Mystery car pix

andys120 · December 2017

There's Morris Minors all over that pic, I didn't realize they were like VWs in Germany or Fiats in Italy. I do like the looks of these early split-windshield cars, I've never seen one.

Next to the (Ford?) panel truck in the upper left is I think a Standard 10 and behind the (Bedford?) flatbed truck is a Rootes sedan (Hillman Minx/Sunbeam Rapier/Singer Gazelle).

Toward the left, second row, the old-looking two-tone might be a Triumph Mayflower next to a Ford Popular (on its right).

fintail · December 2017

Newest cars might be a couple of Vauxhall Victors (FA), one at left beside the two tone van, the other center right behind a Minor. Hillman Minx in the front row next to a Minor is also pretty new.

White car nose-in at left appears to be a Reliant Regal, has to be rare. Beside it is an Austin A30 and I think a Morris Oxford.

Second row car is a Mayflower like Andy notes, van to the left of it is a Ford, car to the right is a Morris I think.

I think I know some other cars, but will wait for others to try first

magnette · December 2017

You chaps are doing well - Andy those Minors are several generations - the nearest one by the flatbed truck is one with the old style radiator grille so before 1956, the one behind it has split screen but the second grille - both of those are MM Minors , and right at the back is a white one with the later grille and one piece windscreen - that would be a Minor 1000. there was an interim period where although the grille went one piece the wipers were still set for two separate panes ...
The Mayflower is next to a Ford Thames van based on the Anglia / Popular and the car between the Mayflower and the Minor is a Morris Eight series E (well done Fin).

I think the newest cars are either the white Minor or one of the Vauxhall F type Victors - two are series II models (middle behind the Minor and back row far right) while the third beside the Morris minibus (J2) is an earlier one. The Victor was face lifted in 1959 I think so later than the Minx in front row which is a series III from 1958.

I'm guessing 1959/60 as no A40s, or Anglia 105Es let alone Minis..

And well done on the Reliant Regal Fin, although they were common enough in the day - they made thousands of them but mainly sold in poorer blue collar areas like this. It could actually be the newest car there....

Your Austin A30 is an A35 - the chrome horse collar round the grille is the give-away although from the back of course the window is larger as seen in the third car from left in back row - and another further along.

I think the oldest car is either the Vauxhall 14 (second from left on front row) or the ancient Morris 12 or 14 - both prewar but the Vauxhall was made briefly in 1945-7 as well. The Morris Eight could actually be prewar too - it was introduced in 1939 but most were made after the war

I'll just note one other car - beyond the minibus is the nose of a Magnette ..

Let's see who gets a few more...

fintail · December 2017

Is the van/minibus an Austin? It's familiar but I can't place it.

To the left of the old Vauxhall in the front row looks like a Riley RM series car, and on the other side, an Austin A40 or A50 (I think the latter).

In the row at left, there's another Ford Thames van, then maybe a Standard 10 to the right, then a Sunbeam-Talbot to the right of that, then what looks like another Austin, then one of the FA Victors beside the minibus.

stickguy · December 2017

What’s the car dead center that looks like a 55 Chevy?

texases · December 2017

That's one of the Vauxhalls, the GM influence and all.

magnette · December 2017

Minibus is either a Morris J2 'Minibus' or the identical Austin J2 'Omnicoach' - and it also looks new.
In the right foreground is a Morris J van - Dinky made a version of that as a Royal Mail van.

There are a couple of Standard 10 or 8 including a 10 deluxe with a chrome grille just in front of the prewar Morris

I think the Austin in the front row is too big for an A50 Cambridge and instead is an A90 Westminster - the bonnet is longer relative to the rest of the body.

Quite a few Ford 100E variants too - Prefect and Anglia but also an estate version near the Magnette - that was known as the Ford Escort.

We have two upright Ford Prefects from about 1948/52 - one to the far left by the MO Oxford and the other behind the Ford van that is alongside the Mayflower. The other upright car behind the Mayflower is a Hillman Minx - the Mk III I think - from about 1947/8

In 1961/2 the government introduced a roadworthiness test for cars - initially it was for ten year old cars but was for three year olds within a few years and nearly all the older cars disappeared in a few years...

andys120 · December 2017

stickguy · December 2017

Mid 70s Lancia Beta. Has a unique sub model name, but I can't remember it without looking it up, and that would be cheating!

kyfdx · December 2017

I remember the Beta as a two door hatch?

fintail · December 2017

There are some old newsreels on Youtube about the British scrapping schemes of the era, apparently they were hellbent on ridding the roads of prewar and early postwar cars. Some kind of painful scenes when one spots a rare car being scrapped (often burnt!).

magnette said:

In 1961/2 the government introduced a roadworthiness test for cars - initially it was for ten year old cars but was for three year olds within a few years and nearly all the older cars disappeared in a few years...

fintail · December 2017

Yep the blue car is a Beta, can't be more than a few Berlina models still on the road in the US. They rusted fiercely in the UK, and there was legal action that drove the brand from the island,

magnette · December 2017

fintail said:
There are some old newsreels on Youtube about the British scrapping schemes of the era, apparently they were hellbent on ridding the roads of prewar and early postwar cars. Some kind of painful scenes when one spots a rare car being scrapped (often burnt!).

Yes I've seen some of those. I can remember when I was about ten or eleven (circa 1967) spending a lot of time playing in what was really an abandoned quarry about a mile or two from our house - with my mates we used to go there and play with all the dumped cars - people had pushed then over the top to get rid of them - it was only abut fifty feet deep - and quite a few of the cars were stuck on the edges. Spent a while one summer trying to tip one into the drop below by digging underneath the edge - we were young and stupid.

You could get in at one end down a slope where the stone had been dragged out - it ws limestone quarry for building materials I subsequently discovered- and now it would probably have been cleaned up and made into a nature reserve or something but in my area we had quite a lot of old industrial waste - coal tips and abandoned iron works etc...

What I should have been doing was taking off all the gauges, badges and bits of trim and bringing them home....

Most of the cars there were early postwar stuff - loads of Prefects and Populars, Morris Eights Austin 16 and rarer ones too although some were just shells and we didn't recognise those.

Wish I had a camera then but have never found a photo of that place and it was filled in when I was about 15. Don't know what happened to the cars but they probably buried them down at the bottom as they weren't worth anything.

fintail · December 2017

I recall a couple in videos, a prewar Jaguar saloon being burnt, and a ~36 McLaughlin Buick being demolished. Both would be quite rare today, and prized by someone. Maybe I am lucky in that most of the cars in junkyards when I was a kid were quite forgettable. Although I did spend much of my childhood in an arid climate where there were often old cars from the 30s-50s just sitting in fields or beside old buildings. I know in some rural areas, it was common practice to bury old cars to use for earthworks reinforcement such as a levee.

Would have been cool to have harvested all of the trim and gauges, but you might not have kept it for 50 years, and hindsight is always 20-20

magnette said:

Yes I've seen some of those. I can remember when I was about ten or eleven (circa 1967) spending a lot of time playing in what was really an abandoned quarry about a mile or two from our house - with my mates we used to go there and play with all the dumped cars - people had pushed then over the top to get rid of them - it was only abut fifty feet deep - and quite a few of the cars were stuck on the edges. Spent a while one summer trying to tip one into the drop below by digging underneath the edge - we were young and stupid.

You could get in at one end down a slope where the stone had been dragged out - it ws limestone quarry for building materials I subsequently discovered- and now it would probably have been cleaned up and made into a nature reserve or something but in my area we had quite a lot of old industrial waste - coal tips and abandoned iron works etc...

What I should have been doing was taking off all the gauges, badges and bits of trim and bringing them home....

Most of the cars there were early postwar stuff - loads of Prefects and Populars, Morris Eights Austin 16 and rarer ones too although some were just shells and we didn't recognise those.

Wish I had a camera then but have never found a photo of that place and it was filled in when I was about 15. Don't know what happened to the cars but they probably buried them down at the bottom as they weren't worth anything.

texases · December 2017

Same kind of thing happened postwar in the US. All kinds of rare/valuable/luxury old cars were scrapped.

andys120 · December 2017

stickguy said:
Mid 70s Lancia Beta. Has a unique sub model name, but I can't remember it without looking it up, and that would be cheating!

Right on, it's a 1975 Lancia Beta Berlina

kyfdx said:
I remember the Beta as a two door hatch?

The Beta was a family of different model styles including a 2-door coupe and the HPE Hatchback which was the best looking and a Spider which oddly was the ugliest

andys120 · December 2017

fintail said:
Yep the blue car is a Beta, can't be more than a few Berlina models still on the road in the US. They rusted fiercely in the UK, and there was legal action that drove the brand from the island,

They didn't last long in the US because of rust and numerous build-quality issues. A sad ending for the once great Lancia brand here.

Mr_Shiftright · December 2017

andys120 said:

stickguy said:
Mid 70s Lancia Beta. Has a unique sub model name, but I can't remember it without looking it up, and that would be cheating!
Right on, it's a 1975 Lancia Beta Berlina
kyfdx said:
I remember the Beta as a two door hatch?

The Beta was a family of different model styles including a 2-door coupe and the HPE Hatchback which was the best looking and a Spider which oddly was the ugliest

Porsche of course made a "soft-window targa" style, but didn't Baur do that for BMW, or did I just make that up?

fintail · December 2017

Baur/BMW did it for both E21 and E30.

Mr_Shiftright · December 2017

Ah, thanks. I wasn't dreaming. Any other soft-top targas anyone can think of?

Personally, I think that body style is rather odd and a throw-back to a much earlier age of design.

Here's another variation, but it's not a targa of course:

kyfdx · December 2017

I think ASC made one for the Celica, right?

fintail · December 2017

Yep, Celica Sunchaser:

There was also the AMC Eagle Sundancer (there's actually one of these in my area):

That 600 is referred to as a landaulet.

tmart · December 2017

andys120 said:
It's from Mannix and that's the guy who played the title character but i can't recall the actor's name. As for cars, I can ID the small sports car on the left, it's a mid-60s Healey Sprite/MG Midget.

The actor was Mike Connors, who died in 1975.

stickguy · December 2017

never heard of that Eagle version before.

the gen 2 RX-7 was similar I think, with a hard section and soft folding back part. Just no targa bar.

texases · December 2017

Both the Sundancer and Sunchaser were aftermarket, the Toyo sold by dealers. Same for the AMC?

kyfdx · December 2017

stickguy said:
never heard of that Eagle version before.

the gen 2 RX-7 was similar I think, with a hard section and soft folding back part. Just no targa bar.

I almost bought one of those. Sold by one salesperson, while I was talking to the other guy. It was less than a year old. Had to settle for a Porsche 911 Targa.

tjc78 · December 2017

Mystery Dash:

andys120 · December 2017

Ah my favorite Grosser Mercedes, the incomparable 600 Pullman with open top conversion (by?)

texases · December 2017

Later version of the AM Lagonda, '82 or so? Not quite so strange as the original:

tjc78 · December 2017

Yep, 87

omarman · December 2017

tmart said:

andys120 said:
It's from Mannix and that's the guy who played the title character but i can't recall the actor's name. As for cars, I can ID the small sports car on the left, it's a mid-60s Healey Sprite/MG Midget.
The actor was Mike Connors, who died in 1975.

from Variety obituaries:
January 26, 2017 6:30PM PT
Mike Connors, ‘Mannix’ Star, Dies at 91

lostwrench1 · December 2017

omarman said:

tmart said:

andys120 said:
It's from Mannix and that's the guy who played the title character but i can't recall the actor's name. As for cars, I can ID the small sports car on the left, it's a mid-60s Healey Sprite/MG Midget.
The actor was Mike Connors, who died in 1975.

from Variety obituaries:
January 26, 2017 6:30PM PT
Mike Connors, ‘Mannix’ Star, Dies at 91

Yes, Krekor Ohanian passed away this year.

tmart · December 2017

omarman said:

tmart said:

andys120 said:
It's from Mannix and that's the guy who played the title character but i can't recall the actor's name. As for cars, I can ID the small sports car on the left, it's a mid-60s Healey Sprite/MG Midget.
The actor was Mike Connors, who died in 1975.

from Variety obituaries:
January 26, 2017 6:30PM PT
Mike Connors, ‘Mannix’ Star, Dies at 91

Thanks for the correction. My mistake. The show ended in 1975.

magnette · December 2017

The passing Spridget reminded me of Harry O - we did get that one over here - can't remember Mannix though - although we might have got it.

andys120 · December 2017

lostwrench1 · December 2017

1955 Mercury Montclair. (With 1956 wheel covers.)

omarman · December 2017

magnette said:
The passing Spridget reminded me of Harry O - we did get that one over here - can't remember Mannix though - although we might have got it.

That's funny. I liked Harry O but until your post I didn't know what kind of car his character drove. I recall watching episodes with Harry taking the bus and complaining that his car was in the shop again, brakes, muffler, trans, etc.

Mr_Shiftright · December 2017

excellent boot fit.

stickguy · December 2017

is that an Audi in front of it?

andys120 · December 2017

lostwrench1 said:
1955 Mercury Montclair. (With 1956 wheel covers.)

It's a '55 Merc all right but the seller sez it's a Monterey, not a Montcair. Reckon we'll have to take your word on the hubcaps.

andys120 · December 2017

omarman said:

magnette said:
The passing Spridget reminded me of Harry O - we did get that one over here - can't remember Mannix though - although we might have got it.
That's funny. I liked Harry O but until your post I didn't know what kind of car his character drove. I recall watching episodes with Harry taking the bus and complaining that his car was in the shop again, brakes, muffler, trans, etc.

I never heard of this Harry O. I thought youse were talking about a Brit TV character but that photo shows a LHD car with a US style number plate.

stickguy · December 2017

Harry-O was played by David Janssen. Series just lasted a couple of years in the mid-70s, which seemed to be the heyday of detective series with oddball characters, or seedy rebel types. Rockford being the biggest name in the genre.

andys120 · December 2017

Thanks Stickguy. I must say the guy w the Sprite doesn't look like David Janssen to me

lostwrench1 · December 2017

Ok, '55 Monterey.
I thought the different color "Side Patch" below the side windows was Montclair only.

fintail · December 2017

Yep looks like an Audi 100 ~1970

stickguy said:
is that an Audi in front of it?

kyfdx · December 2017

fintail said:
Yep looks like an Audi 100 ~1970

stickguy said:
is that an Audi in front of it?

Is that a one-armed man driving it?

imidazol97 · December 2017

lostwrench1 said:
Ok, '55 Monterey.
I thought the different color "Side Patch" below the side windows was Montclair only.

I think that is the Montclair's symbol, the door top color matching the roof. The emblem on the front fender does not have a "y" dropping down. The '55 brochures show a Montery without the door fancy trim.

Good catch on the '56 Mercury wheel covers.

texases · December 2017

Longroof-

qbrozen · December 2017

Huh. Interesting. Looks like a Volvo 850 wagon trying to look like a Subaru.

stickguy · December 2017

Don’t like the wheels or the slam, but love the car.

Mystery car pix

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