I remember seeing a Borgward Combi.
And I remember the Borgward "Isabella" which was
a sharp looking convertible.
Incidentally, did you know Herr Borgward made trucks and after WWII expanded to include passenger vehicles.
Ok no one has a guess. The green mystery car is a "67 Hino made under licence from Renault. Today the company only makes medium sized trucks.
Pitter,
I owned three DKWs. A 1958, a 1960, and 1963.
I don't remember the free wheeling clutch as being a problem. I believe you could disengage the free wheeling if you wanted to, but it made it jerky slowing down at low speeds. So, you had to push in the clutch pedal as you came to a stop and brake with the brakes alone.
I drove the 1963 from Michigan to the Panama canal. The "Pan American Highway" was a crude road with some stretches consisting of three to four inch crushed rocks. Rivers and streams about a foot deep. Wore out six new tires in three thousand miles.
1958 and front wheel drive! I put snow tires on the front and it caused know-it-alls to snigger. My wife would be putting a quart of oil in the gas tank and get shouts of "No, no lady. Stop!"
The motor literally had only seven moving parts excluding ball bearings and roller bearings.
The parts were the crankshaft, the three rods, and three pistons.
No oil pump. Lubrication was done by adding oil to the gas.
No water pump. The engine had about a 3" to 4" hose connected to the upper part of the engine and to the` radiator which was between the engine and the fire wall. there was another large hose at the bottom of the radiator. It was self circulating, like a house radiator.
No distributor. (The crankshaft went through the front of the engine and acted as a three sided cam which opened three separate sets of points.) There also were three coils, one for each cylinder.
Needless to say, I took tools, and a spare coil, a set of points, hoses, spark plugs, etc. on the long trip. And had to use all of them.
Were they fun and reliable? You betcha!
Billyfalcon what a great ride that must have been to Panama! I guess the pre seventies Saabs had stock DKW motors from your description. The option to lock out the free wheeling clutch was for driving in mountains I was told so you could use engine breaking. Now a question:
Who made the motors for sixties era Volvos?
Criminy Dys, my Dad had a 48 Packard with that same radio button on the floor. We never drove it, it sat in a hanger of an old grass strip airport he owned. I saw it a couple times. He sold the airport and hangar to a developer years ago, with the car still inside. The car was pretty gross.
Speaking of oddities, I don't know how true this is, but I've heard it said that no two Mini Coopers are identical in any given model year.
I test drove an S-model and they're a blast, but may be tiring over distance due to the rough ride.
Pitter, off the thread. I just noticed your location - Columbia. The goal of 1963 trip to Panama was actually Lake Titicaca in Bolivia. However, attempting to get the car from Panama into Cartegena (?) proved to be insurmountable. So, we changed plans, shipped the car to Florida, flew to Bogota. After a few days, we flew in a Columbian Air Force plane to the village of Leticia, some two thousand miles up the Amazon. After a week there, we took a WW II PBY amphibious plane to Manaus, and then a slow boat to Belem at the mouth of the Amazon.
It's probably lucky we failed to get into SA because the sixties were labeled the decade of violence. i believe thousands of people were killed on the highways
I had a 1967 Volvo, but don't recall a different engine than Volvo. I'm curious as to what it was.
I also owned a 1971 Volvo and a 1976. While I liked them as cars go, I found them very, very expensive to maintain.
Wow another great trip. Well road travel is supposed to be safer now but on a recent bus trip from Bogota to Cali we lucked out and missed an army vs. guerrilla battle by two days.
I had a '63 PV 544. Great car! A friend in college had a 445 station wagon with wood panels. I asked about the motors of sixties models because a car fanatic once told me years ago they were produced by Rolls Royce. Swedish car Urban Legend?
Pitter, Volvo used to get their engines off DAF. In 1962ish they bought the factory off them. I think it was in Belgium. DAF bought it back in the 70's and stopped making cars.
Thank you Adrian. Solved that mystery for me! I have always wondered about that what with hearing that urban legend and doubting that Vovo produced their own in those days.
A friend's father had a couple of Volvos with two-stroke engines (?)... 1958 and 1959. They were cute!
The first car I remember ever riding in was my parents 48/49 Packard. It had the floor thing.
But, what I can still see today is how my legs (even though little) never left the seat it was so big/long-you know flat out in front of me. If you put a 4 year old in a car of today and I would think they'd be doing the swinging feet thing.
The dash was also so deep that when a big insect flew into the car...the dash basically sucked it so far in that my mother couldnt reach it to squish it.
Mom is 5'10" so, not like she had short arms. She also had to man handle the steering wheel.
Its funny to consider kids of today really have no idea what a tank of a car is.
Does anyone else remember the cadillacs (or similar) that had fans in the back windows?
No, but I remember one that had a back window that rolled down. We'd sit in the back seat and try to toss bits of crumpled paper out -- they would dance on the trunk lid for a minute, then blow back in...
I saw a '40s model Caddy that had hydraulic not electric windows. Little tubes running all over the place.
quinn1 wrote:The first car I remember ever riding in was my parents 48/49 Packard. It had the floor thing.
But, what I can still see today is how my legs (even though little) never left the seat it was so big/long-you know flat out in front of me. If you put a 4 year old in a car of today and I would think they'd be doing the swinging feet thing.
The dash was also so deep that when a big insect flew into the car...the dash basically sucked it so far in that my mother couldnt reach it to squish it.
Mom is 5'10" so, not like she had short arms. She also had to man handle the steering wheel.
Its funny to consider kids of today really have no idea what a tank of a car is.
My de Ville is about 20' long, 4600lbs, & originally had a 425ci (7 litre) engine. It's almost a foot LONGER than a Chevy Suburban.
I can't find anyreference in a google search to Mamut trucks. I think they're German. One just towed a Boeing 747 through Bogota to an amusement park. Know a website with info?
Car experts please identify this one for me:
