Cars you didn't know existed until very recently.

[HarmonicCheeseburger]

Isdera Spyder 036i

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Isdera first introduced the Spyder 036i in 1987, it was the newly updated version of the Spyder 033i which had been unveiled in 1982. Both cars feature a tubular steel spaceframe chassis with a lightweight fiberglass body, and a mid-mounted engine from Mercedes.

Fast Facts – The Isdera Spyder 036i

Isdera was founded in 1982 by automotive designer Eberhard Schulz, who had earlier designed the 1969 Erator GTE and the 1978 Mercedes-Benz CW311 concept car.

Mercedes declined to put the CW311 concept car into production, so Schulz decided to do it himself, renaming it the Isdera Imperator 108i.

The Isdera Spyder was developed as the similarly-styled but lower-powered sibling to the Imperator, the most obvious external difference between the two cars being the lack of a roof on the Spyder.

The Isdera Spyder 036i is powered by a mid-mounted Mercedes-Benz M103 inline-six with a displacement of 3.0 liters, power is sent to the rear wheels via a 5-speed manual transaxle.

Isdera – The Little-Known German Supercar M

 

LINK

[barefoot]

Not quite a car I didn't know existed, but a feature of a car I owned that I didn't know it had;

On the road, the new adaptive cruise control includes a radar that adapts the speed of Vel Satis to that of the vehicle in front. 

From - https://www.autointell.com/european_companies/renault/renault-cars/vel-satis/renault_velsatis-01.htm

'Well, Fuck me', is the expression I was looking for. I knew it had cruise, but intelligent cruise back in 2003?

[Datsuncog]

No shade on the mighty Vel Satis, but I'm... really not sure I'd trust Renault's electronics engineers with adaptive cruise control around 2003, given that they couldn't reliably get their electric window modules to work around that time. Or indicators, come to think of it...

 

 

 

[Datsuncog]

Anyway, came here because I noticed a Hyundai Bayon in front of me earlier.

It describes itself variously on Hyundai's website as a "stylish urban crossover",  and a '"small-on-the-outside, big-on-the-inside crossover SUV that is designed to make a lasting impression... packed with smart tech, connectivity features and advanced safety equipment".

Kinda looks like every other small pumped-up estate thingy you see knocking around these days.

I think I only clocked it because it was the same faintly unusual colour as my father's new i20 (Mangrove Green).

Apparently this one's based on the i20 platform, is built in Turkey, and went on sale in March 2021 - so it's taken me a full two years to even notice they exist...

[horriblemercedes]

1 hour ago, barefoot said:

Not quite a car I didn't know existed, but a feature of a car I owned that I didn't know it had;

On the road, the new adaptive cruise control includes a radar that adapts the speed of Vel Satis to that of the vehicle in front. 

From - https://www.autointell.com/european_companies/renault/renault-cars/vel-satis/renault_velsatis-01.htm

'Well, Fuck me', is the expression I was looking for. I knew it had cruise, but intelligent cruise back in 2003?

I was surprised to find that my 2002 Jaguar S-Type had it in the handbook and had the lights for it on the dash in test mode. Mine didn't have it though

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/134510792525

 

Here is a 2000 Jaguar XKR that claims several times in the ad to have it, but I'm not sure yet if I believe it.....

[Remspoor]

The brand Steinwinter.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Steinwinter_vehicles?uselang=de

 

[D.E]

13 minutes ago, Remspoor said:

The brand Steinwinter.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Steinwinter_vehicles?uselang=de

 

They also converted several small car models to so called Mopedauto, with a limited top speed of 25 km/h.

 

 

[bunglebus]

On 24/03/2023 at 10:06, bunglebus said:

Just passed a Hyundai Bayon

 

 

5 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Anyway, came here because I noticed a Hyundai Bayon in front of me earlier.

It describes itself variously on Hyundai's website as a "stylish urban crossover",  and a '"small-on-the-outside, big-on-the-inside crossover SUV that is designed to make a lasting impression... packed with smart tech, connectivity features and advanced safety equipment".

Kinda looks like every other small pumped-up estate thingy you see knocking around these days.

I think I only clocked it because it was the same faintly unusual colour as my father's new i20 (Mangrove Green).

Apparently this one's based on the i20 platform, is built in Turkey, and went on sale in March 2021 - so it's taken me a full two years to even notice they exist...

Keep up at the back!

Next you'll be telling me you've seen a Chang Lee ZLZKC-010

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, D.E said:

They also converted several small car models to so called Mopedauto, with a limited top speed of 25 km/h.

 

 

Handlebars at wrong end, shirley?

[HarmonicCheeseburger]

 Mercedes 380-500SEC Gullwing

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The Mercedes 380-500SEC Gullwings made by Styling-Garage (SGS) from Hamburg are absolute legends when it comes to 1980s styling and coachbuilding. And although the versions made in Hamburg are the best known, they're not only company that made them. About two years after Styling-Garage unveiled their 500SGS Gullwing, Swiss car creator Franco Sbarro displayed a very similar car at the 1983 Geneva car salon. The car was named Sbarro Mercedes 500 Portes Papillon "Gullwing". Quite a mouthfull. 

 

At first glance the car looks quite similar to the 500SGS Gullwing by Styling-Garage, but in details there are huge differences. The biggest difference is the amount of plastic involved: the Sbarro Portes Papillon has doors made from plastic, which are shorter than the regular doors of a Mercedes SEC, with the bottom part now integrated in the doorstep. This makes entering the Sbarro Gullwing much harder. 

 

A big difference over the Gullwing-doored 500SECs built by SGS was that Sbarro also offered performance upgrades: the regular 5.0 litre engine from the Mercedes 500SEC could be swapped for the 6.9 litre V8 engine from the W116 450SEL 6.9.

 

As with the cars made by Styling-Garage, the majority of the Sbarro Gullwings went to the Middle-East. Who other than Arab Sheiks and Royals could pay a pricetag of 180.000 Swiss Francs / 200.000 DM?

 

LINK

[Datsuncog]

On 4/4/2023 at 8:57 PM, bunglebus said:

Keep up at the back!

Heh, they're that memorable, clearly!

Funnily enough, I noticed another Beyon last night, a dark blue one, parked in the drive of a house right beside the local Tesco.

I must have driven past it dozens of times - but it's never even registered with me before.

It's weird, I always thought of myself as someone who was 'really into cars' but to be honest I don't recognise half the stuff on the road these days.

I guess when I was younger I had:

• rather more time doing very little;
• access to Auto Express every week; 
• terrestrial TV showing me car ads on the regular - not so much a thing with Netflix, YouTube etc;
• lots of local car dealerships who would launch new models with big graphics in the windows and balloons and stuff to entice you in for a look;
• a brain that was apparently receptive to noticing very small details about cars, but that now just doesn't seem to.

I don't quite agree with the line that "all cars look the same these days, dunnit?" - there's still plenty of variation in shape and detailing, but I just can't summon the mental energy to distinguish between them.

[Austat]

1981 Lancia Beta HFZ

[Austat]

Citroen DS Picosson:

[sdkrc]

Kia Capital/Concord

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

[sdkrc]

[Markeh]

To be fair, I drove past several Bayons acknowledging that it was a different model name of Hyundai but just assuming that it was a new name for the ICE powered Kona!

[MiniMinorMk3]

Lancia Hyena Zagato

[bunglebus]

On 06/08/2022 at 14:02, bunglebus said:

Picked up  a clean copy of this mag today for £1, so I can scan the contents. Annoyingly it says the "how to" article is the following month!

Made by "Naco Works" of Lindsay Street Epping apparently

[MiniMinorMk3]

Found another shot of probably the same car.

It says it is based on a Ford 10hp chassis, probably a pre-war Prefect.

[bunglebus]

Just camera phone pics for now 

[bunglebus]

2 minutes ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

Found another shot of probably the same car.

It says it is based on a Ford 10hp chassis, probably a pre-war Prefect.

Yep mag says Ford Eight/Ten and up to '59 Pop

[MiniMinorMk3]

They did a saloon version as well

[MiniMinorMk3]

Renault 5 Le Car Van

automotocollection: Renault 5 Le Car Van - 1980

[bunglebus]

[Aston Martin]

I love a South American special.

206 Escapade and 'interestingly' their Citroën Cactus has rear wind-down windows. The rest of the world has pop-outs.

[HarmonicCheeseburger]

1989 Toyota 4500GT

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The Toyota 4500GT concept debuted at the 1989 Frankfurt Motor Show. A 2-door, 2+2 coupe signaled Toyota's entry into the competitive upper-level luxury coupe class. Although the show-goers almost universally disliked the car's controversial styling at the Frankfurt show, its mechanical components were far more relevant, as they carried over much more closely to its production offspring than the styling did.

Toyota claimed the 4500GT could transport four passengers and their luggage comfortably at a speed of 300 km/h (186 mph). The car had to be both efficient and powerful to achieve this. The body's unusual shape (dropping snout, flat and abrupt rear end) yielded an extremely low drag coefficient for the time of Cd=0.29.

The power plant was quite impressive. A derivative of Toyota's then-new 1UZ-FE V8, the 4500GT boasted an additional 500 cc of displacement over the production unit, twin overhead camshafts per cylinder bank, and five valves per cylinder. This alloy V8 was mated with a six-speed manual transmission, which was mounted at the rear with the differential to even out the front/rear weight balance. This high-tech masterpiece produced 220 kW (295 bhp) at 6600 rpm and 390 N⋅m (288 lb-ft) at 4800 rpm.

 

LINK

 

[WillCarter]

So this came into work today, and caught me totally off guard. Either I've completely erased any knowledge of the Almera Saloon from my mind, or this is the first time I've ever seen one.

[bunglebus]

Look everyone, it's the Suzuki Swace!

[Remspoor]

2 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Look everyone, it's the Suzuki Swace!

That is the Toyota Corolla Estate which is only badge in Europe as a Suzuki.

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, Remspoor said:

That is the Toyota Corolla Estate which is only badge in Europe as a Suzuki.

Well, there was one outside Tesco. I could hardly* contain my excitement