Mystery car pix

tmart · December 2017

andys120 said:

Michaell said:
'56 Ford second from the right?

Ubiquitous VW in the background.
Nosiree, the Ford is a 1957.

'56 Ford>

'57 Ford>

Sorry, but the blue 56 pictured is a 55, not a 56. With no chrome it's a Mainline, I would think. The red and white 57 convert is exactly like the one I had in high school.....with a 312 Tbird engine. That puppy would haul [non-permissible content removed]!

bhill2 · December 2017

andys120 said:

Michaell said:
'56 Ford second from the right?

Ubiquitous VW in the background.
Nosiree, the Ford is a 1957.

'56 Ford>

'57 Ford>

Well, the Ford in the original picture is indeed a ‘57. The ‘56 Ford in your example is, however, a ‘55.

Michaell · December 2017

I don't normally try to guess 50's era stuff, but I knew it was a Ford.

omarman · December 2017

Michaell said:
I don't normally try to guess 50's era stuff, but I knew it was a Ford.

All I noticed was that even with bigger parking spaces back then some drivers still couldn't park between the lines.

stickguy · December 2017

I am proud of myself for getting the brand right too from that era. Year and model, ain't happening.

fintail · December 2017

To the left of the Beetle I see what looks like a 62 Olds 4 door HT, and to the left of that, a 60-61 Falcon. To the right looks like a 60 DeSoto and an unusual 2 door Valiant of the same era.

Behind that row from R, I see a 59 Chevy, a ghostly dark shadow of a car that kind of resembles a Nomad, then a maybe 57 Olds 2 door post, maybe a 56 Olds 2 door sedan to the left of that, and maybe a 57-58 Ford 2 door HT beside that

andys120 · December 2017

Well, the Ford in the original picture is indeed a ‘57. The ‘56 Ford in your example is, however, a ‘55.

My bad on the Fords

I had to go all the way to New Zealand for a good frontal of the '56 Ford>

andys120 · December 2017

fintail said:
To the left of the Beetle I see what looks like a 62 Olds 4 door HT, and to the left of that, a 60-61 Falcon. To the right looks like a 60 DeSoto and an unusual 2 door Valiant of the same era.

IIRC 2-door Valiants weren't that unusual. I'd say there were more of those than Dodge Lancers w any number of doors. One of the great changes in autodom since the 60s/70s is the decline in popularity of 2-dr vehicles. Back then no one would have believed that 4-dr pickups would become extremely popular.

andys120 · December 2017

Any ideas on the dark car parked to the right of the '57 Ford? Looks like a '49-'52 MoPar of some kind.

Mr_Shiftright · December 2017

andys120 said:
Any ideas on the dark car parked to the right of the '57 Ford? Looks like a '49-'52 MoPar of some kind.

That could be a Hudson Jet?

fintail · December 2017

I thought the car to the right of the 57 Ford was ID'd as a 50 Dodge?

I can't recall when I last saw a 2 door Valiant/Lancer, but then again, I can't recall when I saw one of those early 60s ones at all.

Mr_Shiftright · December 2017

The Jet and Dodge grills are eerily similar, but I think I see that blob of a Dodge emblem in the center of the grill.

lostwrench1 · December 2017

lostwrench1 said:
Well, the Dodge on the right is a 1950. As to the Plymouth between the Fords, it's a '46, '47', or '48.

Jet - One piece windshield.

Mr_Shiftright · December 2017

I couldn't tell on my computer but yep looks like a split if I blow it up. First one-piece on a Dodge I guess was '54. ?

berri · December 2017

Could that car be a late 40's/early 50's Frazer instead?

andys120 · December 2017

Mr_Shiftright said:

andys120 said:
Any ideas on the dark car parked to the right of the '57 Ford? Looks like a '49-'52 MoPar of some kind.
That could be a Hudson Jet?

Too big for a Jet which was an early compact and AFAIK Jets did not ever have divided windshields. I looked at early 50s MoPars and think it's probably a 52-ish Plymouth. The grille is wrong for Chrysler/Desoto or Dodge as well as for Kaiser-Frazer and Hudson.

Mr_Shiftright said:
I couldn't tell on my computer but yep looks like a split if I blow it up. First one-piece on a Dodge I guess was '54. ?

Dodge went to one-piece along w everybody but the big Hudsons in 1953>

lostwrench1 · December 2017

The badge centered between the grille's 2nd and 3rd horizontal shouts 1950 Dodge.

andys120 · December 2017

lostwrench1 said:
The badge centered between the grille's 2nd and 3rd horizontal shouts 1950 Dodge.

I took another look at pix of '50 Dodges and I'd have to agree.

andys120 · December 2017

kyfdx · December 2017

andys120 said:

'77 280 CE

The bumpers had me guessing early '70s, but the grill makes me think mid-late '70s.

One of my favorite Mercedes models.

andys120 · December 2017

kyfdx said:

andys120 said:

'77 280 CE

The bumpers had me guessing early '70s, but the grill makes me think mid-late '70s.

One of my favorite Mercedes models.

Right on the money Kyfdx, it's one of my favs as well.

Michaell · December 2017

andys120 said:

kyfdx said:

andys120 said:

'77 280 CE

The bumpers had me guessing early '70s, but the grill makes me think mid-late '70s.

One of my favorite Mercedes models.
Right on the money Kyfdx, it's one of my favs as well.

I like that .... a lot.

fintail · December 2017

Those bumpers are Euro spec, WA plate is relatively recent, probably issued in 2015.

andys120 · December 2017

bhill2 · December 2017

fintail said:
I thought the car to the right of the 57 Ford was ID'd as a 50 Dodge?

I can't recall when I last saw a 2 door Valiant/Lancer, but then again, I can't recall when I saw one of those early 60s ones at all.

I’m going to stick my neck out here, based on my (OMG) 55-year-old memory. I think that in that iteration of the Valiant, the 2-dr sedan was only offered in the low-line V100 trim. The reflections off the window trim leads me to believe that this is a V200 model. That would make it a hardtop. Those were indeed fairly rare.

texases · December 2017

Qvale Mangusta?

fintail · December 2017

Hard to tell - the B-pillar looks pretty strong, but reflections can do a lot. I am not sure if I have ever seen a hardtop Valiant like that in person.

bhill2 said:

I’m going to stick my neck out here, based on my (OMG) 55-year-old memory. I think that in that iteration of the Valiant, the 2-dr sedan was only offered in the low-line V100 trim. The reflections off the window trim leads me to believe that this is a V200 model. That would make it a hardtop. Those were indeed fairly rare.

andys120 · December 2017

texases said:
Qvale Mangusta?

Dang, I thought that would be a stumper. The Qvale Mangusta was manufactured by DeTomaso in Italy using a Mustang 5.0 V8 and various other Mustang bits.

bhill2 · December 2017

fintail said:
Hard to tell - the B-pillar looks pretty strong, but reflections can do a lot. I am not sure if I have ever seen a hardtop Valiant like that in person.

bhill2 said:

I’m going to stick my neck out here, based on my (OMG) 55-year-old memory. I think that in that iteration of the Valiant, the 2-dr sedan was only offered in the low-line V100 trim. The reflections off the window trim leads me to believe that this is a V200 model. That would make it a hardtop. Those were indeed fairly rare.

Chrysler didn’t sell many of them in the first generation. The original Valiant, like the original Falcon, was marketed as a compact low-cost family car. The second generation (came out in ‘63, I think) had sportier versions like the Signet that were more popular. These models, along with similar versions of Falcon, Chevy II, and their corporate siblings were the proto-pony cars.

qbrozen · December 2017

andys120 said:

I certainly know that dealer. I'll check their site for more pics of that one.

qbrozen · December 2017

qbrozen said:

andys120 said:

I certainly know that dealer. I'll check their site for more pics of that one.

Even has a ford steering wheel. No pics of the seats, oddly enough. Description claims it is a 4.6. And, of all awful things, it is an automatic.

fintail · December 2017

This is Christmas appropriate. I assume this one isn't "falling apart, won't start":

Mr_Shiftright · December 2017

You don't see all that many 4D HT wagons.

tmart · December 2017

54 Caddy Eldorado

andys120 · December 2017

fintail said:
This is Christmas appropriate. I assume this one isn't "falling apart, won't start":

1955 Cadillac, high-end, probably an Eldo

fintail · December 2017

It's the "54 convertible too, light blue" (or how I imagine it) in Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby" . An Eldo.

andys120 · December 2017

Dang, there's very little difference between a '54 and a '55 Caddy, mostly in the side trim. In fact the '53 Eldo is also pretty close to the '54 and '55>

The '53 Eldorado was the first production car to wear a wraparound windshield; other Cads made to with the one-piece until '54 when the rest followed. It wasn't until '55 when the lesser divisions got it.

The leSabre Concept car of 1951 presaged the major styling themes of the 1950s, fins and wraparounds. My nine y/o self saw it at the GM Motorama and I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen.

andys120 · December 2017

qbrozen · December 2017

2019 Lambo Urus

andys120 · December 2017

qbrozen said:
2019 Lambo Urus

Yep, it's Lamborghini's second production SUV and maybe the best looking Sport Utility ever built. I'm not a big fan of either Lambos or SUVs but IMHO the Ursus is a real looker; something that couldn't be said for this puppy>

kyfdx · December 2017

Funny.. I sort of like the old one, better.

The new one looks like someone did a conversion, by putting a Pinto body on a Jeep chassis.
But, maybe that's just me...

tjc78 · December 2017

qbrozen said:

qbrozen said:

andys120 said:

I certainly know that dealer. I'll check their site for more pics of that one.

Even has a ford steering wheel. No pics of the seats, oddly enough. Description claims it is a 4.6. And, of all awful things, it is an automatic.

When they first came out, one of the car mags did a piece on the car. I wrote in and said how do you make a car like that and not even try and hide the Ford (Visteon) bits inside. They actually published my letter with the title “Qvale is job one”.

fintail · December 2017

I'd so much rather have an LM than an Urus, the latter of which is to me a reskinned Audi for the "let them eat cake" crowd who probably also has a Bentayga in the garage they worked hard for and built themselves.

magnette · December 2017

Yes - this earlier Lamborghini C5 crawler tractor is a lot more stylish....

andys120 · December 2017

It appears I'm in a minority re:Ursus but that's OK. I'm sure there's wealthy folks out there who'd want an SUV that doesn't look like the box it came in.

andys120 · December 2017

Mr_Shiftright · December 2017

Hmmm....early cabriolet, directionals directly under headlights, "Continental" script on side...I"m gonna say 1956 356A Cabriolet, U.S. specification.

omarman · December 2017

The caption for this mystery car at the Petersen Museum states, "Ford eventually forced Porsche to drop the Continental designation."

andys120 · December 2017

omarman said:
The caption for this mystery car at the Petersen Museum states, "Ford eventually forced Porsche to drop the Continental designation."

Well you can see why Ford might get a little testy but in general auto makers were less sensitive about protecting model names back then. E.g. GM and Chrysler both offered models called "Suburban" (Plymouth/Chevrolet/GMC). The Continental name was quickly replaced w the moniker "European" (odd for a US market item.)

I couldn't find out much about what distinguished the "Continental" from other 356 models, perhaps those whitewalls and full wheel covers were standard equipment. Possibly other items such as (AM)radio and cigar lighter were included. It's doubtful that they offered P/S or P/B.

BTW Shifty, I believe most of the Continentals were 1955MY.

andys120 · December 2017

andys120 said:

omarman said:
The caption for this mystery car at the Petersen Museum states, "Ford eventually forced Porsche to drop the Continental designation."
Well you can see why Ford might get a little testy but in general auto makers were less sensitive about protecting model names back then. E.g. GM and Chrysler both offered models called "Suburban" (Plymouth/Chevrolet/GMC). The Continental name was quickly replaced w the moniker "European" (odd for a US market item.)

I couldn't find out much about what distinguished the "Continental/European" from other 356 models, perhaps those whitewalls and full wheel covers were standard equipment. Possibly other items such as (AM)radio and cigar lighter were included. It's doubtful that they offered P/S or P/B. Not surprisingly the Continental version was the suggestion of US importer Max Hoffmann, who also came up w the idea for the 356 Speedster and the BMW 2002.

BTW Shifty, I believe most of the Continentals were 1955MY.

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