O Scale Motor Vehicle Chronicle May 1

That was great, Thanks for all the info Richard. (kept me coming back).

While I only know a little about Canadian originated makes, such as the McLaughlin and Russell, having heard of the last actually got me a verbal job offer to be curator of

an auto museum in New Brunswick when I was camping across Canada one cold and

rainy October (weather and soaked tent caused me later to take a hard left at Sault Sainte Marie).  I just walked in, the then curator was on the phone, switching back and forth between French and English, and when I asked if they had a Russell, he, apparently working on getting another job, offered me his.  I am thinking, "Huh? 1. I am not a Canadian citizen, 2. It is too danged cold up here, 3. I don't know any French" (I did learn a little later).  He gave me the application forms, but I seriously doubt if anything would have come of it, for the above reasons.  They did have a Russell, a 1920's sedan.  I do not remember a McLaughlin, which I think was acquired by GM, and that became rebadged Buicks? However, I have heard of other car museums in Canada, although I have visited no others, and have wondered what other makes were of Canadian origin.  The auto magazines, such as Motor Trend at the time, occasionally mentioned Meteors, Monarchs, and Canadian Pontiacs.

Not Canadian but new to my stable.

 2 1954 Pontiac Bonnevilles.

Ford truly worked in mysterious ways . . . 

This seems like a good place to ask this question.

What color and make of car did Steeve McQueen drive in The Blob? 

Dind't he drive a dark green Mustang GT while the blob drove a Dodge Charger ? 

Edit: speaking of which, this is a cool car . . .

http://blog.hemmings.com/index...-to-cross-the-block/

Nice models of the Bonnevilles, Spence.  In my travels I've seen the full sized green one on two occasions.  First time was at Auburn Ind. prior to restoration and then again when restored at Meadowbrook.  Since Pontiac didn't have a V8 at the time of creation, they somehow managed to squash their big ol' straight 8 under the Bonneville's hood.  Carburetors were sidedraft YH's stolen from the 6 cyl Vette.  Of the numerous GM showcars from that era the Bonnevilles are among my favorites

Bruce

One spelling correction....

The region of Acadia is a peninsula of eastern New Brunswick first settled by the French.  British rule expelled the settlers, many of them relocating to Louisiana, where reference to these "Acadian's' became twisted into Cajun.

The Acadian name was revived as a Canadian Pontiac with our version of the Chevette and then again on a recent small General Motor's SUV.  Only the last version was called an Acadia.

Bruce 

Bruce

I had forgotten about the Bonnevilles, and am surprised they had that antique, last

year 1954, flathead straight eight in them, or maybe had forgotten that, too.  Curious about the source of "YH" sidedraft carburetors.  Were these Carters or Rochesters, and where did Chevrolet get them for the six cylinder Vette?  (I always wondered if they came from a farm tractor or some such source) 

It's been thirty years since I saw the movie, but seem to recall a red 52 Plymouth convertible.

This picture based on a Chevy ll. Are you sure you meant Chevette? The Chevette was a front wheel drive sub-compact that came along much later, like the mid 70's.

I think he drove a blue 53 convertible.

Good stuff.  Thanks, Richard.

This picture based on a Chevy ll. Are you sure you meant Chevette? The Chevette was a front wheel drive sub-compact that came along much later, like the mid 70's.

The Acadian was based first on the Chevy II, per the picture, and then and then later on the Chevette.  Totally different cars, with the same name

I have a 1:48 scale Lamborghini Murcialago. I'm pumped to use it in my layout!

Some pictures of the car in real life...

I took an old girlfriend shopping for a car in 1978, and she was shown a Chevette (she wisely chose a six cylinder Camaro instead), and it was a rear-wheel drive car, something I suspected came from one of GM's European factories, or, at least the dies, did.  When was the last time anybody has seen a Chevette on the road...maybe since

you saw a Yugo?

It's nice that some of these old "Dream Cars" are being made for about $65., and very well made, as well. Prior to that, the only one making them was GADM (Great American Dream Machine) at a retail price of $225. The recent ones are made by BOS (Best of Show), which, I believe, is a NEO brand. I'm old enough to have seen some of these cars at the GM Motorama back in the 1950s.

This week's contribution.

The Chevette was a GM world car, made all over the world including Brazil, The Japanese Isuzu even had a version.

I bought my daughter one when she was in collage. Defiantly built down to a price, not up to a standard.

A buddy of mine had a Pontiac T1000, their version of a Chevette.   He drooped a Chevy high output 2.6 liter V6 under the hood. That car was a lot of fun.

On added note. Canadian Pontiac sold T1000s and Chevette basted Arcadians side by side for a while. The T1000 was much better trimmed.

Remember how we cared what was under the hood. Todays generation don't know if it is a 426 Hemi or a lawn mower engine, and don't care. Oh the good old days and those good old cars. Love this thread for the good old memories.

Well, first.  If GM had put that 2.6 V6 in the Chevette, it would have entirely changed that car's history.  

Second, not all today's generation doesn't care about cars.  Several high-school and early college kids on our street are really into cars.  Most tend to value handling as much if not more than sheer power and acceleration, and the most popular cars among them seems to be the Sti, Evo, GTI, and 300Z, etc, but one kid down the street has a mildly tricked out Camaro V8 that does low 12s.

I dunno.  When my '77 Cutlass turned into a lemon shortly after the Camaro shopping,

I never looked twice at the Chevette, which, like the two Chrysler compacts with

VW engines, I considered an "ugly little box".  My emergency grab-something-quick

car was the larger, but not much better styled 1980 AMC Spirit, chosen for its more

roomy hatchback and 21 gallon American-sized gas tank.  The four cylinder Spirit

had a GM drivetrain, (Cavalier?) and no overdrive five speed as did the six, AMC's own engine, which was available with overdrive.  I managed to get over 100,000 miles out of that one, and the used '82 I replaced it with.  They both definitely had their repair

prone quirks and were repeatedly nailed back together.  (the first one lost its clutch

on the Pa. Turnpike, was towed off of it, clutch rebuilt, and driven on)

I found a more recent  list of 15 Canadian Cars You Can't Buy in the US.

Chevrolet Optra

Buick Allure

Chevrolet Epica

Chevrolet Orlando

Pontiac Wave

Mercedes B200

Acura CSX

VW City Golf/City Jetta

Volkswagen Golf Wagon

BMW 320i

Nissan X-Trail

VW Transporter

Lada

Asuna Sunrunner, Optima

TVR 3000M

Lada?  Isn't that Polish, or a make of another "Iron Curtain" country?  I do think I have seen mention of that before as (once) available in Canada. I keep hoping  some Canadian on here would know more about the Russell, McLaughlin, and, I suspect

other home-growns, over time.

Not many that I would want anyway, but that TVR is interesting.  Is Lada still made by AutoVAZ.  Anyway, I would not take a chance on a Russian car, although I hear the newer Niva and such as designed by good western engineers.  

There are alot more cars on sale in Australia I find interesting, though. . . . 

I presume that everybody has seen the TV snip of the Chinese fellow driving a Buick,

who said he didn't trust Chinese cars, and that they had been making Buicks a hundred

years and should have it right (that hasn't proved to be true, but his logic was good).

My brother had a Merkur...he was not happy and soon got rid of it...wasn't it Australian?  I don't know if this is true for all Pontiac G-6's, but on a coupe I

looked at back when, the instrument panel's instruments looked like they had been

designed for a right hand drive car and simply installed into a left hand drive car.

Individual gauges were in odd locations, and needles moved counterintuitive directions.

There was also a V-8 Pontiac that I understood was designed in Australia by Holden...

uh. does GM still have Holden, or did that get spun off?

Oh yeah. They knew how to make cars in Australia.   I always loved Holdens: derived from cars sold to us here, but offered with big motors there.  My neighbor has one of those "Holden" Pontiacs - he bought it shortly before the end of Pontiac.  A truly great car: classy looking, well built, and with a 'vette engine in it and perfromance axle.  I hear the boom every time he fires it up.  Great car. 

Australian Fords were somewhat the same way.  I recall you could get a Falcon with a much bigger V8 there than here.  

At one point in my life I spent about six months as a car sales man.  We sold Lincolns, Mercurys, Mazdas, and Merkurs.

In that time Iw as a pretty good salesman and did well on the first three brands, but could never get anyone to buy a Merkur.

After I left they took the last eight or nine Merkurs and gave them to local high schools for auto mechanics students to work on.

To my knowledge I have never seen one on the road.

Merkurs were weird - rather ugly I thought.  And then there were those non-standard size and type wheels.  I drove one and it didn't handle well enough to justify living your life having difficulty finding tires to fit it, much less driving an ugly car.  

The Russian Lada is a Fiat 124 built under license The only car less reliable than an old Fiat is one build in East Europe.

The recent Pontiac GTO was a Holden as well as the new Chevrolet SS. that was originally going to be a Pontiac model.

Mention of the Australian Ford brings back some memories. The Aussie Falcon was a completely different car from an American Falcon and the Falcon name is still used in Australia.

In the late 1980's I was working in the American Embassy in Suva, Fiji. Our official "Limo" was an Australian Ford Fairlane, which was a more posh model than the Falcon. I happened to be acting Ambassador when we got word that a delegation from the White House was stopping overnight in Nadi, on the other side of the island, where the international airport is. I looked at the manifest, counted heads, and realized that the Aussie sedan would have room for the delegation and either the driver or me, but not both. So I did the sensible thing and drove the car myself. The delegation was duly impressed when the Ford rolled up to the Air Force plane on the tarmac, flags flying, and their chauffeur was the acting Ambassador. The delegation was on its way to the Solomon Islands to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Solomon Islands independence. Most of them were just political munchkins out for a nice ride to the South Pacific, but one member was a retired Marine who had earned the Medal of Honor at Bloody Ridge on Guadalcanal. I arranged to sit next to him at dinner, and after both of us had consumed a suitable quantity of Fiji Bitter, I got up my nerve and asked him to tell me the story. It was quite an honor to hear the personal story of a Medal of Honor recipient! He didn't mind at all and told a very colorful and personal story of the battle and his part in it. My favorite part was when he said, "You know in the movies where the guy picks up a machine gun, throws the belt over his shoulder, and says "Follow me!'?" Well, I actually did that." (I looked it up a while ago, to refresh my memory. He actually did that.) There are very few men I can say I felt honored to meet, but Mitchell Paige is right at the top of the list. 

What a once in the life time experience, to meet and hear the story from one of the

Greatest Generation!  As for the Merkur, IS it Australian?  "Merkur" is German for

Mercury, and I have forgotten what little I read about it. So the Lada is a Russian

Yugo? I think I saw a Lada, which is what I remember it as, soon after the wall came

down, in the Chambord parking lot in France. It had what I remember as a Polish

license plate (might have been some other, recently Iron Curtain,  country)  I was actually startled by several things Fiat...one, that they bought Chrysler,

and that they are selling that Topolino or whatever here in the U.S., or trying to.  I

would love to hear somebody's experiences with one.  I can't quickly find my Consumer's  Report which probably has a quality review of one.  It will be interesting

to read future used car values for one. 

The Merkur was a European Ford imported by Lincoln/Mercury division in an attempt to crack the market for European luxury sport sedans. It was a spectacular failure in the marketplace.

The Yugo is a Fiat 127.

Merkurs were high end German Ford Granadas, and sold well in Europe.