Mystery car pix

fintail

They look like Fiat 125s to me. Definitely Italian plates anyway.

guss

Wow that Positano Yellow is a real looker. :P I had a 1980 in that cream color that 90 % of all Spiders came in. With a little wax it would almost become a beautiful shade of dull.

karsick

Isn't the leading sedan (barely peeking its tail into the pic) an Alfa? :confuse:

andys120

Isn't the leading sedan (barely peeking its tail into the pic) an Alfa?

I think it is an Alfa ('63 Giulia TI?) and sorry Fin but those are Fiat 124 sedans, not 125s, .;)

The Spider wears a Turin plate (TO=Torino) and the white Fiat berlina wears a Roman Plate (ROma=Rome).

andys120

hudsonthedog

Alfa Romeo 147

andys120

Right you are, it's a 146 GTA, Dog.

andys120

andre1969

I'm gonna guess a 1981 Datsun 210? And considering how well they held up from that era, I'd say that one almost qualifies as rust-free! :P

It's kinda funny, how with that era of 210, the other bodystyles seem like diminutive little things, but the wagon actually seems a bit large-ish.

ateixeira

I test drove one of those. 108hp on the SI.

I remember the HF model had 62hp and the middle model (I forget the model designation, was it just called the "base"?) had 92hp.

At the time, the HF was $300 cheaper, but 30hp for $300 sounds like a bargain at $10/horse.

I considered the Civic Si, the Swift GT, but ended up with a 91 Ford Escort GT. It had 127hp, which was a lot for a cheap hatch at the time, and more torque than my other choices. The powertrain held up well but the interior had pieces falling off and the motorized mice seatbelts drove my passengers nuts.

ateixeira

Hmm, I owned a 1980 210 coupe, and it seemed a bit different. Those rear doors seem mighty long for some reason.

Did they have a model between the 210 and the 510/Maxima?

andre1969

Did they have a model between the 210 and the 510/Maxima?

They had the 310, but maybe that was the FWD model? I get them all mixed up, because I know they had a ton of 'em back in those days...

F10 (early FWD attempt, and I think only offered as a 2-door/3-door)
210 (pretty much a full-range RWD subcompact)
310 (IIRC another FWD model...had a clunky 4-door hatchback, but also had the Pulsar)
510 (4 door sedan/hatchback and wagon models, but were they still offering 2-doors by this time?)
610 (I think this one was just a coupe offering?)
810/Maxima (4-door sedan and wagon by 1981, although earlier models offered a hardtop coupe)

And then the 200SX and 280Z thrown in for good measure.

Did they ever have a 710? I seem to recall the 610 was just offered as a coupe. Wonder if there was a 410 or a 910?

ateixeira

You recall far more than I do.

I do remember that the 210 coupe looked a LOT different than the B210, which a friend of mine owned. The B stood for Bizarre, I think.

My 210 was very conventional looking.

Too bad it didn't make enough power to let you enjoy the RWD.

andre1969

Wasn't the B210 the earlier model? I seem to recall it being offered as a 2 or 4-door, and having single round headlights and a honeycomb grille. And tended to be offered only in those typical economy car colors like orange and yellow. I think it was offered up through '78, and then the more conventional 210 was a 1979-82 model with rectangular headlights, followed by the FWD Sentra in '83?

ateixeira

His was an earlier model, so that makes sense to me.

hudsonthedog

Your recollection is pretty good. All "Datsun" products were RWD except for the F10/310 (Cherry in Japan).

The B210 became the 210 which was replaced by the Nissan Sentra in 1982.

The F10 (the first US-market FWD Datsun) was offered in two 2-door body styles: hatchback and wagon. It was replaced by the less bizarre looking 310 (the US only had the two 2-door hatchback body styles) and was eventually replaced by the Nissan Pulsar.

The 510 was the mid-sized model in five body styles as I recall including 2-door coupe, 2-door hatchback, 4-door sedan, 4-door hatchback, and 4-door wagon. It ran until replaced by the Nissan Stanza in 1983.

There were 610 and 710 models, but I don't recall them being very popular.

The 810 became the 810 Maxima and then evenutally just Maxima.

andys120

andre1969

Hmm, this is pretty interesting...looks like the Datsun 710 was slotted below the 610! I found this old ad for the '74 Datsun 710...


I always thought that as you went up through the numbers, the cars were supposed to be more upscale!

I also found an ad for the 610, but it won't open online. Rather, it downloads to your desktop. But it was offered as a hardtop coupe, 4-door pillared sedan, and a wagon. Maybe the 610 came first, and then the 810 replaced it? And the 710 just might not have ever gone anywhere, because they already had the 510?

fintail

My dad bought a late (1976) 610 with 80K on it out of an estate for $100. The bodywork is shameless tin can quality, but the engine is an amusing little sewing machine.

See more Car Pictures at CarSpace.com

lemko

Is it the logo for the Frazer automobile? The story told by Joe Frazer is that he caught heck from his relatives back in Scotland for using the family crest on his cars.

ateixeira

Yeah, that's me way back when.

stever

I had a Datsun wagon back in the day - it was a '79 iirc. I guess it was a 510? Ran good, even after I kissed a Caddy with the front end.

andys120

Is it the logo for the Frazer automobile?

It is indeed, our family's first car was a 1947 Frazer 4-door.

karsick

FWIW -

The 610 retained an independent rear (like the original 510), whereas the 710 had to make do with a live axle on leafs.

The knock on the late-70's 510 was that they again cheaped out on the suspension (tarnishing the original Five & Dime's rep).

IMO The coolest of the mid-70's Datsuns (other than a Z) would be a 610 Coupe.

fintail

I can't recall ever seeing a 610 coupe on the road...before my time. When I was in high school in the mid 90s, I knew a girl who had a 710 coupe, but it was a beater...although it was usually reliable.

What sticks in my mind about my dad's Datsun is that it is scary at 60mph...paper-thin sheetmetal, lack of power, and a somewhat floaty ride had me somewhat worried.

andys120

hudsonthedog

I gave Magnette 3 hours to respond...

It's a 1953-1954 Arnolt-MG.

andys120

That's right Hudson, there's an MG-TD hiding under that beautiful aluminum Bertone body. Fantasy Junction calls it an MG-Arnolt 1500, one of 102 made.

andys120

yjbeach

This car looked nice at the 1997 or 1998 autoshow in DC.
http://www.fantasycars.com/derek/cars/images/pontiac/rageous_1.jpg

tom1sharon2

1964 (?) Pontiac Catalina

imidazol97

Saw this beauty at a cruise-in. I haven't seen one of these at shows that I can recall. To me this one is an archexample of that car from the era.

full size

andys120

It's an easy one, a nice example of a hideously overstyled car. I'll let somebody else put the name to it.

andre1969

1959 Chevy Impala. Y'know, for all the ragging that car takes, I think they're actually kinda cool in person.

stever

There was a coupe version of that '59 in the family for a few years. My older brother got stuck with it for a while and hated it because it had no power. When I drove it, I took a special route from home through the neighborhood. If I ran the stop sign, I knew I had to scrub over to the curb and add some brake fluid to it.

tmart

Here's what you get when you combine a 57, 58 and a 59. Not all that bad looking.

See more Car Pictures at CarSpace.com

See more Car Pictures at CarSpace.com

See more Car Pictures at CarSpace.com">

ateixeira

Is that a kit on a C4?

tmart

No, it's a real car, based on the C6. Can be yours for $135k.
See: http://www.n2amotors.com/cars-789.html Also available as a coupe.

andre1969

but I don't remember! Did we ever get a consensus on what that little Datsun-looking wagon was a few posts back? WAS it an '81 210?

As for that Johnny Cash "One Piece at a Time" inspired '57/58/59 Chevy-looking Corvette, considering what they had to work with, I don't think it's half-bad looking.

I'm impressed with how well the '58 portion of the car and the '59 portion blend together. The '59 Chevy was an all-new design, but from seeing that conversion above, it looks like, if Chevy had really wanted to, they could have made the '59 rear-end work on the '58 body shell. Although from what I've read, before the all-new '59 Chevy was green-lighted, some of the stuff they had planned for an update of the '58 body was pretty grotesque. They were actually working towards a "central" theme, along the lines of the Edsel, or the third headlight on the Tucker. I shudder to think what could have been! :surprise:

fintail

The little Datsun is an '80 210, it was featured in the 'Down on the Street' segment of Jalopnik...I won't link to it as I suspect the censors would object, but google it...I think you would enjoy the material.

stever

I don't understand your comment. People link to Jalopnik all the time around here, both in editorial and in the forums. This vehicle was written about in the last ten days, using photos from them:



(spoiler)

fintail

I thought this place frowned upon linking to other forums. Maybe that was an old-time rule.

stever

If you're just here to promote something, then we'll clean it out (aka keeping the world free of spam, one discussion at a time). I didn't think they had forums anyway, just blogs.

No guesses on the not quite in production rig?

fintail

My bad....I've looked at the DOTS as kind of forum....but I have never participated, I waste too much time here as it is

The future car is a CTS wagon...maybe higher gas prices will make wagons come back.

guss

maybe higher gas prices will make wagons come back.

They are back(and raised the a few inches) , we just call them crossovers now because no one wants to be seen in a station wagon.

andys120

kyfdx

Pulsar NX with optional SportBack roof..

fintail

Sounds pretty much like what SUVs were/are anyway.

Gas will get expensive enough so crossovers become unappealing too. Then we'll be back to real wagons.

lemko

Gas will get expensive enough so crossovers become unappealing too. Then we'll be back to real wagons.

Yeah, like Charles Ingall's buckboard.

fintail

Or the highline shopper can have the Oleson's surrey :P