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

PF_Flyer

My spot of the day, a 1971 Plymouth Scamp, back end jacked up, painted and odd shade of blue I'd never seen before...LOL

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Mr_Shiftright

I saw....wait, you won't believe this....not only an actual RUNNING-UNDER-ITS-OWN-POWER Maserati Bi-turbo, but a CABRIOLET version!

wevk

White two door. Looked lightly hot rodded with duels and alloy wheels. Nice clean design.
http://www.falconman.com/fullbrochures/60fullbrochure.htm

WVK

seminole_kev

I always liked the Ford Falcons of the 60's. Not really sure why, just seem to be relatively clean designs. Not special cars or anything, but I like them.

fintail

The little 2 door hardtops of 63-65 were nice looking, wagons too if equipped right

andre1969

were neat little cars up through '65 or so. Whatever year they switched them to a stubby version on the intermediate Fairlane/Comet platform (the Comet went midsized for '64, IIRC), and got rid of the hardtops and convertibles, I lost interest. From then on out, it just seemed like a cheap car.

That same fate seemed to fall on the other domestic compacts as well. When the Big Three launched their pony cars, they soon started ditching the nicer and sportier versions of their regular compacts, to avoid competition. Ford didn't want the Falcon to steal sales from the Mustang. In '67, when Plymouth got serious about the Barracuda and gave it a sexy restyle on the remodeled compact platform, they dumped the hardtop and convertible Valiant, although I have seen pics of '67-69 Valiant hardtops that were sold in export markets. And with the Camaro out, Chevy dropped the hardtop and convertible styles for the Chevy II/Nova when they were redesigned for '68.

wevk

White two door. Looked lightly hot rodded with duels and alloy wheels. Nice clean design.
http://www.falconman.com/fullbrochures/60fullbrochure.htm

WVK

andys120

I was as if I was getting autmotive eye candy for my birthday. Besides the aforementioned
330 GT-2+2, yesterday I spotted a 4.2 E-Type Coupe (still beautiful after all these years) and a '70-'73 BMW 2002 in bright orange.

lemko

...I saw a Subaru Justy and a Porsche 928 the other day.

1966 was the year the Falcon became a stubby version of the Fairlane. Less known is that the Falcon nameplate briefly appeared on a low-line version of Ford's intermediate car in 1970.

wimsey1

Some one's (ford?) SUV prototype! It had a "body bag" over the entire vehicle but the shape made the dim regions of my brain say "Ford". We have a plant for a tier-1 supplier in town and occassionally I see a new model early but I haven't seen a disguised proto here before.

Also saw a '60's Camaro SS or RS (white w/red stripes) and a '70ish GTO blue w/ white vinyl top.

bksward

Yesterday saw one of the original style Broncos. No idea what year. (They made them from what, 65-77 or so?)

It was roofless and looked to be in decent shape from 50+ feet away. Of course this is San Diego where things don't rust...

fintail

It's time again

Pretty two tone Euro model 220SE fintail

These close coupled sedans weren't bad looking...neat car, price is too steep though

This is pretty

Never even heard of this before

Hmmm I wonder if it was repainted in the 70s

Subaru 360, looks amusing

Neat Peugeot

Not so neat Peugeot...I actually contemplated buying one of these a while back

A neoclassic fake with better than average detailing. They got the banjo steering wheel, faux old timey gauges, and semi-decent interpretation of an old body OK

Second to last year DeSoto

Pricey special DeSoto. The cars in the background are interesting too...among others I spot a 60 Edsel, 62 Ford wagon, British Ford "Classic" (or is it a Consul Capri?)

Shame this is so far gone, these are neat little things

1960 Fords are special to me because of one my dad dragged home, and this one is stunning

Impossibly rare 60 Ford Squire...beyond economically viable restoration for sure...but maybe someone will do it anyway

Another one for Andre

andre1969

what engine setup that '58 Firesweep has? They were available with a 350 Wedge with a 2- or 4-bbl carb, putting out 280 or 295 hp respectively. That don't look like a 2-bbl, though! ;-)

The '58 Fury had a 350 option that put out 305 hp. I think it was a dual quad. At least, Christine was! Actually though, isn't 10 extra hp kind of a small gain, for going from a 4-bbl to a dual quad?

Most Firesweeps also only had the 2-speed Powerflite tranny. I drove one years ago, that just had the 2-bbl. It still had plenty of kick, though! I could've gotten it for about $800-900, but it was just a 4-door sedan. Someone beat me to it, though.

Mr_Shiftright

Boy that fake Packard is mighty ugly. Don't they even LOOK at the originals when they do this kind of thing? <slaps forehead>. Roof is all wrong, steering wheel too small, steering hub way too big, front end is hideous, headlights from a John Deere maybe, and bumpers are from what...a Corvair? And that side spare...oh, my, looks like a kid glued it on afterwards.

No wonder "O bids" at $30K. Somebody will have to tell him it's worth $3,500-$5,000 sooner or later.

fintail

I wonder what it is based on...alot of them seemed to have bene put on the Cougar/TBird or Mustang platforms...maybe even an early 80s LTD. I am sure the thing is 20-25 years old...and the starting price has an extra zero in it, for sure.

PF_Flyer

Driving around in the sunshine today, a 1961 MGA that my 11 year old daugther asked... Can we get one?? hehe

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andre1969

does make me thing 79-80's LTD/Crown Vic or, more likely, a Grand Marquis, as Ford tended to differentiate the Mercs from the Fords by giving them silver-faced gauges. I think that's one way they signified a "luxury" car back then! LOL!

It also makes me think a bit of a '78-79 Mark V (the '77 had a different dash), but I think those dash displays are actually "sleeker", having more of a slope away from the passenger compartment.

the steering column definitely screams Ford, with those two stalks on the left side of it. No matter how ya look at it though, all I can say is QUE VULGAROSA!! ;-)

lemko

The gauges are most definately from a 1979-87 Mercury Grand Marquis. The gauges in my 1989 Grand Marquis are very similar.

fintail

I thought it kinda had that look to it

Today I saw a fairly decent looking Dodge St Regis and one of the odd lowline intermediate Falcons from 1970, a strippo 2 door hardtop that looked like a Torino, but was badged Falcon. Funny that it was mentioned a little while ago...not something you see daily

stickguy

I have a strong stomach, but rusty floors on the interior side just give me the willys.

Saw a late MGB (rubber bumper) in a driveway today. Looked OK, but had a tarp over the roof and windwos, so hard to tell what the real status was.

Also have an Edsel wagon that lives near by that rumbles throught the neighborhood occasionally. Looks immaculate, and has a nice burble through the dual pipes. Some old guy owns/drives it.

andre1969

on Friday, when I went to pick up my truck from the repair shop, I got to see that '57 T-bird again, as well as the spackle-colored Olds Delta 88 'vert. I think it's a '66, as it seems a bit more rounded and less "crisp" than what I'm picturing a '65 as.

It was kinda funny though, as I was walking out to the truck, keys in my hand, I saw one of the mechanics going to that T-bird. Just jokingly, I jingled my keys and said, "I'll trade ya!" First thing out of his mouth was "THIS THING RUNS LIE ____"

And when he started it up, it sure did! I felt sorry for this poor guy too. He must've been about 6'1", and he was cramped up in that car. I guess nobody made sports cars for adults back then, did they?

seminole_kev

saw a 1957 Chevy Nomad in a neat medium blue color. Was on the opposite side of the highway, but looked sharp. Nice lookin' ride.

seminole_kev

ok, it's not a car, but for you EBAY junkies, I thought you'd like this guy's very honest description of his item for sale. Pretty funny

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2389286139

Mr_Shiftright

Well this is a classic case of "you get what you pay for". Now he knows why Brand A router sells for $229 and his router sells for $49.

ateixeira

Maybe the guy bid $26.22 because he thought it came with that beer. ;-)

-juice

wimsey1

Rather nice older Land Rover, tan, but weren't they all? Straight clean and running! New enough that the headlights were mounted out on the "wings". Old enough to have tiny little tailights. Used to be a guy 40mi. north of here that had a nest of these including one painted in "Daktari" stripes.

fintail

Here's a load of interesting stuff. I perused the ebay Australia car listings, and saw some unusual stuff, namely some weirdo Asian stuff and the odd Australian domestics, which are often a strange mix between Euro and American styling, with some cool names (you can still buy a new Falcon or Fairlane, for instance). Some older Australian domestics are also very American looking...slightly smaller versions of American styling.

Anyway, this is what I thought was odd...RHD versions of cars I have never seen in RHD. I know it was common for RHD cars to be made for export through the 50s...but these are all much more modern. I really didn't know most of these existed. They all look like factory or pro jobs, not some yokel doing a conversion in his garage. So, here are some examples.

Ford Bronco
 
Mercury Monarch
 
Impala

F Series

American style Fairlane

Sedan DeVille

Saleen Mustang

Caprice wagon

Pontiac

Another Pontiac

lancerfixer

Wonder what the shipping costs would be.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2473572- 116&category=2030

jlawrence01

Even though the Aussie dollar is worth about US 0.80 up from 0.50 a couple of years ago, the prices on EBay Australia seem to be very high as compared to US prices.

What do you think??

fintail

Very high prices. Even at 50% a lot of it would be steep. I checked out a late rate 74.2 US cents for an AU$

That linked car above is like a 5/6ths scale 74 Chrysler product. Funny.

andre1969

of that style of Aussie Mopar. I'm not really sure, but I think they're actually Darts underneath, with different sheetmetal, rooflines, interiors, etc.

I know when the Aussies got their version of the Duster/Demon, it was much cooler than the one we got. The one we got was basically just a cheap little thing meant to compete with Mavericks and such at the bottom end of the compact market, but the Aussie version looked more like a scaled down early 70's Charger.

fintail

Like this?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2474516- 185&category=2030

andre1969

that's it. I think those little suckers are awesome! I think around the cowl/windshield A-pillar area it bears a strong Duster/Demon resemblance (they were actually different from the Dart/Valiant hardtops, which were, themselves, just a bit different from the sedans), but otherwise it looks completely different. Proportioning is similar though, as I think that Aussie Charger has the same 108" Duster/Demon wheelbase. Me likey! ;-)

fintail

It's not a bad looking old car, yeah

Here's another

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2473574- 578&category=2030

michaellno

An early 80's Renault Le Car. Fly yellow, with the big fabric moonroof. Couldn't get close enough to judge its condition, but the simple fact that it was keeping up with traffic at 55-60 MPH was, I thought, pretty amazing!

fintail

Thing must have been redlined

Speaking of Renaults, I saw an Eagle Medallion this morning, which was a Renault 21 rebadged, and from what I know, still employed all of the craftsmanship and reliability of a mid 1980s design French car.

michaellno

I almost bought one of those back in '89 or '90! I remember being on the test drive and the salesman was telling us a funny story about another test drive he was on.

Seems that the tach on those Medallions was marked 10, 20, 30, 40 (x100) instead of the usual 1, 2, 3, 4 (x1000). He told the prospective buyer to take the next corner at 30, which he promptly did. The problem was, the buyer was looking at the tach and not the speedometer and was in third gear! The salesman guesses that they were doing 50 or 60 around this corner. Scared the you-know-what out of both of them.

Got a laugh out of that, but ended up not buying the car. In hindsight, a pretty good decision.

2003tls

My old 1984 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cierra had the "sports gauge" package and its tach read 10, 20, 30, etc. x100 instead of 1, 2, 3, etc. x 1000. I always thought that it was odd. Of course, maybe a tach in a mid-80's FWD V6 Oldsmobile wasn't odd enough.

fintail

I think you made a great decision. When was the last time anyone saw a Medallion? They seem to have been real fall-apart cars.

I used to see a very decrepit Eagle Premier around a couple years back. I am sure it is dead.

I bet a tach in a Ciera is rare indeed.

wimsey1

There are still a few Eagle Premiers lurking around here under their own power. I can hardly remember what the Medallion looks like.

andre1969

Kind of a cross between an old Audi 5000, a Subaru Loyale, and a toaster. In a twisted sort of way, I kinda liked them, though!

I had a cousin who used to have an Eagle Premier. He had an '85 or so 5th Avenue, but his wife was involved in a multiple car accident with it. I think it was the only car that would still run after that little demolition derby, but was still totaled. Well, by this time they weren't making M-bodies anymore, so he bought an Eagle Premier. Probably the biggest mistake he made in his life!

I don't know how long it lasted, because he died soon thereafter (summer or '90, IIRC) from diabetes. Then I didn't see his wife for awhile. She and her new husband drive a current-gen Taurus now though, so it's doubtful that Premier made a good enough impression on her to stick it out with Mopar nameplates.

Kind of a shame that the car ended up being so bad. I've driven a few Premiers, and I kinda liked the way they handled. And they were pretty comfortable and roomy inside.

I'm not sure if this is true or not, but I heard that the Premier actually served as the inspiration for the Intrepid/Concorde/Vision. They also had a longitudinal engine/FWD layout, and I think they were built at the same factory, werent't they?

fintail

I liked both those Eagle sedans when new too, as I thought they were very European, and at that time my junior-high school aged self wouldn't give any American car the time of day. Now, they are like the Edsel of the late 80s...a weird orphan.

michaellno

IIRC, I think my (first) wife and I ended up buying an '88 Isuzu Trooper. 4000lbs, 120hp and an automatic transmission. 0-60 took, like, forever.

Kept that until Gulf War I and gas was (gasp!) $1.50/gallon.

The one thing about the Eagle Premier (and Dodge Monaco?) was that it did not have a traditional turn signal on the stalk. There was a little paddle on the dashboard to the left of the steering wheel - up for right, down for left. Odd.

But, I liked the clean lines of them as well .. guess that was why I was attracted to the Trooper.

kyfdx

VW pickup in driveway on the way to drop my son off for school.. Must be a whole VW family. A couple of Golfs with aftermarket wheels, a Jetta and an Audi TT coupe.

andre1969

one of the other members had an '86 or so Trooper. It had a stick shift, though. I haven't talked to that guy in awhile, but I do remember he had some pretty high miles on it. I think he said he only paid around $12-13K for it, and with the way the prices on the newer ones were running, he wanted to make it last as long as he could. For all I know, he might still have it.

And yeah, I remember crying about that $1.50 gas during the Gulf War, too. Suddenly $1.50 doesn't seem so bad, although I'm sure that, adjusted for inflation, it's worse than the $1.80 or so it's averaging nowadays!

Mr_Shiftright

I had one of those early Troopers. They WERE slow, but very sturdy. Sold it to an old girlfriend, she rolled it comin' down the mountain. You had to be careful with those things!
Her mother was in the car. I was a suspect but they never proved anything.

andre1969

in '93, when I was getting out of college, finally had a full time job, and thought the prosperity would never end. That was around when SUV's were just starting to get popular, and I'll admit I was kinda bitten by the bug.

Out of all the SUV's I looked it, I think I liked the Trooper the best. It felt the roomiest inside, and had a sunroof you could pilot the Galactica through. The Pathfinder had kind of a "cool" factor to it, but I didn't like the fact you couldn't get a power sunroof back then, and it really was too cramped inside.

I forget how much hp that Trooper had, but I think it had a 3.5 V-6. The reality hit me though that I would be blowing $27K or more on something that was slower than my Dart, got about the same gas mileage, and would delay my getting a place of my own for God-only-knows how many years.

michaellno

Ours was an '89, with the 2.6L 4 banger. It was a dealer demo (5000 miles) and we got it for, I think, $17K. While slow, it was enormous inside, which worked out well when we had our son a few months later. It was the two-tone gold-and-white combination with the alloy wheels and bronzed window treatment.

Also took it 4-wheeling quite a bit with some cousins - one had a Cherokee, the other a Ranger pickup. Good times, even though I couldn't go everywhere they could due to a lack of power.

Sold it in '91 for $8550 and bought a Mazda Protege as a replacement

andys120

an original teeny-tiny Mini in British trim (RHD).
Badge on rear said "1.3" (1275?). This was a v. 1.5 with instrumentation on right instead of center.

It was red with decals denoting that it was a Cooper S on the rear fenders. Red/White roof, reasonably straight, for sale marking on (roll-up)windows ($9995),

Mr_Shiftright

Probably a fake at that price but maybe they are discounting for RHD, which is an easy 30% off in the USA.