April 15, 2014 • 35 mins
History is chock-full of strange and interesting cars that, for one reason or another, are nearly forgotten in the present day. Join Scott and Ben as they take a closer look at some of history's most obscure cars in the second part of this episode.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
M go Behind the Wheel, Under the Hood and Beyond
with car stuff from house staff Works dot Com. I'm
welcome to the podcast on stap Benjamin and I'm Ben Bullen.
Then we're back with our part two of the most
Obscure Cars. We're coming. The weight is over. And thank
(00:21):
you in advance to everybody who has sent us some
emails regarding this. Thanks for hanging in, Thanks for hanging in.
Gonna go ahead and tell you that not everything you
guys said made the list. Here, we're we got our story,
we're sticking to it. Well, we're gonna revisit some stuff
to Yeah, we're gonna still we're gonna continue following the
(00:41):
original article that we we started out with here, the
Gelopnic article from Matt Heart Degree and um, you know
these were written in by Gelopnic listeners who said, you know,
I know ten of these vehicles and then I don't
know if you listen to the first one or not,
but we've added quite a bit of information to what
was was reported in the article here. So yeah, you
can all along and see photos and get some of
(01:02):
the basic stuff. But we went a little bit deeper
on this, just to uh add our own little flavor
to it. Yeah, and I've got some strong contenders for
most Obscure car, because I'm not sure if I agree
with the order of these. Yeah, I mean, I think
we could all probably juggle these around a little bit
and say, like, no, wait, that one should be number
(01:22):
one for sure. But um in true top ten form,
we've been going from ten through one, and we wrapped
up with number six last time, which was that that
crazy nine hundred Volvo P nineteen hundred and the Volvo
P nineteen hundred that really never was, I guess, thankfully,
And we're gonna pick it up with number five on
the list, which is I um man, I wish I
kind of wish this one was built. I mean for real, Yeah,
(01:45):
it's a much stronger entry. We're talking about the nineteen
sixty three A T S hundred GT, the re Leader Coup.
That's a long name, Ben, Oh yeah, you it's friends
call it the A T. S. That's what we'll go
because you know this, this a T. S Cooper, This
A T S vehicle was actually a TS is the
name of the company that built this thing. And and
(02:07):
this has its own unique story as well. Now let's
tell you just a little bit about the vehicle before
we tell we tell you really what a t S is. Um.
The vehicle itself is a horsepower mid engine two point
five leader V eight Uh that was able to hit
one hundred and fifty miles per hour. Now that's that's
pretty significant. Sounds like a really cool car, right, I've
been looking at the photo. It looks like a really
(02:29):
really nice coup design. It's really really attractive design, I guess.
And there's a t S company that built it. That's
where the real story comes in because they only built
they only built less than ten cars, and only one
of these cars actually had a full interior in it. Right,
we're talking about who here we go forgive me Italians
Automobile Le Tourismo et Sport in Malonnia. Very nice man, Really,
(02:54):
well that's you, and I think that the and I
think that the only the only maybe like really significant
thing that we need to tell you about this one
before we move on our next one. I mean, just
take a look at the photo and if you if
you ever see one of these, consider yourself lucky, because
you know, again less than ten built only one of
the full interior. But where this thing comes from? Is
so fascinating to me. It comes from an important time
(03:16):
in history. It comes from like a significant event that
happened at Ferrari and it was after something that was
called the Great Walkout in nineteen six one. And if
you don't know about the Great Walkout and do an
episode on it, we probably should. I mean, these things
kind of they just kind of lead to other episodes
more so again, look up the Great Walkout in about Ferrari.
(03:37):
It's almost the end of Ferrari as a car company. Yeah,
and the so of the folks at A T S. Who, um,
will we can see just a little bit without me
in too spoiler e. The folks at A T S.
One of their missions later in their company's lifespan was
just to beat Ferrari. It was so it was so
(03:59):
person Well we have to go on with that. And
I mean, I mean, look at that car. That car
is a Ferrari Fighter. I guess if you want to
call it that really. I mean, look, you think about
nineteen sixty three and that vehicle, that's a that's a
well advanced design that comes from people that clearly were
on the inside of Ferrari. I mean, it's definitely a
solid vehicle. I wish, I really wish that one was produced.
(04:20):
You know, there were at least you know, let's say,
of these things, instead of less than ten, especially only
one with a real working interior. It's too bad. I
think the chances of really actually seen one of these
are very very slim. Yeah. Well, you know one thing though,
I'm sorry keep adding stuff here. Um, they did have
a competition version that came out that had slightly higher
(04:41):
horse powers to forty five horse power. Yeah, but it
didn't do well. Let's talk about something that, uh did
do pretty well or that has a lot of fans,
huge amount of fans. Ye, giant underground follow I don't
even know if you could say underground flight, cult following me,
cult follow it a cult classic four nineteen seven Honda
(05:03):
cr X Roadster. And Yeah, one of the reasons that this,
this particular vehicle, the roaster, has such a small group
of people that were interested in it even is because
that it takes a vehicle that was already small and
a two seater, and like I said, I couldn't even
keep it when I had a family. Really, um, it
makes it even less useful in some way because because
now there's a convertible top they have to deal with,
(05:24):
and it doesn't have the hard top because to be honest,
my hatchback, I could put anything inside that Honda CRX hatchback.
I fit ridiculous things inside their bike, bicycles standing up inside.
And those hatchbacks were all over the place in the
eighties they were and then you know what, you can
still spot them around. People still love them. There's still,
you know, kind of this cult following of them. But
(05:45):
the roadsters, Now this is an unusual story because um
and I think it was the nine eighty seven a
group called and not a group and a company called
um Strama. Yeah, I want to say ram straman S
t R A M A N. Yeah, that's probably the
best streaming coach works. And this is the company that
(06:06):
was like the original customizer that decided that they were
going to create um a convertible or rag top CRX vehicles,
and that's exactly what they did. Now, I think there's
a I'm gonna tell you, Ben, I think there's a
typo in the article that we're reading here article because
I read somewhere else that they created a total of
three hundred and ten of these things. And this article
(06:28):
says one hundred and thirty, but we were pretty I
saw the same thing. I'm pretty sure it's three hundred.
I think it's because I saw other places. I went
to several different articles to look up the information to
see if I saw the one thirty again or the
three ten, and I found three ten in several different places.
If you want to go read about the the CRX roadsters,
which I guess are still around. You can still find
(06:49):
people driving these things. You can go to the Honda
Tuning magazine article that is called streaming Convertible Honda CRX
or I think the sliding for it is just rag
top rex is what they call it. Yeah. Yeah. You
can also check out some some interesting discussions about it
on various forums. Because other people did this, you know,
(07:10):
other people, you know, there there were one offs that
you know, people would do it on their own, you know,
in their own garage or whatever, and that's fine. But
then there are other companies that also did this, but
they followed streaming in that. You know, Straaman was the
first one to do it, or Straman or whoever you
want to say. Yeah, they were the very first ones
to do it, and they only built three. Um, but
I guess they paid. Man, you could get one through
the Honda dealership for something like five thousand dollars, more
(07:34):
than you would pay for your straight Honda c r X. UM. Well,
I guess it was a Cooper hatchback, really hatchback, and uh,
five thousand dollars at the time. I mean, think about
five thousand and four. I mean, I don't have the
conversion on hand here, but that was a significant amount
of money. I think that's about all I paid for mine,
total five thousands when I bought it used. You know
(07:54):
mine is I thought it a couple of years used,
and I think it was around five or six or
something like that, you know, total. So I can't imagine
adding this on ten years prior to that. It would
have been a significant amount of money. Yeah, And which
kind of explains why they're so if you, uh, we've
got to go to something that I'm excited about this,
I think you might be excited about this too. A
(08:17):
little bit of preface, Scott, I want to spend a
little bit more than average time on this car because
we have so many listeners in Canada, and uh, you've
written to us and said, hey, guys, enjoy the show.
More Canadian cars. While we're starting to dip our toe
in it with this one number three one manic GT.
(08:41):
You're making me want to sing the Canadian national anthem.
Ben Oh, hey, take a shot. I'm not gonna do
I'm just I'll clap in the back Canada. No, I'm
not gonna do it. Not the whole thing. Anyways, that's
just the beginning. Okay, Well, I think I'm not gonna
I heard it every hockey game I go to, so
I I pretty much know the whole thing. Oh yeah,
people might not know, Scott Benjamin, you're a hockey fan,
ackey fan. I um, you know my family as of hockey.
(09:03):
I saw some growing up, but I haven't gone out
to games recently. All right, I mean you guys, if
you know, we're based in Atlanta, and Atlanta has terrible
luck with hockey teams. We're not we're not big into hockey,
but we do have a know what you call it
a farm league something like that. Yeah, not far outside
of town here, the Gwinnette Gladiators, and I go to
(09:23):
their games often. Yeah, they're they're excellent play. It's almost
like watching the pros. I didn't know that we should
go something definitely should But anyways, back to the vehicles, right, So,
um the nineteen seventy one Manic GT and the name
Manic Now it sounds like a cool name for a
car anyways, vehicle, right, but it's it's named for Quebec's
um Manica Cougan Manicougan river, is that right? I think
(09:46):
it's Manicougan uh and hydro electric projects. So it's named
for a river in Quebec And it was built by
a guy that worked for Renault. Ah, yes, uh, and
he's a Montreal alert. No, you've got his name down here, right,
we talked about Now this name, this is a funny
name if you read it, and like here in the
(10:08):
United States, if you read it, you would say Jacques about.
But I'm guessing I'm going to guess that because this
is a Canadian name, and you know how they say
about they say a boot, Jacques a boot. I think
it's a Jacques a Boot. Is this guy's name? So
Jacques A Boot the guy that worked in the late
nineteen sixties for Renault, and I guess he was what
(10:30):
was his position? He was in their PR department weirdly enough,
PR Department. Now, see, I would have guessed this guy
to be an engineer or you know, some type of
machinist or something like that, because what we find out later.
But I guess what what got him really fired up
about this whole thing was that Renault wanted him to
create this this feasibility study of bringing the Renault Alpine
(10:51):
vehicle to Canada. And if you know about the Renault
Alpine vehicle, that was a sports car, a competition car
that was being sold in Europe at the time, and
the Alpine was a you know, a rally contender. It
was a it won several rallies. I mean, it was
a significant contender in all these events, popular in Europe
at the time. And also apparently the study that he
(11:12):
conducted showed that Canadian consumers would also very much love
an Alpine. Yees, so he's got this result of the
study that says, yeah, this is a great vehicle, would
love to bring it here. However, Renault decides, I don't
think we're gonna do it. You know, we had to
do the study, but and we know it would be
popular vehicle here in Canada, but I don't think we're
gonna bring the Alpine to Canada this time. Let's just
(11:33):
put it on the back burner for now. And he's thinking, well,
the time is right, let's strike while the iron's hot. Right. Yeah,
he really believed in this study, you guys believed in
it so much that he said, okay, you'll want to
import the Alpine. Uh, I'm gonna go make my own
company and make my own car based on Renault, based
(11:55):
on Renault, of course, because that's what he knew. You know,
he knew that, you know, the Renault had the right
platform use, right, So so he builds this car based
on a renew platform. He has a rear engine, rear
wheel drive vehicle uhs one point three leader overhead valves,
four cylinder engine, and I think there were four and
five speed manual transmission options available, and he had three
(12:16):
separate tuning variants that were available as well. You could
get one with sixty five horse power, one with eighty
horse power, and then I guess the top dog was
the one with one and five horse power. And it's
a it's a small car, um so it's probably very powerful.
Of course, the the rear engine, you know, that set
up is is uh, you know, really good for for
weight distribution. People love driving those things. You know, it's
a lot of fun to do that. And you know,
(12:38):
again based on a working Renault at times. So you know,
he knew that this this setup would really work well.
Just a few years later he had to he had
to decide, you know, once he gets the prototype going
and gets all of his ducks in a row for
you know, how we're gonna build this vehicle and what's
gonna you know, be completely made up of you know,
all the parts and suppliers and everything, the whole line. Um,
I'm gonna need to raise some money in order to
(12:59):
get this and going. So he raises one point five
million dollars in capital. Again, this is the the late
ninetienes sixties. Yeah, it turns out that he is phenomenally
good at raising money. Yeah, I guess. And he has
the backing of the snowmobile manufacturer. Is it Bombardier? Is
that how you say that we always struggle with this one. Yeah,
we are not French Bombardier. I always say Bombardier, but
(13:21):
Bombardier I think the snowmobile man. And then some supermarkets
got behind us, one supermarket, Steinberg Supermarkets. They got behind
him as well, and um, I think the Canadian government
and Quebec even you know, said hey, why don't you
build it because this is something that's going to bring
jobs into our our community. Yeah. It was really set
to be, as they mentioned in this article, um by Gelopnik,
(13:43):
the first big Canadian sports car. However, and I know
some people will argue about that, but when you say big,
we mean super, super enormous, u ubiquitous on the road. However,
they ran into a little they ran into what ultimately anthem,
which was, as you mentioned before, Scott, a supply chain issue. Yeah,
(14:05):
they had trouble getting Uh there were no parts shipped
into Canada reliably, so they were having you know, they're
actually in production and this is this is really what
we could we call the first Canadian built car. This
this vehicles the first Canadian built car. So the manic
gt is you know, has this part in history. But
they couldn't get the parts into Canada reliably enough to
build cars continuously. So the total number of production vehicles
(14:28):
that were ever built of these manic gt s were
something like one hundred and sixty vehicles. And um, you know,
the number originally planned was something supposed to be something
like two thousand per years, so you know, significantly under
what they have produced, you know, projected I guess for
even one year of production is what they ended up with.
One hundred and sixty vehicles. I mean that's that's really
really small, which is a shame because it sounds like
(14:49):
a good car, it really does, and you know, the
rear engine design all that had it going for it. It
It wasn't intended to be a um um I guess
the sports car race her vehicle. It wasn't intended to
compete on the track or anything. It was just intended
to be a good road going car with good performance
and good fuel economy that you could use as a
daily driver exactly. And I think this guy had the
(15:10):
right idea and it's a great looking car. It's a
pretty cool design, especially for nineteen seventy one. I mean,
think about what was out there in nineteen seventy one.
Look at that design. That that matches a lot of
what we find from you know, the British sports cars
of the day. I mean, it looks exactly like that,
so solid design. I'm just I'm up set that this
one didn't actually make it longer and all these are
(15:31):
the same way. But then again, they wouldn't be on
our list. Well, you know. Also, also we could do
a great story about early Canadian cars because of the
other ones that I remember. I know that uh they
had some day had some tough luck for a while.
Do you really think we could do an entire podcast
on Canadian early Canadian cars? Uh, maybe we'd have to
(15:51):
do Canadian cars from a certain time span to to
the modern days. I hadn't really thought about it then,
but I guess maybe we could. Well, listeners, let us
know what we should cover. But while you're thinking what
we should cover, you know what, you guys, go ahead
and talk amongst yourselves, because I have a question for Scott. Uh, okay, Scott, Well,
while everybody's figuring out which Canadian cars we should cover,
(16:13):
just between you and me, Man, I can't take the
radio anymore. The radio is driving me. Not too many commercials. Scott,
My friends, we have finally arrived at the top two
of this list. The top two, Top two, Top two,
and number two is one that I'll be willing to
bet that not many people have ever seen one of
these in person. A nine Powell Sport wagon, and man,
(16:37):
these are unusual Ben and there's a great story that
goes along with him as well. I don't know if
you dug into the background or now the Plymouth thing. Yeah,
the Plymouth thing. I dug in just a bit on
this and what really makes and just reading from the
article here, it says what makes it awesome is that
this it's a it's a Plymouth based sedan or based
wagon raather that was built on a Plymouth chassis, engine, interior,
(17:02):
all that stuff. It's just a rebodied vehicle, I guess, um.
And they call it a kind of a crossover suv vehicle.
And this is again going back to the very unusual thing.
And it had these these exterior panels that were all, um,
pretty much slab side type panels. They've got some curves
in them, but they didn't do anything complex at all
(17:22):
because the reason given here is that curves were expensive
to do. And it's a very very affordable vehicle. And
I'll tell you some of the prices as we get
towards the end here. But what these guys did, now,
these two brothers and I think what was their names?
Um handle one second, I'll find it here in some
my notes. Um, I want to say, it's like Haywood
or Hayward and Channing Powell were the names of these
(17:43):
brothers and they were from Compton, California. And what they
would do is they would go to Junkyards and they
would find old ninety one Plymouth chassis to buy, and
they would buy the chances for something like forty five
dollars was all they paid for them, forty five bucks,
and they would have them shipped to their their California
or their their Compton, California factory, either plant, and they
(18:06):
would rebody these things, and you know, they kind of
refurbished the chassis and the engine a little bit. You know,
sometimes they'd refurbish the engine. I guess that was one
of the areas that they were a little gray on that.
You know, a lot of these Junkyard cars leaked a
lot of oil. They burned a lot of oil, and
you know they had some problems. But um, you're getting
kind of a refurbished vehicle, I guess for your money.
And so these rebodied vehicles, they built them in wagon form,
(18:27):
they built them in truck form, so you could get
a pickup truck or and the photo I'm looking at
here is of the wagon. And it's a beautiful example.
I mean, it's a very well restored vehicle. If it wasn't,
you know, original, I think it may have been restored.
But the sheet metal bodies were of their own design.
It was something they came up with and they used
like stay steel for the bodies. They use fiberglass for
(18:48):
the front ends. Um, they use chrome from old Ford pickups,
I think was what they used for the for the
chrome on the things. Not just pickups, but just chrome
from any old Ford. And sometimes they had wooden bumpers,
but sometimes they had steel bumpers. It kind of depended
on the vehicle and what they had, Yeah, what they
had available at the time, and they built. They built
one thousand pickups Bend and three hundred wagons and that
(19:11):
sounds like a lot. But when in the grand scheme
of things, you know, a thousand pickups from ninety six,
that's really a drop in the bucket. And mean, yeah,
I was going to say drop into ocean. Yeah they are, really,
they're they're rare to find it. I mean, if at all,
if you're gonna be able to spot one at all,
And this wagon that we see here, you know, this
is a show vehicle that they take around, obviously a
restored vehicle, but it's really really cool looking, I mean,
(19:32):
and it's got some unusual features to it as well.
Are one in particular that everybody likes to point out. Oh,
I think I know which one you're talking about. The
fishing line holders and those tube things. Yeah, they've got Okay,
So they have these tubes in the rear of the
vehicle and they are specifically designed to hold I don't know,
(19:53):
dowel rods and fishing whole fishing lines. I think the
the initial intent was to whole old a fishing pole.
I mean, that was the that was the whole goal
of the things. So you know that these are long,
long tubes, but they completely fold in that fold, but
they completely slide into the body of the vehicle from
the back end, like almost picture where a tail ends
would be. Um, it just unscrews with the handle and
(20:15):
then you pull out this tube and it looks like
a piece of I think it's furnace duct work that
they used to create this thing. It was ingenious design, really,
I mean they must really also, I don't know why
it was so hard for me to say fishing pole.
I guess it just got caught on saving fishing law.
That's all right, that's you know, that's slang for fishing
pole sometimes. So these things were and you can get
(20:35):
that design in both the truck and the wagon, and
I think they all included on one side, but the
prototype vehicle. If you ever see the prototype of the
pole of the Powell sport wagon, you'll see that it
has the canisters, those those long tube canisters on both sides.
I think they dropped it on one side for the
production because you know, it's a little cheaper to do
it that way. That bothers me that I guess. Now.
(20:57):
The price, yea, yeah, the price. And I read this
somewhere it said that they were under one hundred and
thirty dollars, but I have a hard time believing that
because not not much later by you know, that was
nineteen fifty two when they started building these, and they
said that, you know, one hundred and thirty bucks was
about the price of one of these brand new, refurbished vehicles.
But by nineteen fifty six the price had risen up
(21:20):
to one thousand, ninety five dollars, which I mean, let's
be honest, here raising up to a thousand ninety five.
That's still not a whole lot of money. I know
in nineteen fifty six it was probably significant, but um,
that's not that's not a lot of money. Um. And
that was for the sport wagon. And if you wanted
to go up to what they called the Deluxe sport Wagon,
that was one thousand dollars, so it added about a
(21:41):
hundred bucks if you want to go up to the
Deluxe whatever that got you. And then I think they
offered a camper edition as well, like a camper that
you could add on to the back of the maybe
the pickup truck. See the thing is if they could
have just had more uh more access two parts, because
again this is what the third vehicle in our list
(22:03):
that gets shorted because of supply issues. And the crazy
thing is, and I find this unbelievable. They've already built
one thousand pickups and three wagons and they're using them.
I guess when they ran out of Plymouth to find
because they scoured every junkyard all across the United States,
and they ran out of vehicles to find and to
build on. They were they were so focused on that
(22:24):
Plymouth design that they couldn't adapt, they couldn't go anywhere
else with it. They said, well, we're out of vehicles.
We have no more supply, folks. I guess. And and
you know, if you want to read a little more
in depth about this, if there was an article at
the there's a Chrysler site called all par And if
you go to all par and search for the Powell
(22:45):
sport Wagon, you're gonna find uh a pretty good right
up in some good photos of these things, the original
prototype design and you know, some of the the I
guess the workings of those tubes that they that they
had that slid into out of strange, strange design. But
but that's really cool. I wish again, I keep saying this,
but I wish there were more of these out there.
But then they wouldn't be on our list, would they. Yeah,
(23:05):
but if they kept going, they could have so much stuff.
They could have custom designed fishing poles that come with
the vehicle. People love things like that. The whole marketing angle,
the whole marketing angle, you know. Um, and I let's see,
speaking of great segways, huh, it's time I think for
(23:26):
us to finally discuss number one. Uh, Noel Noel is
our super producer here. Uh hey, Nolan, can we have
a like really dramatic drum roll? Coming in at number
one on the list is the nineteen sixty three to
nineteen sixty seven Gordon Keeble. Yeah. And we've probably got
(23:47):
some people right now who saying, uh, Gordon Keebler like
the cookies. No, it's Keeble, yeah, uh and it is.
We assure you a car. It's not just any car.
It's a very interesting and pretty good car. Yeah, no
kidding this one. There's a lot to this one, a
lot more than you would think just having a quick
(24:09):
cursory look at it, because, um, this one is fitted
with the five point four Leader V eight from a Corvette. Um.
And when you look at this thing, it looks like,
you know, a typical British sports car, I guess the era,
which is not bad to begin with. I mean it
looks like a James Bond car, almost like a bit
like an Aston Martin in some way at least in
the photo. That's very British, very very British. That's probably
(24:29):
a good way to say it. Ben And um that
point that it went through several different engine variations, but
the way the car came about was this guy named
John Gordon, and John Gordon worked for a car company
called Peerless, and the Peerless car company, um, I think
they're having some financial troubles at the time. They were struggling,
you know, they're having a little bit of difficulty. But
Gordon kind of broke off from there. John Gordon did
(24:50):
and he eventually teamed up with a guy named Jim
Keble and together they built this car called the Gordon GT.
Now that's the original vehicle, not not what we're talking
about right now, but the Ordon GT was built on
a Peerless chassis because of course, you know, that's what
he knew, just like the guy with the the Canadian vehicle,
and he knew there were no chassis, right, So he
built this one on a Peerless chassis with a Buick
(25:12):
three point five Leader V eight, so it's a strong vehicle.
And then later they fitted the same vehicle with a
four point six Leader Chevy V eight, so they went
up a little bit in power. And then after they
well there's a story behind us, but they eventually went
up to the five point four Leader V eight, which
you know, as we know, that's that's what they ended
up with I guess for the for the Gordon Keebler,
but the car was shown at UM at the Bartone
(25:35):
stand and I was struggle with this one again Bertone
BERTONI UM bare Tone stand in nineteen sixty at the
Geneva Motor Show and it was you know, the Bertone
is like the kind of the the one off builder
I guess of Italian Automobiles right right, And they had
(25:56):
built this in less than a month. They built this
only seven days is all it took to build this vehicle.
So after you know, did pretty well at the show,
you know, the Geneva Motor Show in n it created
quite a splash I guess with the with the media
and with the public. And after some road testing and
the car was finally shipped to Detroit where then kind
(26:17):
of the Chevallet management gave it once over because I
don't know what the deal was behind this, but you
know they knew that they were using their engines in
the product. And I think the idea was that, you know,
John Gordon and Jim Keebler wanted our Keybold rather wanted
to uh wanted to um somehow get some kind of
deal going with Chevrolet in order to provide drive train
(26:37):
for this thing so that they wouldn't get lost without
any supply change exactly. And so the Chevallet management, you know,
after they looked at the things, said yeah, it's definitely
a go. We're gonna give you Chevy v H you know,
the Corvette vas in particular and gearboxes to go into
production with this thing. And they built about ninety vehicles
to start with. And UM, I think that they found
(26:59):
out that you know, it was just too expensive at
the time. The price is just too steep to continue
because people weren't buying them. I don't think that they
were popular with the with the car buying public. Problem. Yeah, unfortunately,
and there's a weird marketing thing with this. Um. When
you check out some photos of this vehicle, which really
should because it is worth your time, you'll see that
they have an emblem that is a little bit counterintuitive.
(27:23):
You guys, they have a pet tortoise on their cars.
And the well, the reason they have this, um, this
turtle there or excuse me, I know there's a difference.
The reason they have this tortoise on there is because
when they were taking the photo shoot right for their
their company photo. Uh, somebody's pet tortoise wandered into the shot.
(27:45):
Happen if photo bombed? Well, maybe it took a lot
longer for them to get the camera set. Taking a
significant amount of time for a tortoise to wander into
the shot, right, which is not known for speed, doesn't
that So they loved it. Apparently it was a funny day.
But this car, I mean, this car, that's that's an
interesting story. Bend in the logo, that's that's funny. But
this thing has three hundred horsepower. It's a it's a
(28:07):
you know, not a huge vehicle. I mean it's a
it's a pretty small car. I mean, take a look
at the photo, you know, any photo, look at it.
Look up Gordon Keble nineteen sixty seven. You'll you'll see
a shot of this thing. Um. It turns out that
exactly one hundred of these were built because the final examples,
I guess we're built from spares in the end of
production in nineteen sixty seven. So well, they built ninety
at the factory that we're built and sold. I think
(28:28):
ten more were eventually put together, and I think ninety
of them still are around. And they tried to restart
it again in nineteen sixty eight because a guy named
John D. Brune Uh, an American Yankee, bought the rights
to the car, but he didn't um didn't really do anything.
There were two more cars that were pretty much Gebler
(28:49):
mean excuse me, keble Gordon Kebleu, but they they had
a d Bruns badge on that I see. And you
know what the main thing that was holding this one
back was price because I mentioned that the price is
a little bit too steep, and I did the breakdown
on this thing and I worded it to current dollars
if you'd like to hear it. And it just kind
of the wrap up of the whole thing. And two
thousand I can I tell you one more thing the
(29:13):
price this is This is maybe another interesting little thing.
The interior of this thing. Oh wait, okay, you have
something else even But the interior of this thing is
said to have what they call an old luxury jet feel,
which to me that sounds so awesome. Imagine like an
old like the nineteen sixties luxury jet. And that's what
the interior of this vehicle feels like when you get
(29:33):
inside of it and has um it has things like
toggle switches and quilted aircraft PVC and you know black
gauges is you know, like white on black gauges. It's
supposedly like a really really interesting looking interior, and it
probably just feels right when you get inside. It's just
one of those cars that just feels right, you know. Weird.
You know another thing I thought you were going to
say something different, which is officially my weird thing. It
(29:56):
has two gas tanks, my friends, two gas Oh that's
like like the old rucks or maybe a conversion fans
or something like that. That's kind of cooler reserve tank. Alright,
what's the scratch? Back to price they have? Back to
the scratch al right, So what held this thing back, Ben,
we're back to price again, is that, you know, the
price was just too steep in nineteen sixty. Now the
price initially was two thousand, seven hundred ninety eight British
(30:20):
pounds in nineteen sixty, okay, And I couldn't do the
conversion between you know what that was back then, you
know what that equated to the US dollars, So I
couldn't figure out the U s dollar amount then that
nineteen sixty cash. But what I could do, Ben, is
I could take the two thousand and seven hundred ninety
eight pounds in nineteen sixty and extrapolated to two thousand
thirteen dollars, and that's what I did. So two thousand,
(30:41):
seven hundred ninety eight pounds in nineteen sixty was equal
is equal to forty six thousand, five hundred and seventeen
pounds in two thousand thirteen. So the dollar amount, the
US dollar seventy seven thousand, fifty five dollars in two
thousand thirteen. So that's pretty significant amount of money. Now,
I don't know what the nineteen sixty direct conversion was,
(31:04):
but you're looking at you know, if it were to
come on the market right now, this is a vehicle
that would cost seventy seven thousand and fifty five dollars
and you know in pounds forty six thousand, five and
seventeen pounds if you wanted to do it that that
has been That's a that's a lot of money. Yeah,
I uh, I guess I see why a lot of
people didn't buy it on So that is number one.
(31:27):
And as you said, and I'll say at this time,
there's a reason these cars get on these lists. Yeah,
and you I mean, we've said this before, but I
don't know if I would put that at number one,
I might might sway towards something really unusually, like that
opera coop or something that we've covered. Yeah, that's what
I was thinking. For obscurity, what I'm thinking is first off,
in terms of just uh, just raw numbers, you know,
(31:52):
I want something that was either meant for production and
didn't make it or just had a smaller I mean,
this is number one, and there were one one d
produced in their nine any of them out there somewhere.
But still I've never seen a Gordon Keble on the road. Yeah,
I you. I think we'll have to make it a
mission to find one. I think our chances of running
into one randomly or quite low. Pretty Yeah. Um, I
(32:13):
have a favorite ask you what that? Uh? If can
I just read some laundry list names of companies that
people might consider obscure, I would love that. Okay, great.
I want to do this in lieu of listener mail
as a bit of an experiment. So I'm just gonna
read this list, um and Scott, you tell me if
there's something that you think we should do a podcast
on listeners do the same are you ready right? All right?
(32:39):
Artiga A Scariland, Uh, the Caparo. I'm watching you as
I'm reading they see if you're into any of these,
kater Ham, Covini, Devin Dunker Voote which I did not
make up, Elphin, which we have I think we have
mentioned Elphin once twice, FM, Auto far Bio, Fisker, Gumpert,
(33:05):
and that's it. I think about six of those. I
was keeping tracking my hands here. I think I think
six of those I would have an interest in doing
a full episode on. Wow. Okay, yeah, and you know
what the other ones, I'm sure that they've got pretty
unusual vehicles as well. I mean, who knows, maybe they
could be in their own podcast together, you know, group
together as one. But all of those are definitely unique brands.
I mean, were you thinking of COVENI I don't know.
(33:28):
Was that that was? I don't now that's one. That's
one that could be dumped in with the others, I think.
But there's some interesting ones there that I would like
to cover in a full podcast for sure. I bet
listeners have their own list as well. Yes, which brings
us to our most important point. Guys, if you've already
checked out our excellent website car stuff show dot com.
You know that we have a great interest in all
(33:50):
sorts of vehicles, especially if we haven't heard much about
them before. So check us out on Facebook and Twitter.
Let us know which your cars you think should have
been on the list. Less are your favorites. Let's know,
if you drive a little known vehicle or have a
personal experience that would be interesting. I love I love
it when somebody says I personally own one of these
(34:12):
and here's you know, a few photos of it, and somebody, yeah,
some of the usual things about it. Yeah, And those
almost always end up turning into some some fascinating personal
stories too, about how you got the car, what happened
with it, your adventures in it. So go ahead and
tell us what you think. Now. You don't have to
write just about obscure cars. If you have an idea
(34:32):
for something we should cover in the future, we want
to hear that too. I'll even I'll read Limericks. I
don't know if you will, Scott, I don't know. Yeah,
dirty Limerick. I did not know they were clean Limericks
family show. We're a family show. We won't read them
on the air, but we'll probably read them. We would
still appreciate them. We'll appreciate them for their artistic merit.
(34:53):
So that's it. Just drop us a line. Our email address,
as always, is car stuff and Discovery dot com. For
more on this and thousands of other topics, is that
how stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think,
Send an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com.
Mmmmmm
M go Behind the Wheel, Under the Hood and Beyond
with car stuff from house staff Works dot Com. I'm
welcome to the podcast on stap Benjamin and I'm Ben Bullen.
Then we're back with our part two of the most
Obscure Cars. We're coming. The weight is over. And thank
(00:21):
you in advance to everybody who has sent us some
emails regarding this. Thanks for hanging in, Thanks for hanging in.
Gonna go ahead and tell you that not everything you
guys said made the list. Here, we're we got our story,
we're sticking to it. Well, we're gonna revisit some stuff
to Yeah, we're gonna still we're gonna continue following the
(00:41):
original article that we we started out with here, the
Gelopnic article from Matt Heart Degree and um, you know
these were written in by Gelopnic listeners who said, you know,
I know ten of these vehicles and then I don't
know if you listen to the first one or not,
but we've added quite a bit of information to what
was was reported in the article here. So yeah, you
can all along and see photos and get some of
(01:02):
the basic stuff. But we went a little bit deeper
on this, just to uh add our own little flavor
to it. Yeah, and I've got some strong contenders for
most Obscure car, because I'm not sure if I agree
with the order of these. Yeah, I mean, I think
we could all probably juggle these around a little bit
and say, like, no, wait, that one should be number
(01:22):
one for sure. But um in true top ten form,
we've been going from ten through one, and we wrapped
up with number six last time, which was that that
crazy nine hundred Volvo P nineteen hundred and the Volvo
P nineteen hundred that really never was, I guess, thankfully,
And we're gonna pick it up with number five on
the list, which is I um man, I wish I
kind of wish this one was built. I mean for real, Yeah,
(01:45):
it's a much stronger entry. We're talking about the nineteen
sixty three A T S hundred GT, the re Leader Coup.
That's a long name, Ben, Oh yeah, you it's friends
call it the A T. S. That's what we'll go
because you know this, this a T. S Cooper, This
A T S vehicle was actually a TS is the
name of the company that built this thing. And and
(02:07):
this has its own unique story as well. Now let's
tell you just a little bit about the vehicle before
we tell we tell you really what a t S is. Um.
The vehicle itself is a horsepower mid engine two point
five leader V eight Uh that was able to hit
one hundred and fifty miles per hour. Now that's that's
pretty significant. Sounds like a really cool car, right, I've
been looking at the photo. It looks like a really
(02:29):
really nice coup design. It's really really attractive design, I guess.
And there's a t S company that built it. That's
where the real story comes in because they only built
they only built less than ten cars, and only one
of these cars actually had a full interior in it. Right,
we're talking about who here we go forgive me Italians
Automobile Le Tourismo et Sport in Malonnia. Very nice man, Really,
(02:54):
well that's you, and I think that the and I
think that the only the only maybe like really significant
thing that we need to tell you about this one
before we move on our next one. I mean, just
take a look at the photo and if you if
you ever see one of these, consider yourself lucky, because
you know, again less than ten built only one of
the full interior. But where this thing comes from? Is
so fascinating to me. It comes from an important time
(03:16):
in history. It comes from like a significant event that
happened at Ferrari and it was after something that was
called the Great Walkout in nineteen six one. And if
you don't know about the Great Walkout and do an
episode on it, we probably should. I mean, these things
kind of they just kind of lead to other episodes
more so again, look up the Great Walkout in about Ferrari.
(03:37):
It's almost the end of Ferrari as a car company. Yeah,
and the so of the folks at A T S. Who, um,
will we can see just a little bit without me
in too spoiler e. The folks at A T S.
One of their missions later in their company's lifespan was
just to beat Ferrari. It was so it was so
(03:59):
person Well we have to go on with that. And
I mean, I mean, look at that car. That car
is a Ferrari Fighter. I guess if you want to
call it that really. I mean, look, you think about
nineteen sixty three and that vehicle, that's a that's a
well advanced design that comes from people that clearly were
on the inside of Ferrari. I mean, it's definitely a
solid vehicle. I wish, I really wish that one was produced.
(04:20):
You know, there were at least you know, let's say,
of these things, instead of less than ten, especially only
one with a real working interior. It's too bad. I
think the chances of really actually seen one of these
are very very slim. Yeah. Well, you know one thing though,
I'm sorry keep adding stuff here. Um, they did have
a competition version that came out that had slightly higher
(04:41):
horse powers to forty five horse power. Yeah, but it
didn't do well. Let's talk about something that, uh did
do pretty well or that has a lot of fans,
huge amount of fans. Ye, giant underground follow I don't
even know if you could say underground flight, cult following me,
cult follow it a cult classic four nineteen seven Honda
(05:03):
cr X Roadster. And Yeah, one of the reasons that this,
this particular vehicle, the roaster, has such a small group
of people that were interested in it even is because
that it takes a vehicle that was already small and
a two seater, and like I said, I couldn't even
keep it when I had a family. Really, um, it
makes it even less useful in some way because because
now there's a convertible top they have to deal with,
(05:24):
and it doesn't have the hard top because to be honest,
my hatchback, I could put anything inside that Honda CRX hatchback.
I fit ridiculous things inside their bike, bicycles standing up inside.
And those hatchbacks were all over the place in the
eighties they were and then you know what, you can
still spot them around. People still love them. There's still,
you know, kind of this cult following of them. But
(05:45):
the roadsters, Now this is an unusual story because um
and I think it was the nine eighty seven a
group called and not a group and a company called
um Strama. Yeah, I want to say ram straman S
t R A M A N. Yeah, that's probably the
best streaming coach works. And this is the company that
(06:06):
was like the original customizer that decided that they were
going to create um a convertible or rag top CRX vehicles,
and that's exactly what they did. Now, I think there's
a I'm gonna tell you, Ben, I think there's a
typo in the article that we're reading here article because
I read somewhere else that they created a total of
three hundred and ten of these things. And this article
(06:28):
says one hundred and thirty, but we were pretty I
saw the same thing. I'm pretty sure it's three hundred.
I think it's because I saw other places. I went
to several different articles to look up the information to
see if I saw the one thirty again or the
three ten, and I found three ten in several different places.
If you want to go read about the the CRX roadsters,
which I guess are still around. You can still find
(06:49):
people driving these things. You can go to the Honda
Tuning magazine article that is called streaming Convertible Honda CRX
or I think the sliding for it is just rag
top rex is what they call it. Yeah. Yeah. You
can also check out some some interesting discussions about it
on various forums. Because other people did this, you know,
(07:10):
other people, you know, there there were one offs that
you know, people would do it on their own, you know,
in their own garage or whatever, and that's fine. But
then there are other companies that also did this, but
they followed streaming in that. You know, Straaman was the
first one to do it, or Straman or whoever you
want to say. Yeah, they were the very first ones
to do it, and they only built three. Um, but
I guess they paid. Man, you could get one through
the Honda dealership for something like five thousand dollars, more
(07:34):
than you would pay for your straight Honda c r X. UM. Well,
I guess it was a Cooper hatchback, really hatchback, and uh,
five thousand dollars at the time. I mean, think about
five thousand and four. I mean, I don't have the
conversion on hand here, but that was a significant amount
of money. I think that's about all I paid for mine,
total five thousands when I bought it used. You know
(07:54):
mine is I thought it a couple of years used,
and I think it was around five or six or
something like that, you know, total. So I can't imagine
adding this on ten years prior to that. It would
have been a significant amount of money. Yeah, And which
kind of explains why they're so if you, uh, we've
got to go to something that I'm excited about this,
I think you might be excited about this too. A
(08:17):
little bit of preface, Scott, I want to spend a
little bit more than average time on this car because
we have so many listeners in Canada, and uh, you've
written to us and said, hey, guys, enjoy the show.
More Canadian cars. While we're starting to dip our toe
in it with this one number three one manic GT.
(08:41):
You're making me want to sing the Canadian national anthem.
Ben Oh, hey, take a shot. I'm not gonna do
I'm just I'll clap in the back Canada. No, I'm
not gonna do it. Not the whole thing. Anyways, that's
just the beginning. Okay, Well, I think I'm not gonna
I heard it every hockey game I go to, so
I I pretty much know the whole thing. Oh yeah,
people might not know, Scott Benjamin, you're a hockey fan,
ackey fan. I um, you know my family as of hockey.
(09:03):
I saw some growing up, but I haven't gone out
to games recently. All right, I mean you guys, if
you know, we're based in Atlanta, and Atlanta has terrible
luck with hockey teams. We're not we're not big into hockey,
but we do have a know what you call it
a farm league something like that. Yeah, not far outside
of town here, the Gwinnette Gladiators, and I go to
(09:23):
their games often. Yeah, they're they're excellent play. It's almost
like watching the pros. I didn't know that we should
go something definitely should But anyways, back to the vehicles, right, So,
um the nineteen seventy one Manic GT and the name
Manic Now it sounds like a cool name for a
car anyways, vehicle, right, but it's it's named for Quebec's
um Manica Cougan Manicougan river, is that right? I think
(09:46):
it's Manicougan uh and hydro electric projects. So it's named
for a river in Quebec And it was built by
a guy that worked for Renault. Ah, yes, uh, and
he's a Montreal alert. No, you've got his name down here, right,
we talked about Now this name, this is a funny
name if you read it, and like here in the
(10:08):
United States, if you read it, you would say Jacques about.
But I'm guessing I'm going to guess that because this
is a Canadian name, and you know how they say
about they say a boot, Jacques a boot. I think
it's a Jacques a Boot. Is this guy's name? So
Jacques A Boot the guy that worked in the late
nineteen sixties for Renault, and I guess he was what
(10:30):
was his position? He was in their PR department weirdly enough,
PR Department. Now, see, I would have guessed this guy
to be an engineer or you know, some type of
machinist or something like that, because what we find out later.
But I guess what what got him really fired up
about this whole thing was that Renault wanted him to
create this this feasibility study of bringing the Renault Alpine
(10:51):
vehicle to Canada. And if you know about the Renault
Alpine vehicle, that was a sports car, a competition car
that was being sold in Europe at the time, and
the Alpine was a you know, a rally contender. It
was a it won several rallies. I mean, it was
a significant contender in all these events, popular in Europe
at the time. And also apparently the study that he
(11:12):
conducted showed that Canadian consumers would also very much love
an Alpine. Yees, so he's got this result of the
study that says, yeah, this is a great vehicle, would
love to bring it here. However, Renault decides, I don't
think we're gonna do it. You know, we had to
do the study, but and we know it would be
popular vehicle here in Canada, but I don't think we're
gonna bring the Alpine to Canada this time. Let's just
(11:33):
put it on the back burner for now. And he's thinking, well,
the time is right, let's strike while the iron's hot. Right. Yeah,
he really believed in this study, you guys believed in
it so much that he said, okay, you'll want to
import the Alpine. Uh, I'm gonna go make my own
company and make my own car based on Renault, based
(11:55):
on Renault, of course, because that's what he knew. You know,
he knew that, you know, the Renault had the right
platform use, right, So so he builds this car based
on a renew platform. He has a rear engine, rear
wheel drive vehicle uhs one point three leader overhead valves,
four cylinder engine, and I think there were four and
five speed manual transmission options available, and he had three
(12:16):
separate tuning variants that were available as well. You could
get one with sixty five horse power, one with eighty
horse power, and then I guess the top dog was
the one with one and five horse power. And it's
a it's a small car, um so it's probably very powerful.
Of course, the the rear engine, you know, that set
up is is uh, you know, really good for for
weight distribution. People love driving those things. You know, it's
a lot of fun to do that. And you know,
(12:38):
again based on a working Renault at times. So you know,
he knew that this this setup would really work well.
Just a few years later he had to he had
to decide, you know, once he gets the prototype going
and gets all of his ducks in a row for
you know, how we're gonna build this vehicle and what's
gonna you know, be completely made up of you know,
all the parts and suppliers and everything, the whole line. Um,
I'm gonna need to raise some money in order to
(12:59):
get this and going. So he raises one point five
million dollars in capital. Again, this is the the late
ninetienes sixties. Yeah, it turns out that he is phenomenally
good at raising money. Yeah, I guess. And he has
the backing of the snowmobile manufacturer. Is it Bombardier? Is
that how you say that we always struggle with this one. Yeah,
we are not French Bombardier. I always say Bombardier, but
(13:21):
Bombardier I think the snowmobile man. And then some supermarkets
got behind us, one supermarket, Steinberg Supermarkets. They got behind
him as well, and um, I think the Canadian government
and Quebec even you know, said hey, why don't you
build it because this is something that's going to bring
jobs into our our community. Yeah. It was really set
to be, as they mentioned in this article, um by Gelopnik,
(13:43):
the first big Canadian sports car. However, and I know
some people will argue about that, but when you say big,
we mean super, super enormous, u ubiquitous on the road. However,
they ran into a little they ran into what ultimately anthem,
which was, as you mentioned before, Scott, a supply chain issue. Yeah,
(14:05):
they had trouble getting Uh there were no parts shipped
into Canada reliably, so they were having you know, they're
actually in production and this is this is really what
we could we call the first Canadian built car. This
this vehicles the first Canadian built car. So the manic
gt is you know, has this part in history. But
they couldn't get the parts into Canada reliably enough to
build cars continuously. So the total number of production vehicles
(14:28):
that were ever built of these manic gt s were
something like one hundred and sixty vehicles. And um, you know,
the number originally planned was something supposed to be something
like two thousand per years, so you know, significantly under
what they have produced, you know, projected I guess for
even one year of production is what they ended up with.
One hundred and sixty vehicles. I mean that's that's really
really small, which is a shame because it sounds like
(14:49):
a good car, it really does, and you know, the
rear engine design all that had it going for it. It
It wasn't intended to be a um um I guess
the sports car race her vehicle. It wasn't intended to
compete on the track or anything. It was just intended
to be a good road going car with good performance
and good fuel economy that you could use as a
daily driver exactly. And I think this guy had the
(15:10):
right idea and it's a great looking car. It's a
pretty cool design, especially for nineteen seventy one. I mean,
think about what was out there in nineteen seventy one.
Look at that design. That that matches a lot of
what we find from you know, the British sports cars
of the day. I mean, it looks exactly like that,
so solid design. I'm just I'm up set that this
one didn't actually make it longer and all these are
(15:31):
the same way. But then again, they wouldn't be on
our list. Well, you know. Also, also we could do
a great story about early Canadian cars because of the
other ones that I remember. I know that uh they
had some day had some tough luck for a while.
Do you really think we could do an entire podcast
on Canadian early Canadian cars? Uh, maybe we'd have to
(15:51):
do Canadian cars from a certain time span to to
the modern days. I hadn't really thought about it then,
but I guess maybe we could. Well, listeners, let us
know what we should cover. But while you're thinking what
we should cover, you know what, you guys, go ahead
and talk amongst yourselves, because I have a question for Scott. Uh, okay, Scott, Well,
while everybody's figuring out which Canadian cars we should cover,
(16:13):
just between you and me, Man, I can't take the
radio anymore. The radio is driving me. Not too many commercials. Scott,
My friends, we have finally arrived at the top two
of this list. The top two, Top two, Top two,
and number two is one that I'll be willing to
bet that not many people have ever seen one of
these in person. A nine Powell Sport wagon, and man,
(16:37):
these are unusual Ben and there's a great story that
goes along with him as well. I don't know if
you dug into the background or now the Plymouth thing. Yeah,
the Plymouth thing. I dug in just a bit on
this and what really makes and just reading from the
article here, it says what makes it awesome is that
this it's a it's a Plymouth based sedan or based
wagon raather that was built on a Plymouth chassis, engine, interior,
(17:02):
all that stuff. It's just a rebodied vehicle, I guess, um.
And they call it a kind of a crossover suv vehicle.
And this is again going back to the very unusual thing.
And it had these these exterior panels that were all, um,
pretty much slab side type panels. They've got some curves
in them, but they didn't do anything complex at all
(17:22):
because the reason given here is that curves were expensive
to do. And it's a very very affordable vehicle. And
I'll tell you some of the prices as we get
towards the end here. But what these guys did, now,
these two brothers and I think what was their names?
Um handle one second, I'll find it here in some
my notes. Um, I want to say, it's like Haywood
or Hayward and Channing Powell were the names of these
(17:43):
brothers and they were from Compton, California. And what they
would do is they would go to Junkyards and they
would find old ninety one Plymouth chassis to buy, and
they would buy the chances for something like forty five
dollars was all they paid for them, forty five bucks,
and they would have them shipped to their their California
or their their Compton, California factory, either plant, and they
(18:06):
would rebody these things, and you know, they kind of
refurbished the chassis and the engine a little bit. You know,
sometimes they'd refurbish the engine. I guess that was one
of the areas that they were a little gray on that.
You know, a lot of these Junkyard cars leaked a
lot of oil. They burned a lot of oil, and
you know they had some problems. But um, you're getting
kind of a refurbished vehicle, I guess for your money.
And so these rebodied vehicles, they built them in wagon form,
(18:27):
they built them in truck form, so you could get
a pickup truck or and the photo I'm looking at
here is of the wagon. And it's a beautiful example.
I mean, it's a very well restored vehicle. If it wasn't,
you know, original, I think it may have been restored.
But the sheet metal bodies were of their own design.
It was something they came up with and they used
like stay steel for the bodies. They use fiberglass for
(18:48):
the front ends. Um, they use chrome from old Ford pickups,
I think was what they used for the for the
chrome on the things. Not just pickups, but just chrome
from any old Ford. And sometimes they had wooden bumpers,
but sometimes they had steel bumpers. It kind of depended
on the vehicle and what they had, Yeah, what they
had available at the time, and they built. They built
one thousand pickups Bend and three hundred wagons and that
(19:11):
sounds like a lot. But when in the grand scheme
of things, you know, a thousand pickups from ninety six,
that's really a drop in the bucket. And mean, yeah,
I was going to say drop into ocean. Yeah they are, really,
they're they're rare to find it. I mean, if at all,
if you're gonna be able to spot one at all,
And this wagon that we see here, you know, this
is a show vehicle that they take around, obviously a
restored vehicle, but it's really really cool looking, I mean,
(19:32):
and it's got some unusual features to it as well.
Are one in particular that everybody likes to point out. Oh,
I think I know which one you're talking about. The
fishing line holders and those tube things. Yeah, they've got Okay,
So they have these tubes in the rear of the
vehicle and they are specifically designed to hold I don't know,
(19:53):
dowel rods and fishing whole fishing lines. I think the
the initial intent was to whole old a fishing pole.
I mean, that was the that was the whole goal
of the things. So you know that these are long,
long tubes, but they completely fold in that fold, but
they completely slide into the body of the vehicle from
the back end, like almost picture where a tail ends
would be. Um, it just unscrews with the handle and
(20:15):
then you pull out this tube and it looks like
a piece of I think it's furnace duct work that
they used to create this thing. It was ingenious design, really,
I mean they must really also, I don't know why
it was so hard for me to say fishing pole.
I guess it just got caught on saving fishing law.
That's all right, that's you know, that's slang for fishing
pole sometimes. So these things were and you can get
(20:35):
that design in both the truck and the wagon, and
I think they all included on one side, but the
prototype vehicle. If you ever see the prototype of the
pole of the Powell sport wagon, you'll see that it
has the canisters, those those long tube canisters on both sides.
I think they dropped it on one side for the
production because you know, it's a little cheaper to do
it that way. That bothers me that I guess. Now.
(20:57):
The price, yea, yeah, the price. And I read this
somewhere it said that they were under one hundred and
thirty dollars, but I have a hard time believing that
because not not much later by you know, that was
nineteen fifty two when they started building these, and they
said that, you know, one hundred and thirty bucks was
about the price of one of these brand new, refurbished vehicles.
But by nineteen fifty six the price had risen up
(21:20):
to one thousand, ninety five dollars, which I mean, let's
be honest, here raising up to a thousand ninety five.
That's still not a whole lot of money. I know
in nineteen fifty six it was probably significant, but um,
that's not that's not a lot of money. Um. And
that was for the sport wagon. And if you wanted
to go up to what they called the Deluxe sport Wagon,
that was one thousand dollars, so it added about a
(21:41):
hundred bucks if you want to go up to the
Deluxe whatever that got you. And then I think they
offered a camper edition as well, like a camper that
you could add on to the back of the maybe
the pickup truck. See the thing is if they could
have just had more uh more access two parts, because
again this is what the third vehicle in our list
(22:03):
that gets shorted because of supply issues. And the crazy
thing is, and I find this unbelievable. They've already built
one thousand pickups and three wagons and they're using them.
I guess when they ran out of Plymouth to find
because they scoured every junkyard all across the United States,
and they ran out of vehicles to find and to
build on. They were they were so focused on that
(22:24):
Plymouth design that they couldn't adapt, they couldn't go anywhere
else with it. They said, well, we're out of vehicles.
We have no more supply, folks. I guess. And and
you know, if you want to read a little more
in depth about this, if there was an article at
the there's a Chrysler site called all par And if
you go to all par and search for the Powell
(22:45):
sport Wagon, you're gonna find uh a pretty good right
up in some good photos of these things, the original
prototype design and you know, some of the the I
guess the workings of those tubes that they that they
had that slid into out of strange, strange design. But
but that's really cool. I wish again, I keep saying this,
but I wish there were more of these out there.
But then they wouldn't be on our list, would they. Yeah,
(23:05):
but if they kept going, they could have so much stuff.
They could have custom designed fishing poles that come with
the vehicle. People love things like that. The whole marketing angle,
the whole marketing angle, you know. Um, and I let's see,
speaking of great segways, huh, it's time I think for
(23:26):
us to finally discuss number one. Uh, Noel Noel is
our super producer here. Uh hey, Nolan, can we have
a like really dramatic drum roll? Coming in at number
one on the list is the nineteen sixty three to
nineteen sixty seven Gordon Keeble. Yeah. And we've probably got
(23:47):
some people right now who saying, uh, Gordon Keebler like
the cookies. No, it's Keeble, yeah, uh and it is.
We assure you a car. It's not just any car.
It's a very interesting and pretty good car. Yeah, no
kidding this one. There's a lot to this one, a
lot more than you would think just having a quick
(24:09):
cursory look at it, because, um, this one is fitted
with the five point four Leader V eight from a Corvette. Um.
And when you look at this thing, it looks like,
you know, a typical British sports car, I guess the era,
which is not bad to begin with. I mean it
looks like a James Bond car, almost like a bit
like an Aston Martin in some way at least in
the photo. That's very British, very very British. That's probably
(24:29):
a good way to say it. Ben And um that
point that it went through several different engine variations, but
the way the car came about was this guy named
John Gordon, and John Gordon worked for a car company
called Peerless, and the Peerless car company, um, I think
they're having some financial troubles at the time. They were struggling,
you know, they're having a little bit of difficulty. But
Gordon kind of broke off from there. John Gordon did
(24:50):
and he eventually teamed up with a guy named Jim
Keble and together they built this car called the Gordon GT.
Now that's the original vehicle, not not what we're talking
about right now, but the Ordon GT was built on
a Peerless chassis because of course, you know, that's what
he knew, just like the guy with the the Canadian vehicle,
and he knew there were no chassis, right, So he
built this one on a Peerless chassis with a Buick
(25:12):
three point five Leader V eight, so it's a strong vehicle.
And then later they fitted the same vehicle with a
four point six Leader Chevy V eight, so they went
up a little bit in power. And then after they
well there's a story behind us, but they eventually went
up to the five point four Leader V eight, which
you know, as we know, that's that's what they ended
up with I guess for the for the Gordon Keebler,
but the car was shown at UM at the Bartone
(25:35):
stand and I was struggle with this one again Bertone
BERTONI UM bare Tone stand in nineteen sixty at the
Geneva Motor Show and it was you know, the Bertone
is like the kind of the the one off builder
I guess of Italian Automobiles right right, And they had
(25:56):
built this in less than a month. They built this
only seven days is all it took to build this vehicle.
So after you know, did pretty well at the show,
you know, the Geneva Motor Show in n it created
quite a splash I guess with the with the media
and with the public. And after some road testing and
the car was finally shipped to Detroit where then kind
(26:17):
of the Chevallet management gave it once over because I
don't know what the deal was behind this, but you
know they knew that they were using their engines in
the product. And I think the idea was that, you know,
John Gordon and Jim Keebler wanted our Keybold rather wanted
to uh wanted to um somehow get some kind of
deal going with Chevrolet in order to provide drive train
(26:37):
for this thing so that they wouldn't get lost without
any supply change exactly. And so the Chevallet management, you know,
after they looked at the things, said yeah, it's definitely
a go. We're gonna give you Chevy v H you know,
the Corvette vas in particular and gearboxes to go into
production with this thing. And they built about ninety vehicles
to start with. And UM, I think that they found
(26:59):
out that you know, it was just too expensive at
the time. The price is just too steep to continue
because people weren't buying them. I don't think that they
were popular with the with the car buying public. Problem. Yeah, unfortunately,
and there's a weird marketing thing with this. Um. When
you check out some photos of this vehicle, which really
should because it is worth your time, you'll see that
they have an emblem that is a little bit counterintuitive.
(27:23):
You guys, they have a pet tortoise on their cars.
And the well, the reason they have this, um, this
turtle there or excuse me, I know there's a difference.
The reason they have this tortoise on there is because
when they were taking the photo shoot right for their
their company photo. Uh, somebody's pet tortoise wandered into the shot.
(27:45):
Happen if photo bombed? Well, maybe it took a lot
longer for them to get the camera set. Taking a
significant amount of time for a tortoise to wander into
the shot, right, which is not known for speed, doesn't
that So they loved it. Apparently it was a funny day.
But this car, I mean, this car, that's that's an
interesting story. Bend in the logo, that's that's funny. But
this thing has three hundred horsepower. It's a it's a
(28:07):
you know, not a huge vehicle. I mean it's a
it's a pretty small car. I mean, take a look
at the photo, you know, any photo, look at it.
Look up Gordon Keble nineteen sixty seven. You'll you'll see
a shot of this thing. Um. It turns out that
exactly one hundred of these were built because the final examples,
I guess we're built from spares in the end of
production in nineteen sixty seven. So well, they built ninety
at the factory that we're built and sold. I think
(28:28):
ten more were eventually put together, and I think ninety
of them still are around. And they tried to restart
it again in nineteen sixty eight because a guy named
John D. Brune Uh, an American Yankee, bought the rights
to the car, but he didn't um didn't really do anything.
There were two more cars that were pretty much Gebler
(28:49):
mean excuse me, keble Gordon Kebleu, but they they had
a d Bruns badge on that I see. And you
know what the main thing that was holding this one
back was price because I mentioned that the price is
a little bit too steep, and I did the breakdown
on this thing and I worded it to current dollars
if you'd like to hear it. And it just kind
of the wrap up of the whole thing. And two
thousand I can I tell you one more thing the
(29:13):
price this is This is maybe another interesting little thing.
The interior of this thing. Oh wait, okay, you have
something else even But the interior of this thing is
said to have what they call an old luxury jet feel,
which to me that sounds so awesome. Imagine like an
old like the nineteen sixties luxury jet. And that's what
the interior of this vehicle feels like when you get
(29:33):
inside of it and has um it has things like
toggle switches and quilted aircraft PVC and you know black
gauges is you know, like white on black gauges. It's
supposedly like a really really interesting looking interior, and it
probably just feels right when you get inside. It's just
one of those cars that just feels right, you know. Weird.
You know another thing I thought you were going to
say something different, which is officially my weird thing. It
(29:56):
has two gas tanks, my friends, two gas Oh that's
like like the old rucks or maybe a conversion fans
or something like that. That's kind of cooler reserve tank. Alright,
what's the scratch? Back to price they have? Back to
the scratch al right, So what held this thing back, Ben,
we're back to price again, is that, you know, the
price was just too steep in nineteen sixty. Now the
price initially was two thousand, seven hundred ninety eight British
(30:20):
pounds in nineteen sixty, okay, And I couldn't do the
conversion between you know what that was back then, you
know what that equated to the US dollars, So I
couldn't figure out the U s dollar amount then that
nineteen sixty cash. But what I could do, Ben, is
I could take the two thousand and seven hundred ninety
eight pounds in nineteen sixty and extrapolated to two thousand
thirteen dollars, and that's what I did. So two thousand,
(30:41):
seven hundred ninety eight pounds in nineteen sixty was equal
is equal to forty six thousand, five hundred and seventeen
pounds in two thousand thirteen. So the dollar amount, the
US dollar seventy seven thousand, fifty five dollars in two
thousand thirteen. So that's pretty significant amount of money. Now,
I don't know what the nineteen sixty direct conversion was,
(31:04):
but you're looking at you know, if it were to
come on the market right now, this is a vehicle
that would cost seventy seven thousand and fifty five dollars
and you know in pounds forty six thousand, five and
seventeen pounds if you wanted to do it that that
has been That's a that's a lot of money. Yeah,
I uh, I guess I see why a lot of
people didn't buy it on So that is number one.
(31:27):
And as you said, and I'll say at this time,
there's a reason these cars get on these lists. Yeah,
and you I mean, we've said this before, but I
don't know if I would put that at number one,
I might might sway towards something really unusually, like that
opera coop or something that we've covered. Yeah, that's what
I was thinking. For obscurity, what I'm thinking is first off,
in terms of just uh, just raw numbers, you know,
(31:52):
I want something that was either meant for production and
didn't make it or just had a smaller I mean,
this is number one, and there were one one d
produced in their nine any of them out there somewhere.
But still I've never seen a Gordon Keble on the road. Yeah,
I you. I think we'll have to make it a
mission to find one. I think our chances of running
into one randomly or quite low. Pretty Yeah. Um, I
(32:13):
have a favorite ask you what that? Uh? If can
I just read some laundry list names of companies that
people might consider obscure, I would love that. Okay, great.
I want to do this in lieu of listener mail
as a bit of an experiment. So I'm just gonna
read this list, um and Scott, you tell me if
there's something that you think we should do a podcast
on listeners do the same are you ready right? All right?
(32:39):
Artiga A Scariland, Uh, the Caparo. I'm watching you as
I'm reading they see if you're into any of these,
kater Ham, Covini, Devin Dunker Voote which I did not
make up, Elphin, which we have I think we have
mentioned Elphin once twice, FM, Auto far Bio, Fisker, Gumpert,
(33:05):
and that's it. I think about six of those. I
was keeping tracking my hands here. I think I think
six of those I would have an interest in doing
a full episode on. Wow. Okay, yeah, and you know
what the other ones, I'm sure that they've got pretty
unusual vehicles as well. I mean, who knows, maybe they
could be in their own podcast together, you know, group
together as one. But all of those are definitely unique brands.
I mean, were you thinking of COVENI I don't know.
(33:28):
Was that that was? I don't now that's one. That's
one that could be dumped in with the others, I think.
But there's some interesting ones there that I would like
to cover in a full podcast for sure. I bet
listeners have their own list as well. Yes, which brings
us to our most important point. Guys, if you've already
checked out our excellent website car stuff show dot com.
You know that we have a great interest in all
(33:50):
sorts of vehicles, especially if we haven't heard much about
them before. So check us out on Facebook and Twitter.
Let us know which your cars you think should have
been on the list. Less are your favorites. Let's know,
if you drive a little known vehicle or have a
personal experience that would be interesting. I love I love
it when somebody says I personally own one of these
(34:12):
and here's you know, a few photos of it, and somebody, yeah,
some of the usual things about it. Yeah, And those
almost always end up turning into some some fascinating personal
stories too, about how you got the car, what happened
with it, your adventures in it. So go ahead and
tell us what you think. Now. You don't have to
write just about obscure cars. If you have an idea
(34:32):
for something we should cover in the future, we want
to hear that too. I'll even I'll read Limericks. I
don't know if you will, Scott, I don't know. Yeah,
dirty Limerick. I did not know they were clean Limericks
family show. We're a family show. We won't read them
on the air, but we'll probably read them. We would
still appreciate them. We'll appreciate them for their artistic merit.
(34:53):
So that's it. Just drop us a line. Our email address,
as always, is car stuff and Discovery dot com. For
more on this and thousands of other topics, is that
how stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think,
Send an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com.
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