Mystery car pix

Mr_Shiftright

The Mayflower is sometimes referred to as the "Razorback" which is also the name of the University of Arkansas football team---the "Hogs". Somehow there's a story here.

I have a friend who actually owns one of these. If you aren't in a hurry and if you don't mind explaining why you own it, it's rather charming in an eccentric, off-beat, "I just found this at the City Pound" kind of way.

To be fair, this was built as an economy sedan for the aspiring lower middle class. Perfect for the UK, it would be run over and left to die in the USA.

andys120

@Mr_Shiftright said:

To be fair, this was built as an economy sedan for the aspiring lower middle class. Perfect for the UK, it would be run over and left to die in the USA.

So it was a kind of British Caddy Cimarron.

Mr_Shiftright

Hmmm....interesting viewpoint but the Triumph Co. was never a highline car, so it didn't really fall from a great height as did the Cadillac. I'd say the American equivalent would be like the Ford Grenada when it first came out---that car was marketed against the Mercedes 280 which made most people blow coffee out of their noses when they heard that.

I'm sure every Rolls or Bentley owner SNEERED internally at the Mayflower, as only the British can exhibit a quiet, devastating scorn.

magnette

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

The Triumph Mayflower was a smaller sister to the Renown which was a proper Razor-edged style of car. Its main competitors were small Wolseleys, MG Y-types, the Rover P3 for a year or so, and the early Humber Hawk, which was bigger but aimed at the same market.
It was a time of austerity when nothing had been made in Britain for the home car market from 1939 to 45, and then precious little for a few more years as we needed export dollars because we had gone bankrupt fighting the war...
I think the Mayflower is a great example of a now forgotten time - most people in Britain didn't have a car, and those that did waited about ten years to change it.
Where it went wrong was thinking it would ever sell in America - hopeless, even though the Mayflower name was obviously chosen for that market.

texases

@magnette said:
Where it went wrong was thinking it would ever sell in America - hopeless, even though the Mayflower name was obviously chosen for that market.

I'm a fan of the short/boxy look (I like the Scion xB), very efficient. The combination of that layout and the Rolls-type curves just doesn't quite work for me. A simpler design with the same interior size would be neat.

andys120

grahampeters

@andys120 said:

It really says 1970, doesn't it?

Beautiful Lamborghini Espada which ran in three series from 1968 to 1978. The interiors were very different and you cold search to find the correct series from that. I was fascinated as a kid by the cutouts in the bonnet and at the waist line.

From some angles, the rear quarter is ungainly.

Quite cheering to see on

Cheers

Graham

lemko

DeSoto?

texases

??? Everything except the taillights and the inside of the engine bay looks like a Karmann Ghia. Beats me...

andys120

Someone seems to have shoehorned a V8 into the rear of a 50s-60s Karmann-Ghia raisin the question: WHY?

lemko

@andys120 said:

Actually, that's not a V-8 engine, but something a little more shocking. (Hint).

omarman

@lemko said:
Actually, that's not a V-8 engine, but something a little more shocking. (Hint).

>

A Volts Wagon! Thank you thank you...

grahampeters

@lemko said:

There seems to be quite a lot of power cabling leading up to what would be the barrier between the engine bay and body compartment and the large drum shaped objects left and right look like electric motors.

The body shape says Karmann Ghia but the tail lights look like they have been lifted from a late fifties be-finned beast.

I presume it it some sort of prototype for an electric car, but wonder how they got on for battery storage in a car that small where battery effectiveness was not great

Cheers

Graham

andys120

@grahampeters said:

Beautiful Lamborghini Espada which ran in three series from 1968 to 1978. The interiors were
very different and you cold search to find the correct series from that. I was fascinated as a

.>kid by the cutouts in the bonnet and at the waist line.

Yup, it's an Espada, one of my favorite Lambo designs and surely one of the most exotic four doors ever made. The cutouts on the hood er...bonnet are " NACA ducts", so called after the Federal agency that funded the aerodynamic research that led to their adoption on some supersonic jets where the are supposed to increase airflow into intake slots

From some angles, the rear quarter is ungainly.

Not to me, I think it's one of the coolest rears ever.>

andys120

Downhill>

fintail

I'll pick off what looks like about a 53 Lincoln Capri, first full car in view at lower left, behind the big fins.

@andys120 said:
Downhill>

fintail

It's based on an early Ghia too - those plates say it is before 1963. Early lowlight Ghias are very sought after today.

@lemko said:
DeSoto?

bhill2

@fintail said:
I'll pick off what looks like about a 53 Lincoln Capri, first full car in view at lower left, behind the big fins.

The big fins themselves belong to a '57 (?) Plymouth. It appears to be the newest car in the picture.

grahampeters

@andys120 said:

G;day

This has taken some searching but I found an article about the Karmann Ghia look-alike in the February 1959 edition of Popular Science. It was a prototype electric car using two rear mounted electric motors (the drum like objects I mentioned.

It was being developed by the Stinson Aircraft company and was called the Charles Town-About. There are some more details in PS about it.

Looking at these old Popular Science and Popular Mechanics magazines on-line, took me back to my childhood, reading each month's magazines cover to cover (including the tobacco and pipe ads) in our local library. I always carefully read Gus's Garage which seemed as interesting as Sherlock Holmes in the skills of tracing mysteries.

They also had wonderful articles each year detailing the changes in each year's cars and outboard motors from the major manufacturers. 1964 was apparently the most significant year since 1949 if the stories are to be believed. There was even a spread on the Plymouth Barracuda.

Mind you, reading these magazines gave an Australian child a rather skewed perception of American life. I became convinced that every American family must have lots of money to spend on a boat and outboard motor and every father had a fully equipped workshop, I was also rather mystified by the obsession with atomic energy and missiles. This edition of PS had a lead article on the "Race to build atomic planes" which seems to have gone nowhere. Looking at them now, the missile and military articles seem terribly jingoistic, although very relevant at the time.

Price changes are fascinating. I saw a sabre saw at my local hardware store for AUD19 today. One of the ads I saw in 1960 had a sabre saw for only USD65, which would be about AUD1,000 today!

I might keep idling through the articles on line It seems rather fun

Cheers

Graham

andys120

@bhill2 said:
The big fins themselves belong to a '57 (?) Plymouth. It appears to be the newest car in the picture.

I agree, there doesn't seem to be anything newer than the '57 Plymouth in that picture. I think the Poncho in the right rear is a '56 but the two-tone Chevy ahead of it is a '55.

Funny thing about that picture, at first I was sure it was taken in Chelsea or Bunker Hill MA but it's from San Francisco.

bhill2

@andys120 said:
Funny thing about that picture, at first I was sure it was taken in Chelsea or Bunker Hill MA but it's from San Francisco.

And no hint of anything foreign that I can see. Even by the middle '50s the West Coast was becoming a foothold for European cars so that surprises me a little.

lemko

@grahampeters said:
Graham

The mysterious Karmann-Ghia / DeSoto hybrid is a 1959 Charles Townabout electric.

texases

Interesting story, body was fiberglass based on the KG, but not just a conversion job, all new frame, too:
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1959-charles-townabout-concept-car.htm

p.s. - Same old EV story: too expensive, too slow (55 mph top speed), too little range, and worried about battery replacement cost. (I'm skeptical about the 80 mile range claim, coming from 4 12V batteries). But it sure seems like they made a real try at it. Wonder how much money they sunk into the effort?

lemko

@bhill2 said:
And no hint of anything foreign that I can see. Even by the middle '50s the West Coast was becoming a foothold for European cars so that surprises me a little.

Funny thing is, everybody associates the 1949 Mercury with James Dean because of the movie "Rebel Without a Cause." Truth is, James Dean would've hated something like a '49 Merc as he preferred small sporty cars like the Porsche he ultimately ended up dying in. I imagine European cars started becoming popular first in places like Hollywood and Beverly Hills then started spreading elsewhere.

andys120

wgrafer

1970 Mustang Boss 302! one of my favorites.

lemko

Police station: 1961.

lemko

Many Mopars.

texases

@lemko said:

Many Mopars.

I'll take the first 2, because we had them both: a '65 Mustang and a '68ish Valiant.

bhill2

@texases said:
I'll take the first 2, because we had them both: a '65 Mustang and a '68ish Valiant.

The one that caught my eye because of its age even then is the white '62 Chrysler near the back in the second row.

andys120

@lemko said:

Police station: 1961.

**'59 Chevrolet Impala ** convertible, a car that looks better to me now than it did then.

grahampeters

@andys120 said:
**'59 Chevrolet Impala ** convertible, a car that looks better to me now than it did then.

G'day

The 1959 Impala Convertible was so outrageous that it has its own special attraction. I saw a beautiful red one cruising down a boulevard here with a pretty blonde driving recently; instant lust!

Absolutely, totally impractical, but...

Cheers

Graham

Mr_Shiftright

I used to own that very same car, same color. Drove it cross country and on the way back it blew up in Colorado.

It broke a timing chain. I found a friendly garage that let me fix it "out back" and lent me some tools. Got to know the guys, loved the scenery, so I ended up moving there for 7 years!

Finally, two years into my new home, the transmission gave out, and it needed a new top. Somebody was selling a '68 Triumph TR250, which seemed at the time totally practical for the Rocky Mountains. The Impala went to the local wrecking yard, where, like a dope, I actually paid them a small sum every month not to junk it, thinking someday I would patch it up. But I never did look back. It might still be there, who knows, and I might have a $100,000 storage bill pending.

slorenzen

@Mr_Shiftright said:

Somebody was selling a '68 Triumph TR250, which seemed at the time totally practical for the Rocky Mountains.

OK, now you owe me a keyboard after that comment...

Mr_Shiftright

What could be worse than a British sports car in the snow? Drafty, zero traction, hard starting---what's not to like? Actually the TR250 was a great little car nonetheless. It just needed to live on a foggy little island with narrow country lanes to putter around in.

Mr_Shiftright

Darn...I should have put a TR250 in as a mystery car. It was a one-year only car, and often mistaken for a TR4. In England, it is referred to as a TR5 I believe.

magnette

I always thought the TR5 and the TR250 differed, because ours had fuel injection whereas yours stuck with the carbs (more reliable I would imagine).

explorerx4

There is a TR5 pictured in the is link, plus some other nice Britisher's.
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2706034/Worth-100MILLION-Dentist-amassed-Britains-biggest-private-car-collection-543-classic-motors-sells-entire-fleet-Jaguar.html

Mr_Shiftright

Yes the TR5 had FI and I suspect more HP. I've never actually seen one with FI.

andys120

Not what you think>

stickguy

not a Rambler?

berri

Last of the Hudson version of the newly merged Hash (Nash-Hudson).

Always loved the in your face 59 Chevy. GM made some major and dramatic changes in 59 that were maybe a little more daring than the Mopar forward look 57's. Buyers were a little gun shy though and they all got toned down a bit for 60.

I like the 70 Mustang, but preferred the 69 due to the front end difference.

bhill2

@berri said:
Last of the Hudson version of the newly merged Hash (Nash-Hudson).

Always loved the in your face 59 Chevy. GM made some major and dramatic changes in 59 that were maybe a little more daring than the Mopar forward look 57's. Buyers were a little gun shy though and they all got toned down a bit for 60.

I actually preferred the '60 to the '59. I figured that Chevy wanted to make a statement with the '59, and so had stuck it a little out there, and then dialed it back in '60. I don't think they would have had time to do it as a result of feedback once the '59 was out. How do others feel on the '59 vs '60 question?

grahampeters

@andys120 said:
Not what you think>

G'day

Oh, my! That is ugly ! God bless America that you did not send it Down under!

Cheers

Graham

andys120

@berri said:
Last of the Hudson version of the newly merged Hash (Nash-Hudson).

Yup, that's a 1955 Hudson Cross Country , essentially a re-badged Nash, as were all the '55 "Hudsons", a sad end for the Hudson brand.

stevedebi

@grahampeters said:
Graham

Ugly yes, but in a small way similar to the treatment done to modern SUVs, where the rear slopes downwards. This one just didn't quite slope all the way down. I don't like the look now, and I don't like how it looked then. I realize it is done for aerodynamic reasons.

But maybe they were on to something with this car? On second thought, no. They just had dumb designers...

andys120

stickguy

1969ish honda convertible with a hardtop that looks like they took it off a spitfire.

S600?

stever

@stevedebi said:
But maybe they were on to something with this car? On second thought, no. They just had dumb designers...

It reminds me of my brother's Honda Odyssey with the disjointed rear end.

andys120

@stickguy said:
1969ish honda convertible with a hardtop that looks like they took it off a spitfire.

S600?

It's a 1966 Honda S600 Coupe , much a rarer than the roadster (and not nearly as good-looking). The roof is not removable as on a Spitfire but permanent as on a Trumph GT6.