Mystery car pix

andys120

berri said:

The taxi - maybe a 53 Plymouth

Kinda hard to tell a '53 from a '54 in those years. There's a Dodge wagon of the same vintage just ahead of it. Those two MoPars look like the newest cars.

berri

Same goes for those bathtub Nash's I think

explorerx4

Just before the beginning of 2017, I realized I hadn't visited this thread since September 2015.
Been slowly catching up since then. Finally got there today.

tmart

Strange, l see only one Ford, the 1954!

andys120

tmart said:

Strange, l see only one Ford, the 1954!

I see it but it could be any year from '52-'54. What's the "tell" for a '54?

berri

I'm no expert, but the 53 Ford had rectangle parking lights, the other two years were round. One of them, but I'm not sure which, had some ornamentation around the round parking light. Personally, I thought the 52-54 Ford's were rather nicely styled for the period.

Mr_Shiftright

Have we ever done this one? One of the most famous photos of Americana ever taken:

Mr_Shiftright

I'll take the F-86 Sabre jet

berri

Looks like a MIG on the screen.

Mr_Shiftright

Don't think so...notice where the horizontal stabilizers are? I think on the MIG they are up high on the tail. The two look alike though. Maybe some aviation buffs can jump in on that if I'm wrong.

tmart

andys120 said:

tmart said:

Strange, l see only one Ford, the 1954!

I see it but it could be any year from '52-'54. What's the "tell" for a '54?

The "tell" is the side chrome.

explorerx4

Around 1990, we went out to California for my buddy's wedding.
He taking us around the China Lake base when I saw a pilot climbing out of an F-86.
When I pointed it out to him, he said 'Hmmm, not sure if you were supposed to see that.'

andys120

Mr_Shiftright said:

Don't think so...notice where the horizontal stabilizers are? I think on the MIG they are up high on the tail. The two look alike though. Maybe some aviation buffs can jump in on that if I'm wrong.

You're correct Mr. S. The two swept wing fighters were similar but there were distinct differences, the location of the tailplanes being the biggest.





The Sabre was my favorite plane when I was a kid.

Mr_Shiftright

There's one for sale if you're interested:

http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/aircraft/aircraft/auction-312391325.htm

Mr_Shiftright

What year is that Mopar station wagon? That's a rare bird to see these days.

andys120

I've seen that photo before. I always thought odd the way the about-to-be-phased-out steam locomotive was juxtaposed with the jet fighter and the"futuristic" 50s cars.

I think the wagon is a mid-50s Studebaker.

Mr_Shiftright

Hmmm...I thought it was like a '55 Dodge or some such...tail lights?

andys120

Mr_Shiftright said:

Hmmm...I thought it was like a '55 Dodge or some such...tail lights?

Right again Shifty, the tailights and side trim say it's a '55 Dodge

andys120

FWIW I think the convert in the foreground of the b&w is a'52-'53 Buick, I can make out portholes. Directly in from of it looks like a '53-'54 Chrysler. Newest car must be the '57 Chevy in the left corner.

magnette

My favourite plane was probably the English Electric Lightning - but this one wasn't in the best shape a moment later...

This isn't a photoshop montage or anything - this really happened and was on the cover of most newspapers here at the time - years ago.


Until last week I could drop these pictures into the box to post - has anything changed to your site to prevent that?

kyfdx

magnette

This is the quote from the tractor driver who is in the shot.



"I followed my father into work at de Havilland, Hatfield in 1954 when I was 15. My father was the foreman in charge of the aerodrome and gardens. My job in the summer was gang-mowing the airfield and at the time of the crash in 1962 the grass had stopped growing and we were trimming round the ‘overshoot’ of the runway with a ‘side-mower’.

I stopped to talk to a chap with a camera who was walking up a ditch to the overshoot. I stopped to tell him that he shouldn’t be here, I heard a roar and turned round and he took the picture! He turned out to be a friend of the pilot and had walked up the ditch to photograph his friend in the Lightning. I saw some bits fly off the plane before it crashed but it was the photographer who told me he had ejected.

There was not a big explosion when it crashed, just a loud ‘whhooooof’. I was about 200 yards from the crash scene. I saw men running out of the greenhouses and checking the scene of the crash. The works fire brigade were on the scene within a minute. Somewhere at home I have a picture of it burning. Although the picture shows it nose diving to the ground, in fact it was slowly turning over and it hit the ground upside down nose first.

I was later told that if the pilot had ejected a split second later he would have ejected himself into the ground. I was very lucky. If I had known he was coming into land, I would have been positioned near the ILS (Instrument Landing System) aerial which was only 20 yards or so from the crash site! I believe the photographer had his photo restricted by the Air Ministry for – I think – about 3 months because the plane was secret.

He then took it to the Daily Mail who said it was a fake. The photo was eventually published by the Daily Mirror. From there it went round the world, and I remember seeing a copy in the RAF museum at Hendon. I recollect the photographer usually photographed hunting scenes for magazines like The Field. I recollect that the pilot broke his legs but really was very lucky. I hope this is interesting."

kyfdx

I'm not sure.. I just copied your image address and pasted it into the "insert image - Image URL" box

andys120

That's a pretty amazing pic, Magnette. Is the tractor a Fordson?

I had some problems getting pics to show, solved it by switching to a different browser (Safari works but Firefox doesn't anymore. :@

magnette

Thanks...

Mr_Shiftright

You may be clicking on the wrong icon. Use the one that shows a little pix like a mountain.

andys120

stickguy

1971 or 72 Dodge. Dart GT or Demon. Probably a 340?

I like it. A lot.

qbrozen

The car I was looking for before buying the Coronet

andys120

stickguy said:

1971 or 72 Dodge. Dart GT or Demon. Probably a 340?

I like it. A lot.

You're close, it's a 1970 Dodge Dart Swinger/340

andys120

magnette

Mr_Shiftright said:

You may be clicking on the wrong icon. Use the one that shows a little pix like a mountain.

That is where I'm going wrong - I've always used the one next to the title mountain, which attaches a file - and it aways worked until now...
I'll use the mountain next time.

For the record I use Apple Safari for my browser.

qbrozen

andys120 said:

Triumph Vitesse. I don't know enough to differentiate by year.

Mr_Shiftright

6 cylinder car I believe.

andys120

qbrozen said:

andys120 said:

Triumph Vitesse. I don't know enough to differentiate by year.

Apparently this was the US market version of the Vitesse sold here in 1965 as the Triumph Sport 6. No, I didn't know there was a US version either but it's curious that they would sell a 6 cylinder Herald/Vitesse three MYs before coming out w the 6 cylinder roadster (TR-250). According to Wikipedia the only ones to come to the US were personal imports mostly by US military. About 679 came here which explains why we've never seen one.

qbrozen

andys120 said:

andys120 said:

Triumph Vitesse. I don't know enough to differentiate by year.

Apparently this was the US market version of the Vitesse sold here in 1965 as the Triumph Sport 6. No, I didn't know there was a US version either but it's curious that they would sell a 6 cylinder Herald/Vitesse three MYs before coming out w the 6 cylinder roadster (TR-250). According to Wikipedia the only ones to come to the US were personal imports mostly by US military. About 679 came here which explains why we've never seen one.

Ya lost me. There was a US version but the only ones here were private imports? That is not making sense to me. 

andys120

Ya lost me. There was a US version but the only ones here were private imports? That is not making sense to me.

Confusing, innit? My bad, rereading the wiki article I see that they were officially sold in the US from 1962-64.

1963 Triumph Sports 6


It was the closed version that came in only via private imports. I was a huge import car buff back then but this one somehow escaped my notice

Mr_Shiftright

It's a different 6 cylinder engine than the TR250 however. The TR250 (one of my favorite cars of all time) is much torquier and I think more durable. The Herald was really built to a price and you can tell.

andys120

Guess you're right , Wikipedia sez the Vitesse had either a 1.6 liter or 2.0 liter motor. TR-250s/TR-5s had 2.5 liters

magnette

Andy - that tractor was a Fordson - meant to tell you yesterday...

magnette

The Triumph Vitesse are was a fast version of the Herald and I always thought it wrong that they didn't make a Vitesse Estate - the Herald was available as an estate and even a van.

One thing about the Herald was it had a great turning circle - tighter than a London Cab - I think it was something like 25 feet. I don't think the Vitesse could quite manage that but it was quite nimble, but until the mark 2 it didn't have very stable rear suspension geometry and could get into trouble when braking on tight bends. The Vitesse got sorted before the Herald - which was of course a slower car.
There are still a lot of Vitesses and Heralds around - the rust isn't such a problem for them as these cars had a separate chassis.

I din't know anything about the Triumph Sports 6 but it is one of those cars which probably sold under different local names in other places - there was a four door Herald assembled in India called the Triumph Gazelle - not sure what Singer thought of that...

andys120

Mr_Shiftright

Looks like a Fiat 124 on steroids, but don't recall the model.

stickguy

Monteverdi?

texases

1973 Fiat 130?
One was for sale in 2012:
http://www.classicitaliancarsforsale.com/fiat-130-coupe/

magnette

Yes that's the later version of the Fiat 130 Coupe.

explorerx4

I'm pretty sure I'd seen the picture of that jet crashing before.
It's amazing the pilot survived considering how close to the ground he is and his parachute has not opened.

andys120

texases said:

1973 Fiat 130?
One was for sale in 2012:
http://www.classicitaliancarsforsale.com/fiat-130-coupe/

Yep, another Euro only model that never made it to the USA. Very nice looking in a '70s way, love the tall sideglass.

fintail

40 grand for that 130 LOL . I like the style of those a lot, but I think that's about 35% too high.

Mr_Shiftright

About 335% too high probably.