Mystery car pix

jwilliams2

BTW it's spelled S-P-I-D-E-R unless it's a Porsche or Maserati..

Yes, of course. I thought there were other cars called Spyder.....Corvair Monza Spyder, Audi R8 Spyder, Toyota MR2 Spyder, etc.

And I just can't help it, but to me a Spider is an arachnid with 8 legs, not a car. :shades:

andys120

OK I stand corrected, there were a few others but I'll put it another way if it's a Fiat, Alfa or Ferrari it's spelled like the arachnid.

A "spider" was originally a close-coupled horse-darwn carriage with large wheels IIRC

Mr_Shiftright

The origin of the term "spider" is unknown, interestingly enough, and has baffled auto historians for some time. My theory is that it refers to how a spider carries her eggs on her back, which resembles, in turn, the horse-drawn carriages driven from the back by a man standing on a ledge behind the rear wheels.

ABARTH -- I know some Abarth prices but I haven't got a clue on this one. It doesn't strike me as one of the Abarth major leaguers.

Here's a fixer-upper that sold for $19K, so maybe...what....$40K for a really nice one? It's not a twin cam or anything and it's not particularly handsome.

explorerx4

Includes reverse ram air.

andys120

lostwrench1

Wow, a 46 Hudson.

michaellno

Wow, gas was 26.9 cents a gallon!

wgrafer

I'll take a couple -
in front of the Hudson are a two-tone '53 Buick Super and a '49-'50 Ford.

magnette

I think the old car facing us on the right is a 39 Ford (or a Mercury ?). Is the lighter coloured car behind, with the heavy chrome bar across the grille, a 57 Dodge - although with single headlights, as I know they differed over there from state to state at that time?

andys120

Is the lighter coloured car behind, with the heavy chrome bar across the grille, a 57 Dodge

Are you talking the car about the behind the '39? I can't make much of that one but a '57 anything would be much newer than anything else in the photo.

There's a '49-'52 MoPar on the extreme right with a three section rear window, I believe that would be a Chrysler or DeSoto.

magnette

I can't see anything of the car immediately behind the Ford, either - I mean the larger,squarer car, half visible to the right of the SUNOCO advert, directly below the white wall that is divided by the lamp post. I think it is too modern too, but it looks different from everything else here, and a 57 would be on sale by Sep 56. ANyway, it looked odd to me.

bhill2

The car behind the Ford is a poser. Does anyone have any ideas about the one on the far left in front of the Buick that is filling up?

jwilliams2

Looks kinda like a 46-48 Ford 2 door sedan....

andys120

Nobody has mentioned the dark hardtop just ahead of the two-tone (Ford?)sedan. It's in the center of the picture, next in line for the pumps on the left. It looks like a '54 or '55 Merc to me but I suppose it could be a Ford.

bhill2

I think that's the '53 Buick someone mentioned.

jwilliams2

It looks like a '54 or '55 Merc to me but I suppose it could be a Ford.

I agree, it could be a '52, '53, or '54 Mercury. I think the '55 rear quarter was contoured different, and the rear window was more squared.

bhill2

Doh! Now I see the one you meant.

wgrafer

Wow! This is the gift that keeps on giving!

I'll say the convert behind the B&W '53 Buick looks like a '51 Ford, and the black one behind it is a '53 Mercury followed by a '52-'53 Ford 4-dr and then the previously id'd Plymouth 2-dr hardtop.

Across the lot parked under the oil ad is a 2-tone '53 Ford, and parked out on the street is a '46-48 Buick convertible.

The one behind the '39 Ford is kind of mysterious - looks like a '53 Ford, but the grill is not exactly right.... I don't see anything newer than 1953.

andys120

jwilliams2

That would be a Cisitalia 202....beautiful car. They were built from about 1949 to 1951 or so, and very rare. I believe one of these is on display at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.

ateixeira

Tires seem so narrow, I guess that was normal for '49-51.

andys120

Yes, the 202 was the design that catapulted Pininfarina to the forefront of auto styling and the template for a line of beautiful berlinettas and spiders.

andys120

mac24

It's one of the ISO models, an early '70s S4 Fidia.
It might have appealed to John but it certainly doesn't appeal to me.

Now an ISO I do like, and probably the most common, is this one:

lemko

John had some pretty eclectic tastes in women and cars. He had both a psychedelically painted Rolls-Royce Phantom V and a 1972 Chrysler Town and Country station wagon.

andys120

John had some pretty eclectic tastes in women and cars.

Each of the Fab Four owned a black Mini with tinted windows circa '64-'65. I spotted John and Yoko at the corner of 69th and Fifth in NYC circa 1979-'80 riding in a Mercedes 240/300TD wagon. John also had a '67 Ferrari 330 GTE and probably a lot of other interesting cars.

The Iso Fidia was perhaps the fastest four door of it's day (1967-'75) and surely ranks as one of the best looking four doors ever. The Grifo by contrast offered nothing special in the way of styling or performance (IMO).

explorerx4

AM Lagonda? How about that Cord convertible in the background?

andys120

stickguy

that an actually production car? Looks like an LSD dream modification of a beetle. Tail lights and dash and doors certainly look it.

fintail

Just postwar Lancia Aprilia, prewar style

grahampeters

G'day

Some sort of Lancia?

Cheers

Graham

lemko

Looks like it has those semaphore turn signals in the C-pillar.

andys120

Yup, it's a 1949 Lancia Aprilia.

andys120

mac24

The Iso Fidia was perhaps the fastest four door of it's day (1967-'75) and surely ranks as one of the best looking four doors ever. The Grifo by contrast offered nothing special in the way of styling or performance (IMO).

LOL.....we'll have to agree to differ on that one!
To me the Fidia looks like a different designer was responsible for each part of the car. :P

lemko

Isn't that the new Toyota Prius wagon that's the hot thing in Japan these days?

andys120

Isn't that the new Toyota Prius wagon that's the hot thing in Japan these days?

Yup.

andys120

ateixeira

Prius V, they call it here.

Toyota got a whopping 52,000 pre-orders. Amazing. That's as many cars as MINI will sell this year, counting all 4 models and all 3 powertrains (base, S, JCW).

And it's basically a Prius wagon with a shorter final drive ratio. Their development budget must have been about 12 cents.

au1994

Lancia Beta or is it a Scorpion?

fintail

I think it's a Scorpion. Probably pushed to where it sits

au1994

I think you are right on both accounts! Such a shame. Such good looking, sounding and handling cars. When they ran which was virtually never.

andys120

Yes, it's a 1977 Lancia Scorpion, known outside the US as the Lancia Beta Montecarlo or simply the Lancia Montecarlo. The big bumpers are the giveaway that the photo is of a Scorpion.

Originally it was planed as a replacement for the Fiat 124 Sport Coupe/Spider but it was decided the price tag was more approriate to the Lancia market.

Nice idea, hideous execution. :sick:

magnette

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andys120

It's an NSU Spider, the first production car to use Wankel rotary power (mid 60s.)

You can barely make out the Auto Union 4 rings emblem on the front plate. NSU was not part of the original AU (Audi/Horch/Wanderer/DKW) but was bought out by VW-Audi in the early 60s and folded into Audi AG in the early 60s.

grahampeters

G'day

We never saw the big bumper models down under. They ruin an otherwise beautiful design.

Unfortunately the Lancia Beta (on which the Montcarlo was based) was famously unreliable. Such a pity for such a ground breaking design

Cheers

Graham

andys120

kyfdx

Replacement for the Aveo...

Is that a Sonic? Makes me crave Tater Tots..

andys120

Yup it's a Tater...er..Sonic. It looks a lot spiffier than an Aveo but doesn't look competitive to a Fiesta or Focus...or a Rio for that matter.

Mr_Shiftright

It's rather a shame that Fiat dragged the once noble Lancia name through the mud.