Mystery car pix

texases

And what's with changing an interesting/evocative name like "Flavia" to a boooooring name like "2000"? Who would do that? Oh, wait, Acura, Lincoln, Pontiac, Infiniti (to an extent)...never mind...

Mr_Shiftright

Well, when you tell someone you drive a ZTX 4.5L FI Turbo Super Sport Touring SSJ Quattro Allroad Kardashian Edition, that's a lot more impressive than "Flavia".

fintail

I'd think the Kardashian edition would be a BMW or Maserati

laurasdada

@fintail said:
I'd think the Kardashian edition would be a BMW or Maserati

Probably a BMW, with a (large) Bangle butt!

andys120

New>

qbrozen

at first glance, I thought it might be the VW crossblue concept... but it ain't. I have no idea what the badge is. looks like a hand print??

edit: well, I cheated and looked at the filename of the pic. Never heard of the model, but at least I now know the badge. That hasn't always been their logo, has it??

Michaell

Well, the plates say "CZ" so I'm pretty sure it's a Skoda of some sort. Don't know the model name, however.

andys120

@qbrozen said:
That hasn't always been their logo, has it??

Skoda has been around for over 100 years; I think the auto division has used a variation of that logo for some time

andys120

@Michaell said:
Well, the plates say "CZ" so I'm pretty sure it's a Skoda of some sort. Don't know the model name, however.

It's the new Skoda Octavia Scout based on the Volkswagen MQB platform which underpins the new Audi A3 and Volkswagen Golf mk 7. The closest equivalent we'll get is the next Toureg.

The Skoda Octavia is highly regarded in the British auto press as a slightly less expensive Volkswagen.

stever

@qbrozen, you really were on the right track. Nice looking "wagon".

stickguy

I like it.

grahampeters

G'day

The model pictured is the Skoda Octavia Scout, a slightly jacked up version of the Octavia wagon, similar in concept to the Subaru Outback compared to the Legacy/Liberty. Wells sorted 4wd system which is good on snow and mud.

Skoda is the clever way to own a VAG group car, without paying for the branding. Quality is probably better than for VW or Audi build and the actual underpinnings are all straight from the VAG parts bin. The interiors are cavernous, especially the load areas in the Octavia wagon and the Superb wagon.

Skoda has been around as a Czech car maker since 1895, originally as Laurin and Klement. With the exception of some issues during Soviet domination, their cars have been consistently good. The Octavia is a very well sorted example, roughly analogous to the Passat or A4, with which it shares platforms and engines.

A friend who is a car connoisseur has been running an Octavia Wagon for about five years and raves about it. The only real down side was a little too much tyre and interior noise which he rectified by fitting additional marine carpet to the vast storage cavity under the rear luggage deck. One of the odder items is an integrated ice scraper inside the fuel filler door, desirable both in Prague and Canberra, where he lives.

I would give it serious consideration but my wife, who lived through the joke period of Soviet era Skodas in Europe, considers it below her dignity!

Cheers

Graham

andys120

You need an ice scraper in Canberra?

grahampeters

G'day

Yes, it freezes pretty much every night from April to September in Canberra, which is quite a way up in the mountains. It was a shock to me when I went to the Australian National University; with hindsight, there is something bizarre about avoiding paying the entry price for rock bands because you could sit outside in the snow, to watch the indoor show through the windows! Saw some great gigs though and the sound levels were probably better/safer outside!

Oddly, the news does not get out much that we do get snow here in Australia. We in Melbourne are about as far South of the Equator as San Francisco is North and it is no great surprise that it snows just inland of SF in the Sierra Nevada (mind you, our mountains are a bit more eroded, topping out at 2,200m or about 7,300ft).

An area about the size of England disappears under snow cover for much of each winter and stretches much of the way from Melbourne to Sydney

It is currently snowing down to about 600m (2,000ft) around here in suburban Melbourne and they had snow warnings for one of the major freeways west of Melbourne yesterday afternoon. Not settling much, but disconcerting when unexpected. The ski resorts are reporting about a metre to metre and half of good snow.

Edit

Just read news report that Police are warning of vehicles running off the road in an ice storm at low altitude on the main freeway between Melbourne and Sydney; we don't see that every day!

Cheers

Graham

robr2

Graham - thank you for the information. I had no idea it snowed in Australia. As a rider, it gives me an idea for a place to go in August....

grahampeters

G'day

I would not plan to go ski-ing in Australia, unless you are into Nordic. Our mountains are not very high and given the limited season and number of alpine type resorts, the concentration of pillocks is very high. Conspicuous consumption is the order of the day and it provides a rationale for ever soccer mum in the expensive suburbs to run a large 4WD.

Cross country is very good over undulating high country covering vast tracts of the Australian Alps ( a bit of a misnomer as not very steep, mostly). In the area where I grew up, I could check the Southern Slopes from my bed and choose to be ski-ing from the end of a decent road, less than an hour from my bed. I knew it was time to give it up when I noticed old woollen army trousers and oiled parkas being replaced by lilac and pink shaded outer-wear.

Cheers

Graham

imidazol97

@robr2 said:
Graham - thank you for the information. I had no idea it snowed in Australia. As a rider, it gives me an idea for a place to go in August....

X2
I appreciate learning more about Australia. Had no idea about the winter weather.

andys120

lemko

That Lancia looks like the love child of a 1980s BMW 3-series and a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow.

stickguy

1970 or so Buick version of the vista cruiser. Is it some dirt of lesaber?

lemko

@andys120 said:

1965 or 1966 Buick Skylark Sportwagon. I had it's smaller sister the Special Deluxe wagon.

berri

I think Lemko is right. When I first saw it I thought around that era, but then let the Vista Cruiser look accelerate me into the 70's. Faked out and thinking too much - kind of like blowing it on a multiple choice exam (or I can blame it on Red Foreman ). Totally forgot that roofline preceded the 70's decade.

stever

I think there was one of those in my family - the year would be about right and my mom drove a bunch of Buick wagons back then. Seems like we had one "vista cruiser" (or maybe I just wished we had one). Haven't like riding "backwards" since those days.

But where are the portholes?

texases

I'm sure somebody here knows, I don't (but I do have a guess):

texases

I didn't expect this to be a stumper...any guesses?

fintail

Looks like an Alvis, T21 or something like that.

texases

I think you're right, a TD 21 to be exact, '58-'63. I had guessed it was a Bristol...oops.

Mr_Shiftright

The T21 series marked the death knell of the Alvis company. By this time, the cars were being built in very limited numbers with bodies done by Park Ward, the Rolls Royce subsidiary. They were veddy British cars don't you know, but double the price of a Jaguar !!

They got sucked into British Leyland after that, and I guess they are/were still around in some vague corporate form of diversification.

Alvis had its heyday in the late 20s up to WW II.

They are still collected and a restored TD21 can break $100K. They were sort of "rediscovered" by the collector car market in 2013, as being rare and interesting cars. Not sure you'd have an easy time selling one to anybody in the USA though.

andys120

berri

I think that may be a late 40's or very early 50's bathtub Packard.

grahampeters

G'day

Discussion of the Alvis prompts a memory. If anyone is familiar with John le Carre's "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" they might remember the key motif of the car in which Jim Prideaux arrives at the start of the story, defining the man. This is an elderly red Alvis, "the best car in England", towing a second hand caravan.. Prideuax is the most British of le Carre's characters and the Alvis gives an impression of former glory, now somewhat rickety, and progressively restored.

The Alvis in the original TV series was a 1930's model but that in the 2011 film was a T21.

Alvis were acquired by Rover in the 1960's more for their specialization in building armoured cars, including the wonderfully named Saladin. As a small boy, I was thrilled to ride on one at my father's Officers' Mess Christmas Parties. They turned on really exciting big toys for the children (especially for small boys) each year; tanks, APC's, bulldozers, graders and field guns of various sorts. There is no way that safety considerations would allow it now, but I can recall it being driven around with a stack of kids clinging on for the most exciting ride of their year. Heavens knows why none fell off.

It is weird what you remember as a five year old, but I recall the Saladin had a Rolls Royce engine and a pre-selector gearbox (weird watching the driver move the gear lever and then shift not occurring until he depressed the clutch). The drive to the six wheels went through a funny arrangement so that all wheels on one side were driven off a dropper gear from a longitudinal shaft which somehow was driven from a central differential. I have an idea that steering control was somehow achieved by differential braking on the sides of the central differential. I do recall that the vehicle had massive articulation and would scramble over huge jump ups.

Cheers

Graham

texases

The Saladin was one of my favorite Matchbox vehicles:

fintail

I have one of those in my toy car hoard:

texases

Does it say "6 x 6" on the bottom? I seem to remember that.

fintail

Yep that's right.

lemko

Not what it seems.

texases

@lemko said:
Not what it seems.

That looks to have something pretty special under the hood - what was it?
And those hose clamps look pretty spiffy - never saw that kind on a car before.

stever

Canadian Plymouth eh? The Pentastar looks like the one that my '89 Voyager had, so I'll guess it's an '89 something.

qbrozen

hmmm... dogdish hubcaps and spotlight. So looking like some sort of undercover cop car. Looks like an '80s Gran Fury

lemko

Not a Gran Fury.

qbrozen

well, there was a canadian version of the same thing with a different name, per wiki. Or, I guess I should say, the Gran Fury was a rebadged Canadian Plymouth ____.

robr2

Plymouth Caravelle??

fintail

I think that's right. I know Canada had a Caravelle before the stretched K-car one sold in the US.

lemko

That's it! It's a 1985 Plymouth Caravelle sold in Canada.

lemko

Honey, I shrunk the Rolls!

texases

@lemko said:

Honey, I shrunk the Rolls!

There are British cars that are great examples of elegant designs. Then there's this...

stickguy

Great design, like the MGB GT next to that nastiness?

No idea what it is, but it has to be British!

fintail

Triumph Mayflower, I'll say 1952. Weird little car.

stickguy

I just assume all these toads are Woolseys. Because the name seems to fit the frumpiness.

lemko

It's a Triumph Mayflower.