Mystery car pix

uplanderguy

A couple things:

The white '65 Ford is a Custom not a Galaxie.

'64 Olds is a Dynamic 88 (they were Dynamics or Supers back then).

That '65 Pontiac is a LeMans (well, OK, technically a Tempest!)

I'm thinking the Falcon is a '65 based on the front fender emblem.

andys120

Yup, it's a '63 Studebaker Avanti. Do you have a photo of the stock interior?

ateixeira

that is NOT the factory dash padding!

Looks like someone bought a few yards of memory foam and stapled it to the dash. Yuck.

uplanderguy

Here's a link to a '63 Avanti instrument panel (the '64 is generally the same but with woodgrain around the instruments and a woodgrain steering wheel...I like the '63 better):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/imuttoo/394183718/

andys120

Thanks, now that I see it, it looks familiar...and much nicer than that puffed up one.

andys120

wgrafer

Looks like a Hurst Olds Cutlass, but I can't tell the year. Could be a '84 or '85 or '86. Were there any differences????

ateixeira

Is that a T-top model? At the time I dated a girl and her best friend had one of those.

It had that V6 that sounded like it was gurgling water. The T-top was fun, though the back seat was cramped for such a huge car.

lemko

I thought both the Buick Regal and Olds Cutlass Supreme coupes were beautiful cars. Those truncated FWD cars that followed them in 1988 were a travesty.

ateixeira

The GM10, right?

Yeah, GM built 3 large coupes at a time when people wanted sedans.

The Cutlass in particular was a STRANGE car, boy was it. A friend owned one, inherited from her parents, and she could not get over how odd it was. My college roommate's dad owned the convertible Cutlass, but not for long, he too tired of its quirks and traded it in not much later.

I think I'd take the old T-Top RWD model, too.

lemko

Remember the goofy door handles in the B-pillar?

ateixeira

YES! Funny ... and to this day some crossovers copy that dumb idea (Jeep Compass).

The 3rd one was the Pontiac Grand Prix. Just when they were starting to add surface excitement, i.e. lots of plastic cladding.

I think it was the "tuned" 3.1l V6 that sounded like an animal gargling.

Sadly those were my college years, so that's the overall impression I have of GM.

lemko

When I was starting my junior year of college, the FWD GM C-bodies debuted. I saw the FWD Cadillac DeVille and Fleetwood and feared the direction Cadillac was headed. I thought I'd have nothing to look forward to owning after I graduated. Cadillac wisely kept the big RWD Brougham.

I know what you mean about the 3.1 V-6. My wife foolishly bought a used 1999 Olds Cutlass sedan without my knowledge. It had that 3.1 V-6 which had cooling issues and was a gas hog to boot. I swear my 1989 Cadillac Brougham got better fuel economy than that little purple turd. I told her not to judge Oldsmobile by that ugly clone of the mediocre 1997-era Malibu. It definitely wasn't my father's Oldsmobile which was a glamorous 1955 Ninety-Eight Starfire convertible or even mine which was a 1979 Ninety-Eight Regency.

fintail

The 3.1 has that weird coarse drone, and the 2.8 sounds like some kind of hyper popcorn popper. The late 80s/early 90s were not the best image building time.

ateixeira

I dated a girl who owned a Beretta with that 2.8l, so I know what you mean.

I wonder if that's the REAL reason I broke up with her. LOL

grahampeters

G'day

Well, there is ugly, and ...

That is truly awful. I don't care what it is, I do not want one!

Cheers

Graham

ateixeira

Get a Regal in all black and it would look a whole lot better. Way too many orange stripes on that Buick.

au1994

I had an 89 Beretta with the 2.0 4cyl. Total stripper, am-fm only, wind up windows. Dog slow.

It had less than 10k miles when I got it and the paint was already starting to orange peel.

ateixeira

The V6 was actually kinda quick, for the time anyway.

I didn't like the sound, or the seats, or the ergonomics, or the mileage.

I admit I liked the styling when it came out. GM let it go stale, though.

michaellno

juice, I actually saw a Beretta yesterday, with the oh so rare Z26 package.

Was a nice car for the period....

au1994

yeah, I didn't have any issue with the looks. As you noted, pretty slick for the time actually. I thought it comfortable too, but I was coming from a 66 Mustang.

It got me through college though not without stranding me a couple of times. So, no, not as reliable as the Honda's and Mazda's that friends had.

I got rid of it in 95 I believe with only 70k on the clock but the interior was falling apart.

ateixeira

It was funny...

She had a black Beretta V6.

Her brother also got a ... black Beretta V6.

A year later he traded it in for the Z26 model!

The guy had CCB pretty bad, I guess.

magnette

">

fintail

MH - Mulheim, I don't know what that means for the car though, which appears to be a 2:1 scale amusement park bumper car.

ateixeira

Bozo's ride.

magnette

They built nearly 3000 of these in the fifties...

ateixeira

At some point you have to ask, why not just get a motorcycle?

10x times better performance, cheaper, and it's not likely any less safe than that.

I was browsing a motor cycle magazine and the Can Am Spyder caught my eye, those things are so cool...

fintail

I think those Can-Am things are bizarre...quite expensive - can buy a decent car for the money, and I don't know if there is a riding position that doesn't look awkward. No thanks.

kyfdx

Can Am Spyder caught my eye, those things are so cool...

Every rider I see is wearing khakis and a polo shirt, and appears to be about my age...

My teenager could tell you... that is decidedly... not cool... :surprise:

grahampeters

G'day

Try borrowing some teenagers to inspect one on the road and you will understand why it is a bad idea. My 18yo is particularly ept at spotting what middle aged men driving inappropriate vehicles are making up for...

... and it is not just their receding hairline

Cheers

Graham

magnette

Since my little car isn' t going anywhere, I'll tell you it is Kleinschnittger F125 - they made this from 1950-57, and built about 2900 in Germany - it was also made in Belgium under licence, I think.
This is a later one - the earlier ones had a slightly squarer grille...

mac24

I think what we really want to know, is how many clowns will it hold? :P

uplanderguy

I had a new bright red '89 Beretta GT, 2.8 with beige cloth interior (instead of the gray that every other one had). I liked it. I think the styling has stood the test of time...very non-gimmicky IMO. Before they started adding spoilers and ground effects to them.

I drove it for 74.9K trouble-free miles (although it got flooded when I tried to drive through a large puddle in the road, so had a 'smell'), and traded it on a new '93 Caprice Classic with F41.

The 2.8 and 3.1 did have a distinctive rasp. Like a Chrysler ignition, I could tell a 2.8 or 3.1 with my eyes closed.

subearu

I inherited my dad's '89 GP with the 3.1L V6 back in college. It was the base model 2 door in the whitest white Pontiac offered, and for a young driver, it was quick. Reliable enough for 130k miles over its lifespan, but in the end it was having transmission issues (slipping) and it went through EGR valves almost every other oil change. I did have to pony up some cash during college to fix the electronic heater control which decided to go out during the winter, not fun.

-Brian

andys120

au1994

DeTomaso Longchamp

andys120

DeTomaso Longchamp

Yup!

andys120

BIGGER- more cars.

berri

Like the streetcar! Here's what I can make out; 56Plymouth, 62 Chevy, 57 Plymouth, 60 Chevy, VW Beetle and maybe a 57 Ford wagon at the Shell station, No idea on the black and tan convertuble, behind it some kind of 52-54 Ford product.

fintail

I'll pick off the black/tan top Hillman Minx convertible parked at right.

I think the foreigner parked at the gas station might be a Dauphine.

berri

I can see that - you may be right. I'm just not getting a real clear view of the background vehicles. I wonder where they had working streetcars in 1962? Chicago still had trolley buses, but streetcars were long gone before then.

andys120

I can't think of anyplace that had trolleys in '62, anyone out there know here the picture was taken? I guess the best clue is the trolley itself but the presence of two "foreign" cars suggests the East or West Coast.

andys120

According to the caption the gas mask is a kind of protest against the dirty air of 1950s Los Angeles but what's he driving?

wgrafer

Good job, but I can't tell if the Plymouth is a '55 or a '56 from this angle - is there a 'tell' I'm missing???

Definitely a Renault Dauphine getting gas.

And don't forget the '53 Ford behind the Hillman convert.....

wgrafer

MG-A roadster? followed by the inevitable VW Beetle and a '60 Olds behind the truck.

fintail

The foliage looks fairly green, the plates on the cars are hard to make out. Plate at far left does resemble an old Oregon plate, and there is an area of Portland called "Irvington", maybe it is Portland, OR.

Mr_Shiftright

That trolley could be a "PCC" from the St. Louis Car Company.

andys120

MG-A roadster? followed by the inevitable VW Beetle and a '60 Olds behind the truck.

Yup, the tell tale for the MG-A is that round vent on the hood ( I assume it's the cockpit air intake), there's one on either side.

andys120

lemko

1974 Chevrolet Nova.