Mystery car pix

imidazol97 · January 2021

Thanks. I searched different years and found many that have the Dodge Ram type grill with the crossed bars (Chrysler 300?). And the grill on the car on the street didn't match up with 63 or 64. So the New Yorker had a different grill than the Newport.

imidazol97 · January 2021

.Lots of GM cars at Los Angeles Farmers Market. I posted because I think
there's a car hiding behind the coral 55 Buick.

tmart · January 2021

56 Ford and 57 Ford wagon. 59 Chevy wagon.

bhill2 · January 2021

Kind of an unusual sighting, on the right of the '55 Buick is a '60 Ambassador.

sda · January 2021

It looks like two 60 Olds in the same copper color. Is that a blue interior in the 60 coupe? Not sure about that color combination.

imidazol97 · January 2021

1952 Buick?

1959 Rambler wagon in front of the 52/53 Buick.

The blue in some areas seems to be from the colorizing. The chrome strips on the cars in the foreground have a blue tinge. The dash in the Oldsmobile appears to be black.

andys120 · January 2021

tmart · January 2021

First gen Corvette

andys120 · January 2021

Today is the 68th Anniversary of the first appearance of the Corvette at the GM Motorama held at the Waldorf-Astoria. My 10y/o self was most impressed by the strength of the fiberglass which you could hit with an electrically controlled hammer.

Many yrs later I learned that '53-'54 Corvettes were so poorly built that British cars were more reliable. It was not until Ford entered the sports car market with the T-Bird did GM address the obvious flaws in the original C1. I've always felt that the '55-'62 V8 powered Vettes were the real C2 being so much improved over the crappy 6-cyl cars.

ab348 · January 2021

First in a series of pics over the next few days from the Americar group on FB. This one is a suitably dreary wintertime pic. You can almost hear the road salt munching on the body metal.

magnette · January 2021

Is that a very large person in the distance sitting on an armchair behind the nearest lamppost on the left? He looks like he's got his feet out towards us

Anyway - 1960 Ford leading a 59 Chevrolet wagon and alongside a 62 Country Squire.

So where is the Vauxhall or Hillman ?

andys120 · January 2021

Lamposts and scenery remind me of Parkways on Long Island NY. Southern State Parkway in Nassau County perhaps.

fintail · January 2021

I was going to joke, that sound isn't the cars driving on ice and slush, it's audible rust.

63 Galaxie fastback in the oncoming right lane, second car back. 61 Country Squire beside the 60 Ford.

sda · January 2021

Unlike today where all season tires are typical, were snow tires required? I can only imagine the unintended bumps ups.

stickguy · January 2021

not required, but a lot more common. Though often just on the rear tires (it was more about getting going, not stopping or steering).

ab348 · January 2021

Yeah, back when all-season (hah!) tires had yet to become a thing, you would buy a pair of snows and put them on the drive wheels, usually the rear ones back in those days, although the FWD Austins my older brothers had in the early '70s got them on the front wheels only in the winter.

kyfdx · January 2021

One year, I put studded snow tires on the rear of my Cobra II.

That was an interesting winter..

andys120 · January 2021

Brochure Art>

fintail · January 2021

Hino Contessa, another early 60s car with Corvair-derived styling.

Re: snow tires, I remember at my mom's insistence, my dad would put chains on her T-Bird whenever snow covered the road. Then when she got the FWD Tempo, she didn't worry.

andys120 · January 2021

fintail said:
Hino Contessa, another early 60s car with Corvair-derived styling.

h

The Contessa used mechanicals from the Renault 4CV, a car which was obsolete by the 60s.

magnette · January 2021

Re winter tyres, they don't really apply here except in wilder bits of the North or Scotland.

My first car - a Morris1000 Traveller - had previously been used by a building contractor and had heavy duty rear tyres on it with treads like work boots - they were Dunlop "Town & Country " brand, and you had to fit them only on the rear - they were illegal if fitted on the front. It sounded like an army truck but was useful getting out of grass verges in Wales although we didn't get snow most years even in the part of Wales I lived in except on a few odd days.

Here you couldn't fit tyres like that on FWD cars like Minis - it would fail a safety test if you did.

One thing different about our roads though is that until fairly recently we have always had a higher percentage of manual transmission and automatics are perceived as unsafe on snow - certainly when we had a really icy night in London about ten years ago the traffic on our street - which has about a 10% gradient - was not coping with the slope at all - my neighbour with a 5 series auto BMW was spinning the wheels without going anywhere, while I was going off steadily in my then car a FWD Alfa Mito without any drama in second gear.

fintail · January 2021

Pulling away in 2nd gear makes me think of traditional MB automatics, which defaulted to second gear when pulling away from a stop. The fintail has such a unit, and I drove it in the snow many times when I was younger - never had an issue. Lowish torque application combined with 2nd gear helps with stability and maybe even throttle modulation. First gear on that car is a stump puller, and can only be engaged via a button under the gas pedal.

andys120 · January 2021

I find myself this winter driving with all-season tires on my RWD BMW335i cabrio. We planned to fly to AZ as we usually do but they are having a particularly bad outbreak of the Covid19. We've been hoping it would ease up but so far it has only a little while NH, ME and VT have some of the lowest per capita cases.

This uncertainty has led me to keep driving with my all-seasons. Fortunately my little rocket sled has turned out to be an excellent snow car that works as long as the snow isn't very deep (>3"). My snow plow contractor is good and I generally have the ability to stay home if conditions look bad. So far the local roads have been cleared well, even after the recent storm that left 2 feet in some areas.

My 150' driveway has a right hook before you reach the road and so far we've been able to make it with judicious aplication of throttle and an excellent traction control.

The 335i like most smaller Bimmers has 50% of the weight in the rear which helps as doest the fact that Ihave lots ofexperience with all sorts of configurations:

RWD w summer tires only/RWD w 2 snows/RWD with 4 snows/FWD w front snows
FWD w 4snows/AWD w summer tires/AWD w 4 snows.

FWIW, the best set up for real snow IMO is AWD w 4snows but my worst experience was trying to get up a long hill with six inches of fresh snow in an A4 Quattro with summer tires.

We haven't had any real snow since the early Jan storm. Fingers crossed.

ab348 · January 2021

I noted today that one full month into the winter season, the ground is bare of any snow at all here and generally has been most of the time so far this winter. I can't remember that being the case ever before. We had a couple of nuisance snowfalls but they didn't stick around long. I'm not complaining, because we still have 2 months to go on the calendar plus a few weeks of early spring that are always winter-like here, so I'm sure we'll get out share of the hated snow.

magnette · January 2021

I only use second gear on the Magnette to pull away - first has no synchromesh and has a really low ratio so apart from double-declutching it would also only go up to about ten miles per hour.

What it is useful for is manoeuvring - there is no synchro on reverse either but as the ratio is similar you can go from reverse to first and vice-versa without effort

When I was a kid we had severe snow in Wales 1963 which was on the ground for over a month - in lowland areas - not just the mountains. That happened there only about once more in the 60's for over a week and once in the mid - 70's and I think since living in London which is obviously warmer than Wales I have only had to drive in snow for a maximum of four days in any year and two or three years can pass between snowfalls.

fintail · January 2021

I spent $1700 on snow tires/wheels, so of course we are having a mild winter. We have a snow day here and there, but it doesn't stick around for long, and the arterial streets are clear immediately - we seem to be in a rut where 5 days after it snows, temps are 10F above normal and it is raining. Winters in the Columbia Basin when I was a kid (lower elevation, generally warmer than Spokane) seemed much snowier than this, but I think the 80s were a cold cycle in this region.

First gear in the fintail sounds like the Magnette, 10 mph might be about tops for it too, and it is jarring to engage, I simply don't do it.

stickguy · January 2021

very mild so far in NJ. I approve. Hope it lasts.

magnette · January 2021

We are however experiencing more storms with high winds and rain than we used to get - the back of the house currently sounds like we are in a car wash...

ab348 · January 2021

Another pic from the FB Americar group. No idea where this was taken. If you zoom in on this there are some interesting finds towards the back half in particular.

stickguy · January 2021

Big roller coming down the hill. And looks like a little Triumph cresting the hill going up. Blue with white top 60 Ford behind the yellow cab toward the front.

fintail · January 2021

Lots to see, indeed. First off, the obvious, behind the yellow taxi at foreground right, everyone's friend, a 60 Ford - maybe a 4 door HT? A ways back, left oncoming lane, behind a ~65 Cadillac and in front of a Camelot style Continental, a MB, apparently a W110 fintail. And straight across to the rightmost oncoming lane and back a couple cars, behind a Beetle, a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III.

ab348 said:
Another pic from the FB Americar group. No idea where this was taken. If you zoom in on this there are some interesting finds towards the back half in particular.

Michaell · January 2021

I have to ask. How many 1960 Fords were sold? From these pictures, it seems like about 2 million of them.

fintail · January 2021

Not counting Falcon and Thunderbird or trucks, it looks like a little over 910K units.

Michaell said:
I have to ask. How many 1960 Fords were sold? From these pictures, it seems like about 2 million of them.

tmart · January 2021

1960 Thunderbird convertible going away.

andys120 · January 2021

Lots of Mid 60s from the glory days of Pontiac, a tan'64 in midlane and a cream color convertible in front. Further back a '63 and a little further back to the right a red '63 or '64

Oldest car might be the little Brit roadster top left, It's either a gen 1 Sprite or a TR2/3.

tjc78 · January 2021

stickguy said:
very mild so far in NJ. I approve. Hope it lasts.

I was so ticked off. Had to run up to Watchung yesterday for a meeting. They got a dusting up there and 287 was salted like we got a blizzard.

stickguy · January 2021

your car is white, so should blend right in.

with the big hills on that stretch, no surprise they salt heavily.

magnette · January 2021

I agree 60 Fords are common in these pictures - I even posted one in a contemporary British picture last year.

This long line approaching cars is interesting - the RR is a Silver Cloud III but you have a much less famous Brit in the lane to the left and about two cars further back - that grey coloured car following a red car and leading another...

We also have a 105 Anglia with a white roof ahead of that Triumph disappearing over the hill

A black 53 or 54 Mercury is to the right of that white Pontiac in the middle oncoming lane

And I see a 64/5 Studebaker following the two cabs with the Diamond shaped roof lights

fintail · January 2021

I was so wound up by the fintail/60 Ford/Rolls-Royce that I missed the Anglia. Is that a Dauphine to the right of it?

I also see the less fancy British car, in front of a Pontiac. Riley or Wolseley, Farina style?

ab348 · January 2021

fintail said:

I also see the less fancy British car, in front of a Pontiac. Riley or Wolseley, Farina style?

That’s the one I was interested in too. Counting on @magnette to solve the mystery.

ab348 · January 2021

Here’s another from Americar. Heavy traffic, appears to be L.A., back in the ‘60s.

andys120 · January 2021

2nd row from right, about halfway up, a Harvester Scout/white over red. Third row from left
towards rear, a dark (BRG?) MG-BGT. Fourth row from left, barely visible 2 cars behind split window VW Bus, a Porsche 356!

No 60 fords that I see

omarman · January 2021

Looks like a Jeep Gladiator near top left.

fintail · January 2021

Right row, several cars back in front of a Beetle, white MB W108/109 (with sunroof).

stickguy · January 2021

studebaker over by the bus.

man, how odd it is to see so few pickups and SUVs in a sea of cars.

sda · January 2021

Isn’t that the truth, mainly cars. I saw where another sedan was given the ax. VW announced the Golf TSI has ended production.

texases · January 2021

sda said:
Isn’t that the truth, mainly cars. I saw where another sedan was given the ax. VW announced the Golf TSI has ended production.

Well, for sale in the US. Still will be sold elsewhere, and the GTI and R will still be sold here. But I get what you mean.

magnette · January 2021

@fintail That is indeed a Riley (Farina) - either a 4/68 or the 4/72 which is more likely.

Nearest one I could find with similar colour ;-

They also actually built these in Argentina under licence including some similar MG ones (MkIII or IV Magnette) and were known there as the Siam DeTella 1500 based on the 4/68 model

magnette · January 2021

In your latest picture - to the left of the International Scout and two cars ahead of the white one in the sun, is a shaded 57/58 DeSoto following (I think) a 60 Chevrolet

ab348 · January 2021

Since nobody else mentioned it, the ‘67 Dodge Dart 2-door hardtop up front. I have a thing for ‘67 Darts with the rectangular turn signals in the grille. Don’t care so much for later model years.

Mystery car pix

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