Mystery car pix

magnette

Also about a 71 or 72 AMC Ambassador wagon - it looks yellow but not clear due to haze - following what I think is a 74 or so Mercury Cougar

fintail

Oncoming a VW Squareback with a 66 Ford behind it, which seems so clean compared to burgeoning 70s bloat. Also a then-new Monte Carlo driving away from the camera, behind the Pinto.

I bet in that climate, 60 Fords were long gone by then.

omarman

3rd car ahead of the Pinto looks like a '73 Plymouth Satellite. Doesn't look like a patrol car but some kind of signage on it. Taxi maybe?

In the right lane, 2 cars ahead of the Satellite, is a '72 Torino.

The yellow wagon on the left behind the Cougar also looks like a Torino to me.
Maybe a '73.

stickguy

Satellite looks like a taxi. There is another dodge coming in with a police gum ball.

Far left, a 72ish blue charger. I like that style.

ab348

Cleaned up the Don Valley pic a bit and stuff is surprisingly more legible:

magnette

stickguy said:

Never heard of that hill an. I was pretty sure it wasn’t actually a 510 but was closest I could come up with, and in the pad don’t always get the best resolution.

The Arrow name was the Rootes Group internal code for all that family (in the same way ADO16 was the BMC 1100/1300 in all its variants). It included, from 1966 or so the late Hillman Minx and Hunter, Singer Vogue, Humber Sceptre and the fastback Sunbeam Rapier and was sold in UK under those brands but I think it was mainly sold in the US as a Sunbeam Arrow. In Iran they made many thousands as the Paykan by assembling a strengthened and simplified Hillman Hunter from kits sent from Coventry to Tehran.

Similarly the previous Hillman Minx and Sunbeam Rapier (the one with the fins from 1956- 66 were the Audax project.

I must admit i was surprised to see it on that photo, but having seen so many of them when I was growing up - I even drove a Minx with some college friends one weekend when we went somewhere. When it was launched the Arrow looked very much like the Ford Cortina Mk 2 - launched at the same show - but Ford always outsold it....

omarman

'69 Chevy Bel Air on the right next to a Monte Carlo.

edit: I think the back bumper and tail lights make that Monte a '74.

ab348

Nobody called out the Bunkie Bird coming over the rise on the far left. I think I see a '73 Bonneville convertible behind the Econoline van as well.

ab348

This is labeled as a pic from 1972 at the Canadian National Exhibition air show. Nothing in the air yet I guess.

texases

The leftover Expo '67 US exhibit in the background. I remember walking through it.

stickguy

Far left looks like a brown Capri.

fintail

Small car beside the motorcycle appears to be a Datsun 1200. Ahead of that, Renault 16, and a Squareback first car oncoming.

ab348

texases said:

The leftover Expo '67 US exhibit in the background. I remember walking through it.

Not exactly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Biosphere

texases

It's the leftover Expo '67 US exhibit, that was converted later (1992) into the Montreal Biosphere.

Better?

ab348

Well, the picture was taken in Toronto, so...

texases

Ohhhhh...so why the link to the Montreal biosphere? I got way off on the wrong trail...

ab348

Because you said it was the Expo 67 dome which you walked through? Which was (is) in Montreal?

texases

OK. In addition to seeing it in '67, we saw the biosphere dome from a distance a couple of years ago in Montreal, across the river, looked similar to that Toronto dome (no covering now, of course). Hence my confusion.

stickguy

I went to that in Montreal when I was a kid. someplace in the early-mid 70s. don't remember much about it though.

ab348

Downtown Toronto, early 1960s. These two shots were taken within seconds of each other. Among other things, the vans are interesting.

magnette

The leading minibus is a Mercedes Benz 319 Autobus - there was probably a specific brand name for it
The other one is a VW2 with an interesting and subtle form of engine cover, presumably for heat
Approaching is a 59 Chevrolet while another is following the VW.
The first shot also shows a 59 Buick convertible - maybe an Electra as it has a chrome strip

ab348

The curious thing about the M-B minibus is that it is branded Eaton's, which was (along with Simpson's) one of the two big department store chains in Canada back then. It appears to have seats so I wonder why they needed it. Perhaps in Toronto they picked up customers or delivered them back home, who knows. I know they didn't do that here.

magnette

I think Harrods used to have a coach that would collect from one or two of the main Railway stations and also the Air terminal years ago.

andys120

Left turn lane shows a '60 Ford turning and a 1964 behind it, ahead of the Eaton's bus.

fintail

Those 319s have a cult following nowadays. To the right of the VW , perhaps a big Healey.

I don't see the Fords,but I do see what appears to be a 63 Mercury in front of the Eaton's MB bus.

andys120

I meant to say it was a 1963-4 Merc behind the turning Ford. I don't see a VW or anything like a Healey. Are we talking about same pic?

fintail

There are two pics, the VW pic is the second/lower one, the VW being a van with a custom engine door.

andys120

Thanks Fin, now I see 'em. That is most definitely a big Healey (3000) with a luggage rack and a Type 2 microbus.

ab348

fintail said:

There are two pics, the VW pic is the second/lower one, the VW being a van with a custom engine door.

I thought so too but the more I look at it the more I suspect it is just a large cardboard box flattened and hung down to cover the air vents.

andys120

ab348 said:

fintail said:

There are two pics, the VW pic is the second/lower one, the VW being a van with a custom engine door.

I thought so too but the more I look at it the more I suspect it is just a large cardboard box flattened and hung down to cover the air vents.

I dn't know why anyone would block the flow of air to an air-cooled motor!!??

magnette

I assumed it meant the engine might get hot enough on a cold day to run without choke or perhaps to achieve heat in the cabin if its really cold - but I've never had to deal with air cooled engines cold weather

fintail

A budget-friendly custom! Shaped like that, maybe it also works as a kind of spoiler.

ab348 said:

I thought so too but the more I look at it the more I suspect it is just a large cardboard box flattened and hung down to cover the air vents.

andys120

Right the heaters on Type 2 VWs were notoriously ineffective. It wasn't that much of a problem for a Beetle because there was little volume to warm up but the Microbuses would be another problem.

Still, you'd want to get rid of the flap when warm weather arrives lest you start melting pistons.

fintail

I think this was labeled as Wilshire Blvd:

stickguy

looks like LA, with all the imports and plenty of MB.

Yellow rabbit convertible behind the big silver/blue one. the Benz a 73?

and next to the red BMW 320, waiting to come through, is that a Rover sedan?

fintail

Silver MB is a W116, introduced here for MY 73, but appears to have big bumpers, so 74+. I suspect it is a 450 SEL.

Angular quad light car next to the BMW appears to be a Subaru GL, maybe 1985-86 only with non-composite lights, possibly the newest car in the pic.

stickguy

a Sube? I can't get clear enough resolution to make that out. Lights look too big, but it is a smallish car.

anyway, a few cars back a bright red Karman Ghia, and a Datsun B210 behind that.

andys120

Red BMW E30 convert coming up behind white SL on left. Most likely badged 325i

magnette

andys120 said:

Right the heaters on Type 2 VWs were notoriously ineffective. It wasn't that much of a problem for a Beetle because there was little volume to warm up but the Microbuses would be another problem.

Still, you'd want to get rid of the flap when warm weather arrives lest you start melting pistons.

Perhaps when you could drive faster as the roads thawed the cardboard went up in the breeze or just fell off...

I read somewhere that the VW 2 van was made in Australia specifically for the Australian Army with larger vents up on the rear three- quarter panels - a lot higher than European ones and I think that was due to the dust typical on Oz roads.

I have not seen anything about similar modifications for say North Africa or the middle East, but VW did adapt their product to probably every market in some way.

ab348

Here is one that truly did mystify me. In the midst of that early-'70s Detroit iron, what is the iconoclastic person parked in the middle of the row driving?

tjc78

fintail said:

I think this was labeled as Wilshire Blvd:

81 Mercury Lynx right up front.. when was the last time anyone saw one of those?

stickguy

Ab, is that a Peugeot, from around Columbo vintage?

andys120

Reminds me of summer 1966 when the OPP raided a keg party I was at in Crystal Beach ONT. We had to pony up $50 USD to bail out my buddy.

Ford Torino parked next to bldg.

magnette

, what is the iconoclastic person parked in the middle of the row driving?



That is an Austin A99 Westminster made 1959-61 - rarer than the subsequent A110...

It was a Farina design, so generally resembles the Peugeot 404 and the Austin Cambridge etc but had the three litre six cylinder engine

stickguy

well, at least I give myself credit for seeing a resemblance to a Pug!

fintail

Even out here, it has been eons.

Notice the Lynx has a passenger mirror, where the MB W123s lack one - everything was optional.

I also notice the SLC turning in from left is either a Euro car or a 1973 MY car with Euro lights. And an elegant W111 coupe stopped facing the turning W116.

tjc78 said:

81 Mercury Lynx right up front.. when was the last time anyone saw one of those?

fintail

At OPP (yeah you know me) beside the iconoclast looks like a 71-72 LTD.

stickguy

65 olds cutlass to the right of the White truck?

magnette

I'm really surprised at seeing that A99 Westminster - they only made about 13,000
the A110 was more common and lasted a few years longer. As survivors even here they are extremely rare at car shows now.
And it really does look like the Pug 404 because it had that bar across the middle of the grille too.

texases

And out of that 13,000, how many could have gotten to LA? I guess, one, at least!