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some great old car pics, need help ID'ing one

Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 10:06 am
by bodhi_tree777
My dad sent me these, they're slides of him, my aunt and my grandmother with some of my grandfathers cars. The red one is labeled "AC Mongoose", although I'm not really familiar with the model. The other I have no idea. Picture is dated 1954 in Southern California. Sweet photos, enjoy.......

Re: some great old car pics, need help ID'ing one (bodhi_tree777)

Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 10:20 am
by Raven
The pastel blue one is a Cadillac.The AC was made by the British sports car company AC (1904-1998) who Carroll Shelby hooked up with to make the Cobra. Basically an American V8 stuffed in a British (AC) sports car. I'm not aware of a model called the Mongoose. The black one is an Austin, I think.

Re: some great old car pics, need help ID'ing one (bodhi_tree777)

Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 10:24 am
by keithvibe
the red one looks like a jaguar, but with out seeing the front i can't telledit:not a jag the old jag's have a solid wrap around chrome bumper.

Re: some great old car pics, need help ID'ing one (bodhi_tree777)

Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 10:25 am
by keithvibe
the black one looks like a very old fiat

Re: some great old car pics, need help ID'ing one (keithvibe)

Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 11:41 am
by RIT
I was thinking Simca for the Black Car.

Re: some great old car pics, need help ID'ing one (RIT)

Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 1:40 am
by Whelan
I'm not sure when they started making little red X's. Probably around the time the internet was born so say late 80's early 90's

Re: some great old car pics, need help ID'ing one (Whelan)

Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 2:13 am
by joatmon
Quote, originally posted by Whelan »I'm not sure when they started making little red X's. Probably around the time the internet was born so say late 80's early 90'sWhat's your damage? pics load fine for me

Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 8:46 am
by damronjr
Yep, green one looks to be a '53 or so Cadillac Coupe deVille.

Re: (damronjr)

Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 11:54 am
by Houston
Not to quibble, but it's a 1951 Caddy. The Cadillacs of the '50s are, to me, the most beautiful cars ever built. Pontiac had some wonderful looking cars, too.I remember drag racing a '59 Bonneville with my dad's '59 Coupe Deville. The Bonneville barely won, probably because I had a carload of buddies with me. Those were fun days! Twenty-some years later I told my dad about it. The look of disappointment in his eyes made me wish I'd kept my mouth shut.I just Googled images of both cars and lots of memories came sweeping into my mind. Give it a try (by year) with any car you like. Enjoy!

Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 12:04 pm
by tnpartsguy
The black Fiat appears to be an 850 sedan. I had an 850 spyder/racer (approx a '59/60 model). I'm thinking there was a Mongoose model of the AC, maybe it used an engine other than a Ford? I'm still looking....

Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 12:48 pm
by northvibe
the first car looks like a Triumph or Austin Healey

Re: (tnpartsguy)

Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 12:39 am
by bodhi_tree777
Thanks guys, for the replies. Any additional info on the AC (or any of these cars) would be awesome. My grandfather (owner of these cars way back when, and the photographer here) died earlier this year, I'll be heading down to NC next month to spread his and my grandmother's (pictured here) ashes on Lake Chatuge. I'll try to pick my dad's brains to see if he can remember any details or knows what happened to these cars . It's nice to have this info, thanks!

Re: (Houston)

Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 5:59 am
by bodhi_tree777
Quote, originally posted by Houston »The Cadillacs of the '50s are, to me, the most beautiful cars ever built. Pontiac had some wonderful looking cars, too.looking at that gorgeous front end, I can agree with that.

Re: (Houston)

Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 12:35 pm
by damronjr
Quote, originally posted by Houston »Not to quibble, but it's a 1951 Caddy. The Cadillacs of the '50s are, to me, the most beautiful cars ever built. Pontiac had some wonderful looking cars, too.I remember drag racing a '59 Bonneville with my dad's '59 Coupe Deville. The Bonneville barely won, probably because I had a carload of buddies with me. Those were fun days! Twenty-some years later I told my dad about it. The look of disappointment in his eyes made me wish I'd kept my mouth shut.I just Googled images of both cars and lots of memories came sweeping into my mind. Give it a try (by year) with any car you like. Enjoy!I agree with you on the Caddy statement! LOL, I had a 58 Caddy SDV, and a 62 Caddy SDV, I know the older years (early 50s) look a lot alike, just like the 57 and 58 look a lot alike, but the wings are different and the front bumpers are different, same with the 61 and 62, minor differences like the tail lights and grill designs. I wish I still had either of them, and would love to find and get back my 58 for sure! Saw a blue 62 down the street a few days ago, wish I had something to offer! Just about everything from the late 50s and early 60s are awesome!

Re: (damronjr)

Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 6:51 pm
by Houston
Quote, originally posted by damronjr »I agree with you on the Caddy statement! LOL, I had a 58 Caddy SDV, and a 62 Caddy SDV, I know the older years (early 50s) look a lot alike, just like the 57 and 58 look a lot alike, but the wings are different and the front bumpers are different, same with the 61 and 62, minor differences like the tail lights and grill designs. I wish I still had either of them, and would love to find and get back my 58 for sure! Saw a blue 62 down the street a few days ago, wish I had something to offer! Just about everything from the late 50s and early 60s are awesome! Another old Caddy lover! My dad had a '54, 57 and 59 Coupe DeVille. I was too young to appreciate the '54, not quite old enough to drive the '57, but got my license when he had the '59. The last two were white two-door hard-tops, rode wonderfully, and looked as beautiful as could be. To this day I've not ridden in a car that was as comfortable as those. Every once in awhile I'll see one of those cars in a car show and start drooling and making a fool of myself. I was in the navy when he went on to get a '62, but I was in my own world by then and didn't really pay that much attention to it.I just Googled images of your cars. Beautiful! BIG! America in all her glory! Unfortunately, we're witness to our country going down the tubes and am sure glad to have lived through her best days. Good luck to all the young people out here.

Re: (Houston)

Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 8:15 am
by Emerica13
Red one looks like a '53 AC Ace, check out the wiki link;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_Cars#Car_Models

Re: (Emerica13)

Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 8:13 am
by bodhi_tree777
I got some additional info from my dad about a couple of these cars if anyone was interested.The black one in the background in the first photo is a Simca, which was a French company. 2 door coupe, I forget which year. Apparently it got 34 mpgs, and that was back in the 50s. I thought that was funny.The red one is a modified AC Cobra. It was a one of a kind that my grandpa had heavily modded and had swapped a corvette engine into. He called it the Mongoose because it was a "Cobra killer". The wheels on it are early Ferrari wheels, my dad tells me. He ended up trading that one for a piece of property in Southern California, probably a pretty good swap.

Re: (bodhi_tree777)

Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 10:20 am
by RIT
Bingo - Rit was right about the Simca.

Re: (RIT)

Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 1:02 am
by bodhi_tree777
Quote, originally posted by RIT »Bingo - Rit was right about the Simca.nailed it. I didn't even know what a Simca was when you mentioned that. Neat looking cars.