This Car Is Related To The One Above because...

[rblote]

Triumph has build (is still building) some great motorbikes. One of them is the Rocket 3.
Not really a Retro bike yet but a bike that is a little bit special anyway.
The Triumph Rocket III is a three-cylinder motorcycle made by Triumph Motorcycles Ltd. At 2,294 cc (140.0 cu in) it has the largest-displacement engine of any production motorcycle.
The name "Rocket III" is derived from the 1968 BSA 750cc pushrod triple, the Rocket 3, which was a badge-engineered version of the original "Triumph Trident."

[luckyseven]

The Maserati trident badge was inspired by a famous statue fountain of Neptune in a piazza in the Maserati brother's home town of Bologna (added motorbike relationship as it's also the home town of Ducati amongst others). Most Masers have sported the trident even through many different ownerships by many different nationalities. Citroen were the weirdest about it, but then Citroen are habitually pretty weird

Anyway, have a 3500GT grille badge


3500GT grl by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

[vulgalour]

A fountain in a piazza, you say?



The Isuzu Piazza there. The rear axle is not shared with a GM product, nor does it drop straight into one, despite what some pub bores may tell you.

[rblote]

Isuzu build my first real 4WD. The Isuzu Trooper, Holden Jackaroo etc

Although it was a great car and we had lots of fun with it, it's not
the reason I wanted to jump in on the Isuzu theme.
No, it's because of (in my books) the sexiest Isuzu ever built.
The Isuzu Bellett

[darrenh]

however there is a GM connection to the piazza and that comes in the shape of the isuzu aska. it used the same 2 litre turbo engine as the piazza, but mounted transversely and driving the front wheels. if you squint a bit and ignore the twin headlights you will easly find a lightly guilded mk2 cavalier / opel ascona C. the car was also sold as holden camira to our antipodean friends.

[vulgalour]

The old Mk2 Cavalier really got about! Interestingly, it was marketted as a large family saloon here in the UK and Europe but in America it was considered a compact. The Mk2 Cavalier platform is surprisingly versatile. I don't recall it being anything particularly special and perhaps that's why it's had such an enormous and seemingly invisible influence on the worldwide car market. From the obscure things like the Isuzu above to the Holden Camira in Australia, the Mk2 Cavalier here in the UK, and the Opel Ascona throughout Europe.

What I found particularly interesting - and this is new stuff I'm learning tonight - is that GM used it as the J platform and that underpins a surprisingly huge array of vehicles amongst which are such diverse offerings as the Buick Skylark, the Daewoo Espero, the Cadillac Cimarron (why, Cadillac, why?), the Pontiac Sunfire, and confusingly to us Brits at least, the Toyota Cavalier. So it's not just the name that links the Vauxhall and Toyota Cavalier, they're basically the same car underneath it all. This humble platform was in production for an astonishing 24 years, it wasn't retired until the the early 2000s.

There's a lot of cars I could jump off with from there but I'm going to go to what GM chose as the successor to the J platform range which is the Saturn range of cars. You have to remember that in the late 80s and early 90s, the Japanese car manufacturers were absolutely dominating the market with what a car should be and what consumers should expect with regards to quality and options on a vehicle, even at the lowest end of the market. It really shook American car makers up a lot who had grown complacent and used to just producing what they'd always produced which people would always buy. Just as in the UK in the 70s when Datsun and the like came on the scene, the native manufacturers had to sit up and pay attention, or get left behind.

So it was that Saturn came about, GM's answer to the influx of Japanese cars. They wanted to produce something in tune with the times, that offered all the luxuries and modernity of Japanese cars at a competitive price. Saturn was odd, as a company, it was something of a satellite to GM in that it was owned by GM but that was really about it for the connection to them. Saturn could very much be regarded as it's own entity, it wasn't just GM's Lexus (Toyota) or DS (Citroen) brand, it was its own thing. They created distinctively styled cars that were as strange a blend of American and Japanese influences as the Toyota CROWNs and Nissan Laurels of the 70s and 80s had been, just from the other side of the mirror, as it were.

It's very sad that Saturn didn't make it to be with us today, it was a brave new thing for the American car market to do and to bring us full circle, one of their final models was the Saturn Sky, which was just a rebadged 2007 Opel GT rather than the radical styling departure of the earlier S models.

So on that note, here's a Saturn S-Series wagon. It's wonderful that Saturn was allowed to exist and it's very sad that they don't any more.

NB: had to edit a few times, my keyboard is being dreadful tonight and peppered this with typoes.

[rblote]

The Saturn made even an appearance on TV.....

Saturn is a car featured in the episode "D'oh-in' in the Wind," as well as several other episodes.
The Saturn featured in "D'oh-in' in the Wind" is owned by Seth and Munchie, although Seth appears to be the primary owner/driver.
The exact model of Seth and Munchie's Saturn appears to be a 1996-1998 Saturn SL2; Saturn SL2s have body-colored bumpers whereas the SL1 has black plastic bumpers. In addition, Homer is seen sticking his head out of the sunroof, which would probably indicate the SL2 model as the SL2 was the higher-level version.

[The Rascal King]

The other vehicle made popular on the Simpsons is the Canyonero:

The Canyonero is said to have space for over thirty passengers as well as the driver. Its specifications are described as approximately thirty-six feet in length, weighing sixty-five tons, and wide enough to fill two highway lanes. The Canyonero comes equipped with four-wheel drive and is decidedly designed more for power than for speed, as the Canyonero says it "goes real slow with the hammer down". The Canyonero is prone to on-board fires of indeterminate cause which have spawned a number of cases that are working their way through the court system.

[vulgalour]

Surprise fires brings us neatly back to Vauxhall** whose Zafira A was sold in Japan as the Subaru Traviq which also came with a really smart bodykit.  The definitely missed a trick by not kitting these out with the traditional Subaru power plant and all wheel drive, that would have been an amazing thing.

** Vauxhall Zafira B were infamous in 2015-6 for spontaneous fires caused by a thermal regulator being unfit for purpose and then combusting if you used the fan on certain speeds. There were a couple of safety recalls to resolve the issue.

[outovisprime]

The Subaru Traviq was manufactured in Thailand. While several other marques were also assembled in Thailand by Thai Rung they also produced their own vehicle also named Thai Rung or TR, the current model being TR TRansformer II.

[georgeb]

Sept 22, 2018 11:16:18 GMT rblote said:

The Triumph Rocket III is a three-cylinder motorcycle made by Triumph Motorcycles Ltd. At 2,294 cc (140.0 cu in) it has the largest-displacement engine of any production motorcycle.

Just a little Rocket anecdote.

We were sitting outside Hard Rock Cafe in Kuala Lumpur, having a few beers and awaiting the arrival of a mate. At the same time there was a Harley Davidson club meet going on at several adjacent tables.

Mate duly rolls up on his Rocket, sees the spread of Harleys and shouts, "Get these moved, the sign says, 'Parking for big bikes only!'"

Fortunately, the Harley guys took it in good spirit, made space for him, and we had a good night!

Sorry for the hijack, I'm loving this thread.

[rblote]

Thai RungThai presents the latest TRANS TRANSFORMER II designed with attention. Has collaborated with the leading car designers from England. The concept to represent the symbol of Super Hero of the Thai people to the new car. More Modern from the previous generation. External clarity with change. With a new 3.5-inch binaural headlamp with daytime running lights and built-in turn signal. And increase safety in driving. The rear fog lights and headlights also come with an automatic on-off system for comfort. New bumper Boosting fierce And more advanced. Feel the tough. Ready in every situation. Contains clear contrast of lines. Decoration available with side and back stairs. Increased ease of up and down.
www.autodeft.com/newcar/new-tr-transformer-ii-thailand-2016

Scrolling through the link above you read that one of these cars is brought out with a two-stroke 177-horsepower diesel 2.8-liter engine.
I know of 2 stroke diesel trucks. The sound they make is awesome. However 2 stroke cars are a little bit closer to our liking I guess...
One like this great 1989 Wartburg Tourist with a 1.3L Three Cylinder 2 stroke.

[surprisingskoda]

Combining the Wartburg with an "increased ease of up and down"!! gives us this:

[darrenh]

What happens when you want a transformer and a Wartburg?

Lego version of 353 tourist, obviously

[s1105117]

Lego car you say...



20 mph Lego bugatti, what a beast! However to keep this post more appropriate, from a Lego Bugatti to to a real one..

a 1936 Bugatti Type 57 SC Coupé Atlantic. A snitch a $30m.

[rodharris83]

Anorther car worth over £30 million!





Nick Mason's Ferrari 250 GTO

[The Rascal King]

We'll borrow a page from Car & Driver and link from the GTO to the GTO:



The Pontiac GTO is known for starting the Musclecar movement, which was really just the corporate version of what Hot rodders had been doing from the beginning, installing a (relatively) big engine in a (relatively) small car:



Available as an option package on Tempest LeMans models (in order to get around a corporate ban on installing engines more than 330 cubic inches in intermediate-size models), the GTO borrowed its name from the Ferrari GTO, although Pontiac had no plans to homologate the car with the FIA for road racing. When Car and Driver road-tested the Pontiac GTO for the March 1964 issue, its cover boldly proclaimed “GTO vs. GTO” and showed a Pontiac GTO trailing a Ferrari GTO by a car length on a road course. Inside the pages, however, the coverage was limited to the domestic GTO, as the magazine had difficulty locating a Ferrari GTO to borrow for comparative purposes. Based on data in its files, Car and Driver declared that, “The Pontiac will beat the Ferrari in a drag race, and the Ferrari will go around any American road circuit faster than the stock Tempest GTO.” Performance aside, the Pontiac version sold for a fraction of its Italian namesake, and was therefore of significant interest to readers of more modest income.

[darrenh]

the sixth gen pontiac lemans was a re-badged opel kadett, despite owning 4 kadetts even i'm too embarrassed to post a picture because of how insulting it is to their muscle car heritage.

but instead heres a design study pontiac did for their flagship 90bhp model GSE, and by design study i mean they stole an irmscher wide arch kit and punched a few extra holes in it.

[rblote]

But they also built some very nice GSE's
this would be one of my favorite GSE

[darrenh]

a nifty segue into digital dash boards