Welcome to Car Cover Challenge, a new series in which we take a picture of a car under a car cover, and you try to figure out what it is. This particular car sits on the side of a street in Santa Monica, California, where I walked past yesterday as I returned from a stroll to my go-to ice cream shop. My initial guess of what this vehicle was — based solely on its diminutive size — was Opel GT, but I was quite wrong. Let’s see if you can be less wrong.
The first thing I noticed about this mystery car is that it is small. Not quite microcar small, but far, far smaller than anything almost anything on sale in the U.S. today.
The Mitsubishi Mirage, Mini Cooper, and Miata be shorter, but I cannot imagine they’re narrower, because whatever this car is could be a foot from the curb and it still wouldn’t stick out as far as the Kia Telluride behind it:
Here are a few more shots of this vehicle. Notice the angled buttocks and the big straight tailpipe jutting out:
Let’s hear your guesses!
Update: Somehow you folks guessed the answer within seven minutes. How is that even possible?! Slightly embarrassed, here, allow me to offer another challenge, also from the streets of Santa Monica:
I’m concerned that this one will take even fewer than seven minutes. Gulp.
Studebaker Wagonaire?
1962 Chrysler Newport/New Yorker Station wagon?
https://assets.rebelmouse.io/media-library/image.jpg?id=31792901&width=1200&height=800&quality=90&coordinates=49%2C0%2C49%2C0
The taillights seem more vertical in the covered car?
Yeah, after a closer look, I think someone else correctly guessed it’s a Studebaker Wagon.
First guess on the second car is Citroen DS Estate.
My first thought was he was giving us a hint by saying (the obviously wrong) Opel GT, so I thought Opel Manta. Because even in LA, who would street park a Fulvia?
But the slope of the rear greenhouse is wrong.
It can’t be a Fulvia. Who would cover up a Fulvia? That’s just wrong.
Fulvia. Does this mean someone on staff bought the one from the vote on Friday?
Something small, sporty and Italian. I think a Fiat X1/9 would have about that profile if it had the European bumpers.
During the last trivia session one of the tail lights that Jason drew for us to ID was from a Fulvia. I mentioned that I got this one right because a friend I know through the Lemons racing community literally just imported a Fulvia from France (no, not Italy) a couple of months ago.
This one is the same pistachio color as hers (based on the painted steel wheels), has a long tail pipe, and she lives in the Long Beach area so I have to wonder if this is her car?
https://www.picuki.com/media/3260755910763215024
Confirmed it’s NOT her car, just another one like it!
You see an erect tail pipe like that and you just know it’s Italian.
Guys. You’re being too hard on David. I think he WANTED us to figure this one out quickly so we’d keep coming back.
David is just pretending to be like the kid who would play hide and seek by just throwing a towel over his head and standing in a corner. Next time it’s much tougher.
Go ahead David and throw a tarp over your Nash Metropolitan.
Oops, did I just type that out loud?
If you want to make it hard you throw a tarp over a contemporary gray CUV. Good luck telling which one it is!
Hehe.
Don’t even need the tarp. Dim lighting and I still couldn’t even tell you which one it is.
I couldn’t even name the possible models
“Is it a Honda HPV?”
“No it’s a Chevy Spanx”
“Or maybe a Mitsubishi Prolapse?”
Datsun 1200?
I was thinking Bradley GT. BUT you guys wouldn’t be so cruel as to use a kitcar would you?
As a Fulvia owner (though one with a very unconventional glasshouse) I recognised the front clip and exhaust that seems to stick out to far straight away. Grille shape under the cover suggests an S1.
Lancia Fulvia
I think it is a foot from the curb.
“we can walk to the curb from here”
Gotta check with your co-authors to see if they’ve recently primed the pump by showing the same car in a different post.
Lancia Fulvia 100%
I’m going to come from left field with Triumph Dolomite.
ev-1
Oops, has a tailpipe
Honda Insight
That tailpipe screams old British to me. But the height tells me otherwise.
Lancia Fulvia?
Someone already guessed Lancia Fuliva, so I’m going to say Alfa Romeo Giulia Super.
That’s where I started, but the droop of the front end and the height of the greenhouse are definitely Lancia Fulvia.
I think so too. First comment probably got it! I started from a different place: BMW 2002, then realized the rims and front droop didn’t match, then guessed the Alfa Romeo, then remembered that the Lancia was showcased on this site last week and this looked awfully close, then saw the first comment already got it.
Got a kind of 60s Olds Cutlass vibe, but the nose on those doesn’t drop enough.
That’s a Lambo, dude.
Pretty sure.
It’s the fancy one with the supercharger and the alternator.
Fulvia
DAMMIT! beat me to it.
Beat me to it!
Rims match too, good job!
I think this is it as well.
Ya’ll are absolutely crazy.
I’m gonna run out now and find another car under a cover just so you aren’t too bored.
We’re more than crazy. We’re rabid car cultists that have been called here by Cthulu himself.
Or you could run around SoCal with a big tarp, drape it over random cars parked on the street and take pictures. I’m sure nobody would mind.
Interesting way to discover who the gun owners are in town.
Meh, It’s California. People are nice there.
https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/029/223/cover2.jpg
David, you’re going about this the wrong way. Instead of driving around looking for cars under a cover, just drive around with a cover and put it on whatever car out there strikes your fancy.
Genius!
Next time maybe try arranging four of these under a cover with a forklift in the center. The answers would be pretty darn fun.
I was expecting there to be a twist ending and that this was THE car from last week’s Shitbox Showdown and you bought it!
Or you could just take pictures of garages and get us to guess what’s inside.
Isn’t there some reality show where they do that with storage lockers?