I was in a rush when I spotted this well-used classic, so I couldn't get many photos; since then it hasn't returned to this spot. My knowledge of vintage campers isn't so great, so we'll need to depend on our more knowledgeable readers to fill us in on just what we've got here.

Alameda seems well-stocked with Darts; in this series, we've seen this '64 Dart coupe, this '64 Dart wagon, this '66 Dart GT (which I shot just down the block from today's car), this '69 Dart GT convertible, another '69 Dart GT convertible, this '70 Dart with Buick hubcaps, and this Malaisetastic '75 Dart Swinger.

This street boasts quite a few DOTS honoress; that's the '59 Ford F-100 a few spaces down from the Dart.

Duster_UK took these shots a couple months back. What a find!

Got some Lancia porn for you - I took the attached pictures yesterday (Sunday) after leaving the Barbican Arts Centre in the City of London. The car was parked on Chiswell Street EC1. I should explain that the City of London is the financial part, where all the banks are, the oldest part of London. There are some residential properties there, but as you can imagine it is seriously expensive. Being a Sunday the parking restrictions are relaxed which might explain how this Lancia came to be parked there (it also means I could take my own car into town - new Fiat 500 by the way).

On to the Lancia, which is of course a Lancia Fulvia 1600HF. The registration plate suffix is 'L'. which means the car was registered between the 1st August 1972 and the 31st July 1973. However as you can see the licence plate is black with silver letters in a non-reflective material, and only cars built before 1st January 1973 are permitted to still use this old style colour scheme. It's clearly badged as an HF, although I thought all the HF models had the larger inner headlights, I'm not a Lancia expert. The car looked to have a nice used patina but was in fine condition overall.

I also have a literal metric fuck-tonne of photos I took from a local classic car show last weekend. There is about 400 in all, although I have not yet sorted the good ones from the dross. However I do have some Jalopnik money shots in the form of a working Lucas coil under the bonnet of an over restored MGB GT, a mint TR6 with the bonnet up and jump leads attached, and lots of Lotus Carlton shots (including the under bonnet VIN plate identifying it as a Lotus model). There are various Rovers (a P4 and a P6), an Escort Mexico, some Triumphs (including a Herald and TWO Stags), various porrigdey Austins named after quaint English towns with cathedrals, an NYPD P71 Crown Victoria, a Buick Skylark (70's, I haven't identified the year yet).

A parts car, destined to be picked clean and then discarded as scrap, or a project that just became too overwhelming and/or pissed off the landlord and/or wife to the point where the junkyard seemed like the only way out? Impossible to say. In any case, it appears that a few bits and pieces- including the engine and transmission- remain on this Olds.

We see Keitel behind the wheel of a '72 Imperial LeBaron and Proval piloting a '72 Dodge Coronet sedan… and the streets of Brooklyn don't have room for both cars!
Spoiler Alert! Don't watch this scene if you haven't already seen Mean Streets all the way through; it would be a shame to give away the ending of this all-time great Scorcese film to those who haven't yet experienced it.

Given the large overlap between Jalopnik readers and Stag owners- a relationship we're probably better off leaving unexplored- it isn't surprising that we've heard from Zeusnemesis, the owner of this Triumph. Here's what he has to say about his car:

I was trying to post a few pictures in the thread of how Stags should properly appear: Replete with blonde, and top removed (car hardtop, that is, being a family-friendly site.)
Regardless, I know that editors surely hate being the "tech-guy" for every Jalopnik-yokel who wants to post a picture of his junk (uh, his car junk, that is) but I figured given the near-universal love of Stags, blondes, and V-8's on Jalopnik, perhaps I'd forward a few photos to you to include into the thread if you so choose.
It's got a '64 Buick 300 in it, T-350, and Corvette rear end. So, in essence, it's the "Rover swap," but with a few more cubic inches and a cast iron block with aluminum heads — just like the original OHC "Twin-Dolomite" boat anchor.
No 8 foot long single row Simplex timing chains or any other English-engineered tomfoolery (at least under the hood!). Otherwise, it's all English original Stag, through and through.

Now, your serious Cougar zealot is most likely going to favor the sleeker '67-70 models, but I've always thought the '71-73 cars were pretty cool-looking. Only in America could you get a grille like that. This example seems pretty much solid and rust-free, and the interior is reasonably intact.
Sure, it's just the 351 Windsor two-barrel, not the big 429, but it's still a shame to see this car get crushed. As always, we hope its pieces live on in other Mercuries.

What great-looking scoops, and who would have expected them on such a cheap car? The Grabber package was available on the Maverick two-doors; in addition to the Dual Domes, Grabber buyers got a 210-horsepower 302. That didn't sound like much, but keep in mind that the car only weighed 2,700 pounds- check the option box for the 4-speed manual and you'd give those 3,000-pound-plus Mustangs a hard time. Of course, by 1975 the Grabber had become completely Malaise-ified, and the Dual Domes were gone by the first Malaise year of 1973.
We're itching to do a European hood scoop for next week. Any suggestions?
Image sources: Flickr, Mustangs And More

It's pretty rough, and plenty of parts have been picked from it by now, but the all-important roof glass remains. There's an example of today's Engine Of The Day honoree under the hood, too- looks like a 2-barrel 350. Nice Bondo-y patina on the tailgate!

Some said that even trashed 510s are too expensive, and others protested that LeMons was not worthy of the Bluebird's sacred steel… but next weekend we'll see a genuine 510 take to the track and battle for Nissan pride! Keep in mind that no Nissan product has ever placed higher than fifth in a LeMons race, so plenty will be riding on the somewhat rusty shoulders of the Team WWF '72 Datsun 510. Will it totally dominate? Here's what the team spokesman has to say:

Here are some before photos... The rust is oddly not everywhere... It is however extreme in the places that it does exist... We can actually reach through the center hump and grab the driveshaft...no spare tire hold... completely rusted out...

The car was a "hillclimb/solo 2" car in its past life and has some modifications to that effect...
I acquired it in December of 2006 with the intention to strip it of any usable parts... The main reason I took it was the 13x7 (not so easy to find) American Libre Wheels in great condition... with center caps!!!

Previous to my picking it up, it sat in the weeds with 4 flats and the belly resting directly on the dirt...It sat for about 12 years according to the person that was "keeping" it for a friend that moved to France...The friend ended up passing away there and the car just lay rotting away for years...

If it wasn't for the Lemons series... The car would have been done for, stripped and the remainder trashed...I think it is cool to be able to bring a one time competitor back to life for one more shot at glory...

With the exception of one of our drivers, we are a group of 50/60 something drivers four of whom competed against each othermore than 20 years ago in the northeastern US. Four of us are still active and two of us raced 510s.

Sponsored by SayNeverQuit.com, an "inspirational clothing company" we are "never quitting" and giving it one more shot with a "SayNeverQuit" Datsun 510. We will be doing our best to try to bring some glory to our favorite car... The Datsun 510...

I shot these photos on a previous Colorado trip- winter before last, in fact- but I've seen the car around since then and it still seems to run. I don't bring my automotive reference library with me on the road, but my Maverick Sense tells me that we're looking at a '72 here (the four-door debuted in '71 and big bumpers appeared in '73, so there's a decent chance that my guess is accurate). This car is on the rough side, clearly having tasted some road salt in its day, but it has outlived most of its imported competition and continues to rack up the miles. The Gawker Server Hamsters claim that using the new-style gallery is preferable to forcing readers with slo-mo internet connections to download all the images at once on their 1200 baud handset-cradle modems, so here we go!

This is just the second (presumably) running Stag I've ever seen in my life, and it has taken up residence not far from my house. Stags were sold in the United States for the 1971, 1972, and 1973 model years, so I'm going to say this one comes from the middle of that range. Even by British Leyland standards, the Stag was nightmarishly unreliable, mostly due to its not-quite-ready-for-real-world-use Triumph V8. According to the Wikipedia page, the Stag suffered from:

• long simplex roller link chains combined with inadequate engine maintenance and factory specified 7,500-mile (12,070 km) oil change intervals. The chains could last less than 25,000 miles (40,200 km) resulting in expensive damage when they failed;
• inadequately sized main bearings in the early OHC 2.5 litre V8 design with short lives, changed in the 3.0 litre design;
• aluminium head warpage due to poor castings, head gaskets which restricted coolant, leading to overheating;
• water pump failures relating to poor drive gear hardening, prematurely wearing out the gear and stopping the water pump.
• In some cases, overheating was caused by clogged waterways in the cylinder block, found to be filled with casting sand left over from manufacture.

But this one has risen above all those handicaps and survives down on the Alameda street. It lives just around the corner from the 1948 International Harvester KB-2 pickup, as we can see in this photo.

We've got a couple of deals from the Deep South here, an Italian 3-fer and a Brazilian-German 2-fer, and they're priced like it's 1865 all over again! Saddle up the trailers, carpetbaggers!

I've been doing my best to interest wannabe 24 Hours Of LeMons teams in the idea of racing a Lancia instead of, say, an RX-7 or noch ein Scheiß-E30, but so far none of them seems to understand the sheer Italian awesomeness of Lancia iron. Why, Jeremy Clarkson himself selected a Lancia Beta to drive across Namibia. That's bad news for LeMons, but great news for you, because this '81 Lancia Zagato in Chattanooga (go here if the listing disappears) has a clapped-out-Kia-grade price tag of only 700 bucks. But wait, there's more! You see, you don't just get the Lancia with this deal; you also get a pair of Fiats, including a 124 Spider and a "sedan" of some sort. A 128? 130? Polski 125p? Don't waste time agonizing over the identity of the Mystery Fiat Sedan, because you also get a vast hoard of rusty-ass crap precious spare parts, including four engines!

You say you don't want an instant Italian junkyard on your property? Normally we'd say you need to get your priorities straight, pal, but passing up the Lancia/Fiat Bonanza means your garage still has room for this L'Automobile Ventura with bonus VW Type 3 Fastback deal (go here if the listing disappears). The price is double that of the Lancia/Fiat deal, and you only get two cars… but such cars! The Brazilian-made L'Automobile Ventura was a fiberglass-bodied sports car based on an air-cooled VW pan, but don't go mixing it up with the Puma GT; the Ventura came with a pancake Type 3 engine with crank-driven fan, so it has room for storage in the rear. As for styling, who could resist a car with lines that pay homage to the Nissan 300ZX, Jensen Interceptor, and Chrysler Laser? Exactly! But hold on there, because the Ventura isn't all you get here; the seller purchased a '72 Volkswagen Fastback as an engine donor car for the regrettably non-powered Ventura, but then didn't have the heart to sacrifice the Volks. That means the yard next to the double-wide has two too many vehicles, and they've got to go! The Fastback's engine is in good shape, except for the minor issue of non-functioning fuel injection, and it even has the super-rare (and nonworking) air-conditioning option. That's right, VW buyers in 1972 were able to drain 20 or so of the car's 65 horsepower by hitting the AC button! All tires are rotten. No mention of rust. The lack of title on the Ventura might make for some comedic moments at the DMV, but we're sure the DMV clerks will be quite understanding about your unregistered, undocumented orphan car from a country they've probably never heard of. Thanks to Nagruv5150 for the tip!

This is the sixth Alameda Scout in the series (after this '72, this '72, this '76, and this '77, and this super-rare '80 Diesel Scout). I see a few more Scouts around town that I'll get around to photographing one of these days. Why does this totally paved, completely flat, dense-urban island have so many serious off-road, farm-equipment-grade machines? Weekend fishing trips in the mountains? Preparing for the apocalypse? You tell me!

It appears that this truck, which is painted in jaunty two-tone orange/green, has had some spewing-radiator difficulties recently. The list price on the '72 Scout II Traveltop was $3,340. That's $248 cheaper than the '72 Bronco wagon; the '72 Blazer was $190 cheaper, but you had to pay extra for the removable top.

DOTSBE tipster Kitt has introduced me to the Tilt-Shift Maker website, so I thought I'd try it out with the Scout. I'd do it in Photoshop, but I'm still a fan of the prehistoric 1997-vintage Photoshop 5.0 and it lacks the necessary features.

Evil Clint (of Evil Genius Racing and Black Metal V8olvo notoriety fame) finally unloaded parted with the Yugo, and rumor has it that a certain busted-for-budget-annihilating 24 Hours Of LeMons team has bought the Spider (hooray!). That means his garage was suffering from a distinct lack of sulfur fumes! We think he's solved that problem in truly dramatic fashion now, with the obtainment of these two fine machines. We can see from the "I'll fit I got gullwings" illustration that Clint made to show off his new tormenters friends that he's diving into the lava with a smile on his face.

When you see an East Coast DMC-12 that sat immobile for 15 years and has scary frame rust at the suspension mounting points… and the seller is asking $5000 for it, what do you do? If you're a Project Car Hell Poster Child, you buy it immediately! That gives Clint's 1972 Honda Z600 some company in the Lake Of Fire, and provides a nice way for Clint to self-flagellate relax when he's not working on the Black Ops LeMons Racer, which is definitely the most hellishly complicated racer in 24 Hours Of LeMons history. I'm not even going to put this one to a vote- Clint wins PCH Poster Child status!

Here's what Evil Clint has to say about the DeLorean (you can read the whole tale here):

5 speed
good:
early hood
ok interior, complete, some small tears in seat, drooping healdliner, i can do upholstery so this isnt a big deal
38K original engine and trans
newer clutch
has manuals and receipts for dmc H and Pj grady
good glass
new window motors
clean title but probably $300+ in fees

Bad:

east coast car now in the bay area
sat for 15 yrs before PO bought so it had new fuel system, no sat for 3 yrs w/ fuel
has about 3 minor dings and dents and 2 larger ones, not really noticeable but fixable.
frozen and empty A/C
rusty exhast
sticky lock mechanisms
mild rust up front on the horns car from massachussets
bad rot on the rear arm mounts, see the tow hook about to rip out ( im a professional metal fabricator so i could fix most of it in one weekend)
facias need paint, no eybrows though
needs all strut except for trunk
had hot start issue from dirty tank ( cleaned by dmc Houston) and new but leaky accumulator
no lockzilla
slop in steering
squeaky front end
some dash electrical was taken apart to find hot start issue but supposedly all there
dont know what electically works or doesnt
and probably more i done know about

Clearly, PNP is taking a cue from the classic National Lampoon cover here, and what vehicle could be cuter than a chrome-bumper MGB-GT? It's like a friendly little puppy, begging you to save it from death! A friendly puppy that spends most of its time at the vet and leaks all over the house, that is, but just look at it!



Whoever is writing Pick-N-Pull's Craigslist ads has a good sense of humor. We see the two possible outcomes to the "you don't buy the car" scenario. One shows the parking spot- complete with oil stain- in which the MG once sat prior to its new owner hauling it away; the other shows The Crusher working up a good appetite with a Volvo wagon entree, with the heavy implication being that the MG will be dessert. Lines like "Buy this car and you will know what you will be doing for many months to come" and "Legendary Lucas Reliability" imply that the writer has at least a passing acquaintance with British Leyland products. Here's a giant screen shot of the original ad, just in case someone snaps up that super-bargain and the ad gets pulled. Thanks to Casadelshawn for the tip!



[Craigslist San Francisco]

That means that we need truly hellish contestants in Project Car Hell now, the concentrated essence of Garage Nightmare. Thanks to our ever-vigilant readers, I think that's what we're getting today. What kind of jerk wouldn't want a Lotus or a Porsche 911, especially when either project can be had for next to nothing? Exactly.
Even those who can't stand 911 owners will usually admit- reluctantly- that the car earned its iconic status for some pretty good reasons. Most of us would have a damn good time with an early 911 to hoon around, but those damn Porsche fanatics have pushed the prices well beyond reason. Sometimes, though, someone wimps out up on a totally easy project 911 and puts it up for sale at the kind of price you might pay for a 15-year-old Corolla. Such is the case with this 1972 911 Targa, which sports an asking price of just $2,500. What's the catch, you ask? No catch! All you need to do is provide your own engine, transaxle, glass, fenders, bumpers, wheels, and probably a thousand few other bits and you'll have a fine daily driver you can take to the track on weekends. As PCH tipsterMurph says: "Everybody wants a long nose, prices are through the roof, even in today's market. Take this puppy to California, clean it up a little ( a sawzall will help), pick up some of those pesky mechanical parts and join the vaulted ranks of the R Gruppe!"
That project would be a one-way ticket to Crazy Town lots of fun, granted, but how could you take on a German Hell Project and still hold your head high while other masochists ambitious restorers wake up each morning knowing they've got De Tomaso Longchamp and Simca Chambord hair shirts projects to tackle? That's right, you'd better get yourself a vehicle from one of the three Project Car Hell Überpowers: France, Italy, or Britain! With that in mind, you're sure to appreciate the prospect of not one but two Malaise Era Lotus projects, available in a staggeringly frightening appealing 2-fer-1 deal for the same price as the 911! Yessiree, this combo deal of 1976 and 1980 Lotus Eclats will enable you to look those Longchamp owners right in the eye and dare them to match your taste for self-inflicted pain ambition! The '76 has just 12,000 miles on it, so how bad could it be? Thanks to Dale for the tip!

Back in '72, the Cheyenne option package on Chevy's half-ton pickups got you a nice plush bench seat in La-Z-Boy-grade vinyl, extra trim, sound insulation, gleaming chrome exterior trim, and all manner of snazzy comfort and styling upgrades… which, of course, still resulted in a fairly spartan truck by today's luxo-truck standards. A frame-off-restored short-box Cheyenne with four-wheel-drive, four-on-the-floor manual transmission, and hounds-tooth upholstery? We'll take it! Oh, wait- is the seller really asking $48,500 for this truck? What the heck, maybe it really is that rare and valuable… or maybe we need to visit Booth Number Two for some reality-enhancement assistance here. What do you say?
[Craigslist Kansas City, go here if the ad disappears. Thanks to Tanshanomi for the tip!]

Station wagons are cool. Primer paint on a station wagon is also cool. And we probably don't need to point this out, but a Roots supercharger on a primered station wagon is so cool that it's hard to even contemplate without feeling totally inadequate for driving a (insert name of your car here, unless it's a blown, primered station wagon). OK, so that's settled- now we just need to start talking about price. This 1972 Chevrolet Chevelle wagon has a low-profile Weiand blower on a 350 (yeah, it's not a Rat Fink-grade 6-71, but we still approve), Torq-Thrust-esque wheels, recent suspension rebuild, a bench seat, and a paint job that looks- and probably feels- like the skin of a whale shark. On the minus side, it still has the original one-legger non-posi rear end, the upholstery is shot, the weatherstripping is bad, and there's no manual transmission. Now, for a 1970 Chrysler Town & Country woody wagon with a blown 440 and a 4-speed, 7 grand would be the steal of the century… but we're not so sure the same could be said about this Chevelle? What do you say?
[Craigslist San Diego, go here if the ad disappears]

Back in high school and middle school the wedgie (or as we called it, the wedge) was something you most certainly didn't want, under any circumstance and you definitely didn't appreciate it when it came along. But in car design, the wedge is something you can appreciate.

The beautiful and technical shape was used by many of the top design houses of the seventies and was a signal the future had officially arrived. While not the most aerodynamic form in practice, it certainly looked the part and helped usher in a new era of automotive design. Italian design houses ItalDesign, Bertone and Pininfarina were at the forefront of the movement, but the Japanese, Germans and the U.S. jumped on the bandwagon shortly thereafter

10) 1972 Lotus Esprit M70

First displayed at the Turin Motor Show in 1972, the Lotus Esprit M70 was designed by Giugiaro at Ital Design and was built on a widened and lengthened Europa chassis. After positive reviews from the public Colin Chapman decided to put the Esprit into production. The final design was completed in 1973 with many of the concept cues intact and when the then GM owned Lotus decided to build Peter Stevens redesign in 1987, many of those original cues remained.

Fun fact: that you couldn't call yourself a car guy without knowing already: Roger Moore drove a submersible version in the 1977 James Bond movie, The Spy Who Loved Me.

9) 1989 Vector W8

In 1989, after nearly two decades of development, Gerald Wiegert revealed his Vector W8 to the public. Extensive use of aeronautical building techniques were to be W8s selling point, but shoddy quality and a lack of funding eventually brought down the U.S.-built Lamborghini competitor in the mid-nineties. The W8 drew its inspiration from the 1968 Alfa Romeo Carabo and many other wedge cars in our list and is still a beautiful car today and you can pick up one of the few examples for a steal; nearly 20 percent of the original $685,000 asking price.

Fun fact: The Vector W8 was featured briefly in the 1993 movie, Rising Sun.

8) 1972 E25 BMW Turbo

The E25 BMW Turbo was initially built to celebrate the upcoming 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, but was later used as the inspiration for the M1, 8-Series, Z1 and the new M1 Homage concept. BMW built the Turbo concept as a rolling display for new safety and engineering technologies as well as showing that BMW had officially left the difficult 60's behind. Penned by BMW's French head of design, Paul Bracq, the Turbo concept was styled after the most dramatic Italian supercars of the day and featured an advanced radar system that warned the driver of close objects such as curbs and cars.

Fun fact: The Turbo featured two BMW badges on the rear – symbolizing BMW's exceptional quality – a cue that made it onto the production M1 and M1 Homage concept.

7) 1978 Dome Zero

Dome was and still is a race car manufacturer in Japan and in 1978 they gave the world the Dome Zero concept at the Geneva Motor Show. Intended to show Dome's intention of building a homologation special for a new line of sportscars; it was unable to pass Japanese homologation. In 1979, Dome debuted a revised Zero, dubbed the P2, with U.S. market bumpers and safety equipment added to the design. In the same year, a racing effort was launched at Le Mans but the ‘Zero RL' failed to finish the race. Shortly after, investors pulled their funds and the Dome Zero was officially dead.

Fun fact: The Dome Zero was featured in Gran Turismo 4, Auto Modellista on the PS2 and Sega GT on the XBOX.

6) 1970 Lancia Stratos Zero

At the 1970 Turin Motor Show, Bertone showed off a styling exercise called the Lancia Stratos Zero. The Lancia Stratos HF roadcar was based very loosely off of this concept though the similarities are few and far between. The futuristic Zero stood 838mm tall and was so low that conventional doors could not be used and to gain access, drivers would have to raise the windshield and walk into the car.

Fun fact: The Stratos Zero appeared in Michael Jackson's 1988 film, Moonwalker.

5) 1972 Maserati Boomerang

In 1971 the Maserati Boomerang was shown at the Turin Motor Show as a mockup and then in 1972 the Geneva Motor Show saw the debut of the fully realized Maserati Boomerang concept. It sat next to the Lotus Esprit M70 as both were designed by Giugiaro at ItalDesign. At 1070mm high, it's not the shortest wedge in the list, but it did have a 15 degree windshield rake – the steepest rake you could achieve while maintaining visibility, albeit very little. ItalDesign used the Boomerang as inspiration when designing the DMC Delorean (most noticeable in the rear view) in the eighties.

Fun fact: Intended as a showcar, the Boomerang was registered as a roadcar and was actually sold in 1974 to a private collector which brings us to 2005 when it was auctioned at Christie's for a cool $1,000,000.

4) 1969 Holden Hurricane RD001

The Holden Hurricane was an experimental concept built in 1969 and was the first product of the GM Holden Research and Development group. The Hurricane's ultra low 990mm stance would have made ingress and egress difficult with traditional doors, so an electro-mechanical powered canopy was used and swung forward over the front wheels. Also included were power elevated seats that both rose up and out of the way along with the steering column to make exiting the Hurricane easier. When climbing into the car the seats would lower to a semi-reclined position and the roof would close overhead.

Fun fact: A similar canopy design was used on both the Saab Aero X and the Batmobile from the Tim Burton Batman movies.

3) 1970 Ferrari PF Modulo

Painted black for the 1970 Geneva Motor Show and then re-sprayed white for its debut at the 1970 Turin Motor Show; the Paulo Martin penned Pininfarina-Ferrari Modulo concept gained quite a reputation and won numerous international design awards – 22 of them – for a car that almost wasn't produced. The cars release was held for over a year because of an apprehensive Sergio Pininfarina. Developed using the Ferrari 512-S racer as a basis, the 935mm high PF Modulo was built to explore new construction technologies and to show off the raw passion of the Italian design house.

Fun fact: Paulo Martin was sketching a Rolls-Royce Camargue dashboard when the idea struck him to make the first sketch of the Modulo. You could say he was more than a little bored with the Rolls.

2) 1971 Lamborghini Countach

Designed by Gandini for Bertone in 1971, the original Lamborghini Countach concept was the most pure version the public would ever see of this car. The wild scissor doors were first seen on another car in our list (the Alfa Romeo Carabo concept) and were used primarily because of the extremely wide chassis, but we think the real reason is because Gandini knew every rice boy would want them on their econo-hatch some day. The Countach name was derived from the dialect of the Piedmont region in northern Italy, literally meaning astonishment and amazement. The pure design of the concept translated loosely into the production LP400 though it was short lived when splitters, wings and U.S. bumper requirements were added to the mix in the LP400S, LP500 and QV models.

Fun fact: The Countach was featured in the 1981 movie, The Cannonball Run, and is one of the most replicated cars to date.

1) 1968 Alfa Romeo Carabo

The 1968 Alfa Romeo Carabo is the most significant wedge car and paved the way for many of the cars on this list. Designed by Marcello Gandini of Bertone fame, it was revealed at Porte de Versailles in Paris in 1968 to an absolutely stunned crowd. The Lamborghini Countach concept that arrived 3 years later drew inspiration from the Carabo in its wedge form, wheel house openings and its notoriously cool scissor-doors, though the Countach wasn't the only car that took inspiration from the Carabo. You can see inspired cues from many sports cars and supercars like the Diablo, 4th gen Camaro and Vector. Vector took the inspiration quite literally by duplicating many of the shapes of the front and side profile in its W8. Many wealthy individuals tried to purchase the Carabo including an Arab prince or two, but thankfully Bertone decided to hold on to it and now the Carabo spends its days relaxing inside the Alfa Romeo museum in Arese, Italy.

Fun fact: The unique name "Carabo" and its green paint were derived from the small green beetle, Carabus Olympiae.

Honorable Mentions

Narrowing down our search for the top ten wedge cars was difficult and we couldn't let this list pass without mention of a few other notable wedges. The DMC DeLorean was the hardest to leave off the list based on its cult follow from the Back to the Future films. Another difficult car to omit was the popular Triumph TR7/TR8 which was produced from 1974 to 1981. In the gallery below you'll find the rest of the cars that we thought were worth mentioning. Enjoy!

[via Lotus Esprit Turbo]