Cars you didn't know existed until very recently.

[D Spares & Tyres]

There is a Suzuki Jimney pick up truck near me. Doesn't look a bodge job. It has a proper plastic mouldings. Looks like a factory job but never seen another

[vulgalour]

Courtesy of the Junkman, I learned recently of the ultra-cool Geo Storm wagon.

 

 

[somewhatfoolish]

My old man had one of those, same colour too; they're like cockroaches, it refused to die despite a regime of benign neglect, just occasionally a bit of trim would fall off. Flogged it to a bloke from Manchester who came 250 miles to buy a shite old LHD car for £300.

[Sir Snipes]

 

Spotted one of these today. Foreign plates, ofcourse.

[chaseracer]

Not really belonging here, sue me etc., but when they had their outboard division Perkins built an experimental diesel Wankel, something that was not at all easy to pull off. Well someone had to say it.

 

Thank you for tossing that one off... 

 

Meanwhile, can everyone else hear that Simca Windthingy dissolving?

[LC Torana]

Anybody put a Talbot Wind on gas?  'Cause I heard the exhaust is likely to blow.

[Timewaster]

There is a Suzuki Jimney pick up truck near me. Doesn't look a bodge job. It has a proper plastic mouldings. Looks like a factory job but never seen another

http://www.kapsuzuki4x4.co.uk

[bunglebus]

Saw one of these gorgeous* creations recently

 

[Skut]

Came across this on a Russia webpage about home built soviet cars.  Was rather taken by this 'KD' based on a Ukrainian ZAZ with those fab wheels that are mostly brake drum.   Six were made and it looks quite a nice combination of professional and cartoony with its it scoop down half the length of the car.   Some other crackers on there as well

 

http://nevsedoma.com.ua/index.php?newsid=249470

[RayMK]

Wow!  There's some interesting stuff there.  A few are quite pleasing to the eye - I particularly like the first of the white fastbacks and a white saloon that looks dated in a 1960s Lancia sort of way. Edit: Just looked again.  Well, maybe not like a Lancia but I like its awkward proportions.

[rantingYoof]

Saw one of these gorgeous* creations recently

 

Ssangyong Tivoli...proper future shite.

[JeeExEll]

^^ Skut's Russian cars link, 3 posts up.

 

14th car down, yellow one from 1985 looks a bit mini-Dodge-Challenger-ish. Anyone translate it's name so I can google it?

 

Lots of interesting cars on that link.

[Skut]

^^ Skut's Russian cars link, 3 posts up.

 

14th car down, yellow one from 1985 looks a bit mini-Dodge-Challenger-ish. Anyone translate it's name so I can google it?

 

It translates as Proton. Its supposed to be powered by a forklift motor.  

[Tayne]

Does anyone here watch Smith & Sniff?

Very occasional YaTube! series featuring Johnny Smith (Fully Charged, Fifth Gear) & Richard Porter (Sniff Petrol, Top Gear) riding around in this week's press car talking drivel about old cars.

 

 

In the latest one Johnny talks about not knowing what the car used in Club Tropicana is, having heard the tinny exhaust note at the start of the record (but never having seen the video) a youthful Johnny deduced that it was a mk1 Fiesta.

Now anyone who likes a bit of 80s pop will remember the car as a Citroen Mehari and this was soon pointed out to Johnny on twitter complete with screengrabs.

 

I hadn't seen the video for a while so watched, expecting to see the second Mehari driven by George Michael and Andrew Ridgely.

But wait, that's not a Mehari!

 

 

Could it be a Renault Rodeo?

 

Careful freeze-framing got me this.

 

 

That looks like the front end of a Fiat 127.

Some googlage led me to a company called Moretti, now defunct they started off building their own cars but ending up knocking out modified Fiats.

Their Jolly style car started with the 500,

 

Moved onto the 126 with little styling updates

 

And then went to a 127 base.

 

To be facelift into this.

 

 

So George Michael's first recorded breakdown must have involved a Fiat Morretti Midimaxi!

 

How proud I was at solving this until some chap on twitter pointed out the Spanish numberplates (club tropicana was filmed in Ibiza) and suggested it was a Seat Samba, or perhaps an Emelba Campero (license built Fiat/Seat motors from Catalonia).

However he laid the responsibility for such a thing with the Italian coach builder Fissore (not sure whether they ripped off Moretti or vice versa...)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jollyfkr2]

I was in Warsaw at the weekend and saw this, I never realised that the Matiz was sold as an FSO...

[Tadhg Tiogar]

I was in Warsaw at the weekend and saw this, I never realised that the Matiz was sold as an FSO...

Neither did I

[Magpie215]

 

 

I had this a few years back.

How about an avensis estate with 260bhp and 4wd.

 

Has the engine and running gear off the Celica GT4

 

Very rare in the uk and mine was the even rarer manual version at the time I believe the only manual in the uk there were a few automatics about.

 

Toyota Caldina GT-T chassis code ST215W if you want to google????

[Datsuncog]

^^^ Ah, so that's what that was.

 

Used to be one of these smoking about local to me. I rashly assumed it was an Avensis estate belonging to someone who'd won a trolley dash at the JDM_YO! warehouse.

 

Haven't seen it for over a year now, but seems like I ought to have appreciated it a little more at the time. Bloody quick, no doubt.

 

 

(don't think this is the same car, but it looked identical)

[Tadhg Tiogar]

calfield.jpg

 

I had this a few years back.

How about an avensis estate with 260bhp and 4wd.

 

Has the engine and running gear off the Celica GT4....

Is that not a bit like the Toyota Auris that they stuffed a 265hp V6 into? And then called it the Blade Master or something similar?

[Sir Snipes]

Just don’t google the later model, eugh!

Personally i like the “carina” Caldina. Top quack was apparently the 2.0 16v GE but most commonly the lean-burn FE.

[Junkman]

1955 Fiat 1100-103 Stabilimente Savio

 

 

Savio is an Italian coachbuilder since 1919.

Those 1100 wagons like the one shown above seem to have been produced in quite some numbers, going by google image search.

They were used by the Polizia and Carabinieri, but also privately.

 

Here is one used as a CSI carrier:

 

 

Despite I've never heard the name, Savio made quite a few cars I do know, among others a plethora of Fiat beach cars

and the relatively famous Fiat 125 Station Wagon.

 

 

 

The 600 Jungla is just one example of many beach cars they did:

 

[NorfolkNWeigh]

A mate of mine had a Mercedes W114 that had come by this route, bought in Germany in right-hand-drive and registered over here when he brought it home, so the reg plate made it look a few years younger than it actually was.

 

Nobody ever thought to change the headlamps in the intervening forty-odd years so people were always flashing at him.

Today I watched an episode of The Protectors and Harry Rule was in Spain driving what looked like a LHD Chrysler Valiant or something which I've yet to investigate- may well end up in this thread! Anyway he was in a chase with a beige forward control van that had Audi- well the four rings- badges front and rear.At first I thought it was one of those crazy Pegaso/ Sava Austin J4s with a prestige badge stuck on its Sherpa doors.

But of course Audi wasn't a posh brand in 1972 and it wasn't quite right.

No, it was a DKW F1000 L made in Spain by IMOSA, apparentlly.

These later became a Merc with a ' big block' 1300 to enable YankTank chasing

These had something to do with the MB100, I think - only stuff I could find is in Foreign .which went on to become a Ssangyong I'd never heard of.

 

Oh, and whilst I'm discovering light commercials that had secret foreign identities,

What's Spanish for Thruppenny bit ?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

.....which went on to become a Ssangyong I'd never heard of.

image.jpeg...

....which in turn looks a bit like a Toyota LiteAce.

[cort1977]

Also sold as a Mercedes MB100D in Australia.  Bet Mercedes Australia were delighted about that one.

 

[vulgalour]

Looking like the big brother to the Renault Rodeo, the Auveraland A3 is a new one on me tonight.

 

[STUNO]

A bit more on the Toyota Blade and Blade Master mentioned earlier.

 

The lowly Blade

 

 

https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/toyota/auction-1534405940.htm?rsqid=6d793cd9b68042daac1d0876d6e07192

 

And the beast, the Blade Master

 

 

https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/toyota/auction-1492314413.htm?rsqid=6d793cd9b68042daac1d0876d6e07192

 

The only visual difference is the script MASTER on the lower right on the tailgate.

 

 

[Sudsprint]

Also sold as a Mercedes MB100D in Australia.  Bet Mercedes Australia were delighted about that one.

 

....these are everywhere as minibuses in Cambodia

[Skut]

Found out about this, another soviet ZAZ based creation. Created by an E Tairov. Must have been pretty handy at panel beating.

 

[Lacquer Peel]

Africa only Peugeot Pick-Up based on some Chinese knock off. What is point.

[bunglebus]

Saw a Nissan Pulsar today. Not the 90's JDM jobbie, one of these;

 

 

Probably been around for ages and I just haven't noticed, because they're so interesting*