Weird Cars Thread

[Timcognito]

It's a shame that the whole De Lorean story was such a fiasco, they were nice looking cars - reminded me a bit of the Lancia Beta Montecarlo:

View attachment 540421

Also nice looking, but unfortunately water soluble.

Lancia made a lot of good looking cars, IMO. Had not seen this one. Good call.

 

[Chr1]

Eugene Reynolds of Edinburgh punk band "The Rezillos", used to restore various interesting old vehicles.
Photo below is of him and the guitar player in a Messerschmitt.

He also drove a WW2 Zundapp sidecar outfit. Complete, with driven sidecar wheel and machine gun mount.
Similar to this. Plus various rare old Indian motorcycles.

Met him several times. Classy fella.

 

[Waxx]

The 1931 Campbell-Napier-Railton Blue Bird, a rare racecar with a 1,450 hp 23.9 litre supercharged Napier Lion VIID W12. It was a one of made by Thomson & Taylor for the engineering, bodywork by Gurney Nutting. It was used to set a new landspeed record that year driven by Malcolm Campbell at 174.224 mph (280.386 km/h) that same year.

 

[Waxx]

And a classic french car, the 1937 Talbot Lago Type 150 C S Tear Drop

 

[Waxx]

And a last one of that era in Europe, the 1938 Mercedes 500K streamline cabriolet, a custom version of the regular 500K

 

[Earth]

#734

This may be the main inspiration for the Delorean:


The C-111 Mercedes benz prototype.
The design goes back to the late sixties, this one is from 1970.

The engine design familiar to many, would slot right into the humour thread...

Invented back in the late 20s (Wankel received a patent for his engine in 1929), the Wankel RPD was first installed on the NSU Ro 80 production car in 1967, after which almost all the world's leading automakers acquired patents for the invention: Alfa Romeo, Daimler-Benz, General Motors, Nissan, Toyota, Mazda and others.
Mercedes began cautious experiments with the Wankel RPD back in 1962, and after purchasing the patent, it began active development work. Their result was the Mercedes-Benz C111.
The performance characteristics of the car, equipped with a three-rotor engine, were impressive from the very beginning. The Wankel fitted to a 1969 Mercedes produced 280 hp, propelling the lightweight car to a top speed of 162 mph (260 kph). The acceleration time to 60 mph (96 kph) was 5 seconds.

 

[EJ3]

#734

This may be the main inspiration for the Delorean:


The C-111 Mercedes benz prototype.
The design goes back to the late sixties, this one is from 1970.

The engine design familiar to many, would slot right into the humour thread...

View attachment 541292


View attachment 541298

Invented back in the late 20s (Wankel received a patent for his engine in 1929), the Wankel RPD was first installed on the NSU Ro 80 production car in 1967, after which almost all the world's leading automakers acquired patents for the invention: Alfa Romeo, Daimler-Benz, General Motors, Nissan, Toyota, Mazda and others.
Mercedes began cautious experiments with the Wankel RPD back in 1962, and after purchasing the patent, it began active development work. Their result was the Mercedes-Benz C111.
The performance characteristics of the car, equipped with a three-rotor engine, were impressive from the very beginning. The Wankel fitted to a 1969 Mercedes produced 280 hp, propelling the lightweight car to a top speed of 162 mph (260 kph). The acceleration time to 60 mph (96 kph) was 5 seconds.


View attachment 541299

The biggest failure of the DeLorean as a transportation device was the lackadaisical power and top speed for the market that could easily afford it.
And, Renault, at the time: had the same basic powerplant that could have delivered the goods.
Renault: The little 2.8 liter PRV engine. It has so much potential:
If DMC would have rolled out the Twin Turbo PRV it could have easily become one of the fastest production cars of its time. The worlds fastest speed at the Le Man is 252 mph and it was done by a Twin Turbo PRV powered car the Peugeot P88? Car had I think 910Hp. To this day I believe that record still stands since nobody has been able to beat it.

 

[Earth]

In their defense, they got there before they arrived:

 

[Waxx]

In France they also build streched limousines in the past ...

And yes, this is real. Quiet a few were build in the time, mostly by custom car builders. My parents their marriage car was uch a streched limo 2CV, with open roof, build by my uncle who was a 2CV specialist car tuner back in the 1970's.

 

[Keith_W]

Ferrari Luce (2026)

My favourite Ferrari Luce comment: "It looks like it's giving birth to a Modena".

To be fair, if it were wearing a Hyundai badge, it would be fine. You sort of forgive crappy design when the cars aren't too expensive. The problem is that it's wearing a Ferrari badge, and it's >$600k. What a joke. I always thought that Jony Ive was over-rated, this confirms it. He totally deserves to be laughed at. What a pretentious prick.

 

[Axo1989]

View attachment 543200

View attachment 543197

View attachment 543201

My favourite Ferrari Luce comment: "It looks like it's giving birth to a Modena".

To be fair, if it were wearing a Hyundai badge, it would be fine. You sort of forgive crappy design when the cars aren't too expensive. The problem is that it's wearing a Ferrari badge, and it's >$600k. What a joke. I always thought that Jony Ive was over-rated, this confirms it. He totally deserves to be laughed at. What a pretentious prick.

F*ck me dead Keith, I realise this is a humour thread but spare us the generative slop.

 

[xanalog]

I guess I never got the memo that the Abarth 124 Spider was sold in the states... or even that it had ever existed:

One was parked across the street and at first sighting; it looked to be an odd Miata.

• The Abarth 124 Spider is a two-seat roadster that shares its platform with the Mazda MX-5 Miata (ND) but is styled and tuned by Fiat’s performance division.
• Produced from 2016 to 2019, with 41,321 units manufactured, it was assembled in Japan by Mazda and finalized in Turin, Italy, at the Officine Abarth.
• The Abarth variant features a 1.4-liter turbo engine producing 168 hp/184 lb-ft, weighing-in under 2400 pounds.
• Bilstein suspension, Brembo brakes and Monza exhaust.

 

[Waxx]

Toyota made some weird cars, like this 1969's EX III concept:

 

[mhardy6647]

Toyota made some weird cars, like this 1969's EX III concept:

View attachment 545959

... but they also made the 2000GT (and sold them, too -- at least a few)

 

[EJ3]

I guess I never got the memo that the Abarth 124 Spider was sold in the states... or even that it had ever existed:

In the mid 1970's, I had one of these Abarth 1000 Spyder's for a few months (I was unaware that they are quite rare):
It would accelerate 0-60 mph in 12.4 sec, 0-100 km/h in 13.2 sec and a quarter mile time is 18.8 sec. (74 HP @ 6150 RPM, 76 ft-lb at 4200 RPM).
(it was fun as hell to drive but couldn't straight line with my 68 SS396 Chevelle [which had the low performance 325 HP version {under-rated by the factory by about 75 HP for insurance purposes}])

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The headlights looked a bit like the Lamborghini Muira of the era (before the USA banned covered headlights in 1968 [another of the many dumb NHTSA ideas])

The car was equipped with a 1.0-liter inline-four mated to a four-speed manual transaxle, and additional features include a tan soft top, 13″ steel wheels with covers, front disc brakes, Carello headlight covers, a vented decklid, and a single carburetor.

Development of the Abarth-engineered OT Series was based on the Fiat 850 platform and began in the early 1960s, with the production 850 OT Berlina debuting in 1964. The 1000 OT Coupe and Spider were subsequently introduced with increased specifications produced through the late 1960s. Exterior details: a tan soft top, a left mirror, a vented decklid, and Carello headlight covers.

Steel 13″ wheels with polished Abarth-branded covers and were mounted with Pirelli Cinturato P3 tires, while a full-size spare is stored in the front trunk compartment. A fully independent suspension is equipped along with front and rear anti-roll bars. The brake system consists of discs up front and drums out back.

The cabin houses low-back bucket seats upholstered in tan vinyl accompanied by a color-coordinated rear parcel shelf and door panels. Woodgrain trim adorns the black dashboard, and additional appointments include lap belts, a wooden shift knob, a passenger grab handle, and rubber floor linings.

A two-spoke steering wheel with an Abarth horn button fronts Veglia Borletti instrumentation consisting of a 120-mph speedometer, an 8k-rpm tachometer, and auxiliary gauges for water temperature, fuel level, and oil pressure.

The Abarth-tuned 1.0L inline-four is mounted at the rear and equipped with a single carburetor.

The rear wheels are linked to a four-speed manual transaxle.

 

[Earth]

 

[xanalog]

I sent it to the nanoBanana body*paint shop for a facial:

OT: I just opened google and simply asked "how do I easily convert this old looking image to something that has a nice paint job on it?" +CtrlV'd the image (no retakes). For all I know, it probably put a catalytic converter to it w/o asking!

 

[mhardy6647]

View attachment 547044

I'll bet it's noisy.

I sent it to the nanoBanana body*paint shop for a facial:
View attachment 547120
OT: I just opened google and simply asked "how do I easily convert this old looking image to something that has a nice paint job on it?" +CtrlV'd the image (no retakes). For all I know, it probably put a catalytic converter to it w/o asking!

I'll bet it's - still - virtually noisy.


PS The catalytic converter bit's inspired. Kudos!

 

[mhardy6647]

Oh.
Whuffler.

Well -- I guess we get at least one more day before The Singularity.

 

[mhardy6647]

PS I ain't touchin' NO MUFF TOO TUFF.