Car Flake IV Trivia Quiz

Answer: Adolf Hitler

Yes...Adolf his own self came up with the idea that was brought to fruition by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, who was also responsible for the sports car that bears his name. Those first Porsches were essentially nothing but streamlined VWs, but have since developed into full contenders in the world of exotic GT cars.

Volkswagen itself, recently, tried to enter the upper stratosphere of luxury automobiles with a model called the Phaeton, their version of the Audi A8, that went for almost $80,000! It goes without saying it was doomed, and is no longer in production.

Answer: The Austin-Healey Sprite and the MG Midget

Though the Sprite came first, in 1958, originally as a bug-eyed roller skate about as small as you can get, the MG Midget eventually followed it in its Mk. II stage. It and the Sprite Mk. II were totally badge engineered, with only trim differences differentiating the cars in the early years of the Midget, (1961-1979; the Sprite, alas, only lasted until '71).

In the years past 1971, the Midget was developed alone, and gained engine size, external door handles and other features that set it apart from its discontinued stablemate. Nearly a quarter of a million of these cars were sold over the course of 18 years...very good for a British import!

Answer: The Triumph Spitfire/GT6

Almost like a mutation, the humble, homely, little four cylinder Triumph Spitfire was turned into the fire-breathing GT-6, with a coupe conversion, (that was even weirder looking!) It was a six cylinder tire-singer that benefited from having a Triumph 2000 Saloon engine squeezed into its lightweight chassis. It wasn't exactly a bargain-basement AC Cobra, but it was respectable for the day at 0-60 in 10.2 sec.

There was also an MG with this sort of setup, the MG-C, which also had a six cylinder engine squeezed into it, but almost none were imported to the US. The Sunbeam Tiger, a tiny Rootes Alpine with a small-block Ford V-8 shoehorned into it, was probably the inspiration for both cars.

Answer: The Sonett

The little Sonett, which wasn't especially attractive, was introduced by the "little company that could" in 1966 and ended production in 1974. Along the way, more than 10,000 were produced, making it indeed, a rare bird in the annals of automotive production. The Sonett, also called the "97", was an odd looking car that resembled a California "kit" car, perhaps like those produced by Fiberfab or Kelmar, and had almost laughable lines. However, its handling was commendable, and the little three and four cylinder engines it utilized produced acceptable spurt in those old days of emissions regulations.

Saab is now owned by GM, but has been losing money for the company ever since 1990, when it bought a majority share. Two of its cars aren't even Swedish in origin, and GM is moving manufacturing plants to places like Germany and Austria.

Auf wiedersehen, SAAB, it was nice knowing ye...!

Answer: The SM

No question about it, the Citröen SM was a strange bird, looking for all the world like a streamlined '49 Hudson with glass-covered headlights. It also resembled the last known Spanish Pegaso GT. However, like all other high ticket Citröens, this model was incredibly comfortable, and, wonder of wonders, this particular one had a Maserati V-6 engine, rated at 250 bhp! The car was produced between 1971 and '74.

Answer: Nash

The tiny little Nash Metropolitan, a car that seemed like it was designed especially for sweet, little old grandmothers, was introduced in 1953. This dinky little guy was only a little over ten feet long at the most and actually seems smaller than a BMW Mini! This adorable little car was almost always sold with a Continental kit for the spare tire, since the trunk was so tiny.

Believe it or not, though the look of the car was decidedly American, it was actually a collaboration between Nash and Austin of Great Britain, before it merged with Morris to create BMC. All in all, roughly 95,000 of the little buggers were produced, and production ended in April of 1961.

Answer: 1958

This year is arguably the year that the popularity of the Ford T-Bird, as it was affectionately called, really took off, as it became the object of automotive lust for anybody with pretentions to having any elan at all. Ford's advertising strategy for the model changed from beach and fun-in-the-sun oriented with the two seater, to pulling up to the Academy of Music or the Polo Grounds in its glamorously illustrated pamphlets. The car was indeed, a good combination of cute and dignified, at once shrinking and enlarging features of the large Ford of 1958.

Until 1958, the T-Bird had been a marginal seller, stll doing better than the Chevy Corvette that it owed its existence to, but still not setting the showroom floor on fire. The change to a four seat configuration changed all that, as the still relatively inexpensive 'Bird now became a practical family car, albeit with some uppah-crust panache. After 1960, though, the car became larger and larger, cushier and cushier, and spent about two decades being a rolling parody of American automotive design and excess. The model has now been retired a second time, after a short run as a retro-inspired two-seater.

Someone play "Taps"....?

Answer: The Chrysler Ghia Turbine

In 1963, Chrysler hired Elwood P. Engel away from Ford to replace the Prince of the Ridiculous, Virgil Exner, as chief V.P. of design for the company. It also hired a new president, replacing Lynn Townsend with "Tex" Colbert. Their first fruit of a project was the eye-catching and innovative Ghia Turbine concept car that bore a very strong resemblance to Engel's Ford Thunderbird of 1961. This was essentially the most attractive car to wear a Chrysler badge in the period between the Airflow of the 30s and 1970, when the original Dodge Challenger, (which owed an awful lot of design cues to it), was debuted. This car was loaned out to randomly picked individuals to gauge how turbines react to everyday driving performed by perfectly ordinary people. Fifty-five were built, and only nine remain.

The car, which was powered by a gas turbine that could run on anything from alcohol to fingernail polish remover, produced 452 lbs./ft. of torque and could do 0-60 mph in 5.5 seconds! It bought Chrysler a lot of badly needed prestige after years of producing some of the most laughable cars in the automotive industry.

Answer: Transverse mounting

As far as anyone knows, the Austin/Morris Mini was the very first _mass_-produced car to sport a transverse mounted engine to save interior space, marking the way for hundreds of small, and even some large, cars to come.

Designed by Sir Alec Isoginis and introduced by BMC in 1959 shortly after the Suez oil crisis, the Mini was a favorite of rallye enthusiasts and racers everywhere. With minimal tweaking, the 1275cc versions of these little buggers could be made to scoot around like mice in a bakery. The Mini Cooper and Mini Cooper S are legends to this day, and the recently revived BMW Mini is the only successful resuscitation of a British model of any sort, ever.

Answer: True

Yep! Just about the time federal regulations were starting to take hold in this country, (1971) Jaguar decided to upgrade the already potent dohc six engine in the E-type to twelve cylinders, but this didn't necessarily mean better performance. This configuration was available only in a 2+2 coupe and roadster body, which entailed higher weight and larger overall dimensions, hence, essentially the same 0-60 and quarter mile numbers. In fact, due to the heavier weight, it was often slower without additional tweaking.

It still must have been a gas to drive, though!

Answer: The Plymouth Barracuda

The quickly cobbled together Plymouth Barracuda beat the Mustang to the showrooms by mere weeks, taking just about everybody by surprise, since no one, not even most automotive journalists, even knew that Chrysler had anything planned to compete with the 'Stang.

The original Barracuda was, for all intents and purposes, an ordinary Plymouth Valiant with a ridiculous bubble-shaped backlite tacked onto it which took up about one quarter of the car's visible surface! This car, with the "Formula S" performance option, could actually be made to look somewhat purposeful. But still, it must have been pure torture to drive that thing in July, before A/C became standard issue in American cars!

The Rambler Marlin, believe it or not, was just the least bit more tastefully done, but AMC really should have come out with the Rambler American-based Tarpon instead. 'It' actually looked decent! (The Marlin was essentially a Classic/Rebel/Matador with a fastback.)

Answer: The Yenko Stinger

The Yenko Stinger was an attempt by Don Yenko of Pittsburgh, to do for the Corvair Corsa what Carroll Shelby did for the Mustang, with the GT 350, which had come out the previous year, 1965. The first production units were completed in 1966 and roughly 185 were built, both as touring cars and as homologated racers.

Answer: Ferrari and Saab

The Saab 9000 and the Ferrari 250 touring GT America both shared bodies with the Lancia, the models being the Thema for the 9000 and the Flavia 815 Coupé for the Ferrari 250 GT America. All four cars were almost identical to each other superficially, except for the usual front fascia work.

There was also a Fiat, the Croma, that resembled the Thema and 9000, but it got very little press. An Alfa model used the chassis, but not the body shell.

Answer: The Aston Martin DB-6

This Aston Martin, the one that immediately succeeeded the "Bond" car, the DB-5, was considered crude, under-engineered and overpriced, being left behind in the dust by such marques as Ferrari, upstart Lamborghini, Jaguar, Toyota and others. The front end of the DB-4/5 body was retained, but from the A-pillar rearward, the car was bulkier looking and Kamm-tailed, and the overall effect just didn't work. It still had the DB-4's six cylinder dohc engine, too.

With the very next model after this, Aston Martin broke with the Michelotti-styled DB-4 through 6 body altogether to produce the elegant and worthy V-8 DB-S and DB-S Vantage, the car occasionally seen in the George Lazenby and Roger Moore Bond films. This car, under one "DB" model nomenclature or another, was made for quite some time afterwards and stands as the longest in-production Aston body shell ever!

Answer: Plymouth

This was a late 60s advertising campaign for the late, lamented Chrysler nameplate, the corporate equivalent of the Ford Galaxie/LTD/Fairlane and Chevrolet Impala/Caprice/Bel Air at good ol' number three. Why this brand was killed off is beyond me, because the Fury and Valiant were pretty much what was keeping Chrysler afloat during the 60s and 70s. Go figure.

Makes about as much sense as GM killing off Oldsmobile for the sake of Saturn, a make that seems to be having nothing but problems lately with brand loyalty and bad press.