Mystery car pix

tmart

berri said:

"Put a tiger in your tank". I guess Esso was the west coast Enco gas stations?

Esso was East of the Mississippi, not on the West coast. Enco was mainly in the South and West. Esso, Enco, Humble were all brands of Humble Oil and Refining Co. Was a marketing nightmare in the U.S. until 1972. Esso is still used overseas.

kyfdx

berri said:

Then in the later 60's the Pontiac GTO used tigers in their ads as I recall, and one of the tire companies had a Tiger Paw line of tires I think.

Uniroyal, I think

andys120

So if you had a Pontiac GTO with Uniroyal tires and a tankful of Esso, you'd be a Triple Tiger!

bhill2

I (and probably 10,000 or so other people) always wished that Esso had used a bee as their mascot so he could be the Esso bee.

tmart

No bee, tigers rule!

andys120

tjc78

Second Generation Ford Probe...With the chrome wheels I'll go late run 1996.

andys120

tjc78 said:

Second Generation Ford Probe...With the chrome wheels I'll go late run 1996.

Even later, it's a MY 1997 Ford Probe. These were much nicer and sportier than the first gen cars. Originally Ford was going to use them to replace the Mustang which was a bad idea for a number of reasons, not least that the Fox-body 'Stangs sold very well so Ford was smart enough to leave them alone (RWD and all).

The Probes (awful name, that) were produced at Mazda's Flat Rock MI plant alongside the Mazda MX-6, a mechanical twin of the Probe.

ab348

stickguy

odd kick up at the front of the back doors. never seen that before.

kyfdx

Ugh

Mr_Shiftright

While you're busy going to the sink getting rid of that photo, you might want to ponder this mystery car when you've finished washing your eyes out.

tjc78

The Chrysler is an 80-81 Imperial.  That may even be the Frank Sinatra Edition

tjc78

berri

Ironic, that was the Imperial I was just talking about in the other old car blog. Nice looker, but a mess to own as i recall.

tjc78

I believe if you disable the “lean burn” they are much better to deal with.

berri

It is certainly a rarity to see one, but that was also true when they were new. I do like its styling though and it had some good colors as well.

Mr_Shiftright

Yes, the Rat Pack Edition! I think it was only offered for a few years, right?

andys120

Better looking>

stickguy

not really

ab348

ab348 said:

Nobody bit on this so I’ll spill. It’s a DS 3 Sportback, from the “premium” DS brand of French automaker PSA.

berri

Very nice. I like the color.

texases

So is DS a Citroen?

ab348

Apparently a different brand entirely, but built on Citroen platforms..

Michaell

ab348 said:

Apparently a different brand entirely, but built on Citroen platforms..

And if things had broken differently 10 years ago, this could have been a Saturn...

lostwrench1

Wow, a 1963 Imperial Le Baron.

andys120

lostwrench1 said:

Wow, a 1963 Imperial Le Baron.

Yup! It's a lot prettier than that blocky Sinatra special.

lostwrench1

andys120 said:

lostwrench1 said:

Wow, a 1963 Imperial Le Baron.

Yup! It's a lot prettier than that blocky Sinatra special.

There is a story about that Le Baron's plaque on its C pillar which was made of real gold and silver and considered "fine jewelry" requiring the payment of an excise tax.

andys120

A couple of interesting things about the '63 Imperial LeBaron

-The unique "floating headlight" treatment.

-There was no pillared sedan.

omarman

'63 Imperial Crown convertible sports a working toilet seat trunk lid. Well, working as a trunk lid that is.

fintail

"WE'RE the ones in the Imperial and WE'RE running last?!" (a 62)

texases

I'd sure like to hear the logic for putting that ultra-lux styling treatment on this:

Mr_Shiftright

Something definitely got into the water supply at the Valiant Design Studio. But you know, it is so implausible, so freakily weird, so Robby the Robot----I'm rather fond of it. It's like some teapot from an eastern European country.

andys120

ENGLAND SWINGS>

Mr_Shiftright

Looks like.... an MG Magnette, next to the Jugular.

ab348

I'll take a shot: L to R, Jag Mark 2, Rover P5, Hillman Minx, Vauxhall Victor, Mini, Hillman Minx.

Surprised to see an Arthur Murray School of Dancing there in the background.

fintail

Parked on the street behind the iron fence looks like a Bugeye Sprite with a Ford (Consul perhaps, grille looks flat) behind it and a Renault 4 in front of it.

Mr_Shiftright

Oh yeah, that might be a P5. Not sure if it is, or a Magnette. Not exactly famous cars. But it doesn't have the tail fins or the low marker lights, so yeah, maybe a P5. The curve in the grille, too.

andys120

ab348 said:

I'll take a shot: L to R, Jag Mark 2, Rover P5, Hillman Minx, Vauxhall Victor, Mini, Hillman Minx.

Surprised to see an Arthur Murray School of Dancing there in the background.

Not surprised to see the Royal Dental Hospital, Brits are known for their bad teeth.

Mr_Shiftright said:

Oh yeah, that might be a P5. Not sure if it is, or a Magnette. Not exactly famous cars. But it doesn't have the tail fins or the low marker lights, so yeah, maybe a P5. The curve in the grille, too.

Sure looks like a P5 to me, Grille is too big for the MG. I see Rover P5s in all those Brit mystery/detective shows on TV. I think they were really popular at the time.

andys120

Another Brit from back then showing an odd location for the floor shift

stickguy

would be a lot easier for an American to use that. But I can't imagine how convoluted that shift linkage must be.

Mr_Shiftright

You can really see this very well, unfortunately, but if you like weird gear shift linkage, this EMW from 1951 is hard to beat.

The column shifter has linkage that goes under the dash and connects to the original floor shifter! So as you shift up top, you can see the linkage moving down below. ! I never drove the car so I don't know exactly how it works.

stickguy

I had a 1975ish Hornet back in my college days. Manual of course. 3 speed on the floor. But, the odd thing was when you shifted, a collar on the column would move. Pretty sure that it was originally a column shift, and some prior owner converted it to floor shift. Worked fine, other than occasionally the linkage would get hung up, and you had to get at it (I honestly can't remember if from under the hood, or under the car!) to unbind it.

andys120

Well I guess the shifter in my interior illustration was designed for people who are really right dominant. I've often wondered if I could drive a stick properly in the UK since it would be on my left.

I can remember that hot dodders in the late 50s would often install a floor shift since it seemed much more direct than a three (or four) on the tree. Many floor shifters back then had short linkages because they were close to the trans.

IIRC it was Mercedes that pioneered the console mounted auto shifter in the 60s. I've noticed new S-Class Benzes now have their shift lever on the column. Dunno why, it's not as if they've eliminated the console.

ab348

Column shifters in M-B are probably used for the same reason manufacturers are moving to the awful electronic beer-tap shifters in the console. They get rid of the mechanical linkages to free up storage space and make room for electronic doo-dads, cupholders, et al.

andys120

lostwrench1

1964 Olds 98.

andys120

lostwrench1 said:

1964 Olds 98.

Yup, and looking mighty hard to be mistaken for a Cadillac.

fintail

S-class has had a column shifter since MY 2007, E since MY 2010. I greatly prefer it, as it opens up a lot of room, and the auto console shifter, especially with a leather/pleather boot, is just a false pretense of sport anyway.

tjc78

The Tahoe we have at work (2013) has a column shifter despite a huge center console. I don’t mind it.