Come Up With A Caption...

I'll be taking a few days off. I thought I'd leave you with this picture. It comes from JaCG reader, Todd. It's a limo towing a Lada. It's real and not photoshopped.

There has to be some sort of clever, funny, snarky comment that can be attached to it.

Leave yours in the comment section.

1953 Triumph Mayflower

The seller states that "only a few Mayflowers were imported to the USA". True, but it wasn't for lack of trying. The Mayflower was aimed directly at the US market. It missed the mark. Still, it's an interesting car...

The folks at Triumph noticed that we Americans loved the big luxury cars from Rolls Royce, Bentley, Lagonda, et al. The idea behind the Mayflower was to create a small, relatively affordable, car that looked like one of the big expensive cars. Good idea, maybe, bad execution, definitely.

The body was designed by Leslie Moore, chief body designer of Mulliners (a UK coachbuilder). Moore most likely designed some of Mulliners very impressive bodies, but he did Triumph no favors with the Mayflower. It just looked wrong; sort of like a little person who had done his clothes shopping in the "big and tall" section of the clothing store.

The body (which does have a few fans) had a few neat touches. It's a unibody design, which was not very common in the late 1940s / early 1950s. The trunk is hinged at the bottom and forms a shelf of sorts when opened.

The engine was a 4 cylinder that created 38 HP and the transmission was a 3 speed, with a column mounted shifter. 60 MPH came in around 27 seconds.

This Mayflower is an all original, unrestored car. The seller doesn't leave a lot of information, but, based on the pictures, it looks to be complete and in relatively good condition. At the moment it's not running, but the seller believes that with a tune-up and some fresh gas, it will run.

According to the Standard Catalog of Imported Cars, 1946 - 1990, less then 600 Triumphs in total (Mayflowers and 2000 /Renowns) were sold in the US between 1949 and 1953, making this a very, very rare car.

It may not be the prettiest car ever built, but it would be a huge hit at any British car show.

Located in "North New Jersey", click here to see the Craigslist ad.

1958 DKW F94 3=6

A cool car with an odd name...

Called the F94 by the factory (part of a series of cars that started with the F91), it was sold with the odd name of 3=6. The engine is a 3 cylinder two stroke engine. The name 3=6 started as an ad slogan. The idea was to remind customers that 3 cylinders could be considered the equivalent of a 6, because a 2 stroke engine delivered a power stroke from each cylinder with every revolution of the crankshaft.

I'm not familiar enough with two stroke technology to say if that is true or not, but the car only had a top speed of 75 - 80 MPH and it took over 25 seconds to get to 60. I assume they were talking about two stroke and four stroke engines of equal size, which I'm not sure it was a fair comparison. I'm not familiar with any automobile 6 under 1000ccs, and the 3 cylinder engine in this car was only 896ccs. (The Benelli 750 Sei motorcycle had a 747cc 6 in it.)

All that technology stuff aside, these were pretty cool little cars. The transmission is a 4 speed with a freewheeling feature. The interior is incredibly spacious for a 1950s small car, a feature DKW also pointed out in their ads. The body has an old-school German car charm to it.

DKW was part of the Auto Union group, which included DKW, Audi, Horch and Wanderer. The 4 rings symbol, which, of course, is still seen today on Audis, was meant to symbolize the 4 brands of Auto Union. In the late 1950s, Daimler-Benz took control of the Auto Union Group and sold it to Volkswagen in 1964.

This car is being described as sold with most of its original parts still with it. The seller says it was once "part of a collection of cars that were used as back drops in the movies."

This is a very cool, very unusual car that would be a blast to take to car shows. The asking price seems steep to me (maybe it's at a premium for being a movie star), but you could always make an offer and see what happens.

Located in Hesperia, CA, click here to see the Craigslist ad.

A big thanks to Jon for sending me the link to this car!

1983 Audi UR Quattro

When it comes to classic Audis (at least classic Audis that were sold in North America), this is the Holy Grail. Very few UR-Quattros were sold in North America in 1983.

The seller leaves a bit of UR-Quattro history in his ad, so I'll skip that.

This car has just 16,069 miles on it. The seller bought it last year with the intention of turning it into a "400 plus hp monster". Fortunately, after realizing how nice the car is, he scrapped that idea.

This may be the same car I wrote about last year, but have no way of knowing.

Located in Gansevoort, NY, click here to see the eBay listing.

Weekend Quickies, Saturday, January 21, 2012

1972 Ford LTD - Just a Car Geek reader, Dan, sent me the link to this car. He wrote one sentence about this car; "You could play Steve McGarrett in this car!" You could play one of the Golden Girls, too. These were the cars of choice for police departments and the elderly.

This one is pretty remarkable. It has just 24,779 miles on it and is all original. As the seller states, "the car speaks for itself."

Located in Ridgefield, NJ, click here to see the Craigslist ad.

1999 Mercedes Benz E55 AMG - This is a seriously fast sedan. The V8 engine pumps out 349 HP (4 more than the 1999 Corvette). It reaches 60 MPH in 5 seconds. It has a limited top speed 0f 155 MPH. I does all this despite weighing 3,765 pounds.

This is a 2 owner car with 140,000 miles on it. It essentially bulletproof, but when things do go wrong, they are extremely expensive to fix.

Located in Shelton, CT, click here to see the Craigslist ad.

A big thanks to Cory for sending me the link to this car!

1963 Mercedes-Benz 200 Series - This MB is by no means as fast as the one above - not even close - but what it lacks in speed, it more than makes up for in pure class.

This is a well documented, very well maintained car. It would be a hit at any German car show.

Located in Indianapolis, IN, click here to see the eBay listing

A big thanks to John in NJ for sending me the link to this car!

1985 BMW 635CSi Convertible

It was only a couple of years ago that I saw my first E24 convertible. I featured a few on this blog. One was spectacular, the other was somewhat less spectacular.

This one falls somewhere in between. This one was created by Coach Builders Limited. The top looks to be very well done. There are a few wrinkles behind the rear window, but that could be from age, or it recently having the top down.

While the seller says "it is in excellent condition for its age", he says it's "inoperable" and will need to be towed. It shows just 28,000 miles on the odometer.

This is a car that you would really have to see before buying. The asking price is $5500.00, but the seller is "open for trades and offers."

If you can get it for a good price, and it doesn't need too much work, this would be a very cool, very unique summer car.

Located in Farmers Branch, TX, click here to see the Craigslist ad.

A big thanks to Jon for sending me this link!