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

andre1969

but I just stepped outside for a moment, and spotted a red MG-A go past. Red, looked like it was in nice shape, top down. Eccentric-looking old dude driving it.

Mr_Shiftright

An eccentric driving an MG? I'm SHOCKED! :P

boomchek

Shifty, the cartoons that used to appear in Road & Track (with the pie smoking dudes), I think they were called Frank and Troise; were either characters based off you? Just curious..

edit: Pipe smoking dudes :P

Mr_Shiftright

yeah we used to draw them. Now another guy and I do the same for R&T every month.

boomchek

i just picked up about 100 car magazines from the 80s and 90s to add to my evergrowing collections. there's some Road & Tracks, Motor Trends, and Car and Drivers in there.

I like reading old stuff, especially the "predictions" of new models, spy pictures and drawings and so on.

I always liked reading the stories in R&T like Side Glances too.

All I need now is a bigger place to display all of my stuff...

explorerx4

Boom, you're a regular Inspector Clouseau!
glad i have a subscription to R & T and not 'crap & drivel'.

boomchek

Boom, you're a regular Inspector Clouseau! thanks

I used to like Car and Driver up until they redid their look about a year ago. I don't enjoy reading it as much because of the look, and their humor they had in the 90s disappeared.

I switched to Motor Trend and Automobile. I prefer more mainstream stuff than sports cars in general, and R&T as good as it is, it's a little bit too technical and sports focused for me although I do enjoy their editorials, and short stories and so on.

andys120

-1935 Ford V8 Panel truck, this one was in fair shape with a flat (primer?) paint job and decent bodywork, moving under it's own power. To get the year on theses old Ford V8 trucks you have to get a look at which years grille it's wearing and add one since Ford light trucks back then used the front end from the previous year Ford Cars. Actually I'm not sure if that applies to Panels which were wagon-based, presumably.

'33-'35 Fords are favorites of mine.

Mercury Cougars- The first being a bronze-colored '67 or '68 XR-7 w a black vinyl roof in good driver shape owned and regularly driven by a local cafe owner.

The second is a wreck on the local wrecker that tends to get interesting cars, I think it's a '69 or '70 probably past restoration possibility. Loooked like it was once yellow.

fintail

Today I saw a red Unimog pulling what looked like a greenhouse on a trailer. Not something you see every day.

boomchek

A late 80s Maserati BiTurbo coupe driving under it's power.

Looked beat up and instead of the quad square headlamps it had 2. The inner 2 lamps were turned into matching grille mesh covers.

imidazol97

I saw a large motorhome tooling down the interstate. It was pulling a full-sized pickup truck (extended cab type) with a golf cart in the bed of the pickup truck.

texases

Followed a very clean 928S in this morning, looked in great shape. Seemed like a well-cared-for original, not a fourth owner trying to get a few more miles out of it before the $$ bomb exploded.

Mr_Shiftright

1964 Morgan SS -- this is a production Morgan with alloy body and Webers mated to a TR3 engine. Very rare car! I couldn't even find an image of one with the aluminum body. They look about the same as a regular Morgan. 102 of them made. Ran well, too, unrestored but decent looking.

fintail

I saw today, of all things, a pristine looking Cutlass Ciera wagon. All of those cars and their clones seem to have died off fast in the past few years.

imidazol97

Old. Perhaps 1976 or earlier. This is the low slung version. Actually it may be the same year they came out with a bright yellow paint job for them. This car was a blue. Looked nearly perfect for its age, but the paint hadn't been redone.

andys120

One was a really fine looking BMW Seven Series from the third Gen (E32-'87-'94), the black paint looked like new.

Later I spotted a nice red Sunbeam Alpine with the top down despite the cool fall weather. It could have been a Tiger but I got a glimpse of the rear in my rearview as it passed and it looked like had had the "Forward Look" fins of the Alpine S1.

As a former Triumph guy I never thought I'd be jealous of an Alpine driver but on this nice fall day I was.

Mr_Shiftright

Alpines are finally being regarded with something more than contempt. I guess all the good looking sports cars have been restored already :P

lemko

...black 1941 Ford sedan. Also spotted a white Porsche 968 and a gray Maserati BiTurbo.

fintail

Brass commuter car (for the time)

Old school custom

"JFK RODE IN IT"

Little piece of deco

The brand owned by Homer Simpson's long lost half brother

Subie survivor

Unusual thing to preserve

Pricey silliness

Oddity, cooler than most of this make and year

Another questionable thing to preserve

It's baaaack

I could see Andre in this

And lemko in this

Or maybe either of them in this

boomchek

Subie: owner claims he replaced all 4 axles. I'd like him to show me the other 2 :P

85 Civic Wagon: I disliked these box looking Civic wagons of that era. But if you look at them they're a predecessor to today's Fits (similar dimensions power, space inside). I think some were even available in AWD.

Fiat Jolly 600: reserve not met at $31k? Wow, I wonder how much the seller thinks he can get for it?

Fintail with wooden dashboard: Ugly ugly contraption. Not original, the newer and sporty wheels don't match the overall image of the car, and the wooden dashboard totally doesn't match. If the dashboard had been carved to resemble an antique car's dashboard, well maybe then he'd have something with a broader appeal. But it's made to look like a McLaren's, I mean this Fintail is no sports car...........I could go on forever here..... Nobody in their right mind wil pay $20k or even $10k. He'd probably have trouble finding buyers at $5k.

Mr_Shiftright

I regret to say that you can in fact get $31,000 for a Fiat Jolly in restored condition.

bumpy

The one I saw was in a light yellow cream color, and I think the grille would make it a '78 or '79. I can't imagine who (aside from Andre) would want to buy the dumb thing in this day and age

andre1969

Ooh, how much did they want for it? Not that I need to be entertaining such a thought right now. :shades: Heck, it might get better fuel economy than some of my cars, depending on which engine it has.

I like that coupe style, with the big triangular windows. The '77-79 LeSabre used that same treatment. I don't really care for the fender skirts though...they make the car look fat. I actually prefer the Catalina in these model years, as its grille was less ornate and looked, dare I say, sporty, for such a big car.

Mr_Shiftright

no, you're not allowed to say "sporty". :P

Mr_Shiftright

Check out this car from Hyman LTD.

http://www.hymanltd.com/search/Details.asp?stockno=3834&recordCount=32#

Can you name 3 cars made in Austria?

fintail

Steyr, Puch, Austro-Daimler :P

Mr_Shiftright

I hesitated to give you Austro-Daimler but I decided to be magnanimous :P Gold Star!

explorerx4

at least i think so, the plate read 'bobs 87' he was flogging it petty good going up a hill. of course then he had to ride the brakes all the way down the other side.

fintail

I guess it's probably done right anyway, with that history

Crappy fixer upper

A real roadster

Send it back to England


Baby fire engine

That 70s car

Junkyard

Has to be the best one in the world

Preserved fishbowl

Almost new

Those wheels should be illegal on this car

This is just as good

Mr_Shiftright

The records show that Ghia used to be maroon with a white top back in 1993.

It looks like a very nicely done restoration but still he's way off on the price. $85,000 in today's market for this "oddball" would be more than enough, even for a #1 show car. IMHO, he is $100,000 off the market on his Buy It Now. :sick:

kyfdx

Can you name 3 cars made in Austria?

Magna-Steyr still makes cars in Austria..

In fact, I just bought one!

boomchek

Looking at the comments from lookers at the bottom of the page on the Ghia, makes me wonder if some were posted by friends of the seller or the seller himself. I've seen quite a few praising various auctions and so on, but some seem so obviously fake.

Stutz: I never liked those. I dopn't think it's weven worth restoring.

Aunt's Corolla: neat little car, it has some charm in it, and looks like it's in mint shape, nice!

The junkyard auction is funny. I guess the owner had a Z car heaven
(like what some of us here were talking about few months ago- preserving cars from the crusher). Interesting to see so many in one place.

Fishbowl look mint too: like a time machine into the 70s!

The last listing which is the donky looking Olds 98, is anyone surprised it's got no bids? Also If I were a seller and put so much money into it, I'd take the effort of spoending 30 minutes, to drive it somewhere nice (away from the dumpster, and wedged between 3 other cars), and actually take normal photos of it. I mean there isn't a decent side shot of the car. I take better photos of our used $5k Sunfires and Aveos we put on our website. :confuse:

andys120

Junkyard- Man what a sad sight, those Z-Cars were once the apple of someone's eye, many have custom wheels and other unique features. For someone who can remember when they were all really considered a hot item it's a sobering reminder of the passage of time.

Mr_Shiftright

I know the type....the "collector" who grabs everything he can and then lets it all rust into worthlessness. Why? I'm not sure. A sense of control? A sense of possession? Not high on my status list.

explorerx4

seperated at birth?
74 datsun posted by 'fin

73 charger

real deal? picture of the glove box, but not motor? no tach? rant off

boomchek

Seperated at birth:

Just like from the Twins movie with Danny Devito and Arnold Governator Schwarzenegger

One got all the muscle and brains in the womb while the other got nothing.

Mr_Shiftright

Charger might get $15,000 for such extraordinary (claimed) condition and miles, and if it does it'll have a big block 'fore year's end I betcha. '73 with a 318 ain't worth much.

oregonboy

The big blank "dummy gauge" sitting where the tach belongs on the Roadrunner just looks lame. :sick:

andre1969

Yeah, the Roadrunner was sort of a stripper musclecar. They made you pay extra for just about everything. They came standard with a bench seat and column shift, no tach, and steel wheels with chrome lugnuts, but no hubcaps...not even a dog-dish. The 2-door coupe was a real bottom-feeder, too. Basically, they took the hardtop coupe, bolted in a half-assed B-pillar, and gave it back windows that flipped out instead of rolling down.

I dunno how much hp the 383 had that year...potent enough I'm sure, but with these cars, the engine you really want is the 440. Or the 426 Hemi, but I guess those things are so high-priced that it would turn it into a trailer queen.

kyfdx

'88.. parked on the street with a for sale sign on it..

Appeared to be in like-new condition. Red.. Sign stated 25K miles. Asking $18K.

Mr_Shiftright

Tough, tough sell a Lotus Esprit. Theoretically it's worth that but finding a buyer, oh my....and trying to sell it with a window-ad is sadly rather clueless IMO. This car needs hundreds of dollars in marketing to go anywhere.

uplanderguy

I always liked these '77-'79 Bonneville coupes with the triangular quarter windows too. They were lightyears ahead of their predecessors in space utilization, MPG, performance out of the same-size engines, and driving experience.

In '79 you could get a Bonneville coupe with buckets and console. This made the car more like a Grand Prix of a decade or more earlier, than the actual Grand Prix models they were building in '79!

Generally, I like the Caprice Classic coupes of this period better, but being able to get buckets and console in a Bonneville is a plus as the Caprice did not offer these then.

Bill

andre1969

In '79 you could get a Bonneville coupe with buckets and console. This made the car more like a Grand Prix of a decade or more earlier, than the actual Grand Prix models they were building in '79!

Yeah, I've seen pictures of that in the sales brochures. They offered it again in 1980, and possibly 1981. I thought it was pretty cool. I wonder if any of the other big GM cars offered bucket seats and a console? I could see the LeSabre sport coupes, with the turbo V-6, offering it, perhaps.

I like the Caprice and Impala coupes too...I always thought the wraparound rear windows were neat.

Years ago, I knew a girl who drove a 1978 or 79 Olds Ninety-Eight sedan, with the 403. While big cars of the late 70's aren't exactly known to be powerhouses, that sucker still felt pretty strong. I imagine a Catalina or Bonneville, which was lighter, with a 400 or 403, would be a pretty decent performer. I wonder how they'd be on fuel economy? I have a '76 Grand LeMans with a 350-4bbl, and the best I've ever been able to coax out of it was around 17.5 mpg.

texases

Speaking of 383s, just saw a very nice-looking Barracuda 383, about 1970. And I came across a good old CandD article comparing the '69 Hemi Roadrunner to the others of the period '69MidSizers

boomchek

Stumbled upon this while looking for something:

Looks like a hackjob made from the front of an SL and the rear end of a CE.



More photos here

What's weird is that there is a picture of a brochure with the car on it and it's called a B300 C24 Bi Turbo yet I've never heard of such a car to exist.

I wonder if the brochure is a one off as well.

fintail

Those are also R129 wheels...a C124 body on a R129 platform, never heard of that before, and in 6cyl guise I don't know what the advantage would be. Converting a 300SL doesn't have a lot of point as the same engine could be had in a C124 to begin with. Germany is known to make some wacky customs, this is one, and it does appear period. I bet it was frightfully expensive to have built. The brochure must be from the custom shop that made it, it's not a DBAG product.

I also notice the hood and trim don't line up to factory specs. The hood could simply not be closed properly...but I dunno about the rest. It's a freakshow.

boomchek

I'm thinking when you chop a unibody in half and reweld it, it's not goijng to be as strong or safe for that matter.

The doors appear to be out of alignment too.

fintail

I suspect the short wheelbase is all that saves it. That being said, I wouldn't want it. If I am to get an old custom MB I am going to get an AMG widebody SEC or a freaky old Sbarro SEC with Testarossa cheese grater side trim etc.

boomchek

You have a good selection of period tuner Benzes here

Your cheese grater is waiting for you at the bottom of the page. :P

fintail

LOL those are so funny, so tacky. I'd have to wear a Miami Vice style pastel suit if I drove one.

The 126 cars are so good looking in my eyes though. I was just out for a walk and saw a very clean 89-91 560SEL in a suitable dark blue. Still so handsome and well-proportioned after all these years.