a good starting point, it would be easier to make some kind of tasteful aftermarket conversion. But nope, I swear they all look like abominations.

Even turning it into a more "proper" coupe, with longer doors, doesn't seem to help:
I think the problem here is that it looks like it has the same windshield/A-pillars as the 4-door sedan, so that makes it look more like an upright 2-door sedan, rather than a coupe. Plus, that landau roof treatment makes me think of the same problem something like a '75-76 Electra coupe has...it just makes it look like the front and rear of the car don't join up correctly, at the B-pillar.

uplanderguy

I'm sort-of reminded of some of GM's FWD bigger coupes of the mid-and-late eighties. Not a good look.

imidazol97

On the road at a car cruise Saturday night. I wish I"d gone to this month's just to
see this gem on the road. Looks unmodified.

fintail

Ranch Wagon perhaps, funky mirrors are aftermarket (but may be in period).

imidazol97 said:

On the road at a car cruise Saturday night. I wish I"d gone to this month's just to
see this gem on the road. Looks unmodified.

imidazol97

I wish I could have gone to that street cruise. It's 60 or so miles away. I'll try
for the next/last one for the year hoping that wagon is there. I'm amazed
it's being used as a regular driver. I would love to know if it's a 6 or V8.

I recall those mirrors from before that period. Some dealers and some individuals
would add mirrors or various types in my area. Some mail order probably, JC Whitney? LOL
I always thought those looked odd.

fintail

I'd have to imagine in that climate it at least hibernates in the winter - 60 Fords were not rust repellant

If the original engine, maybe a 292 or 312, the larger engines maybe more in higher trim cars (my dad's Country Sedan was a 352). If not original, could be anything.

Seems those mirrors would be useful maybe if towing a trailer or something.

andre1969

I wonder if those mirrors give you better visibility, mounted up high like that? The mirrors on my DeSoto, which are mounted on the fender tops, are pretty useless. I wonder why Mopar did that? I'll admit, I never really paid much attention to the mirrors on various cars, but I looked up a few pics, and it looks like GM and Ford put their mirrors on the doors. And the '56 Mopars had them on the doors, as well.

imidazol97

@andre1969 Speaking of mirrors on the doors.

Here's a pristine beauty in the Mopar world I saw last night.

andre1969

That '56 Firedome wagon has to be a rarity nowadays. According to my auto encyclopedia, they only made 2950 to begin with. Base price was around $3340, and by the time you threw on an automatic transmission, power steering/brakes, a radio, and a few other odds and ends, I'd imagine it wasn't hard to add another $1000 to that.

imidazol97

I thought the interior was bland but interesting in how it was done for an upscale
car in 1956.

imidazol97

I'll risk boring folks with a couple of others that showed up for the last cruise of the season.
These are cars I found interesting.

When I first starting visiting this distant cruise, there was a group of 7-10 folks with Bentleys, RR's,
Older MB's that parked together. Then later to eat they moved their cars across the side road to the parking lot for the large Amish style restaurant that sponsors this cruise on their "horse farm" acres adjacent--bless them for their actions.





And another

imidazol97

A personal favorite

stickguy

out driving around, not really old but hardly seen now (and something I like), a Volvo C30.

ab348

imidazol97 said:

I thought the interior was bland but interesting in how it was done for an upscale
car in 1956.

Man, I wouldn’t want to be a front seat passenger in a frontal crash with that knife-edged metal hood on the dash.

uplanderguy

I think it's funny that this era Mopar's automatics (as well as later Corvair and Tempest automatics) didn't have a 'Park' position. If you were going from a car with "Park" to one of these, you'd better remember to put the parking brake on.

andre1969

I'm not sure about the '56 Mopars, but the '57's came with a wheel chock. For some reason I'm thinking it was wood, but it may have been rubber. I'd always been told the standard procedure for parking the pushbutton Mopars was to put it in neutral and pull the parking brake. But, that got me wondering...wouldn't it be better to put it in gear? That way, if the parking brake let go for whatever reason, resistance from the transmission would slow its roll?

Of course, you'd have to put it back in neutral before starting.

stickguy

the 70s today. Parked in a strip mall lot facing the road, a lifted square body Chevy PU with oversized tires. Baby blue with a for sale sign in it. Parked next to a black 65-66 Mustang convertible that looked very clean. No sign saw in that one.

fintail

Chrome bumper MGB today, with a rollbar - one of those cars that either had its top down or doesn't have a top.

uplanderguy

Saw this '70's Chevy LUV yesterday. Blew the pic up so much detail was lost, unfortunately.

You could still see the "CHEVROLET" across the tailgate, where the letters were recessed into the tailgate.

At the time I thought these were styled a bit nicer than other small trucks--I liked the front-end styling and either consciously or not, liked the way the rear of the door glass slanted, like Studebaker Champ pickups. But I remember being totally turned off by the interiors, and that usual smelly Japanese vinyl used at the time, LOL.

fintail

Saw a maybe 73-74 Cougar convertible in traffic today.

fintail

On the road today - 70s Camaro and a clean stock ~53 Ford 2 door HT.

explorerx4

Saw a 90's Rolls or Bentley, large rectangular headlights and a couple of exhaust pipes.
Also, a 55 showbox chevy, orange/cream 2 tone.

sda

Today fetv has a marathon of Highway Patrol episodes. I find it interesting, especially in the first seasons, the use of 2dr Buicks and Oldsmobiles as patrol cars. In later seasons, the use of 4drs, and Dodge sedans become more common. Not surprisingly many of the same vehicles for the citizens and crooks are used. Often convertibles. I did see one thing that caught my eye, apparently there was some effort to take care of the vehicles. On one episode, the rear door of a Royal Custom was opened and a toolbox was placed on the rear seat. The rear seat, and you could see the front seat as well, were covered with loose clear plastic

Did police vehicles of that era have heavy duty 'handling' suspensions? The Buicks looked sloppy. The torsion suspended Dodges certainly lived up to their hype and showed much less float and lean.

texases

This $10,000 Fintail is failing the test, what do you think?
https://jalopnik.com/at-10-000-is-this-65-mercedes-220s-rat-rod-a-deal-1851664130

fintail

Trying really hard with the patina. I don't have a problem with tribute/re-creation cars (there are numerous competition fintail tributes out there), but that one seems a little rough for the money. The rust also warrants close inspection - these cars are not rust-repellant and there's probably more one can't see. If it was 5K, no harm done, but I think one can find nicer fintails for 10K.

And to be nice, I do like that it is on a black plate and has the "Automatic" badge only seen on the final run of first gen cars.

sda

I am not a fan of moderate to heavy patina. Time for a respray. Light patina, such as a small spot or two I can tolerate but still would be tempted to have it spot corrected.

imidazol97

I saw this a few days ago. I don't know what it is other than a station wagon type vehicle that looks good. What is it,?

kyfdx

imidazol97 said:

I saw this a few days ago. I don't know what it is other than a station wagon type vehicle that looks good. What is it,?

Mercedes wagon from late '70s early '80s. Looks great!

texases

Benz W123 TE? I guess being an 'Estate' makes it an S123.

explorerx4

Looks like it is being towed by an ICE Lightning.

fintail

imidazol97 said:

I saw this a few days ago. I don't know what it is other than a station wagon type vehicle that looks good. What is it,?

Yep, a W123 wagon/S123. Sold in the USDM for the 1979-85 model years. All USDM wagons were badged 300TD. These were marketed as an exclusive/highline model, I believe 1979 MSRP was around 25K, going above 30K by 1985.

fintail

sda said:

I am not a fan of moderate to heavy patina. Time for a respray. Light patina, such as a small spot or two I can tolerate but still would be tempted to have it spot corrected.

I like old paint even when it is thin, but when rust comes around, I don't like it so much. There's a crowd out there who likes to sand down paint, let it rust just a little, then put a finish on top of it. Not my thing, but we all have our own style.

andre1969

From what I remember reading, in the earlier seasons of "Highway Patrol", when they used a mix and match of Buicks, Oldsmobiles, and and occasional Mercury, those were actually police cars provided by the California Highway Patrol. But in the later seasons, they lost whatever support they had from the police, and the cars they were using, mostly Dodge Coronets, were just civilian cars that were dressed up to look like police cars.

BTW, those Dodge Coronets actually were 2-door sedans. But the Dodge/Plymouth 2-door sedan used the same, large roofline as the 4-door sedan, and has that "window behind a window" look, where there's a roll-down window in back, and a stationary one behind that. At a quick glance, they do look like the 4-doors.

One other bit of trivia: Back in those days, the CHP had a minimum wheelbase requirement of 120," and a lot of other jurisdictions nationwide often followed the CHP's lead. So that's why the state patrol cars in "Highway Patrol" were Buicks, Oldsmobiles, Mercuries, and Dodges, rather than Fords, Chevies, or Plymouths. Sometimes they would show something like a Ford police car, but it would be a local/city cop-car.

stickguy

parked next to each other, in front of a tire shop, a clean looking Fintail in a very pale yellow (almost tan) and a 64ish Caddy Coupe de Ville, in a bronze shade.