About Tough to crack car puzzle #186: Sabra GT Coupe

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Quite often we have cars in our puzzles that are not seen in public anymore. But this week, we have something that you can actually see this weekend at Concours d'Élégance Het Loo, where it is participating in the "GENTLEMAN'S SPORTS CARS OF THE 60'S"-class. In the photo the car is still in unrestored condition, but today you can see it completely restored (we will try to show photos later this week).

Well, now you want to know what car we are talking about. The hint about the country made it easier and we are happy to see all the good answers. It is indeed a Sabra GT Coupe, built in Israel.

The first one who gave a correct answer was Bart, who said: "You mirrored the photo of this Sabra gt coupe. It was made by Autocars Co. of Haifa, Israel and evolved in association with GB's Reliant and used a Ford sohc 1701cc driveline. Sabra's fibreglass body design was licensed from kit-makers Ashley and the chassis from Les Ballamy.

Introduced in 1959 at the New York Auto Show, the Sabra sports coupe was produced 1962-68, production under 400 cars. A part of production was exported to USA and Belgium". After that, good answers came in from Fried Stol who added: " Itzhak Shubinsky, administrative director acquired the molds of a sports coupe the Ashley 1172, which he used to create this 1965 Sabra Sport GT" and the country that was a high selling market "In Belgium it was a success with 80 sold cars, maybe because the Jewish Consul's wife ordered one? Some 150 were produced".

Gerd Klioba gave us more information: "The intended export to the USA halted in 1964. From that time Belgium became the main market, where 81 Sabras could be sold due to low prices. Since the GT coupe started in 1963, most of them ended up there."

Other good answers came in from: Steve Bousfield, John Jarrett, Shawn Dougan, Peter R, Till Jauernig and Timo Latinen.

Verner Johnsen gave in our opinion the most complete answer, as he also explained the name: " Sabra is a cactus and "Born in Israel".

He is this week's winner.

(LK)

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