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

tjc78

78ish Black Coupe Deville and a first generation Ford F150 Lightning. Looked awfully low, can't remember if that was factory or not.

fintail

In terms of timeless elegance and eventual value, the coupe - but for fintail bragging rights, only a W112 300SE or a Universal will do. Those sedans have an engine related to that in the 300SL gullwing, and were finished to a standard as high as the coupes (they also cost as much as the coupes, very expensive, maybe 8-10K back then). Unfortunately, the suspensions are not fun to deal with, and they rusted like any other fintail, so they are very rare today. I've only personally seen a few in the 20 years I have been following the cars.

Speaking of Caprice taxis, I saw this in Zurich in 2009:

lemko said:

If you had to pick one?

Mr_Shiftright

If I were going to use the car regularly, I'd pick the 190---cheapest to fix, most fun to drive, economical and enough power to get by in most situations, no problem. I was never fond of large, heavy coupes of any make or model, and the 300 is a maintenance headache.

fintail

I like to think my 220SE is a good one in the fintail world - I get the FI and a little added chrome, but no air suspension, and a less complex engine. The 190 would have to be a gas.

Speaking of obscure, I saw this today, and it speaks to the speculation going on in the world of "modern classics", probably because of the insane appreciation being had by 70s-90s era Ferraris and Porsche. This is an E60 AMG, the final run of W124 AMG, and the most evolved 124 AMG. This is much rarer than any 500E and I am pretty sure it is less common than a "Hammer". This is at the MB Classic Center/Youngtimer display at the MB Museum, where you can buy cars. All cars are low mileage and pristine:



Look at the price, wow.

robr2

Really?? €189,000??

texases

Passed a BMW 'Clown Shoe' today, couldn't tell if it was an "M". Distinctive and fun, as long as the rear suspension remains attached!

sda

< With GM though, it seemed like a lot of a car's identity was tied up in the engine.

I agree with your summary and had GM gone with a more corporate engine model like Chrysler and Ford, it is possible those engines would have been better as a result of more concentrated engineering dollars to design them. There were a lot of weak engines durability and horse power wise out of the different car lines. Some that come to mind are the Duke 151, Chevy 229 V6, Buick 231 (105 hp in 76), Olds 260 (110hp) and Pontiac 301. The Olds 260 diesel was a joke, and the Olds 350 diesel ran out pretty good but suffered all kinds of head gasket and fuel system issues.

Mr_Shiftright

Lotta money for what looks like a taxicab in Athens. No thanks.

fintail said:

I like to think my 220SE is a good one in the fintail world - I get the FI and a little added chrome, but no air suspension, and a less complex engine. The 190 would have to be a gas.

Speaking of obscure, I saw this today, and it speaks to the speculation going on in the world of "modern classics", probably because of the insane appreciation being had by 70s-90s era Ferraris and Porsche. This is an E60 AMG, the final run of W124 AMG, and the most evolved 124 AMG. This is much rarer than any 500E and I am pretty sure it is less common than a "Hammer". This is at the MB Classic Center/Youngtimer display at the MB Museum, where you can buy cars. All cars are low mileage and pristine:



Look at the price, wow.

kyfdx

texases said:

Passed a BMW 'Clown Shoe' today, couldn't tell if it was an "M". Distinctive and fun, as long as the rear suspension remains attached!

Look for those 4 tail pipes...

If I had another space in the garage and a spare $15K-$20K, I would want one of those..

explorerx4

A maroon Olds Aurora in pretty good shape.

ab348

sda said:

I agree with your summary and had GM gone with a more corporate engine model like Chrysler and Ford, it is possible those engines would have been better as a result of more concentrated engineering dollars to design them. There were a lot of weak engines durability and horse power wise out of the different car lines. Some that come to mind are the Duke 151, Chevy 229 V6, Buick 231 (105 hp in 76), Olds 260 (110hp) and Pontiac 301. The Olds 260 diesel was a joke, and the Olds 350 diesel ran out pretty good but suffered all kinds of head gasket and fuel system issues.

Really, most of the SBC variants being built in that era were pretty crummy engines.

fintail

Yup, 189K Euro for that E60. With less than rare 993s riding a speculative wave, maybe they think they can cash in on 90s nostalgia.

Here's another car for sale at the same location:

tjc78

Mid 70s Grand Wagoneer. Looked mint.

robr2

fin - see if they have a W201 190E AMG. I'm willing to go up to $3K on one.

fintail

They actually have Ringo Starr's W201 AMG, but not for sale.

robr2 said:

fin - see if they have a W201 190E AMG. I'm willing to go up to $3K on one.

omarman

fintail said:

They actually have Ringo Starr's W201 AMG, but not for sale.

You can always rent-a-Ringo

berri

Ringo eats Pizza Hut, well British cuisine must have influenced his palate

robr2

Actually, American dollars must have affected his palate. He never actually eats the pizza in the commercial.

Now about that 190. I know it's not for sale but offer the $3K. I'm sure they'll bite at that.

uplanderguy

Geez, Ringo and three of the four Monkees in one commercial?

I'm a fat guy and even I don't eat Pizza Hut...LOL.

tjc78

Eww... Pizza Hut Of course living where I live there are 10 pizza shops in a two square mile area to choose from.

kyfdx

There is too much good pizza out there, to waste calories on mass-market brands.

stever

Mine have been lousy lately. Maybe it's because stuff always seems to taste better when someone else makes it but it's probably really the extra bit of altitude here (~4,000+ feet) that's messing up my dough.

Okay, @fintail, what do you have for us today? And I don't mean Pizza Hütte (actually ate at one of those back in the 70s).

robr2

To be honest, I like Pizza Hut and Dominoes. Is it the greatest? Of course not but it's fine in a pinch.

I too have a dozen or so pizza shops within a 15 minute drive. My favorite is a Greek style pizza shop that is owned by an Indian family.

ab348

robr2 said:

I too have a dozen or so pizza shops within a 15 minute drive. My favorite is a Greek style pizza shop that is owned by an Indian family.

Butter Chicken pizza!

robr2

Nah - no curry there. Just the Greek pizza and the roast beef sandwiches found only in New England.

roadburner

For inexpensive but good pizzas I like Papa Murphy's pizzas cooked on my Big Green Egg grill. Outstanding.

fintail

Dominos Brooklyn Style is good. Papa Murphys thin crust is also good.

Shameful admission - I love hitting up a Pizza Hut at least a couple times when I am in Germany. It's really different here. It tastes good, the prices are reasonable, and it is insanely popular - there will often be no open tables, often people waiting to be seated, and reservations are recommended. At a Pizza Hut. It's like a parallel universe.

For obscure cars? Not many oldies on the road here compared to the PNW, as inspection standards cull out the herd. Most old (say pre-1990) cars are MB, with a BMW here and there. Very little else, unless it is a vintage car with historic plates. I did see a Smart roadster, those seem kind of cool.

magnette

Pizza is something I've never experienced - i have an allergy to cheese...

kyfdx

magnette said:

Pizza is something I've never experienced - i have an allergy to cheese...

No cheese? I always thought that would be the one food I couldn't give up.

Michaell

magnette said:

Pizza is something I've never experienced - i have an allergy to cheese...

I know it seems odd, but I've seen pizzas made with crust, sauce and toppings only. No cheese.

robr2

Cheese allergy or lactose intolerant? If the latter, cheddar cheese does not contain lactose. There are also soy mozzarella cheeses available.

stever

Interesting, my rice milk drinking spouse didn't know that about cheddar. She can't handle soy either. Guess I'll switch around my pizza recipe a bit more.

Speaking of cheap pizzas, I made a lot of boxed Boy-Ar-Dee pies camping. Cooked them over a fire or a stove in a big skillet. Darn tasty, but most food tastes a lot better when you're out camping. Now I'm sort of getting a hankering for some fried spam .

Drove 20 miles around town today, saw nothing interesting on the road.

stickguy

dang. I love spam. my wife won't let me buy it though. Need to go sneak a can when she isn't around!

imidazol97

robr2 said:

Cheese allergy or lactose intolerant? If the latter, cheddar cheese does not contain lactose. There are also soy mozzarella cheeses available.

I learn something useful and interesting everyday on this forum.

berri

Speaking of cheap pizzas, I made a lot of boxed Boy-Ar-Dee pies camping

I used to love doctoring those up back in my youth

omarman

Headed west toward Worthington (and into some force 7 wind on the Beaufort scale!) spotted a well-kept, '72 Buick Riv loaded on a Shamrock rollback tow truck. Nice 70's earth tone beige called Sandalwood for Buick and something else for the rest of GM I think.

andre1969

kyfdx said:

magnette said:

Pizza is something I've never experienced - i have an allergy to cheese...

No cheese? I always thought that would be the one food I couldn't give up.

I had to give up cheese...or at least cut back. Last time I had blood work done, my cholesterol came back too high. But not so bad that he put me on medication...he's trying to get me to eat healthier, first. It's a losing battle though, I'm afraid. I thought I was doing well but last night I had a hot dog and it tasted SOOOOO good!

One of my friends has lactose issues, so he stays off the cheese as much as possible. Although, we usually have a tv/pizza night at my house on Friday nights, and he'll indulge a bit.

uplanderguy

I tend to like thin pizza. Among chains, I like Donato's, although it seems like they came up our way and fizzled for the most part. There's one maybe six or seven miles from us.

Best pizza I ever ate--Joe's in Santa Monica, CA. My daughter and I ate there even in the morning, it was so good. New York-style pizza, big floppy slices. Got talking to a guy in there who said he drives fifteen miles each way for a slice of their cheese pizza!

berri

The best pizza I ever ate was at a place in Rockford, IL, believe it or not, called Lino's. Chicago sausage pizza at its best (and thin crust).

stevedebi

uplanderguy said:

I tend to like thin pizza. Among chains, I like Donato's, although it seems like they came up our way and fizzled for the most part. There's one maybe six or seven miles from us.

Best pizza I ever ate--Joe's in Santa Monica, CA. My daughter and I ate there even in the morning, it was so good. New York-style pizza, big floppy slices. Got talking to a guy in there who said he drives fifteen miles each way for a slice of their cheese pizza!

I like Pizza Hut thin crust. It really tastes good.

fintail

Saw a very clean early 80s VW Passat and a nice brown MB W116 on an Autobahn south of Ulm this morning. Now I am in Austria, cars seem older than Germany, but nothing rare yet.

ab348

Today in traffic, I was behind a mid-80s Nissan Micra 5-door, faded red, some rust, and couldn't get out of its own way. It might have been stuck in second gear because it was really slow moving from a stop. I don't think these were sold in the US but Nissan Canada sold a bunch here into the "cheapest car possible" segment that Canadians always seem to like. These were considered crappy up here even when new. Haven't seen one in years.

Michaell

ab348 said:

Today in traffic, I was behind a mid-80s Nissan Micra 5-door, faded red, some rust, and couldn't get out of its own way. It might have been stuck in second gear because it was really slow moving from a stop. I don't think these were sold in the US but Nissan Canada sold a bunch here into the "cheapest car possible" segment that Canadians always seem to like. These were considered crappy up here even when new. Haven't seen one in years.

The Micra was never offered here in the US.

andre1969

According to Wikipedia, it looks like the Micra was about 149" long. So, I guess about the size of the original Chevy Metro, or an old Subaru Justy?

stever

Canada got all the good cars.

fintail

Hey ab348, do you ever see any original Hyundai Pony around, or Hyundai Stellar? Back east, I am sure they all rotted away 15-20 years ago, along with all the Ladas. I remember when they were all over western BC.

ab348

I have not seen a Stellar in many, many years. They were not a very good car. The same would have been true for the Pony but I saw an absolutely mint-condition one in traffic about a year ago. Couldn't believe my eyes, it looked original but like it just came out someone's garage in 1985. Most of them disappeared 20 years ago.

fintail

Interesting. Maybe 15 years ago, around Vancouver anyway, they all disappeared. The late 90s were a good time for oddball cars there, if you liked crapcans - early Hyundais galore, and Ladas were not unknown. Sometimes I think about 2/3 of K-Car production also made it to Canada.

ab348 said:

I have not seen a Stellar in many, many years. They were not a very good car. The same would have been true for the Pony but I saw an absolutely mint-condition one in traffic about a year ago. Couldn't believe my eyes, it looked original but like it just came out someone's garage in 1985. Most of them disappeared 20 years ago.

fintail

Today I was driving behind a Fiat Freemont, which is a rebadged Dodge Journey. I don't think it is really obscure, but it made me think that "Fremont" was the name of Mr. Wilson's (Joseph Kearns) dog on "Dennis the Menace" and then I realized I have too much wacko trivia in my head (I think it was an Airedale). I also saw a new style Chrysler 300 badged as a Lancia Thema, and a stylish looking young woman in an early 450SL.

andre1969

Freemont was a little dog, some kind of Scottish terrier I think. Not a little pocket dog, like what Lisa Douglas would carry around on the farm, but still small-ish. I think the dog that played Smiley on Hazel, and Tramp on My Three Sons might have been an Airedale, or at least a mix. I used to have a dog that we thought was some kind of Airedale Terrier mix, although he got up to around 110 lb, and we never groomed him to look like they do in the pics. I think a real Airedale is supposed to only get to around 60 lb or so.

On the obscure car front, as I was taking out some trash today, I saw a late 70s/early 80's Corvette rumble past at a low speed. It was red, and kind of faded looking.