#oldmotors

[oldmotors]

Something different today - a scan from the #OldMotors archive and a trip to 1971, where this couple is standing with their brand new Mercury Comet GT. The Comet’s story as a name began in the late fifties as a possible Edsel compact based on the Ford Falcon, only becoming an “official” Mercury in 1962. This particular Comet’s story starts much later - with the early 1969 debut of the Ford Maverick. - While the Comet had eventually been twinned to the mid-size Fairlane and grown into a fairly large car by 1969, the Falcon wasn’t greatly enlarged during the 60s and sales gradually fell off - so Ford reworked the Falcon platform into the restyled and updated Maverick, with a new muscle-car-like look. Debuting in April, 1969, as a 1970 model - the Maverick was a massive hit despite being a bit basic and fundamentally tied to the decade-old Falcon and coming only as a 2-door with old straight sixes mated to a 3-speeder or an auto. More than 500K rolled out in that first long model year. - Such success could not be ignored at Mercury, so for 1971 Lincoln-Mercury division got it’s own Maverick - inheriting the “Comet” label, once again making it Mercury’s small car, with a restyled front clip and slightly nicer interiors. Designed around the Falcon, the cars were always intended to house a V8, and after the Pinto debuted, both the Mav and the new Comet got an optional 210-hp 302 V8. Both offered “fast” versions - Maverick’s “Grabber” and Mercury’s Comet GT; touted the as “The sporty small car with big V8* performance,” note the asterisk. - The 302-equipped Comet GT was actually a great basis for a performance car - parts commonality with many other faster cars and speed parts, and it weighed just 2,700 lbs. In later years, the cars got very fast when modified and some dealers offered hotted-up versions. But from the factory it was tamer than the stripes suggested, and it could also be ordered with the six - a $12 suspension and handling package beefed up the suspension, but disc brakes didn’t arrive until ‘73. In 1972, the 302 made 138hp - a more realistic “net” rating. The Comet GT ran into 1975, by which time “muscle car lite” had given way to opera windows. https://www.instagram.com/p/B4Sdp8UF0WF/?igshid=f9e208f9oky6

[oldmotors]

Toyota’s first U.S.-bound compact pickup was the Stout, although it had been building light pickups since the SB in 1947. The Stout, which dated to 1960, was a very simple machine although it certainly looked the part of a proper truck. It never sold as well as the competing products from Datsun and through a strange twist in Toyota’s corporate history, got an unusual replacement that ended up a proper  challenger to Nissan’s trucks. That new truck was the original N10 Hilux, bowing in March of 1968. - The origin of the #ToyotaHilux lies not only in the Toyota Stout, but also in the Hino Briska - a slightly smaller light truck that was offered by Hino Motors, best known today for heavy trucks and for building various Toyotas like the FJ Cruiser. Toyota took a stake in Hino in late 1966 and the two formed a partnership for manufacturing and Truck production. The arrangement that has flourished ever since but it meant the end of Hino-badged cars and light trucks. - The first casualty of the Hino-Toyota tie-up was the excellent Hino Contessa (certain to be the subject of a future #oldmotors post) car, and the second was the Briska. The #Hino Briska became the Toyota Briska for about a year before both the Briska and the Stout were replaced by the first Hilux. The new truck was a collaboration - partially engineered and entirely manufactured by Hino using Toyota power and sold as a #Toyota. - The name, in hindsight, seems silly - the Hilux was anything but a luxury vehicle, but it had all the attributes that one came to associate with Toyota’s light trucks. It was rock tough and aside from rust, there was almost nothing that could kill it. Power (in North America) came from the old 1.9L 3R four (in 1969), the 1.9L 8R (1970-72), and ultimately the 2.0L 8R at the very end. All long lived and, for the time, powerful fours. - A year into production a long-wheelbase version was added with a much larger bed, but that was not offered in the U.S. until 1972 - another missed opportunity that fed Datsun’s dominance of compact pickups here. But the Hilux got lots of attention as a reliable and cheap workhorse - by 1976 in its second generation, it was pulling even with Datsun. https://www.instagram.com/p/BsVzYh0FNtc/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=qdsdc8p3px6x

[inforiders]

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#bmwk75 #motorcycles #oldmotors #motocykl #staremotory https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn_WvicgDai/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=o8c3y80lmh16

[inforiders]

Pannonia de Luxe TLF 250 #oldmotors #motocykl #mororcycles

[inforiders]

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Pannonia de Luxe 250 1960 #motowiewióry #pannonia #oldmotors #motocykl #mororcycles

[inforiders]

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Herkules 1960 oryginał #motoped #motocykl #mororcycles #oldmotors

[delcastilllo]

Cinquecento 😍 #fiat500 #cinquecento #italy #classiccars #iger #motorbike #ontheroad #macchina #oldmotors #like4like #picoftheday #instaitalia #gopro #traveldiaries #ig_italia (en Brindisi, Italy)

[oldmotors]

Multi-shot Monday - these are some highlights from yesterday’s @lakewashingtoncarsandcoffee. The show’s grown considerably in the last two years. I didn’t take my own car (because it won’t hold an idle at the moment), so I went in one of @Group2Motorsports cars (thanks, guys!). I didn’t get to meet the owner of the fantastic green 1975 #Porsche911, but Instagram says it’s @33bosshog. I must confess this #Limegreen is one of my favorite #911 colors and he’s even got the plate “MR LIME” on the back.  Just behind is an early #Ferrari308GTB in white, a color not seen that often on the early 308s - though this is a metal version, not one of the very earliest 308 GTBs, which had a fiberglass shell. Ferrari wanted to test the waters with the GTB and fiberglass was a cheap way to do that - but demand was so great, it wasn’t long before a steel version was created (in 1977). For a short time steel and fiberglass cars were on sale at the same time.  More to scale for mere mortals was the lovely Geo Prizm GSi hatch belonging to @geoprizmgsi - a car that deserves it’s own write-up. The #GeoPrizm is not remembered as a performance car and memories of #Geo seem to be fading altogether, but the GSi was a poor man’s Peugeot 405 Mi16 and FAR more reliable - a 130hp twin-cam 4A-GE in a slick package that’ll run forever. Big stuff back in 1991. The grey #Maserati430 is another one we’ll look at again, but was recently purchased by friend Shannon from @authentic_motorcars. If you’ve ever wanted a #MaseratiBiTurbo, the 430 is definitely the one to have. The White #AlfaRomeo164 was the one lent to me by #Group2motorsports, and it was nice to drive one - I don’t think I’d ever driven a #164QV before.  My favorite car at yesterday’s show, however, was Steve’s #1985 #AlfaRomeo33. The #Alfa33 was never sold in the U.S., and indeed Steve’s car, which we’ve looked at before here at #oldmotors, was sold new in South Africa. It later moved to New Zealand and finally to Seattle in 2016. It’s a 1.5, which may not be as desirable in the abstract as a 1.7, but this may be the only 33 in the U.S., possibly all of North America. You can’t go wrong by being that different.  (at Lake Washington Cars & Coffee)