Mystery car pix

fintail

Above the white Z at center appears to be an Audi 100LS. Bottom center is a beige Toyota Corona Mark II.

ab348 said:

Let's go out west to Solvang, CA in the early 1970s. The cars shown are secondary to the buildings, the vibrant colors, and the quality of the picture itself.

fintail

Yep, I had no box attachment, just the Budgie pic. Your browser is playing tricks on you

What did you do on your holiday? We saw the new car park!

I know Coventry as the home of Jaguar. I wish there was some kind of centralized database here where one could tell how many of a certain car are still registered, but we can't even get states to agree on license plates, and I suspect each state uses a different software package for vehicle registrations.

magnette said:

It is indeed an A95 Estate - there are about two or three left anywhere according to an article in Practical Classics a few years ago, and I haven't seen any of them !

Had forgotten about Budgie Toys, but had a couple of those in the day as well - although never an A95.

Interestingly there is also a grey A95 saloon parked in the nearest row next to the white Ford Consul.

This view wouldn't sell Coventry as a tourist destination but the car parking was all new in the early sixties as it was the first town in Britain to get new car parks above the rebuilt shopping centre - of course that was because the bombing in 1940/41 had flattened it

There is actually a very good car museum in the middle of the city which contains lot of B Leyland and Rootes group vehicles and a load of other stuff - it is mainly for Midlands built vehicles as Coventry really was our Detroit. I went there in 2012 and it was excellent.

PS - couldn't open the little box attachment to your last post

omarman

I like the blue '72 Torino sedan on the right. What is the green 2 door hardtop with red vinyl top parked close to the stop sign near the Torino? Thin side window glass with angular roof lines don't look like anything else in the pic.

fintail

The car with a guy leaning on the front fender? Looks like a 71-72 ish LTD coupe.

omarman said:

I like the blue '72 Torino sedan on the right. What is the green 2 door hardtop with red vinyl top parked close to the stop sign near the Torino? Thin side window glass with angular roof lines don't look like anything else in the pic.

ab348

omarman said:

I like the blue '72 Torino sedan on the right. What is the green 2 door hardtop with red vinyl top parked close to the stop sign near the Torino? Thin side window glass with angular roof lines don't look like anything else in the pic.

I think there must have been some color shift over time as that combo would never get past the people responsible for vetting orders. I had a job interview with GM Canada back in 1979 for that very position - checking incoming orders from dealers against the permissible color and option combinations. Kind of glad I didn't get the position in retrospect. I think that is brown or tan over brown. The vinyl top on the Capri also looked red to me at first.

That blue Country Squire on the street would bring big bucks at BaT these days.

andys120

ab348 said:

omarman said:

That blue Country Squire on the street would bring big bucks at BaT these days.

That blue looks like a current neon blue.

andys120

magnette

The Pontiac 1000 which is one of the zillion Chevette relatives...

magnette

In Solvang I think there is a AMC Concord - met blue with white roof - just above the stop sign
The front of that row is an Audi 100 I think but not sure if you had a 200 instead.

magnette

Found I can post a picture right now, so here goes - this is a bit further East than the last one

It's Poland and probably Warsaw.




Interestingly I found I couldn't get the image button to work on the bottom of the last page but it will if I go back a couple of pages. Hope this still shows up at the end

stickguy

I am just going to guess a lot of Wartburgs. Just because I feel like it.

fintail

In Poland we have a gaggle of the fastback shaped GAZ Pobeda-based Warszawa M20.

And yes, I see at least three Wartburg in the mix, 311s (one between a pair of Warszawa, behind an apparently Warszawa-based pickup with a canopy, another at top left in front of motorcycles).

At bottom right is a 4cyl MB Ponton with what looks like a Fiat 1300 to the left of it (I don't think these were "Polski" yet).

ab348

magnette said:

In Solvang I think there is a AMC Concord - met blue with white roof - just above the stop sign
The front of that row is an Audi 100 I think but not sure if you had a 200 instead.

Timeline is wrong for it to be a Concord but it could be an AMC Hornet.

Audi’s back then were marketed here as the 100, or as the Fox (an 80 elsewhere).

omarman

That's the one thanks. And even though the colors in that pic may have been "enhanced" there really were some odd color options possible back then.

I recall seeing a couple new cars on display in the front row outside the showroom of Walker and Battat and they were 2-tone yellow and red. I suppose could have been part of a fleet order for some commercial buyer but who knows?

Surprised that I can still google old pics of the long-gone Walker and Battat dealership.

fintail

Speaking of bad color combos, I remember one when I was in school in the late 90s. A friend was a Monte Carlo nut, and kept track of the others in the neighborhood (there weren't a ton). There was a mid 80s one, not a flush headlights I think, that was a not-bright yellow with a brown top and interior. Was that a factory combo, or did someone have really bad custom taste?

andys120

'59 Ford Country Squire, lousy color choice. I can make out a 1961-62 Thunderbird behind the showroom window on left.

tmart

The 59 Ford wagon is not a Country Squire, no “wood” on the side. It’s a Country Sedan.

andys120

tmart said:

The 59 Ford wagon is not a Country Squire, no “wood” on the side. It’s a Country Sedan.

Right, I forgot there's nothing new about automakers using inconsistent nomenclature.

Memo to FoMoCo

A wagon is not a sedan, and a sedan is not a wagon.

ab348

fintail said:

Speaking of bad color combos, I remember one when I was in school in the late 90s. A friend was a Monte Carlo nut, and kept track of the others in the neighborhood (there weren't a ton). There was a mid 80s one, not a flush headlights I think, that was a not-bright yellow with a brown top and interior. Was that a factory combo, or did someone have really bad custom taste?

I believe I have seen that combo in the past. Pale yellow is often treated like a beige when coordinating interior or top colors so I can understand that one. Usually though it only goes with either black or white in that role.

kyfdx

magnette said:

The Pontiac 1000 which is one of the zillion Chevette relatives...

I thought that was named the T 1000?

magnette

stickguy said:

I am just going to guess a lot of Wartburgs. Just because I feel like it.

Yes - the cleanest looking car there is one of the Wartburgs-the white one with the coloured roof diagonally two ahead of the panel van

I was surprised with the variety of different cars this shot shows as I thought the local market would be so limited back then.

magnette

kyfdx said:

magnette said:

The Pontiac 1000 which is one of the zillion Chevette relatives...

I thought that was named the T 1000?

I hadn't picked up on that Pontiac version being T1000 although I am amazed so many versions of this basic car were sold worldwide by GM

andys120

Apparently Pontiac Division dropped the T on the last iterations of their version of the Chevette in the early/mid 1980s.

andys120

Loyalist>

magnette

fintail said:

In Poland we have a gaggle of the fastback shaped GAZ Pobeda-based Warszawa M20.

And yes, I see at least three Wartburg in the mix, 311s (one between a pair of Warszawa, behind an apparently Warszawa-based pickup with a canopy, another at top left in front of motorcycles).

At bottom right is a 4cyl MB Ponton with what looks like a Fiat 1300 to the left of it (I don't think these were "Polski" yet).

I thought you'd like the Ponton ! I also thought Polski at first for the Fiat yes they didn't get involved with the medium sized Fiats until the 125P in the early seventies I think, but having looked into it I gather the Fiat 1300 was made under licence by Zastava from 1961 inYugoslavia, although that doesn't mean it isn't a real Fiat I suppose so it could be either

The Warszawa came in the original Pobieda shape and also a later version with a proper notch-back boot - I've got a model of one

I've spent a while looking into the rest (lockdown has been drag) and there is a little two door sedan to the left of that two tone Wartburg - indeed there are a couple of similar ones in the picture.

Those are Syrenas, a model I don't know anything about other than the one on Wheeler Dealers and another I saw in Germany a few years back but they made a few different models.

Also the Skoda Octavia near the '183' on the picture. And a couple of actual Volga 21s and a Moskvitch 407 - I think - in front of that Octavia.

magnette

@andys120 Right, I forgot there's nothing new about automakers using inconsistent nomenclature.


Yes - Rover P5 saloon and identical Coupe with a one and a half inch lower rear roof.
Hillman Hunter GT
(Austin Allegro) Vanden Plas 1500
And others no doubt

magnette

@andys120 Loyalist


The one on the left is a 48 Chrysler but no idea the model.
The right is perhaps a NewYorker - guessing 53?

magnette

@andys120Apparently Pontiac Division dropped the T on the last iterations of their version of the Chevette in the early/mid 1980s.


Judging by what you all say about the Chevette I would have thought the letter would have been a bit nearer the early part of the alphabet

fintail

I spotted the Skoda and Russian cars too - the Volga which benchmarked the 53-54 Ford, if I remember correctly the odd story behind it.

That notchback Warszawa lived well into the 70s, I think, fun for a design that looks like it is from the late 40s - the wonders of the eastern bloc.

magnette said:

I thought you'd like the Ponton ! I also thought Polski at first for the Fiat yes they didn't get involved with the medium sized Fiats until the 125P in the early seventies I think, but having looked into it I gather the Fiat 1300 was made under licence by Zastava from 1961 inYugoslavia, although that doesn't mean it isn't a real Fiat I suppose so it could be either

The Warszawa came in the original Pobieda shape and also a later version with a proper notch-back boot - I've got a model of one

I've spent a while looking into the rest (lockdown has been drag) and there is a little two door sedan to the left of that two tone Wartburg - indeed there are a couple of similar ones in the picture.

Those are Syrenas, a model I don't know anything about other than the one on Wheeler Dealers and another I saw in Germany a few years back but they made a few different models.

Also the Skoda Octavia near the '183' on the picture. And a couple of actual Volga 21s and a Moskvitch 407 - I think - in front of that Octavia.

fintail

Seattle, 1978 - cool wheel setup on one of these cars:

andys120

magnette said:

@andys120 Loyalist


The one on the left is a 48 Chrysler but no idea the model.
The right is perhaps a NewYorker - guessing 53?

Yup the gray car is a '46-'48 Chrysler, hard to say exactly what year. Over at theoldmotor.com the white/yellow Chrysler is identified as a 1954 Windsor Deluxe Newport

i don't know how they can tell so exactly but no doubt it has to do with trim and the shapes of bumpers and the grille. I've always liked the styling of the '53-'54 Mopars in particular.

stickguy

Green Chevelle along the curb behind the girls. and peeking out between two of them, the taillight of what I think is a Monza

texases

Electra 225 on the right.

andys120

Brochure art>

texases

How many different cars shared the Mini chassis?

kyfdx

Is that an Austin?

ab348

I believe the Mini variant is a Wolseley Hornet. But it is so very similar to a Riley Elf it is difficult to tell them apart.

ab348

Interesting photo today - this is the world's first Wendy's, opened in 1969. This photo is from the early '70s. I wonder what is on the upper floor(s)...

stickguy

White valiant up by the building. Next to a dark impala ‘64?). Other side some small convertible with a black top but no clue what it is.

andys120

ab348 said:

I believe the Mini variant is a Wolseley Hornet. But it is so very similar to a Riley Elf it is difficult to tell them apart.

It is hard to tell the Woleseley from the Riley version of the BMC Mini but I've noticed the Hornets have a badge in the grille which the Rileys do not>

Unable to post photo, try the link.
https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.NVNqdqfCdiiQW5WzHNv1dAHaFj&pid=Api&P=0&w=227&h=171

magnette

@andys120 re Mini.

Yes this is a Riley Elf

The Wolseley Hornet had an oval badge in the grille itself - which was illuminated - all Wolseleys had that badge after about 1934.

The Riley Elf was pretty similar except - like this one - there is a small blue diamond shaped badge on the top of the chrome surround to the grille and in fact the whole frame has a sort of "dip" in it at that point. I think Riley had that badge since about 1910!

The Hornet and Elf had different grilles to the side as well the Hornet was hatched while this Elf has ones with horizontal bars.

Both had the relevant name on the boot lid - diagonally in the right corner.

magnette

@texasesHow many different cars shared the Mini chassis?





The Mini was not as promiscuous as the ADO 16 1100/1300, as we only got them in a few makes.

From the start in 1959 the Austin Seven and Morris Mini Minor
In about 1961 the Austin became Austin Mini - the Morris was always the Mini Minor at that stage.

Estates were always Austin Mini Countryman and Morris Mini Traveller - with or without wood trim which was an extra cost option.

Then both Austin and Morris got Mini Cooper

And then the Mini Moke (Austin or Morris) - a bit like the Citroen Mehari but smaller.

The Wolseley Hornet and Riley Elf were the only other Minis made really - with various limited face lifts - until about 1970 when the range became Mini - ditching the Austin /Morris badges.

From then on all Minis including the Clubman etc were just Mini.

Even the vans were sold originally as Austin or Morris but eventually all sold as Mini Van.. usually with a hint as to the engine size - the last Mini vans were I think Mini 950 Van.... (or Pick-up)

ADO16 came as an Austin, Morris, MG, Wolseley, Riley or Vanden Plas

magnette

It was surprising what you could do in the back of a Mini van

omarman

Looks like this now.

fintail

Looks like a light blue Pinto near the building.

ab348 said:

Interesting photo today - this is the world's first Wendy's, opened in 1969. This photo is from the early '70s. I wonder what is on the upper floor(s)...

andys120

ab348

I think that used to be a Ford Popular but don't hold me to it.

ab348

Have you ever been to Little America?

stickguy

Blue corvair wagon at the pump. And a red valiant with the toilet seat trunk in the center. And I think about a 63 comet (or is that a fairlane?) ahead of the daddy pulling a trailer (not seeing that these days unless it’s an Escalade). And of course, an early falcon in the center row.

andys120

andys120 said:

Still is a Ford Popular 103E, a product of postwar Britain's austerity. Who needs two wipers,
a heater or four speeds, or a radio? I assume the 3-speed was on the tree.