1964 Sunbeam Alpine

You may remember it as the car that Max drove in Get Smart!. The British-made Alpine managed to produce 93 horsepower from an engine of only 105 cubic inches. But that of course was not enough for anything considered a sports car in the US, so in 1964 Carol Shelby began selling them here with Ford V-8s as the Sunbeam Tiger. Shelby also put Ford V-8s into the legendary AC Cobra.

Last July, we also saw a Sumbeam Imp.

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1989 Chrysler TC by Maserati

Remember the Chrysler LeBaron convertible? Well imagine if it had only two seats instead of four, at double the price. Sound good? Behold, the Chrysler TC by Maserati!

Sure, Lee Iacocca saved Chrysler, but he did it by giving the company a reputation for being dull as dishwater. From allpar.com: "The basic idea was to add some glamour to Chrysler (and some profit to Maserati); at the same time, various high-performance, turbocharged Dodge Daytonas and other vehicles (such as the Spirit R/T) were being launched to spice up the company’s reputation."

"Unfortunately, the building and promotion of semi-drivable pre-production examples could not make good the TC's intemperately announced introduction as a 1987 model. The subsequent two-year delay in getting the car into actual production was a monumental public relations and marketing blunder, especially since rather than preceding the Chrysler LeBaron convertible — and lending its prestige to that vehicle — it ended up being introduced afterwards. That meant that, rather than the LeBaron being seen as inheriting cues from the high-end TC, the TC was seen as being too similar to the run-of-the-mill (though attractive) LeBaron."

 Only 7,300 were sold.

   

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1973 Mercury Marquis

Nothing says '1973' quite like a huge, brown car from Lincoln-Mercury. We've already spotted a '73 Lincoln Continental, and guess what? It's brown! In the 90s, I read that this particular car, and similar Lincoln models, were the top choice for Illinois demolition derbies. Now that's some real Detroit iron. Here's another '73 Marquis on curbsideclassic.

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