In earlier 60's, there was a "money trap" called IBAP, in Brazil. They will produce a revolutionary (for the country and the time) car called "Presidente" (it looks like a rear engined Mustang), but everything is just a big lie. The story (in Portuguese) will be found in this page "http://bestcars.uol.com.br/classicos/…
Ah, that dual-carb tunning... In our house we had a '71 TL, a '76 and '82 Brasilias, and I still have an '73 SP2 (partially dismanteled...), and one thing I had t learn was exactly how to tune dual carb ("by ear"). And do it nearly once a week! (bad fuel)
Actually the security guards pursuit reporter car, forced him to stop, put a gun in his head, broked the camera and shooted the car...
This version of Variant was launched many years after the Brasília, and had a very similar design. But rear suspension problems and VERY poor performance of 1.6 engine (it was a heavy car) killed this car.
Brazilian drivers does not like the "pancake" engine because of worst acess for maintenance.
In fact the only thing Variant (the original one) had better than Brasília was cargo space. But the Brasília had a much better design, was easier to drive, had same passenger space and a better handling.
The entire story (in portuguese) can be found in digital collection of brazilian magazine "4 Rodas" (May 1973 issue, page 44 - http://quatrorodas.abril.com.br/acervodigital/).
Yes, it´s true!! This is from a brazilian website.
Most are gone, or in bad shape like the poor sample in Hammer Museum. But there´s still several in good shape. And remember this car was intended to replace VW Beetle in early 70´s.
Knowing how expensive is anything "Ferrari-related"...
Maybe inspired by this (also had something "malign" inside...):
A car magazine here, in Brazil, is doing a long-term test in a Merc A200, and the result is being a nightmare. Lots of little problems, noises everywhere, very frequent and expensive scheduled maintenances (each 8.000km, or 5000mi). And the "funny" part: in a trip, a little stone broke a headlight, and the cost to…
How about a night here???
Not uglier than this...
Just to update your concept: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avianca_B…
Sealed beam headlamps, doubtless!
And Daewoo Lacetti is the car Chevrolet sells as Cruze...
In fact, no. It was built in a "custom" chassis, built in the named "plasteel" (a steel structure "sandwiched" in fiberglass, but this was a crap! With time, cracks appears in fiberglass and water infiltrate, causing the steel tubes to "rust to dust", and the repair was VERY expensive). Carajas had suspensions from VW…
The correct weight is 1/2 ton (500Kg), not 500lbs.
Oh, my lovely SP2... Yes, I have one. And this photos don´t do the correct justice with the car. In "person" it is much more beautiful than in this pictures. And yes, it´s very slow, but you sit so low, so close to the road, you have the "sensation" of going much faster than real.
