A few from the last few days, less exotic than some but still eye-catching for one reason or another. I actually saw them all on the same day (probably Wednesday) but never get round to posting.
One was an original Mini Cooper Sport, albeit a late one (it was W-reg, therefore from 1980).
One was something American, which I always find hard to identify. I’d have sworn it said Chrysler on the back but Chryslers in general aren’t unusual here - this was just a very different, distinctly boxy US model. It was the same general shape and style as this Chrysler Imperial in that it had the sort of boxy back end to the roof and rear windscreen that looks like it’s been added separately and should be detachable. But that’s a 1990 model and this was much newer - this looked like a recent model, and I don’t think that was just because it was restored. One of the side / roof panels was in chrome with a badge on it, and it had rounder corners than that. I thought it would be simple to look at some models and find it, but it isn’t. It’s probably something completely normal in the States, but it’s not part of anybody’s common range in the UK and looked as though it might have been a US-spec model that had been imported especially.
Also saw an MG-Z quite similar to the one on this page (same colour and everything), with those distinctive slats / vents behind the front wheel arches.
Finally, a brand new sixth-generation model BMW Z4 which will probably not be unusual in a year or two, but is the first I remember seeing and looks distinctly more dramatic and better than the previous generations.
Could have been one of those, yes, especially since an image search shows some with chrome roof panels. Thanks. It’s older than I would have thought - they stopped making them in '96, and the one I saw looked more like the '80s shape you posted. It must have been well-looked-after or restored after all.
I don’t know why I can never identify American cars. I know all the main brands but I suppose I don’t have much idea of which ones did which kind of thing. (Muscle cars are a bit easier but that style has become more popular over here too in the last few years).
Was at South Beach, Miami today. Many top of the line Lambos, Ferraris, and a Maclaren or two. But the winner was a 1955 Olds 88 convertible in bright yellow.
An early 1930s Cadillac, maybe? This one looks kind of similar, but it’s hard to tell since that picture was taken from a different angle. The windows on the car in your picture look more squared off than that one, but maybe it was slightly older or a different model.
Kit car is probably more likely, but in that era it also wasn’t uncommon for luxury cars to be custom built by coachbuilders. If you had the means, you could buy just the chassis and engine from Cadillac, Duesenberg, Packard, etc., take it to your favorite coachbuilder, and have your car built to your exact specifications. But I’m guessing any coachbuilt cars that survive today would be more likely found in museums, or Jay Leno’s collection, and not on the highway. So yeah, kit car seems the most likely. Those vents along the side of the hood do look very much like a Cadillac from the early 1930s, but it’s quite possible that the kit car would copy some of Cadillac’s styling elements.
I just saw a couple riding in a Model T-based hot rod. No top on the vehicle as the temperature reading on a nearby sign was 55 degrees. The car had a bright red paint job and an exposed engine.
Saw a really small car this morning. Didn’t know the brand. But a Google on smallest American car returned the exact thing on the first hit. Even got the color right.
A Smart fortwo. I’ve heard about these but haven’t seen one out here in SUV country (the suburbs). Gotta be scary driving among the tanks on these roads. I have a Corolla and feel dwarfed.
Sort of reminds me of the old Isetta that a guy at the dry cleaners had back when I was a kid. The door was in the front! Surely that was safe in a crash.
I followed an Aston Martin Rapide for a few minutes today. The driver apparently didn’t know where they were going, as they slowed down at every cross street and parking lot they passed.
I heven’t seen anything all that interesting in a while, but this morning I was following a late 1980s Oldsmobile Delta 88 for quite a while, which was interesting if only because it was it pretty good shape for an over 30 year old car (I determined it must have been a 1988 model or older because according to Wikipedia they dropped the “Delta” name in 1989). And it had an “FE3” badge on the back, which apparently means the original buyer ordered the sportier suspension according to Old Car Brochures.
I also saw an early 1990s Buick Estate Wagon, one of the last traditional big American station wagons.
This morning I saw a Saturn Astra. Apparently they sold relatively few of those before GM killed the Saturn brand. It was, of course, an just Opel/Vauxhall Astra imported to the US and badged as a Saturn, so it’s actually a car that would ironically be more familiar to Europeans even though they wouldn’t be familiar with the Saturn brand.
A forgot to mention earlier, but I also saw a Subaru WRX STI. I know Subaru says STI stands for “Subaru Tecnica International”, but does their marketing department not realize what most Americans think of when they hear “STI”?
