Automobiles you don't see everyday...

fredvon4 wrote: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)

Interesting!!.  Did you folks know that the first "Coupe Utility" was invented and produced right here in Ausslie Land?  Check out this page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coupé_utility

The green '36 Roadster Utility on the right belongs to a friend of mine from our vintage machinery group.

I owned one like this '64 a while back but sold it before getting it back on the road due to other committments.


Ford Australia have been building "Utes" since '34 and Falcons since 1960 'til today.  Ford, GM and Toyota are all stopping production of vehicles in Australia by 2016.  Your late U.S. model Pontiac GTO (Holden Monaro) and Chev Lumina (Holden Commodore) were built here and the Camaro is built on the Aussie rear-drive platform.  Sadly, not for much longer.  

The little Subaru Brat that was pictured was sold here as the "Brumby" (the Aussie name for a wild horse).  Still lots getting around and very popular.  I think Subaru made a mistake by only producing one model as I think they would sell really well.

Rod.

Every COX fan will like this :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5ytps0VDuI

Be sure to turn the sound up

I have a stock 1958 Saab 93B, Toreador Red just like the car on the video. Mine is an "easy project", I have had it inspected and on the road before but right now it is in storage. It needs some sheetmetal work and general freshening-up. Great fun on a winding non-crowded roads, but a little slow and laborous to drive in the modern day traffic. Not hard though, comparable to later V4 Saabs or stock VW Beetles. It cruises nice at about 50-60mph, I've had it up to 80+mph, did not dare to go faster because of the old tires I had at the time.

I saw Erik Carlsson rallying one in the early '60s. What a magnificent sound it made.

lol, I hate to say it, but that was actually kind of cool!

KariFS wrote:Every COX fan will like this :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5ytps0VDuI

Be sure to turn the sound up

I have a stock 1958 Saab 93B, Toreador Red just like the car on the video. Mine is an "easy project", I have had it inspected and on the road before but right now it is in storage. It needs some sheetmetal work and general freshening-up. Great fun on a winding non-crowded roads, but a little slow and laborous to drive in the modern day traffic. Not hard though, comparable to later V4 Saabs or stock VW Beetles. It cruises nice at about 50-60mph, I've had it up to 80+mph, did not dare to go faster because of the old tires I had at the time.

You're right! Cool vid! What was considered the "red-line" when revving-out? Where the cars equipped with tachs? It's gotta' be up there.. over 10 grand?

....10k on 25% nitro, 12500 with 35%

Further to my post on seeing Carlsson rallying one of those strokers, I've had a think about it and it was in fact the 1965 BP Rally in Australia, and he had his Wife Pat Moss-Carlsson with him navigating.

Pat of course was a wonderful rally driver in her own right, driving all sorts of things including those booming Austin Healey 3000s in the '60s.......Two friends of mine had genuine ones, not replicas, back in the '80s and 90s.  I had a BN1 100/4 at the time so we were all in the AH club together.

Erik is still going, but Pat who was Stirling Moss's sister passed away about 5 or 6 years ago.

Lots of info. via Google, including a short vid of the Carlssons in the BP in '65 if your further interested.

Yeah, the old Saabs are great, you can't drive them to go shopping without sounding like you are in a real hurry.
They used to be a common sight when I was a kid but now you only see them at exhibitions/meetings...

Thanks Kris......Some sensational vids in that lot including the stroker drag car doing burnouts. Thanks, great stuff.

This is for Lieven.

Interesting things Ledwinka Tatra's. But scary in the wet with a big engine hanging out the back, simple rear suspension, along with cross ply tires. All VERY early Vee Dubish.

Back in the '70s a guy a few houses from where we lived then had a black one.

http://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/rambling_downhill

roddie wrote:
You're right! Cool vid! What was considered the "red-line" when revving-out? Where the cars equipped with tachs? It's gotta' be up there.. over 10 grand?

I think the max rpm for the red one in the vid is over 8000. These guys raced (and won their class) at LeMans Classic five or six years ago (Google "Retrospective Motorsport" if interested) and that engine had its max power at 7000 or 7500. It's a three-cylinder engine so it really screams at those speeds. I think the stock ones had their red line at 5500 or so. The better equipped GT750 and later Monte Carlo models had a hopped-up engine with 3 carbs, a wooden steering wheel, tach and even a Halda Speedpilot as standard equipment. Mine is only a "De Luxe", so no tach or other goodies, and the engine is just a single-carb basic model.

roddie wrote:This is for Lieven.

Thanks Roddie for posting this movie. It's a nice story... and I love the man's garden!!

The T87 could be surprizing in the wet. But that improved after the war when Julius Mackerle replaced Ledwinka. The T603 had a weight distribution of 47% fwd and 53% aft which is not bad for a car with a V8 located behind the rear axle.



Lieven

Thought I'd resurrect this thread with some interesting stuff. Down my street and up the main road a few houses lives this guy who sells "stuff" frequently.. and it's not cheap. He had a yard-sale last Summer.. and most of the "stuff" was outrageously priced..

Well a few weeks ago I see this "thing" for sale out on the curb..



So naturally... I had to get a closer look.. (sorry.. phone-cam images)







I thought.. "you gotta' be kidding me"....... $3500.00?? I wouldn't be caught dead in that thing..  

What was sitting in his driveway was much nicer though. I'd seen it before.. but I think it's a kit-car made for a full-size GM RWD chassis.. (I knew another fella that had one..)

My favourite vintage motor: Vauxhall 30/98, far better than a Bentley!

Anno 2002. Me in the 1949 HRG Le Mans Lightweight.

Cool photo Lieven

If it was me on the pic I would have it printed B&W and framed in my den

Here's another unusual vehicle, not as prestigious as the others in this thread, nevertheless somewhat rare worldwide, and one I used to own.



I had owned it for a long time, it needed minor work to be roadworthy but I just never got around to fixing it. I also had no place to keep it, and it had been sitting in a small car museum for the last 4-5 years. Then the museum changed its "theme" and started to build an exhibition of the vehicles of the Eastern Block ( ) and it got moved outdoors. So it had to go



Bye bye Saab...

I used the money to buy a Harley so it was not entirely a sad thing. And the little Saab is in a much better home now, probably soon on the road again.

While out on an errand yesterday, this oldie pulled-out behind me and followed me up to a traffic signal. As luck would have it; the light turned RED as we approached. There was a left-turn lane which he chose.. allowing me to get a quick photo using my phone-cam.



An early/mid 1950's Dodge. Those twin-stacks were both puffing/functional.. which I thought was super-cool!