Our recent Rare Rides coverage of the Chevrolet Citation made one thing very clear: We need more Citation content. Today’s 1982 Buy/Drive/Burn lineup was suggested by commenter eng_alvarado90, who would like to see all of you struggle. Citation, Aries, Escort, all in their most utilitarian formats. Let’s go.
Chevrolet Citation
The Citation is in its third model year for 1982, and sales have already fallen far from their initial peak of 800,000. The bloom is off this rose, but GM is still on track for six-digit sales this year. Sticking firmly to economy and utility, today’s Citation is a five-door hatchback equipped with the 2.5-liter Iron Duke inline-four and paired to a four-speed manual. Throttle-body injection is new this year and means 90 horses are underfoot. There’s also a new horizontal slats grille.
Dodge Aries K
The Dodge Aries is still new and is in its second model year for 1982. Chrysler started out strong last year with over 300,000 sales, and will likely reach that number again in ’82. Today’s Aries is the four-door wagon, as Chrysler does not offer a hatchback K-car at this level. Underhood is the base 2.2-liter Chrysler inline-four, which uses a two-barrel carb. Eighty-four horses are at the driver’s command, shifted through a four-speed manual. New this year: rear windows roll down on sedans and wagons, replacing the fixed glass.
Ford Escort
Ford’s Escort is also in its second model year for 1982. The American market Escort was supposed to be very similar to the European one for parts sharing purposes. However the respective design teams each headed their own direction, and the two cars share only an engine and transmission. Today’s five-door Escort hatchback is new for ’82, along with a new grille and presence of the familiar Ford Blue Oval. The base 1.6-liter CVH engine gets a high output version this year, which increases power by about 10 horses, to 80. Power is delivered to the front via a four-speed Ford MTX manual.
Economy and cheap driving are available to you, and they’ll probably hold up for at least three years before falling apart. Which gets the Buy?
[Images: GM, Chrysler, Ford]
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Not long ago, Rare Rides featured the Gurgel XEF, a Brazilian microcar of luxurious intent that was styled like a contemporary Mercedes-Benz, and based on a Volkswagen. Today’s Rare Ride is a very different Brazilian take on the same basic bones.
Say hello to the Renha Formigão.
Renha was short for Renha Indústria e Comércio de Veículos, which in English meant Renha Industry and Commerce of Vehicles. Founded in Rio de Janeiro, the company was the creation of Paulo Sérgio Renha. Renha was a powerboat racing enthusiast and held a speed record in the Atlantic for a crossing from Santos to Rio de Janeiro.
Renha previously designed some buggies and cars for other Brazilian firms and decided to found his own car company in 1977. The firm’s original product was a trike with a Volkswagen engine. The initial iteration of the trike faced legislative hurdles, as it occupied a vehicle class not yet recognized by the Brazilian government. Renha revised the trike after its initial debut and added more power and different bodywork, and was able to get it past legalization. It was sold as a kit or a complete bike.
The next year Renha had more ambitious ideas and launched the Formigão. The very small pickup truck body was attached directly to a Volkswagen Beetle chassis. It used a 1.6-liter gas/ethanol engine. Renha created his own body but made no mechanical changes underneath.
Said body was designed in fiberglass, focused on utility, and was shaped mostly by a ruler. Renha got some headlamps from a Fiat 127 to complete the square look. The pickup bed could hold up to 1,433 pounds, and its size capacity was about 25 cubic feet.
The bed capacity was not as utilitarian as one would hope, however. Volkswagen would not supply the flat design 1.6 from its second-generation Bus to outside companies, so Renha had to make do with the Beetle’s engine in its truck. As a result, there was a pronounced rectangular elevation in the bed.
Inside, buyers found three-point seatbelts and rode along with the spare tire and battery that resided behind the seats. A luxury trim was also available which offered upgraded alloy wheels, leather seats that reclined, and a useful tachometer.
Formigão remained in production for a short while, as in 1980 Paulo Renha moved on to a newly founded company called Emis and produced his trike there. Formigão was reborn in 1986 as the Coyote, after the company obtained rights from Renha. By that time, Mr. Renha had moved back into his real passion – boats – and started a ship-building firm.
Today’s Rare Ride is a 1979 Formigão from near the conclusion of initial production. With alloy wheels, it’s most likely the upscale luxury model. From the photos, it seems the engine bump issue in the bed was fixed by a later owner, or by Renha later in production. This tiny truck is yours for $14,000.
[Images: Renha]
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Rare Rides has featured a couple of fine Lagonda sedans previously. First was the 1980s rectangle designed by William Towns, which miraculously remained in production from 1976 to 1990. Next was the Lagonda Taraf, a super sedan intended only for the oil-flush UAE market.
Today we bring you the genesis of the Aston Martin Lagonda sedan line, the Rapide.
The Rapide was developed during David Brown’s ownership of Aston Martin. If you recall, Brown also saw the development of the Rover Metro into the luxury Aston Martin Frazer Tickford Metro. In the early Sixties, Mr. Brown owned Aston Martin and the deceased Lagonda brand. Though he purchased the Lagonda marque in 1948, Lagonda had faded away in 1958. The company made a very small number of coupes post-WWII, with Aston Martin engines.
The Rapide was a luxurious, V12-engined car at Lagonda in the Thirties, and Mr. Brown decided it was that name which should revive Lagonda. Design work was handed off to Carrozzeria Touring, the sedan based on the contemporary DB4 coupe. Though it shared a basis, the sedan’s 196-inch length was considerably longer than the 177 inches of the DB4. Touring applied a split grille design with three sections to the Rapide, and quad headlamps additionally separated Lagonda from Aston Martin’s corporate styling. It took three years to develop the Rapide, and the large sedan entered production in 1961.
An early super sedan, Rapide used an enlarged straight-six of 4.0-liters that was notably more potent than the 3.6 found in the DB4. Featuring dual overhead cams, the 4.0 would later see use in the DB5 and produced 236 horses in Rapide implementation. That made for a very quick-for-1961 run to 60 of 8.9 seconds. The Rapide debuted other features used in the later DB5: a de Dion rear suspension, and a body composed of a magnesium-aluminum alloy. Most Rapides were automatic and routed their power through a three-speed Borg-Warner unit, though a select few were ordered with a four-speed manual.
Extremely expensive, the Rapide was around £5,000 when it was new. That figure was 25 percent higher than a DB4, and twice the price of a Jaguar MKX or E-Type. Between 1961 and 1964, just 55 examples were produced. Aston Martin would not make another sedan until the Lagonda of 1974 mentioned above. And that was well after the conclusion of David Brown’s Aston/Lagonda ownership.
Today’s red over tan Rare Ride is presently at auction and ends bidding tomorrow. Current ask is £70,000 and it isn’t at its reserve. Probably not even close.
" data-medium-file="http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-3.png" data-large-file="http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors.png" class="aligncenter wp-image-1755302 size-large" src="http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors.png" alt width="610" height="343" srcset="http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors.png 610w, http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-2.png 75w, http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-3.png 450w, http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-4.png 768w, http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-5.png 120w, http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-6.png 800w" sizes="(max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px">Today’s Rare Ride is an obscure variant of an already obscure microcar. The Dart you see here was an Australian-designed and built version of the Glas Goggomobil.
We’ve featured Glas cars in two installments of Rare Rides twice previously. The first example was a luxurious 2600 V8 coupe, followed up late last year by the much more mainstream 1304 shooting brake.
The car underneath this roadster body is perhaps the most well-known Glas, the Goggomobil. A very small city car, the Goggomobil was the first car produced by Glas and went on sale in 1955. Available in several body styles, the Goggomobil lacked an exciting roadster variant. The Glas is worth a Rare Ride of its own, so we won’t delve too far into it today.
The story of the Dart began at Buckle Motors, a large Australian car dealership chain. Bill Buckle the senior established his dealership selling Triumph and Talbot cars in 1927. The business grew steadily, and Buckle’s son, Bill Buckle Jr., convinced the management of Buckle Motors to build its own sports car. The idea was inspired by a visit to the London Motor Show in 1953, where many a fiberglass sports car was on display. Management agreed, and Buckle’s first car was the Buckle 2.5 Litre, manufactured in New South Wales and based on a Ford Zephyr. We’re racking up the Rare Rides entries today.
After the 2.5 Litre, Mr. Buckle realized that import taxation could be avoided if a chassis was imported to Australia instead of a complete vehicle. With this in mind, he knew the car he wanted to use and went off to Bavaria to strike a deal with Glas. Glas agreed to send Goggomobil chassis across the sea to Australia, and the Dart was on its way.
" data-medium-file="http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-8.png" data-large-file="http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-1.png" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1755304" src="http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-1.png" alt width="610" height="321" srcset="http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-1.png 610w, http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-7.png 75w, http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-8.png 450w, http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-9.png 768w, http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-10.png 120w, http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-11.png 1249w" sizes="(max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px">Buckle himself designed the fiberglass roadster body, which consisted almost entirely of smooth edges and lacked doors. Of note: At least one (above) had doors added after the fact to improve usability. It seated only two people and had a very small canvas roof to keep out the rain. There was no trunk as the engine was in the rear, but there was storage in the nose, accessed from inside the passenger compartment. The design entered production in 1959 and was again built in New South Wales.
A very lightweight vehicle, the Dart weighed just 761 pounds. It had an overall length of 120 inches, and a width of just 54 inches. Power was provided by one of three two-stroke two-cylinder engines, in 300-, 392-, or 400-cc displacements. Power ranged from 14 to 18 horses. All shifted their big power through a four-speed manual.
The Dart project was a mild success, and about 700 examples were made by the time the project completed. Though the Dart was the company’s most successful offering, Buckle would go on to build a Goggomobil-based van, and a take on the Mini called Mini Monaco. Today the business is called Bill Buckle Auto Group and sells Toyota, Subaru, and Volkswagen vehicles to the Australian populace.
Today’s Rare Ride is one of about 100 estimated to exist in present times. A lovely orange and grey example, it’s in excellent condition and located in Germany. Yours for $59,665.
Our recent Rare Rides coverage of the Chevrolet Citation made one thing very clear: We need more Citation content. Today’s 1982 Buy/Drive/Burn lineup was suggested by commenter eng_alvarado90, who would like to see all of you struggle. Citation, Aries, Escort, all in their most utilitarian formats. Let’s go.
The Citation is in its third model year for 1982, and sales have already fallen far from their initial peak of 800,000. The bloom is off this rose, but GM is still on track for six-digit sales this year. Sticking firmly to economy and utility, today’s Citation is a five-door hatchback equipped with the 2.5-liter Iron Duke inline-four and paired to a four-speed manual. Throttle-body injection is new this year and means 90 horses are underfoot. There’s also a new horizontal slats grille.
The Dodge Aries is still new and is in its second model year for 1982. Chrysler started out strong last year with over 300,000 sales, and will likely reach that number again in ’82. Today’s Aries is the four-door wagon, as Chrysler does not offer a hatchback K-car at this level. Underhood is the base 2.2-liter Chrysler inline-four, which uses a two-barrel carb. Eighty-four horses are at the driver’s command, shifted through a four-speed manual. New this year: rear windows roll down on sedans and wagons, replacing the fixed glass.
Ford’s Escort is also in its second model year for 1982. The American market Escort was supposed to be very similar to the European one for parts sharing purposes. However the respective design teams each headed their own direction, and the two cars share only an engine and transmission. Today’s five-door Escort hatchback is new for ’82, along with a new grille and presence of the familiar Ford Blue Oval. The base 1.6-liter CVH engine gets a high output version this year, which increases power by about 10 horses, to 80. Power is delivered to the front via a four-speed Ford MTX manual.
