Automobiles you don't see everyday...

I'm sure that Ron Cribbs will appreciate this one. I saw this little roadster last Sunday, while out with my two brothers. It was parked outside the place where we took our Dad out to breakfast for his birthday. It's a MkIII.. but I don't know what year. Somewhere between 1962-67.

ian1954 wrote:The steering wheel is on the wrong side!

Yes it is!! and somehow.. I figured that "you" might point that out...

rsv1cox wrote:Oh roddie, what have you started here..........

Automobiles, my favorite thing.  In my 77 years I have owned many, I stopped counting years ago at 130.  My 1964 Riviera was the insperation for the four Cox Riviera models that I have.

I lived in Tiverton for four years when I was stationed at the Naval Schools Command in Newport.  Didn't know where North Smithfield was so I looked it up.  You must be one of those "Vibrant and interesting people live in the 24.7 square miles comprising North Smithfield."  

actually.. I'm not a Rhode Island native... but I'm sure that many CEF members would agree that I'm "Vibrantly Interesting".. I was raised in Franklin, Ma.. and lived there until I married my first wife. Franklin is in the S.E. quadrant of the state, and approx. 8mi. from the RI border.

The Austin Healy 3000 is a car that my uncle (the one with the 65 MGB) has always loved.. but never had the chance to own.. yet anyway.

The Riviera is one of my favorites! I think there may be one I posted a pic of here in this thread. Yea.. page 6.. a gorgeous black 65.. about 1/2 way down the page.

Mark Boesen wrote:

roddie wrote:excuse me while I get a tissue...   .... ok.. I'm alright now.     ah... the  memories!

hahahaha (old school lol)!!!

p.s. Ron, just kiddin, I like mopars, had a 70 charger 440, 4 spd. ...and the clock worked!

Last Fall.. we had a "mini" H.S. reunion of sorts.. at an iconic Italian restaurant/bar in Franklin, MA. I started talking cars with one of my old classmates.. and he told me that he still had the 68 Charger RT that he bought 30+ years ago.. He said; "C'mon.. let's get outta' here and I'll show it to ya.. it's registered and parked at my mom's house 2 minutes away". Well... we drove there.. and there it was under a tarp in the driveway. We pulled the tarp off.. he got in.. put the 4-speed into neutral.. pumped the accelerator a few times.. and the 440 wedge roared to life! He let it idle for a minute or two.. and said; "C'mon.. let's go for a blast.".. My heart started to pound.. because I didn't know what kind of "blast" he had in mind.. or how good a driver he was. "Cool" I said.. and off we went. It was a leisurely "speed-limit" cruise through town and then he headed for interstate 495. There are two Franklin exits approx. 3/4 mi. apart. We were in 2nd gear coming down the ramp.. and when we hit the highway.. he punched the gas and you could feel the rear tires start to break loose. By the time he shifted into 4th gear.. we were close to 100 mph. All this time, he's talking about the phenomenon of the RT's front-end lifting at high speeds.. and said that it led to the development of the "Superbird". Thank God he took the next exit. I hadn't had a ride like that.. ever.

I'd been in faster cars where 100 mph felt more like 50... My brother had owned two consecutive Lotus Esprit's.. and the 2nd one had a small twin-turbocharged V8. It was SICK-QUICK!! It was in the 0-60 in under 4 seconds class.. with a top-speed of 177mph. I witnessed 145mph on the way to Newport, RI with him when we drove down once for the weekend about 10 years ago.

balogh wrote:Just because you guys in the car-nation are so obsessed with nostalgic automobiles, let me share this picture with you. This was the Trabant, also a  car but with plastic body and 600 cu.cm 2-stroke engine, made in Eastern-Germany until the late 1980-s.,



As the one-time East-German propaganda had it: "Our communist nation's pride, the Trabant, has a superb engine:it comprises in only two-strokes  what the obsolete engines of the imperialist countries like the US can do in only 4-strokes!!

Emissions continue to plague the two-stroke design automobile engine for mass production in an increasingly "green" global awareness. Mazda'a "rotary" in the RX series sports cars.. has an incredible power:weight/size ratio.. but it is not economical to operate from a fuel-cost standpoint.

This machine was parked outside a bar I played at last Summer.

AMC had there muscle-cars for sure Rusty. Talking "60's".. the AMX and "Scrambler" come to mind.




Just so you know what a "GTX" looks like...





I once ran across a 1964-5 Plymouth Fury/Belvedere(?) in a used car lot that was a drag car. It was "tubbed" and had a roll-bar. The engine was a 426 Hemi with dual four-barrel carbs sitting atop a high-rise intake manifold. But.. sitting in the back seat were these...




are those intake runners long enough for ya'? You think model airplane control linkages can be tricky.. try synchronizing that pair of carbs!!

Mark Boesen wrote:...if someone came up to me and said: "I'll give you any Mustang, Camaro or a AMX" it would take a long, long, long time to choose one. When I was a kid, my Dad won a contest to test drive a AMX for a day, I'll never forget us taking it out on the highway and the 'ol man runnin' it thru the gears!
When I was 15 ('73, driving on a learner permit) I was a lot boy at the local Ford dealership, they has just taken in on trade a deep marron/purple Plymouth GTX, I remember one of the salesman told me he'd trade me my '53 Chevy two door post and $300 bucks, got the o'l man to come take a look at it that night...I'll never forget him opening the hood, looking at that big o'l engine, shake his head side to side and quickly close the hood....

"ma' boy ain't gonna drive a car with a mottah' "that big".. until he's at least ma' age"...