Mystery car pix

stephen987

Certainly that's true of any Italians working for Pininfarina. . .

andys120

I'm a big fan of the 330GTC, it's very similar to the two headlight version of the 330 GTE, especially in the rear>

andys120

ateixeira

Pontiac G8

Holden original, the new special edition model.

Mr_Shiftright

andys120

Holden original, the new special edition model.

Anybody wanna be more specific?

ateixeira

2011 Holden HSV.

colin_l

That appears to be a highly modified Suzuki Swift. They looked the same for a long time but I'll through out a guess as to year, let's say 1998.

I can't imagine this particular one has a stock 1.3L ~70HP engine, though.

andys120

2011 Holden HSV.

It's made by Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) but it's called the (2011) Holden E3 GTS. Apparently the Monaro/Commodore names are history.

Inside Line has the skinny.

andys120

stephen987

Steve McQueen's '76 Porsche 930.

andys120

Yup, that's McQ's '76 Porsche Turbo.

He seems to have had a thing for dark gray Porches, his '69 911S (the one he drove in Le Mans)was Slate Gray, so dark that for many years I thought it was black>

andys120

stephen987

I'll take the '64 Mercury Comet two-door sedan and the '69 Chevy Impala wagon, and leave the rest for y'all to play with.

wgrafer

OK, I'll take the Oldsmobiles. Looks like the tail end of a '54-'56
just in front of the Mercury Comet. And of course it's a white '58 Olds
98 convertible right up front. There's at least easy sure ones left.......

fintail

I'll just take what looks like a white 69 Ford wagon parked in the background.

Those cars with the Pennsylvania-looking street make me think "Lemkoland" :shades:

andys120

Good job guys.

On the left are a '64-65ish Comet, a '69 Chevy (Kingswood?)
Wagon (I don't think they had Impala wagons) and a white late '60s Ford wagon behind it (Country Squire?).

There's a white 'vert coming up the street in the middle,the shape of the windshield says GM '61 or '62 and I think I can just make out the pointy end of the fender of a '61 Buick.

The consensus at imcdb.com is that the white '58 Olds is an 88, your guess is as good as mine. The car behind that is tough, I think it might be a '69ish Chrysler.
Behind that is a silver '61 Chevy. The dark tall car you can barely see behind that is probably a VW Beetle/Bug.

Thanks for playing. :shades:

andys120

kyfdx

It's an Alfa.. Too bad you put Spider in the title, because that's the only thing I'm sure of.... lol..

Does it involve Guilietta or Sprint in the name?

Mr_Shiftright

Thats'a Giulia 1600 Spider because we see a hood scoop and elimination of the center hood chrome strip. But without having the car in front of me, it's hard to pin it down except to say 1962-65.

stickguy

I am also amused by these older pics, since imported cars are so rare.

If you went to the same spot and took a shot today, it could be the exact opposite, depending on where it is.

fezo

Gee, are they going to bring THOSE Alfas back when they reenter the US market?

Mr_Shiftright

No, they'll bring in very expensive cars that the middle class will have to stretch on their tippy toes to touch, unfortunately. Maybe in time, we'll see more entry level Alfas if they take hold here, but I doubt we'll ever see a Miata-like Alfa again.

Looks like the want to compete with BMW or some such, not sure.

andys120

Unfortunately every current Alfa-Romeo is FWD, not exactly the ideal layout for a sporty car. There are rumors floating around that they are planning a line of RWD cars mainly for the American market but for now the Miata is the closest thing on the new car market to a classic Alfa Giulia or Giulietta Spider

Another hot rumor has Volkswagen group buying Alfa-Romeo and shifting some production to Spain while dropping the poor-selling (and redundant) Seat line.
--------

I did some research on the old Giulias and Giuliettas because I'm just as confused as any of you by old Alfa nomenclature. Shifty, let me know if I have any of this wrong:

The Giuliettas were introduced in 1955 (type 750) and produced through 1965 (type 101 commencing '61).

Giulia (type 105) cars were introduced in 1961 so there is an overlap of four years
which helps make it more confusing.

Berlinas and Berlinettas were completely restyled when the type changed so it's easy to tell a Giulietta from a Giulia but style changes to the spiders were limited AFAIK to the hood which makes it still more confusing. Of course the various subtypes such as Sprints, Veloces TIs and Supers don't help. :confuse: :sick:

Mr_Shiftright

That's pretty good. I still occasionally refer to books to get it all straight, and that's also a problem since often the books contradict each other.

These 60s Spiders are simply wonderful cars. They are little jewels, very well made, and those little engines sing and rev like nothing you've ever experienced. For any real enthusiast, be you of modest means or filthy rich---you could hardly do better than an Alfa Spider on a twisty road on a fair summer's day.

And the tops are snug, they don't leak, the seats are comfy, the heaters work and the smiles per gallon are incomparable IMO.

andys120

That's not a very good website, it's incomplete and out of date (Peugeot dealers?-really!)

andys120

lemko

Looks like an early 1970s Honda 600.

Mr_Shiftright

I had one of those. Fun car. Being a motorcycle nut, I was right at home with that 600 cc engine and chain-drive transmission! I used to hit 80 mph in that thing. Terrifying.

I just saw one of those parked under some redwood trees on Francis Drake Blvd heading toward Olema in Marin county.

andys120

Looks like an early 1970s Honda 600.

Keerect, that version was sold here as the Honda Z600.

andys120

jwilliams2

Looks like a 1957 Pontiac Safari wagon....

fezo

I was going to say 58.

Now I have to go look up the difference.

wgrafer

It's a '57 Safari for sure. Pontiac only had 3 years of Chevy Nomad look-a-likes: '55, '56. and '57. By '58 the Safari was just a typical big 4-door station wagon.

andys120

Yep, it's a '57 Safari.

andys120

jwilliams2

Late 50's Singer from the UK, but I'm not sure what they called this model....

edit: Just looked it up, it's a Gazelle from 1957-1963...

andys120

Yup, Singer Gazelle is correct. They were essentially Hillman Minxes w a SOHC motor and a different badge. Four doors were more common.

andys120

jwilliams2

Wild guess here, maybe a 67 full size Pontiac convertible?

stever

That's not a very good website

It was gratuitous spam.

andys120

Oh I know it was spam but I was struck by how lame the website was. The dealer list is out of date by about 20 years. :lemon:

andys120

It's a 1967 Pontiac Grand Prix.

stephen987

Was that the only year the GP was offered as a convertible?

andys120

Wikipedia sez:

The Grand Prix convertible would be a one-year only offering and dropped after this one year.

andys120

ateixeira

My first reaction was "Maserati" but I know that's wrong.

Reminds me a bit of the coupe.

michaellno

New Lotus Elite, a porker (3700 lbs) with a V8 in it.

ateixeira

A heavy Lotus makes no sense....

Mr_Shiftright

Chapman would be appalled. As he liked to say -- "add lightness".

There's a great (and true) Colin Chapman story about the first time he went to see an Indy 500 race. He looked carefully and said something (roughly) like "these front-engine cars are overweight monsters...I could win this race with a car half as heavy and with less horsepower."

And he did, too, and changed Indy design forever.

Despite our "Golden Age" right now, I think car designers are forgetting what cars are for.