"What's this car?" Official Thread

[juanelo242]

Moskvich Duet 2

info in russian:
?????????? ???????? ??????????

Traductor de idiomas y textos gratis online - Yahoo! Babel Fish

[juanelo242]

is this a roadmaster or a super 8?

[henk4]

Probably a 1948 Super Eight, all shots of Roadmasters I found (in a brief search) had the word "roadmaster" behind the front wheel just above the chrome strip.

[WyleECoyote]

Got these off Italiansupercar.net, can someone tell me what model Ferrari this is? I'm thinking it looks a bit like a 195 or 166 but i don't know.

Thanks, and much appreciated!

[B Bop]

It's a 1949 Inter by Touring

[B Bop]

Oops, my previous response should have read 1949 166 Inter "Superleggera" by Touring. Apparently, only three were ever made. They also had Cabo centre lock wheels and hubcaps. Obviously the car in your pics has had the wheels changed. Looks a lot better I think.

[henk4]

it is 005S, an 166 Inter.

[WyleECoyote]

Thanks for your help. Cheers.

[nota]

Originally Posted by juanelo242

is this a roadmaster or a super 8?

It can be very hard to differentiate a 1947 Buick from the almost indentical '48.

For 1948 both the Roadmaster and Special wore that little model-script identifier which Henk refers to.
But in '47 neither model carried model ID in that location, so I think the pictured car is more likely to belong to 1947.

As for Roadmaster vs Super, the major external clue is Roadmaster's 5" wheelbase extension (to accomodate Buick's biggest 320cid engine) which was spliced between the cabin and front wheels. The wb difference is a bit hard to discern from this camera angle, but my best guess is that the Buick pictured by juanelo is the shorter Super, from 1947.

A minor telltale is that the 1946~47 Roadmasters wore smaller but wider 15" wheels, while Super and Special made do with previous 16" rims. However by 1948 the Super also got the 15" upgrade, leaving only Special with the 16" wheels.

Btw I had a Buick reference book handy, which made things a lot easier for me than 4 Henk4

[henk4]

Originally Posted by nota

Btw I had a Buick reference book handy, which made things a lot easier for me than 4 Henk4

Possibly, when I searched I first found some shots of the 1949 vintage, which is distinctly different, and when I saw 1948 cars I thought: that's it, not bothering to go back to 1947....at that time US cars changed every year...but apparently not in this case. I saw the wheelbase difference, but you cannot tell from the outside what is what....

[nota]

Originally Posted by henk4

Possibly, when I searched I first found some shots of the 1949 vintage, which is distinctly different, and when I saw 1948 cars I thought: that's it, not bothering to go back to 1947....at that time US cars changed every year...but apparently not in this case.

Our bodystyle 'generation' under discussion debuted for the abbreviated 1942 run, then reappeared in '46. In 1946 the integrated 'moustache' atop the grille differed slightly to the later '47-48 versions, while in '42 the grille 'swallowed' the (absent) moustache entirely.

For mention the 1948 Buick was their least changed model (from the '47s) since the virtual 1934>35 rerun.

Btw I always loved the 'blatant dental work' of the 1950 Buick grille. Each and every one of of its nine 'teeth' was subtly different from each other, and none would interchange, which must have led to big headaches for dealers and a big inventory in their Parts Department! What a nightmare .. Holden's toothy 'baby Buick' the 1948~53 had the same problem but worse, a veritable mouthful of teeth (29!)

I saw the wheelbase difference,...

Lots of different wheelbases within this model-era!

Hard to explain comprehensively in less than a million words - but in essence there was Buick's 'short cabin' Special and Century (latter high-performance model dropped for '46 to '53) and 'long cabin' Super and Roadmaster. Within these two cabin sizes, there were additional wheelbase 'subsets' because the larger 320cid engine of Century & Roadmaster required a longer nose.

So this effectively meant two different wheelbases for the short cabin variants (to accomodate either the small or big engine, respectively) and another two wbs for the long cabin, same reason.

(The massive Limited limousine rode on its own, even longer, wb too! I'm not even going to attempt on the hyper-extended Hearses etc)

Originally Posted by 1942 Buick range

"The Special continued to use its 118-inch and 121-inch wheelbases, but the Super this year had its own exclusive chassis of 124-inch wheelbase. Likewise, the Century kept its 126-inch wheelbase; but the Roadmaster grew, and now used its own chassis with a wheelbase of 129-inches. The huge Limited retained its huge 139-inch wheelbase."

If you ignore the 118" wb variant (above quote, which was dropped post-war) you'll notice the respective 5" wb 'subset' stretch, required for the bigger-engined Century & Roadmaster

Hence for short-cabin the Special 121">Century 126" .. and long-cabin the Super 124">Roadmaster 129"

Originally Posted by Henk4

I saw the wheelbase difference, but you cannot tell from the outside what is what....

Indeed, and considering all of the above confusion, it was a stroke of genuis when Buick's Ned Nickles came up with the famous porthole differentiation system in 1949, wherein the big-motored models wore four portholes (no matter what individual wb) for instant recognition, while the lesser small-engined models received only three

(the above relates within 1942~49 Buicks, and mate I can only hope that these explanations hold a semblance of clarity)

[Ferrer]

So basically it's a mess...

Very interesting your insight on 40's Buicks, nota.

[henk4]

Ha, I just got the reference book out: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1946-1975 (4th edition) and that helps a lot in understanding what you just wrote...
And for the car under scrutiny here, the 1948 Super models also had "super" written behind the front fender, so we are looking at a 1947 model of either an RM or a Super, which are being described as outwardly the same, with the exception of longer mouldings in front of the doors to accommodate the longer wheelbase...but: QUOTE: The Roadmaster name appeared in red-filled script on a chrome button within the bumper guard crossbars, front and rear. UNQUOTE...

So can we see those red letters?

[nota]

Originally Posted by Ferrer

So basically it's a mess...

Very interesting your insight on 40's Buicks, nota.

Cheers and a bit of a mess, yes. I guess you could imagine the scenario if, for example, you wanted a new brake line or somesuch (relating to the wheelbase). To which the parts stockist would ask: "Is your Buick the short-short, the short-long, or the long-short or the long-long." !! Geez

I know a modest amount on older Buicks, which btw were often superior to Cadillacs, but should acknowledge my quote and info-check comes from the US hardcover 'Seventy Years of Buick' by GH Dammann. With 352 A4 pages its a quality resource, and by sheer coincidence I was amazed after buying the book years ago, to see a picture within it of what can only be my great grandfather's Buick .. his very car!

Its the big black Series 90 at lower right, Model 97


My grandfather inherited this car from near new, and kept this monster for many, many years. My late Father also had use of it in his younger days, and related some very amusing storys to me about it...

[henk4]

Originally Posted by nota

With 352 A4 pages its a quality resource, and by sheer coincidence I was amazed after buying the book years ago, to see a picture within it of what can only be my great grandfather's Buick .. his very car!

Its the big black Series 90 at lower right, Model 97


My grandfather inherited this car from near new, and kept this monster for many, many years. My late Father also had use of it in his younger days, and related some very amusing storys to me about it...

So one out of 19...Has it survived somewhere?