Mystery car pix

magnette

@imidazol97 said:

I don't know that - but the LT part of the plate indicates it was issued by London County Council, and I have a book that shows which period each series of plates was issued - a place like London obviously issued far more plates than a small rural county would, so they have a wider range of letters available and used them far more swiftly. ELT was apparently a series (ELT 1 to ELT 999) issued from December 1937 to January 1938 - so that means it is certainly right for this car - chances are it is the original plate as a result.

• If a car is restored from years off the road, they tend to get registration plates from unused series like Scottish or Welsh counties that didn't issue all of their potential numbers - it is possible with a restored car to retrieve the old number, but only if it hasn't been transferred off the car (unlikely with a routine number like this, but more likely if it was ELT 1 ) and the authorities would want to see proof of the allocation of the number - the original log-book, bill of sale, old tax discs, etc..

Sorry - I don't seem to be able to answer these posts without it looking like you are doing the typing... I thought if I dropped down a few lines before typing it would appear below the box but instead it appears in heavy type as if you had answered yourself...

imidazol97

That interesting how the license plates were handled in the old days.

http://countrycruiser.com/2014/brit/index.htm

This is the link For anyone wanting to scan through the 3 or so pages of thumbnails from the cruise in here in W. Ohio/Dayton.

magnette

@imidazol97 said:
That interesting how the license plates were handled in the old days.

http://countrycruiser.com/2014/brit/index.htm

This is the link For anyone wanting to scan through the 3 or so pages of thumbnails from the cruise in here in W. Ohio/Dayton.

That looked an interesting meeting - quite a good turnout of British cars - that Vauxhall would be rare here, so super rare there...

stickguy

I kind of like that X4. Or whatever they call it. But, I also am a hatch fan.

moot point, since I will never be able to afford one.

lemko

Surface Rust.

andys120

imidazol97

@andys120 said:

Nice.

laurasdada

@andys120 said:

Welcome to the Ferrari California. Such a lovely place...

eddedenenddy

I was curious as to what type of car this is.

kyfdx

Looks like some sort of Lotus

lostwrench1

Where was it parked overnight?

grahampeters

@eddedenenddy said:
I was curious as to what type of car this is.

I think that it is probably as Lotus Elise, maybe an Elise S. However, if that is the case, the image has been reversed as fuel filler should be on right hand side buttress/C pillar

Cheers

Graham

qbrozen

certainly an Elise. Good catch on the filler being on wrong side.

andys120

@laurasdada said:
Welcome to the Ferrari California. Such a lovely place...

Yup, that's a 2015 Ferrari California the subject of a design "refresh" which has changed the looks for the better. It's almost good looking from the front or side but the rear is still fugly IMO.>

texases

@andys120 said:
...but the rear is still fugly IMO

Agreed. It seems like it's VERY hard to style a retractable hardtop well. Only one I like is the MB SL. The rest are misshapen in some way or another, none more so than the California.

qbrozen

I've always liked the Cali. Other retractable hardtop styles I like are the C70 and Eos.

boomchek

I think the SL and the California do have great looking hard tops.

The one I dislike is the new Lexus IS hard top. The top and the car's whole rear end looks too bulky.

Michaell

@boomchek said:
I think the SL and the California do have great looking hard tops.

The one I dislike is the new Lexus IS hard top. The top and the car's whole rear end looks too bulky.

Wow - for a moment, I thought that was the Pontiac G6.

texases

The Infinti's not much better:

Nor is the BMW a 'looker':

andys120

BMW does a good job w the current Z4 which actually looks better w the top up. (I can't think of many 'verts that do.)

.

boomchek

The Z4 has a soft top. The hard top you see in the picture is just a removable hard top, and
does not fold into the trunk.

Edit: Oops, my bad. I guess it is a folding hard top. I learned something new today!

texases

I'll add the Z4 to my "good looking retractable hardtop" list - now 2 cars long!

boomchek

But I have to admit, that as nice as the Z4 is to drive, I'm not a big fan of its looks, especially before it received a refresher a few years ago.

laurasdada

Actually, I think Infiniti did a nice job with their G hardtop 'vert. The Lexus is a thumbs down, BMW not bad. I find the EOS just a bit odd in looks/proportions with the top up, hunchbacked. C70 works for me, too.

texases

@boomchek - yeah, now the Z4 has a folding hardtop, friend has one. But how he got it makes me unlikely to get any folding hardtop: he initially bought a 335i with the folding hardtop. Within a matter of days somebody backed into him in a parking lot. Low speed, hard to see the damage. The car was TOTALLED because of the damage to the complex retractable hardtop mechanism, which includes the trunk lid. Didn't dissuade him, he then replaced it with the Z4...

boomchek

Yeah, I bet the whole retractable top assembly on most if not all luxury cars cost same as a new economy car.

kyfdx

It's a lot easier to make a folding hardtop look good on a 2-seater... Putting back seats in complicates it.. We had a Z4 for about a month before I flipped the lease to a friend.. It felt like driving a supercar..

andys120

Back to topic>

bhill2

@andys120 said:
Back to topic>

Corvair pick-up. Not sure of the year. It had a name, perhaps 'Drop-side', but I don't remember. The passenger van version was the Greenbriar. In any case, it didn't last long.

berri

I think it was called "Rampside". Someone in our neighborhood had one when I was a kid. I don't think it could carry a whole lot of cargo weight. They also had a Greenbier van, which they kept longer. They downsized into it from a big old Ford station wagon.

andys120

@bhill2 said:
Corvair pick-up. Not sure of the year. It had a name, perhaps 'Drop-side', but I don't remember. The passenger van version was the Greenbriar. In any case, it didn't last long.

You and Berri are on the right track, it's a 1962 Chevrolet Corvair 95 Rampside , which was indeed a Corvair/Greenbriar based pickup that featured a side ramp. IIRC a similar design was used on some versions of the VW Transporter pickup.

andys120

Winter sports>

I'm not sure but I'd bet this was brochure art.

stickguy

the 1970ish Opel GT. I loved that car. People used to call it a little Corvette. Style wise only of course. Not HP. Loved the rotating headlights.

kyfdx

Something about that picture makes me think it's more modern than a brochure from the '70s. Maybe it's his clothes. Also, can't imagine trying to sell a new car, showing it chained up for winter driving.

I loved the Opel GT when I was a kid (when they were new)

andys120

@kyfdx said:
Something about that picture makes me think it's more modern than a brochure from the '70s. Maybe it's his clothes. Also, can't imagine trying to sell a new car, showing it chained up for winter driving.

I loved the Opel GT when I was a kid (when they were new)

Well that photo clearly goes back to an era when it was considered safe to put chains on the traction wheels only. That certainly is the mini-Corvette styled 1st gen Opel GT. I've never been a fan of that style on either the C3 or the Opel.

andys120

Movie still>

texases

BMW Bavaria? But that's not a US car, so it's either a 2500 or 2800, 1970-ish?

andys120

@texases said:
BMW Bavaria? But that's not a US car, so it's either a 2500 or 2800, 1970-ish?

Yup, that's a Euro-spec 1968 BMW 2500 . The 2500/2800 (aka E3) were sold in the U.S. market for a time but (according to Wikipedia) importer Max Hoffman decided that a sedan with the 2.5L motor and the luxury content of the 2800 would sell well in the US market; the result was the BMW Bavaria. The Bavaria was a moderate success selling 37,000 units. It was suceeded by the E23 Seven Series in the US.

andys120

New>

robr2

Troller T4 - recently introduced in Brazil.

Troller is a Ford subsidiary and some off road enthusiasts are clamoring for Ford to sell it here as the Bronco. It'll never happen.

andys120

@robr2 said:
Troller T4 - recently introduced in Brazil.

Troller is a Ford subsidiary and some off road enthusiasts are clamoring for Ford to sell it here as the Bronco. It'll never happen.

TOO bad, I think that's way cooler than the Bronco.

stickguy

If cheap, could sell a ton of them. But I also want the ranger the rest of the world gets.

explorerx4

Is that Clive Owen's dad driving that blue BMW?

stever

New to the Edmunds.com fleet:

stickguy

porsche macan?

explorerx4

I'm going to take guess and say Porsche Macan.

stever

Ohhh, I bet y'all are right (I don't know yet either). But that sounds like something the editors would love to have in the basement garage. They may be going to announce it for Car Week.

Or maybe this dealer put a bug in them. The timing would encourage a coast to coast trip in the new Porsche. But I doubt that Edmunds.com purchased from a CT dealer, and thus wouldn't be one of the invited customers (a lot of our cars are loaners anyway).

Hoffman Porsche Rents Racetrack for Customers to Test-Drive Latest Models

qbrozen

macan was first that popped into my head, too

qbrozen

I just looked it up... that's actually not all that bad, considering. The Macan S with sport chrono comes in at $53k.

kyfdx

Or... $70K with typical Porsche option list...