While hiking in Texas on Saturday, I found the frame of an old car. It was obviously washed away by the river and then left on the bank of the river, which had rotted for decades. As far as I can, I have been unable to identify the machine; can you help?

My brothers and their girlfriends and I spent Thanksgiving in Texas. After a few days of overeating, guilt forced us to hike in Colorado Bay, a state park in the Texas mountains, on Saturday.

At the end of the hike, we visited a waterfall called Gorman Falls (Gorman Falls), which flows into the Colorado River. Just a few hundred feet from the waterfall, along the river bank, I found a buried car—well, there was one left.

A quick Google search led me to find a photo on Wikipedia with the title "An abandoned car fell in the mud on the banks of the Colorado River near Gorman Falls." I can't find any further information, but I can To tell you, this car—whatever it is—is not upside down.

Let's take a look at some of the characteristics of this mysterious vehicle and see if we can recognize what we are looking at. Fortunately, the mechanical parts of the car are very convincing.

The first thing to do is: This is a body framed vehicle. What is interesting is how wide the width of the frame between the axles is compared to the width of the frame in front of the front axle and behind the rear axle. This is a unique frame shape, and it should help us identify what we are looking at.

The suspension also provided us with some good information. Up front is an independent suspension that uses struts to position the wheels longitudinally. This is not uncommon in some later Japanese cars and even some later American cars, but it is common in older cars from 1965 to 1970, such as my 1965 Plymouth Valiant and 1966 Ford Mustang. I didn't see any coil springs in the front, so it may be a torsion beam design-it was also common in cars in the 1960s, such as my Valiant and Mustang. It is also possible that I just can't see the coil.

The sturdy rear axle works with the body frame design and strut rods, almost confirming that the vehicle is quite old, and the rear coil springs clearly indicate that the machine is not a truck (the truck has been using leaf springs until relatively recently): what we see here is an old one. Sedan or coupe. Most likely it is American.

It is also obvious that this car has a steering box instead of a rack and pinion device. In addition, no matter what kind of vehicle is used, instead of using a king pin, a ball joint is used to create the axis of rotation of the front tires. All this is consistent with what I expected to find in American cars in the 1960s.

Bias tires are Goodyear "Custom Power Cushion" Polyglas tires, very popular in the 1970s:

Drum brakes on all four wheels further confirm that this machine may be from the 1970s or earlier.

Vehicles from the 1980s and newer (especially better vehicles with rear coil springs) may be equipped with radial tires and at least front disc brakes.

The size of the vehicle also provides some clues. It is wide, but not that long.

With the coil spring rear suspension, we already know that it is not a truck, but considering the size of the frame, I don’t think we will see a large four-door car like the Lincoln Continental, Chrysler Empire or Cadillac.

It is true that this frame has obviously been crushed by any impact that was first placed in the river, but I don't think it has been shortened by the accordion by many feet.

The entire body of the car is gone, which means that the only Class A surface we have left (that one might think of as "stylized") is the rear bumper mounted on the frame. It is chrome-plated and has a noticeable crease about 6 inches inside the corner, where there is a round carriage bolt.

To be honest, I’m not sure what this car is, although I would say that the B-Body Chevy from the 1960s will have the same independent front suspension design (despite the coil springs on the front; again, I don’t see any buried cars in the front) , But they may already be there), the same coil spring solid axle, similar steering box location, and a similarly shaped frame (you can see a 1965 Impala frame on it; this one was sold to the Impala forum Member of the message board).

If it were an Impala from 1965, it would have a similar rear bumper crease and a carriage bolt in a similar location. The rear bumper of the brand new Impala shown above (this car was sold at the Barrett-Jackson auction) is no different from the one I found on the banks of the Colorado River in Texas.

But I'm not sure if this mysterious car is an Impala, especially because the position of the front subframe mounted on the front side of the strut does not look the same. So if you have any guesses, please let me know in the comments.

Part of me hope it is not Impala, because it is too bad to go out like this.