What a lovely surprise to see the oldies out and about.
Do you know what type of old car this one is? Not to worry, as I will show you below. My wife is always searching for special prices on food sales, and on this day, we went to a shopping center that offered "bargain" prices. I think that by now you know that I am allergic to shopping, and as usual I waited outside whilst the wife did her shopping. So, I took a walk outside and this old car called me.
You can see that the car looked to be in a great original condition, and the owners take pride in their possessions. This one looked to be a 50's or early 60's model, and it still looks new. The front doors of the car open the wrong way round, from the left towards the right and I know that in the olden days some of the cars were made with the doors opening like that. The car even had its original wheel caps.
So, come and see.
That front grill might tell you what kind of car it is.
A closer look, but still not very clear, as the car's front was parked against a flowerbed and I didn't want to damage the flowers to get a better view of the grill.
And here below you see the car's rearend.
Okay, enough said and the car is a Fiat 1100.
In the meantime, I found this information in Wikipedia.
1960: 1100/103 H Export and Special
Late in 1960 the 1958 1100/103 D and the 1110/103 H Lusso were replaced by three models, first shown at the November 1960 Turin Motor Show: the 1100 Export, the pricier 1100 Special, and the 1100 Familiare station wagon.
The Special changed its name depending on the market—e.g. it was named Speciale in Italy and Spezial in Germany. The main difference between Special and Export saloons was the sheetmetal: the Export used a 103 H Lusso bodyshell, while the Special became the first 1100 with four front-hinged doors, as it adopted the more modern 1200 Granluce's bodyshell. Otherwise the two saloons had nearly identical interior trim and equipment.
Both had been stripped of the Granluce and Lusso's glitzy trim and their complex paint schemes—though a contrast colour roof remained optional on the Special. Sole concessions to ornamentation were a chrome spear down the side and factory-fitted whitewall tyres, with a thicker band on the Special. Export, Special and Familiare all used the same front end, as fitted to the Lusso and the 1959 restyled Granluce; front and rear the bumpers had less bulky over-riders, without rubber inserts. The Familiare did not change much externally, receiving the new grille but keeping the rear-hinged doors. It also received the 103 H engine and chassis code.
Finally, the owner arrived and I got a shot of the car when he left. Pity that I didn't get a chance to chat to him.
And not to be outdone, we saw this one on our way home.
Then, like I said, on our way home there was another little surprise ahead of us.
Now this one I will not ask you to identify, as it is a Morris Minor 1000. No ways could I get more photos of it, as we took a left turn at the traffic light and the Morris went straight ahead on the road.
Women are indeed strange beings, especially when it comes to shopping, as mine says she is popping in for a special price on milk and then she comes out with bags of stuff that looks like she bought half of the shop. At other times she will spend an hour in the shop and only come out with a loaf of bread. Men, on the other hand, do not have those habits, as they are single minded and when they go into the shop to get something, they go in and come out with only the something that they said they wanted to get. No extra bags and stuff.
In any case, I digress and let me rather talk about the cars before I get into trouble. We have many old cars here, and all of them are still in pristine condition, they are called classics nowadays and I can tell you that they sell at very high prices. But not many owners will be willing to sell as they all have a personal relationship with their old cars. I, on the other hand, have not had a relationship with any car, as to me they are just a means to get from A to B.
Such is life.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.
Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
Until next time, cheers!
