Mystery car pix

texases

I seem to remember Wheeler Dealers working on one when they were still in England.

magnette

Yes - they had a go at an SJ410 as well I think.

andys120

Mr_Shiftright said:

andys120 said:

That's pretty sound as a theory but you forgot the part about a light front end on a FWD contributing to vicious torque steer--especially on older FWD cars. Not sure how that guy ended up backwards--maybe he let up on the gas when he should have romped on it?

Most of the small, light front drivers I've driven didn't have enough torque to induce much torque steer.
The worst offenders were Saab 9000 Turbos (155hp) and a Ford Taurus SHO(225hp), neither of which I'd call small. Suspension design plays a part which is why some cars have hardly any torque steer and others have more than you'd think.

Mr_Shiftright

The Mini has pretty bad torque steer, and you can feel it in the Volvo C30, too. Probably the turbo cars show it the worst.

texases

Yeah, I never had much trouble with the 90 pounding hp on my '83 GTI...

andys120

texases said:

Yeah, I never had much trouble with the 90 pounding hp on my '83 GTI...

I had one as well. It was a [non-permissible content removed] to parallel park with no p/s (my last non-p/s car) but it had no torque steer for sure.

andys120

magnette

Would the Pontiac be a Catalina - say about 1965?

kyfdx

I think I wore that same outfit in 1965...

andys120

magnette said:

Would the Pontiac be a Catalina - say about 1965?

It's a 1964 Pontiac Catalina 2 door h/t. The VW I think is a little older, perhaps a '62 or '63.

Our family had the same stable back then. Our '64 Pontiac was a 4'dr h/t and me and my bros had a '65 Volkswagen.

thebean

I always loved the names Catalina & Bonneville. Beats the heck out of G6 and T1000.

bhill2

Yes, I miss the imaginative names given to various trim levels of cars. Besides, it was a matter of pride to know the names of the trims in increasing order of fanciness. For instance, if I put the trim levels of a 1958 Chevy in alphabetical order (Bel-Air, Biscayne, Delray, and Impala), most people could put it in trim order. Probably many could do the Plymouth (Belvedere, Fury, Plaza, Savoy). But fewer could do Rambler (Custom, Deluxe, Super), and how many know Studebaker (Champion, Commander, President, Scotsman)?

andys120

Well sometimes it got a little silly, as when Plymouth Fury wouldn't do so they came up with the Sport Fury and eventually IIRC the Fury III. :@

Mr_Shiftright

Jaguar and Lincoln ran out of Roman numerals. Never did see a Jaguar Mark XI or a Lincoln Mark IX.

kyfdx

They didn’t run out of Roman numerals. They ran out of fortitude to stick with their plan.

berri

My dad owned a 66 Plymouth Fury. I remember there was Fury I, Fury II, Fury III, Sport Fury and Fury VIP. You get get furious just deciding which was which

andys120

Car model names are more screwed up than ever. BMW used to have a nice simple system that told the relative size of the car and what was under the hood. Now that's gone the numbers mean nothing. They announced they'd use odd numbers for models w four doors and even for two doors.

The other day I saw a BMW 428i and it had four doors. What happened, I'm pretty sure 428 is an even number. Thens I remembered they now have Grand Coupe model. What's a "grand" coupe anyway?
Apparently it's a four door sedan they want you to pay more for than the regular four door. Why do they keep the stupid "i". It used to designate the ones that had fuel infection. Someone tell them every Korean econobox comes with fuelie these days

Cadillac is just as bad, everything is a (some letter)TS unless it's a crossover designated an XT something. Lincoln is an even worse mess, I can never remember which one is a MK-X or is it an MK-S.

Hyundai makes some nice crossovers but I can't tell which Western place name goes with which size. Is the big one a Santa Fe or a Tucson? To really confuse things their mini-van is a Sedona.
I'm waiting for them to come out with a Moose Jaw or a Medicine Hat.

Someone please tell the GMC Division to stop calling cars "Yukon Denali" Mt. Denali is not even in the same country as the Yukon Territory. Probably not many people are aware of this as the state of New Mexico now puts "New Mexico USA" on their license plate because too many dummies thought it was in regular Mexico!

I could go on.

omarman

Please go on! Do Mercedes next. I always had trouble sorting the old chassis designations before they re-shuffled the nomenclature. When I heard about the new GLC it made me think Mazda!
edit to add:

berri

Owned on of those years back and it was a great little car !

andys120

Mercedes isn't that bad IMO. At least the sedans all fit into the classic C/E/S scheme followed by a number that gives a clue as to what is under the hood. The SUVs and crossovers aren't that important to me but those are confusing and they keep adding and dropping model names.

I guess the GLK was replaced by the GLC, or was it the the GLA? My buddy has the GLA AMG
(some number). Apparently the ML series is long gone. I sorta liked those. Thank goodness they still offer the E300-TD wagon. That's the Benz I really dig but I wouldn't kick a C300 cabrio out of the garage either.

stickguy

Mercedes is about the only one that does make sense. A, C, E, S increasing size. GL in front specifies the SUV version of that size. They don't go off the rails until get into the weird coupe versions (CL?) But that at least follows the same size indicator.

Lincoln, no clue on those, but at least it seems they are moving back to names (Nautilus).

kyfdx

The ML was re-named GLE

bhill2

andys120 said:

Mercedes isn't that bad IMO. At least the sedans all fit into the classic C/E/S scheme followed by a number that gives a clue as to what is under the hood. The SUVs and crossovers aren't that important to me but those are confusing and they keep adding and dropping model names.

I guess the GLK was replaced by the GLC, or was it the the GLA? My buddy has the GLA AMG
(some number). Apparently the ML series is long gone. I sorta liked those. Thank goodness they still offer the E300-TD wagon. That's the Benz I really dig but I wouldn't kick a C300 cabrio out of the garage either.

Well it used to have a number that gave a clue what was under the hood. Now an E300 had a 2 liter and the E400 has a 3 liter.

omarman

I like that 1978 Mazda ad which points out that the GLC had a piston engine. I can still recall hearing 1973 radio spots from Mazda which featured springy sound effects for a piston engine but the Mazda goes MMMmmm. A year after that my sister got a new Mazda RX-3 wagon that liked to backfire. Hmmm...

berri

Yep, it was a Honda Civic competitor, but a bit roomier and sportier I felt.

fintail

Funny, the BMW is actually a "Gran Coupe" - like a 70s Gran Fury, no "d". Not sure why they did that. Well I know why the style exists, because of the CLS.

andys120

You're right about the success of the CLS being why BMW decided to make a 4-dr. coupe. OTOH the CLS looks different from the sedan. The 428i that I saw looked exactly the same as a 3 Series 4 door but looking at some pix on the net showed me there is a difference and it's a significant one.

428i Gran Coupe



So we see that as far as the nomenclature goes, a 4 Series may be a two door coupe or convertible or a five door Gran Coupe (a hatchback sedan on the rest of planet earth) whereas a three series can be either a four door sedan or a five-door Touring (a station wagon!)

That sure makes a lot of sense to me

At least BMW has finally come up w a hatchback that isn't butt ugly.

omarman

Much older but I thought this was a good looking hatchback. And for a very short time (and in very small numbers) it could be ordered with 175hp! Seemed impressive back then.

kyfdx

Dodge Lancer?

ab348

Those Lancers were a nice design, and along with the Spirit/Acclaim, probably the highest point of development fr the K-car platform.

berri

I think the Chrysler version was something like GTS?

Mr_Shiftright

I remember when the old Saab 900/5-door hatch Turbo was *THE* car for surfers and geeks to own in California.

tjc78

omarman said:

Much older but I thought this was a good looking hatchback. And for a very short time (and in very small numbers) it could be ordered with 175hp! Seemed impressive back then.

Always liked those.  I think they were a nicer car than the Acclaim/Spirit. 

omarman

1987 Dodge Lancer ES turbo 2.2 H body hatchback (also Chrysler LeBaron GTS).


1989 Lancer Shelby

omarman

If you click on the red '89 Lancer Shelby pic it's easier to spot the roof air spoiler and the intercooled turbo graphics on the lower body skirts indicating the turbo II 175 hp engine. The all red 1987 Shelby Lancers were modified by Shelby in California with ID plates marked "Shelby Automobiles." But after '87 the Dodge Lancer Shelby was built at the old Sterling Heights assembly plant in Michigan. Factory colors were red, white, or black.

andys120

stickguy

Gen 3 supra, 1990ish?

texases

??

fintail

I'll guess the Supra is a 91-92 with those wheels, maybe a Turbo. I knew a kid in high school who'd dad had one. I think the kid smashed it into a pole.

Next car is a Pontiac (Daewoo) LeMans, based on the Opel Kadett.

texases

It's related, but not a Pontiac.

texases

Hint - a brand I never heard of.

texases

And it's Canadian....

omarman

texases said:

And it's Canadian....

Daewoo rebadged in Canada as Passport Optima?



Edit: I've looked at a bigger resolution of the mystery car and now I think the emblems are Pontiac.

andys120

fintail said:

I'll guess the Supra is a 91-92 with those wheels, maybe a Turbo. I knew a kid in high school who'd dad had one. I think the kid smashed it into a pole.

Yup, it's a 1991 Toyota Supra Turbo S.

texases

Yet another brand name, only lasted a very few years...

texases

Here's one showing the logo:

andys120

Mr_Shiftright said:

I remember when the old Saab 900/5-door hatch Turbo was *THE* car for surfers and geeks to own in California.

Man, that's weird, I'd think that Saabs would be pretty rare in California. I once worked at a radio station in Boston and between us we had four or five Saabs, so did the GM but that's New England where they were more popular than in Sweden

Mr_Shiftright

No, they were popular in the Bay Area--popular enough to support a half-dozen Saab specialty shops.

andys120

Dining out>

stickguy

Renault Dauphine?