Mystery car pix

andys120

Sunbeam Alpine. mid 50's

Close but prior to 1955 they were known as Sunbeam-Talbot Alpines and the car shown is a 1954. I had a Dinky Toy of one as a kid and it was a favorite in my collection of Dinkys (perhaps 12-15,mostly obscure British models that I'd never heard of til I got the Dinky).

magnette

I had always thought that the Alpine was the first post-war Sunbeam not to have been badged as a Sunbeam-Talbot. Certainly here it wasn't available for the first six months or so of production, but I never realised they sold it abroad as a Sunbeam Talbot.. You live and learn...

andys120

I had always thought that the Alpine was the first post-war Sunbeam not to have been badged as a Sunbeam-Talbot

They dropped the "-Talbot" for the 1955 MY so all Sunbeam-Talbots including the Alpine became Sunbeams. I'm not sure any were ever officially exported to the U.S. until Chrysler bought Rootes in the 1960s.

fintail

Speaking of obscure models, lately I have bought a load of vintage Matchbox - spent way too much, but you only live once. , although I have seen all of the names before on the models before, they are still alien to my eyes - commercial vehicles with names like ERF, Trojan, Albion, Guy, Commer - all never sold on this side of the pond.

I hope your Magnette electrical rebuild won't cost too much. Thankfully MBs from the era of my fintail tend to be very solid electrically, although they have their issues too. Car is laid up in the shop right now having the radiator refurbished and the parking brake fixed.

mac24

............commercial vehicles with names like ERF, Trojan, Albion, Guy, Commer - all never sold on this side of the pond.

I'm familiar with all of those as commercial vehicles except for the Trojan, which I only know as a 'bubble' car.

Can you post pics?

fintail

This Matchbox, issued in 1958, is named "1 Ton Trojan Van"



And here's the real version.

lemko

Trojan could be a builder of truck bodies placed on top of common manufacturers' commercial chassis like Boyertown or Grumman is on this side of the pond.

Note the curious placement of the exhaust pipe below the bumper in front of the right wheel.

fintail

I looked it up - the Trojan company who made the van is the same who made the microcar (which was a built under license Heinkel - the German influence on the British auto industry goes back generations. Funny as it was a Brit who saved VW from plunder and destruction after the war)

mac24

Excellent! I wouldn't have recognized the model as being a replica of the real thing though. There's a very non-period tire behind that exhaust.

mac24

There you go, Trojan bubble car. Never thought anything of them when I was a child, nor the inline Heinkles either, but it would be something to see one on the road nowadays.

magnette

Nobody hazarded a guess at the red three wheeler, then - and the clue was actually in the registration number as it is a DRK, made 1986-98 - although this one appears to be about 1990, I think.

The engines are mostly Renault - either from the R4 or the 1100cc R6, with a donor floorpan from the same source, although being a three wheeler that is reallly only the front subframe and so on, I suppose.

Apparently they made about 59 cars.

magnette

Trojan had a long and distinguished history here - they made cars in quite large numbers in the 20's and fewer in the thirties, but the commercials became more popular as time went on they even made a few small buses in the post war era.

I think their 20's offering was so cheap and basic that they advertised it as cheaper than walking - based on the cost to replace shoes ! - but there are still quite a number of them about - they sold well in the colonies and Australia has a few.

I saw a couple of prewar cars at a show last year, and a small bus, about a 14 seater, at another show - I'll see if I can dig the pictures out - I saved them to a disc at some stage and then lost the index, but never mind.

Trojan also made the Elva sports car in the sixties - they took over production as the Heinkel based models were running down in the early 60's.

I can actually remember the Brooke Bond vans -- they were ubiquitous and there was a warehouse in the village I grew up in in Wales which was a distribution point for their tea in our area, so there was always a van parked there.
They had a two-stroke 90degree V4 engine.

They were also the company that built Lambretta scooters in Britain in the late 50's, for a time, I believe.

I've got a Matchbox Trojan van - although it has no paint left on it...I loved Matchbox toys when I was a kid - in about 1962/4 when I was 6/8, I would spend most of my pocket money on them, and remember when they went up from 1shilling and 6 pence to 1/9 - probably my first experience of inflation.

magnette

Actually looking again at your picture of that actual Trojan van I think it is slightly later than the model, as they went over to a diesel engine eventually - the chrome badge to the left of the radiator, adjacent to the driver side headlight, is for Perkins diesel engines...And now I look again, it is actually sign-written for Perkins - they made lots of different engines for the British truck and van industry, so presumably their service fleet included Trojans too...

fintail

I recently bought 20 or so boxed models from the late 50s-early 60s, and some have the original price sticker - 39 cents in the late 50s, up to 47 cents in the early 60s. Inflation over here too - especially as several I bought now can bring $100+ apiece. One in the lot I bought is the Trojan van, plastic wheels to go alongside the metal wheels version I already have.

andys120

BIGGER

fintail

Too easy, so I will let others have it. :shades:

But I will name the movie - "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World"

wgrafer

Well, I'll leave the main one for someone, but I do spy a '61 Chevy wagon coming, and Maybe a '61 Mercury Comet too....

andys120

Since nobody wants to identify the Convertible from the Mad, Mad, Mad clip I will tell you that it's not exactly clear if it's a '62 Chrysler 300/383 or the more powerful 300H/413 .

According to Wikipedia the only cosmetic difference was the trunk badge.

lemko

That movie is an "obscure car spotters" treasure chest! Funny, back then, those were all common cars.

fintail

It's a fantastic movie, the humor is pretty good and the cars are amazing. There's even a short scene with a fintail.

stever

andys120

Can we have a clue?

stever

Sure, the name is an anagram for "hay up niagara."

:shades:

It's from an European country. Small volume manufacturers. Has a Mercedes power plant. Er, lightweight 7 speed gearbox.

I figured the flaps would be the dead giveaway.

andys120

Pagani Huayara>

stever

The anagram gave it away eh? :shades:

Evo Drives the Pagani Huayra, Shows off Flappy Active Aero (Straightline)

kyfdx

I kept coming up with Iguana something on the anagram.... :surprise:

stever

That would be iguana yarpha (a lizard in a peat bog, in other words). I didn't want to make the clue too easy.

lemko

That quad exhaust coming out the center reminds me of the Batmobile. One of these vehicles painted a deep glossy black would make a great Batmobile.

ateixeira

Love my Cervix

becomes

I love my [name that car]

stever

lol, are you saying women are the target market for the CR-V EXi?

ateixeira

Just EX, the i moves the front, "I love my...".

And yes, Honda made it clear when the last gen came out that their target demographic was the "Toddler Mom". For the last Civic debut they even named the buyer "Jennifer", I guess she has young kids now.

They even have a spot between the front seats for her purse.

fintail

uugh that's atrocious. Another overstyled pointless crossover made for people who can barely be counted as motorists. It's like an estrogen pill on wheels.

ateixeira

Don't sugar coat it, tell us how you really feel!

andys120

lostwrench1

1962 Buick Special

andys120

1962 Buick Special

Yup, it's been in the same family since new and for some reason they did a frame-up restoration on it. :confuse:

stever

ateixeira

That's the new teaser image of the Infiniti JX.

So now Infiniti offers a non-small crossover. Before it was small and extra small.

Now they'll have a medium.

stever

Yep, blurb here.

Oh, you can go to the Facebook page and win a trip to the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance where you can get a first look.

Hm, guess it's still a concept?

ateixeira

I'm surprised the event's organizers would even allow such an odd looking vehicle on the Concours. Are French cars being highlighted? (ducks and runs)

Nissan/Renault must be sponsoring...

fintail

Yeah, money changed hands.

More styling that's different for the sake of being different...not a pretty C-pillar in that shot, but it is unusual.

andys120

mac24

I think grahampeters or one of our other antipodean bretheren should be good for this one.

ateixeira

D-pillar, since it's a wagon...but yeah. Overstyled.

subearu

It's certainly a Holden, kind of small looking like a Cruze maybe? Surprised Andy doesn't have a pic of the new Malibu up here to guess on.

-Brian

grahampeters

G'day

Gee that looks familiar! It's a Holden Cruze. Developed in Korea but now being built in Elizabeth, South Australia. Selling very well and remarkably nice car. Sells from about AUD22k which on today's exchange rate would be about USD24k

Now for the juicy bit for you folk. Holden in Australia do a lot of development work for US GM products. In my local hardware store car -park the other day, I saw a white Cruze with some black tape stuck across the front badge.. However, it did a bad job of concealing the shape of the Chevrolet logo which was confirmed by the logos imprinted into the plastic of the headlamps. Panel fit was pretty rough around the doors, which surprised me. I suspect that it might have been an early development model which is being used for engineering testing. I gather the US version is about to commence building in Ohio
Cheers

Graham

andys120

Righto Graham. It's a Holden Cruze CDX Diesel. Rumor has it that this Diesel-powered version of the Cruze may be headed our way.

andys120

lemko

1981 Chevrolet Malibu Classic coupe.

robr2

Actually Graham, the Cruze has been in production in Ohio for almost a year now.

Why they would have a Chevy down under is the question. Perhaps doing some local testing of the refresh due in a couple of years?