Mystery car pix

andys120

Mr_Shiftright

I think that's the drag chute.

fintail

Looks like a Vespa (400?) on period French plates.

fintail

Kits Beach, Vancouver, August 1979:

Enlarge here

(pic taken from Flickr user Pop Snap, who has an amazing collection of Kodachrome shots from the era)

stickguy

dodge van in the front. And far back in front of the white Ford PU looks like an orange Datsun 210.

And the obligatory blue Fintail that seems to be in every picture lately!

stickguy

and a blue pinto wagon next to the little orange car

fintail

Pretty good spotting. Fintail is a W110 or a W111 220b. Orange car beside the Ford truck is tough, I want to say Datsun 1200. There's another red-orange car hidden beside the fintail, maybe an earlier Civic.

How about the cars in the foreground?

stickguy

I should have said 1200. It looks like that early vintage.

Front car is a 1970ish LTD 2 door. Any chance the black one hiding behind it is a big Benz?

kyfdx

stickguy said:

I should have said 1200. It looks like that early vintage.

Front car is a 1970ish LTD 2 door. Any chance the black one hiding behind it is a big Benz?

I would guess that it's exactly a '70.

fintail

I think the LTD might be a 71-72, but they are all pretty close.

Beside it is indeed an MB, a W114/115, not too big.

fintail

Vancouver, March, 1978:

stickguy

3rd one is an early 70s Dart sedan. Though could be a Valient. Not sure what year those started. the 2 furrin cars behind that one (look like the same model) are harder. Datsun 510?

funny that this should could have been in 1972, if it wasn't for the late 70s downsized Cutlass 2 door!

fintail

I think the first car behind the Dart/Valiant isn't so foreign. I agree about the 510.

On the west coast, cars aged better. I wouldn't be surprised if most or all of this lineup made it into the 90s or beyond.

andys120

Between the Datsun 510 and the blue wagon, a black 1964 Chevrolet.

texases

I think it's a Valiant, not a Dart. 

berri

Brown one is a 73 or 74 Plymouth Satellite Sebring. I thought the 71/72 was a better looker, but sales results shows the opposite.

fintail

I think the car between the Valiant and 510 is a 63-66 Valiant. And I guess a ~69 Chevy wagon at the end.

Kingsway, Burnaby, March 1978:


Enlarge

stickguy

I like these pics from the 70s. Some cars I actually know!

mid-70s slant nose Vega in the back. Probably a GT from the stripes. Mid-60s Mercury Comet (red) in the front that I actually like. And next to the late 70s downsized Caprice, I think a a Datsun 610 4 door.

fintail

I think the Japanese car is a late run first gen Dodge/Mitsubishi Colt. A few heavy vehicles to the left of the Beetle need ID, too.

One more for today. Vancouver, March 1978 (appears to be the same parking lot as the rear quarter views above) (click on image to enlarge)

stickguy

Might be a colt. Looking closer, I think the tail of the car in the row behind it made the hood look longer.

on the new one, I'll just take the 67 Camaro at the far left, and the 2 door aspen or Volare center nose in under the sign.

Man, these pictures remind me of my HS days!

andys120

Ugh, the 70swith the worst ever Mustang, a mid-70s Mustang II

andys120

fintail

Not certain about the cars, but it looks like Villa d'Este, red thing in the background looks like a Ghia design. Almost looks like a vintage pic, but i get a whiff of monied hipster.

stickguy

Looked like a recent, pebble beach concours type picture to me.

andys120

fintail said:

Not certain about the cars, but it looks like Villa d'Este, red thing in the background looks like a Ghia design. Almost looks like a vintage pic, but i get a whiff of monied hipster.

Yup, it's the Villa d'Este but it's not a vintage photo, it's from this year's Concocorso d"Eleganza. The background car is Ghia bodied. IIRC it's a Fiat 8V Supersonic from the early 50s, one of Ghia's landmark designs. The blue car in the center is I think from the mid 50s vintage and might be one of the most beautiful cars ever. I can't find out much about it but I'm guessing the body is by Vignale or Touring. If you know this car tell me all about it.

I wouldn't call those folks monied hipsters. I'd guess they were old monied money and lots of it!

andys120

I did some rooting around and found a few more pix of our mystery car.

This shot shows the dramatic shape of the "pontoon" fender and the grille>

Link!

...how about the location of that side marker?

A few more (possibly) helpful facts: MY-1952, Carrozzeria-Vignale

andys120

andys120

I thought someone like Shifty, Magnette or Fintail might guess the blue Italian GT I posted earlier

Here it is again with another hint>

It's almost a Maserati>

Mr_Shiftright

Kinda looks like an early Siata

andys120

Mr_Shiftright said:

Kinda looks like an early Siata

Yeah it does, IIRC a lot of Siatas were also bodied by Vignale but it's not a Siata.

Going...going...

andys120

Gone! The blue coupe is a 1952 OSCA MT-4GT. Most OSCAs were two seat roadsters with simple envelope bodies and a signature round grill. MT-4 1600s were a mainstay of small bore sports car racing in the 50s.

OSCA was formed by three of the Maserati Brothers who elected to leave Maserati SpA once their contracts with the Orsi family was up. Their man products were F1 and other monoposto formula race cars and the MT-4 variants. As was usual in that era various bodybuilders styled variants of the OSCA spider and GT cars but for my money none was as stunning as that Vignale coupe with the flying fenders.

fintail

I was thinking mr. shaved sidewalls and jacket was the trust fund hipster. In that venue, it says to me "still dependent on the parents, but want to be aggressive looking, I built it myself!" - I see this a lot here. But that's just my subjective biased view

Kingsway, Burnaby, March 1978 - this location is completely different today, none of the storefront buildings still exist - but a few of the cars might still be around (click to enlarge):

stickguy

Yellow 72 challenger in the far background.

Michaell

Is that a 450 SEL 6.9 front and center?

stickguy

hard to tell it apart from the Blue Valiant following it!

No clue if you can tell a 6.9 from that angle. Better wait for Fintail to weigh in.

Michaell

stickguy said:

hard to tell it apart from the Blue Valiant following it!

No clue if you can tell a 6.9 from that angle. Better wait for Fintail to weigh in.

I'm going to say no on the 6.9, because of the wheel covers vs. the alloys that were also available.

But, @fintail will know for sure.

fintail

I'd wager the W116 is not a 6.9 - the wheel covers being a key hint (I know Euro examples could be ordered with them, but I think all NA spec models would have bundts and the passenger side mirror). The pictured car is 1974 or newer by the park bench bumpers. Older W116 had the mirror optional, which seems like a crazy thing now. It appears to be a LWB car, I will guess a normal 450SEL, as we didn't get the LWB 6cyl cars.

tmart

andys120 said:

I thought someone like Shifty, Magnette or Fintail might guess the blue Italian GT I posted earlier

Here it is again with another hint>

It's almost a Maserati>

What is that on the right hand side above the trees?? Looks like a rocket launching!

fintail

Maybe a sailboat? The Flying Wasp

texases

A sail? edit - oops, Fin got it.

How about the other cars in the pic?

andys120

texases said:

A sail? edit - oops, Fin got it.

How about the other cars in the pic?

The silver car on the left is a Lagonda Rapide ca. 1963

Here's a better look at one>Link

The red car we've already ID'ed as a Fiat 8V Supersonic by Ghia.

andys120

Michaell

VW Arteon - the CC replacement

Mr_Shiftright

I'ts interesting to me that some of the original styling cues from the now 20-year-old Audi TT are still in play in Germany.

andys120

Michaell said:

VW Arteon - the CC replacement

You're right.

stickguy

I really am interested in seeing pictures of the actual new Jetta, not just the concept car from a few years back. That and the next Accord. Both due out soon, but seem to be well under wraps.

Michaell

stickguy said:

I really am interested in seeing pictures of the actual new Jetta, not just the concept car from a few years back. That and the next Accord. Both due out soon, but seem to be well under wraps.

Honda has always been good about not leaking advance pictures. It would impact sales of the current model. 

Not so sure about VW. 

andys120

fintail

Lamborghini Espada. I used to not like 70s era Lamborghini, now I do.

texases

This shares a few styling cues: