OT: Good Thread - What is the most obscure car you've seen in the wild?

[paredown]

I have a couple that stopped me in my tracks--way back, a neighbor of a friend had an older Aston Martin DB3 (alu body) that he was restoring--never saw it finished or on the road, but we would gawk when the garage door was open.

Second--first super car--was in SF--after our bike trip from Vancouver, we were wandering down in the Fisherman's Wharf area, and went past a repair shop with lots of high-end machines, and there was a de Tomaso Mangusta--and it had a for sale sign on it--like $12,000 (1969)--blew us away, and it seemed within reach.

The third (already mentioned) was the Ferrari Dino that my bike racing pal, Marc bought and rebuilt. Unbelievable undertaking--although he had apprenticed as a mechanic. I remember the stories of ordering oversized pistons from Italy--a fraught experience in the pre-internet/English-as-universal language days. I agree with those who said this may have been one of the best looking cars that Ferarri had a hand in. and for quite awhile they were the red-headed step child of the Ferarri world and were affordable.

(Marc sold his Dino to finance another season of SCC class racing after he graduated from bike racing to motorcycles and then sports cars--and sadly is no longer with us...)

For street theater, the best car watching place I have been was waiting to pick up my wife at the employee entrance of Harrods (London), where a whole generation of "kids" who likely have oil money roll up to pick up their 'decorative' girl friends who work there. On any single day, I would see more high-end cars than I had seen previously in my lifetime. (a shot of some rigs parked out back of Harrods--cute girl included--and a link to a story about the car culture: http://mnfaindia.blogspot.com/2015/0...ge-middle.html )

[tuscanyswe]

Originally Posted by seanile

ferrari f40

This is likely the end all super cars for me. Perhaps it was released at the right time for my age group or perhaps its just the perfect super car but it just hasn't gotten any better since this. Only down hill imo .)

[velofinds]

Originally Posted by tuscanyswe

Interesting, you could probably see most of those cars in a day or 2 in stockholm. Well not the Lancia.

Originally Posted by martl

was going to say the same thing about Munich... well, maybe not the Volvo truck

Right, I probably should have specified that they are rare in relative moreso than absolute terms -- you must remember that we come from the land of pickup trucks and "cross utility vehicles" (whatever that means) so, e.g., a Peugeot (last sold in the US over 25 years ago), much less one in kombi form, is a bit of an odd bird.

[seanile]

Originally Posted by paredown

Cool to see these--one of my nabes commutes past there, and told me about the rotating collection of beauties, but I never saw anything there on my rare trips past Hytorc--I'll see if I can spot the Veyron....

unfortunately the owner of the company and veyron (john junkers) died unexpectedly in 2014 so the veyron has moved on.

[likebikes]

Originally Posted by velofinds

a Peugeot (last sold in the US over 25 years ago), much less one in kombi form, is a bit of an odd bird.

my dad owned one of those 505 wagons for nearly 20 years, i pretty much grew up in the back of that thing. very similar to the one pictured, but didn't have the extensive roof rack (just 2 rails), or any of those lower side skirts.

what an utter piece of crap it was.

[jtbadge]

Originally Posted by seanile

ferrari f40

This is mine, as well. Not really obscure, but definitely uncommon.

I sat in gridlock during Nashville rush hour next to one of these. Poor guy.

[fuzzalow]

Originally Posted by dgauthier

Agreed. Though one hasn't lived until one has seen a La Ferrari. Enzo schmenzo...

HaHa! OK, you win too! Although for reasons of obscurity i.e. not often seen, Ferrari built & sold a smaller number of Enzos than La Ferraris. So choose the semantic you want.

Seeing one driven i.e. with plates & insurance, is a whole 'another animal than on seen in a car show or parked on the lawn for a concours. That's what in the wild means to me.

Originally Posted by tuscanyswe

This is likely the end all super cars for me. Perhaps it was released at the right time for my age group or perhaps its just the perfect super car but it just hasn't gotten any better since this. Only down hill imo .)

Saw and looked about an F40 parked on the street. Both side windows were left rolled down. F40s were turbo'ed motors and I'd give preference to the sound of Ferrari flat 12s from the Testa Rosa era. Chain driven cams. Mamma Mia!

If you hear Ferrari motors in the wild, there is a different sound to the sports cars versus the higher end GT cars. On the newer sports cars Ferrari went overboard on the F1-wail engine sound which still sounds great but must get tiring and frankly, screams "hey look everybody, I've got a Ferrari". The Enzo had a more subdued and complex engine note - you knew there was a symphonie mechanicca amidships in that car.

P.S. Oh yeah, taking about engine notes. In all my time seeing and hearing exotics driven on Gold Coast roadways, the most undistinguished engine note seem to come from Lamborghinis. Maybe too subdued to be noticed on a drive-by, Countach to Gallardo it didn't matter, wasn't much to it. Dunno. Maybe it was Lambo's tractor heritage.

[Gsinill]

Originally Posted by tuscanyswe

This is likely the end all super cars for me. Perhaps it was released at the right time for my age group or perhaps its just the perfect super car but it just hasn't gotten any better since this. Only down hill imo .)

No picture but true story...

Friend and I both in our mid 20s went for a week of MTBing in Tuscany.
The F-40 just came out the year before and folks were paying up to$1.5M since it was so rare.
I'd never seen one in real life nor did I ever expect to see one (even a 1:18 Burago model of the F-40 was sold out and traded for insane amounts of money).

Doing some sight seeing in Florence, we walk up to a little church and there is this gorgeous F-40 parked right in the middle of the piazza, driver side door open, engine running...
Nobody there other than 2 ladies standing about 10 meters away talking to each other.
This might sound a little chauvinistic, but the F-40 was known for being a no-compromise and brute car, so we didn't even consider the possibility that one of those women might be the owner.
On the other hand, we are in a quieter part of a town where it's not unheard of cars being broken into or stolen, and there it is, one of the rarest and most expensive cars of all time, almost like an invitation waiting for some crook to take off with it.

Still confused, we walk up to check it out, drooling over the thing for a few minutes, when one of the 2 ladies, stereotypical Italian donna, middle aged, classy and good looking, approaches the car, smiles at us, climbs into the driver's seat, revs up the engine and drives away.

Still something that comes up when my buddy and I talk about our trips and the good old days...

[Tickdoc]

I feel blessed to have seen one of these on three or four occasions.

In terms of obscurity, rareity, and iconic American gooodn as, there is no comparison.

[tctyres]

Originally Posted by Tickdoc

I feel blessed to have seen one of these on three or four occasions.

In terms of obscurity, rareity, and iconic American gooodn as, there is no comparison.

When I was graduating from undergrad, that was one of the jobs you could get for a summer: driving the wienermobile. Hells yeah! Unfortunately, I was not a business major. There were a lot of applications for that job.

[Bob Ross]

Originally Posted by FlashUNC

I'd see obscure as the Venn diagram of rare and rarely thought of/little known. Even passing car dorks know about Ferrari Enzos and Porsche Carrera GTs. Rare? Sure. Obscure? Eh, not so much.

Yeah, I like ^^^this definition...and so for me it would probably have to be that plastic-bodied Citroën convertible that looked like a cross between a Jeep CJ and a Volkswagen Thing. Buddy of mine in high school had one. Literally broke the body in half while jumping a curb during a late night beer run.

Originally Posted by Dave B

Also saw a Bradley GT, a german kit car amalgamation, driving around IU's campus.

Oddly, when I was a wee lad living in suburban Pittsburgh PA in the late 1960s I saw probably a dozen of those things. Wasn't it an American kit, designed to fit on a (German) Volkswagen Beetle chassis?

[josephr]

nice thread....one of the roads we ride on regularly has the entrance to the Barber Motor Sports Park and the guy that put that together is quite a car collector (his motor cycle collection is a real treat) and Porsche's driving school is based at Barber so we get a lot of older Porsches as well. We get to see quite a few nice cars out there...Testarossas, an Alfa 8C, La Ferrari (looks much better in silver), McLarens, 959s, 918s, 356s, a version of every 911, Lotus, and Lambo ever made...these all working machines on the road, not sitting around in museums.

The one I really lust over is a 904 from Porsche's 1960s racing days...this is just a stock photo I pulled from google, but he really likes driving this one so get to see it often.

[Dave B]

Originally Posted by tctyres

When I was graduating from undergrad, that was one of the jobs you could get for a summer: driving the wienermobile. Hells yeah! Unfortunately, I was not a business major. There were a lot of applications for that job.

One of the guys I went to highschool with (a year ahead) had that as his first job after college. He said it was an absolute blast to go to a college campus in that thing. Folks went crazy for it.

[Dirtdiggler]

When my side job/hobby was detailing cars, my good friend just bought this and said ''hey can you detail this and keep and drive it as long as you want''.
Its actually for sale now as he traded it in for a Maserati Gran Turismo

1997 Lotus Espirit V8 Twin Turbo.. and that was my Strong bike.

[Dead Man]

I've seen exotics throughout my life... All the typical Italian and American ones.. seen a handful of Euro "supercars"

But for obscure - as in what the **** am I even looking at?

We did a big project on Mr. Yoshida's residence on the Yoshida Estate in Troudale Oregon a few years ago. Beautiful piece of property, right on the Sandy river, house with an interesting history (was the original Portland Automobile Club headquarters until it was given to Mr. Yoshida in '91), and very nice people, Mr. and Mrs. Yoshida both. Very pleasant, friendly, easy to work with people. At one point we had an unexpected $45,000 change order, and the man didn't even blink. Just authorized and thanked us for our hard work.

Anyway.. one morning as I was getting the boys lined out for the day, I hear VROOOOOOOOMvroooomvroomvroomvrmrmrmrmrmrmrmrVROOOO OOOOMvroooooooommrmrmrmrmrmrmrmrmmrvroooooooooooom mrmrmrmrmrmrmrmrVROOOOOOOOMvrooooooooomvroooooomrm rmrmrmrmrmrmrmrmrmr.... so I walk over to the garage end of the house to see what's making all the racket and see this silver car slowly lurching out of the garage in reverse. And in all the weeks we were there, it went pretty much the same... Seems Mr. Yoshida never really got the hang of that clutch..

To his credit, I never did smell burnt clutch, though.

The Yoshida Lexus LFO: