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

uplanderguy

At last month's RM auction, and it sold. This is a record for a postwar Studebaker, and even though an R3 Avanti and next-to-last U.S. Studebaker automobile serial number, still in this economy is serious money. I'm prepared for disparaging comments (you know who you are!)

The Avanti is in the top row of photos, below.

http://s116.photobucket.com/albums/o13/geojerry/RM2010/

As posted on the Studebaker Drivers' Club forum.

Bill

ghulet

I LOVE that particular '62 Cadillac and its color combo, but I'm fairly certain bucket seats were available ONLY on Eldorados and two-door de Villes (all my 'sources' say so), but it sure does look original, could be special-order. Of course, the super-lazy description in the ad, along with the bordering-on-wacko beginning price don't help to de-mystify anything.

That Audi 90, ugh. My principal in 4-6th grade had a 100 (similar), it was a POS then, as now. Not surprisingly barely any exist in the U.S.

Peugeot 504s have a certain soft spot for me. A super-hot late-teens/early-20s woman across the street from me (when I was, say 11-14, so you get the idea :shades: ) owned one (not a diesel; it was gas, automatic, dark green, dark tan interior, sunroof, power windows, I think). I do remember it breaking down on a fairly regular basis, though. I think her mom had a Corolla, a nice offset if you actually want to make it to work every day.

That 500SEL is sickening, though not a big fan of the paint color. I would do some things I'd probably not be too proud of to own that thing (and have done worse for less, admittedly), though I'm not certain it would fit in my garage (I guess I could get rid of the first three feet of crap to make it fit, though). I could even live with the 12 mpg, no problem.

And while both are nice, for what they are, the prices for both the diesel Maxima and Brougham (particularly the Max--they want EIGHT stacks, and who's gonna be able to fix that thing?) are insane, as has been noted, the mileage claim on the Maxima).

fintail

I wonder how many of us remember what our old teachers and principals drove. Makes me feel less insane to see you mention that.

When I was in grade school, I knew a kid who's dad had a 504 diesel wagon. He had a French last name, and these paired together in my mind.

I'm also glad to see someone else swooned over the W126...color combination would be among my last choices, but the thing seems brand new, brings back memories of when I first really became interested in MB, when those things were new. I loved them then and that has never changed. Gorgeous timeless cars.

kyfdx

The librarian at my high school had one of the first Riviera "boattail" models.. That would have been the fall of '71, I think? Seems like I remember it being fairly new, then... could be wrong.. lol..

I was thinking the same thing about the pictures... Must be a big car that won't fit into one shot.. :surprise:

ghulet

I can pretty much tell you, from kindergarten through high school, what every single one of my teachers and principals drove. Then again, I'm kinda sick anyway, so no real surprise. I do think the first I noticed was that my K-3 principle had a dark brown 450SL (and this was when they were new, I started K in 1974), which was a whole lot fancier than anything in the neighborhood (we had a Datsun 510, most people had the usual Impalas/Galaxies/Malibus: people got the evil eye for Cadillacs and Lincolns).

fintail

Who says there's no money to be made in public education? :shades: ...although that SL or even the aforementioned Riviera is fancier than anything I can remember.

I can recite most of my teachers cars from grade 2 onwards. (grade 2 - 77-79 T-Bird, grade 3 - newer Supra (among the coolest teacher cars), grade 4 - Volare coupe, and so on). I remember my grade school principal had an Accord hatch, which was replaced with a new-style pop-up lights...why do I remember all of this 25 years later? And of course I remember the cars owned by all neighbors too.

My little brother, who attended middle school in a different district than I, had a teacher who drove a then-new Alfa 164 and who also owned both a Ferrari Dino and a Ferrari 512. That always seemed a little ostentatious to me.

bhill2

I LOVE that particular '62 Cadillac and its color combo, but I'm fairly certain bucket seats were available ONLY on Eldorados and two-door de Villes

I think buckets were available in the Sedan de Ville in '62. Due to one of those memory quirks that characterize my relationship with cars, I know that they were available in '63.

boomchek

My vice principal in high school had a 1 or 2 year old BMW E30 coupe. What was funny is one of the well off "satelite" students (parents sending them money from overseas to her) also had a similiar E30 but better equipped.

My English teacher who was a bit of a hippy had a Subary Loyale wagon. Mechanics teacher had an old purple VW Beetle.

Our socials teacher who was in her late 40s but was a bit of a cougar drove a late 70s Fairmont Future coupe. I really admired how ugly that car looked.

One of the gym teachers drove an early 80s Accord hatchback, and another had an old school early 80s Suburban (maybe to drive the whole soccer team to games).

Not much else that I can remember as we had a big high school.

wevk

Our English teacher had a "Bugeye" Sprite. Once it was found straddled
on a horizontal placed utility pole which were used as parking lot bumpers.
The administration was not amused.

stickguy

an english teacher. Young guy at the time, and a vietnam vet (this was in the late 70's, so he was probably late 20s at the time). Had a 1970ish Camaro. 350 4 speed. And (probably due to the gas crisis at the time) he traded it for a Fiat Brava. Oops.

and other of my teachers had a 1975ish Datsun 610 2 door. Truly ungainly looking car. I only remember this one because I test drove it when he was looking to sell it (yes, I started young as a stroke). But hey, it was a 5 speed!

awful running car. Seem to recall lots of hanging revs and backfires. And I think that was normal for it! No, I did not end up buying it.

fintail

I am sure in that area there were some spoiled kids with some insane cars. I live in a higher end area near the local high school, but I think local parents try to keep money quiet...if I see a kid driving anything higher than a newer Civic or Corolla, it is unusual. Well, a few girls drove new Beetle ragtops when those were a fad. But no kids driving to school in new M3s or GTRs or anything like that. I went to school in a small town, the nicest car was a new Prelude driven by a doctor's daughter.

In that town there was a couple who were teachers, and they always drove older MBs, especially diesel W123s. My mother was friends with the wife, and I had the husband as a teacher in high school. He would always ask me for car advice. His wife later bought a W126 similar to mine. But I think nowadays they both drive boring cars, I think one has a Fusion...my mother still sees them now and then. I remember back in the 80s the wife had a blue 240D that she would beat on...once she hit the curb in front of our house so hard the hubcap came off :sick:

When I was in college, a professor drove a 66 Beetle that he bought new and had religiously maintained - it was pristine, and he still drove it daily. Another prof there had a 69 Caprice 2 door HT, that looked very clean and original. Other than that, stereotypical beige college professor cars, acres of Camcords.

ghulet

...MBs in my entire town, as far as I can remember, (other than that principal, but her husband had a big-time job; still, I don't think driving a 450SL to a primary-school principal's job, in a barely middle-class town was wise, politically) were a light-blue late-70s (W123) 240D stick (a friend's mom, who hate to say it, was a bitter drunk witch) and a '74-ish tan 240D, I think automatic (they also had a 914), in really nice shape.

kyfdx

I dated a couple of school teachers....

One drove a '79 BMW 320i.. The other one was a mid-late '80s Toyota Corolla FX.

Learning disabilities and high school math, respectively.... :surprise:

fintail

I can remember in the mid 80s when I really started keeping track of cars, there was a surprising amount of MBs in the little rural 10K or so population town I lived in. There was a pristine two tone grey and white fintail on my street, owned by an old couple. I remember back then I actually didn't like it, it was too old and too weird. I also knew of an older couple who had an immaculate W108 250SE. These cars were only ~20 years old at the time, so not as unusual as finding them today. I also remember a W110 in town, a few W114/115s, a handful of W123s, and at least two W126, one owned by the family of a girl in my grade, her father a rich family money rancher-turned-property developer who was and is easily the weathiest in that region...I remember they had a fleet of cars, including what I swear was a Lincoln Mk V convertible. The other was owned by a doctor my mother knew...I remember it starting in front of our house, in a cloud of black smoke...and it couldn't have been more than a few years old. How things have changed. There were no 107s in town that I knew of, nor W201s.

Thinking back about school principal cars...I remember the Accords, the next one had a Ranger, the next had a F150, and my high school principal had a Reatta.

Today's odd sightings include another Camry 5 door (I swear they are all here), a ca. 1970 911, a nice looking BMW shark coupe of indeterminate model, and lurking in a garage near where the fintail is stored, an early 70s looking 911 alongside a 67-69 Firebird...both covered with what looked like eons of dust.

"It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" is on TV right now, in HD no less...lots of obscure cars in that...still hurts to see that 61 Impala and that red on red 62 Dodge crash.

bumpy

911 SC Carrera pulling out of the Wal-mart parking lot this afternoon. Might as well have been a Camry the way it was loafing around.

omarman

I dated a couple of school teachers....One drove a '79 BMW 320i.. The other one was a mid-late '80s Toyota Corolla FX. Learning disabilities and high school math, respectively....

I'm from Ohio too. What grade were you in when all this happened?
(Mercury Capri, Librarian, 12th grade)

Spotted a late 80's Coupe Deville driven by an older guy in the neighborhood. It's very close to the pic except without the white top. If anything the one I see around the neighborhood is even cleaner. Except for the sharp angular shape you'd think it was a nearly new car.

ghulet

....my aunt had a CDV almost the same, except light metallic blue outside, but sill with white leather and fake convertible-type roof. Same wire hubcap-thingys. Very 'Designing Women' (RIP Dixie Carter). Hated that car.

There used to be a decent looking brown, old (69-72) Porsche 911 at a repair shope a few blocks away (half block from Cemitas Puebla, as seen on 'Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives'). On 'Streets of San Francisco', Micheal Douglas' charater drives a 911 Targa (uh, in SF on a cops' salary?).

lemko

My high school principal had one of these oddballs:



One of my high school English teachers drove an early 1970s Dodge Dart.

lemko

My wife went to a high school in a wealthy area where girls got 3-Series and C-Classes for their 16th birthday. She drove a teal blue 1966 Ford Galaxie 500 sedan. I'd have ignored all those princesses and thought she was the cool one.

lemko

The only Mercedes I remember in my neighborhood were twin white versions of the generation after the fintail, (W111?) that belonged to a doctor and his wife. They looked like this:

fintail

Volvo 164?

I remember there was one of those in town when I was a little kid...I thought it was a mixture of a Volvo and some kind of old Jaguar. Pretty flashy for a brick!

fintail

That looks like a W111 coupe to me, which was based on the fintail. It wasn't introduced until 1961, when even MB knew tailfins were on the way out. It did live on to be the W108 coupe, which was tied to the fintail replacement.

fintail

She was the cool one

andre1969

here's what I can remember, of various teachers' cars.
6th grade: teacher had a new 1982 Accord hatchback. I think it was kind of a goldish/brown color.

9th grade: school secretary had a Pontiac Fiero. She drove past my bus stop every morning, and would wave. She was also hot! One morning, she actually stopped when she saw me standing there, and my 9th grade fantasies were running wild. Alas, she stopped because her car happened to break down right there, and she rode the bus in with me. One of the other teachers, who I recognized at the school but didn't have in any of my classes, drove a Horizon.

11th grade: Spanish teacher had a 1974 Electra, but I can't remember now which body style. I'm picturing a coupe with the stationary opera windows, which were optional that year.

11th grade: Shop teacher (well, they called it "Construction tech") drove a beat-up red mid-70's Ford pickup.

12th grade: Spanish teacher had a 1981 or so Datsun Maxima, the kind that would talk to you.

12th grade: Architecture teacher drove a 1985 BMW 318.

12th grade; Finally got that teacher who was driving the Omni. And he was STILL driving it!

Mr_Shiftright

Volvo 164---Car was a clumsy cow of a car unfortunately. Perhaps better as an automatic but felt very much like a 60s Buick but with no power.

That MB coupe is very nice. A perfect "GT" car----not fast and certainly no sports car, but a stylish comfortable cruiser. The later 3.5 V8 version is highly prized today due to its ability to quiet motor on modern freeways.

explorerx4

i don't remember seeing the cars the teacher's drove. of course, most of them were nuns.
i did see a maroon saab 9000 today. had never seen that particular one before.
also, a late 80's white camry in nice condition.
yesterday, a light blue late 50's ford pickup. dropped in the front with an old guy driving it that looked like he had owned it for the last 50 years.
just remembered, yesterday, 2 high end of the line cousins in great condition, a mitsu 3000 gt and dodge stealth.

ghulet

funny, one of my co-workers (as a teen, early-20s) had a Volvo 164 (I think a '73, but not sure), orange, four-door automatic, she inherited from her grandfather. I don't think she had it too long....kind of a cool car, aesthetically, and safe (relative to its age), but yeah, I guess not too much to recommend it otherwise.

I also saw a SAAB 9000 yesterday (one of the later varieties, with the smallish front end, which I never liked), hatch, automatic, I think a CSE. Black, tan leather (yawn), automatic. Love the design of the 9000 (I drove an '89 CD turbo automatic from Chicago to NYC long ago), but I know they're in beyond-monster status mechanically. Shocking. :P

Two neat-o second-generation Mazda RX-7s; the first was a white turbo (complete with its original matching white wheels, I was impressed), and now I've discovered my neighbor bought one (black, don't know if turbo or not), with size-and-style appropriate, non-gaudy aftermarket rims. And it's in beautiful condition. I'll have to corner him and discuss this new toy, and perhaps convince him to allow me to take a spin. I think they're beautiful (yeah, I know they're kinda 944 rip-offs), though heard they're not the best cars ever. Mazdas rarely are, but they're usually fun, at least.

stickguy

a nicely restored (from 10 feet) 69ish El Camino. had the cowl induction hood. I really like those.

ghulet

....because Chicago is boring for old car spotting:

Bewitched:

68 red Impala Custom Coupe, w rallye wheels (Darrin's mom visiting)
68 Camaro SS convertible (Tabitha riding shotgun), wire hubcaps, I think Grotto Blue (funny name) with matching interior
(inexplicably, cuz they only had one car), Darrin pulls up in a yellow-ish Concours Estate wagon. Fancy.
next day, 67 Camaro RS convertible, same blue. Lord.

In person, the only notable sorta-cool car spotted was a 1978 or 79 Olds Delta 88 'Holiday' coupe (the sorta-sporty version), gray with red interior. Drove by, didn't really get to 'look' at it so well.

andre1969

Speaking of Bewitched, I saw that episode the other day that I had mentioned, where there were a bunch of Camaros in a parking lot. I forget the title, but it was an episode where a rich old man went back on a Unicef donation, and Samantha was put to the task of trying to find out why. Turns out, a young gold-digger had gotten her claws into him, and was starting to dictate what he did with his money.

Anyway, in that episode, Sam was driving a green '69 Camaro RS/SS convertible, same one I'd seen in a couple other episodes. Here's a shot of it, with a goldish SS convertible parked beside it, and a pale yellow Corvette, which I think was used as Larry Tate's car in a few episodes...


And here's a shot of Samantha backing in...notice the sign on the pavement that says "head in parking only", yet every single car is backed in!


Oh, and I was wrong about that shot having a bunch of Camaros in it...it just had the two. But every other car is a GM. Considering that some of those cars are a bit older, I wonder if they just had a casting call for crew members to put their own personal cars in that scene, just so long as they were GM products?

lemko

If you look in the background, you can spot the nose of a gold 1963-64 Cadillac. A little closer, you can see the gently curve A-pillar of a blue 1961-62 GM vehicle.

garv214

I dunno...sure looks like a mustang sneaked into the shot next to the cadillac... :shades:

andre1969

It does look like a Mustang in that shot, but I wonder if it was something else with a slight forward thrust, like maybe a 1962 Chevy II?

texases

No, I think Gary's right, that looks exactly like a '65-'66 Mustang.

uplanderguy

Man, I'm loving Sam's green RS convertible! I have no recollection whatsoever of that color in '69. Must have been a Camaro-only color. That color was used in Novas, Camaros, Chevelles, and Monte Carlos in '72 and '73. I always liked that color. An old high-school friend of mine (whom in fact I met for dinner tonight as I'm out-of-town with business) had a '73 Chevelle SS coupe in that same green, silver striping around the wheel openings and sills, and black vinyl interior. Even with the big bumpers, a nice-looking and driving car.

Bill

andre1969

This paint chart: http://www.tcpglobal.com/autocolorlibrary/aclchip.aspx?image=1969-chevrolet-pg01- .jpg does list that green as a Camaro color, although I'm unsure if that little asterisk means it's a Camaro-only color, or that you could only get a Camaro in one of the colors with the asterisk beside it.

Back in high school I worked part time at a veterinary clinic, and the receptionist drove a '69 Camaro in that same shade of green. Hers was nothing special, just a 307...although I thought it was way cool at the time! (And still do...at least something like that would make a nice daily driver, instead of some high-hp, high-dollar beast that I'd be afraid to drive!)

Sometime in the early 70's, Chevy used a color called "Spring Green". Would that be similar to the "Rally Green" of that '69 Camaro? It's hard to tell sometimes, looking at scanned-in paint charts and photos.

euphonium

As the serial # = 6R07C138356 it IS a 66 Mustang.

texases

"As the serial # = 6R07C138356 "

And you know this how??

ghulet

correct, Andre....that Rallye Green Poly was a (asterisk indicated) Camaro-only color. Now, I don't know if it was re-named and/or re-used on other models later, but history dictates that probably was the case (or even more likely, re-named and used on other GMs the same year; think Light Iris/Evening Orchid of 1965).

ghulet

Potisano Yellow (it's almost orange) '68 or '69 Fiat convertible. On Hawaii Five-O, of course. Really silly, hippy-dippy episode (#31, The King Kamehameha Blues) wherein some college kids steal the King's cloak from a museum.

Check out the '68-69 Fiat color chart. Mind boggling.

Last night, the most beautiful, original-looking '71 Ford LTD coupe (white, red interior, original hubcaps, high-back seats, optional cornering lamps).

lemko

This car must've spent the majority of its time in a dry climate. My Dad had a 1972 Ford LTD Country Squire wagon that rusted with a furious vengeance.

euphonium

In the damp, wet, & rainy PNW, our '73 Country Squire was rust free for at least Seven years when we sold it & bot an '80 Town Car.

euphonium

In the damp, wet, & rainy PNW, our '73 Country Squire was rust free for at least Seven years when we sold it & bot an '80 Town Car.

andys120

I owned a '71 Fiat 124 Sport Spider that was Positano Yellow. I called it "mellow Yellow" or Mustard yellow.

Here's a good representation of the color (at least on my monitor)>

stickguy

early SUV varient from FIAT.

ghulet

that must be the same color, definitely same car, though this one (again, on TV) looked a tiny bit brighter, and had really cool (for the era, the show was made in early 1970) four-spoke, graphite-colored wheels.

kyfdx

Reminds me of the "golf" color on German makes, in the '70s...

explorerx4

what is going on in the background of that picture, just in front of the pond?

euphonium

Looking for what was dropped and they can't continue without it.

ghulet

another spotted-on-TV...I know, I need a hobby or a job: a show (I'd never seen) called 'Highway Patrol' (ca. 1955) which had TWO, two-door sedan 1955 four-porthole Buicks as cop cars. I assume Centurys? Still, quite odd (my 'book' says only 268 Century 2-door sedans were built that year?) :surprise: