Mystery car pix

magnette

There was a description of the accident and the driver luckily survived as the engine of TRD is quite far forward and the larger car is basically on top of it...

Any suggestions as to the makes of the two vehicles?

fintail

Large car is an Austin Sheerline.

andys120

fintail said:

Large car is an Austin Sheerline.

Easy for you to say...us Yanks are thoroughly confused by the numerous British (and other) imitations of Rolls and Bentley styling from the postwar era. I looked it up and found the Sheerline a fairly handsome car for a period that produced some of the frumpiest cars ever made by anyone.

Austin Sheerline 3.4 (1947-54)

sda

andys120 said:

fintail said:

Large car is an Austin Sheerline.

Easy for you to say...us Yanks are thoroughly confused by the numerous British (and other) imitations of Rolls and Bentley styling from the postwar era. I looked it up and found the Sheerline a fairly handsome car for a period that produced some of the frumpiest cars ever made by anyone.

Austin Sheerline 3.4 (1947-54)

That is classy, really sharp headlamps and elegant grille.

magnette

Yes the Sheerline was Austin's answer to the Daimler / Bentley / Humber makes at a much lower price in some cases.

The squashed car is a Bond Minicar - it would be about 1958 or so

magnette

Great Comfort was not in those days governed by the Trades Descriptions Act

In fairness the likely purchaser was probably someone who had a motorcycle and a wife kids etc so it was that or a sidecar - this advert refers to a stand at the Cycle & Motor Cycle Show which was held at Earls Court each year - separate from the Car Show..

xwesx

magnette said:

Yes the Sheerline was Austin's answer to the Daimler / Bentley / Humber makes at a much lower price in some cases.

The squashed car is a Bond Minicar - it would be about 1958 or so

Ah, a rare case where the victim car looks *better* after the crash!

andys120

Sports Car Alley>

xwesx

US Capitol building, October 1993.

fintail

Looks like MB W124 at lower left, red Lumina behind it. At far lower right, maybe a then-new Corolla wagon.

xwesx said:

US Capitol building, October 1993.

andys120

Grand Wagoneer and Pinto wagon across from each other.

andys120

andys120 said:

Sports Car Alley>

Rwo of these are easy, one isn't.

texases

MG-TC and XK-120, followed by an MG-TE?

andys120

texases said:

MG-TC and XK-120, followed by an MG-TE?

Correct on the MG-TC and the 120 Jag but the dark colored car behind the TC is aMorgan Plus 4. Early Plus4s with the chromed grille fool lots of people into thinking they are Plus 4's MGs because most Mogs did not have chromed grollework. Thw photo was taken in 1950 the year the Plus 4 was introduced. The cars are across from the Pittsburgh dealership owned by an enthusiast/racer named Ed Hugus who would eventually go on race Cobras for Slhelby's team.

magnette

I can't remember ever seeing a Morgan with such an MG like grille

magnette

Generally the flat nosed Morgan was mace from about 1936 (prior to which they only made three-wheelers) and the grille looked like this one until the early 50s at least here.



The one in row two is more like an MG radiator and the headlights would be different in North America as your regulations were / are different but the whole shape of the front wings look odd too
EDIT - the tyres on that car look too wide in comparison as well.

texases

I’m sticking with an MG-TE. The hood is a match.

andys120

texases said:

I’m sticking with an MG-TE. The hood is a match.

Sorry Tex, there was no such thing as an MG-TE, perhaps you're thinking of the MG-TD which didn't exist in 1950. Besides if you look carefully you'll see the grille is curved at the top which is typical of Morgans

andys120

I'd like to note how sleek and modern the Jag looks compared to it's contemporaries. It must have had the same impact as the E-Type did a decade later.

texases

You’re right, MG-TF. The mystery car’s hood and fenders don’t look like the Morgan’s in the photo.

andys120

xwesx

Hmm.... 1967 Pontiac Firebird convertible. (edit)...or, if I let the plates to the talking.... 1968.

andys120

xwesx said:

Hmm.... 1967 Pontiac Firebird convertible. (edit)...or, if I let the plates to the talking.... 1968.

It is a '68 Firebitd Sprint (SOHC 6) but you don't need the plate to tell it's a '68. New safety regs effective 1968 reuired lightslights visible from side front and rear. '67MY F-birds has lturn signal assemblies visible only from front>



IIRC some Firebird and LeMans Sprint models had a white stripe on the side but many did not.

xwesx

Well, look at that! Nice, I didn't even glance at the turn signals, and it took me a couple of switches between the two photos to even notice the '68 signals there. For some reason, I was thinking they switched up the grille area in '68, though I guess that must have been a later ('69) iteration.

Thanks for the education!

imidazol97

The 67s had vent wings; 68s did not have them.

andys120

xwesx said:

Well, look at that! Nice, I didn't even glance at the turn signals, and it took me a couple of switches between the two photos to even notice the '68 signals there. For some reason, I was thinking they switched up the grille area in '68, though I guess that must have been a later ('69) iteration.

Thanks for the education!

Yup, they changed the grille in 1969>

magnette

Time for some more of our old frumpy cars

These two pictures are left and then right of a picture taken in Loughborough in the Midlands where the photographer was taking a picture of the locomotive works in the background - June 1964 - should expand too

left


right

fintail

I see a few Bedford CA vans, most noticeable the two tone blue one in the foreground. Surprising lack of foreign cars, I think I see just a few Beetles and maybe a Dauphine at far background right. Not surprised to see some older shapes, as these were current on British cars until around 1950, but there is one obvious to me prewar car, at upper far right near another Bedford van and the possible Dauphine.

andys120

If you had taken a photo of a parking lot in my hometown (LI New York) at about the same time (late 50s early 60s) you'd see t least 3 or 4 British roadsters insyead of that lonesome white Spridget. I am surprised by the three VWs.

Is that a grey MG Magnette in front of the blue Beetle?

magnette

Hi Andy
Yes its a mix of old cars from the immediate post war period and some newer ones including Minis and a white Ford Corsair up near the right hand locomotive.
The grey car in front of the blueish VW is a Morris Oxford - close relative of the Magnette in some ways - they made that model with updates right through to the nineties in India as a Hindustan...

I see the really pre-war cars - you mean the black one by the railway in line with that pile of old sheds or pallets - its an Austin from about 1937/9 - probably a 12 or 18
Just behind that distant CA van - in line with the yellow Commer van - is a grey car with a wheel on the back - it is exactly behind that CA
I think that's a mid thirties Hillman - larger than a Minx but not sure what really.
In the top left corner of the left picture is a red Mini and there is a black car sort of in line with the Mini as if following it - that is a close relative of the Magnette - its a Wolseley with the same body.

magnette

Just to the right of that red Mini is a strange Woody type wagon - they made a lot of those after the war when steel was rationed on various larger chassis - it could be on a larger Ford, or anything up to a prewar Alvis or something - even another Austin.

We had a lot of VWs even when other foreign cars were rare from the middle fifties.
Other foreign cars beside the VWs - a red car in the middle distance on the right picture - thats a Skoda Octavia I think
on the left photo there is a two tone blueish car facing the fence right by the left locomotive - that is a Simca Aronde

magnette

Right in the middle distance on the Right picture is a black 4x4 which is next to another red Mini - and its not a Land Rover...

andys120

I thought the little woody was a Morris Minor Traveler.

andys120

Michaell

Alpine A110

andys120

Michaell said:

Alpine A110

Right!

fintail

I see the Skoda now, definitely.

Pics like those explain why Dinky, Corgi, and Matchbox were such successes - the toys represented the vehicles on the road. That lot is like a period diecast range brought to life.

magnette said:

Just to the right of that red Mini is a strange Woody type wagon - they made a lot of those after the war when steel was rationed on various larger chassis - it could be on a larger Ford, or anything up to a prewar Alvis or something - even another Austin.

We had a lot of VWs even when other foreign cars were rare from the middle fifties.
Other foreign cars beside the VWs - a red car in the middle distance on the right picture - thats a Skoda Octavia I think
on the left photo there is a two tone blueish car facing the fence right by the left locomotive - that is a Simca Aronde

andys120

ab348

andys120 said:

texases said:

MG-TC and XK-120, followed by an MG-TE?

Correct on the MG-TC and the 120 Jag but the dark colored car behind the TC is aMorgan Plus 4.

Sorry Andy but there's no way on earth the car in the rear is a Morgan of any sort. If the photo source attributes it as such, it is mistaken.

First point: let's blow it up and adjust the exposure so the brightness of the chrome surround is reduced. We get this:



It is easy to see that the badge and shape of the metal above it is very similar if not identical between the two vehicles.You can actually make out the MG logo on the front car, and can see remnants of it on the one in the rear though it is not completely legible. However they are close enough that we can deem them the same. There are differences between the cars themselves, notably the shapes of the front edge of the front fenders. The rear car has a shape that identifies it as a MG TD. Here's a 1953 model of that:



It's not a TF either, as that has a different shape to the grille surround that has a more pronounced "V' effect at the top.

Michaell

andys120 said:

Gen 1 Prius

andys120

Tex-

Looking at it again I can see that you are probably right, the leading age of the fenders is different from the Morgans I've seen pix of and the exact shape of the grille is hard to make out due to reflections, ditto the emblem

magnette

Yes, that little Woody is a Minor Traveller - but the one I mean is bigger and in amongst other cars in the top picture
here it is extracted

EDIT - I think its an Austin A70 Hereford Countryman

magnette

I'm still not sure though

andys120

Michaell said:

andys120 said:

Gen 1 Prius

Right, I had forgotten about this one, sold herein the early 2000s IIRC

magnette

This one has a Perkins diesel engine- the badge with hoops designates that - but it isn't one of ours..

ab348

No idea on the car. Is it a Soviet vehicle?

fintail

Looks like a GAZ-12 possibly on a Finnish plate (and what I see as Lapland-style clothing)

ab348

Bargain-minded shoppers looking for cut-price menswear shopping here in 1963:

Lostwrench3

1959 Buick + 1955 Pontiac.

imidazol97

ab348 said:

Bargain-minded shoppers looking for cut-price menswear shopping here in 1963:

1960 Ford above the hood of the red Falcon