You learn something new... - Cars you didn't know existed, until now!

[RandomCarGuy17]

and it's better looking than the modern Multipla.

 

[homeforsummer]

1991 Subaru Hanako

I want one.

 

[ToyGTone]

Holden Suburban

Never thought to see a RHD version of Chevrolet Suburban/Tahoe & GMC Yukon/XL.

 

[Turbo]

Holden Suburban

Never thought to see a RHD version of Chevrolet Suburban/Tahoe & GMC Yukon/XL.

I find it particularly odd how the second Suburban you posted has a Canadian flag. They were never sold there...

 

[05XR8]

I find it particularly odd how the second Suburban you posted has a Canadian flag. They were never sold there...

A Canadian could have brought it over.

 

[TexRex]

With all the Escalade-nosed C1500s/Tahores/Suburbans out there, I wonder if anyone has bothered to swap that grill on.

 

[Tornado]

More interesting is that it has 4he early GMT400 front end. Only way to get it to pass European lighting standards?

 

[ScottPuss20]

Holden Suburban

Never thought to see a RHD version of Chevrolet Suburban/Tahoe & GMC Yukon/XL.

I'm a Holden man and I didn't know of this thing's existence. Never seen it before...

 

[McLaren]

They only made some odd 5000 of them from 1996 to 2000, so yeah, they're pretty rare.

Didn't you own one? Could've sworn that's how I learned of its existence years ago.

 

[-Fred-]

Didn't you own one? Could've sworn that's how I learned of its existence years ago.

I've owned 3 of the USDM 2 doors (97, 98 and 2001) but no, I never owned a 4 door as they never became legal for import over here. It's entirely possible I posted about the 4 door in the past, as it's always been on my affordable dream car shortlist.

 

[SPhilli911]

I find it particularly odd how the second Suburban you posted has a Canadian flag. They were never sold there...

A few years back, while walking around in Melbourne, I saw one of these Suburbans (though I assumed it was a Chevy at the time), but it had American license plates (forget which state). Looking back, it must have been one of these Holden versions, but I still can't explain why it had U.S. plates. I'll have to look at the picture I took, although it's from the back and won't help much.

Edit: Looks like it was on my phone. But I see a Chevy badge anyways, and it's left hand drive. So I dunno what to believe.

 

[RocZX]

A few years back, while walking around in Melbourne, I saw one of these Suburbans (though I assumed it was a Chevy at the time), but it had American license plates (forget which state). Looking back, it must have been one of these Holden versions, but I still can't explain why it had U.S. plates. I'll have to look at the picture I took, although it's from the back and won't help much.

Edit: Looks like it was on my phone. But I see a Chevy badge anyways, and it's left hand drive. So I dunno what to believe.

That's a Tahoe and the wrong gen. the Holden was a GMT400 thats a GMT800.

 

[Fastcarguy]

1991 Subaru Rioma

That could have been a good competitor for the Miata. Shame.

 

[SPhilli911]

That's a Tahoe and the wrong gen. the Holden was a GMT400 thats a GMT800.

Yeah, I realized that after I posted. Either way, it was an odd sight in Australia.

 

[ScottPuss20]

Yeah, I realized that after I posted. Either way, it was an odd sight in Australia.

You know what else is odd? Seeing an American registered, US spec, left hand drive Honda Odyessy in Australia.

 

[Razor440]

Here's something I found out about Canada recently- they love their rebadges! This is the '66 Pontiac Beaumont, a rebadged Chevrolet Chevelle for the Canadian market. They sold these as the Acadian Beaumont as well.

This is the 1967 model. Don't know much about this one, but alas, this one is Chevelle based as well.

Here's a 68 model, based on the Chevelle of the same year. Note the "SD-396" monkier, specifying that they didn't use Pontiac engines but rather the engines that went with the Chevelle.

This Acadian is based on the 1966 Chevy II Nova.

The way I discovered this car is through the movie Shadows In An Empty Room (also known as Blazing Magnum), which I am assuming the scenes were filmed in Quebec or some other place in a French-Canadian region.

 

[JR98]

Mercedes-Benz Renntransporter "Blue Wonder" Car Transporter

Powered by the same engine as the 300SL, and was used to transport the 300SLR to races back in the 50's. It was scrapped in 1967 (having not been used since Mercedes pulled out of motorsports in 1955) but they recently built a replica using archived photographs.

Mercedes-Benz high-speed racing car transporter.

The special high-speed transporter for racing cars was a one-of-a-kind specimen built by the Mercedes-Benz testing department. The racing department used the transporter, also called the “Blue Wonder”, to chauffeur its racing cars in 1955 – at speeds of up to 106 mph. As the original no longer exists, the vehicle was completely reconstructed with the help of documents from the archives.

• Engine: 3.0 Inline 6
• Power: 192 hp
• Top Speed: 106 mph

 

[Michelin Man]

Mazda MX-6 GTU

Was aware of Mazda's extensive IMSA program in the 80's and 90's what with GTO FB/ FC Rx-7's and the various GTP's such as the RX-792P and so on. But I didn't realise that it included the MX-6, with it being based on the MK1 version.

Although "based" is strong word , as the standard MX-6 was FF, so instead the GTU version was based around a tubular chassis with the 13b Rotary slapped in the middle, with the MX-6 body on top (basically they re-bodied the GTO RX-7 of the time to create it as far as I can tell) .

Which is why I loved the classic IMSA GTO/GTU space-frame regs of the time, as it allowed for the creation of some of the most bonkers machines around.

Plus the MX-6 achieved a fair bit of success much like it's RX-7 brethren, winning a fair few races in the GTU class in '89

They did race some "standard" FF MX-6's in the lower STU class at around the same time as well I believe.

 

[Inferno251]

Mazda MX-6 GTU

View attachment 636196

Was aware of Mazda's extensive IMSA program in the 80's and 90's what with GTO FB/ FC Rx-7's and the various GTP's such as the RX-792P and so on. But I didn't realise that it included the MX-6, with it being based on the MK1 version.

Although "based" is strong word , as the standard MX-6 was FF, so instead the GTU version was based around a tubular chassis with the 13b Rotary slapped in the middle, with the MX-6 body on top (basically they re-bodied the GTO RX-7 of the time to create it as far as I can tell) .

Which is why I loved the classic IMSA GTO/GTU space-frame regs of the time, as it allowed for the creation of some of the most bonkers machines around.

Plus the MX-6 achieved a fair bit of success much like it's RX-7 brethren, winning a fair few races in the GTU class in '89

They did race some "standard" FF MX-6's in the lower STU class at around the same time as well I believe.

I didn't know there was a Mazda MX-6 road car, let alone a racing version

 

[Michelin Man]

I didn't know there was a Mazda MX-6 road car, let alone a racing version

Yea, both of the 2 generations of the MX-6 were each made in conjunction with the Ford Probe, and personally I've always thought they were much better than the Probe, particularly the Mk2 MX-6.

 

[ScottPuss20]

I've known about the Mazda MX-6 for years...

 

[SVX]

I forget that the Mazda MX-6 ever looked like that. I always think of this one:

 

[RandomCarGuy17]

The Chevrolet Camaro Heritage Edition, it was basically going to be the special edition Camaro for its 25th Anniversary, but Chevrolet cancelled the idea.

 

[Razor440]

I forget that the Mazda MX-6 ever looked like that. I always think of this one:

Strangely enough, I first think of this when someone says "MX-6".

Yes, this MX-6.

 

[Aerocoupe]

The Chevrolet Camaro Heritage Edition, it was basically going to be the special edition Camaro for its 25th Anniversary, but Chevrolet cancelled the idea.

It's a crying shame it never reached production. All of those special performance parts and the base RS look made it quite something. Also a shame the one in the video got chopped up in the early 2000s after the guy in charge of GM's Heritage Collection didn't realize the worth and history of it either (not to mention that it was the last of the 14 prototypes they made).

 

[CSMDuty11]

The Reliant Fox, which i'd like to see next to a classic Mini:

There are other variations besides a pick-up, even though the first probably doesn't count:

As well as the Reliant Scimitar SS1, which looks like a Pontiac Fiero convertible that someone attempted to modify to look like a Lotus Esprit, but ended up giving up at some point:

The headlights pop up.

 

[Tyger]

The Scimitar SS1 isn't a bad little car, the SST and Sabre revamps were OK too. Some of the early ones had weird step-sided doors though, a little like the BMW Z1.

Came across this today, new one on me, the Monica 560. One of the more obscure of many EU-US hybrids of the 60s and 70s, not bad looking:

 

[Niku Driver HC]

That Monica is a bit like the French coupe cousin of the Jensen Interceptor; big body, and a big Chrysler V8 to match (although not as big as the Jensen, it's only a 5.6-litre V8. It was supposed to have an engine designed by one Ted Martin, but that plan was ditched because apparently his engine wasn't enough to haul the Monica's rather heavy-but-handsome body...

 

[Michelin Man]

The canned Group S regs, that were penned by FISA as the replacement for Group B, always fascinated me since it's "what could have been", with potentially fascinating machines such as the planned Lancia ECV and Toyota 222D.

But this particular prototype has escaped me until now: The Seat Ibiza Bimotor

This was basically a planned project between two Spanish brothers to make a Group S machine. However, at the time Seat didn't really have the money to invest in a full blown rally machine, and since 4WD was the big thing, it was very expensive with it still being a new technology.

To get around this the brothers came up a neat idea (approved by Seat) of getting 4WD cheaply (relatively), by using two engines; hence the Bimotor moniker, and welding two front sections together. What made this twin engine setup more interesting, is that the whole engine and drive-train was co-developed with Porsche. This allowed Seat to use the engines under the "System Porsche" name, which were two 1461cc 4-cylinder units producing 125bhp each (so 250bhp overall).

Furthermore, whats also interesting is that Italdesign and Karmann, designed and manufactured the bodywork, yet it looked quite sedated compared to the other Group S designs at the time if you compare it.

Whilst it never officially competed, turns out it was tested quite thoroughly in local Spanish rallies, and they even made an "Evo 2" model which had 150bhp from each engine, so now 300Bhp overall. Which coupled with it's relatively low weight of just 1-tonne, mean't it would have gone like the clappers .

 

[SVX]

I had no idea they made an Alpina Z1.