norm75
Part of things
Posts: 668
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 Volvo 262C Solitaire, only 5 made before Volvo killed it with the obvious safety concerns Volvo had a habit of that. Toncar produced an estate 440 in the early/mid 90’s. A bit of an oddball as it was basically the normal hatch with an estate tailgate grafted on so the tailgate appears to hinge 1/4 of the way in the roof and the extra side glass lifted with the tailgate. Volvo were not happy and prevented the company from selling them after a while.  French coachbuilder helieuz built a prototype and presented it to Volvo but the project was shelved as Volvo deemed the car to look too similar to the 745, which is a bit of a strange decision considering the facelift 460 saloon looked very similar to the 850 saloon. helieuz prototype  |
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Last Edit: Jul 8, 2023 11:07:15 GMT by norm75
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braaap
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,746
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From Classic Remise in Berlin  They were not all estates. First champion picture I ever saw was a black&white one in a car encyclopedia. It was a two-seater roadster-like one, parking among sheep.  It looked more like a cartoon car. They later were built and sold on as Maico 500. I just noticed You can find quite a lot of pictures when You look for Champion 400 (more than looking for Champion 500). But that sheep photo wasn't among them. But I found something else to get an idea of the "size".  |
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Last Edit: Jul 8, 2023 12:02:29 GMT by braaap
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dikkehemaworst
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,636
Club RR Member Number: 16
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  Apparently a German thing for kids, so you can drive at 16 instead of 18. It's officially a trycicle... Weird... |
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rodharris83
Club Retro Rides Member
Day Dreamer...
Posts: 775
Club RR Member Number: 4
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Jul 24, 2023 12:10:13 GMT
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braaap
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,746
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Jul 24, 2023 13:34:33 GMT
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I posted this in feb23 and got some replies: And now for something not as mysterious as the mighty metro or the certainly-alpine-based-but-then-maybe-not kitcar, but still something strange. I was waiting at a red light today and saw a modern-ish fiat 500 coming from the left in a distance. But the rear wheel somehow looked broken. Infact the whole rear end was little bit lifted and something clumsy was underneath. Then I lost eye contact. A little bit later I saw it again and could even take a pic:  I still don't have clue what was going on there: I heard of german electric conversions of the 500 using forklift technology, but did this one feature a complete forklift rear axle? Or was something like the microlino, that electric bmw isetta thing underneath it? Unfortunatley I did not notice if the front wheels or the rear wheels worked as a steering device, Made me think of the inflatable astra on Top Gear And now for something not as mysterious as the mighty metro or the certainly-alpine-based-but-then-maybe-not kitcar, but still something strange. I was waiting at a red light today and saw a modern-ish fiat 500 coming from the left in a distance. But the rear wheel somehow looked broken. Infact the whole rear end was little bit lifted and something clumsy was underneath. Then I lost eye contact. A little bit later I saw it again and could even take a pic: I still don't have clue what was going on there: I heard of german electric conversions of the 500 using forklift technology, but did this one feature a complete forklift rear axle? Or was something like the microlino, that electric bmw isetta thing underneath it? Unfortunatley I did not notice if the front wheels or the rear wheels worked as a steering device, I am thinking an elaborate disguise for a prototype? Yeh but they’ve still got 4 wheels !! |
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Jul 24, 2023 18:56:37 GMT
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Never seen or heard of these before, Nissan Stagea. Owner told me there only about 100 in the country.  |
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misteralz
Posted a lot
I may drive a Volkswagen, but I'm scene tax exempt!
Posts: 2,495
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Jul 24, 2023 21:34:35 GMT
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I've only ever seen three Ellenators in my life, all in Germany. One was a Fabia and the other two were 500s. The latter 500 was on the back of a beavertail and had obviously rolled.
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braaap
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,746
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The latter 500 was on the back of a beavertail and had obviously rolled. Clarkson is known for rolling over three wheelers, maybe he test-drove it in typical Clarkson manner (" it's not mine, so I don't have to take care")? |
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Never seen or heard of these before, Nissan Stagea. Owner told me there only about 100 in the country. The Nissan Stagea. Or how to tell whether someone ever played Gran Turismo  Skyline parts were a common mod for them. |
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Last Edit: Jul 25, 2023 7:19:24 GMT by ajprice
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braaap
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,746
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Jul 25, 2023 13:10:11 GMT
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The Nissan Stagea. Or how to tell whether someone ever played Gran Turismo That's what I (never) did. That's why I only know of the Stagea because someone here wrote about it. Otherwise I still wouldn't have heard of it. |
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Jul 25, 2023 17:02:25 GMT
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AUTECH NISSAN PRIMERA   |
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Jul 25, 2023 20:18:30 GMT
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I've only ever seen three Ellenators in my life, all in Germany. One was a Fabia and the other two were 500s. The latter 500 was on the back of a beavertail and had obviously rolled. Hehe, it's quite a clever conversion, technically. I was considering trying it out on my Abarth Grande Punto Esseesse just for laughs...  |
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75swb
Beta Tester
Posts: 1,052
Club RR Member Number: 181
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So the white one is an "R35" stagea (wc35), and the grey an "R34" (wc34) i believe, the wc34 actually being closer to an r33 underneath. So my understanding is that in japan the skyline is a very sensible and boring line of cars feat. a saloon, estate and coupe. Only the spiciest of these were ever of any interest as uk/us imports to the grand turismo generation, and the rest happily forgotten about.
The r34 wagons were available with rb engines, including rb25det's, rwd or awd, auto or manual, and an autech version also. A mate has a very nice facelift blue one on white 19" alloys with some gtr body bits on it, but non-turbo auto.
The r35 wagons were the vq engines, nearly all auto's with i think the autech version available for like 1 year only as a manual, and again rear or all wheel drive. The son of the r34 owner had one and was most pleased when it was sideswiped and written off as it suffered terrible electrical gremlins (may have been a singapore import which often suffer with humidity ruining electrical systems).
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braaap
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,746
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So my understanding is that in japan the skyline is a very sensible and boring line of cars feat. a saloon, estate and coupe. wrote a lot about nissan in his thread So, Japan ... after a visit to the nissan works collection in japan, and he mentioned several "sub-brands" like skyline, prince, datsun, etc. |
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75swb
Beta Tester
Posts: 1,052
Club RR Member Number: 181
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 Said R34 because awesome cars |
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Jul 29, 2023 13:38:59 GMT
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 I do not remember this from my childhood, Isdera 108i. |
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Jul 30, 2023 13:20:18 GMT
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^ Suddenly got a massive pointy wedge-shaped want-on.
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Please don't throw litter, take it home.
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Jul 31, 2023 10:46:16 GMT
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braaap
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,746
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Not only a car, not only a brand, but also a nation producing cars I only recently discovered this morning. It was a car with ukrainian plates, not so rare these days over here in germany as a lot of refugees came here in their cars. Today I had a modern saloon in front of me that I had never seen before. It had something written on the trunk lid that didn't help me any further, so I had to google it later. Did You know that Uzbekistan (correct english spelling?) does make cars? I did not. The car I saw on the road was a Ravon R4. I will not show a picture as it's really just some bland modern car, google it yourself but don't expect anything great. But a car with bit of a story. Originally a south american (!) Chevrolet Cobalt, built by GM of Uzbekistan and introduced to the russian market in 2016. |
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