Cars that time forgot

[Hell Driver]

Just an idea for an entertaining non 300 thread.

How about dredging up some weird and wonderful stuff from childhood car memories.

Only rules are:

1 Car must not be particlarly fast (too many familiar cars)
2 Car must not have a big following (we've seen them all before)
3 Car should ideally have some redeaming feature which make it notable (rule not mandatory just looking funny is enough)

All decades are OK (yes even the 90's)

Here's my first,

Claims to be first MPV (according to Wiki.)
I remember seeing them around and not really not knowing what the hell they were.
We used to think they were an off road 4X4
Think again! Land Rover had little to be afraid of

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matra_Rancho

[thebear54]

LOL...yes indeed, Simca made a valiant effort there.


Here is one I'm sure 99% of you have never heard of...


1957 Aurora.
Designed and built by a Catholic priest in the USA. Have to wonder if he was sampling a bit too much of the wine.
The scary bit is that the car survives and is fully restored once more.

John

[classicswede]

I remember Andy Saunders (builder of Rainbow Chaser) working on one of those. I'd only ever seen photo's of it in primer and body filler. Interesting to see what it was supposes to look like

[Hell Driver]

No, although I should have heard of it as it's supposed to be at Beaulieu motor museum where V3M had the 2011 meet, don't remember seeing it.

Got another one here, I remember seeing a few of these in the late 70's early 80's. I wondered why there were so few.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_180

or even rarer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talbot_Tagora (although with it's 'cult following' maybe this one shouldn't be in!)

[MCHUDD]

Hi all.
That Chrysler looks a lot like a HC VIVA.
Cheers Mark.

[SteveP]

FSO Polonez - My Dad had 2 of these (they didn't last long!!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FSO_Polonez

[nvdw]

The Max Roadster, a Dutch little cabriolet based on Peugeot/Citroën mechanicals. Its bodywork was made out of plastics and it was conceived to be 'modular': you could convert it into a true two-seater roadster or even a small hatchback. It was hideously expensive for such a small car however. Nice little write-up here: http://www.web-manager.nl/paginah.asp?i ... siteid=173 (do use Google Translate, it's in Dutch)

The French did something similarly obscure: the Mega Tjaffer (yes that is its name!)

[Hell Driver]

Thats an interesting concept, always wondered by cars could not be made with many parts interchangeable so you could update, renew, alter, like a meccano set.

[jtbo]

Aurora is familiar to me, well somewhat, I have stumbled upon it long time ago while doing my research of cars.

We had once FSO Polonez pick-up too, that was bit more rare than normal version.

AMC has few models that are not so much known, they usually have had fairly advanced designs for their time but then time quickly has caught up...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M422_Mighty_Mite

[thebear54]

Anyone recognize this ??

1957 Alweco Bamino Sport
197 cc two seater made in Holland 1955-1957

John

[trabitom99]

"just" about the 90s - I think it was first presented in 99, although it was built from 2001 to 2003.

The Renault Avantime:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Avantime

Only 8500 built at Matra (who also made the Rancho in the first post), before the factory went bankrupt. A pretty mad, senseless car - definitely a future classic!

Cheers

Tom

[Nimminz]

i was always quite interested in those avantines since i saw the pre-launch photos. only ever seen 3 and 2 of them were in holland

[bogbasic]

How's about this then? Back to the 80's with the Fiat Regata...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_Regata

...and the Weekend estate version even looked quite nice, especially in mellow metallic green.... mah dadah almost bought one!

I haven't seen one for so long I had forgotten what they looked like.

Bests, bogbasic.

[Hell Driver]

Anyone remember these?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9477639@N08/2089610306/

[trabitom99]

Is that like the car Clarkson drove through the BBC studios?

Cheers

Tom