Mystery car pix

tmart · March 2018

andys120 said:

I spy 2 57 Fords, a 58 Ford and a 52/53 Ford. Don't know Corvettes.

fintail · March 2018

Black car in the background lower line 59 Ford?

Mr_Shiftright · March 2018

texases said:

stickguy said:
an 83 or 84 VW Golf GTI. no clue if you can tell the difference.
The only difference I know of is the transmission gearing; nothing external.

I could be wrong (again), but I thought the GTI had that little red stripe around the grill?

Mr_Shiftright · March 2018

@texases -- I think Ferrari was playing with that dual scoop motif before Corvette but I can't say whether the scoops were decorative or functional.

Ferrari 125 Sport

texases · March 2018

Mr_Shiftright said:

texases said:

stickguy said:
an 83 or 84 VW Golf GTI. no clue if you can tell the difference.
The only difference I know of is the transmission gearing; nothing external.
I could be wrong (again), but I thought the GTI had that little red stripe around the grill?

I was referring to the difference between the '83 GTI and the '84 GTI. I think they both had the red stripe, didn't they?

ab348 · March 2018

I'm thinking that is a '59 Corvette since I don't see any louvers in the middle of the hood.

Mr_Shiftright · March 2018

texases said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

texases said:

stickguy said:
an 83 or 84 VW Golf GTI. no clue if you can tell the difference.
The only difference I know of is the transmission gearing; nothing external.
I could be wrong (again), but I thought the GTI had that little red stripe around the grill?
I was referring to the difference between the '83 GTI and the '84 GTI. I think they both had the red stripe, didn't they?

Ah, misread your post. The GTI came very late to the USA so was already a pretty fully developed model.

texases · March 2018

Mr_Shiftright said:
@texases -- I think Ferrari was playing with that dual scoop motif before Corvette but I can't say whether the scoops were decorative or functional.

Ferrari 125 Sport

At least they look like real holes. On the Corvette, black paint.

kyfdx · March 2018

texases said:
I must have been real lucky with my '83 GTI, no major problems. 13 years, almost all in Anchorage. Most fun car I've had.

I must have been poorer than you..

In '77, I wanted a Scirocco.. couldn't afford it so bought a Mustang Cobra II.
In '82, an Accord hatchback. Stick, no A/C.. Daily driver for 12 years. (not in Alaska..lol)

andys120 · March 2018

ab348 said:
I'm thinking that is a '59 Corvette since I don't see any louvers in the middle of the hood.

Yup, it is a '59 and from that angle the big difference is the missing fake air vents atop the hood

but there is virtually nothing to visibly distinguish a '59 Corvette from a 1960. If you look at the passenger side there's a red and a blue stripe on the dash panel.
('59 top,'60 lower)>

Macs tells all.

andys120 · March 2018

texases said:

Mr_Shiftright said:
@texases -- I think Ferrari was playing with that dual scoop motif before Corvette but I can't say whether the scoops were decorative or functional.

Ferrari 125 Sport

At least they look like real holes. On the Corvette, black paint.

From the beginning Ferraris have been replete w scoops and slots to manage air flow to engine/radiators and brakes. AFAIK they have always been functional and still are but if Shifty's not sure, I'm not either

Mr_Shiftright · March 2018

I would presume they are functional but this is something of a mythical car. The photo shows a replica built for the Ferrari museum. There is an "alleged" Type 125 doing the show circuit, but purists are quite skeptical about what it actually is.

In any event, the 125 was the first car to bear the "Ferrari" name on it, and it was built to race---so probably those scoops are real enough.

andys120 · March 2018

Brochure art>

magnette · March 2018

This car looks British in a BMC sort of way - but it's a Skoda - either the 1200 or the subsequent 1201.

They were made I think in the early mid 50's so it would have been a contemporary to my Magnette but we never got this model in Britain - Skoda started their British imports with the next 1200 which was the forerunner of the Octavia and that was about 1956/7 I think.

lostwrench1 · March 2018

Ah, my favorite Corvette trivia question, a difference between a '59 and '60.
Easiest way to see the difference?
1959 Corvette seat pleats - side to side.
1960 Corvette seat pleats - front to back.

andys120 · March 2018

magnette said:
This car looks British in a BMC sort of way - but it's a Skoda - either the 1200 or the subsequent 1201.

They were made I think in the early mid 50's so it would have been a contemporary to my Magnette but we never got this model in Britain - Skoda started their British imports with the next 1200 which was the forerunner of the Octavia and that was about 1956/7 I think.

That's right, it's a Skoda 1200 (1952-56), a lot of car to be moved by only 1200cc(?)

Here's a better look at one>

andys120 · March 2018

magnette · March 2018

Yes - 1200cc is not a lot for a heavy four door car - but the contemporary Austin A40 Somerset and the first series A40 Cambridge were also both powered by a BMC 1200 as was the Morris Cowley.

The white one you show there was registered in the Netherlands.

andys120 · March 2018

andys120 said:

I didn't think this one would be hard. Going...going...

kyfdx · March 2018

andys120 said:

andys120 said:

I didn't think this one would be hard. Going...going...

Buick GS

I'll guess '67

andys120 · March 2018

Buick GS

I'll guess '67

On the nose, 1967 Buick GS/400.

andys120 · March 2018

omarman · March 2018

Turquoise 1959 Ford.
"The ecilop are behind us!"

iluvmysephia1 · March 2018

'65 Rambler American sedans.

andys120 · March 2018

iluvmysephia1 said:
'65 Rambler American sedans.

Nope, no Ramblers

thebean · March 2018

'60 or '61 Studebaker Lark Police cars? With some '62 Dodge Polaras in the rear?

ab348 · March 2018

Philly PD.

andys120 · March 2018

thebean said:
'60 or '61 Studebaker Lark Police cars? With some '62 Dodge Polaras in the rear?

Yep. Fitted w the optional 289 CID V8 the Larks would have the speed needed for pursuit work.

I've never seen police vehicles painted red before. That usually signifies Fire Dept. vehicles.

berri · March 2018

Odd to see all those 2 dr fire or police cars. I think all the cars for those purposes I saw back in those days around the Chicago area were 4 doors and an occasional wagon. I know that the TV show Highway Patrol used 2 doors as simulated California Highway Patrol cars, so maybe they used them out there for real? But then, Chicago was a big geographic area, so who knows.

andys120 · March 2018

Mr_Shiftright · March 2018

MGA The large black button is the horn. To the right, is "C" for choke, and the knob on the left is the starter.

The sliding bar regulates the....ahem....heater.

I don't recall the white knob--that might be someone's add on.

I could never figure out how the British managed, on one side of the firewall, to generate enough engine heat to melt steel, but on the other side of the wall, to create a heat barrier that no force could penetrate.

I also never found out why the British believed the earth was positive-ground and the universe negative ground.

kyfdx · March 2018

And, just enough room for two, size 7 feet in the pedal box, as long as you don’t insist on wearing shoes, and you don’t mind tilting your foot sideways to get it on the accelerator, without also pressing the brake pedal.

tmart · March 2018

I spy a 58 Ford Fairlane in the background.

andys120 · March 2018

Mr_Shiftright said:
MGA The large black button is the horn. To the right, is "C" for choke, and the knob on the left is the starter.

The sliding bar regulates the....ahem....heater.

Yep, a 1959 MG-A FHC with the distinctive "diving bell" shaped roof.

For such a simple car it has a confusing array of buttons on the dash

W for wipers I assume, L for Lights but what's the F for? "You're probably right about the white knob being aftermarket (?) but no idea what it could be.

The horn button on the dash reminds me of a scheme I adopted with my 1966 TR-4A. It developed a short in the horn which my mechanic figured was in the steering column but he couldn't cure it after several tries so I remembered the horn button on my friend's MGA and instructed him to bypass the steering column and put a button on the dash which cured the problem.

Inside-out logic was required to keep Brit cars running.

omarman · March 2018

White knob is marked windscreen washer and PUSH.

lostwrench1 · March 2018

Anyone else old enough to remember those CONELRAD radio frequency symbols on the radio dial?

lostwrench1 · March 2018

Found it. F = Fog lamp.

andys120 · March 2018

omarman said:
White knob is marked windscreen washer and PUSH.

Your monitor is better than mine. It's possible the car didn't come w screen washer/pump and it was added aftermarket which would account for the button not being black like the others. Brit sports cars were really primitive.

lostwrench1 said:
Anyone else old enough to remember those CONELRAD radio frequency symbols on the radio dial?

I can remember those unfortunately.

lostwrench1 said:
Found it. F = Fog lamp.

I thought of that but it doesn't look like this car had fogs>

Mr_Shiftright · March 2018

The coupe was *really* cramped for the driver---impossible for a tall person. The roadster was pretty roomy all in all, for the time. The MGB is positively comfy for even tall drivers, as long as you don't mind rain dripping on your left leg with the top up. The MGA is primitive compared to the B, and the B primitive compared to the Fiat 124. The Porsche 356 was somewhere in the middle of the B and the 124 in comfort (terrible heater, rusted like the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz, but well-built and well-fitted out). The plushest small roadster of the day was probably the Mercedes SL series. The Porsche 356 was well-built, but noisy and a bit fussy.

Probably the harshest roadster of the time to drive was the Morgan. This was 1935 in 1965.

kyfdx · March 2018

The Lane Auto Museum has a pretty nice '71 Fiat 124 Spider.

A guy on my softball team tried to sell me his '71 in 1976. I was always sorry that I didn't buy it. I remember the price being under $3000, at the time, and he had bought it new. Every car was crappy in the mid-'70s, so owning a Fiat wouldn't have seemed much different than all the other boring crap out there.

omarman · March 2018

On that "TEMPERATURE" control lever knob marked with a B...
Is that "B" for blower?

edit to add: Probably not since you wouldn't want both the blower speed and temperature tied to the same "min" or "max." Or maybe I just don't understand how the controls work in a vintage MGA.

andys120 · March 2018

One of the benefits of not being very big is that I fit comfortably into almost any car. Healey-Sprite, no problem, MGA FHC, easy peasy... ditto just about anything.

My college roomie was an athlete (All-Suffolk Co. Lacrosse) and perhaps 5'10" and he had no problems getting into his '57 MG coupe.

Kfdyx:
Every car was crappy in the mid-'70s, so owning a Fiat wouldn't have seemed much different than all the other boring crap out there.

After my TR4A the '71 Fiat 124 Spider that followed it was an engineering marvel. Eventually the tin worm got it but as you say that was endemic to 1970s cars.

Mr_Shiftright · March 2018

I haven't tried to enter an MGA coupe in quite a few years. If I see one, I'll have a go and let you know.

Yes, going from a TR4A to a Fiat 124 must have been like escaping North Korea and finding yourself in downtown Tokyo. Overhead cams! 5-speed transmission! A heater! A top that flips up and locks with one finger! A comfy ride! Excellent brakes! Hot and cold running water! Electricity!

andys120 · March 2018

LOL Shifty.

iluvmysephia1 · March 2018

Yes, going from a TR4A to a Fiat 124 must have been like escaping North Korea and finding yourself in downtown Tokyo. Overhead cams! 5-speed transmission! A heater! A top that flips up and locks with one finger! A comfy ride! Excellent brakes! Hot and cold running water! Electricity!

And a color TV, too?

Mr_Shiftright · March 2018

Well Fiat gave you some nice colors, yeah, and, if the MGB buyer could hold his breath a bit as his own brand went belly up, Fiat offered a turbo and fuel injection,too. Not that FI was totally foreign to the British car industry---the Triumph TR5 had it, but only in the UK. We got the TR250 and TR6 with carburettors.

fintail · March 2018

Near the height of the cold war, eastern WA, 5/15/61:

(not sure how well this will zoom)

ab348 · March 2018

Looks like a lot of public interest with all the cars and school buses on the perimeter road.

texases · March 2018

Might that be an Atlas-9 rocket bound for the Mercury program? Or it could be one of many used for the first US ICBMs.

omarman · March 2018

Behind the Atlas missile a '61 Plymouth cop car.

Mystery car pix

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