Name that car

Any idea what this car is? The green one on the right of the garage entrance

Looks like a 1965ish Aston Martin DB6 to me.

Edit: Although, the tail lights don't look right. But everything else does - including the rims.

- trs

It looks like some kind of Lancia/Fiat to me, definitely Italian in feel, thought it might be an Aston Zagato but I can't find anything with those tail lamps

Nope. Not an Aston

Here is a close-up of it:

I was thinking of something like a Citroen or a Saab ???

Cheers

Cris.

I wanted to say Opel GT but it is not quite. It is achingly familiar though.....

Nope. Not an Aston

Dang! I thought I had it. Although, looking at it closer, the tail is too skinny. Although, ALL the other details are almost spot-on. Those rims are very indicitive of the DB6. Whatever it is, it must use the same frame. It's gotta be a 1965-1970 *something* GT.

- trs

Maybe an Opel????

Don't suppose we could get a front view could we!? This is gnawing at me now!

Nick

Sadly the guy who took the picture didn't think to take a front view.

It's *nearly* a Ferrari 275, but not quite. I'm wondering if it is a kit car replica of a 275.

This is what one is supposed to look like:

I was thinking a Saab Sonett, but it just doesn't look right.

First thought I had was "man, you don't want to drop a bag of golf balls there!"

No, it isn't. I don't claim to be a Sonett expert, but I have seen a ton of them the last couple years. None of them looked like that.

Name that car

My wife says she thinks it is called Fred, but that probably isn't too helpful

First thought I had was "man, you don't want to drop a bag of golf balls there!"

LMAO picturing that scenario.

- trs

I'm guessing its a Lambo, I just cant figure out what year yet...

Anybody know any police officers in the SF area that could just look up that license plate number for us?

- trs

Hmm! It's too familiar - I am pretty sure it is a legit model. It just has loads of styling cues in there as well. The haunches and back screen angle give the Aston DB look, that cut-off back says Ginetta/Ferrari/Opel or similar to me. But it appears to have a moderate looking single exhaust on it, and those knock-on hubs look authentic which must date it.

Those tail lights look identical to the 308, and there does look to be something Ferrari-ish about it, except for that little exhaust!!

I still have a nagging feeling it is might be a US model, but I'm not that good on all the different models and years there!

(This is annoying now... I'm going to sleep on it and hope for inspiration!!)

Nick

Definitively, this is a rear engined Fiat 850 from the early 70's. I know, because I used to share a flat with a guy that owned one: for which reason, when I get home, I may well be able to find a photo of one from my collection.
At the time, and this is mainly for Rob's benefit, I was driving one of a handful of 1969, 1700c.c. freewheel, Saab 99's, from the 1969 London Motor Show, which differed substantially from the production version. This was the first of my four 99's. Regrettably, when I had my eyes on the first of the turbos, the ad. agency that I worked for acquired the British Leyland account and we all had to have Rover SD 1's - the worst car that I ever owned. I never did get back to being a Saab driver!

Ooops!!!! No it isn't, it's an Opel Kadett from the same period, sorry, I won't go into a long explanation of what was misleading me.
N.B. It's not quite the same model as the one shown in the link.

Definitively, this is a rear engined Fiat 850 from the early 70's

Interestingly, while Google Images turns up a bunch of 1970-model Fiat 850's that do look like this car, none of them have the "gills" behind the quarterlight. Maybe it's a post-1974 model?

Edit: It is very similar to the 1966 850 Coupe, though: http://personal.inet.fi/private/illu/fiat_850_coupe.htm

Yep, but it's the grilles for the rear engine that I should have gone by in identifying it.

I can't find a single image of an Open Kadett or a Fiat 850 that looks like the original picture.

The Kadett doesn't have the gills

When I first saw the photo I thought of an old Opel or Alfa Romeo.

Neither can I, I'll get stuck into my "Every car sold in Britain 1945 - 1980", when I get home, but, of course, they'll mainly be front views. It's definitely not the Fiat though.

The Opel Kadett was front-engined though, (as with the Vauxhall Chevette variants)?

The 850 was a chunk smaller than the one in the picture looks, but it is hard to gauge size. Fiat did do a number of coupes though, and the ferrari lights go along with that.

Goddam!! This is driving me mad, I've been surfing for the last hour - what's bugging me is that I'm sure that car was around in numbers at one-time, it just seems so familiar.
I take the point on the Ferrari lights, and the rear shape just seemed to say Farina, hence I was sure on the Fiat - but then, when I looked and saw that the 850 had those grills on the lid, that was out.
Then I recollected that, we parked Saab, Fiat and the other guy had a yellow Opel Kadett coupe, next to each other.
I've looked at Alfas, Ferraris, Lancias and even Datsuns.
If I haven't solved it tonight, I'm going to bounce it on to a couple of experts of my acquaintnace, one's the motoring correspondent of the Daily Telegraph.

Hmmm...could it be an A550X, have to look for some photos.

A550X

It's got the three distinctive slits, but not the rear windows: http://zhome.com/History/Truth/A550Xvs240Z.htm

Looks like an Opel.

I can finally put you all, and myself, out of out collective misery.

It's a Ford. Well, it's based on a Ford anyway - a based on a Ford Taunus 20m TS.

It is an OSI 20m TS to be exact.

http://www.taunus.nl/OSI/eng/eng.htm

Ack! I even ran across the Ford Taunus in my searches, but I passed it off as a mispelled Ford Taurus. If only I had clicked on those links. Ah well, I can finally concentrate on work now. That contest was consuming me! Cool Ford, too.

- trs

Thanks for putting me out of my misery, now I'll have to spend just as long finding out about OSI - and it looked so familiar!

So, where did this contest originate from? Is there a regular "Name that Car" contest that you're referring to here?

- trs

A friend of mine took the photo on a trip to SFO last week and wanted help identifying the car.

Not a regular competition, unless you want to make it one...

Same here - it may just have so many similarities that it instantly looks familiar, but I was sure it was fairly well-known. But I can't find much info on OSI that I can translate!! Not sure if it was available in the UK, but I am intrigued by the mention of Ford M-Models (http://www.ford-m-modelle.de) which seem to be a subset of Fords.

I thought I had a fair knowledge of recent classics (or UK at least), so that was really bugging me!! Better luck next time!

I actually have a Ford Taunus parts catalogue up in the roof - wonder if it covers these....

It's not in my "every car sold in Britain 45 - 80 book", but one of the cars on one of those sites has a UK reg. I'm going to bounce it on to "Honest John" at the Daily Telegraph, who has a special section for this sort of thing (We grew up together, half a century ago in Orpington)

You know Honest John? I am not worthy! You could post it in the "Back Room" of his site for starters I guess.

Gareth

I wouldn't say knew so much, as we did have some correspondence a couple of years back identifying that we thought that we knew each other in our youth and could identify long gone people and places.

Honest John's reply:

OSI was an Italian coachbuilder. The car in the photo is an OSI bodied FIAT 124

So those of us that thought Fiat and Italian were basically along the right lines.

Great, thanks. I've passed the info onto the photographer.

The car in the photo is an OSI bodied FIAT 124

So, now I'm thoroughly confused. Was it a Ford 20m TS of a Fiat 124? It most certainly looks more like the former. Or am I just misunderstanding you?

- trs

I think it's a Ford, not a Fiat, and Honest John is wrong.

He is also wrong when he says this:

Lots of dodgy second-hand Eurons Roadster imports about.

Uncertificated Eunos Roadsters imported by traders after May 1998 could not legally be registered, so any Eunos Roadster might be a 'clone'.

I think it's a Ford, not a Fiat, and Honest John is wrong

If I get 10 mins. I'll look for it, but there was mention of Fiats as well as Fords on one of those German or Dutch sites - but I guess the guy can't know everything, he replied to my email in minutes, so I suppose he must have been fairly certain.

You're on your own with the Eunos: Another marque that I'd never heard of until this thread started!

I'm going with the Ford. There is mention of the OSI Cross Country based on the Fiat 124 under the OSI link on this site http://www.carsfromitaly.com/others/index.html, but the similarity escapes me!!

You're on your own with the Eunos: Another marque that I'd never heard of until this thread started!

Eunos = Mazda sub-brand, but only in Japan.

Mazda MX5 (Europe) = Eunos Roadster (Japan) = Miata (US)