Ever own a strange or unusual car?

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Originally Posted By: WiskyBadger
Originally Posted By: Rhymingmechanic
My first car was a 1970 Grand Prix Model J, an unusual body style that lasted only two years. I don't think I've seen more than two or three other '69-70s in the wild.
Not mine, but an example:




I also had a slant-six Duster that was plain-Jane in every way except a floor shift 3-speed and purple paint. (I always called it Plum Crazy, but a couple years ago I found out Plymouth's name was In Violet.) The original owner said it had been a dealer floor model.

I know where there’s one of these for sale. I’ve only seen a couple of them.


If I had any disposable income, I might track it down.
 
148908.jpg


My my fun daily driver is a bit odd

rmay635703.gif
 
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I have a 1981 Z/28 that I bought, designed, and built one piece at a time over an 18 year period.

And this 1950 Chevy fire truck with only 2300 miles on it.

 
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Originally Posted By: bigjl
Originally Posted By: csandste
Originally Posted By: Shannow
Didn't own it...but probably the most reliable thing my parents ever had...mid engined and all

r16rest6.jpg



Had one. Not mid-engined but it did have the transmission mounted ahead of the engine. My first FWD car. One of the first hatches. Renault called it the R16 Sedan-Wagon.

Also had a 62 Fiat 600. Fifty miles per gallon. Fifty miles per hour tops. Fifty miles per quart of oil--sprayed all over the rear window. My room mate bought it from me and flipped it on a closed shopping center parking lot while teaching his girl friend to drive. They were able to pick it up off its side and drive home.


Mid engined simply means the engine is mounted between the front and rear wheels.

It doesn't matter if the engine is in front or behind the passengers.

Its still mid engined.

Another example of a front mid engined car would be the Ferrari FF.

I have not owned (or used) many particularly unusual cars.

My first car was an Austin A40 MK2 Farina.

My third was a Brown Austin Allegro which we named the "flying turd"

And I learnt to drive in a 1984 Renault 14 TS which was a bit weird visually and was starting to rust at 3 years old.

The Renault 16 was only called the Sedan-Wagon for the US Market.


Among other peculiarities, iirc the Renault 16 had different wheelbase measurements on the right vs left side because of the placement of torsion bars.
 
Originally Posted By: Traction
I have a 1981 Z/28 that I bought, designed, and built one piece at a time over an 18 year period.


Reminds me of this:
 
Lots of them over the years, Austin Princess II, Lotus Cortina, Saab Sonnet V4, BMW M1 (super rare today) and Z3, Renault Alpine, Hillman Imp II, Sunbeam Alpine, Lotus Europa, Citroen SM and CX and quite a few more.
It was fun owning, driving and working on every one of them and they were not high priced used, in fact some were downright cheap and undesirable at the time, they had little in common with today's soulless appliances.
 
I didn't own it myself, but when I was little I used to ride around in my dad's 1939 3-wheeled Morgan. It was emerald green. At the time there were only six of them in North America.
 
Originally Posted By: Rhymingmechanic
My first car was a 1970 Grand Prix Model J, an unusual body style that lasted only two years. I don't think I've seen more than two or three other '69-70s in the wild.
Not mine, but an example:




I also had a slant-six Duster that was plain-Jane in every way except a floor shift 3-speed and purple paint. (I always called it Plum Crazy, but a couple years ago I found out Plymouth's name was In Violet.) The original owner said it had been a dealer floor model.
I dated a girl in high school whos father had one.had a 455 in it.
 
The 1980 VW Rabbit was the "strangest" vehicle I ever owned. Still had a point ignition, the radio wasn't wired into the key and the radiator didn't have drain cock so one had to remove the lower hose. There were other idiosyncrasies too but those I remember. Oh, one more. The wheel track was just different enough that the thing was terrible to drive on snow rutted highways. And we had a lot of that in northwestern Colorado.
 
I saw a vehicle I used to own, they were common in Aust and here, but would be unusual in the US - a Dodge At4. Dodge in the UK had their own distinct vehicles, not much to do with Dodge USA - they used cabs also used by Leyland, and later Commer. The Australian Dodge used Chrysler running gear and an International cab. The AT4 was a nice truck to drive, but the slant 6 lacked low down grunt compared to the same size International I had a few years earlier. I have no photos of mine, so this will have to do.

dodge-at4-114-ute-56899-1.jpg
 
I was Soooo close to pressing play on a 4 door version of that late last year...I love them

(nearly as much as the dodge travellall convention that pulled into the service station at Glenrowan while I was driving down to my Nan's funeral)

Which closes the circle on why I love them.

https://aso.gov.au/titles/tv/bellbird/clip2/

The truck 16 seconds into the video was my Grandad's truck, out the front of his vege shop in Daylesford, Victoria.

I spent many house as a takker riding shotgun in that truck...if we needed more people than the truck would carry up front, we sat in pumpkin crates (sided pallets) in the back.
 
I saw bigger versions in OZ, but here they were International. The AT4 was used for Ambulances in NZ, so in the '60's and '70's they were a very common sight on our roads. The last of them had the 265 Hemi, which might of helped the grunt problem. The Dodge had a fully floating rear axle, so much better than the semi floater on the Inter. One of my biggest grumbles about the utes of today, a heavy duty semi floating axle that is a major pain to do a bearing on, when a full floating axle will take a bigger load, and a bearing change is so easy....

Here is the well known New zealand Ambulance.

GPN125_19641105_011b.jpg
 
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I had a Sunbeam Stilleto for about a year, it was not a good example, and was the most unreliable car I have ever owned.
 
Originally Posted By: expat
I had a Sunbeam Stilleto for about a year,


Hillman Imp fastback.Pretty common here in the '60's and '70's, and we used to get a lot in where I served my apprenticeship. We had a cradle to put on our floor jack to pull the engine out, so we did a fair bit of work on them. Easiest car ever to do kingpins on...unbolt the stub axle, and no reaming the bushes. Worst car to do a thermostat on, it was right at the back of the engine...no hoists then, so we did the thermostat on the pit.

It was based on the Coventry Climax engine...as used in F1...and fire pumps.
 
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