Your favorite factory special edition of a "meh" vehicle.

There's one of those '98 Pace Cars in the local Corvette club. They don't get any more attractive with exposure.

Keith Tanner said:

Erich said:

In reply to wae :

Yeah wild right? Factory lifted 4+ inches(!) with a 4-wheel drive system developed by Steyr-Daimler-Puch. Full skid plates and bull bars included. 

It wasn't just VW doing 4WD hatchbacks. The Panda 4x4 wasn't for overlanding or posing or pretending to be a rally weapon. It was a cheap hatchback that wouldn't get stuck in the field. But because of that, it's got a real appeal in its simplicity.

Some of us consider full on rally homologation specials to be "special editions", others seem to think it's more about sticker and stripe packages :)

Was the Panda ever brought to USA? I have only seen one in person - in Germany. And I freaking LOVED it ha

If anything I like the Panda more than the Golf. Love the simple boxy lines.

The Panda was the first car we bought when we got to Hungary.  It is the little car that could.  We drove that thing all over the place at a snail's pace until finally we drove it into Florence, Italy.

Holy smokes

That little 1.1-liter, fuel saver, super urban car turned into a fire-breathing tarmac eating, touring car champion!  It could hit every hole in traffic, get off the line like it was its job, and you could park that thing ANYWHERE in Italy as easy as pie.  You could tell that thing was home sweet home in the Italian super urban centers.

I kinda miss that little car.

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

came here to say X11.  thanks for letting me know i'm not alone.

Jonny Smith had an episode of The Late Brake Show recently about the 4x4 Panda, check his channel on YouTube.

John Welsh said:

Reminds me.  Isn't it said that the 1978 Corvette "Limited Edition" Pace car was the most popular selling color scheme of the entire years run.  Or, if you really wanted something "limited" any other color was more rare than the "limited edition."  

Back in the day, a coworker traded in his 1967 Corvette coupe for a 1978 pace car, thinking it would be a better long term investment.  Worst idea ever.

Erich said:

If anything I like the Panda more than the Golf. Love the simple boxy lines.

I love the Panda. Such an honest, real car. It's on my short list of cars I'd like to import for no good reason. I rented a 4x4 when I visited France in 90s.

The Golf tries awfully hard, I think that's its downfall to me. It was built because VW could build it, Fiat built the Panda 4x4 because Italy needed the Panda 4x4.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

And not only Italy - these were/are very popular pretty much everywhere in the Alps, be it Switzerland, Italy, Austria (well, IIRC they were built by Steyr-Puch) and France. My mum lives in one of those villages that's glued to the side of a mountain in Switzerland, and the last time I was there, there were at least two of them in the village, which may host a couple of hundred people on a good day.

They're a basic box on wheels that's easy to maintain, cheap to run and will get you surprisingly far before it gets you really stuck. In that sense, they're a bit like a 2CV, but they don't need another engine in the trunk for 4WD.

Oh, we're doing Indy pace cars?

Most bizzare/coolest car ever was James Garner driving the 1977 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Pace Car. (My first Indy 500 - my picture)

Fight me on this.

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

You know we have a GRMer in N California who DD's one of these '77 Pace Cars!  

EDIT: based on the third posting in his 77 Olds Pace Car thread, I guess you did know.  

So cool!!!

B13 SE-R is my favorite

4 pages and no Galant VR-4.  What a shame.  

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

came here to say X11.  thanks for letting me know i'm not alone.

Me too.

The drum brake axle is set out as special in the photo because it has a larger integrated anti-sway bar. You can't see it in the picture though. It runs inside the beam like a torsion bar. The transmission had special gearing, too bad there wasn't a limited slip. In '81 there were special braces on the front sub frame to stiffen the car. John Heinricy fought hard for those. '82 was all different and didn't handle as well.

My '85. I built a stroker motor for it (3.1L) and did a 4 speed manual swap along with some other little tweaks.

2003 One Lap of America

I don't know why I didn't think to post this earlier. 

Just thought of one. E39 540I Protection

Just a 540i, but equipped to protect occupants from small arms fire.

Corolla XRS. Take a yawnmobile Corolla, add setuffer suspension, better brakes, tasteful body mods and a zingy 2ZZ-FE.

Another thruppence ha'penny worth ...

Agree with Gustaf about the Sierra's. Although I never aspired to a Cosworth the XR's, starting with the Belgian Biplane 2.8 4i and finishing with the 2.9 4x4, were all very, very nice. Fun fact - apparently at some point in time NZ had more Cossies per capita than any other country.

Adrian's contribution of the EsCos is a good one, they are scarce as hens teeth here, even the standard Escorts of the period were rare as we were getting rebadged Mazda 323's called a Laser.
I'm not sure if I agree with the Mk1 Cortina though. While the Lotus was stunning the base model was quite a nice car and the the 1500 GT even better. Now if he had nominated the Mk2 Cortina I would have agreed wholeheartedly because the standard ones were very meh indeed.

The Aussies we're generally pretty meh in all their variants but we certainly got some seriously unusual Japanese cars from the 90's on when our market opened to used imports. Almost everything in the JDM sphere turned up here in dribs and drabs over the years. Not worthy of appearing in this list I owned a 4WD / AWD Toyota Vitz that was fun in a slow way with a Starlet diff replacing the non powered beam axle in the back...

93gsxturbo said:

4 pages and no Galant VR-4.  What a shame.  

I have driven GVR4s, they may have had a checklist and a little plaque on the shifter plate (the only one I remember is "84 of 2000") but they are still kinda meh.

AND WHAT IS THAT SMELL? srsly Galants of that era had a really odd interior smell to them.

None of this makes me not want an early Evo, and I realize that the only thing stopping me from buying an Evo III is having to give up one of my other garage queens.  And I reeeeally want an Evo III.  Or maybe IV.  More likely III.  It's not the money, can always find money, but...

hmm.

JThw8 said:

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

JThw8 said:

Mercury Marauder, a much better Grand Marquis/Crown Vic

These always bugged me.  I mean, I love the Marauder and it's a great car, but it was such an also-ran.  Chevy had the Impala SS 94-96, and it took Ford almost 10 years to come up with a "me too" copy that was heavier and slower.

 

 I suggest finding one and driving it.  I've driven both and the Marauder is a whole lot less of a wallowing pig than an SS.  It was also much more than an appearance package car unlike the SS.

Having driven both, I concur.  Chevy may have been firstest but Ford was bestest.

The Ford chassis had better chassis dynamics, period.  The Ford had as modern a body-on-frame chassis as was ever produced, the Chevy traced its roots to the '77 Impala which was more or less a '64 A-body with some revisions.

Surprised that I didn't think of this earlier.  The F150 of this era fulfills the meh requirement something fierce.

Couple of these were parked at FSU while I went to high school next door throughout high school.  Big impression on me.  Still think the wheels are the best Ford has ever turned out for a truck.

Whoa, whoa, whoa....how did we get THIS far and leave out what may be the ultimate transformation of a meh vehicle into a mega-star special edition? 

Posting this and then dropping the mic....

Keith Tanner said:

There's one of those '98 Pace Cars in the local Corvette club. They don't get any more attractive with exposure.

Oh, God, the purple with yellow wheels ones? Those were nasty from day one, and as a certified 90s kid, I was all over XTREME colors.

I don't even like these things, but certainly missing here!

A base model S-10 was a half step above a tractor in terms of transportation, and the Syclone and Typhoon were some of the fastest accelerating cars of the time.

Local Chebby Stealership had one displayed in our local bowling alley in the small town I grew up in, certainly had some evil presence compared to what else was on the streets at the time.

Also, Lotus Carlton. 190mph supercar beating performance in a midsize E36 M3box 

Ford Turbo Coupe.