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

explorerx4

a bronze colored miami vice era 911 with a big whale tail.
engine had a stumble on acceleration, but it looked good.
a black triumph stag convertible, with a whining manual transmission.
a cobra replica, nice steel blue with bad chrome mustang cobra 5 spoke rims.
an unrestored volvo p122, looked a bit worn, but not too bad.
also, a 'mint' dark purple/maroon chevy citation.

fintail

I took this pic of my own obscure car today - cellphone pic, so it is washed out a bit. The old beast got a lot of attention, I saw a few kids pointing at it at different times, and a kind of wacky Chinese lady actually took a couple pics of it while in a parking lot. It always turns heads. It's still running fine too...I am still kind of amazed at how easy it will start after sitting idle for weeks.

Not many oldies on the road here today, surprising as the weather was absolutely perfect. I saw an old Alfa GTV and a nice 63 Falcon Sprint, that's it.

andre1969

I did some cleaning and rearranging in my garage yesterday, and as a result, in a rare moment, just about everything with my name on its title got herded together close enough for a group pic.

While I had my Catalina out, I decided to wash it and vacuum it out. I couldn't remember the last time I had done either. It cleaned up pretty well. It's amazing how dirty a car can get, even when it stays garaged most of the time. Here's a shot of it from the rear.

While I had it out, I took it to the gas station to fill it up, and then drove it around a bit. I checked my fuel log, and saw that I only drove it about 60 miles in the past year and a half! Anyway, coming back from the gas station, I heard a familiar metallic clang and looked in the rearview mirror just in time to see one of my hubcaps roll off the asphalt, bounce when it hit the shoulder, and go sailing off into the woods! My right front hubcap did that on a regular basis, so it got to the point I'd just keep it in the trunk and put it on at car shows! But this is the first time the rear hubcap did it! I guess that's nature's way of telling me it's time to splurge on some Rally 2's!

It took me about 10 minutes to find that hubcap, as it actually hopped across a creek and ended up, shiny-side down, on the other side. Naturally, it was in a poison ivy patch. But, I guess it could've been worse! When I was hunting around, I also saw a transmission down there in the creek! My first thought was hey, I only chucked a hubcap, look at what some other poor sap chucked! :surprise:

I also snapped a couple shots of my 1979 New Yorker, which I thought looked kinda nice and extra shiny in the evening light. Here's another shot. The stand-up hood ornament and landau roof are such a nice complement to the copcar wheels and white-letter tires. :shades:

texases

Nice pics. I like the Catalina - that was before they went nuts on the 'beak'. Just right.

andre1969

Thanks. For some reason, I've always been fascinated by the big '67 Pontiacs, ever since I was a little kid. I always thought there was something futuristic, almost exotic, in their styling. Oddly enough, I saw my '67 sitting, for sale at a little sales lot, while attending a Mopar show! I went up there with a buddy who had a '50 DeSoto, and we got bored with the show, so we went riding around in my '57, and he noticed the car before I did. He pointed it out, and I made a U-turn to go back and see it, and later that week, I talked myself into buying it!

andre1969

I've been kinda lazy in doing this, but I finally posted the pics I took at the Spring Carlisle swap meet in PA the other weekend. Here they are!

texases

This one has always been a favorite of mine:

lemko

...nice black 1941 Ford sedan.

british_rover

A SMART car driven by one of my clients. He bought up in VT from ZAP about a year ago.

texases

I saw my first one of those a week ago. Not something I'd want to use in Dallas traffic.

british_rover

He loves it but admits it is more of a city car then anything else. You WILL be blown across the highway by strong crosswinds. He drove it down from VT and said in a couple of the mountain passes where the wind really hit him he had to fight it hard.

Other then that it has been a great car and he averages over 50 mpg with the gas motor.

texases

I can see that working well in VT. I'd end up being somebody's grill ornament here :surprise:

british_rover

Yeah he uses it around Hartford now exclusively but I think he has taken it into New York City a couple of times. I bet it really shines in that enviroment. It even does ok in the snow with the engine in the back and RWD. Anything over a couple of inches of snow he takes the Range Rover though.

fintail

Cool...surprising to see those Mercedes there, I always picture the big east coast events as being all domestic. Not a bad looking W108...and I don't think I've seen a R129 before in the color of the one next to the 126 in the last pic.

fintail

I saw one of those on I-5 north of Seattle, in a 70 zone. Let's just say he wasn't going close to 70. Seemed risky.

andys120

I saw two twelve cylinder cars today, a 1990s BMW 850CSi and a Ferrari 575 Superamerica. This is what happens when you drive around on the Gold Coast of Lawn Guyland (Old Westbury, Brookville etc.)

Mr_Shiftright

The 850 is a poser's car. You can buy them dirt cheap.

explorerx4

is it blue? we've seen one around town a few times. my kids thought they were cool in europe, but not so good here.
btw, have you guy's talked to the town about that propane leak your neighbor had? i hope they tested your property.

british_rover

Nah his is silver which is unusual because all of his other modern cars are Black.

We are supposed to be ok with the whole propane leak. A lot of people with those sniffer things walked around the property for a day or so.

boomchek

"Serious offers" hmmmm you have to have a serious asking rpice first buddy.

Dreamer

Another one (must have been here for about 6 months now:

Old wagon for the price of one 10 years younger

I posted this one here before. It's in ur local auto trader for at least 2 years. His original price was $25k.
It might be nice, but not worth this much

grahampaige

Saw a Jensen Interceptor Convertible on the way to work this morning. It was in peak hour.. Must have been a later import (We didn't get any convertibles here)

seminole_kev

Saw a bright yellow opel sedan of some sort yesterday. Very boxy. Probably late 70's vintage if I had guess (not to up to speed with Opels). At first I thought it was some sort of 70's Datsun until it got closer.

seminole_kev

Looked vaguely along the lines of this Kadett. Grill was different (had a big Opel logo front-center of the grill) and side profile seemed a little bit different in the quick view I had of it. Most likely a Kadett though.

Mr_Shiftright

I see that now with fuel prices going up and up, the claimed gas mileage of old Benz diesels is rapidly climbing to meet the demand. We're up to 35-40 mpg, which is about double Mr. Benz's published city mileage at the date of manufacture. Must be installing "Turbonators" from eBay to achieve these remarkable improvements I'd say. :P

fintail

Prices are rising with mileage too. Seattle people always come down with diesel greed at times like this, so I expect to see 20K 123 wagons and 25K 3 year old Jetta TDis as well.

Mr_Shiftright

That's a joke. I can't imagine any of these old clunkers selling beyond normal market ranges...sure, you have a clean 300 wagon, extra nice and you want to reach for the starts---okay, ask $5,000.

At least a Jetta TDI is a modern car with truly outstanding fuel mileage. I'd pay a premium for an extra clean Jetta TDI, but for a Jurassic 300TD? Gimme a break!

I think a few weeks in an old $20,000 Benz 300TD should sober up the foolish buyer -- "Oh my god, what have I done?"

I live in the biodiesel capital of the world--every form of perverted environmental marketing in the universe is tried here---and there's a used car lot with plenty of dusty overpriced 300Ds and TDs with spider webs on the bumpers.

oregonboy

Did the Opel look more like this:

texases

Or one of these? They're '68s, I think. I remember going to the Buick/Opel dealer before we ended up with a '68 Valiant. That thing ran forever.

fintail

That's how it is here. I've seen ads for 200K+ mile 300TDs for over 10K.

The nicest one I saw that actually sold was a late model, an 85, with 70K miles on it, black on palomino, in immaculate condition. I know the seller got $7500 for it. I find that not too horrible.

Mr_Shiftright

Well one sale doesn't make a market, not by any stretch. Seller hit a home run.

seminole_kev

Oregonboy - yep, more like that one. Grill looks right. What kind of Opel is that?

oregonboy

That is the Opel Ascona, sold in the US as the Opel 1900 sedan, 1970-75 (more or less). It also came as a wagon and as the more stylish, (and more popular), Manta coupe. It was a MUCH better car than the earlier "Mini-Brute" Opel Kadette and was well regarded by the automotive press.

james

texases

Yes, Car and Driver made a bit of its reputation by slamming a very early, gutless Kadette. At the time GM was upset that any magazine had the nerve to do that. And where did GM get the lame idea to advertise them as "Mini-Brutes"?

Mr_Shiftright

Perhaps micro-brutes would have been better?

merckx

I saw an old Lotus at a gas station today..Up on blocks,no wheels. I remember as a pre-teen reading how Car&Driver so loved the little roadster. I never really saw the attraction, but the coupe today did have a pretty shape....Even in kind of mustardy yellow/orange...Anyone ever driven one of these?

Mr_Shiftright

You mean the 7 series or the little Elan roadster?

Old Lotuses are a hoot to drive...you just can't stop smiling.

merckx

It was one on the Elan 2+2 coupes...Is this car rare? Now that I think of it, I don't believe I've ever seen one in the wild....Actractive lttle nipper, I must say...I have seen plenty of the roadsters the Miata is supposed to be heavily influenced by...

Mr_Shiftright

they made about 5,000 of them. Most Lotus collectors do not like the 2+2 (nor do I that much) and for that reason they are not very desirable and pretty easy to find despite the low production numbers. You should be able to buy a really really nice one for around $9000 and expect no appreciation in value (nor depreciation---just stagnation).

I'd go for a Series 3 coupe myself, but that'll cost you twice as much, even though it's the same age/type of car as the 2+2.

kyfdx

In pretty good shape... What was the last year for them?

I was at the local mini-mart buying a paper this morning, and she was pumping gas.. I wanted to ask her how long she had the car, but I was afraid it would come off wrong.

"Hi.. OMG, how have you ever kept a piece of c--- like that running all these years?!?!"

toomanyfumes

I'm thinkin' either '87 or '88? My dad's '84 needed a transmission and brakes when it was a year old. Nobody wanted it for a trade, either.

seminole_kev

My wife called me (I'm on a business trip) and said she saw a "convertible version of our Jag downtown". To which I said "they didn't make a convertible version of the Mk 2". Talked with her a bit more about it and apparently someone was driving a XK-120/140/150 through downtown Orlando. Wish I had seen it.

chuck1959

Didn't Isuzuza (sp) sell a version of that car?

boomchek

No more ebay time? I enjoy those posts.

fintail

Doh, I wa out of town for a few days.

Trying to think of anything odd I saw...

This morning I saw a bustleback Seville that had both a pair of pimpy sidemounted spares, and a continental kit. And it was a real continental kit, not the kind that lays on the trunk. Pretty amusing.

I also saw a real nice looking 80s BMW 6er on the highway this morning.

ghulet

a neighbor has a really stunning red '54 Chevy 210 sedan for sale....don't know what they're asking, probably not worth the restoration costs, but a pretty lil thing anyway.

Fin, I also saw a decent black with red BMW 6-series (I think it was an early 635 or late 633, as it had no third brake light), driven by a young woman (teens/early 20s), which I thought a bit unusual...I can't see owning a car that needy, that is no longer fast by today's standards and uses that much fuel.

Wait, almost forgot: about a mile from my house are two cars in someone's yard....one is a decent looking '64-ish Ford Fairlane sedan, nothing special, and the other is a '56 Chevy four-door hardtop, unfortunately looks pretty bad, wish I could get in there for a look-see. I think those are worth pretty decent money if restored, eh?

kyfdx

There is fairly faded, crappy looking 6-series that is driven by a student at the local high school...

That is just not right...

texases

Better than than some of the kids I see driving the new 3 to high school ...

kyfdx

Yeah... I see some pretty nice cars... but, nothing that nice.. though the income in that neighborhood could support it..

The coolest car is a '66 VW Microbus..

fintail

Today I have seen a later Jag E-Type roadster (no headlight covers) and a Porsche 356 Cabrio.

seminole_kev

Nice day of car spotting Fintail!