Nicknames for the best version

[rjg48]

Alfa Spydee Boat Tail.

The early versions with the nicer ass.

[JxJ Jr.]

'Plexi' - Early Ferrari Daytonas with fixed, faired-in headlights under plexiglass covers vs. arguably less attractive later pop-up headlights to meet US regulations

'Vetroresina/fibreglass' - earlier Ferrari 308s with lighter fibreglass body vs later steel

'P1800 Jensen' - Initial Volvo P1800s built in the UK by Jensen, different front bumpers and poorer quality control

'Gmund 356' - Early Porsche 356s made in Gmund, Austria in aluminium vs. later steel-bodied cars when Porsche moved to Germany. Lighter and rarer.

'Prince of Wales/PoW' - Aston V8 Vantage Volante to Prince Charles' spec without the Vantage body addenda (and possibly a tray for sugar cubes for horses in place of the ashtray)

'Split window' - Early VW Beetles and 1963-only Corvette with a two-piece rear window. Both are rarer than non-split wndows and rather distinctive.

'Fuelie' - Chevrolet 283 then 327 V8 with mechanical fuel injection available in the famous 1957 Bel Air and Corvettes up to 1965. Very expensive at the time and so very rare.

[emperorburger]

67Dino said:

Dazaa said:

The Corvette C3’s evolution from 1968 to 1982 pretty much sums up everything that went wrong with the US car industry in the 70’s......

Interesting stuff. At the risk of policing the thread a little too firmly, don’t suppose there’s any chance of holding you to the title of the thread and asking the nickname for the preferred variant?

Dazaa did mention it in his original post, however it wasn't highlighted.

'68-'72 Stingrays are referred to as 'chrome bumper' cars.

[craigjm]

epicfail said:

Busso

Flat Floor - early E Type

Norman Dewis was quite short so it wasn’t noticed that anyone of decent height needed legroom. Imagine a company making such a mistake today.

More rare than flat floor though is the external bonnet lock on the first flat floor cars

[Fast Bug]

67Dino said:

epicfail said:

Busso

Flat Floor - early E Type

Would you be able to explain what ‘Busso’ is and why the first gen E-type was called (or perhaps more interestingly , why it had) a flat floor?

Edited by 67Dino on Saturday 8th February 10:08

The Busso is a legendary Alfa Romeo V6 engine. Made from the late 70's until 2005ish, my 164 Cloverleaf had a Busso engine, glorious thing!

The flat floor I can't really answer, I know the early cars had a flat floor which was i think was changed to give more room in the cockpit.

[AlexiusG55]

JxJ Jr. said:

'Chrome bumper' - MGBs prior to the introduction of ugly black rubber bumpers

Not just ugly- the rubber bumpers weighed more than the chrome ones, and the ride height was also raised to meet US safety regulations.

VW T1 "Splitscreen", particularly the "23-window" Samba.

[ttthilvester]

I seem to remember that 'Valver' also applied to the (underrrated) Renault 19 16V.

[craigjm]

Fast Bug said:

67Dino said:

epicfail said:

Busso

Flat Floor - early E Type

Would you be able to explain what ‘Busso’ is and why the first gen E-type was called (or perhaps more interestingly , why it had) a flat floor?

Edited by 67Dino on Saturday 8th February 10:08

The Busso is a legendary Alfa Romeo V6 engine. Made from the late 70's until 2005ish, my 164 Cloverleaf had a Busso engine, glorious thing!

The flat floor I can't really answer, I know the early cars had a flat floor which was i think was changed to give more room in the cockpit.

I’ve answered the flat floor in my post above this one. The test drive was short so the car was signed off with a flat floor. When on sale anyone of decent height couldn’t fit so they changed the floor design to have a footwell. The first 500 or so cars produced were flat floor and the first few of those had external bonnet catches so the most desirable is a flat floor external latch

[Roboticarm]

ttthilvester said:

I seem to remember that 'Valver' also applied to the (underrrated) Renault 19 16V.

I've also heard this used to distinguish the Corsa Sri 16v from the 8v, had an early 94 car and mine was 8v.... My "friend" got the valver....

[CharlieAlphaMike]

I can't play this game because I even have a pet hate for abbreviated names: Alfa, Beemer, Merc, Lambo...Fezza

Edited because my pet hate is so bad that I have to now add the correct names for personal reasons: Alfa Romeo, BMW, Mercedes Benz, Lamborghini, Ferrari. I feel better now. Nurse,

Edited by CharlieAlphaMike on Saturday 8th February 12:21

[Dapster]

"Blobeye"




"Batmobile"




"Bobby Ewing"

[craigjm]

Roboticarm said:

ttthilvester said:

I seem to remember that 'Valver' also applied to the (underrrated) Renault 19 16V.

I've also heard this used to distinguish the Corsa Sri 16v from the 8v, had an early 94 car and mine was 8v.... My "friend" got the valver....

I think that was a common thing for cars that could be had in both 8 and 16

[lowdrag]

craigjm said:

epicfail said:

Busso

Flat Floor - early E Type

Norman Dewis was quite short so it wasn’t noticed that anyone of decent height needed legroom. Imagine a company making such a mistake today.

More rare than flat floor though is the external bonnet lock on the first flat floor cars

It wasn't just the E-type but the C, D and XKSS that preceded it. Ihave an XKSS replica and a flat floor E-type and I am "cosy" at 5' 7". But the problem with the car wasn't so much the floor as that the seat would not go far enough back. So there were two problems; if you were over 5'10" and a shoe size over 9 then an E-type wasn't for you. So, in June 1962, 14 months into production, Jaguar put a dropped floor in and sculpted the rear bulkhead to allow the seat to go back further.

The very early cars (the first 500 of which, 4 FHC and 91 DHC were RHD, and 20 FHC and 385 DHC were LHD) had a T-shaped key to open the bonnet and there were escutcheons on the bottom rear of each side of the bonnet. This was changed at the beginning of September 1961 to inside locks because the originals weren't stable enough and the bonnet wobbled like a jelly.

To amuse you, here is a photo of my dear friend Martin - all two metres of him - driving my E-type up Prescott hill climb.

[craigjm]

Another Jaguar one.... pre-HE to identify the earlier v12 from the 1980 on version that had “high efficiency” high swirl cylinder heads.

[Gompo]

Roboticarm said:

ttthilvester said:

I seem to remember that 'Valver' also applied to the (underrrated) Renault 19 16V.

I've also heard this used to distinguish the Corsa Sri 16v from the 8v, had an early 94 car and mine was 8v.... My "friend" got the valver....

.. Yes, goes without saying that it would be used to differentiate between two versions, like with the Golf; but personally (and I think in general terms also) it would be associated with the VW first off unless you were to say a different model initially.

Not cars as such, but thought 'Cos-cast' or similar would have been mentioned with the C20 XE talk.

[Dazaa]

emperorburger said:

67Dino said:

Dazaa said:

The Corvette C3’s evolution from 1968 to 1982 pretty much sums up everything that went wrong with the US car industry in the 70’s......

Interesting stuff. At the risk of policing the thread a little too firmly, don’t suppose there’s any chance of holding you to the title of the thread and asking the nickname for the preferred variant?

Dazaa did mention it in his original post, however it wasn't highlighted.

'68-'72 Stingrays are referred to as 'chrome bumper' cars.

My mistake, edited to clarify that the chrome bumper cars and the ones you want!

[lowdrag]

In our neck of the wood the early Meganes had a number of problems in RHD form. For example, the battery emplacement for one - well actually two - positions. Under the driver's seat or damned impossible to get at under the bonnet. I hope I remember that right! Anyway, they all went by the name of the Renault Migraine.

[Dapster]

After less than a year of production, the mk 1 Golf rear panel stamping was changed and now had a horizontal crease all the way across. The previous ones with the dip at the lower edge of the number plate were nicknamed "Swallowtail" and are the holy grail of mk1s.

Swallow tail


Normal

[67Dino]

Dapster said:

After less than a year of production, the mk 1 Golf rear panel stamping was changed and now had a horizontal crease all the way across. The previous ones with the dip at the lower edge of the number plate were nicknamed "Swallowtail" and are the holy grail of mk1s.

Swallow tail


Normal

Totally love knowing about this kind of tiny difference. Won’t be able to see a Mk 1 without checking for it now!

[aeropilot]

'61/62 Chevy Bel-Air Sports Coupe....the 'Bubble Top'.



She's so fine my four-oh-nine.....