Automobiles you don't see everyday...

I'm sure that Ron Cribbs will appreciate this one. I saw this little roadster last Sunday, while out with my two brothers. It was parked outside the place where we took our Dad out to breakfast for his birthday. It's a MkIII.. but I don't know what year. Somewhere between 1962-67.

The steering wheel is on the wrong side!

ian1954 wrote:The steering wheel is on the wrong side!

Yes it is!! and somehow.. I figured that "you" might point that out...

rsv1cox wrote:Oh roddie, what have you started here..........

Automobiles, my favorite thing.  In my 77 years I have owned many, I stopped counting years ago at 130.  My 1964 Riviera was the insperation for the four Cox Riviera models that I have.

I lived in Tiverton for four years when I was stationed at the Naval Schools Command in Newport.  Didn't know where North Smithfield was so I looked it up.  You must be one of those "Vibrant and interesting people live in the 24.7 square miles comprising North Smithfield."  

actually.. I'm not a Rhode Island native... but I'm sure that many CEF members would agree that I'm "Vibrantly Interesting".. I was raised in Franklin, Ma.. and lived there until I married my first wife. Franklin is in the S.E. quadrant of the state, and approx. 8mi. from the RI border.

The Austin Healy 3000 is a car that my uncle (the one with the 65 MGB) has always loved.. but never had the chance to own.. yet anyway.

The Riviera is one of my favorites! I think there may be one I posted a pic of here in this thread. Yea.. page 6.. a gorgeous black 65.. about 1/2 way down the page.

Mark Boesen wrote:

roddie wrote:excuse me while I get a tissue...   .... ok.. I'm alright now.     ah... the  memories!

hahahaha (old school lol)!!!

p.s. Ron, just kiddin, I like mopars, had a 70 charger 440, 4 spd. ...and the clock worked!

Last Fall.. we had a "mini" H.S. reunion of sorts.. at an iconic Italian restaurant/bar in Franklin, MA. I started talking cars with one of my old classmates.. and he told me that he still had the 68 Charger RT that he bought 30+ years ago.. He said; "C'mon.. let's get outta' here and I'll show it to ya.. it's registered and parked at my mom's house 2 minutes away". Well... we drove there.. and there it was under a tarp in the driveway. We pulled the tarp off.. he got in.. put the 4-speed into neutral.. pumped the accelerator a few times.. and the 440 wedge roared to life! He let it idle for a minute or two.. and said; "C'mon.. let's go for a blast.".. My heart started to pound.. because I didn't know what kind of "blast" he had in mind.. or how good a driver he was. "Cool" I said.. and off we went. It was a leisurely "speed-limit" cruise through town and then he headed for interstate 495. There are two Franklin exits approx. 3/4 mi. apart. We were in 2nd gear coming down the ramp.. and when we hit the highway.. he punched the gas and you could feel the rear tires start to break loose. By the time he shifted into 4th gear.. we were close to 100 mph. All this time, he's talking about the phenomenon of the RT's front-end lifting at high speeds.. and said that it led to the development of the "Superbird". Thank God he took the next exit. I hadn't had a ride like that.. ever.

I'd been in faster cars where 100 mph felt more like 50... My brother had owned two consecutive Lotus Esprit's.. and the 2nd one had a small twin-turbocharged V8. It was SICK-QUICK!! It was in the 0-60 in under 4 seconds class.. with a top-speed of 177mph. I witnessed 145mph on the way to Newport, RI with him when we drove down once for the weekend about 10 years ago.

Just because you guys in the car-nation are so obsessed with nostalgic automobiles, let me share this picture with you. This was the Trabant, also a  car but with plastic body and 600 cu.cm 2-stroke engine, made in Eastern-Germany until the late 1980-s.,



As the one-time East-German propaganda had it: "Our communist nation's pride, the Trabant, has a superb engine:it comprises in only two-strokes  what the obsolete engines of the imperialist countries like the US can do in only 4-strokes!!

balogh wrote:Just because you guys in the car-nation are so obsessed with nostalgic automobiles, let me share this picture with you. This was the Trabant, also a  car but with plastic body and 600 cu.cm 2-stroke engine, made in Eastern-Germany until the late 1980-s.,



As the one-time East-German propaganda had it: "Our communist nation's pride, the Trabant, has a superb engine:it comprises in only two-strokes  what the obsolete engines of the imperialist countries like the US can do in only 4-strokes!!

Emissions continue to plague the two-stroke design automobile engine for mass production in an increasingly "green" global awareness. Mazda'a "rotary" in the RX series sports cars.. has an incredible power:weight/size ratio.. but it is not economical to operate from a fuel-cost standpoint.

Sure Roddie,

I wrote it out of fun in recollection of my memories from the Cold War era..I personally like US cars a lot. my father had a 1958 Chevy Impala with the 2x3 button tail-lights. He bought it broken from a Hungarian emigrant who came home from the US for a summer vacation and crashed it. Then my father had a Maverick Pinto as well...the womanizer muscle car..

I am amazed to see whenever traveling in the US that 4 out of 5 cars today are Korean, or Japanese...much to my surprise I see more and more Italian Fiat 500 minicars as well, now that Fiat acquired Chrysler. Good old days all gone when your large crusiers dominated the highways..."sic transit gloria mundi..."

rsv1cox wrote:

Yes, My son who knows my Riviera weakness just sent me this from Denver.

http://denver.craigslist.org/cto/4670972098.html

What, the link or the car?

This machine was parked outside a bar I played at last Summer.

Is that an AMC Rebel Machine?

You're killing me Roddie.
Nothing sounded like a late 60s Mopar.
Looked, sounded, and was FAST!
Bob

RknRusty wrote:Is that an AMC Rebel Machine?

Plymouth GTX. 68 or 69 I think, or are you messin' with us Rusty?
Bob

dckrsn wrote:

RknRusty wrote:Is that an AMC Rebel Machine?

Plymouth GTX. 68 or 69 I think, or are you messin' with us Rusty?
Bob

No, I need to google up some pictures, the AMC was a wild guess. Probably a Plymouth. The years of the rectangle. My favorite rectangle was the 66/67 Chevelle.

You're right, that's not it. This is a Rebel Machine:

AMC had there muscle-cars for sure Rusty. Talking "60's".. the AMX and "Scrambler" come to mind.




Just so you know what a "GTX" looks like...





I once ran across a 1964-5 Plymouth Fury/Belvedere(?) in a used car lot that was a drag car. It was "tubbed" and had a roll-bar. The engine was a 426 Hemi with dual four-barrel carbs sitting atop a high-rise intake manifold. But.. sitting in the back seat were these...




are those intake runners long enough for ya'? You think model airplane control linkages can be tricky.. try synchronizing that pair of carbs!!

...if someone came up to me and said: "I'll give you any Mustang, Camaro or a AMX" it would take a long, long, long time to choose one. When I was a kid, my Dad won a contest to test drive a AMX for a day, I'll never forget us taking it out on the highway and the ol' man runnin' it thru the gears!
When I was 15 ('73, driving on a learner permit) I was a lot boy at the local Ford dealership, they has just taken in on trade a deep marron/purple Plymouth GTX, I remember one of the salesman told me he'd trade me my '53 Chevy two door post and $300 bucks, got the ol' man to come take a look at it that night, I'll never forget him opening the hood, looking at that big o'l engine, shake his head side to side and quickly close the hood....

Mark Boesen wrote:...if someone came up to me and said: "I'll give you any Mustang, Camaro or a AMX" it would take a long, long, long time to choose one. When I was a kid, my Dad won a contest to test drive a AMX for a day, I'll never forget us taking it out on the highway and the 'ol man runnin' it thru the gears!
When I was 15 ('73, driving on a learner permit) I was a lot boy at the local Ford dealership, they has just taken in on trade a deep marron/purple Plymouth GTX, I remember one of the salesman told me he'd trade me my '53 Chevy two door post and $300 bucks, got the o'l man to come take a look at it that night...I'll never forget him opening the hood, looking at that big o'l engine, shake his head side to side and quickly close the hood....

"ma' boy ain't gonna drive a car with a mottah' "that big".. until he's at least ma' age"...

hey Roddie!

Drove the '53 (stovebolt 6, powerglide) for another couple months, till I found a '59 Olds Holiday couple Super 88, with a 394, 4bbl., lol, it would bury the speedo and keep climbing.

Late 1973, my dad gave me a well used 4th owner 65 Falcon Ranchero. My first set of wheels;
289 Hi output 4bbl, Borg  Warner T10 4sp, and 4:10 rear. A real sleeper but a lot of wheel spin.... I later popped in a posi dif and a lot of power adder work to a engine rebuild and Painted it Chevy Vette Targa Blue...It would run 12.599 at SIR (Seattle International Raceway)


When my first wife needed a car I found a sweet well maintained 57 Fairlane Ranchero for her. What was neat about this Lead Sled was the 312CI spider engine with cross ram intake with twin 4bbl on top and it had a very heavy truck tranny underneath. First car I had with factory dual exhaust


Around 1976 a soldier at Ft Lewis was leaving for Germany and I bought his 67 Shelby GT500 for $1600 and later when I went to Germany I sold it for $1700 (recently I saw a similar one go for auction for $95,000----DANG!)


I  had many different hooptie cars for a lot of years until I reenlisted with a bonus.....wanted a Corvette but because I had owned a Nissan 280Z car decided to get a twin turbo twin inter-cooled 85 300ZX. Got it in Germany and with only 23 miles on the odometer I took it to a local tuner a lot like Lingenfelder or AMG. He and I changed out the injectors for larger, tweaked the fuel regulator, removed the speed-limiter, put different springs on all 4 corners and played with the waste gate timing. I had this car on the A3 and A6 Autobahn several times over 175mph (my personal sissy limit) she had plenty of HP do do a lot more. Sold it in Virginia to a State trooper. I also learned to never ever put a Bra on any car....ruined the paint under it, a very costly lesson

That's quite a lineup Fred. I really do like the Falcon Ranchero. I didn't know the Rancho had it's beginnings as a Flacon either. As for myself, I've always coveted the '69 El Camino SS. My second car was '69 Chevelle SS inherited from my Dad when I was 17. Quite a step up from my first, a christmas present at 15 or 16, a '67 Nova SS with a 283 2bbl single exhaust. Slip and slide with Power Glide.
Rusty

I think it was Ranchero then Falcon based Ranchero then back to Ranchero again.

I wish they would re-do the El-Camino and Ranchero. It was a good idea and practical too.