Old cars that now look tremendous.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Hmm. Odd there was a three year overlap for vehicles that were very much the same sizewise

[WOM]

Hmm. Odd there was a three year overlap for vehicles that were very much the same sizewise

Just so we don't sound like ignoramuses, should the topic of the Pacer arise at a dinner party, I've done some reading.

Apparently the Gremlin was intended to be a 'small car', while the Pacer was designed from the 'passengers out', as a car that's roomy like a big car...but with small exterior dimensions. It was designed to be an urban car, vs the big-ass suburban land yachts that were the style at the time.

Amazingly (as an aside), the smallest engine you could get was a 3.8 litre inline 6. Jeebus. That's an engine you'd have found in enormous Buicks, Pontiacs and Chryslers.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Ah, I suppose that made some sort of marketing sense at the time. Though obviously not much, as the Pacer wasn't a roaring success at he time while the Gremlin has maintained a cult following.

[WOM]

Even at this remove, it's hard to get past the 'what were they thinking?' styling weirdness. I mean, you could coerce yourself into the idea that it's an endearing oddness...like a French car or something. But it's really just quite gangly in so many ways. Surely the market responded to that at the time. The Gremlin...I think you could go 'yeah, it's weird...but oddly interesting'.

[Sits]

Back in 70s England, any American car made us stop and look, if only out of curiosity. But I still remember walking through the prosaic surroundings of Station Approach, Maidenhead and seeing a metallic blue Pacer parked. I have to say that next to the Escorts, Allegros and Hillman Avengers it looked bloody futuristic.

[Sits]

And it wasn’t small.

[Snake Plissken]

Amazingly (as an aside), the smallest engine you could get was a 3.8 litre inline 6. Jeebus. That's an engine you'd have found in enormous Buicks, Pontiacs and Chryslers.

And probably barely had enough power to pull the skin off a rice pudding. It never ceases to amaze me how US cars took a lot of metal and a lot of fuel to only be able to go in a straight line very slowly.

I looked it up. Pacer 3.8l inline 6 in 1979, 100hp for 3,000lb weight.

1976 Ford Escort Mk II 1.6, 84hp for 2,100lb weight.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Just so we don't sound like ignoramuses, should the topic of the Pacer arise at a dinner party, I've done some reading.

Apparently the Gremlin was intended to be a 'small car', while the Pacer was designed from the 'passengers out', as a car that's roomy like a big car...but with small exterior dimensions. It was designed to be an urban car, vs the big-ass suburban land yachts that were the style at the time.

Amazingly (as an aside), the smallest engine you could get was a 3.8 litre inline 6. Jeebus. That's an engine you'd have found in enormous Buicks, Pontiacs and Chryslers.

It's not that insane if you remember that it produced about 130 bhp, which is not uncommon in a car of that size now. looking at wikipedia, the most powerful variant of that type of engine (4.6l) is comparable with the 1.8 litre engines you find in a toyota corolla.

Ooh I missed snake's similar post

[Sits]

I was wondering how these power outputs compared to other cars of the time. I worked for Saab UK in the early 80s and I remember quite a hoo-haa when they launched the 900 T16S because it delivered 175bhp. That got me wondering about the company cars my Dad drove in the late 60s and early 70s. These were invariably Austin 1100s. I’ve looked those up and it appears their A Series engines* were packing a mighty 40-45bhp. There was much excitement when he arrived one day in his new Morris 1300GT complete with vinyl roof and special wheels. 65bhp.

*The BMC A Series engine is a story in itself: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMC_A-series_engine

[Third rate Leszno]

Rover P6 in Formby Pinewoods this morning - don't see too many of them on the roads these days.

[Sits]

Very nice, although that short-lived relocation of the spare tyre was horrendous.

[Snake Plissken]

They sold a road-going Peugeot 205 T16 for £227,500 at auction over the weekend. Which actually seems... quite cheap. Although I guess the owner is never going to actually turn it into the rally-going monster.

[WOM]

I just learned about this one last week. Behold the Ford Carousel - designed to be a 'garageable family van' and developed at Ford by Lee Iaccoca and product planning director Hal Sperlich. It reached the rolling-concept stage of development before being killed off in favour of Ford's profitable full-size family station wagons.

Fast forward a few years when Iaccoca and Sperlich decamped Ford for Chrysler. One of Iaccoca's best early ideas was to revive the 'garageable van' into the minivan, which was a massive hit for Chrysler and helped save the company. 40 years on, they're still building them.

[Felicity, I guess so]

[Felicity, I guess so]

That's a 1954 Georgian (USSR) car that sits outside a garage in Moniaive, Dumfries and Galloway

[Felicity, I guess so]

[Felicity, I guess so]

The note in the side window says it's a GAZ M20

[Sits]

A trip to Newtown (see Mundane). An 80s vintage Saab 900 turbo.

[Sits]

And a ??? vintage Hindustan Ambassador, available for hire from Bollywood Cars.

[Third rate Leszno]

That's a 1954 Georgian (USSR) car that sits outside a garage in Moniaive, Dumfries and Galloway

Before I read your description I was looking at it and thinking it was a Warszawa, and a bit of googling tells me the latter was in fact the same vehicle as the Gaz M20, but built under licence in Poland until 1957.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

And a ??? vintage Hindustan Ambassador, available for hire from Bollywood Cars.

I'm not sure why exactly this looks so good, but it really does. I like the proportions

[Sits]

I'm not sure why exactly this looks so good, but it really does. I like the proportions

Sometimes simple works. The story of the Ambassador is fascinating (I read the Wiki after seeing the car - below). Talking with a close colleague who is Indian and about 60, he said that growing up they were everywhere, had a reputation for being extremely tough and he recalled seeing ten people in one.

[Sits]

In a city car park today. One of the first new model launches I remember admiring at the time.

[Eggchaser]

Just another average Sainsbury's car park.