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

berri

Ima - I like the bit peculiar 2dr Rambler American wagon. Looks like maybe a mid 60's green and white Rambler next to it. What can I say, growing up in the Chicago area back then wasn't all that far from Kenosha. They were fairly common on the roads.

uplanderguy

RE.: That Rambler American--a Latin teacher who was also my seventh-grade homeroom teacher, had either a '62 or '63 Rambler American convertible back in the late sixties or so. It seemed to fit her.

bhill2

berri said:

Ima - I like the bit peculiar 2dr Rambler American wagon. Looks like maybe a mid 60's green and white Rambler next to it. What can I say, growing up in the Chicago area back then wasn't all that far from Kenosha. They were fairly common on the roads.

Oh man, I completely missed the green and white Rambler. It looks to me like a '64. My folks had a '64 that same green (no white top).

berri

Back in the 60's the American's sold well in the Chicago area because they had a reputation as fairly reliable, economical and "cheap". I liked the 63-66 full size Rambler, but the one you seemed to see in the mall lots the most in that era were the 58-62 Rambler wagons. They seemed to move a lot of those Kenosha Kadillac wagons around my suburbs at least. Rambler was pretty early with the window into the tailgate wagon thing and that roof dip accommodating a roof rack was kind of slick really. OK, Uplander is gonna one up that with the Studebaker Wagonaire sliding roof - just kidding Up Neat times back then.

PF_Flyer

It's July. They come out in July here

kyfdx

I saw a Nash Metropolitan today. Restored condition

xwesx

I had mine out today. But, I was working it. Like I pretty much always do!

uplanderguy

I remember a fair amount of '63-64 Rambler "Cross Country" wagons around town when I was growing up. I guess I never paid attention to the lowered roof section in the rear you mention.

I'm not a fan, generally, of wagons where the rear door is identical to the sedan; the rear roof section is lower than above the seats, and generally the concept looks like a sedan with extended roof grafted on--e.g., the first Honda Accord wagons. But Rambler was on a roll in the early sixties, and it seems their wagons were a pretty big part of it.

It's funny that Studebaker remained Studebaker after the merger with Packard, but Nash became "Rambler" after the merger with Hudson. That didn't seem to hurt sales at all; in fact, seemed to help improve them. And of course, later in the sixties, even "Rambler" reverted to only one model and the brand itself was called "American Motors" or "AMC" after the Corporate name.

sda

Some pics of the 89 Seville I had in the mid 90s.

uplanderguy

Nice wheels, nice car. For some reason, looks right for today to me, and I couldn't say that when they came out!

fintail

Looks to be in nice shape for 85K miles on a car of that era, too.

sda

Sorry for the pictures not posting correctly. It was a one owner car, and very nicely kept. As benjaminh has pointed out about how much nicer his TLX interior is compared to an Accord, the same can be said of this Seville. It really had some nice details, real wood, thick carpet, soft and supple leather. All the switches had a nice tactile feel. On the message center, not pictured, I got tickled when I started the car, it would give a quick ping and display Good morning, Good afternoon, Good evening. It would also display if something was wrong, such as headlight out, radiator fan default, etc. It would show engine details such as temp, volts and had mode for a digital tachometer, though not ideally placed for good visibility. It was a pleasant car to drive and was reliable. In retrospect I wish I had kept it longer than the year I had it, but the new car bug hit and I leased a '96 black Mazda Millenia.

benjaminh

@sda : How was the Millenia? Looks nice. Top-of-the-line Mazda for its day.

berri

Back then everyone lauded Honda handling and suspension, but I think you could argue that Mazda was even more European in nature.

uplanderguy

At first glance I thought that was a Buick Century of about the same era. Someone cribbed the other's wheel styling, but not sure who zoomed who.

fintail

Concurrent evolution at best. The Millennia was on the road in late 1993, if it matters. Catchy trendy name for a car, a name that seemed pretty outdated by 2002. The design aged far better, but that's in the era where many cars from then don't seem "old" now. Or maybe I am just old

Out on the road this morning before the heat, pulled up next to a W123 300D on a suburban arterial road. I had my window down, and roughly paced it until 35-40 mph. The car sounded healthy, and had a lot of patina - I wondered how many miles were on it. It was moving right along, impressive as it was a non-turbo model. As those were MY 1977-80, it is roughly a 40 year old car likely on the road for most or all of that time.

Also saw a Contour SVT.

sda

benjaminh said:

@sda : How was the Millenia? Looks nice. Top-of-the-line Mazda for its day.

I really liked the Millenia. It drove great, was peppy, had a great snarl and velvety smooth when pushed, nicely appointed interior with higher grade materials, Bose stereo with center channel with rich sound, winter package that included heated seats, heavy duty wiper motor and battery. I liked it so much that when the lease came up I bought a '98 in Twilight Mica Blue that was similarly equipped. The residual value

on the '96 was set so high it didn't make sense to buy it, though I tried to buy at a lesser price, no dice. I tired of the '98 fairly soon as it seemed like I was driving the same car and bought a CPO '98 Catera, which was a lovely car but liked the repair garage with great frequency.

sda

I think I am challenged today, not having good luck posting pictures. These are of the '98 Millenia. They also decontented it from the '96, which was a disappointment, and I didn't realize until I purchased it. My current Accord is a similar color as the Catera, lol.

benjaminh

The first car I bought myself was a used 1969 Pontiac Catalina Safari Wagon. It was a 9 passenger monster with a 400 cubic inch V-8. It had a "magic" two-way tailgate that was a really nice piece of engineering. Sometimes I just opened and closed this both ways for no other reason than to see what GM engineers could do. Bought it in 1986, and owned it for a little less than a year. The headlight high beam indicator on the dash was the profile of Native American Chief Pontiac himself. Anyway, I do have some fondness for this dead brand, and so I present to you some pages for the brochure for the 1936 Pontiac.

One of the big sales points for the 1936 Pontiac is that it was engineered to last up to 100,000 miles, which back then was a big deal. For the era, I think the Pontiac did represent a good value, since prices began at less than $800. The dimensions of a 1936 Pontiac 8-cylinder sedan were similar to a midsize/full-size sedan today—194 inches long and 70 inches wide.

ab348

One of the things that I always wondered about from that era was if buyers saw any real difference between the flathead engines used by Pontiac, Olds, Cadillac, Packard, Ford and many others (which to me always seemed old-tech and inefficient big heavy lumps although smooth and quiet) versus the OHV engines used by Chevrolet and Buick among others. Clearly OHV was more advanced in terms of flow (and is still in use today to some extent) but did anyone know or care?

benjaminh

Buick made a big deal about its engines....

texases

Odd thing on that Pontiac brochure - it seems to say that all gears, including reverse, were synchronized. I hadn't seen that with reverse before.

fintail

Saw an R32 Skyline - more common in the great white north, but not an everyday sight here.

ab348

texases said:

Odd thing on that Pontiac brochure - it seems to say that all gears, including reverse, were synchronized. I hadn't seen that with reverse before.

Well, it says it is silent in reverse. Maybe that just means they used a different type of gear.

texases

ab348 said:

texases said:

Odd thing on that Pontiac brochure - it seems to say that all gears, including reverse, were synchronized. I hadn't seen that with reverse before.

Well, it says it is silent in reverse. Maybe that just means they used a different type of gear.

I think you're right, the drawing only shows helical cut gears, which would be quieter than straight cut gears often used for reverse.

benjaminh

After 19 years of thinking about it, I finally drive with my wife to the Swope Cars of Yesteryear Museum in Elizabethtown, KY. It's just a 45 minute drive from our house, but somehow we'd never gotten to it until today. Recommended! Admission rates are below. And below that is the first car outside that we saw that maybe someone can try to ID before I reveal the answer.

ab348

Looks like a '55 Chrysler New Yorker?

benjaminh

ab348 said:

Looks like a '55 Chrysler New Yorker?

We have a winner.++

benjaminh

The other one that was out front. And a view inside.

benjaminh

"Ask the man who owns one." Any guesses on the year?

benjaminh

texases

1920?

fintail

The dark Packard I will guess 1926-7 or so, and it has maybe an aftermarket grille insert with vertical bars. The light colored open car is perhaps a few years older, with those steering wheel controls.

texases

Youngest Packard I can find with those controls on the steering wheel is a '24 Single Six...

xwesx

benjaminh said:

"

Hah! Fun stuff. Reminds me of the controls on our old tractor.

benjaminh

texases said:

1920?

Yeah, pretty close.

benjaminh

Here's another....

benjaminh

I would never get this car from just this one image in a hundred years. But maybe one of you can?

benjaminh

fintail said:

The dark Packard I will guess 1926-7 or so, and it has maybe an aftermarket grille insert with vertical bars. The light colored open car is perhaps a few years older, with those steering wheel controls.

1928. And they said it's unrestored. Even the paint and the seats are as they left the factory. Excellent condition in every detail as far as I could tell.

benjaminh

Any guesses?

texases

Looks to be late '30s Cadillac V12, with one of the nicest looking engines of that time (OHV and all). Was replaced with a flathead, I believe.

Edit - this V12 was made up to 1937, as was the V16 that the V12 was based on. It was the V16 that was replaced with a flathead in 1938.

benjaminh

texases said:

Looks to be late '30s Cadillac V12, with one of the nicest looking engines of that time (OHV and all). Was replaced with a flathead, I believe.

And this is one of only two of these 1937 Fleetwood V-12s still in existence—at least as far as is known.

ab348

Looks like a '55 Chrysler New Yorker?

benjaminh said:

I would never get this car from just this one image in a hundred years. But maybe one of you can?

That looks like an early '50s Hudson hood ornament.

imidazol97

blockquote class="Quote" rel="benjaminh">After 19 years of thinking about it, I finally drive with my wife to the Swope Cars of Yesteryear Museum in Elizabethtown, KY. It's just a 45 minute drive from our house, but somehow we'd never gotten to it until today. Recommended! Admission rates are below. And below that is the first car outside that we saw that maybe someone can try to ID before I reveal the answer.


Thanks for posting that information about the museum. While I was looking at the website, I found they have a virtual tour available. I was able to move around through the museum and rotate a full 360 degrees to look at everything! Perfect.

http://www.swopemuseum.com/Auto-Museum-Tour.asp

benjaminh

ab348 said:

That looks like an early '50s Hudson hood ornament.

Yes....

fintail

Saw a Porsche 996 Targa in traffic today, front corner scraped up, bumper could have been attached with the help of duct tape.

ab348

Here's something you don't see every day - a vehicle with a manual 5-speed on the column. Somehow "five on the tree" just doesn't have the same ring to it.

https://jdmwholesale.com/detail/879003

stickguy

that looks interesting.

Mr_Shiftright

fintail said:

Saw a Porsche 996 Targa in traffic today, front corner scraped up, bumper could have been attached with the help of duct tape.

Pretty much just a used car these days. Bad rep.

xwesx

ab348 said:

Here's something you don't see every day - a vehicle with a manual 5-speed on the column. Somehow "five on the tree" just doesn't have the same ring to it.

https://jdmwholesale.com/detail/879003

"five on the tree" and RHD? I don't know about you, but I would need a couple of days on a closed course before feeling comfortable with that on a public road! Hhahah