I spotted an (insert obscure car name here) classic car today! (Archived)

andyman73 · October 2004

I may go and look at that Dasher, just so I can say I saw it on Edmunds.com. I thought I recognized that showroom, and after reading the description and such. I found I was right. Oregon pike motors is about 10 miles from my home. I have looked at MGs, there several times over the years. That one behind the Dasher may still be one of the ones I looked at years ago. Hmmm, it's a small world.

Saw a pristine Audi GT quattro, the other day. Driven by a distinguished(read gray haired) gentleman with a ponytail. He was driving like it was his pride and joy, the upkeep looked like it was well loved.

Saw a late model Mercedes, hmmm... 2003 or 4 model, V12, all decked out with Lorinzer(sp?) aftermarked goodies, sounded sweet, was barrelling up a tight right hand highway on ramp. Was silver 4 door.

andys120 · October 2004

I spotted a BMW 850Ci in a residential driveway the other day, it was pristine black with a small M-sport badge on the rear which
I assume was bogus as I can't recall an M8 model.

lemko · October 2004

...a metallic green 1965 Chrysler Newport sedan in fairly decent shape. The paint was slightly oxidized, but the body appeared rust-free. Looked like your typical little old lady car.

Mr_Shiftright · October 2004

Yes, probably bogus but they did actually make ONE BMW M8 as a prototype, but it never went into production.

There are 850s that have been officially "breathed on" however...there's a CSi model and an Alpina model, but no real "M".

I think if that dealer holds out he might get $400 for that Dasher.

jrosasmc · October 2004

How many original Audi Quattros are in existence here in the U.S., by the way?

debaser853 · October 2004

Don't know how many Coupe Quattro's are around either, but a pristine one parks at my wife's office building. Along with a early/mid 90's A8 and a 5-door 5000 (with aftermarket wheels and brakes and probably other goodies).

Mr_Shiftright · October 2004

Audi GT Quattros are very much in demand and bring a strong price. Even the 2WD Audi GTs bring good money. An audi 5000 is just smelter material once it breaks. A8s are very nice cars, wouldn't mind having one but don't ever bend that aluminum frame!

kyfdx · October 2004

'66 or '67 Dodge Dart.. painted flourescent yellow.. looked decent.. kind of a street-legal drag racer.

'63 or '64 Plymouth Valiant 200.. that faded blue-green color.. looked original, and in good shape.

andyman73 · October 2004

I saw a an 8 series, the other week at Twin Pine Motors, North of Ephrata on 322, in their back lot.

I got one for ya'll, a Pinto, with Starsky and Hutch paint scheme. For sale, a few hundred yards from my folks place. Don't know how old paint job is, have seen this car in area, for @ 10 years. Guy selling is original owner, car had no visible rust, last time I saw it.

Saw a lovely Austin Healey, don't know if it was a 3000, or what. Nice red color

One of my cousins was married 2 weekends ago, their getaway car was a Tin Lizzie. In near "Pebble Beach" condition.

Mr_Shiftright · October 2004

One of the few getaway cars where someone could run up behind and catch you! Actually you can do 55 in the Model T if you are a brave enough man.

PF_Flyer · October 2004

Bring your obscure sighting lists to the chats tonight!
PF Flyer
Host
Pickups & News & Views Message Boards

MAZDA and HYBRID VEHICLE chats are on TONIGHT. Check out the schedule

danf5 · October 2004

Seen 10/10 on I-66:

two dropheads, both LHD. One steel bumper, the other rubber, both somewhat tatty and being driven rather slowly.

And a coupe, somewhat modified, looking very spiffy (apparently newly painted BRIGHT yellow, not a factory color), and more than keeping up with traffic. LHD, with a bulge at the rear of the hood and two tail pipes. No bumpers, chin spoiler. I suspect it was a homebrew V8 conversion, since the factory V8 wasn't sold here. Not an MGC coupe, the hood wasn't right for a C.

I didn't want a B when they were new or when I was buying bizarremobiles, still don't want one. Can't understand why owners of old sports cars drive them slowly.

Cheers,

Dan

On that same trip, saw a Chrysler 300C (was that '58 or '59?) in TX on a flatbed. Huge, shiny, absurd as ever.

corsicachevy · October 2004

Someone here in Madison recently purchased or finished customizing a 1957 Chevrolet stretch limousine. The owner appears to use it as his daily driver as it has become a regular sighting during my morning commute.

Mr_Shiftright · October 2004

I've seen MGs will all shorts of engines in them, from Mazda rotaries to Volvo B18s. Oddly enough, the MGB 4 cylinder engine is one of the best things about the car and you could build them up to 130 HP without hand-grenading and mach the V8. The V8 they used in the MGB was that dog of a Buick / Rover engine and it really wasn't that much faster than the most robust of the stock 4 cylinders...0-60 in 8.6 seconds rather than 12. It gained speed mostly by saving weight. The MGB iron 4 is very heavy.

But the V8s are often compared to the very last Federalized MGBs to make them (the V8s) look good, as the rather pathetic rubber bumper cars were posting 0-60 in around 18 seconds. Sad, very sad.

Now a Ford 289, that would have been something---oh, a Cobra!

andys120 · October 2004

IIRC it goes like this with the letter cars....

B-300 1955
300-B 1956
300-C 1957
300-D 1958
300-E 1959
300-F 1960

You can figure out the rest. I don't know why they went from a B-300 to a 300-B, Andre?

Saw a '57 Chevy wagon, white over black. It wasn't a Nomad but looked perfectly stock except for chromed disk wheels and a rack downward in front.

It looked in decent driver shape as was the teal '59 Fury HT I saw.

jrosasmc · October 2004

The last federalized MGBs (1975-80)...yes I've seen them in action and they're bad. Shifty, the 0-60 times on those can be compared to a VW Bug of the same vintage. I even beat a '77 MGB off the line once with an early '90s Saab 900! (non-turbo)

andre1969 · October 2004

I think the first one was called the C300. I guess the C was for "Chrysler" and the "300" was for the 300 hp that its 331 Hemi put out. Then next year they started with the sequential lettering, going from B on up to L for 1965. They did skip the letter "I" though. I guess "300I" would have looked too much like "3000"?

bhill2 · October 2004

I had a friend who put a Volvo B18 in a Bugeye Sprite that he had sitting around. About the second time he drove it, he flipped it. He only broke a finger, but they had to put him in a contraption that held that arm out to the side at shoulder level, bent 90 degrees at the elbow so that his hand, with fingers splayed and the broken one splinted, projected out in front of him. Thing was, this was only a couple of days before his wedding. He had to get married wearing the thing. He didn't talk a lot about his honeymoon.

Mr_Shiftright · October 2004

Not easy to flip a Bugeye...you have to WANT to flip it-LOL!

Okay, I win the Oscure Award for today. What I saw was....

1911 Amplex!

This car used to be called the American Simplex the most famous car ever built in Mishawaka, Indiana. They changed the name to Amplex because another company in New York was called Simplex and they (Amplex) wanted to join the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers. So they need a new name.

The guys at Fantasy Junction where the car is asked me to see if I could notice "anything strange" about the motor. Well, ANY 1911 motor is kinda strange. So I looked and looked and finally it dawned on me (with some hints like "how do you adjust the valves?") that this huge engine was a Two Stroke motor!

The car itself was very neat looking and rather modern for its time. An Amplex ran in the first Indy 500 and took 8th place. There were probably eight cars in the race but oh well.

It was dragged out of a barn and looked it. Hasn't run "in fifty years" they said. I suggested we go get a battery and some gas but they turned me down. Cowards!

PF_Flyer · October 2004

I thought my Pacer sighting was going to be good until you trumped me!!!

PF Flyer
Host
Pickups & News & Views Message Boards

MAZDA and HYBRID VEHICLE chats are on TONIGHT. Check out the schedule

fintail · October 2004

Not really rare cars per se, but today I saw a clean original 63 Impala 2 door hardtop, and a very nice elderly driven c.78 Caprice 'sport coupe', the kind with the bubble window in back. I also saw a sad looking creme colored lowline MB ponton, and a Ford Elite sitting in a field, where I am told it belongs.

lemko · October 2004

...was based on the Torino as a vain attept to ape the Mark IV based Thunderbird. I haven't seen one of them in years!

andre1969 · October 2004

my neighbors had a brown '76 Torino Elite. Their other car was a red VW Rabbit...talk about a contrast!

It was actually a test to see if the public would go for a Monte Carlo-sized/priced T-bird, and was actually reasonably successful. However, it was soon eclipsed by the '77 T-bird, which had crisper, more modern sheetmetal on the same chassis (I think they even had the same dashboard), and the magic of the Thunderbird name. While often reviled today, the '77-79 T-bird was the most successful and popular T-bird in history, selling close to a million units in those three years.

I always thought the regular Torino, with its quad headlights and less ostentatious styling, was a much better looking car than the Elite.

fintail · October 2004

A longtime friend of mine's family had a 76 Elite, it was a gut wrenching brown on brown with a thick white vinyl stripe/trim line. To show how poorly some cars were built compared to now...just look at that one they had. They bought it new, and it was junkyard material by 1987. It started to get perforated rust by the mid 80s...and thats here in the northwest, where cars generally don't do that so soon. The interior also fell apart in the same time. They didn't abuse it either, it just didn't last. But on the flip side...mechanically it was still OK. My friend was terribly embarrassed by this car, and that car and the Chevy Celebrity that they owned turned the family to Honda...where they haven't returned from since. As an adult, he too is a Honda-phile. I wonder how many other people these cars turned off of domestics.

My mom had a 76 T-Bird during the same time, and she and my father loved that car. I remember it as big and smooth, and just a little showy with its pimpy white on white color combo. It kept soldiering on long after we got rid of it, and my dad thinks it is still going.

Today's oddball....Isuzu I-Mark Diesel

jrosasmc · October 2004

Do you remember the Audis from the mid- to late-'80s? Those things were murderous to their owners!!

fintail · October 2004

The kind that haven't been a common sight on the roads since about 1992? Yep...they are all gone...which tells a lot.

And I liked them when they were new, so modern.

lemko · October 2004

...I recall seeing one of those mid-80s Audis about a month ago, but its condition made it look like something from "Mad Max."

lemko · October 2004

...from China:

http://autoweek.com/article.cms?articleId=100944

fintail · October 2004

There used to be a vacant lot in a less developed area here where someone was storing about a dozen old 4000s and 5000s. Then they all vanished...someone complained or someone needed the parts to get one on the road.

Chinese car = horrible name and styling that is a warmed over 1992 Hyundai. Makes a Kia look tempting.

andre1969 · October 2004

I saw one of those older Audis. It wasn't a 5000 though, but the car that the 5000 became. Was it called the 100 or something like that? Whatever badge it had on it, it looked and smelled (all the smoke pouring out of it made me think of the old war footage of the Bismarck being bombed and attacked, and still soldiering, and smoldering, on) like it should've been retired years ago.

Oh yeah, today I saw what I think is a 1960 Rambler American 4-door sedan for sale. It's in the front yard of these people who own a towing company/junkyard. At least I think it's a '60. It was definitely the '58-60 style, and I think they only offered the 4-door in '60. The paint looked worn and faded, with some rusty scale coming through, but it looked like it might still be salvagable.

fintail · October 2004

The Audi 5000 was really the Audi 100/200. The 5000 was a North America only name, IIRC. I think the 100 was the base, and the 200 the deluxe with turbo. It's funny how a car that was so advanced looking ended up being so bad.

There are several old Rambler Americans still seen around here now and then. I think even a really nice one isn't worth more than a few grand tops...they look like a painfully basic car.

lemko · October 2004

a red 1969 Oldsmobile 442 with a white top. Looked like an older restoration.

Mr_Shiftright · October 2004

Some 80s Audis are still worth money. The GT Coupe is a keeper, and the 4000CS Quattro is a good car. The infamous 5000 came in a Quattro Turbo Wagon which is still coveted as a great ski car. You can still get $5,000 and more for any of these cars if they are in tip top shape.

But regular 2WD 5000s should all go to the smelter before they kill again.

jrosasmc · October 2004

You'd know this a lot better than I do: What is a Metz car, and where did it originate?

The reason I'm asking is because my best friend's dad found an unmolested, surviving 1914 Metz in a barn in southeastern Vermont that he would like to restore and sell.

jrosasmc · October 2004

One more thing: How come the Audi Coupe GTs are keepers if they were FWD-only?

Mr_Shiftright · October 2004

Audi GT-- lot of fun to drive, sporty 2-door instead of dowdy four door, practical hatchback, kind of a cult car---all those things.

The Metz was made in Waltham Massachusetts. Mr Metz would actually ship your car to you in packages---you paid for each box of parts as you got them, so you could build a car on the installment plan. It took 14 packages to make a car.

Metz is a fairly rare car, but also a rather simple piece of machinery, so nothing magnificent about it. They went out of business in 1921, like so many other companies did.

I have no idea of value but it would be fun to restore and a worthy project(but not easy if parts are missing or broken), as long as you were sober about how much money you spent. There isn't a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow.

I think this is a chain drive car so watch your fingers.

andys120 · October 2004

this was a remarkable example of one of the smaller sedans, dark blue/orange-brown leather and unmarred it looked really perfect in every way, I didn't see the badge but I suspect that it was a 250.

Must've been a garage queen to be in that shape cuz I don't think anyone'd restore a 220/250 four door. What's the designator for those Fintail, W1**?

fintail · October 2004

A 250 would be a W114, a 220 would be a W115 (those "squareline" or "/8" models are confusing)

tarik · October 2004

...AUDI GT also available as an AWD in the States - it was in Europe. Plus, the first gen Coupes looked the hatchback part, but only had a small trunk lid that ended right beneath the rear window, revealing a vertically deep trunk.

Mr_Shiftright · October 2004

Yes, you could get a GT Coupe Turbo Quattro, that's the one to have. The 2WD GTs are a fun cheap ride but don't carry the cult status of the Turbo Quattro, certainly.

andys120 · October 2004

We're talking about the mighty Ur-Quattro now which was known in the 80s simply as the "Audi Quattro". It was indeed sold here in small numbers, limited mostly by the relatively high
asking price. I wonder how how "used" prices have held up, I suspect they can be had at reasonable prices but are potential money pits.

----------------------------------

I saw an old GMC 4x4 military truck restored and repainted with fire engine red paint. It had a stake bed and canvas covered cabin. It looks much like an old Power Wagon and I imagine it has similar "go anywhere" capabilities.

Anyone know the military designator (M??) for these?

andys120 · October 2004

There's a '68 MY w 88k advertised in the back of the new Road & Track* @$16,500. If it's as purty as it's picture it strikes me as a bargain. Whaddya think Shifty or Fin?

Unfortunately I couldn't find it on the advertiser's web site.

*Nov 2004, p 193

Mr_Shiftright · October 2004

250SE Coupe: No bargain, exactly right retail market price for a real nice car with no needs. Rips, tears, chips and dents, start deducting!

Audi Quattro Turbo Coupe: About $8,000 for a really sharp one, $6,000 for a clean driver. No, not really a money pit if you start out with a good car. Quattro system is bulletproof and Audi engines are traditionally very strong and long-lived internally....but...the turbo adds stress and heat, so I'd watch for bad turbos and head gaskets. Bottom ends really never go out. you could do a LOT worse in your choice of old German cars.

fintail · October 2004

For what you get, those cars (that 280SE coupe) are bargains, but the price is indeed no bargain. That's money for a mint car. You can get a perfectly nice driver for 10 grand or so.

Mr_Shiftright · October 2004

Had an odd sighting tonight. Not obscure but interesting.

Old couple walking out of supermarket. She is REALLY old, all bent over, with a cane, looks to be about 125, and HE looks even older, barely shuffling, green sun shades, shaking with palsy.

And then they get into this CAR, which REALLY surprised me!

At first that is. Then when I thought about it, it made sense.

What was surprising was the TYPE of car (body style) but what was not surprising was the make of car?

Can you guess what this elderly couple drove away in? (very slowly)

jrosasmc · October 2004

I'll take a guess: 1979 Oldsmobile 98 sedan.

kyfdx · October 2004

Mercedes CL500 coupe?

kyfdx · October 2004

There is a '70 Mercedes 280SE coupe in the paper here today.. Asking $16,000

http://cars.com/go/search/detail.jsp?tracktype=usedcc&searchT- ype=25&paId=156945388&pageNumber=0&numResultsPerPage=- 50&largeNumResultsPerPage=0&sortorder=descending&sort- field=PRICE+descending&certifiedOnly=false&recnum=1&l- eadExists=false&criteria=K-%7CE-ALL%7CM-_31_%7CH-%7CD-_4127_%- 7CN-N%7CR-10000%7CI-1%7CP-PRICE+descending%7CQ-descending%7CY-_19- 70_%7CX-antique%7CZ-45202&aff=national

fintail · October 2004

3.5 is the 280SE to go for, but it's still probably too much...faded paint means faded interior too, most likely.

I saw the rear end of an old car tucked away in a garage....I think it was a 46-48 Ford Convert, in blue. I like those cars.

Shifty - Lincoln Blackwood?

Mr_Shiftright · October 2004

Nope, brand new Volvo convertible!

The convertible made no sense, but since Volvo was in the past an old person's car, it made perfect sense that they'd keep buying Volvos. I had no idea why they picked the ragtop with those fancy bling bling wheels, but that's what they were driving. Maybe the kids bought it for them?

I spotted an (insert obscure car name here) classic car today! (Archived)

Comments

Helpful Tools

Most popular vehicles