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Time for another clue?

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Philip.

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1 hour ago, wlaidlaw said:

Fiat Gamine?...

Spot-on, Wilson!

Produced from 1967-'70 by Vignale - who styled it (and it is referred to by Wiki as a 'Vignale Gamine'!) it wasn't a commercial success with total production estimated to be somewhere in the region of a mere 700-800 vehicles. Sadly this failed enterprise also seems to have been a death-blow to Vignale who was forced to sell the business. Happily, though, it was bought by De Tomaso who used the place to build the slightly bonkers 'Pantera'...and I still do have a soft spot for the very early un-molested Pantera before it sprouted stupid wings...

Incidentally this example, registered to reside in the Pyrénées-Orientales department, was snapped a few weeks ago in La Rochelle which is a Long Way From Home to travel in such a car!

'Vignale' might be the official name (news to me) but the radiator carries the 'Fiat' appellation;

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Nice to see Fiat copied were influenced by(*) the same lower 3/4 side-stripe/marque motif which Porsche introduced for/with their '65 range!

And an overall general view to finish-off;

Wiki link with a few more details;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vignale_Gamine

Thanks for playing and over to you, Wilson, for the next teaser!

Philip.

* This, of course, might well be an aftermarket addition......:)......

Edited by pippy
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I suspect there’s quite a lot of “after market”about that Gamine but that’s not remotely uncommon - much like the “Jolly” we’d all like to pootle around St Tropez in…

Anyway a cool ‘spot’ in La Rochelle (maybe mainland-side from normal duties on l’Île de Ré?)

Edited by NigelG
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I always think of the Gamine as Noddy and Big Ears' car. I suspect that Vignale may have been inspired by Harmsen van der Beek's illustrations in the original Enid Blyton books. 

Here is your next mystery car which I suspect will be a very easy one, so I want the exact model. 

Wilson

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6 hours ago, NigelG said:

I suspect there’s quite a lot of “after market”about that Gamine but that’s not remotely uncommon - much like the “Jolly” we’d all like to pootle around St Tropez in…

Anyway a cool ‘spot’ in La Rochelle (maybe mainland-side from normal duties on l’Île de Ré?)

It may well be that the owner resides on Ré and has buisness on 'the mainland'. I'm going to check one other interesting vehicle which I've posted here previously which I think was parked in exactly the same parking bay. This small car park (and both cars in question are small!), just a hundred metres or so to the west of the Tour de la Lanterne, is situated off the Avenue de la Monnaie so there might be a clue in the title here......:lol:......

I've only ever seen one 'Jolly' in the metal and, as it happens, that was in Nice. Nowadays (as noted by Wiki) they can fetch quite scary prices;

"...A genuine 1960 Fiat Jolly '600' model brought a record price of $170,500 at a collector car auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, in January 2015..."......:blink:......

FWIW the Hipster's car of choice on l’Île de Ré nowadays seems to be the Citroën Méhari; they are all over the place in the summer months (and invariably have a '78' designation on their number plates).

Philip.

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52 minutes ago, pippy said:

FWIW the Hipster's car of choice on l’Île de Ré nowadays seems to be the Citroën Méhari; they are all over the place in the summer months (and invariably have a '78' designation on their number plates).

Philip.

Good job you’ll only ever see me on the island in an orange one (not ton pierre ) or on mon velo  😉

Edited by NigelG
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57 minutes ago, NigelG said:

Good job you’ll only ever see me on the island in an orange one (not ton pierre ) or on mon velo  😉

I'll keep an eye out for you next time I'm over! Some very close friends have a place way up at the north-west part in Saint-Clément-des-Baleines.

Without wishing to go too off-topic but just to finish-off about the Gamine;

I had a look at the images of the other quirky car I've posted which were snapped in this same car park back in August (a Supercharged Lotus Elise in 'Chrome Orange' with a 'Race Cars Consulting' sticker on the sail-panel) and, having closely compared street-views on Google Maps, it isn't in exactly the same place but one which is only about 10 bays away from the 'new' one (and both bays are situated right beside the 'Oxford Discotheque & Club House' so perhaps there's a business-connection there?).

Also although the cars' 'department' designations are not the same (31 and 66) they are next-door-neighbours down at the very southern part of the country (Haute-Garonne and Pyrénées-Orientales) so a few interesting near-coincidences......:lol:......

OK; digression over and apologies for the wittering!

Philip.

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I looked at getting a Citroen Mehari before I opted for a Three Wheeler Morgan (a modern one) for summer use at my French house. Even back in 2015, they were fetching €10,000 for a rough one and €15,000+ for a fully restored one, with a Dyane 6 engine. There is a Renault equivalent based on the R4 floor pan called a Rodeo, which is probably a better car than the Mehari but oddly don't fetch as much. They are even rarer than a Mehari. There is one of each in Tourtour where my house is. 

Wilson

 

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Dunk, you are ever so close and technically correct but not what Aston Martin sold it as. This one is a resto-mod with a Crossthwaite and Gardner 4.7L 12 plug engine and a 6 speed Tremec gearbox. The original ZF box wilted from the power of the 4.7 engine. It also has DB4 GTZ Sanction 3 ventilated discs and Ohlins suspension. 

Wilson

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3 hours ago, dkCambridgeshire said:

Aston Martin DB5 Cabriolet...

Sorry to ask what is a 'newbie' question, gentlemen, but are there specific differences in 'Aston-World' between what constitutes a Convertible, a Cabriolet or a Volante?

Philip.

 

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1 hour ago, pippy said:

Sorry to ask what is a 'newbie' question, gentlemen, but are there specific differences in 'Aston-World' between what constitutes a Convertible, a Cabriolet or a Volante?

Philip.

 

Well, for one thing, they are spelled differently.

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1 hour ago, pippy said:

Sorry to ask what is a 'newbie' question, gentlemen, but are there specific differences in 'Aston-World' between what constitutes a Convertible, a Cabriolet or a Volante?

Philip.

 

AFAIK “Volante” is always the nomenclature for a convertible/cabriolet/soft top Aston (since the 60s at least) as determined by the marque, in the same way that other marques use “Spider” or “Spyder”  or “Roadster” to denote a non-hardtop. I could easily be wrong but I don’t recall there ever being a “Targa” or “T-top” Aston…

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Convertible, Cabriolet or Volante are all equally correct but Dunk did and didn't get the model quite correct. I will explain this apparent contradiction, when someone gets the correct model. 

Wilson

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8 hours ago, NigelG said:

AFAIK “Volante” is always the nomenclature for a convertible/cabriolet/soft top Aston......in the same way that other marques use “Spider” or “Spyder”  or “Roadster” to denote a non-hardtop…

The reason I asked was because, as I'm sure we all know, Jaguar used two terms for their different open XK models these being 'Open Two Seater (Roadster in the USA)' or 'Drop-Head Coupe'. As such I was wondering if Aston had employed a similar distinction for some models.

Looking forward to the 'reveal'!

Philip.

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Philip, 

The Jaguar XK Drophead and Roadster cars are very different and use different body panels, dashboards, doors and so on. The Roadsters are far more sleek looking but less practical in wet and gloomy UK. The Droptop cars have wind up windows, a very snug fitting hood and a proper heater. As far as I know Aston normally only sold one version of the Volante for each model except for the car I have shown, where there were two models. You will have to wait for the reveal for me to explain. There is just enough shown on my photo to tell which of the variants this is. 

Wilson

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