Mystery car pix

andys120

Mr_Shiftright said:

Allard was a Brit wasn't he?

Very much so, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Allard

andys120

stickguy

3rd car up parked on the curb looks like a rambler to me. and coming towards is an early 60s econoline.

berri

Yeah, I think that Rambler might be a 63 with a 58 or so Plymouth wagon in front of it maybe.

fintail

Way up there, to the left of Mattingly's, I think I see a beige 63 Fairlane 2-door post, and behind that, maybe a 65 Mopar of some kind? And I think a 64 Impala behind that. Even further up, in front of an older looking black car, looks like a 63 Galaxie.

andys120

There's a pretty tight range of MYs in this pic, nothing newer than '64 and I think the oldest car might be the MoPar partly hidden by the DX sign and the phone booth. It could be anything from '55 to '59 based on what we can see of it. Other than that and the '57 Chevy (210?) the rest are all post 50s.

The one to take home is the white/blue 1963 Pontiac Bonneville in front of JC Penneys.

Is that a '62 Buick to the left of the Econoline?

bhill2

The black car to the left of the Econoline in the picture (the Econoline's right) is a Mercury Meteor (Mercury's version of the Ford Fairlane) from about '62.

andys120

bhill2 said:

The black car to the left of the Econoline in the picture (the Econoline's right) is a Mercury Meteor (Mercury's version of the Ford Fairlane) from about '62.

Could be, I guess but the two horizontal lines in the grillework say '62-ish Buick to me, probably a Special or Skylark compact.>

lostwrench1

The car in dispute near the Econoline is a 1964 Ford Galaxie.
Note the three verticals of the grille.

andys120

lostwrench1 said:

The car in dispute near the Econoline is a 1964 Ford Galaxie.
Note the three verticals of the grille.

They are very faint but if I blow the pic up enough, I can see what might be three vertical strips so Yes, it could be a '64 Galaxie>



But wait... didn't the '62 Merc Meteor have three verticals?

uplanderguy

I could like a '63 Meteor hardtop. Rarely seen then; almost never seen now.

A couple years back, when I was working in Camp Hill, PA, near Harrisburg, I saw a white '63 Meteor Custom four-door in a driveway that looked like a two-or-three-year-old car. They used it too, as one day it'd be backed in; the next, the opposite, etc.

lostwrench1

Because of the locations of the parking lights, I'll stick with its being a Galaxie.

andys120

lostwrench1 said:

Because of the locations of the parking lights, I'll stick with its being a Galaxie.

You can see parking lights? What little I can make out of the r/s parking light suggests it could wrap around the edge as in the Meteor. Also the car looks too small to be a Galaxy, it's notably smaller than the black MoPar across the street from it... and close to the Fairlane in front of the black car.
???

Mr_Shiftright

The Gold One, not the red one.

andys120

Didn't AMC make a limited production GT that looked like that in the 70s?

tmart

Looks like an AMX/3 and it's beautiful!

uplanderguy

Those door handles give it away as an AMC show car.

andys120

tmart said:

Looks like an AMX/3 and it's beautiful!

I can't recall if the AMX/3 was a one-off concept or if they made a dozen or so for sale. Shifty's car wears an Italian license plate (Modena province--Ferrari's home.)

Mr_Shiftright

I'm sorry I don't have a lot of info on this car at the moment but I'll find out more. It's a Bizzarrini, a company that has made some truly gorgeous cars.

andys120

berri

Probably a 60 or 61 Dodge. I'll go with 1960. Was the Polara top dog back then?

andys120

Berri, you're right on it, it's a 1960 Dodge Polara. The Polara was introduced in 1960 as the top-of-the-line big Dodge. A few years later it became a midsizer in another of many examples of brand mismanagement as practiced by Detroit's Big 3.

I wasn't a big fan of these when they were new but looking back I think they're among the best of the Forward Look cars.

berri

The late 50's and early 60's was certainly an interesting time for cars. Looking at cars back then was fun whether you liked a particular one or not - and you could easily identify it!

andys120

qbrozen

Pretty sure that's the Infiniti J30. I always hated that design. I used to call it a jellybean. But I don't recall it being available as a 2-door. (?)

texases

Buick Riviera...

kyfdx

Yeah, the J30 was a lot uglier than that. The beginning of the droopy butt era for Nissan.

Michaell

kyfdx said:

Yeah, the J30 was a lot uglier than that. The beginning of the droopy butt era for Nissan.

My best friend in CA drove a J30 for many years. Bought it with over 100K on the clock and it ran until he hit something like 220K, when it finally failed beyond repair.

It was a nice riding car, but pretty cramped inside.

He replaced it a couple years ago with an '04 G35 with 60K. This one, so far, hasn't been quite as reliable.

uplanderguy

I liked those last Rivieras, except for the rear-end styling. Just too tapered. I always thought they should have had a thin wraparound taillight that didn't take too much of the straight-on rear end away--so they weren't too close to each other straight-on in the back. Of course, no one ever asks me my opinion about stuff like that.

I liked the instrument panel with round gauges and no fake applique around them, and I also liked how if you want, you could get them with a bench seat and column shifter.

Those Infinitis you were mentioning are too tapered IMHO too, in the same way people used to goof on particular Saabs, if you catch my drift.

andys120

texases said:

Buick Riviera...

Yup, 1995 Buick Riviera, IIRC, the last of the breed. One forgets how popular two-door coupes once were, I wonder what happened...uninspired design perhaps.

qbrozen

Wow. That and the J30 look remarkably alike from the front.

andys120

fintail

Early Ferrari 330GT, once not worth much, now, well, nice lottery ticket.

qbrozen

To illustrate my confusion...

berri

Personally I think my Riviera preferences are based on the first 63-65 models, so for later ones I tend to go for the more formal and squarish late 70's models. But I do appreciate that the Riv you are discussing was maybe a bit advanced design and styling for its time.

andys120

fintail said:

Early Ferrari 330GT, once not worth much, now, well, nice lottery ticket.

Yup, it's a 1964 Ferrari 330GT 2+2 once reviled for it's four-headlight design A two headlight version replaced it in a few years but Il Commendatore Ferrari didn't mind four h/ls, this was his choice for personal transport out of all the amazing Ferrari cars of that era.

Just for comparison, here's a 1966 version>



BTW, ask price on the four headlight car is $295K

Mr_Shiftright

The market doesn't differentiate too much anymore between 4 lights or 2. The 4 lights will save you around $40K, but still cost you around $275K. The main reason is that total production of both 2 and 4 lighters is only a bit over 1,000 cars.

fintail

I don't mind the 4 lights either, it's very 60s. Not as classic as 2 lights, but definitely of the period.

Mr_Shiftright

Shades of the '61 Chrysler, eh?

fintail

Reminds me of the short run of 63-65 or so Silver Cloud III coupes/DHCs. Like Rodney Dangerfield's car in 'Caddyshack':

Mr_Shiftright

Say what you will, automobile styling in the late 50s to mid 60s had a lot of vitality. I think some of that is coming back now although the "retro" movement has retarded creativity IMO.

berri

Rodney Dangerfield - one of the greats!

fintail

The 50s and 60s still had some optimism, which I believe translated into automotive styling, and many other design related fields like consumer goods and architecture. Today, for cars anyway. I think styling is used to mask a product that could be seen as boring, as the pretense of sport and excitement is more important now than ever. Hello, Toyolex.

berri

It's easy to take a pass on most of today's cars if the one you currently have is running fine.

Mr_Shiftright

I've got a challenge for the Mystery Car Crew:

Can you post photos of a car whose styling changed so radically from one year to the next that some buyers of the previous year were noticeably upset that they missed out?

It would be especially interesting if you could post both "before" and "after" photos.

Oh, maybe I'll just show you what I mean. Keep in mind that the shock of the styling change would have much more impact back in the day than now, where the modern eye might even prefer the earlier car. We're talking about what people felt then (and maybe now or maybe not).

fintail

Definitely one of my all time favorite comedies, and good for car spotting too. Cars were cast pretty well in it, and some perfect stereotype cars too, like the creamy yellow 450SL.

berri said:

Rodney Dangerfield - one of the greats!

tmart

Don't have pictures but the difference between a 59 and 60 Ford is definitely dramatic. Also, the 57 and 58 Tbird.

texases

"Can you post photos of a car whose styling changed so radically from one year to the next that some buyers of the previous year were noticeably upset that they missed out? "

How about adding "or were thankful they bought the older model?"

Mr_Shiftright

@tmart----yes, the '57 vs '58 Bird is a good example, although the '58 Bird sold a lot better. But I think that was due to 4 seats, not the styling.

@texases -- yeah, that's a good idea!

So the new game is:

Can you think of a one-year styling change wherein the owner of the earlier model was either very happy or somewhat dismayed by the model year styling change? You may post photos if you wish!

Mr_Shiftright

PS: You can also post single photos of mystery cars if you don't want to play with this challenge!