Mystery car pix

Lostwrench3

1961 Cadillac.
1955 Olds.
1959 Chevy.
1963 Rambler.

stickguy

Corset store sadly is gone. Post office on other side is still there.

ab348

If you expand the Burlington pic, I believe there is a Saab 96 on the cross street in the background. Very popular in New England back then.

imidazol97

ab348 said:

If you expand the Burlington pic, I believe there is a Saab 96 on the cross street in the background. Very popular in New England back then.

Nice eye.

Now! What's the car in front of the potential SAAB?

ab348

imidazol97 said:

ab348 said:

If you expand the Burlington pic, I believe there is a Saab 96 on the cross street in the background. Very popular in New England back then.

Nice eye.

Now! What's the car in front of the potential SAAB?

First thought was a Chevy II but I’m not sure.

I did spot a VW Beetle Cabriolet near the corset sign though.

fintail

By the rear quarter window shape, I sense the Saab might be a 93. Car in front of it is such a generic shape, first makes me think Chevelle sedan, then maybe a larger GM, then maybe a Valiant/Dart.

texases

Toss in Rambler, too.

andys120

Car with visors nearest ONE WAY sign on left is a Kaiser or Frazer '47-'50. Hard to say which. Family's first ride was a '47 Frazer

explorerx4

A 1960 Chevy 2 door post outside the covered parking structure.
Also, a sidewalk freight elevator outside the main bank building.

imidazol97

I think the car at the curb matches the 1950 Kaiser Special. I saw a car of this
era at a car cruise in for Halloween a couple of years ago. Rare in this area,
then and now.

I see a 1961 Ford on the sidestreet over the bank. I can't find a 1960 Ford.

tmart

Two 56 Fords.

magnette

At the National bank the first car to the left of the parking lot entrance is a 52 -ish Plymouth wagon and next to it is a 53 Chrysler - which maybe hiding a Lincoln I think

andys120

Quite a wide variety of car model years. I think the '61 Ford is the newest car. The oldest might be the Kaiser ('47-50?) or the sedan parked on the roof of "Pacific Parking" (on right)

fintail

That appears to be old downtown Tacoma. Gentle PNW climate, then like now, gives cars a long lifespan. I even see a prewar car on the "Pacific Parking" deck background left.

Only import I see is a VW van parked on the cross street facing left, with a 55-56 Fairlane "Victoria" (without the crown) driving past.

andys120

Rule Britannia

bhill2

In the National Bank picture I will pick off a relatively rare beast. In the late '50s you had your Rambler station wagons, and you had your Rambler Ambassadors (the 'luxury' line). But you didn't see many Ambassador wagons. There is one just behind the left 'Customer Parking' sign, turning out toward the parking lot exit.

The car in the picture just above is, I believe, an early Rolls Silver Cloud.

andys120

BNhill is correct, the brochure art I captioned "Rule Britannia" depicts a 1955 Rolls Silver Cloud S1. Later four headlight versions are more common.

explorerx4

A couple of 57/58 Mercury's.
One to the left of the Rambler wagon and one on the street, 2 vehicles behind the pickup truck dropping off some cargo at the sidewalk freight elevator.

sda

That Rolls is an elegant and imposing beast.

fintail

4 headlight Silver Clouds are all Series III cars. Prices have risen a bit, but IMO are they are still reasonable relative to their presence, and are worlds classier than any new model.

andys120

sda said:

That Rolls is an elegant and imposing beast.

Well I thought so back in the day on the rare occasions when I'd see one but now it, along with it's Bentley counterpart looks hopelessly retrograde, a reminder of the postwar era when British Saloons were completely wedded to the 1930s, I time when Britain's auto industry was fast falling behind its competitors

andys120

I think the ww tire on the far left lower belongs to a Volvo 122. Notice how tall that fender is compared to the Ponchos it faces. It's prolly the oldest car. Speaking of tire sidewalls, notice the fred stripes on the silver Mustang. I had red-stripped Dunlops on my TR-4A

stickguy

the trim on the green car does not seem volvo to me. The hood shape seems slightly off too. Of course I am often wrong!

Is the oddly finned car next to the black Mustang (behind the Pontiacs) a Rambler?

Right side, a Corvair behind the tail of the silver Mustang. And behind the Stang, a yellow car that looks very French. A Renault? With the reverse angle rear window.

Blue Corvette behind that. I think a late C1.

ab348

I think the reverse angle rear window car is an English Ford Anglia. The supposed Volvo has gold-tone fender scripts. I don’t know if Volvo did those or not.

bhill2

ab348 said:

I think the reverse angle rear window car is an English Ford Anglia. The supposed Volvo has gold-tone fender scripts. I don’t know if Volvo did those or not.

Yes indeedy, Volvo used those scripts up to the mid '60s. The car is unquestionably a Volvo 122S.

And stickguy, good eye. That is a '58 or '59 Rambler. Not a common color in those more flamboyant times.

fintail

Yep, the script reads 122S:



Behind what looks like a blue Corvette beyond the Corvair, what appears to be a large mid 50s car, possibly a Cadillac.

In the very foreground with gauges on the dash, perhaps a "hot" Comet or Falcon hardtop.

andys120

Thank you Fintail. The car facing the '65 Pontiac wagon Is definitely a Volvo 122, same hubcaps and wheels as yours.

bhill2

fintail said:

Yep, the script reads 122S:



Behind what looks like a blue Corvette beyond the Corvair, what appears to be a large mid 50s car, possibly a Cadillac.

In the very foreground with gauges on the dash, perhaps a "hot" Comet or Falcon hardtop.

I'm getting a '55 Buick vibe from that car behind the Corvette. Any other bids?

andys120

stickguy

I remember seeing this in a history of Volvo book I read at the dealer waiting in the service lounge. Volvo Sport. I think it is a rebody on the PV444 chassis (that convertible looks to me like the car Phil Silvers drove in mad mad world)

ab348

The Phil Silvers car was a ‘46-‘48 Ford convertible.

stickguy

doesn't this Volvo remind you of one of those though?

magnette

The cream car is a Volvo P1900 sport - the first dozen or so were by Glassic I think, in California but later dealt with elsewhere.

Incidentally the later P1800 coupe was first bodied by Jensen here and they took over production in Sweden after the first year or so.

texases

I saw one of these Sunday in somebody's driveway:

Michaell

texases said:

I saw one of these Sunday in somebody's driveway:

Fiat 600?

texases

Yes, but which one?

explorerx4

A Multipla?

texases

Yep! Talk about space-efficient.

andys120

That's a mid 1960s Fiat Multipla, a microvan pioneer.

magnette

Yes the Multipla was very spacious although I think they managed to cram even more people into the later 850T and 900T versions

This one was a 1993 900T and I remember a magazine article about an 850T which had seats for eleven people although the people were not all adults.

magnette

I have travelled in one of these _ it would have been an older one in the 1980s in Italy on a holiday - and there were about five of us with luggage although was a only for a short haul from one hotel to another in a resort.

andys120

ab348

A bizarro Citroen Ami, essentially a golf cart.

https://www.citroen.co.uk/models/future-models/ami.html

ab348

Munster, IN, 1972. I guess they must have been having a sale on wood. Expands some.

kyfdx

Some kind of festival or fair?

That's near Chicago

stickguy

Bright red and bright blue Vegas. And a brown rambler with fins.

I think a 59ish Chevy way up bear the building.

Interesting era to see how much design changed in only about 12 years, going from the late 50s to about 1970. Don’t get that radical change since then.

andys120

ab348 said:

A bizarro Citroen Ami, essentially a golf cart.

https://www.citroen.co.uk/models/future-models/ami.html

Essentially yes. They call it an electric Quadracycle. There'a an Opel version called the "Rocks-E" (?)

They were planning US exports but so far no sign of 'em.

Lostwrench3

Front and center - 1968 Oldsmobile.
Whatever attraction that lumber company used to attract people, it worked very well. Well enough that people parked on tall weeds.
Great coupons being handed out from that opened window trailer? Can anyone read the white sign above it?

explorerx4

I was thinking a concert or fair until I saw all the people in line to get into the store.

fintail

The Munster pic is interesting, notice the near absence of foreign cars - just wait a few years. Also in that period of some bloat between 60s cool and malaise, where cool later 60s cars were still around.

I guess I will pick off the dark blue 66 Ford 4 door HT in second row, third from R.