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Hemmings Motor News Blog

Hemmings Motor News has been around since 1954. We're proud of our heritage, but we're also more than the Hemmings full of classifieds that your father subscribed to. Aside from new editorial content every month in Hemmings, we have three monthly magazines: Hemmings Muscle Machines, Hemmings Classic Car and Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car.

While our editors traverse the country to find the best content for those magazines, we find other oddities related to the old-car hobby that we really had no place for - until now. With this blog, we're giving you a behind-the-scenes look at what we see and what we do during the course of putting out some of the finest automotive magazines you'll ever read.
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From the Hemmings Forum: Mystery Hood Ornament

Posted January 17, 2013 9:00 AM by dstrohl
Pathfinder Tags: auto brand classic auto hood ornament

Hood ornaments are usually the most identifiable parts of a car, and that's by design - auto manufacturers wanted you to know that it was a Cadillac impaling you, not any other car. Which is why we were fairly confident we could tell Hemmings Forum member Berntl what vehicle his mystery hood ornament once decorated, but our search turned up nothing. Based on the angle of the base and of the jet, we're thinking it came off a truck of some sort, and it looks vaguely European, but these are merely semi-educated guesses. What do you think?

Visit this article on Hemmings.

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Steve of the North
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#1

Re: From the Hemmings Forum: Mystery Hood Ornament

01/17/2013 2:34 PM

I'm thinking it's a prototype. It looks too rough and unfinished to be a production ornament. And I have no idea what vehicle it might have been designed for.

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#2

Re: From the Hemmings Forum: Mystery Hood Ornament

01/17/2013 5:07 PM

How about a Lincoln Zephyr?

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RVZ717
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#3

Re: From the Hemmings Forum: Mystery Hood Ornament

01/17/2013 7:17 PM

I have no clue... but for some reason it made me want a frosty beverage...

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Who Wants 2 Know???
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#4

Re: From the Hemmings Forum: Mystery Hood Ornament

01/17/2013 11:22 PM

Flash Gordon's truck???

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#5

Re: From the Hemmings Forum: Mystery Hood Ornament

01/18/2013 8:36 AM

It looks vaguely Russian to me, like maybe it's off one of those Russian cars or trucks with a 'Z' name like a Zil or Zap or Zu-something-or-other.

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#6

Re: From the Hemmings Forum: Mystery Hood Ornament

01/18/2013 8:51 AM

Looks like someone hacked an old VW emblem....?

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europium
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#7

Re: From the Hemmings Forum: Mystery Hood Ornament

01/19/2013 2:03 AM

Can't say for sure but, after consulting Google's ten-million or so servers, these two guys are sure to have something to do with it...

And this guy wants it back.
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Kris
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#8

Re: From the Hemmings Forum: Mystery Hood Ornament

01/20/2013 8:52 PM

Hemming's OP still hasn't given feedback. Probably splarfing on a bottle of 'shine. I love a good mystery, and spent a goodly few hours checking. Not totally wasted time, who would've thunk such a huge subculture existed. By the shape of the 'plane', it looks more like it would be used to lift the boot (or whatever it's call in America). The 'wings' don't exactly look right for direction of travel indicated by the arrow.

Whatever it is, whoever made the thing should have spent some time buffing it.

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Re: From the Hemmings Forum: Mystery Hood Ornament

01/21/2013 1:55 AM

"(or whatever it's call in America)"

Nether Region. Awkward, I know. It's not like we didn't try. Other terms were considered but a quick, unofficial, hastily-thrown-together copyright search revealed some surprising holders:

Booty© - Pirates of the Caribbean, Lucasfilm, Industrial Light & Magic, Disney, Bubba

Derriere©® - Renault S.A.

Keister© - Checker Motors, various iconic Mob figures

Tush®®™ - ZZ Top, obviously

Arse©® - Royal Mail, Ltd

Can® - The Pittsburgh Steelers

Ass©® - FFA, 4H Clubs of America

Bum© - The U.S. 43rd Congress

Fundament©® - The Southern Baptist Convention

Fanny™ - The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Foundation for the Arts

Rump©® - Sir Mix-a-Lot

Back©® - Sir Mix-a-Lot

All the rest©® - Sir Mix-a-Lot

Sorry, man.
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Kris
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In reply to #10

Re: From the Hemmings Forum: Mystery Hood Ornament

01/21/2013 4:36 AM

lmao !

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europium
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#9

Re: From the Hemmings Forum: Mystery Hood Ornament

01/21/2013 1:22 AM

I'm wondering perhaps if it's a one-off from a movie set? Flash-Gordon-esque, for sure. From Emperor Ming's Yugo?
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#12

Re: From the Hemmings Forum: Mystery Hood Ornament

01/21/2013 11:36 PM

That's off Flash Gordons spaceship....or his car...or maybe even his space helmet....

It might be mounted on the trunk rather than the hood....

Maybe off a carnival ride...

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#13

Re: From the Hemmings Forum: Mystery Hood Ornament

01/25/2013 5:35 PM

Could be an old grandparent of the Opel from Germany.

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