Mystery car pix

andys120

Didn't Columbo drive a 403 droptop?

Yep>

andys120

drove this rig>



What was his name and what's the car?

boomchek

It's not showing

andys120

It's not showing

Can you see it now?>

stephen987

The side view makes it difficult, but I'll say: 1975 Chevrolet Malibu Classic. Could be a '76 though. Don't remember the show.

andys120

Good guess, it.s a '75 GM B-Body, not a 'Bu though.

fintail

I think Kojak's Buick was that style, but I can't tell if that's actually a Buick.

stephen987

Well, the nose isn't an Oldsmobile or Pontiac nose, as far as I can tell. So this must be a Buick Century.

andys120

I think Kojak's Buick was that style, but I can't tell if that's actually a Buick.

Geez, how many '70s TV detectives drove GM B-Bodies? Of course it's Kojak's 1975 Buick Regal. :shades:

andys120

stephen987

2011 Chevy Volt?

andre1969

when did Kojak start driving a Chevelle?! I don't know what the site that image came from says, but that ain't no Regal. Regal sedans were a lot more curvy, with front fenders that had a Monte Carlo-esque "french curve" that swooped down as it went back. Here's a pic of one...


For 1976-77, the Century and Regal coupes, got more squared off, angular styling, but the sedans kept that swoopy style through '77, after which they were downsized and the Regal was returned, temporarily, to coupe-only status. They did graft stacked rectangular headlights onto the '76-77 sedans, though.

lemko

qbrozen

Yup. Definitely the Volt.
Just watched the unveling videos yesterday.

Too bad it is still 2 years away. And probably 2.5-3 years before they are readily available (meaning no wait list). GM finally comes up with something that people will fall over themselves to get, but by the time they get it to market, they will probably already have been leap-frogged by Toyota/Honda.

andre1969

I never really watched Kojak much as a kid, so I don't remember much about it, except for that brown Buick. Did Kojak get a new Buick every year, or did he have to stick it out with that same '74 or so Regal through to the end?

nortsr1

I don't believe he received a new Buick every year...but....he had a new lollypop in every show!!!

stephen987

Jim Rockford, on the other hand, did get a new brown Firebird each year.

andys120

I defer to your expetise on those Andre, I neither know or care much about '70s Buicks (or any Buick since about '67). They probably posted the wrong picture on that website, thinking it was a Regal.

They posted another shot of a different TV Dick's 1970's GM ride>



What year is that one?

andre1969

That's Jim Rockford's Pontiac Firebird Esprit. Can't tell if it's a '77 or '78, though. The '76 still had single round headlights, while the '79-81 had the grille inserts down low in the bumper, rather than between the headlights.

steelydanfan

easy on the Buicks, andys120......many of the post 67 Buicks were no worse vehicles than some of the automotive carcasses you dig up almost daily.........I do enjoy your posts, andys, you definitely put the "M" in mystery on this site..........

magnette

fintail

Is it a Sunbeam-Talbot? A handful of those got exported to NA back in the day, I have seen one before somewhere.

Looks like a Marcos GT beside it too.

andre1969

Good Lord, they'll put those Buick portholes on anything these days, won't they?

stephen987

My first instinct says Sunbeam-Talbot 90, ca. 1952, but I can never keep the various permutations of Sunbeam, Talbot, and Sunbeam-Talbot straight.

lemko

stephen987

The picture isn't showing.

imidazol97

This is it.

stever

Same problem (same link?).

I can right-click and copy the link and view it that way.... Maybe because of the stupid underscore in the link. :shades:

Steve_, Host

lemko

magnette

Yes to fintail, but stephen is right to be cautious.... Although this car is basically the same as the Sunbeam-Talbot 90 (1948/54), the version shown here is actually a Sunbeam Mk III, which was a run-off model from 1954/7. They dropped the Talbot, although some of them actually have a radiator badge that still says that, and updated the car, hence the "Buick" portholes and the modified little grilles on each side of the main one. Apparently they only made just over 2200 of them so they are quite rare now.

kyfdx

'70 Mercury Marquis?

stephen987

I don't think it's a Marquis--they had the hidden headlights in '70, didn't they? Would this be a Park Lane or a Monterey?

ETA: I think magnette is correct about the year.

magnette

Mercury Montclair Hardtop Sedan 1968?. I think its a Montclair because of the long chrome strip along theside, which wasn't on the Monterey

hudsonthedog

Further up the ranks, the other divisions never did that. For instance, they never lumped the Catalina, Executive, Bonneville, and full-sized Grand Prix together under "Pontiac". And I think Dodge always separated the Polara and Monaco. Mercury kept their models separate as well, although eventually in the 70's, they did consolidate. Mercury went with Marquis, with the uplevel model being a Grand Marquis. Dodge went with Monaco/Royal Monaco/Royal Monaco Brougham for 1974, I believe.

Yes, all the American brands were lumped together. If you look at things like Chilton books of the era (as an example), you'll see that each BRAND is a chapter with the compacts, intermediates, and sports cars broken out as distinct chapters. Mercury had Marquis, Park Lane, Monterrey, Marauder, etc, back in the day.

lemko

Actually, it's a 1968 Mercury Park Lane Brougham 4-door hardtop. Now, who was the TV detective that drove it?

texases

Book 'em, Danno!

lemko

That's right! Steve McGarrett played by Jack Lord.

magnette

fintail

Goggomobil Coupe (can't remember a model name)

magnette

Yes, its a Glas Goggomobil TS300 coupe, this is one of the last, from 1967....

andys120

...B&W French movie from the New Wave era>

stephen987

Can't tell about the farthest car on the right, but behind that appears to my eyes to be some sort of Simca-Ford Vedette, followed by a Lancia Aurelia. The car behind the Aurelia, with the disc wheels, might be a Citroen ID19. (Have you ever seen a picture that "might" be a Citroen?)

andys120

Nice job, Stephen987.

Ford was out of the picture after about 1954, despite the Ford look the Vedette, is a Simca Vedette like this 1959 Vedette Regence>



The first car to the left is another Simca, the most popular seller in 1950's France, the Simca Aronde ('51-'58)>

.

It was the popularity of the Aronde, Simca's first design not based on a Fiat, which enabled Simca to acquire Ford France as well as Talbot and Unic.

In '58 Chrysler acquired a stake in Simca becoming majority owner in 1963, changing the name to Chrysler France in 1970 and dropping the Simca name in '81.

Oh yes, the Lancia Aurelia is a GT (B20S)

andys120

stephen987

Thanks for this one--it was fun! I remember reading that when the Vedette passed from Ford France to Simca, practically every piece had to be reengineered--not because the Ford parts were bad but because they were adapted from US and UK components and were thus non-metric. I like the look--sort of a 7/8 scale US Ford, but a bit cleaner.

The Aronde is a nice looking car too--restrained, clean without the poverty-spec look that was common to so many Euro cars in the 1950s.

magnette

This is a descendant of the Fiat Campanogla - Fiat then entered into an arrangement with Ford Germany and a few others to form a truck company called Iveco, in Spain, and for some markets their range included a version of the Fiat badged as an Iveco. ( I'm a bit vague about this as we get Iveco trucks here but not the Campanola)

andys120

That's correct, Magnette, in fact it's called the IVECO Campagnola. We get lots of heavy and medium IVECO Trucks here but I doubt the Campagnola is headed our way.

jlbl

Currently IVECO ("Industrial Vehicle Corporation") is a truck, van & and diesel-engine maker settled in Torino. It is a FIAT subsidiary. It builds about 200,000 vehicles and 460,000 engines per year. A number of European truck makers were bought by FIAT/IVECO at the end of the last Century to have the Corporation the size it is now. Among them, the former Spanish brand 'Pegaso', of which an agreed buying by MB collided with the European anti-cartel legislation.

Regards,
Jose

jlbl

Let's have a push to this… (without having a look at my CarSpace) :mad:



I could present it as viewed form the front or the flank under petition :P

Regards,
Jose

magnette

It looks like an Autonacional Biscuter, or something along those lines, from the early fifties or its French antecedent.