Cars you didn't know existed until very recently.

[bunglebus]

1942 L’Oeuf Electrique - the only one built, still exists

[MiniMinorMk3]

15 hours ago, sheffcortinacentre said:

The Avanti is one of the ugliest cars every built, sure it was done my a committee who were never in contact until the car went on sale.

The Avanti was designed by Raymond Loewy. He'd worked for Studebaker before.

[barrett]

18 hours ago, sheffcortinacentre said:

The Avanti is one of the ugliest cars every built, sure it was done my a committee who were never in contact until the car went on sale.

Probably the worst car take I've ever heard. The Avanti is one of about four interesting American cars ever made and one of the best car designs of the 1960s, period. I also don't accept any dimissal of old cars as 'ugly' when objectively every single car built in the last, say, 15 years is significantly uglier than every car built in the preceding 100 years.

[bunglebus]

The Multipla and Rodius would like a word!

The original Ami and VW 411 saloon are ugly too (but I love them for it)

Old cars could be gopping too

It's all subjective really, people used to say Beetles were ugly but I think they're about the best looking car ever

[bunglebus]

Terra Mactra, a New Zealand made, Beetle based farm vehicle - only two known to exist, about a 10% survival rate

[bunglebus]

New Hun Dee Santa Fe looks like a Minecraft Range Rover 

[lesapandre]

On 18/09/2024 at 14:54, barrett said:

Probably the worst car take I've ever heard. The Avanti is one of about four interesting American cars ever made and one of the best car designs of the 1960s, period. I also don't accept any dimissal of old cars as 'ugly' when objectively every single car built in the last, say, 15 years is significantly uglier than every car built in the preceding 100 years.

Here is an Avanti R3 close up. This has the supercharger. Designed by Loewy personally as part of a small team. It's on a modified Studebaker Hawk chassis and was a last ditch attempt to rejuvenate Studebaker. One of those cars that's better in person than in pictures. An amazing thing. This is taken in France.

150mph+ if you are brave enough.

 Introduced in1962.

 

[barrett]

I love the French, but man do I hate the French sometimes. Those wheels need to be kicked into the nearest canal asap.

[AnthonyG]

Yeah, the wheels don’t do it any favours at all. I think the fact that someone bought all the rights and tooling to build the Avanti after Studebaker gave up on it, and successfully kept going for around 20 years, is pretty good evidence that the original design had something going for it. 

[Metal Guru]

On 18/09/2024 at 19:09, bunglebus said:

Terra Mactra, a New Zealand made, Beetle based farm vehicle - only two known to exist, about a 10% survival rate

From the front, it bears an uncanny resemblance to the Hammerhead Eagle     i-Thrust.

[lesapandre]

Stock wheels have hubcaps:

https://theavanti.com/wheels.html

[adw1977]

On 19/09/2024 at 19:52, lesapandre said:

Here is an Avanti R3 close up. This has the supercharger. Designed by Loewy personally as part of a small team. It's on a modified Studebaker Hawk chassis and was a last ditch attempt to rejuvenate Studebaker.

Once Studebaker abandoned car manufacture, the rights and tooling for the Avanti were sold and small scale production continued in various forms under various companies until 2006, if Wikipedia is to be believed!

[D.E]

Lesser known fact: back in the early 2000s the company building Avantis tried to expand their business with a monstrous SUV, and got sued by General Motors as they argued it was a copy of their Hummer H2. 

https://blog.consumerguide.com/what-was-the-studebaker-xuv/

Edit: the last Avantis appear to be Firebird based and look hideous:

 

 

[D.E]

Good grief, they're expensive! $40k!

Quote

A new version of the Avanti was introduced in October 2000 based on the AVanti eXperimental (AVX). This model, which used a Chevrolet Camaro / Pontiac Firebird chassis, was continued through 2004. For 2005-2007 a newer version was built on a Ford Mustang chassis.

Right... So the above ones are disguised Firebirds, and this is a Mustang. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/266978091287?_skw=avanti&itmmeta=01J8DVEXF3R5S1CBFNV16X8SJT&hash=item3e29226117:g:ilsAAOSwAtxmsOs8&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAAwHoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKnAl%2Brp6m5fwQAWCjpjcn2yiSoMlBdFOt1ykDHJDDmHd5mRRhAmXBt0SAq4fageMG96l2HcMOcjhG5UDJdsNKWbbZ%2FAK13X38OLxsTQ7ke5k7b74XTSkeTHOUWsEIvxsitzqIZ5JIwWateCoFzpG4L2BehNIE83jaVNiF0C3fpwcgC4l2x%2FMKRhX5GWvr8NbcmqXa8sNr9WV9aFafQLVi%2FYhsudX0xAIHQ0D%2Fd%2BjtyAqw%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR87Xu7vDZA

[Metal Guru]

4 hours ago, D.E said:

Lesser known fact: back in the early 2000s the company building Avantis tried to expand their business with a monstrous SUV, and got sued by General Motors as they argued it was a copy of their Hummer H2. 

https://blog.consumerguide.com/what-was-the-studebaker-xuv/

Edit: the last Avantis appear to be Firebird based and look hideous:

 

 

They deserve some sort of “award” for making a Hummer look worse.

[GeordieInExile]

It was only a concept. It should have been produced for real. 

[AnthonyG]

Those later Avantis look hideous. I didn’t actually know someone kept trying though, I had assumed the company had packed it in for good sometime in the late 1980s, when the last ‘proper’ ones were built. They should have left it there. 

[AnthonyG]

1 hour ago, GeordieInExile said:

It was only a concept. It should have been produced for real. 

That’s lovely, but I’m not sure about the intended target market, apart from French people who had given up trying to keep their old Scimitar GTE, P1800ES or Beta HPE on the road…

[GeordieInExile]

1 hour ago, AnthonyG said:

That’s lovely, but I’m not sure about the intended target market, apart from French people who had given up trying to keep their old Scimitar GTE, P1800ES or Beta HPE on the road…

The target market is Autoshite. 

[martc]

Sexism alert.

I'm quoting here, OK, so get off your high horses - 'the Toyota Carina Jun, female specification'. Introduced in June 1982 . In reverse it emitted an ultrasonic wave which reflected off obstacles and bounced back to a sensor, the nearenes was indicated by coloured lights mounted on the parcel shelf. It was marketed as a female car due to the '80's perception of female reversing skillz. Japan only I believe, not sure if it was available in pink.

[martc]

This isn’t just your regular FIAT 131, nor a Turkish made Tofaş Şahin it’s a Nasr Şahin that was produced in Egypt. The livery shows it was once a taxi (which most were).

[martc]

Not an MG but a Jensen 504 BMC prototype with an interesting spare wheel setup, designed by Eric Neale, made in 1953.

[martc]

1990-1993 Biagini Passo, one of 65 built. The Passo was made by Italian manufacturer ACM, and is essentially a VW Golf Cabriolet on a Golf Country platform. The front and rear have been changed a lot though, the turn signals were borrowed from the Fiat Ritmo and the tail lights from the Panda. Unlike the Golf Cabriolet, the rear tailgate could be opened wider than before. It also featured a massive front bar and a changed grille. Enginewise it was only available with one engine, a 1.8 litre four-cylinder with 98 hp, which was also the only engine available in the Golf Country.

[Remspoor]

Volkswagen W12 (Roadster/Syncro /Nardo). In 2002 took the world record for all speed classes over 24 hours over the Nardò Ring at Lecce.

[bunglebus]

Chappe et Gessalin

[MiniMinorMk3]

On 14/06/2024 at 22:50, bunglebus said:

How about the Leata Caballero, an attempt to take the American Shovitt upmarket. There's even a pickup

Which looks much better than the hatchback

Original Press Shot

[Lord Sterling]

Nissan Autech Zagato Stelvio AZ1

Don't much like the floor mats in it.

Give me a jiffy and I'll see if I can get some proper OEM ones....

[Snake Charmer]

Boschert B300.

 

[lesapandre]

On 25/09/2024 at 11:22, martc said:

Not an MG but a Jensen 504 BMC prototype with an interesting spare wheel setup, designed by Eric Neale, made in 1953.

Would have been the successor to the A40 sports perhaps which was on the Somerset chassis. Must have been trumped by the BMC merger and the MGA and Austin's tie-up with Healey which pushed Jensen out into the cold. Early Interceptors used an uprated Austin 4-l six out of the Sheerline car which itself was a development of an Austin lorry engine. All very convoluted the history of the times. That car has some nice touches if a bit over-curved and kit-car-ish. Fibreglass I'd assume.

[quicksilver]

2 hours ago, lesapandre said:

Would have been the successor to the A40 sports perhaps which was on the Somerset chassis. Must have been trumped by the BMC merger and the MGA and Austin's tie-up with Healey which pushed Jensen out into the cold. Early Interceptors used an uprated Austin 4-l six out of the Sheerline car which itself was a development of an Austin lorry engine. All very convoluted the history of the times. That car has some nice touches if a bit over-curved and kit-car-ish. Fibreglass I'd assume.

It didn't stop Jensen from trying to work with BMC though. This isn't as I first thought a Crayford ADO16 but a one-off Jensen convertible based on the 1100 Countryman. Jensen built it speculatively, showed it to BMC and told them "we can build this for you". BMC's reply was "no thanks, we're not interested" so that was the end of it until Crayford came along a few years later.