Car ID.

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I found these photos on an NZ F/B page, normal for us in the '60's and '70's (what the F/B page is about), but might throw overseas viewers. The Aussies will be home from work by now, and should nail them.



 
Originally Posted By: Charlie1935
Looks like 50 Ford and a Morris minor.


Beat me to it.
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The first picture is a 1950 Ford. I had this vehicle in a two door. 239 cubic inch flathead with three and electric overdrive. Very good vehicle. Wish I still had it to tinker with as it was easy to work on. Replaced it with a 54 Ford with 239 OHV "Y" block. That was a sorry, weak stick engine that didn't come close to flat head power. I believe Ford went to a 272 OHV in 55 and then to a 292 OHV in about 56 or 57. The bigger Y blocks were somewhat better than the first 239 OHV. Chevy's 265 OHV V8 which came out in 1955 was better than anything Ford made for a number of years.
 
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There's a good PBS mystery, originated by the Australian Broadcasting Company called "Dr. Blake" running now. The producers have gone out of their way to provide cars from the 50's for the show. Some of the police vehicles are pretty unusual.
 
The top photo is a ''Twin Spinner'' - but what has it got instead of the spinners? Expat has the 2nd one, but again, it's far from standard - what have they done?
 
If he went to America he might have called himself Ford Fairlane, but he went to the UK where Ford Prefect was a very common name. The MkI Consul has a 100E Prefect grill, upside down. It also has the rear wheel arches cut away so they could fit wide wheels - stock steel wheels with a 2 inch band welded in. Some bonnet scoops too. I don't know why they did this to the 4 cyl Consul, back then the 6 cyl MkI Zephyr was the most lusted after car by school boys. This photo was taken close to my highschool in the late '60's, so I probably saw it...I would've been impressed.

The Twin Spinner has a grill from a MkIII Zephyr.
 
My Grandad had a black Zephyr Ute with a red interior.

He made an aluminium "shell" canopy for it, and used it for his fruit and vege business (did you guys get Bellbird ? his International truck was in the opening credits).

When he died, the whole town of Daylesford was after his ute.
 
Speaking of Grandad, my family when I was a kid was in financial strife, so Grandad sold Dad one of these for $50

1024px-Humber_Super_Snipe_4086cc_1952.JPG


It was beige, and I remember sitting in the back seat as Dad's younger brother cracked the front door to close it properly at 50-60MPH, and it flew backwards past me.

He sold it, in Bendigo, and coincidentally (per the last post) the new owner converted it to a ute.
 
I guess Australia dropped the Vauxhall early on because they competed with Holden, and then the Zephyr when the Falcon came along. When I was in Melbourne in 1980 I saw MkII Zephyrs, but no MkIII's, let alone MkIV's.

Love the Supersnipe's, came close to getting one oof those old ones a couple of times...they were huge. Knew a guy in Taranaki who put the 6 cyl Perkins engine out of his Fergy into one. We went for a drive in it, a lot of laughs, but could only do 50mph.

The Zephyr was such an icon in NZ, they made a movie called Zephyr MkII.
 
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In the US, I believe we had a Lincoln Zephyr at one time. Of course, in the 1970's the Mercury version of the Fairmont was the Zephyr. We had one. Took my driving test in that 3.3L smog control choked beast
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zephyr01.jpg

Ours had different wheel covers (and was missing one long before I touched it) but otherwise looked just like the beauty above.
 
The Zephyr was English Ford's 6 cyl, 6 seater big car, with Macpherson struts and unitary body...high tech for Ford in 1951. The MkI and MkII had a 4 cyl Consul version with a shorter bonnet, but in the MkIII and MkIV there was just a 4 cyl version in the same body. They were very popular in NZ for big families and for towing boats, caravans and trailers. Always peppier and better handling than contempory Vauxhall and Holdens, they were the teenagers performance car of choice.
 
I have vague memories of going to the junk yard in the late 50's and buying Zephyr transmissions. Don't know what they came out of but they were the strongest tranny to get to replace the Ford 3sp
 
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