Mystery car pix

bhill2

andys120 said:

Chevy Vega (Kammback/wagon?)coming toward camera on left, late 60s Pontiac behind it.

My dad bought a Vega wagon that color, but with plood on the side. He was close to 60 and not exactly flamboyant anyway, so I’m not sure why he wanted it. But he seemed to like it so whatever.

magnette

Two relatively anonymous vehicles

They only sold a few of these in UK - this one was in France...


This one was sold in UK but haven't seen one for a long time - this time plates are Dutch.

ab348

You have me stumped on the white Renault, @magnette. Doesn't look like any model I can recall.

explorerx4

I had to look through a lot of Renault pictures, but how about a Safrane?

andys120

texases said:

andys120 said:

Chevy Vega (Kammback/wagon?)coming toward camera on left, late 60s Pontiac behind it.

I'm not seeing the Pontiac, looks more Ford/Mercury to me.

You may be right,the white car following theVega has a divided grille which says "Pontiac" to me but it was copied by others/

magnette

@explorerx4

It is indeed a Renault Safrane - Renault sell many thousands of small cars in the UK but hardly bothered with the large car market here as they have seldom had any success

The Safrane was marketed in Europe from abut 1991 to 2000 but only sold here to the mid nineties and they never caught on.
I used to drive past a Renault dealers in east London and they only ever had about one or two in for service - usually a bottle green colour if I recall but I haven't seen one on the road for a long while.

explorerx4

The car behind the Vega is a 69 Ford LTD.

texases

Yep, that looks like it.

ab348

Now here's something you don't see every day:

bhill2

Toyota Sports 800. Produced in the '60s. I'm pretty sure it was never sold new in the US, but some may have come in from the gray market.

fintail

Spokane, must be 1971-72 or so, good variety. Should zoom very well, large image. I believe the structures in the foreground are gone now, everything on this side of the bridge has changed, developed for Expo 74:

tmart

60 Ford first row, several Pintos and Falcons, 57 Ford first row.

bhill2

1959~61 Lark in the furthest row (facing the street).

ab348

Lots of Beetles. Is that a late '50s/early '60s Dodge Sweptside pickup parked at the curb in front of the motel lot? I also see what looks like a '58 Impala far right in the big lot across the street, 4 down from what appears to be a Pinto hatchback. Three to the left of that is an older Falcon wagon. Across the row below the Falcon is what I think is a Fiat 850 Spider with a real old-timer next to it, maybe a Dodge.

andys120

First row center left is an open car. Looks to me like a Porsche 356 Cabriolet. Spokane is a sweet little town
currently experiencing a real estate boom from Seattle-lites fleeing high priced real estate.

fintail

I'll pick off the GM Clamshell wagon 4th row from bottom, right, between a Pinto and AMC Hornet.

Not sure if I am looking in the right spot for the Porsche. First row beside what appears to be a Datsun 510 wagon looks like a Datsun Fairlady roadster (4 to the right of the 60 Ford).

In-migration has given Spokane (between Spokane and Spokane Valley, which are adjacent and the only border is crossing a street) there are probably 350K people now) a bit of a housing crisis that doesn't seem to be leveling off much even with rates 80% higher than what I got at the end of last summer. Houses that were 250K in 2015 can be 600K today, and the roads are dotted with plates from CA, OR, TX, CO, and I seem to spot a lot of Carolinas too.

andys120 said:

First row center left is an open car. Looks to me like a Porsche 356 Cabriolet. Spokane is a sweet little town
currently experiencing a real estate boom from Seattle-lites fleeing high priced real estate.

fintail

A few things to zoom in on here - this location isn't too far from my house. Indeed a shame they didn't keep the cool sign, but I bet it looked pretty passe by the late 70s:

sda

Cool signage. Looks like a 69 Olds 98 to the right of the sign, kind of blurry.

tmart

Thunderbird at left.

explorerx4

A 1970 Impala in lower left of picture.

andys120

First car is missing its headlight covers.

fintail

Pair of white 63 Impalas in the middle.

andys120 said:

First car is missing its headlight covers.

bhill2

andys120 said:

First car is missing its headlight covers.

I don't think they're missing, just retracted (like they are when the headlights are on). I had a '78 Thunderbird with retractable headlight covers. The covers were operated by vacuum and, probably for safety reasons, if the vacuum was lost they defaulted to open.

Lostwrench3

The "Archilles Heel" of the fine 1965 Riviera was the requirement to keep the headlights' Clam Shell mechanicals clean and lubricated. Dirt would stop their operation. Also, the electric motor to operate those clam shells, was behind the front bumper. It was known for rain water to enter the electric motor killing it.

sda

Wasn’t there an override switch to allow the headlight covers to stay open for servicing, snow, etc? I know they tended to be problematic overall.

magnette

When I was driving an Alfa Romeo Mito the two doors had frameless windows and if you opened the door it dropped the glass slightly so the glass was not slammed against the top of the door aperture when closing.

If we had the slightest frost this didn't happen and instead you had just slam the door anyway though in fairness it was still working on more clement days for the four years I had that car.

Any electric gizmos usually go at some stage and you wonder while waiting for the part or whatever if you really needed it replaced with a simpler solution..

Never had a car with light covers but I remember being passed one evening by what I thought was a motorcycle on the motorway and it was a wedge shaped Lotus Elite with one headlight - the nearside one - shining on, and the other one was down but with the bulb on and leaving just a sliver of light.

fintail

A lot of modern hardtop coupe or frameless door cars have the windows that retract a cm when the door handle is actuated. I've long worried how long such a feature will remain active.

ab348

Until my daily driver took up residence inside last year, I cannot tell you how many times in the winter my side windows were frozen to the seals. We get lots of freezing rain or rain followed by a flash freeze in winter here, so I wonder how that feature deals with such situations.

andys120

fintail said:

A lot of modern hardtop coupe or frameless door cars have the windows that retract a cm when the door handle is actuated. I've long worried how long such a feature will remain active.

Still works on my 2008 BMW 335 convert @ 100,000m

kyfdx

fintail said:

A lot of modern hardtop coupe or frameless door cars have the windows that retract a cm when the door handle is actuated. I've long worried how long such a feature will remain active.

It was still working on my '06 when I sold it 2 years ago.

andys120

explorerx4

Nash Metropolitan. Cute.

tmart

Always wanted one.

andys120

Not many realize that the Nash/Hudson Metropolitans were all manufactured by Austin in Britain. There was an Austin-badged version but the great majority were exported to the USA. Pininfarina of Italy collaborated with Nash's in house styling in the design.

stickguy

andys120

Car nearest camera looks like a Fiat Millecento(1100), a Fiat X/9 next to it. Far row has a pair of Alfa Spiders surrounding a red MG-B.

texases

Fourth and fifth from right middle row-Fiat Barchetta.

stickguy

The cars were from this tour. All had gum balls on the door. I took the picture from the hotel in Tourmina.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187892-d1625997-Reviews-500_Vintage_Tour-Taormina_Province_of_Messina_Sicily.html

andys120

Don't know what you mean by "gumballs on the door".

Middle of row on left are a pair of Alfa 75 sedans (sold here as the Alfa Milano (1980s).

texases

Gumball = round white label with a number.

stickguy

Yes. Magnets I think. Had a number and tour logos.

fintail

From middle of the leftmost row, center, I see a BMW Z3, SLK beside it to the left, continuing left an Alfa 75 sedan and what looks like a Maserati Biturbo, in front of that looks like Peugeot 206CC.

andys120

andys120

Sunset Strip in the 50's. There are few makes as identifiable as the car in the middle but I couldn't tell you the model yr on any of them. I'm sure you guys can. I think they're all 1948-52* but beyond that I dunno

*The oldie on the left excepted (possibly pre WWII)

Lostwrench3

On the left border, a 1949 DeSoto.

explorerx4

Oldsmobile on the right in front of a 49 Ford.

tmart

I find it interesting how similar the crowns are on the Stubbie and the Ford grilles.

fintail

Oldie at left appears to be a 39 Chevy.

andys120

I think the Oldsmobile on right is a 1950 MY, first year for one piece curved front glass.

bhill2

The Studie is a '51. I think it's a Champion, because I believe the Commander had a call-out on the grille. The first car I remember was my parent's '51 Commander.