Mystery car pix

andys120

You're getting pretty warm, Fintail.

Mr_Shiftright

old Bristol?

andys120

You on the other hand are ice cold Shifty.

Mr_Shiftright

I actually typed in something about Morris (yeah, SURE YOU DID Shifty....) because of the side windows and roofline but I never saw a Morris like that....so then I was figuring something rounder and dumpier and thought Bristol!

wrong

it's an odd car...in some ways British but in some ways not at all....

andys120

Actually it looks a bit like an old Chevy to me but it is in fact a 1953 Morris Oxford. Fin was close, it looks like a big Minor, they should've called it the Morris Major. :P

andys120

british_rover

Audi A5. There is supposed to be a S5 and RS5 model coming in a year or two.

Might give the M6 a run for its money.

kyfdx

Geezz.. buy me one..

fintail

And of course, they actually had a Morris Major, although I don't know if they did at that time.

andys120

I looked it up, Wikipedia lists a Morris Major model in the early 30s. link

texases

I think this is the S5 - it has the prominent vertical bars in the grill.

andys120

You're probably right, there's a small flash in the right side of the grille where they usually locate the S
emblem.

andys120

boomchek

Some kind of Mitsubishi/Proton Presia, or never mind... Cordia (found it in my 1983 UK Buyer's Guide).

Looks a lot like the Isuzu Impulse of the mid to late 80s.

andys120

Cordia is correct.

andys120

subearu

not reading the badge on the fender either besides, it was made where I live.

Dodge Omni hatch, probably an '80 or '79.

-Brian

Mr_Shiftright

DAMN! Now that I look at it, there's the Morris emblems staring me in the face....I'm ashamed of myself...

bigo08

fintail

The offspring of a Five Hundred and a '93 Taurus?

Mr_Shiftright

I think that's what it is all right...oh....my....god....

FORD 1903-2008 RIP

stickguy

I heard they were renaming the 500 Taurus, but had no idea they were putting a god awful nose on it. And what's with the el cheapo door handles and mismatched cladding?

Meanwhile, the new Mondeo looks like something that would have me in the dealership MOnday talking numbers!

stickguy

You only get 1/2 credit with that lame Omni hatchback answer. Everyone know that it was Omni O24 (to go along with the Horizon TC3).

Why I remember this stuff, but can't remember what I had for breakfast, is quite the mystery.

andys120

Dodge Omni O24 is correct but I don't think the photoshop of the Taurus is an accurate representation of what the new one will actually look like.

It'll probably get a grille w chrome bars like the Fusion.

boomchek

definetly a photoshopped Ford 500. Even the wheels are from the 90s Taurus era.

I don't think that or even the Ford Edge are the magical answers to saving Ford. When I see an Edge, to me it's just another crossover, nothing special of revolutionary, at least not in a way that the original Taurus was.

Ford needs to stop playing it safe and bring out some ballsy cars, especially from Europe, and some subcompacts like the Ka, Fiesta and so on. Even the new Focus coupe looks awkward.

As for that Dodge there, I was going to say it's a "retardo" cause I got it confused with the Sapporo, or Turismo. Had a coworker (when I worked in security years ago) praising how his Turismo is the best car in the world :confuse:

magnette

Sorry- been away again, so not onboard for the latest batch. The Morris Oxford is the model we knew as the MO, it waas the big brother to the Minor, and when introduced they expected it to be the bigger seller, which was wrong as the Minor sold at about 3 times the rate, and kept on selling for years... There was actually a bigger Morris also introduced at the same time - late 40's - called the Six (model MS). This was originally going to be called the Major, but it was a dud, they only sold a few thousand of them, and Morris did the same again with the Isis, which was a six cylinder version of the Oxford II or III, and which bombed as well. They sold more of the contemporary Wolseley, which was the 6/80, basically the same car as the MS, which was the police car of the fifties - if you ever see any old British black and white films set in Scotland Yard, they'll be in a Wolseley...
Morris made a completely different Minor back in the pre-war period, from 1929, also the basis of the first MG Midget, and it was in the 30's that the Morris Six was known for a time as a Major - that was a bigger car altogether, though...

magnette

What is it with Ford ? They make decent cars in Europe, sell well everywhere here, and you guys get offered such awful cars by comparison... The old Euro Mondeo would run rings round that awful thing, let alone the new one...

magnette

Czechoslovakia drove on the left until invaded by Hitler
Sweden until 1966
Italy had a great rule that you drove on the right in the country and the left in towns (or vice-versa) which must have been fun in the suburbs...

I always believed we were right on the left, if you see what I mean - and as for railways, well, I think the 4'8 1/2" gauge was set by George Stephenson, who pretty much invented the railway here (which means anywhere..) as the standard cart in the collieries of the North East of England (where the first railways were established) was indeed 4' 8 or so... And I've seen roman cart tracks in the paving at Hadrians Wall, also in the N East, and that is indeed the same...

Mr_Shiftright

andys120

Bond Equipe roadster, powered by a 2 liter Triumph Six from the Vitesse 1967-70. Fiberglass body IIRC.

Honestly you would have stumped me if the picture didn't show the name Bond on the banner behind the car, A quick trip to Motorbase.com revealed which Bond it was .

The coupe may be a contemporary (1963-70) Bond GT4.

bumpy

Did Dodge charge extra for the Scottish interior?

bumpy

Ford is really about 4 or 5 different automakers with the same name. Ford Europe kicks out fun stuff like the Mondeo, Focus, and Fiesta; Ford Australia pulls out the Falcon and Fairlane; Ford Brazil has the Ka; Ford Thailand makes a Ranger worth buying; and Ford North America makes the F150, F250, and the Mustang. Ford NA is a giant suckhole, while the other Fords are doing fine.

andys120

stickguy

Cheby II/Nova (not sure which name to use for which year, or when they used both). A '66?

Hmm, now is it big enought to be a Chevelle? Doesn't quite look it..

fintail

I think it's a 64 Nova maybe

Mr_Shiftright

Well you needed an easy one :P

andys120

Yep, it is both a '66 Chevy II and a Nova, it's also an SS even though it has the 194 CID Stovebolt 6 under the hood

andys120

from the original The Fast and The Furious

stickguy

the one in the back looks like a Triumph TR-3. The one in the front looks like it is missing a bumper and shouldn't be racing.

Mr_Shiftright

helicoil kit.

fintail

I think the car on the right is an Aston DB2, missing its bumper

andys120

Triumph TR-3.

Nope, you didn't read my headline Stick, "Pair of Deuces". It's a TR-2, the other as Fin says is an Aston-Martin DB-2.

Get it?

BTW production sports cars usually do have their bumpers removed when they race.

andys120

Mr_Shiftright

The TR2 is even called a "small mouth".

fintail

Euro Ford Scorpio 1995+

lemko

Isn't that a 1963 Chevy II Nova convertible?

andre1969

About the only story concerning "why" we do things that holds up is why railroad tracks are the width that they are....it corresponds to the wheel ruts made by wagons of that time just about perfectly....and those wagon gauges are remarkably close to roman chariot gauge.

Once upon a time, I think railroad tracks in the United States were all sorts of different gauges. It just depended on whose line you were riding, and in many cases the locomotives and cars from one line wouldn't work on another. I think it was Abraham Lincoln who mandated that all rail lines be standardized, to something like 4 feet, 8 1/2 inches. Afterwards though, I think some narrow gauge lines did persist in mountainous areas out west.

I guess it would make sense that rail lines would follow wagon wheels in width, since the first train cars were usually just converted coaches and carriages. However, standardization wasn't exactly the in thing back in the old days, so I'd guess the track of a wagon or carriage probably depended on whomever built it...I doubt that there was ever any standard.

Also, if you look at the old wagons and carriages and buckboards, the driver sat in the center of the seat up front, although sometimes if he had a passenger, he'd move to one side or the other. Most of those old wagon roads were only about one lane wide, anyway. If two wagons met, they'd each have to move over into the grass. But whether they moved to the right or left, they weren't consistent about it. At least, they weren't on tv. :P

oregonboy

I think the driver sat on the right. The guy "riding shotgun" would be on the left.



james

Mr_Shiftright

The right side is usually where they put the brake lever.

So maybe when there were outside brake levers on cars, in the early days, they put 'em on the right because most people were right-handed, but when the brakes when inside the car, it was all up for grabs (so to speak).

I'd imagine most right-handed Englishmen find shifting a bit awkward.

andys120

Isn't that a 1963 Chevy II Nova convertible?

Good eye Lemko, it is a '63 not a '66, my bad!