>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?
Just a guess, but I suspect it's testing the car and instead of doing it for each region in GM's sales areas, it's being done in one as a cost-cutting measure. Same car, why redevelope in each region. Probably an outcome of Lutz's tenure to help GM improve.
Yup, exactly, I'm struck by the lack of extraneous ornamentation on this car, the only visible brand cue is the tiny "Chevrolet" in the bottom left of the grille.
If it was mine I'd rip off the dopey stand up on the hood and replace the puny 110 HP V6 with a crate 350 V8.
I had pondered the reason for testing a Chevrolet in Australia. However, we do see GM products being tested here, reasonably often. Physically, Australia is a similar scale to the continental USA with very wide climate variations. However, most of Australia is very lightly populated and our total population is about a fifteenth of the USA.
GM have Research Labs here in Melbourne and there are specific areas of research which have world wide application.
The roughness of panel fit on the car I saw, suggested they were trying something different. However some of the detail (like the lights) suggested an advanced stage of production. Interior also looked unusual.
Tan 1966 Ford Galaxie 500 or LTD four-door hardtop. White 1961 Chevrolet Impala 2-door hardtop. Tan 1965-66 Mustang. Gray VW Beetle. White 1969 Chevrolet Impala or Caprice. Red Toyota Land Cruiser.
Off to the left is a mid-60s Chevy Van. Off to the right is a 1969 Dodge Polara
Great Job Lemko. The Ford behind the white Chevy looks grey on my monitor, it's kinda hard to tell if it's a '66 or '67 but it looks top of the line (LTD?).
The Land Cruiser is the classic FJ40. I still see them running around in Tucson when I go there. The picture was taken on Speedway Boulevard in Tucson in 1970 (Any town with a road named Speedway is my kind of place.) BTW Tucson abounds in interesting street names like Calle Sin Nombre (Street with No Name) and there's .an intersection where Glen and Campbell Streets meet. :shades: :shades:
Most amazing? look at the gas prices at the gulf station: 33.9 regular and 37.9 ethyl (aka:premium).
So here we are in 2011 with gas prices 10x higher. And I guess the cars are also about 10x more costly. So maybe we should just move the decimal point on our money one point left and we'd be even.....
Sort of a friendly Audi 80 wagon (okay an S2 Avant), tweaked by Porsche.
Reminds me that at about the same era, someone came up with the idea of cutting and shutting a Golf with a bout 4" extra width. The added width hid a Porsche engine to give remarkable performance; just what you don't want to meet at the Traffic Light Grand Prix!
Audi RS2 Avant is correct. It is based on the Audi 80/B4 but it wasn't just tweaked by Porsche. The suspension and brakes were extensively reworked and it was assembled at Porsche's Zuffenhausen facility, it was Porsche's first wagon a decade before the Cayenne, and a whole bunch sexier IMO.
The RS2 came from a German mindset of building very high performance cars which were virtually indistinguishable from their pedestrian cousins; minimal ornamentation with the focus on performance.
The early M5 was a good example; my boss had an E28 M5 which was virtually impossible to identify compared to a standard 535. By the time that I worked for him, it was well worn in, having spent some years pounding motorways, but was still fabulously entertaining. They all seemed to come in an innocuous black and were usually dirty. In the UK, your first awareness was when one overtook you on a motorway.
There were also some seriously fast Mercedes with heavily adapted suspensions.
The RS2 was a similar beast; you had to look really hard at the little badge to work out that the family wagon which just went past was not being thrashed to its death.
Given that a lot of these German performance cars were only really distinguishable by a little badge, it was common for the car to be debadged, leaving only a connoisseur able to recognize the usually special wheels or trims, or the ride attitude of the car (all of them seemed to be very glued to the road with little body roll).
More recently, the Germans appear to be embracing a more ostentatious display for their performance cars.
The E28 M5 didn't just seem to come in black. That was the only available color! With tan interior.
First one I ever saw was in late '87, early '88 in Monticello, KY. It was parked on the street outside the courthouse. Went in to see an elected official, and there was a young man in the office. I asked him if it was his, and he blushed and said yes. He was the man's son, and had just graduated from law school.
This is a seriously little backwater town. Weird place to spot my first one, but he was just visiting from out of town.
I don't know where you got a photo of one without "Matra-Simca" written in big letters on the front and back but it's a late 70s Matra-Simca Rancho, an early crossover vehicle.
I don't know where you got a photo of one without "Matra-Simca" written in big letters on the front and back but it's a late 70s Matra-Simca Rancho, an early crossover vehicle.
Well, the lettering was a bit of a giveaway so I had to remove it. :shades:
Actually, that one's a Talbot Matra Rancho, but the difference is in name only, which changed from Simca to Talbot in 1979. Basically, it's Simca 1100 pickup front end with a Matra built fibreglass shell grafted onto the rear.
Still moderately common in the UK when I moved there in 1990. The Talbot Matra name seemed to live on for a bit. The Rancho actually looked like a good idea and I went so far as scanning Loot (sort of Trading Post ; remember before Ebay?) looking for a clean one as a car when we first arrived in the UK
A friend of mine had the same car in a much sexier dark green which had a lot more presence than the pictured car which looks like an F85 that some secretary would drive.
Except for the red stripers and the little emblem in the scoop there's nothing that says muscle car and those hubcaps could have come off a Dynamic 88.
Comments
Just a guess, but I suspect it's testing the car and instead of doing it for each region in GM's sales areas, it's being done in one as a cost-cutting measure. Same car, why redevelope in each region. Probably an outcome of Lutz's tenure to help GM improve.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Yup, exactly, I'm struck by the lack of extraneous ornamentation on this car, the only visible brand cue is the tiny "Chevrolet" in the bottom left of the grille.
If it was mine I'd rip off the dopey stand up on the hood and replace the puny 110 HP V6 with a crate 350 V8.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
I had pondered the reason for testing a Chevrolet in Australia. However, we do see GM products being tested here, reasonably often. Physically, Australia is a similar scale to the continental USA with very wide climate variations. However, most of Australia is very lightly populated and our total population is about a fifteenth of the USA.
GM have Research Labs here in Melbourne and there are specific areas of research which have world wide application.
The roughness of panel fit on the car I saw, suggested they were trying something different. However some of the detail (like the lights) suggested an advanced stage of production. Interior also looked unusual.
Cheers
Graham
[Edit-The "barn find" Bora was similar but it was a 1977.]
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
Lots left.... (well, maybe not 'lots')
Here you go, in case it goes down again:
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
Much BIGGER!
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
White 1961 Chevrolet Impala 2-door hardtop.
Tan 1965-66 Mustang.
Gray VW Beetle.
White 1969 Chevrolet Impala or Caprice.
Red Toyota Land Cruiser.
Off to the left is a mid-60s Chevy Van.
Off to the right is a 1969 Dodge Polara
Along side it in the next lane is a VW Bus (beige/white roof).
The Land Cruiser is the classic FJ40. I still see them running around in Tucson when I go there. The picture was taken on Speedway Boulevard in Tucson in 1970 (Any town with a road named Speedway is my kind of place.) BTW Tucson abounds in interesting street names like Calle Sin Nombre
(Street with No Name) and there's .an intersection where Glen and Campbell Streets meet. :shades: :shades:
i
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
The only imports on the road are VWs...a different world.
Ford in the foreground is definitely a 66
So here we are in 2011 with gas prices 10x higher. And I guess the cars are also about 10x more costly. So maybe we should just move the decimal point on our money one point left and we'd be even.....
Very advanced for its time apparantly.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
Audi RS2?
Sort of a friendly Audi 80 wagon (okay an S2 Avant), tweaked by Porsche.
Reminds me that at about the same era, someone came up with the idea of cutting and shutting a Golf with a bout 4" extra width. The added width hid a Porsche engine to give remarkable performance; just what you don't want to meet at the Traffic Light Grand Prix!
Cheers
Graham
The Porsche name appears on the rear hatch>
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
The RS2 came from a German mindset of building very high performance cars which were virtually indistinguishable from their pedestrian cousins; minimal ornamentation with the focus on performance.
The early M5 was a good example; my boss had an E28 M5 which was virtually impossible to identify compared to a standard 535. By the time that I worked for him, it was well worn in, having spent some years pounding motorways, but was still fabulously entertaining. They all seemed to come in an innocuous black and were usually dirty. In the UK, your first awareness was when one overtook you on a motorway.
There were also some seriously fast Mercedes with heavily adapted suspensions.
The RS2 was a similar beast; you had to look really hard at the little badge to work out that the family wagon which just went past was not being thrashed to its death.
Given that a lot of these German performance cars were only really distinguishable by a little badge, it was common for the car to be debadged, leaving only a connoisseur able to recognize the usually special wheels or trims, or the ride attitude of the car (all of them seemed to be very glued to the road with little body roll).
More recently, the Germans appear to be embracing a more ostentatious display for their performance cars.
Cheers
Graham
First one I ever saw was in late '87, early '88 in Monticello, KY. It was parked on the street outside the courthouse. Went in to see an elected official, and there was a young man in the office. I asked him if it was his, and he blushed and said yes. He was the man's son, and had just graduated from law school.
This is a seriously little backwater town. Weird place to spot my first one, but he was just visiting from out of town.
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2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
No idea of the movie though.
The Renault 4 (same vintage)was known as a Fourgonette in France and simply as a "Cargo" elsewere.
The movie is pretty obscure: La Mano Spietata della Legge (1973).
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
Well, the lettering was a bit of a giveaway so I had to remove it. :shades:
Actually, that one's a Talbot Matra Rancho, but the difference is in name only, which changed from Simca to Talbot in 1979.
Basically, it's Simca 1100 pickup front end with a Matra built fibreglass shell grafted onto the rear.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
Still moderately common in the UK when I moved there in 1990. The Talbot Matra name seemed to live on for a bit. The Rancho actually looked like a good idea and I went so far as scanning Loot (sort of Trading Post ; remember before Ebay?) looking for a clean one as a car when we first arrived in the UK
Cheers
Graham
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
Except for the red stripers and the little emblem in the scoop there's nothing that says muscle car and those hubcaps could have come off a Dynamic 88.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93