Mystery car pix

lemko

The French copy nobody and nobody copies the French!

Mr_Shiftright

They must use a Harley engine to replicate the traditional vibrating rear view mirrors of British cars. Well, at least you can buy engine parts at Home Depot, that's something.

andys120

It's blurry but there's a nice potpourri of cars in this still from a 1961 movie.

lemko

The gray car in the center is a 1957 Ford Skyliner. The white car off to the right is a 1958 or 1959 Ford Thunderbird. The parked black car looks like it might be a 1955 or 1956 Ford Mainline sedan. The black and white two-tome car ahead of the Skyliner looks like a 1956 Buick. The blue car next to the Buick might be a 1961 Dodge. The white car ahead of the Buick is either a mid-50s Ford or Oldsmobile.

A Ford woody is parked off to the left - possibly a 1949 or 1950 model. Behind it might be a 1961 Valiant.

andys120

Good job Lemko. The white Squarebird is a '58, it has the hash marks along the side spear. '59s had a chrome arrow at the tip of that side molding instead.

uplanderguy

Another quick way to tell a '58 T-Bird from a '59 is that the "Thunderbird" nameplate is ahead of the front wheels on a '58. On a '59 it is on the spear on the door.

andys120

Host, please remove, I didn't know it'd come out so big!

imidazol97

The link inside the html symbols less than at the beginning and greater that at the end should be

http://assets.hemmings.com/uimage/1643063-1600-1065.jpg width="650" height="432"

I can't put the symbols the IMG key puts on, or the text won't show.

The 432 comes from 650/1600
then multiply that result by the current height 1065 which gives 432. Using those ratios keeps the height in proportion to the original picture.

stephen987

I'm guessing it's a Lamborghini Miura V12

andys120

Good guess Stephen, but the Miura's engine was transversale>

andys120

Thanks for the fix!

jwilliams2

Must be a 12 in a Ferrari...

texases

A Ferrari 12, flat 12 that is...512BB?

jwilliams2

Yes, believe you are correct, a flat 12 like in a 512 Berlinetta Boxer....has to be a flat 12 with the 4 Weber 3-barrel carbs....

Mr_Shiftright

I'm gonna say a Ferrari 365 GT4 or similar. circa mid 1970s.

andys120

Yup, you guys have the right idea. It is a 4.4 liter flat 12 as seen in the Ferrari 365 GT4 BB. In '76 a larger 6.2 liter motor replaced the earlier unit. The resulting 512BB was the best selling Boxer Berlinetta by a healthy margin and the 512 motor was carried over into the Testarossa.

Question for you Shifty, since the flat 12 offers a considerably lower CG than a Vee12
why hasn't it been adopted by other builders of mid-engine exotics?

Mr_Shiftright

RE: flat V-12s

Probably no one uses a flat V-12 because there are ready-made blocks available from any number of passenger cars which can be modified for the exotics. Developing a new engine from scratch is enormously expensive---I'm thinkin' 40 to 80 million dollars (or more).

andys120

What about guys like Lamborghini, Bugatti and Pagani, they don't use adapted blocks do they?

texases

Lamborghini and Bugatti are now owned by VW, and both their engines are adaptations of VW technology. The Bugatti 16 is an amazing extension of the VR engines first seen in the VW VR6. Pretty impressive.

Mr_Shiftright

Yep, the Veyron is like two very narrow VW-based V-8 engines stuck together in a W pattern--turbocharged of course.

sallyandmilt

We found this photograph of my grandfather and his wife with their new car from sometime in the early 1900s. (We actually found the negative and printed it, so there was no identification with it.) We know he had a Willys-Knight at some point, but my brother doesn't believe this is it. Can anyone identify it?">link title

cooterbfd

Sally, there is no actual link.

sallyandmilt

Let's try the link again: http://www.flickr.com/photos/55668214@N02/5159650722/

fintail

I don't know exactly what it is, but it isn't a Willys-Knight, the design predates the existence of that company.

I have a suspicion it is a ~1911 Cadillac.

jwilliams2

Cars of this vintage are hard for me to distinguish, unless you can see the script on the radiator or some other identifying part. Could this possibly be a Willys Overland? Willys production was second only to Ford in 1911, so they were fairly common.

Mr_Shiftright

Both those guesses are good ones -- I can see that the car pre-dates electric lighting, so pre 1912-13. It's a pretty big car--the owners must have been people of some means.

fintail

Could be, but I think the Overland cars were smaller - that thing looks to be pretty hefty. I googled some pics and Cadillacs in 1911 had the same lights and grille shape - which is still inconclusive as a lot of cars had that feature, but the body is Cadillac looking too. That's my guess. The AACA Experts probably will know quickly, I think some of them know brassies well.

andys120

wgrafer

Looks like a '64 Buick Skylark.

andys120

'64 Skylark is correct.

andys120

jwilliams2

That would be a Talbot-Lago Record T 26 Cabriolet from the 40's.

andys120

Yup, a 1947 T-L Record with Figoni coachwork.

jlbl

And I'd like to have one of them. If only to admire it closely.

Regards,
Jose

andys120

wgrafer

OK, I'll take the Thunderbird -- 1963.

stephen987

I believe the presence of the vent windows marks the Camaro as a '67. Hidden headlights indicate the RS package. Badging indicates it's an RS/SS.

lemko

The old car way in the back looks like a 1942 DeSoto or Chrysler if those are painted "blackout" hubcaps. Else, it's a 1946-48 DeSoto or Chrysler.

andys120

jwilliams2

1958 Buick Limited Convertible.....with lots of chrome.

andys120

Doh!, the license plate is a giveaway!

andys120

jwilliams2

MGA, not sure of the year...1959 or later if those are disc brakes...

kyfdx

'60 MGA

andys120

Close, in '60 the MGA MK2 was introduced with a slightly inset grille like this.

The car shown is a 1958 MGA/1500 Mk.1

kyfdx

Yeah.. I was guessing.. my friend has a '61 with the inset grille, so I went one year older... lol..

Mr_Shiftright

"refinement" of British cars of those days....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nv9pGKovLA&feature=related

fintail

Nice...yesterday's car, today! :shades:

Here's what Germany was making around the same time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7YK9n6zaPQ

(this is actually my car)

Mr_Shiftright

Listen to this 1961 Alfa and look how beautiful the engine is!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoBHJz7KLjg

fintail

Hard to believe that's real, an Italian car running, not covered in oil, not on fire...must have been put in a hermetically sealed vault when new :shades:

This is pretty awesome:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXd4liZ6Io8