Interesting cars from the past.

[seadoug]

I always thought the Studebaker Avanti was an interesting and quite attractive car for its time.

 

[MarkinPhx]

When I was a kid my mom insisted on my dad buying a 68 {?} Thunderbird with suicide doors. She also insisted that the color be turquoise, much like the one in this picture. My mom never was into cars so I find it odd now that she insisted on having this particular car with the strange doors. Anyway, from what I remember the car had a very nice interior but it was in the shop most of the time. There always seemed to be something wrong with it.

 

[RadishRose]

I remember the Tucker car. It was quite advanced for its time. The story of what happened to quash its further development is rather sad and cruel.

https://www.hotcars.com/real-story-of-what-happened-to-tucker-automobile-company/

 

[Tommy]

As a young child, I would watch a Lotus Europa glide past my house every late afternoon. Its low, wedge-shaped profile and mid-engine made it look like something from another world at the time.

It was the first car I ever truly wanted. After endless pestering, my mother finally bought me one. A toy version -- it was the closest I was ever going to get to owing one at the time.

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During my Navy years, upon our return from a deployment to Europe we had the opportunity to buy one of these FOB Rota Spain and the US Navy would transport it stateside for free. The cost would have been $3000. Of course, on an E-4s pay it might as well have been $3 million.

I still recall, the car was 34 inches from the roof to the ground. If somehow I could magically get into one today they'd have to bury me in it because I would never be able to get out.

 

[rgp]

Years ago, I visited a museum in Hershey Pa. and got to eyeball a Tucker up close. It was cool, but, the display of spare engines really drew me in. What an engineering marvel.


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Not to be [persnickity] but it wasn't an [in-house] engine.
It was a Franklin 0-335, modified in house, to be water cooled.

"An air-cooled flat-6 engine, the Franklin O-335 made by Air Cooled Motors (and originally intended for the Bell 47),[22] fit, and its 166 hp (124 kW; 168 PS) pleased Tucker. He purchased four samples for $5,000 each, and his engineers converted the 334 cubic inches (5,470 cc) engine to water cooling (a decision that has puzzled historians ever since).[22] "