A couple of days ago, Twitter user Douglas Sonders showed the world some pictures of an abandoned car in Thailand that he got from a Facebook group. This car, so seemingly conventional-looking at a glance, has so far defied identification. And it’s driving me bonkers.
Here’s the tweet in question, so you can feel the madness, too:
Let’s play the identify the car game. Was posted in a car facebook group. It’s been seen abandoned for years in Thailand. What is this thing? pic.twitter.com/CQmzBkwU0H
— Douglas Sonders (@douglassonders) October 13, 2020
What’s crazy about this thing is just how many car-ID neurons it seems to fire all at once. That C-pillar and rear quarter-window area seem to feel almost late-’80s Thunderbird, but not quite. Some of the proportions kind of feel like an early ’90s Nissan Silvia, but it’s not. The face has a late ’80s Acura look, too, but it’s not that, either.
Those flat-topped wheel arches — why are they familiar?
Also, what the hell is going on with this door cutline here? And is that patch under the C-pillar evidence that this thing is some Frankenstein’d beast, patched together out of many cars? And, if so, what cars?
What is this thing? How does it resist identification so powerfully, so cruelly? What dark god has given it the power to force your brain into that painful state of almost knowing, that tip-of-the-tongue unbearable feeling for so long, so miserably?
Please. Somebody. Free me. Help me identify this baffling Thai wretch. I can’t rest until this is solved, or until I forget about it the day after tomorrow. Either way, this is a big deal.
Help. Answers to jason@jalopnik.com, please.