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Identifying a car from the memory
Published 11/08/2010 @ 13:19:47, By Zodiak
I know this is a hard one, because I can't bring up a picture, just a rough description.

More then 20 years ago (yes, that long) I saw a very unusual green, little estate on a parking yard. I was very interested in cars then and had some quite books like Roger Gloors "postwar cars", but I haven't seen this one before. Sadly we were trying to catch a very and so I couldn't go any closer.
The car was a very small estate car, quite certainly of european origin, and probably build from somewhere between 1952 to 1960. It had round headlamps and a smooth, ponton-shaped body, similar to a VW 1500 Variant, but even smaller and more distintive. The most outstanding feature was a kind of nose on the front end, similar to the Ford Taunus 12M of 1952 or the Studebaker Champion. But it wasn't a Ford 12M.
1. It was smaller.
2. The "nose" was longer and much more prominent.
3. I think the car didn't have a radiator grille. I could not see from my position if it had a back engine (strange for an estate, but quite possible) or if there just was a small air-inlet insted of a grille.
4. The design was just more avangardistic then the usual 1950s european small car.
5. The bonnet looked rather flat compared to the 12M.
Some years later (more then ten) I saw a rather bad, tiny black-and-white photograph in a car-magazine of this car, although a sedan-version. I couldn't take that magazin along then, nor did it have much information, but it said that the car was a Panhard of the 1950ies.
Of course that would fit the very unusual design, but the problem is that I have checked all my books and many websites to find such a Panhard. Needless to say that I didn't found it, and all the popular models of Panhard look just different.
Any guesses or pictures that might fit this description?

Latest Edition: 11/08/2010 @ 13:20:56
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Identifying a car from the memory
Published 11/08/2010 @ 14:32:07, By Zodiak
I know these cars, but none of them does really fit. I think the bodywork of the skoda comes closest to the car I am looking for. The strange nose was different then that of the 1949 Ford (which is one of my american favourites, by the way); the car I am looking for had it positioned much higher (like the 12M or Studebaker), and it was much more produding. It wasn't embedded in the chrome frame like the Ford, but standing freely, and it was painted green like the rest. Of course it is possible that it was once chrome and got overpainted, but I don't think so.

Edit: For the bodywork: It wasn't that rounded like the skoda, but much more modern then the Standard Vanguard. I think the Borgward Hansa is even closer from the body past the windscreen then the skoda, but has a completely different front end.
It didn't have a split windscreen, and it had flat sides, wings and doors going in one line.
The "nose", or rather horn, had a cylindric shape, ending in a round,spherical tip. I think it wasn't complete smooth, but had kind of rips or some ornament, but I wasn't close enough to check any more details of it. But i am sure it wasn't fixed later on it, but was a part of its design just from the beginning.
If it wasn't a Panhard, as stated in the magazine, it might have been some avantgardistic easteuropean design, or maybe french after all. Maybe it was a conversion done by Panhard for another make, like Simca, etc. I am quite positive that it was no german and no american car.

Latest Edition: 11/08/2010 @ 16:01:45
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