Cars you didn't know existed until very recently.

[GeordieInExile]

I'm getting a strong VW Corrado vibe from the rear lights.

[barrett]

Have there been any other four-door middies? Can't think of any off the top of my head...

[Sir Snipes]

Does anybody recognise the taillights off that quicksilver? 

[robinmasters]

On 7/28/2019 at 10:00 AM, bunglebus said:

 

Can't remember if I posted the Hyundai Kona before

That looks like father Dougall was involved in the design process, and has based the actual measurements on a 3d rendering. 

"The back end looks really far away"

"No, it's just small"

[NorfolkNWeigh]

On 21 August 2019 at 7:40 PM, bunglebus said:

Saw a Toyota Mirai tonight

 

The Police have got some of these in London( obvs. as it's the only place with a filling station) presumably not as ARVs- you would not feel safe sheltering behind one of these in a gun battle...

[JeeExEll]

2 hours ago, Snipes said:

Does anybody recognise the taillights off that quicksilver? 

As soon as I saw that pic my first thoughts were - 'VW Passat early 90s tail-lights'. But they're not. Then I thought 'WTF, idiot, why would Ford be going elsewhere for tail-lights? Especially from about ten years in the future'.

Maybe they were from an early / mid 80s US Ford / Lincoln / Mercury?

[Sir Snipes]

4 minutes ago, JeeExEll said:

As soon as I saw that pic my first thoughts were - 'VW Passat early 90s tail-lights'. But they're not. Then I thought 'WTF, idiot, why would Ford be going elsewhere for tail-lights? Especially from about ten years in the future'.

Maybe they were from an early / mid 80s US Ford / Lincoln / Mercury?

I was thinking Fox body Mustang but maybe not. I'm assuming they're off something.

[JeeExEll]

Tornado Talisman, what a name. You can hear ladies' knicker elastic snapping already. Powered by Ford Classic 1340 or 1500cc,

Phone Rickmansworth 5176 or 5006 if you want one.

You could also get a Tornado Typhoon based on the 1172cc Ford Pop sidevalve. A lightweight sportscar which was probably much better than it sounds and a good laugh to compete in.

Edit, a bit of digging looking for a Typhoon advert led me to this interesting thread started by Barrett in 2010.

https://autoshite.com/topic/7376-special-shite-few-more-on-page-2/

 

[bunglebus]

20190829_161536 by RS, on Flickr

 

20190829_160708 by RS, on Flickr

[vulgalour]

On 8/27/2019 at 9:13 PM, barrett said:

Have there been any other four-door middies? Can't think of any off the top of my head...

I can only think of one, on a technicality, since it has four doors it's just that two of them are on the back.

[Supernaut]

Thanks to a brief article on Jalopnik, then subsequently a link to ARonline posted in the comments section of said article, I now know of the existence of the Frazer-Tickford Metro.

I normally think of something with a turbo bolted to it when the word Tickford is mentioned, but not in this case. It uses a 1.3 that was pepped up with a Weber twin choke carb, a hotter camshaft and bigger valves along with a gas-flowed head. This gave it a whopping 80hp.

It was sold for £11,600 which in 1982 money would have also bought you either a Reliant Scimitar or a Ford Granada 2.8i.

 

 

Somebody even posted this link: http://www.percivalmotorco.co.uk/Frazer_Tickford_Metro/#prettyPhoto  which is for one of the THREE left hand drive ones made for the US, but it's for sale back here in the UK.

 

As you can see, they also went over the interior when building these.

Link to the full ARonline article: https://www.aronline.co.uk/cars/austin/metro/frazer-tickford/

[somewhatfoolish]

On 8/27/2019 at 9:13 PM, barrett said:

Have there been any other four-door middies? Can't think of any off the top of my head...

Arguably the Tatra 613 is mid-engined, either way it's also utterly splendid and I regret not buying one when they were cheap-ish.

[TataBobu]

It's not, it's RR layout. It sits too far back to be considered mid-engined.

 

One could argue that most of the older vans are mid-engined and 4 doors, with one on the driver side, two on the passengers'and one or two in the back, counted as one. See Ford E-series, which had underfloor engine.

Also, Bedford Rascal

[JeeExEll]

The Bricklin police car. A rather unsuccessful venture, although around 3000 Bricklins were made in total. They only did five police cars. Looks like a child's toy.

'The doors, which weighed 90 lb (40.8 kg) each, were raised by hydraulic cylinders controlled by switches in the interior, and took up to 12 seconds to open or close. The system was sensitive to the condition of the car's battery, as well as being prone to breakdown. The system used a single pump and had no door interlock, so opening one door at the same time as closing the other had the potential to burn out the pump motor'.

'Officers found them too difficult to get in and out of, and the Arizona heat caused battery issues that would prevent the electrically operated doors from opening'.

 

Hmm, that's not really ideal for a police car. And where would you put the crims?

Malcolm Bricklin is still around.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bricklin_SV-1

Looking at a Bricklin website quite a lot of the cars seem to have been on fire. Something worth bearing in mind if you want to buy one. Not only inconvenient but a bit fucking hot too if you can't get the doors open.

http://bricklin-sv-1-build-history.com/custom.html

[JeeExEll]

Interesting looking old car. Wonder what the front looks like.

 

Whooooahhhh!! Didn't expect that. It looks like a dolphin.

The Davis Divan.

Wiki quote -  

'The company's assets were liquidated in order to pay back taxes, while Gary Davis himself was eventually convicted of fraud and grand theft and sentenced to two years at a "work farm"labor camp'.

Oh dear.

According to Wiki he was formerly a used car salesman. He sold dealership rights to 350 dealers across the US and raised $1.2 million in the late 1940s. Total car production was 13 cars, including 2 prototypes. (PMSL at that).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis_Divan

[wuvvum]

Never knew these were a thing until today.

[Timewaster]

6 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Never knew these were a thing until today.

Seriously? A chap of your standing has never known of a mk1 Espace?

Or an I missing something, is that a compost fuelled rotary engined Espace copy from mysterious lands?

[wuvvum]

It's a Grancar Futura.  Not a Renault component in it anywhere.

[quicksilver]

1 hour ago, JeeExEll said:

Interesting looking old car. Wonder what the front looks like.

 

Whooooahhhh!! Didn't expect that. It looks like a dolphin.

The Davis Divan.

Wiki quote -  

'The company's assets were liquidated in order to pay back taxes, while Gary Davis himself was eventually convicted of fraud and grand theft and sentenced to two years at a "work farm"labor camp'.

Oh dear.

According to Wiki he was formerly a used car salesman. He sold dealership rights to 350 dealers across the US and raised $1.2 million in the late 1940s. Total car production was 13 cars, including 2 prototypes. (PMSL at that).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis_Divan

The Davis, especially when painted light green, reminds me of the Planet Express ship from Futurama.  The styling and three wheels suggest it should be a microcar when you see it with nothing else for scale but it's actually enormous and can seat four abreast. There was even a 3-wheeled utility version that Davis proposed as an alternative to the Jeep!

[Timewaster]

51 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

It's a Grancar Futura.  Not a Renault component in it anywhere.

This is a Grancar Futura. 

 

I had no idea they existed until you mentioned them.

But your photo IS an Espace.

[wuvvum]

Well this is awkward. 

[Tamworthbay]

Espace or Futura? Only one way to find out..........

[sutty2006]

Yeah all the signs in the room point to Renault..... sorry lol 

[Timewaster]

In fairness to wuvumm, I had to Google it and the site I found had several crappy pictures of the Futura and that Espace pic.

[Sudsprint]

13 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Never knew these were a thing until today.

I don't recognise any of the other cars around this Futura/Espace...

[Timewaster]

The yellow one behind it is an F1 Espace

The red one is another Espace?

No idea about the gold one though.

[Tamworthbay]

They should have put that into production.

[High Jetter]

7 hours ago, Timewaster said:

No idea about the gold one though.

Could be a Floride?

[shedenvy]

This should really be in the mistery watizit thread but today I saw this:

The front end is a Piaggio Typhoon and obvs back end is a wheelchair ramp. Guessing it's an air cooled 125cc.

[lesapandre]

Renault 5 by Alpine. I saw the hatch version whilst away in France in August. This roof conversation is probably by them too. Not bad looking - by sloping the rollover they have given it some style. Must be rare - I'd never seen an Alpine 5 before. Not my photo.