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Dinky made a lovely Citroen DS
Corgi made a version of the rare coupe
And one of my favorite old Matchbox is this DS, from 1959
Amazingly, moving under its own power... about 80 MPH in the left lane with the top down..
Also, shortly after, spotted on the right shoulder, broken down...
Early '80s Celica coupe... the really angular one, 2-door with a trunk, not a hatchback.. '82 or '83? Very unattractive body style..
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It transformed the old Rover P5 3 litre into a Jag beater, and the 2000 was turned into a high speed cruiser. Even the MGB GT was greatly improved by the V8.
It was a lightweight and powerful engine, and it was usually lighter than the cast iron lumps it was replacing - as well as being flexible and tuneable.
I think the Saab / TR7 engine started life as a Triumph design used in the Dolomite - another car that British Leyland expected their customers to carry out development on, but I always understood that the basic idea was that the 4-cylinder motor was basically half of the block for the smaller V8 (3litre) that Triumph tried to develop for the Stag. That was a clear case of a motor that was wrong from the start - Triumph should have used the Rover V8 which would have fitted, and they would have had a far more reliable car with none of the devlopment costs ( not that they did any development).
The Victor was popular at the time, although I suppose we noticed them more, as you do when you have a particular car... They never sold as well as the contemporay Ford Cortina though, or the Austin Cambridge/Morris Oxford.
I was looking at a couple of old photos taken in British provincial towns the other day, in a book on buses, I think and these would have been from the late 60's early 70's. It was great trying to identify the cars in the background and really surprising how few foreign cars there were - just the odd VW, or Renault Dauphine, not much else, just loads of old Minis, Minors, Anglias, Cortinas, Victors, Minxes,Imps and other cars which we would have considered so bland then but which have now become really rare (apart from the Minor, which is still literally an everyday sight on our roads).
I waas talking to a guy at a car show last year who was one of the organisers for the Ford Cortina car club (or one of them - there are several). He said that their membership have loads of top of the range Cortinas, Gt's, E's etc, which were the rarer versions when new, but virtually none of the basic models - some of the really cheap versions have apparently disappeared altogether. Also you see more Jags or MGs than old saloons like Hillman Minx or Ford Corsair, because people want to preserve cars that were a bit special in some way when they were new, and old stodge isn't so much fun to drive or (as a result) so well supported by the specialist support industry - you can get parts for any MG but would have trouble with lots of cars which sold ten times as many when new.
They still had no tolerance for overheating though.
That lowline vs highline survival is very true. Take a W111 220SE fintail sedan vs the coupe...it's much easier to find a nice coupe than a sedan these days, even though the sedans outnumbered the coupes many times over when new. People keep the pretty ones, and neglect/dismantle the others.
You may or may not have been following the developments regarding John Mark Karr and the JonBenet Ramsey killing. Here in CO, it's been a big story every day.
Anyway, watching the local news a couple of nights ago, they had one of the reporters in front of the Boulder County Courthouse, with the driveway behind her.
During her narrative, an absolutely pristine Ponton (black) drove by. I was amazed by how good it looked on screen. Have no idea if it was a 180 or a 220 (?) but it was not what you expected to see, I can tell you that.
A Cobra it was not. I think a skilled machine shop could make something out of that Buick V-8 but Rover sure didn't.
In its final form it made 300 ft-lbs of torque at about 2,600 rpms.
The DS was decades ahead of its time when it came out and it was still way ahead when it went out of production in the early 70's. And it was a success too - they built over a million apparently.
I liked the way you could just jack up the suspension and then lock off one wheel to change it, while it stood there on the other three. The ride was fantastic, like floating on a cloud, and it went round corners well, too - front wheel drive at a time when most firms didn't offer that..
Interesting sighting with the Ponton. I am still amazed at all the old MB running around Lebanon on news reports.
OK it was thirsty, for a 3.5, but it was in a different market here - 3.5 was just about the biggest regular size engine on sale in Britain, other than Jags, or exotica like Rolls Royce, etc.. most large cars here would have been 2.0/2.5 litres, so to get a motor that weighed less and had more power was significant. No, it wasn't a Cobra, but then how many Rovers etc would they have been able to sell here with any really large V8 in the sixties - our fuel was twice the price of yours then, too. And the flexibility and torque were great too, as you mention - heck, it was even reliable, as generations of police cars showed - throughout the 70's and 80's just about every police force here had the P6 3500 as its high speed patrol car, and then the SD1, with the same engine -not to mention the Range-Rover.
I think it was the best couple of quid Rover ever spent, in terms of product development, since they ripped off the Jeep concept in the 40's for the original Land-Rover 80.
Yep they still make the 504 in Nigeria...Peugeot is big there.
Not many cars in the other shots...Peugeot 504, Mk1 GTI (I think), ca. 1980 Datsun pickup. Never got to see Betty White's Seville.
This morning I saw a car transporter carrying a late model 911, an 80s Euro model VW Vanagon based pickup/doublecab painted in camo, and a weird drag racer style ca. 67 Chevelle.
"There are two things you need to know about if you own a Stag. First, torquing the cylinder head bolts is part of routine maintenance !!! (my exclamation points). This needs to be done often. Secondly, the minute the car overheats, pull off the road."
It also mentions that timing chains must be replaced every 25,000 miles.
And my FAVORITE line from the publication:
"The biggest problem with owning a Stag in the United States is finding someone to help you"
That is soooooo sad
I think there was a VW Rabbit in one of the scenes, as well? Maybe in that scene where Mama takes Frannie's car off to get her license, she makes an abrupt left turn, signaling with a feather duster (hey, maybe Aunt Fran's car was a Feather Duster!), and almost takes out that same Datsun pickup and a VW Rabbit. I remember her saying something like "Shoot, Knight Rider's got nothing on me!"
The only episode that showed Ellen's Seville was "Mama for Mayor, Part 1". That ep also showed Naomi's Mustang. It was a burgundy convertible, a '67-68 I think. And Vinton's pickup, which was a light blue Chevy LUV, IIRC.
The episode "Mama Learns to Drive" has a few scenes that take place on a used car lot, so there's plenty of 70's iron (and tin, as there were plenty of Japanese cars :P ) to see. The salesman tries to get her into a '75-76 Cadillac Eldorado convertible for "only" $6995. Hey Shifty, isn't that about what a nice one's worth today? She ends up with a blue '73-74 Nova coupe that self-destructs.
I can never tell Dusters and Darts apart, except that (I think) Al
Bundy's was a Duster when they always called it a Dodge.
The Rabbit you mention was the GTI I spotted, I am pretty sure it had GTI wheels. A GTI would have been a new car when this episode was filmed, 1984. It was also white, a common color for those GTIs. That along with the 504 would probably have been uncommon in Raytown (assumedly Missouri), but maybe not so uncommon on Mama's Burbank-looking street.
Somebody over there has a thing for 60's compacts as I used to see a Rambler American parked in the same spot.
The Lark is for sale and appeared to be in #3 condition.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
I thought it was kinda funny too, that it was supposed to be set in the midwest, yet there were all those furrin' cars out on the street. I'm sure it must've been fun to get parts and service for a Peugeot in the midwest back in 1984!
In the episode where Mama buys the Nova, it's really obvious, when you see the bustling city street with all the foreign cars passing by. And in the "Mama for Mayor" episode, in the outdoor scenes where they're running around town campaigning, I swear there are more foreign cars than domestic!
This is kinda deranged I know, but if I'm ever in California again, I'd love to find that neighborhood they used for the outdoor scenes in "Mama's Family". It looks like it's on an actual street somewhere, and not an outdoor set like "Betwitched", "I Dream of Jeannie", et. al.
If nothing else, it would be a nice follow up to when I found the filming locations to "Duel" years ago. As I recall, I took a picture of my Alero rental car outside the tunnel they used in that movie (and "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World") Yeah, okay, so I'm weird. :shades:
Her neighborhood did look like a movie set in couple episodes I saw- the houses looked kinda fake, but it looked real too, like where she veers through that intersection. That was certainly a real street. I am pretty sure her house is real - it looks too real. I know there are many tree-lined neighborhoods of well-kept middle class 1910s-1920s houses like that which have been used in movies and TV - like the 1955 houses in Back to the Future. I suspect hers is in that area, similar architecture and surroundings. I believe those are mainly in Pasadena.
I'd like to go on a movie-location holiday too, I've thought about that. And I could see where the fintail lived when new (Beverly Hills no less).
A little pricey for ebay...I think this year Packard had their best instrument cluster, it's jewel-like
Sad
Nice pattern on that cloth
This is pretty cool, historical model, getting good bids
Series 75 convert...wow
Fleetwood with all the good options including airbag, very cool
For the ambitious
Nice survivor
Something about this just puts me off...and not just the price and color
It's a neat freakshow, but belongs on ebay Germany
These unrestored cars are pretty cool
300SL looks pretty spiffy but who knows. The first bid looks like a shill bid, it's too high and the only bid and "reserve not met"????.....hmmmmm......I think the eBay chandelier bought this car....I liked the comment that the car "attended" a concours---LOL!
Chrysler Town and County---valuable, rare and desirable but oh my god what a long hard road lies ahead for someone. You gotta be kind nuts to take this one on...question is, could it be restored for its present top value of maybe $95,000???
Don't think so....at least not a show car restoration, which means no $95K when you sell either....
1940 Cadillac -- you want to be careful with museum cars. They've often been left to rot behind a velvet rope.
59 Lancia -- perfect level of bidding for the traditional Lancia cheapskate (they are almost as bad as Studebaker owners)....$56 for the whole car and worth it for parts, definitely.....
It's a neat freakshow, but belongs on ebay Germany
Oh I don't know. Install side curtains, a kitchen and a sofa-bed and you've got a motorhome that makes those Winnebago things look tacky.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
It would have an awesome look if a set of 18-20" wheels and low profile tires were added with perhaps a blue tinted film on all the glass.I decided to leave it original so new owner can up grade to his liking.
Does not he mean down grade instead of upgrade if you take a nice classic like this and add 20 inch thin tires and blue window tint!!!! That would ruin the look for me!
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
And yeah, pimping out that old wagon would be pretty lame. There's really a stupid fad going on right now of 20"+ wheels on old domestic iron.
This
Or this
Might not handle well?
I caught part of a rap video yesterday that had a car chase involving a '71-73 Delta convertible with 20"+ rims. Naturally in the video it was doing all sorts of wonderful things, so I'm guessing that the MTV Raps crowd are going to take that as the gospel. I went flipping through the channels and didn't see the whole thing, but did catch a glimpse of a big 70's B-body burning. Dunno if they torched the same Delta or used a beater stand-in.
If the car has half the power that it sounded like it did I can see in instantaneous blow out on those rubber band tires.
I was also out in the fintail today, and I drove through a local high end lot to glance at some 107s they had sitting around...some people looking at a CLS were very impressed with the old beast. I finally got it back from the shop...it's such a good driving car.
This thing is sitting at a local specialty/high end lot...looked to be kind of a slapped together cosmetic restoration, but still worth good money I am sure.
I also saw something freaky today...a C5 Corvette with a grafted on 53-55 style rear end. It was pretty bizarre...unfortunately it was moving in oncoming traffic, so I couldn't get a pic.
RE: Your friend with the BMW.
Regular BMW drivers don't wave at each other. M Car drivers might wave at other M Car drivers and BMW 2002 owners will wave at other 2002 owners but that is it.
Is your coworker fairl attractive? Maybe she is just getting waves because of that from older men in BMWs.
one of my brother in laws is from the detroit area. when he went into the marines, he stored his camaro in a huge warehouse in detroit. he said the there was a whole tiered wall of these cars(still new, but bought by chrysler execs).
the warehouse burned down.