Like cars and trucks?

[Opsimath]

The next door neighbor to my mom and dad had cars. I recall him showing us his new acquisition that had a rotary engine and he was singing its praises but I cannot remember what kind of car it was. He had a few Jaguars, and I think the big older car was a Studebaker but not sure about that either. That was probably in the mid to late 70's. Could it have been a Mazda, maybe?

 

[bluesypicky]

Could it have been a Mazda, maybe?

Probably was.
Unless it was that ugly thing? (Citroen GS):



But I don't believe these, along with the NSU's were ever imported in the US.

 

[adorshki]

Awesome Bronco, but it needs a front bumper, looks naked like that. I like the Baby Moons and beauty rings. Non factory color?

I love it without the bumper! Believe that's the "Swiss Aqua" shown in '71 & '72 Paint Chip charts for Bronco and Econoline
Note you could get the crowd-pleasing Seafoam Green, too.

Here's a really little known marriage of American muscle and Brit handling, the Jensen, which eventually got a little bloated with a 440 engined Interceptor. Having a 600lb engine up from makes a car plow through turns a bit - oversteer - no matter what you do underneath, it's just physics.

An earlier sportier version was much lighter with 383 engine. Man, talk about a pocket rocket!

Ah, ah, ah! 'At's a Jensen-Healy which started production 6 years after the Interceptor and only ever got 2 liter Lotus motors.
A 383 wouldn't have fit in that chassis.

Methinks you were thinking of the V-8 equipped Interceptor convertible :


Early Interceptors did get 383's until Chrysler detuned 'em, so they went to the 440 (2 options in fact) in '71.

Also in the little known Brit car/American V8 category, the Sunbeam Tiger, basically an Sunbeam Alpine with a fairly light 289 engine stuffed in.

I cannot see one of those without the theme from Get Smart cueing up in my head:

Think that's the only one with the lane-clearing accessory though.
(PS, they got the often-forgotten 260 V8 just like the very first Cobras, only about 600 of the final year '67's got 289's):

 

[Opsimath]

Probably was.
Unless it was that ugly thing? (Citroen GS):



But I don't believe these, along with the NSU's were ever imported in the US.

I don't think it was that. I just recalled, he also had a Rolls with some kind of emblem connected to the British Crown. Said he didn't know how it ended up in the US.

 

[Guildedagain]

Ok, got me on that one, figured it wasn't the V8 powered version aviating like that - Dukes of Hazard? - wanted to see if someone would catch it ;]

Yes, the 260. The baby of the Ford small blocks. Incidentally, the Chevy small black started life as a 265, nearly the same CID, in 1955.

By comparison, and contrary to people who think Chevy invented the V8 in '55 - the 1st two years of Corvettes has 6 cylinders - Chrysler unveiled the Hemi in 1951, way ahead of their time, and the 300 "letter cars" set record after record at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Another forgotten British car with a 383, the AC Bristol 411, 383 4bbl with 340hp, a Roadrunner engine in a tiny car ;]

The earlier Bristol was the basis for Shelby's Cobra, perhaps the most wicked looking British sports car outside Bond's Aston Martin DB-5?

The DB-5

 

[adorshki]

The next door neighbor to my mom and dad had cars. I recall him showing us his new acquisition that had a rotary engine and he was singing its praises but I cannot remember what kind of car it was. He had a few Jaguars, and I think the big older car was a Studebaker but not sure about that either. That was probably in the mid to late 70's. Could it have been a Mazda, maybe?

Yeah, in US it could only have been a Mazda, early-to-mid '70s was the RX-2/RX-3:

and from '75-81 also the Cosmo which set the stage for the RX-7 (first year '79 but actually '80 in practical terms in US)

And Mazda's first entry in the rotary-engined niche, the '67 Cosmo:

'nother one of those cars with a tail I could happily chase for days.....

unfortunately it never saw (and never will see) any kind of widespread production and use on the roadways, due to its inability to compete with its crankshaft based counter parts (not to mention the now fully electric) on the fuel efficiency front.
No matter how well tuned their injection system is, these spinners have a greater loss of unburnt fuel in the course of their firing rotation.
Still, hats off Felix.... that was the hell of an invention!

Not just the fuel efficiency thing (fairly well cured by the RX-8), but emissions as well. They actually burn a lot of oil as a matter of design, as it's injected into the cylinder, the only way to lubricate the apex seals. Mazda was the outfit who finally figured out how to get more than 50,000 miles out of 'em when they solved the apex seal durability problem.

I remember as a kid, seeing quite a few if these in the streets of Le Mans, but they never really took off from then on:

I don't care what Jack Bruce says, I still say this song's about the car. Clapton had one.


And come on, the very first lyric is "Driving in my car...."

 

[adorshki]

Ok, got me on that one, figured it wasn't the V8 powered version aviating like that - Dukes of Hazard? - wanted to see if someone would catch it ;]

Yes, the 260. The baby of the Ford small blocks. Incidentally, the Chevy small black started life as a 265, nearly the same CID, in 1955.

By comparison, and contrary to people who think Chevy invented the V8 in '55 - the 1st two years of Corvettes has 6 cylinders - Chrysler unveiled the Hemi in 1951, way ahead of their time, and the 300 "letter cars" set record after record at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Another forgotten British car with a 383, the AC Bristol 411, 383 4bbl with 340hp, a Roadrunner engine in a tiny car ;]

The earlier Bristol was the basis for Shelby's Cobra, perhaps the most wicked looking British sports car outside Bond's Aston Martin DB-5?

ah-ah-ah...!! Once again, a minor correction:
The Cobra was derived from the AC Ace, not the Ace-Bristol roadster which preceded it. Bristol provided straight-6's to AC for use in the first gen Ace.
They stopped building the 6 so there was no longer an "Ace-Bristol Roadster" and a body update made the new car visually distinct from the older one.

In fact it was the loss of Bristol engines that prompted Shelby to approach 'em about using the Ford V8 in the first place.
However since you are a confessed "non-Ford fan", you get a pass.

 

[adorshki]

.....that ugly thing? (Citroen GS):

Need some eyewash. 'Time to trot out the trusty ol' Renault Alpine A110:

Of which most competitors only ever saw this view:

 

[dreadnut]

Most fun car I've ever driven. My buddy's '74 MGB.

 

[bluesypicky]

Need some eyewash. 'Time to trot out the trusty ol' Renault Alpine A110:

That thing was sexy wasn't she?.... remember rolling my 1/43 scale one, on my "Le Mans" track drawn in chalk on the backyard concrete.
Made us forget all about the R8 Gordini!
Even our "gendarmes" used it to be sure they wouldn't be outrun by some law breaker on the highway:

 

[5thumbs]

I can't believe I haven't posted to this thread yet.

A short history: My first car was a 1958 Thunderbird. I traded that for a 1960 MGA (great story there), then progressed to a 1963 Austin Healy 3000 MK2. I then got the muscle car bug, bought a new 1972 Camaro SS/RS. That traded to a 1968 Corvette with a brand new 454 motor. (Another great story, will save for the future).

Then life got in the way for a few years. I briefly returned to the real world with a 1979 TransAm, but surgery on the clutch leg knee made that another one that "shouldn’t have gotten away".

After that it was a series of "sensible" cars. My present ride is a 2005 Taurus whose only claim to fame is a killer audio system.

It's sad, but now that I am retired and have the time (and at least some of the money) to create a dream ride, my declining eyesight and failing lungs tell me it's not gonna happen.

So it goes. Still many great memories. This thread is awesome.

 

[Guildedagain]

Trans Am, Smokey and the Bandit? ;]

 

[adorshki]

That thing was sexy wasn't she?.... remember rolling my 1/43 scale one, on my "Le Mans" track drawn in chalk on the backyard concrete.
Made us forget all about the R8 Gordini!

Much prefer the Gordini Dauphini, er, Dauphine...

And by golly, they hit Bonneville, too

Even our "gendarmes" used it to be sure they wouldn't be outrun by some law breaker on the highway:

Less bugs in the teeth, too.

 

[Opsimath]

I can't believe I haven't posted to this thread yet.

A short history: My first car was a 1958 Thunderbird. I traded that for a 1960 MGA (great story there), then progressed to a 1963 Austin Healy 3000 MK2. I then got the muscle car bug, bought a new 1972 Camaro SS/RS. That traded to a 1968 Corvette with a brand new 454 motor. (Another great story, will save for the future).

Then life got in the way for a few years. I briefly returned to the real world with a 1979 TransAm, but surgery on the clutch leg knee made that another one that "shouldn’t have gotten away".

After that it was a series of "sensible" cars. My present ride is a 2005 Taurus whose only claim to fame is a killer audio system.

It's sad, but now that I am retired and have the time (and at least some of the money) to create a dream ride, my declining eyesight and failing lungs tell me it's not gonna happen.

So it goes. Still many great memories. This thread is awesome.

Would like to hear your car stories.

 

[adorshki]

Trans Am, Smokey and the Bandit? ;]

Never liked the front end on those.
The Trans Am had its origins in the Firebird Sprint Turismo, which also saw the introduction of the through-hood scoop:

Offset because it was on top of the OHC Sprint 6:

And note the brake scoops:

 

[Opsimath]

Never like the front end on those.
The Trans Am had its origins in the Firebird Sprint Turismo, which also saw the introduction of the through-hood scoop:

Offset because it was on top of the OHC Sprint 6:

And note the brake scoops:

What do brake scoops do?

 

[adorshki]

What do brake scoops do?

Channel air to the rear brakes for cooling.
(Edit: screwed up and quoted myself instead of editing, fixing here):

The detail morphed into the front engine cooling ducts (behind the wheelwell) on the '69 first year Trans Am:

I don't believe they were functional on regular production cars but were easily removed for tapping by competition teams. The idea there was that air flowing past 'em is at lower pressure and creates a vacuum pulling hot air out of the engine bay, as opposed to the forward facing scoops on top which were collectors for the carburetor. (Or the rear brakes on the Sprint Turismo).

Those cars and the Camaros had rear drum brakes, in fact, now that I think about it, all drum brakes until a front disc option became available in '68, and drums need more cooling than discs. The car was the test bed for all the engineering tweaks Pontiac was trying out specifically to compete in the Trans Am series.

Chevy was doing the same with the Camaro, yielding the Z-28.

 

[Opsimath]

Huh. How about that.

 

[Guildedagain]

Wow, Pontiac's OHC 6!

Now a Tri Power makes sense. On a V8, not so much. Gorgeous aluminum covers! But not even a crossflow head...

I love the sound of an inline six, it's very old timey.

Did you know that Chrysler wanted to unveil a DOHC Hemi V6 in 1951 - to replace the flahead, wow - but it was way too expensive and too far ahead of its time. Makes you wonder if the Chrysler engineers got into the ergot, if you know what I mean, and I know you do ;]

I mean that's a pretty bold leap going from a flathead to a DOHC Hemi design, but then again, some shaft/bevel driven DOHC English motorcycles engines appeared pretty early on.

 

[Guildedagain]

Channel air to the rear brakes for cooling.

Channel # 5, the aroma of cooking brakes ;]]]