Mystery car pix

andys120 · September 2006

stickguy · September 2006

Now, just have to get th permutation right..

first guess is a Dodge Dart sport. Unless it is the Plymouth version (Scamp)?

ANyway, I love these cars, and would like to get a nice 340 4 speed varient at some point.

ateixeira · September 2006

Hemi Dart, it appears to me.

Wrecks to Riches did one of those, I think that's what that show is called anyway.

-juice

andre1969 · September 2006

It's a '70-72 Plymouth Valiant Scamp hardtop, most likely with the 340. I never could tell the 70-72 apart, though. '73 had a more pretentious looking grille though, and there was no Valiant hardtop in '67-69. Plymouth did away with it to make more room for the Barracuda. But then for '70, with the Duster on the way, Dodge wanted a version, which would be called the Demon for '70-72 and then Dart Sport for '73-76, as the Demon name scared away a lot of buyers who didn't want to drive one to church! As a consolation for sharing the Duster with Dodge, Plymouth got the Scamp, their version of the Dart hardtop.

I think the Hemi Dart was only offered from the factory in 1968, but I think they might've outsourced a few for 1969. I think the '68's all had larger rear wheel openings that showed off the whole tire.

I think that "bumblebee" stripe on that back might not be stock though. I'm thinking that only Dodge did that, but I could be wrong.

andys120 · September 2006

Andre hits the nail on the head, it's a '72 Scamp. I'll be damned if I know how you tell it from a Dart w/o reading the badges. :confuse:

Try another>

kyfdx · September 2006

'63 Ranchero?

ateixeira · September 2006

Let's wake this thread up a bit.

-juice

ateixeira · September 2006

Here's a recent concept (a handsome one)...

-juice

la4mead · September 2006

I think it's a 64 Falcon Ranchero. Looks like it's missing the 260 V8 badge from the fender (so it's an inline 6). The other Ranchero that year was Fairlane, right?

andys120 · September 2006

That looks like a Puegeot 206, it could be a 107
but the picture is too small and underexposed to tell.

Your black and red car is also a Pug but we decided at the outset of the topic to avoid one-offs and concept cars for obvious reasons.

ateixeira · September 2006

it could be a 107

Close, it's actually a 1007:

Concept is the 20cup. Wild little 3 wheeler...

Reminded me of the Mercedes Carving, remember that one?

-juice

ateixeira · September 2006

Parlez vous this?

-juice

derrado1 · September 2006

Peugeot 207.

Lemme guess... the next pic will be the Peugeot 307? :P

gsemike · September 2006

Looks like a Nissan Versa

andys120 · September 2006

Looks like a Nissan Versa

That's what I was thinking, perhaps it's the JDM version--Nissan Tiida.

andre1969 · September 2006

I'll be damned if I know how you tell it from a Dart w/o reading the badges.

Well I've had two Darts so I'm familiar with them, so the difference might be more obvious to me than others. In 1970-72 though, the Dart had a more agressive front-end, kind of prow-shaped, where the front angled back a bit on the edges at the headlights. The 1970-71 Darts had a split in the grille I think while the '72 didn't. And then in '73-74 they used a beaky grille.

As for that Ranchero, without cheating, I want to say it's a 1964? I think the '63 was a bit more rounded, while the '65 might've been a bit more squarish?

Now for bonus points, what's that dark red tailfinned thing next to it?

andys120 · September 2006

The Ranchero was a '65.

mark156 · September 2006

Also keep in mind, starting in 1973 all USA cars had to have the "energy absorbing" front and rear bumpers... so, in 1973, the Dart bumpers were very prominent.

1968 Side marker lights required
1969 Headrests required
1974 Shoulder belts required (offered as options previously)

These will sometimes help me figure out the model year of a car.

Mark

andre1969 · September 2006

were required on all closed cars starting on January 1 1968 or something like that? Maybe 1974 was the first year they went to the one-piece 3-point belt? Prior to that most cars, domestics at least, had a separate shoulder belt, but I think it was always standard.

Interestingly with the Dart, the '67-69 style did have huge, bulky bumpers, but they were kind of tucked under and didn't really jut out much. Then in '70-72 they went to a thin style bumper with a body-colored valance panel underneath. Then back to a bulky bumper for '73-76, although it jutted out more than the '67-69 and had big rubber blocks on it.

The only way I can tell a '73-74 Dart apart is in the rear. The '73 still had the taillights in the bumper, a design that didn't pass the 5mph regs because, even though the bumper was sturdy, it was still too easy to break the taillights. So in '74 they went to a big, less-integrated bumper that stuck out more, and the taillights were moved to the body of the car. I don't think they changed the Dart Sport from '73-74 though; at least I never could tell them apart.

mark156 · September 2006

Andre, I 'am' thinking about the 3 point belt required in 1974. A good friend of mine in high school...his parents had a 1974 Ford LTD that wouldn't start unless the belt was locked in.

Our 1969 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser wagon did have the shoulder belts but they were clipped at the B pillar along the roof line. I don't know of anyone who ever used those, how cumbersome!

I remember the '74 Dart well as my uncle had a 1974 Dodge Dart Swinger, medium blue with a white vinyl top. That car drove really well when it was new; I though it was a very sharp looking car at the time!

Mark

stickguy · September 2006

Shoulder belts were required prior to '74. You are thinking of the idiotic seat belt interlock that was required for a few years. I remember my Grandmother not wanting to wear a belt (a really stupid idea, given how she drove!) so she kept it buckled up BEHIND the front seat!

With the bumpers, there was a 1 year lag with the 2 ends. I think the rear was required one year, and the fronts the next ('74/'75?).

And, those early 5 mph bumpers might not have been pretty, but they really worked (not like the ones today). You could give that steel quite a whack, and the shocks really took the hit. I remember reading a review (CR I think) where they compared the Rabbit to the Golf, and how the Rabbit got smacked with no damage, but the Golf practically folded like an accordian.

andre1969 · September 2006

where Consumer Reports ran a few vehicles into a solid wall at low speed. One of them, a Chevy LUV I think, became disabled after a 2.5 mph hit! It was just enough to puncture the radiator!

Some cars that had protrusions on them like, say, a '69 Pontiac or a 1971-72 Ford, could take AND inflict serious damage at low speeds, because the pointy beaks would cause the force of the impact to focus on a narrower point. Mopars with those massive "loop" bumpers, where the whole front of the car was basically the bumper and the grille, headlights, etc were housed within it, were susceptible to having headlights, turn signals, etc damaged.

As for the standards, the front bumper standard was 1973 and the rear was 1974. That's why the 1973 Corvette still has the chrome on the rear-end, and they were still putting taillights within the bumpers of Darts, Impalas, etc that year, instead of above the bumper, which they did for 1974.

lemko · September 2006

My 1968 Buick Special Deluxe wagon had those separate shoulder belts that were stowed via a clip near the B-pillar. They were very confining when worn as there was no retractor to give slack as in modern should belts, just bolt to which it attached. Re-stowing them was also a pain in the butt as you had to fold the belt a certain way or it would look like heck. Needless to say, I rarely used it.

lemko · September 2006

The full-sized Chevrolets used the loop bumper one year - 1969. I believe that was the only non-Mopar make to employ a loop bumper. I understand loop bumpers were hard to engineer and manufacture as the vertical ends would stick out away from the body if they were improperly stamped.

rcinmd · September 2006

The seat belt interlock was one year only, 1974. And before the model year ended, the law was rescinded, allowing mechanics or owners to disconnect them. I had a 74 Vega GT wagon which had them connected. Since I always wore a seatbelt, I put up with it.
As for bumpers, in 73, we had 5 mph front, and 2.5 mph rear. The rubber ducky bumpers began making an appearance, such as on the Pontiac Grand Am. In 74, both front and rear went 5 mph. But what really made them battering rams in 74 was the method of testing, a pendulum test. Think of how horrible the bumpers were on a 74 Malibu for instance, compared to the 73, even though both had 5 mph standards up front. Some makers met the 74 pendulum test by using bumper overriders, rather than engineering a major redesign, since some of those cars were not long for this world by that point. In 75, the method of testing changed, and that allowed somewhat slimmer bumpers. The Fiat 128 sedan and 124 Coupe are examples of that. BUT, that year there was a change in bumper height standards, and many cars which were aging designs had to be jacked up in order to meet the standard. MGs and the Fiat Spider come to mind. Some cars disappeared due to the new standards in 75, probably since production volumes did not justify the expense in meeting the new standards, or because the overall appearance was not acceptable.
Fiat had great bumpers on the then new 75 131. Others as well utilized shock absorbers, and damage in true 5 mph tests was often zero. Even the Pinto had no damage when tested in that manner.

ateixeira · September 2006

207 is correct.

The 1007 was a bit of a trick question because it breaks a bit from the naming convention due to that extra 0 in the middle.

Here is another one...

-juice

andys120 · September 2006

of tiny Pugs.

Let's look at a real car>

andre1969 · September 2006

The full-sized Chevrolets used the loop bumper one year - 1969. I believe that was the only non-Mopar make to employ a loop bumper.

Pontiacs used what I guess you could call a loop bumper for a couple of years. My '69 Bonneville's whole front-end was really just a big bumper/grille combination that, if you took off something like 8 bolts, the whole ~100 pound piece would lift off as one. The headlights and grille were contained within the "loop" of the bumper. There was a center part in the loop though, where the body-color beak bolted on. My '67 Catalina has kind of a loop bumper as well, just with the connection in the middle where the logo is bolted on. It houses the grille and the two lower headlights.

When my cousin had the Bonneville before me, his wife rear-ended a car with it. The impact pushed the beak in a bit, and the strain of it forced the outer edges of the bumper/grille to push out! Probably not the best design in the world. I had thought about chaining it to a tree and trying to back the car up and straighten it out, but then I found one in the junkyard and just snagged its bumper, instead.

kyfdx · September 2006

Since the rule is post-WWII, then I'll have to guess some kind of Morgan..

chuck1959 · September 2006

Now for bonus points, what's that dark red tailfinned thing next to it?

1960 Dodge Phoenix?

derrado1 · September 2006

Lol, call me Derrado.

And that's a Toyota Aygo, a designed-for-Europe city car that shares its platform with the Citroen C1 and the Peugeot 107.

I watched a Top Gear segment and read a few articles about the Aygo/C1/107.... Interesting little cars. They've done lots of little things to keep the price down, and they don't look all the worse for it.

andys120 · September 2006

Since the rule is post-WWII, then I'll have to guess some kind of Morgan..

Good guess but it is not a Morgan. It is indeed a postwar car though (MY 1956). I'll leave it up for a while to see if Magnette comes along to nail it.

ateixeira · September 2006

Aygo is correct.

I think I have one last one. Got these from a friend that took photos while she vacationed in Europe this summer, and just had to share them.

Yeah, they're small pugs, but hey, that's what the europeans drive, and not BMW and Mercedes like some people would have you think.

-juice

andys120 · September 2006

Yeah, they're small pugs, but hey, that's what the europeans drive, and not BMW and Mercedes like some people would have you think.

Not Benzes and Bimmers but German-badged cars are king in Europe, this
is the most popular car in Europe>

It's manufacturer has just over 20% of the market. PSA (Puegeot & Citroen) owns about 12 or 13% of the Euro market IIRC

derrado1 · September 2006

I know it... but I'll let somebody else try :P

stickguy · September 2006

Polo?

bumpy · September 2006

Renault Clio, basically a Nissan Tiida/Versa with a French accent.

bumpy · September 2006

derrado1 · September 2006

I'll never understand why Americans think of the Tiida/Versa as a sub-compact... over here, it's marketed against Corolla/Civic and the like.

The Clio's just a tad smaller than the Versa, but part of a rapidly increasing-in-size segment. The new Corsa, Clio and 207 seem to be a lot bigger than their predecessors.

bumpy · September 2006

I'll never understand why Americans think of the Tiida/Versa as a sub-compact

In the case of the Versa, it gets lumped in with the subs since it debuted alongside a bunch of other subcompacts- Accent, Rio, Fit, Yaris, Aveo. More generally, a lot of people here still think of a "compact" as something like a '74 Nova, so anything noticeably smaller in exterior size gets called a "subcompact" even though it might have as much or more interior room than the Nova. Passenger space in most cars these days fills out a lot more of the exterior envelope than in the domestic goonmobiles of old.

andys120 · September 2006

Polo?

Nope Europe's best selling car is the VW Golf, now in it's fifth generation. The MkV Golf is being called a "Rabbit" in the US (just like the US made MkI)

rockylee · September 2006

http://t10.images.live.com/images/thumbnail.aspx?q=728242605009&id=7ae75c7c125e3- - 816bcb0f40aca224e50

Rocky

derrado1 · September 2006

...a 2007 GMC Sierra Denali. What's so special about that?

andys120 · September 2006

Current GMC pickup looks like one that's been modified, can we cool it with the tiny pix?

andys120 · September 2006

to tell what it is>>>

tmart · September 2006

It's an AMX. Don't know the year. Interesting paint job...kinda like it.

imidazol97 · September 2006

The colors are great. I think they should have spent some time with PaintShopPro testing different boundary lines for the colors.

mark156 · September 2006

I'm going to guess that the Red, White and Blue car in the pic is a 1972 AMC Javelin with the AMX package as tmart mentioned.

Mark

andys120 · September 2006

You are close Mark, it is a Javelin but it's one of about 100 1970 Javelin SST TransAm
models made to celebrate AMCs victory in the 1970 TransAM Championship.

More.

andys120 · September 2006

Mystery car pix

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