It’s been five days and I can’t take it anymore. I’m crawling out of my skin here. The group of people who have identified so many vehicles from such minuscule hints seem to be stumped again. There were a few honest shots at what the vehicle was but none hit the target. I even gave a clue that the vehicle was American.
So here you go, a second picture of Friday’s Mystery Car. And really, I had another picture but the detail was so vague that it would only further frustrate y’all. Get to your googling machines! I cannot make this any simpler!
By Kamil Kaluski
East Coast Editor. Races crappy cars and has an unhealthy obsession with Eastern Bloc cars. Current fleet: Ford Bronco, Lexus GX 470, and a Buick Regal crapcan racecar.
Oh.
https://www.cars-on-line.com/photo/88500/77amc88512-2.jpg
Thank you for this. I was also scratching my hardhead on this. But it is a general problem with shots made by cellphone cams, or better said by “non reflex cameras” that you get brilliant resolution, nonetheless at the price of dead wrong colors.
P.S:
Sorry that I cannot upvote your post. As always I can only login as guest to Hooniverse. For whatever reason.
Pic was taken with a DSLR but cropped and shrunk.
Would be lame if you could just zoom in and read the part numbers. I like it when the cars are really hard to guess, unless it’s a modern car (hard to guess but for the wrong reason).
Well done. I was thinking it was something from the malaise era, giving that it had rubber/plastic looking bits along the edges. I was thinking it was possibly the trim for a landau roof similar to what a ’79 Cordoba had, but couldn’t find anything that matched.
An HMV Freeway popped up in Facebook today under the headline “cars named after places they will never go”. Is that true?
Now that the US and Canadian stores have all closed, leaving just those in the UK, Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, it’s certainly more difficult.
http://live105.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/britain.jpg
Did I get the name wrong? Pardon me for not chasing you down that rabbit hole.
No, you got it right. High-Mileage Vehicles, though, as opposed to retail chain named for His Master’s Voice.
I could quibble about the “car” part, but it turns out in some jurisdictions HMV Freeways are registered as cars, not motorcycles. Federally speaking they’re motorcycles but some states have decided otherwise.
So, to answer your actual question, I’ve taken mine on several freeways, including one trip of about 250 miles on I-5. It was… okay. One guy has driven (ridden?) from Alaska to Minnesota and back at least once, presumably taking advantage of freeways as well. I’ll have to say it’s therefore not true.
What is cruising speed in (on?) one?
Mine’s the 12 hp model instead of the 16 hp, but even so it’s good for about 55 mph on level ground. It’ll reach slightly better than 60 mph but isn’t at all happy doing so.
Going uphill is a struggle.
Luckily some Freeways go downhill.
Though it depends on the owner.
Thank you for putting this out of its misery and for being an outstanding member of this community.
Hmm… new name – Mystery Misery Car?
On Friday, something easier…
Just to change the subject, I’ve now removed the [a?] broken portion of my Volvo’s Variomatic. The corresponding unit in the parts car seems to be okay, which means with any luck the car may very well be ready in time for next month’s Lemons Rally.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ac0f94c01547f9466fcc348591ef2732e870464d3989920f5d45d2186f48f35b.jpg
Is that a differential/are those inboard brakes?
Nope. It’s the front half of the belt-driven CVT:
Good god… set it on fire!
The plan is to drive from Seattle to Yuma and back in a few weeks, so that may very well happen.
With the transmission set up like that, you don’t need a diff.
The earlier Variomatics don’t use a differential, instead relying upon the belts to provide compensation. Note how the two sides are isolated from one another:
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/89bea0ef48660eb1ba881ed003f958429c0d316d4375870f91df2ebece18b286.jpg
The later ones, like mine, have the two rear pulleys joined together through, of all things, a shared differential. Um, progress, somehow, I guess?
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e26d31e28b5f4142b9b16ca79cbb4c69c6a9b5b24ac15d054dd2838672408076.jpg
Umm… is there a pinion Gear in the mix somewhere?
The older design has a pinion at the rear end of the input shaft, although it’s not part of a differential. The newer design has one in the same place and another in the differential which sits between the axles.
Mesmerizing!
Hit Staples for fresh rubber bands.
Just ask for Roulunds Roflex-Vari 46 M 1340 MR 435.
That’s a relatively modern looking floor jack you’re using. I can understand that with you being a city dweller, you probably don’t have room for the upkeep for a team of oxen needed to operate a suitable lifting device, but couldn’t you at least stick to your principles enough to use some sort of archaic jack that relies on ropes, pulleys, and a hand crank?
In my defense, that jack was left behind in the chicken coop at my previous place by the same guy who sold me his MGB as he was moving to Great Britain.
“Hey, it’s free!” is very much in keeping with my principles.