Cars you didn't know existed until very recently.

July 10, 2023

46 minutes ago, Spurious said:

Seen one of these today, couldn't remember ever seeing one before. Mustn't be a massive seller. Looked like a Golf/Focus sized crossover. A Bayon. Whatever that means.

A bigger bayonet(te)?

9,588 · July 10, 2023

Bayon is an amazing ancient temple in Cambodia. I'm lucky enough to have been there.

July 10, 2023

3 hours ago, AnthonyG said:

I vaguely remember a few of these getting sold by South Hereford Garages, the early ones run alongside the Mk1 Golf Caddy but then sort of replaced it (the dealer told me the Yugoslav civil war stopped supply of Caddy’s, which were built in Slovenia.

Neither model was popular in the local area. There was a successful Toyota dealer who sold quite a few Hiluxes so I assume Taros were more expensive, thus rather pointless where farmers were the main market.

The Caddy was cheaper but struggled to sell - rural tradesmen like carpenters wanting a 2wd pickup bought a Ford P100 (same sort of price range but more load space) and most of the farmers got the 4wd Subaru MV - they were everywhere.

I did read somewhere that VW bought these out because they didn't have a 1 tonne lugger and they had nothing to put up against the P100. As you said the Caddy was too small.

Thing is, the Hilux had the unbreakable engine. They rotted before the engine died.

21,232 · July 11, 2023

23 hours ago, barrett said:

Well, if anyone cares, a friend of mine has solved the mystery. It's a Desmoulins (of course) which featured two side-by-side engines of different size, theoretically gving the performance of three cars - a small engine for town use, a larger engine for touring and a combination, extra-large engine for high-speed work.

Annoyingly I actually have a few Desmoulins brochures so I probably should have recognised it. The earliest version seemed to have two small single-cylinder enignes working a single gearbox/prop and normal back axle (how?) but later cars had a very complicated all-in-one transaxle thing which, again, I don't quite understand how it worked. But I suppose it probably didn't, or at least not very well. It's not thought any were actually sold and that 1922 chassis is probably as far as the project went.

In a way as an idea - not so far off a modern hybrid - smaller electric for town use and a big motor for longer journeys - London's buses use something similar for start/stop these days.

GM used multiple-cylinder engines on their cars - that cut some cylinders out some of the time.

21,232 · July 11, 2023

Daimler Conquest Roadster Coupe. The convertibles are better known - no idea they did a hard top. Five sold and one survives.

https://www.handh.co.uk/auction/lot/28-1955-daimler-conquest-roadster-fixed-head-coupe/?lot=41823&sd=1

7,755 · July 11, 2023

On 7/8/2023 at 9:51 PM, Sham said:

Move the pendulum even further away from the steered wheels... That'll help the handling.

928s are front-engined, so it's in exactly the same place relative to the steered wheels!

4,178 · July 11, 2023

1 minute ago, horriblemercedes said:

928s are front-engined, so it's in exactly the same place relative to the steered wheels!

The 928 is after my post

7,755 · July 11, 2023

Just now, Sham said:

The 928 is after my post

You're right, I was scrolling backward and forward and somehow mixed that up! D'oh

44,537 · July 11, 2023

16 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

Daimler Conquest Roadster Coupe. The convertibles are better known - no idea they did a hard top. Wonder if the sold any or any survive?

It exists

17,678 · July 15, 2023

The Toyota Corolla Griffith; some loony dealer in the US decided that the world needed a floppytop Corolla and made 200 of them.

6,369 · July 15, 2023

Spotted a nondescript SUV thing in Italy today badged as a DR 4.0

Googling reveals it is an Italian-built rebadging of some Chinese thing.

3,165 · July 15, 2023

5 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

The Toyota Corolla Griffith; some loony dealer in the US decided that the world needed a floppytop Corolla and made 200 of them.

The UK plate on that is rather exciting, to say the least.

44,977 · July 16, 2023

22 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

The Toyota Corolla Griffith; some loony dealer in the US decided that the world needed a floppytop Corolla and made 200 of them.

17 hours ago, GeordieInExile said:

The UK plate on that is rather exciting, to say the least.

The excitment rises to 11 -

44,977 · July 16, 2023

The 1977 Ford Megastar cocept made by Ghia.

3,165 · July 16, 2023

2 hours ago, martc said:

The 1977 Ford Megastar cocept made by Ghia.

Yours for just $125,000!

https://www.dragoneclassic.com/inventory/p/1977-ford-ghia-megastar-concept

3,021 · July 16, 2023

4 hours ago, GeordieInExile said:

Yours for just $125,000!

https://www.dragoneclassic.com/inventory/p/1977-ford-ghia-megastar-concept

I remember the Usbourne Supercars book mentioned it with a picture.

21,181 · July 17, 2023

Bertone B99 , a 2011 jaguar based concept car

Jaguar must've been mad not to jump on that

Scroll back to 2011 and Bertone had been in a parlous state for much of the previous decade. The arrival of this beautiful concept car at that year’s 2011 Geneva Motor Show proved that this hardy legend still had the ability to surprise. What’s more, it was styled by a Brit – the talented Adrian Griffiths.

While Jaguar was keen to distance itself from anything remotely retro, here was a styling masterclass that appeared classic without being clichéd. The B99 concept was also touted as a hybrid, with both a combustion engine and electric motors. Not only that, it was displayed next to a mocked-up racing version, complete with the mother of all rear spoilers. However, it came to nothing.

58,587 · July 17, 2023

On 15/07/2023 at 23:06, GeordieInExile said:

The UK plate on that is rather exciting, to say the least.

It's on eBay

5,063 · July 17, 2023

1 hour ago, Wack said:

Bertone B99 , a 2011 jaguar based concept car

Jaguar must've been mad not to jump on that

Scroll back to 2011 and Bertone had been in a parlous state for much of the previous decade. The arrival of this beautiful concept car at that year’s 2011 Geneva Motor Show proved that this hardy legend still had the ability to surprise. What’s more, it was styled by a Brit – the talented Adrian Griffiths.

While Jaguar was keen to distance itself from anything remotely retro, here was a styling masterclass that appeared classic without being clichéd. The B99 concept was also touted as a hybrid, with both a combustion engine and electric motors. Not only that, it was displayed next to a mocked-up racing version, complete with the mother of all rear spoilers. However, it came to nothing.

That’s bloody gorgeous for a ‘retro’ car design I don’t think you can get much better.
jag were trying to kill off it’s old fashioned image, but still, I think that would have sold well

58,587 · July 17, 2023

Consulier GTP

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consulier_GTP

44,537 · July 17, 2023

These two had me stumped until I did an image search

On the left is an AMT Pirana, that was developed from the Marbon CRV-IV.

A condensed version of the CRV/Piranha story (c-we.com)

The car on the right is a Marbon Formacar

58,587 · July 17, 2023

Built by an American called J Walter Christie - inspired by a recent post about a strange rear axle - here's a strange front axle

Mounted transversely was a four-cylinder 30-horsepower engine with the crankshaft serving as the front axle. Flywheels were coupled to the crank ends by leather-faced clutches and telescoping universal joints drove the front wheels.

44,537 · July 18, 2023

20 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Built by an American called J Walter Christie - inspired by a recent post about a strange rear axle - here's a strange front axle

Mounted transversely was a four-cylinder 30-horsepower engine with the crankshaft serving as the front axle. Flywheels were coupled to the crank ends by leather-faced clutches and telescoping universal joints drove the front wheels.

I bet that burnt the clutches out quite quickly if taken for a drive in the country.

24,878 · July 19, 2023

Citroën AX Turbo Danielson

23,112 · July 20, 2023

Metropolitan Station Wagon.

There is a little bit about one of them on this page.

https://metpitstop.com/museum/

Along with details of another Metropolitan this is a one off called the Astra-Gnome

44,537 · July 21, 2023

I came across this picture on the interwebs and thought what is that?

Is it some kind of Italian thing? Maybe, but all th ecars in the background are German, and the plate is Swiss.

Turns out it is based on a 911.

Its a Diba GTC by Dietrich of Basel.

It was originally started by Werner Dietrich when he was a student at the Meisterschule Kaiserslautern in Germany, and completed after he moved to Basel.