January 2010 – CARS-YDSE.com

1959 Sunbeam Alpine Series I

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From what I can tell, this is a very early Sunbeam Alpine British sports car. The car was manufactured from 1959 through 1968. For a production car it was fairy inexpensive compared to the Jaguar and Corvettes of the day and it was also an economical car to drive.

The Alpine name, previously used by Sunbeam on an earlier car, was revived for this all new sports car launched in 1959. Based on a Hillman Husky floorpan, and using the 1494cc 4-cylinder engine from the Sunbeam Rapier, this new medium sized and attractive sports car was welcomed by the buying public who were at the time were not spoilt for choice in this area of the market.

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1956 Cadillac Series 62

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The cost of chromium during the 1950s must have been really inexpensive. This 1956 Cadillac Series 62 two door sedan is verification. Cadillac in 1956, updated the same basic car it introduced in 1954 but used a lot of chrome in the grill and elsewhere. I found this car last week in lower Pacific Heights in San Francisco.

At his point in time (1956) Cadillac was selling a great deal of cars to the luxury audience.

Despite an all-new ’56 Lincoln and revitalized ’57 Imperial, Cadillac remained America’s luxury sales leader by far. Combined Lincoln/Imperial volume never exceeded 40,000 cars a year in this era; at Cadillac, that was good quarterly output.

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1974 BMW Bavaria

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OK, I’m going to use a cliche’, but it really isn’t. This car is a classic. It still looks great after over 30 years. The car was basically a 2500 sedan with a 2800 motor. The car was only made for export to the U.S.

The Most Famous BMW Bavaria

The late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ favorite car, a 1974 green BMW Bavaria, which shuttled Caroline and John F. Kennedy Jr. from New York City to their New Jersey horse farm, was sold for $57,100 on eBay, December 11, 2000.

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1956 DeSoto Firedome Station Wagon

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I remember this car because Grocho Marks had DeSoto as a sponsor for his TV show, “You Bet Your Life”. One other point, again from memory, was that these cars had “Push Button Drive”, that used push buttons to change the gears for the automatic transmission. Other than these two pints, I can not find much on the Internet for this years DeSotos. Help me out and contribute some information as comments.

1967 Datsun 2000 (Fairlady)

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Yes, there were Datsun sports cars before the 240Z in 1969. This, I think, is a 1967 Datsun 2000 a.k.a. “Fairlady”. These cars helped bring the Japanese cars to the U.S. featuring performance and reliability, not just bargin pricing. In fact, there were dealer modifications on the 2000 that gave the car high performance stats that outstripped its competitors like M.G. and Jaguar.

The 2000 with the 135-hp, two-liter, SOHC unit was the one to have. It could surprise a TR6 or a BMW 2002, with 0-60 coming up in about ten seconds. Even more interesting was the factory-authorized, dealer-installed competition kit, consisting of twin, dual-choke side draft Solexes, a finned seven-quart sump, and a hot cam. Good for 150 hp, a 2000 so equipped would do 125 mph. And while the Brits were still making do with finicky Laycock de Normanville overdrive units, the Datsun 2000 had a five-speed, all-synchromesh gearbox with well-spaced ratios designed by Porsche..

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1951 Willys Station Wagon

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Shortly after WW2 the U.S. car market exploded. There was pent up demand due to the war diversion amd then the returning veterans coming home after the war needed cars. Willys did the minimal amount of re-design from the army jeeps and got the products out the door in 1946. This one, I think, is a 1951 but it is very similar to the Jeeps made from 1941-1945. The Willys-Overland Company built the product and became a part of Keiser.

The link below is to a page that briefly describes the car and its features.

After World War II, Willys released a series of Jeep-based vehicles, requiring a bare minimum of retooling. Notably, the two-door station wagon, introduced in 1946, was the first all-steel station wagon produced in the United States. Powered by a four-cylinder engine and priced from $1,495, this model sold strongly, and accounted for 21 per cent of total U.S. station wagon production by 1950.

1951 Willys Station Wagon

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’67 Morris Minor Traveller Woody Wagon

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During the early 2000s I worked in an industrial part of San Francisco at a dot.com. I walked the twenty or so blocks to work most days and started to carry my camera. I passed this car on the way to work many times. I never met the owner but loved the car.

Over 1050 ’67 Minors made it to these shores (U.S.A) before BMC was forced to pull the plug again. This time, the 1968 EPA (smog) and DOT (safety) regulations would require all auto manufactures to re-engineer their products to comply and BMC decided to drop the importation of the Minor and put their efforts into the MG 1100/1300 sedan and the Austin America. The Minor continued in various forms overseas until mid-1971. Over 1.5 million were built by the end of production. In total, 65,000 were imported to the US between !949 and 1967.

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1963 Plymouth Valiant

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This was a car that sold fairly well before this major style change. In 1963 the car was redesigned.

The Valiant was totally reskinned for 1963 with a 1⁄2 in (13 mm) shorter wheelbase; it had a wide, flat hood and a flat square rear deck. The upper belt feature line ran from the rear body, in a gentle sweep, to the front fender tip. Here it was ‘veed’ back and down to the trailing edge of the front fender. The roofline was flatter and sharpened in profile. The grille was a variation of the inverted trapezoid shape that characterized contemporary Chryslers, with a fine mesh insert. Advances in body structure, many accessories and a new spring-staged choke were promotional highlights. The Valiant was offered as a 2-door coupe or hardtop, a 4-door sedan and a station wagon. The hardtop and the convertible, with manual- or optional power-operated top, were offered only in the high V200 and premium Signet trim levels.

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