Mystery car pix

fintail

I'll guess it's an early 80s RR Silver Spirit...doesn't look like a LWB Spur.

andys120

early 80s RR Silver Spirit

That's more like it. :shades:

andys120

This shot from Alice's Restaurant is chock full of old cars, how many can you name?

fintail

The police car is a 1966 Galaxie, with the same hubcaps my first car originally had, along with looking like the same color. The Caddy is maybe a 53? The little roadster is a Sunbeam Alpine I think. In the back I spot what looks like a Saab 96 and an early VW transporter. The car behind the Saab looks like a small Olds? Oh, there's also a Jeep pickup by the Galaxie.

Looks like it could be a 63 Ford parked in front of the dark colored house, but I'm really guessing.

andre1969

I'll guess it's an early 80s RR Silver Spirit...doesn't look like a LWB Spur.

I'm gonna guess a 1979 Ford Granada Ghia. After all, they were a dead ringer for much more prestigious cars, such as Cadillac, Benz, and even Rolls Royce. At least, according to the old ads. :P

bumpy

Wow, I got Fintail on a Benz. :surprise: :surprise:

It's even better than a 2.5-16: 190E 3.2 AMG :shades:

andys120

Thats's a pretty good roundup Fintail. You've got the '66 Galaxie, the VW Transporter and the Saab 96. You're right about the Alpine, from that angle it looks like a late series ('65-'66?) with the less prominent fins.

The Caddy lacks the wraparound windshield so likely it is '52 or '53, hard to say (only Eldos had the wraparound in '53).

The car behind the Saab and the m/c might be an Olds Cutlass/F85 but the C-post looks more like that of a '64-'65 Chevelle.

A little Nit on the pickup. IIRC correctly in the early '60s those were branded as Willys, not Jeeps. :P

andys120

fintail

Doh...I'll admit, I am not well versed in pre-C36 AMG cars, as they seem to be very piecework before that time, if not lots of one-offs. I've actually never heard of that one before. Looks like they did make 200 of them, if my German is correct.

fintail

I see the Lambo badge...they had a few weird cars in the 70s...name escapes me

fintail

I bet 3 out of 4 people prefer the Granada to the Rolls, too.

Oh wait, that was a Chrysler vs a MB

Mr_Shiftright

fintail

GAZ Chaika, another example of the Russian Packard fetish, made from the late 50s through the late 70s I believe.

Mr_Shiftright

Yep but not so sure about the Packard connection. There's lots about the car that isn't Packard at all

Reports I've read said they were very well assembled (surprise) with excellent workmanship.

The one you see in the pix (a GAZ-13 Chaika, which means "gull") sold for $40,000 at Barrett-Jackson, no doubt destined for a museum, since there are no parts of course, unless you go to....CUBA! (great excuse for a trip there!).

Rumor also has it that while it resembles American cars, it rides and handles more like a Benz.

andys120

I see the Lambo badge...they had a few weird cars in the 70s...name escapes me

Lamborghini Jarama, ca. 72-'76, not all that weird from any other angle, it's actually rather sleek>

andys120

fintail

I've always thought it was kind of oddly proportioned...the wheels look too big for the height of the passenger compartment...makes me want to believe it is some kind of 4x4.

fintail

Oh, there's nothing genuinely Packard on the Chaika, but the styling, especially that of the front, is a blatant copy. The commie top brass apparently loved the Packard-esque ZIS 110 series cars, and I think this is the natural progression. The make still had some good brand equity somewhere!

Interesting on that ride and handling part. I like that it is very sinister too. Could be an interesting car for the MB 600 enthusiast.

andys120

The little blue car (#8759) is a 1965 Osca 1600 GT Zagato, a kind of "baby Maserati".

andys120

andre1969

I'm gonna guess that's a 1954 Chrysler Imperial? My Granddad had a '53 DeSoto Firedome for about 9 years in the 70's/80's, and IIRC it was on the same wheelbase as the Windsors and New Yorkers...that black car looks like it's definitely longer, especially between the front wheel and the door.

Looks like it has a/c, too.

andys120

Close, it's a '53 Andre, that's almost certainly an A/C intake vent behind the C pillar, pretty unusual in Nineteen Fifty and Three.

Check out the wire wheels (most likely Kelsey-Hayes).

andys120

Here's another group shot, it's from Five Easy Pieces
which was released in 1970. I can identify six by make and approxinate year. Have at it:

lemko

...the ones I can clearly identify are a 1965 Chevrolet Bel Air or Biscayne, an early '60s Ford Falcon, and a 1965-66 Plymouth Barracuda.

What I can't really tell looks like a white early '60s Mercury and some early '60s Dodge wagon - perhaps a '63 880?

imidazol97

in front of the Dodge wagon is a 61 or 62 Chev wagon. In the right hand lane in front of that in the right hand lane is a 60 Thunderbird (with three taillights) and in front of that is a 60 Chevrolet with the squared off gullwing of the 59 Chev.

We need a HD picture of this. Was it a TV show?

Is the dark car in front of the white Mercury in right lane a Ford? Like a 63 Ford with large circular taillights?

And in front of the white Chev 61-62 wagon in left lane is a 61 Ford? with little tailfins like this

losaw20

I did take andys120's picture into photoshop and sharpen it a little.

andys120

Sorry about the picture, it's a movie still, they are often fuzzy.

5EP was an Oscar-winning movie, one of Nicholson's most famous performances.

I'm pretty sure the white Merc is a '61. The Falcon is most likely a '64-'67, they were squared off compared to '60-'63 models.

Yep the car in front of the Merc is likely a Ford as two large round t/ls are barely visible but I think it's a '65 or '66. Again it's more squared off looking, the chrome strip would suggest a Galaxie 500.

Oddly for a movie released in 1970 there don't seem to be any cars newer than '66 or so.

andys120

Is this picture sharp enough?

kyfdx

I'm guessing it is a Citroen..

Mr_Shiftright

Are the Hosts sharp around here or WHAT?!!

kyfdx

I've been enrolled in some of the finest schools in the country...

imidazol97

I didn't mean anything serious about the sharp image. We just got an HDTV for local channels and am amazed at the sharpness of the pictures for over the air signals--not just DVD movies!

The fourth car up in the right lane looks like this kind of Ford, 1963?

andre1969

The car in the right lane, 6th car up, which appears to have a little beak on the rump makes me think of some Plymouth that did that. I think it was the 1967-68 Fury VIP?

andre1969

and the lead car in the left lane is a Buick. Don't ask me how I know this! :shades:

michaellno

Isn't that the Citroen that was driven by Sebastien Loeb to victory in last weekend's Rallye Monte Carlo?

I think it's either a C4 or an Xsara.

imidazol97

Sharpened photo



The sixth car forward in right lane does have that rear. Or it's a 62 Bonneville driving backwards!

If these cars are moving, they're tailgating.

andys120

Isn't that the Citroen that was driven by Sebastien Loeb to victory in last weekend's Rallye Monte Carlo?

Oui.

I think it's either a C4 or an Xsara.

C4.

andys120

andre1969

1984 Mustang GT? I think that's a pretty sharp looking car, actually. I never cared for that 1987 aero restyle that made it look like it had cataracts. I always liked the style of a car with a slicked-back nose and deeply inset headlights. It may not really be that aerodynamic, but I think it gives it a sleek, muscular look.

andys120

It's an '82 Andre, I'm not sure they had T-Tops in the lineup for '84, IIRC that was the year they brought convertibles back to the lineup.

I didn't like the deep set headlights myself and bought clear Lexan covers for the '86 GT convertible I owned. It was pretty clear to me that the car was styled around flush headlights. The story IIRC correctly is that the change in h/l laws was delayed, messing up Ford's plans to incorporate faired-in H/ls for nearly a decade. They were introduced, as you say, in '87.

To each his own.

andys120

fintail

Muntz Jet, probably found to be most attractive by people who remember it new. Ca. 1953 I think.

imidazol97

Beautiful. Ready for Katherine Hepburn to cruise down a beautiful country lane with her scarf blowing.

andys120

You've got the idea, Fintail is correct, it's a Muntz Jet.

andys120

Mr_Shiftright

Is that a Dragon?

fintail

Looks like a normal Kaiser, but based on the architecture around it, I would guess it's some foreign assembled built under license South American thing. The Stude behind it is probably the same story.

boomchek

Isn't that the Kaiser Manhattan?

andys120

That's pretty much it Fin, it's a Kaiser Carabela made by IKA, the Argentine subsidiary of Kaiser Industries. Interestingly it's a 1961 model so it was built long after Kaiser ceased US Auto production.

andys120

kyfdx

Infiniti J30. Early-mid '90s..

They used to have fantastic lease deals on those..