The Forgotten Cars Thread
- Thread starter el fayce
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- Peruibe, SP
Fun Fact: That Le Mans was also known as the Vauxhall/Opel Kadett, and I miss them too. But here, they were known as Chevrolet. Gotta love rebadges, right?
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Vauxhall Astra, Opel Kadett.
And they're almost all gone because, well. They were just awful, unreliable rust buckets
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Should be pointed out that the Pontiac Le Mans wasn't quite an Opel Kadett, just like the Chevette it replaced wasn't quite the same thing as the European Kadett and the Cavalier wasn't quite the same thing as the European Cavalier. We're talking about 1980s GM, here, and such a thing would be far too simple.
What they instead did was licence the Kadett's design out to Daewoo (before GM even owned them, no less) to "improve", and then imported that version built in Korea into the US as a Pontiac.
What they instead did was licence the Kadett's design out to Daewoo (before GM even owned them, no less) to "improve", and then imported that version built in Korea into the US as a Pontiac.
INEEDNAWZZZ
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I've said it before and I'll say it again, the Le Mans probably has the least fitting name for any vehicle in history.
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- Peruibe, SP
Audi somewhat fits. Seeing Audi partakes in the Le Mans competition so, maybe you're slightly wrong. There was I think a concept car too.
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The Audi R8's concept was the Le Mans Quattro. 👍
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INEEDNAWZZZ
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I meant that Le Mans was a bad name for that Pontiac, not a bad name in general.
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- SilvWolf22
Seat Ibiza MK1 SXi
View attachment 529506
View attachment 529505
I was lucky enough to have one of these for my first car, had never seen one before buying it and haven't seen one since
It met a rather undignified end but I had a lot of fun in that thing
Out of curiosity, why is Porsche on the motor? Forgive me if it's an obvious answer, but I don't really know much about SEAT. Were they partnered at one point?
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You're not wrong about Pontiac's use of the name... both times on two very different and undeserving cars.
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- Peruibe, SP
Okay, I'll allow it.
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Wikipedia says - The gearbox and powertrain were developed in collaboration with Porsche, thus named under licence System Porsche. Despite Porsche's direct involvement in the Ibiza's engines, it was only after paying a royalty of 7 German marks per car sold back to Porsche that SEAT gained the right to put the 'System Porsche' inscription on the engine blocks
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- SilvWolf22
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This was the time when Americans were mostly naming their cars after places where they'd look ridiculous.
Dodge Monaco, Chevrolet Monte Carlo... The list goes on.
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The project also included Italdesign and Karmann amongst its collaborators, it was an interesting little car. I think it was more popular in Europe as I've seen a few of the lower spec Mk1s in France and Belgium in years gone by whereas I've never seen another one in the UKInteresting. Seems like a failed and short-lived attempt at a collaboration. Thanks for the info
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Mine had a bit of an unknown history when I got hold of it, I don't know if the transmission had been swapped or modified previously but it went all the way to 130mph (210kmh) before hitting the limiter. Myself and a friend converted it to run an uprated turbo for a Mk 2 golf (+injectors, ecu, fuel pump, clutch etc.), fit some wider wheels and a wide arch kit. Turns out we were well ahead of the trend in terms of mods as this was 12 years ago
Unfortunately the turbo had some uforseen oil starvation problems when being driven hard and ended up eating its own intake followed by seizing. Ended up living in my garage for a long time where I decided to build a full custom interior and sound system with enough subwoofers to push the windows out of the rubbers as that was trendy at the time and I needed something to practice on.
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INEEDNAWZZZ
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Seat Ibiza MK1 SXi
View attachment 529506
View attachment 529505
I was lucky enough to have one of these for my first car, had never seen one before buying it and haven't seen one since
It met a rather undignified end but I had a lot of fun in that thing
I remember reading about that years ago, but it definitely seems a lot more interesting to me now for sure.
It reminded me of another retro Seat, which I totally forgot about:
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Looks like a Fiat Panda in places
INEEDNAWZZZ
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That's because it is; Seat were basically making rebadged versions of Fiats at the time before VW swallowed them up. It was in fact just called the Seat Panda until the two companies parted ways, where it became known as the Seat Marbella.
The Ibiza you posted was apparently based on another Seat called the Malaga, which in itself was a rebadged Fiat Ritmo.
The Ibiza you posted was apparently based on another Seat called the Malaga, which in itself was a rebadged Fiat Ritmo.
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And for funsies, the UK got the Daewoo version too. Which I did forget about until you mentioned Daewoo:
The Daewoo Nexia. Because if the Mk2 Astra wasn't already hugely out of date enough by 1991 when it was replaced by the Mk3, then launching it again in 1995 is obviously going to work.
A year or two back I drove the Mk2 Astra GTE. Retro appeal aside it was pretty bad to drive, and that was the top one with better suspension, 150bhp and a digital dash. What the Nexia was like with half that power and none of the GTE's upgrades I can barely imagine.
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- GTP_Famine
I've been driven to 7,700ft in an automatic Daewoo Nexia. In the USA, because bizarrely it actually was sold there too.Which I did forget about until you mentioned Daewoo:
The Daewoo Nexia.
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Wiegert
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Unless GM Uzbekistan finally shifted the Nexia nameplate over to a newer platform in the 12 months since I last checked, there's a facelifted version of the saloon still being produced for the Russian and -stan markets.
Technically, what we in the UK knew as the Belmont has managed to outlast the Astra H.
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The87Dodge
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The Daewoo Nexia is an appalling car, I don't even know why they made it because it was so unadvanced and underpowered compared to other cars of it's time.
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