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Unusual cars, bikes, lorries.....sightings and associated memories.
Last edited by: VxFan on Sun 31 Mar 13 at 18:18
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A limeish green Morris Marina Super crossing J11 of the M4 this morning. Looked like the original 70's sickly colour, unmodified and unrestored it looked too. Just swinging along nicely.
I love a retro car, but I really couldn't be tempted in to owning one of those.
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They were awful weren't they - there was some reminiscing going on about a 1800 version of one of these on a FB page yesterday.
Today 7 Triumph Stags, 2 Reliant SS1s, 1 MG RV8 and an Aston Martin Volante.....all in Betws y Coed whilst supping a nice coffee..
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I wouldn't have minded a TC. Lighter than an MGB and therefore quicker off the mark. A simple bit of work on the rear suspension and they'd even go round corners.
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>>>7 Triumph Stags<<<
SEVEN!!!
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I counted them all in and I counted them all out - they were together so some club event I owuld imagine. There was a Marcos as well. ..... Hang on.....
Edit...
Thought it might have been the Three Castles Rally but that was in June...
Last edited by: R.P. on Sun 21 Oct 12 at 21:27
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I'd ave to have gorn out with me camera, like, and demanded asked nicely if I could have a shufti under the bonnet to see if the injun was a Fiord V6, Rover V8, or (perish the thought) the original 3.0L V8.
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What looked like an unusual magazine group test this morning, crawling up the A6 through Gt Moor towards the Peak District. What vehicles were being compared?
In the lead of the convoy - 62 plate Rolls Royce Phantom
Second in line - Mark 4 Range Rover - the latest model.
Bring up the rear - Aston Martin DB9/Vanquish - they all look the same to me
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No it wasn't a magazine, it was just one of our family picnics, what-ho !!
:-))
( Yeah right ! )
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That Humph...he doesn't half spin you a line.
It was actually me moving my fleet to a new lock-up.
Ted
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Did I mention my premium bonds came up?
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Coming up the M1 this afternoon, just south of Leicester, overtook a car transporter carrying.... about four or five mark 2 Escorts, a mark 3 Cortina pickup and a VW van/minibus/camper of the same vintage. The cars seemed to be carrying foreign plates I didn't recognise. Intrigued as to what that all about.
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'Intrigued as to what that all about.'
Mk2 Escorts and VW campervans are commanding big money on the classic markets. The Escorts also on the rally scene. The are being sourced all over the world as the UK supply has almost dried up .
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Very unusual one, especially in these parts....A Porsche Panamera parked in a town centre car-park near to where I work, this in a part of the world where a four year old 3 series is seen as an extravagance.....
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>> Very unusual one, especially in these parts....A Porsche Panamera parked in a town centre car-park
>> near to where I work, this in a part of the world where a four
>> year old 3 series is seen as an extravagance.....
When I go to Cobham, its the housewives shopping trolley of choice. The high street is thick with them
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>>>>.A Porsche Panamera
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>>When I go to Cobham, its the housewives shopping trolley of choice. The high street is thick with them
>>
Sure is and many many other sorts of up market kit.
..and just by The Plough gastro pub near the station and watch the Chelsea boys exiting :-)
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Dirt poor up here Zero. 500 people chasing 50 part time jobs in a new Wilkinsons last week.
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Well I have had an unusually fruitful crop of unusual sightings today.
M25 / M40 to Oxford.
Two Renault Avantines travelling quite fast with just a few vehicles between them
An Aston Martin Cygnet in DYNO ROD colour.
2 Tractor units from artics in convoy both towing triple axel caravans
An artic with a RUS nationality plate.
A cherished number plate C10WN W. (No comment)
and finally a lass with a D lock in one hand pedalling in the traffic in Oxford on a Unicycle.
This one had about a wheel about three feet diameter.
( a good guess ) see www.unicycle.uk.com/36-kris-holm-unicycle.html but not cheap.
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For that sort of money I'd want the rest of it !
Ted
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>>An Aston Martin Cygnet in DYNO ROD colour.
I think it must have been this one.
retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=print&thread=116268
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Saw a somewhat smoky Ford Zephyr in Redhill yesterday. Bodywork also somewhat ratty!
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Very nice black XF Sportbrake - on the twisties near Llanberis - on a 12 plate - it was sparkingly clean - bit at odds with the time of year.
PS very nice coffee in Pete's Eats Zero....
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The weather was lovely today so I decided to stretch the Beast's legs a bit. As I entered Oradour-sur-Glane I saw an enormous motor caravan - one of those White things that looks like a giant fridge on wheels - towing a four-wheel trailer with a Mazda MX5 on it. Try as I might I just cannot fathom these people.
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An Aston Martin Cygnet on the M42 just short of the NEC on Sunday....I know why Aston are doing it but one has to ask why !!!
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Bike show or the Xmas show RP?
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er....was there a Christmas show there ??? Wouldn't have made a special journey to the Bike Show, we were passing so went - really worthwhile - bit like the shows of yore....! Got some right bargains ! (man maths again)
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>> Bike show or the Xmas show RP?
>>
Or could have been Model Railway show :-)
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Wasn't overly enthusiastic about the bike show after two years on the trot but as Mrs FC and friend were doing the Xmas show I thought "why not?"
Wanted some moulded ear plugs and a few little bits and bobs as well as a look at the new Triumph Trophy in the flesh.
Managed to keep amused until they had done their bit.
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Saturday morning @ Petrol Station
SAAB 90, V4 Ford engine from Taunus...............restoration project on a £50 scrapper............£2000 later it has a rebuilt engine, gearbox and under the bonnet it could be a 1960's new SAAB. Everything spotless, all cables brand new .............body has been restored and undercoated - awaiting a respray. 3 years work and still the respray to save for.
The owner's everyday transport is a Honda CRV
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On a back road near here this afternoon in pouring rain, a Vanden Plas 1100 or 1300, making good progress. Odd thing is, there's a tidy but dead one on a forecourt not far from here too. They can't be that common even in the UK I should think.
The other day a Prelude the same colour as ours came the other way, with driver waving and light-flashing. So that was nice.
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I saw one of these little cars on one of the Keys in Florida.....bizzare.
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Saw a Rover 600 down our road at the weekend. It surprised me how surprised I was to see it - would have thought it too recent to be rare, but I don't remember the last time I saw one.
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We overtook one on the M40 in Oxfordshire at the weekend - I had much the same thought. We were listening to IHAQ at the time, the lone driver in the Rover was laughing as well....!
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Fiat X1/9 near Heathrow on Monday. It was a rather lurid purply blue, a bit darker than the one you see some XFs in - didn't look original.
A friend's mum had one when I were a lad, about the time you start to fancy your friends' mums - well, this was the one. Never got to ride in it, though.
};---)
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Saw one of these (in this colour) in the appalling traffic jams in Reading (due to closure of the flooded approach roads to Sonning Bridge) yesterday evening.
www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201239486455115/
Woof woof.
Just edited the link - maybe this will work.
www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201239486455115/
RP
Last edited by: R.P. on Fri 30 Nov 12 at 17:28
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Ere, look what I jist found: goo.gl/maps/xCn2L
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Still a car I remember fondly... but that brown was dreadful.
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I wouldn't say no to a Stag in 'that brown' though ;)
I was checking out a car battery place when I saw the Tri Humph, I'd decided on a Varta (of course), found a supplier who told me he had one in stock for my Lancer, I calls my wife up on the mobile who was out and about in said Mitsi, she went to collect the batt for me, only to be told "well, it like this you see, we haven't actually got a Varta battery in stock, but we do have a Numax battery to fit your car ... which is almost as good".
(Tis just as well we have a swear filter on board!!!)
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Here's one for Zed...
Parked in a busy street in Limoges - a Renault Avantime. You used to see quite a few around here but not these days.
Oddly enough, when I was trying to think of a motor that would fulfill my odd requirements I eventually thought of an Avantime. But then I thought again.
I heard on the radio this morning that Renault's year on year sales in November were down 33 per cent. But they are selling lots of Dacias. What is going on there?
Last edited by: Mike Hannon on Mon 3 Dec 12 at 14:10
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Oddly enough I saw one yesterday (through the window of the Little Chef in Builth Wells - Coffee/mince pie stop). Nice car in that very nice blue.
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A Nissan Rasheen parked a few yards away in sunny Esher.
Odd looking thing. It was so low it looked like a cut down job
I now find it was also a 4 X 4
www.productioncars.com/gallery.php?car=16950&make=Nissan&model=Rasheen
Edit
Judging by the date of the previous entry is everyone in hibernation ?
Last edited by: henry k on Sat 26 Jan 13 at 17:32
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>>>> Edit
>> Judging by the date of the previous entry is everyone in hibernation ?
>>
We can't identify them Henry. They are all covered in snow!
Even in Esher!
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>> A Nissan Rasheen parked a few yards away in sunny Esher.
>> I now find it was also a 4 X 4
>>
It has been parked unmoved for a few days now and it makes me smile as its proportions are so unusual but I now note its rear door mounted spare is a space saver.
I do not ever recall seeing this configuration but of course many/most 4 x4s etc have an expensive fancy cover hiding things.
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I think I saw one of those years ago. I couldn't figure what it was, but noticed the VED stated Nissan. I assumed it was some special built from Nissan parts. A low roofline IIRC.
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>> I think I saw one of those years ago. I couldn't figure what it was, but noticed the VED stated Nissan.
>> I assumed it was some special built from Nissan parts. A low roofline IIRC.
>>
I think you saw the same model. The low roofline is distinctive.
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Dark blue 2 litre Triumph TR7 convertable on M1 today (MK - Northampton area) - absolutely perfect condition! Not sure i ever saw a convertable even in their heyday! (Reg was W after numbers/letters so about 1980 vintage??)
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Saw a few of them in their time - I always reckon they were sharp looking motors, if the idle, workshy work-force could have made them properly they could have been world beaters, not the heap of unreliable, shoddily built, rustbuckets that they were. 1980 would have been a W plate.
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>>if the idle, workshy work-force could have made them properly
Hate to say it, but management failure.
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You're right. With the right management the former TR7 factory seems to be doing OK - hell we went tyre kicking Freelanders on Sunday !
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Of course Triumphs Speke plant does not make Freelanders - they are made at the former Ford Halewood plant. Got a feeling the old Triumph plant has been flattened now - its a long time since I travelled that way by train.
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It was not mine, but I have a Y reg dark blue conv which, so far, has remained unwelded. Unusual!
The late cars were made at the Rover plant in Solihull from 1980 and are generally of a higher build quality than early cars from Speke and Canley. There are stll about 2.5k cars taxed or SORNed but the mix of hard tops. It is still very driveable in current traffic - the only problem I have is getting in/out. Almost impossible when the hood is up!
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I had a drive of one - a bit of doggy owned by a colleague - I would have had one at one time !
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It's surprising what you can find while roaming around on streetview: goo.gl/maps/BxNEx
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That'll be Humph's LEC...
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Haven't been out and about much lately because the weather's been pretty horrible here too but we nipped down to Oradour between snow showers the other day.
People here have heard me rail before about the dreadful little microcars or 'voitures sans permis', the lawnmower-engined fibreglass deathtraps that you can drive over here without any licence or even if you have lost your licence for drink/driving.
Lately they seem to be getting bigger and bigger, just like real cars and occasionally you even see a van or pickup version. But in Oradour I saw the ultimate - a coupe/cabriolet!
Imagine a Ford Focus CC but about one-third scale, made of plastic, with a 400cc diesel and belt drive like a lawn mower. They cost about as much as the real thing, too, because buyers have no choice and insurance premiums are sky-high simply because most of the people who drive them have no licence, experience or road sense either.
Bizarre...
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2CV, white with blue ('go-faster' seems inappropriate) stripes, struggling up the hill on the A404M out of Marlow towards the M40 yesterday lunch time. Looked to be in good nick though.
Last edited by: Focusless on Sun 17 Feb 13 at 09:13
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SWMBO dragged me along to a WI do in Burley at lunchtime, not exactly my cup of tea, but sitting there in the car park was a mint condition 1964 Austin Gipsy; I never knew such a vehicle existed, assumed it was some sort of Austin Champ variant until I came home and had a Google. Absolutely superb nick, must've been a big project for someone. So gobsmacked I forgot to take a decent photo!
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>> So gobsmacked I forgot to take a decent photo!<<
Have one of mine: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Austin_Gipsy.jpg
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My friend's family were Austin dealers in Wiveliscombe in the '60s (still there but no Austins) and sold quite a lot of Gipsies. But the garage hack was a Series II Land Rover!
I saw an Austin Gipsy near Limoges some time ago. Could hardly believe my eyes.
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>> >> So gobsmacked I forgot to take a decent photo!<<
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>> Have one of mine: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Austin_Gipsy.jpg
>>
Cheers Dog! That looks identical to the one I copped, apart from the lack of 'AFS' logos on the doors; it did have the twin red lights on the bonnet tho'.
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Saw a Fiat 500 Abarth this evening,
Reg. Number AB12 RTH
I wonder how much he paid for that?
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I saw a '12'reg VW beetle. It had what looked like white steel wheels and real chrome hubcaps.
They'll be fitting wing mirrors next.
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Mitsubishi CZC - seen two of them in recent weeks - remember the fuss about them when they came out on HJ. Waiting lists etc...odd little cars.
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Found myself parked next to a 1968 Opel GT at an auction this morning. Loved their delicate lines when I was an early teen.... haven't seen one in the flesh for decades. Still looks special.
Video in dubious taste but this shows all angles... the one today was in similar condition...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NdVfgnR0Sc
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Prettier than an E Type, cheaper and better made ?
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Yes, but not as fast. And I always thought a bit girly looking. But I never really liked the E Type either.
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Nor me - I liked as a youth 'cos the received wisdom was that it was beautiful thing. It wasn't in my eyes. Sort of liked the brutal muscular V12 Series III...The XJS however, was a stunning car in my opinion from day one.
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>>>I always thought a bit girly looking
Know what you mean but I reckon the petite proportions do that as much as the actual shape. If it was expanded 15-20% in most directions it would look more a "mans" car.
Horses for.... I was OK with the E-type but hated the XJS. The XJS roof - rear window - rear wing styling looks like a test mule with some cardboard and gaffer tape disguise left on.
In the same era I also very much liked the Toyota 2000GT... www.youtube.com/watch?v=N77m1gRC7F4
Last edited by: Fenlander on Sun 24 Mar 13 at 14:40
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>> Nor me - I liked as a youth 'cos the received wisdom was that it
>> was beautiful thing. It wasn't in my eyes. Sort of liked the brutal muscular V12
>> Series III...The XJS however, was a stunning car in my opinion from day one.
Ohh no, the XJS was not pretty on day one, flabby around the jowels, too big for a sports car, and those buttresses.
However with the passage of time, with all cars becoming big and flabby, it began to age well. But it wasn't till they cut off the roof, that you could see what the designer wanted to do.
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>> the XJS was not pretty on day one,
No, it wasn't. I think that was why I liked it, the buttresses and concave rear window especially. I have a weakness for odd-looking or peculiar cars. They are more real somehow than the (many) well-designed beauties of the car world. More normal, more what cars are or were really about.
Back in my hitching days I got a lift from Reading to Theale on the old A4 in an unidentifiable large open two-seater. It was, the driver told me as he eased it past 80, a prewar Lagonda V12 with this homemade-looking (but tidy) light fifties barchetta-style body. Goodness what a motor that was.
Any car person is naturally drawn to a V12. It even makes a different noise from anything else when the starter is churning before the engine fires. Then there's the 'turbine-like smoothness and massive torque' aspect, not to mention the literal tuning of six downdraught twin-choke Webers or Dell'Ortos using a stethoscope or just a rubber tube with one end to your ear and the other down the intake trumpets - I bet Perro has never done that (and neither have I alas).
Early XJS and XJ12 (nicer in my opinion) were said to suffer from cooling problems in slow traffic and high ambient temperatures. I wonder if Mike Hannon has ever seen the gauge climbing alarmingly?
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I'm morphing into Lud.....there was one up for sale a few years ago on a "prestige" forecourt - did some tyre kicking....I was passing that forecourt quite recently, now selling bland euroboxes - I had a wistful moment.
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No I haven't. I think much of what is written about the XJS is ill-informed simply because not many are lucky enough to have the experience.
We are marooned in west Cork at the moment, fed up with avoiding snow and about to abort our plans to move on to the UK. I have seen a couple of Hino lorries though. I'd forgotten about them. Apart from a couple of 2CVs there's been nothing else interesting at all. The diesel auto Accord is satisfactory too but I don't think it will become part of my life like the Prelude.
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>>but not as fast. And I always thought a bit girly looking. But I never really liked the E Type either<<
Yeah, the Skoda Estelle had much more appeal IMHO.
:-D
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Followed one of these for a few miles yesterday...not too unusual but I've always thought it would be ideal for the single, outdoor type with, perhaps, a dog. Economical as well with the diesel engine.
www.preloved.co.uk/adverts/show/107552741/citroen-c15-d-champ-romahome-18l-diesel-campervan-1992.html
Ted
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One of the car's tyres deflated overnight. The spare is a useless tiny get-you-home piece of scheiss that won't hold pressure. Borrowed best and nearest neighbour's jumpstart/compressor device and reinflated the tyre (took 15 minutes or so). It hadn't lost any noticeable pressure 15 minutes after that so jumped in and went to the tyre place five miles away.
The waiting room is no-smoking and there was a whippersnapper in there whose health I didn't want to jeopardise, the little carphound. While I was having a snout in the freezing cold accompanied by the cashier woman, a bloke parked a pale blue metallic late fifties/early sixties Graber-bodied 3 litre Alvis to ask for directions to some place. It was a fifties one I think. I listened to it when the bloke left and it sounded healthy and fruity.
Late Alvises aren't really my cup of tea. Reviewers complained that they lacked poke and were old-fashioned but they had class and individuality. They have a sporting feel, but a vintage or anyway thirties one. By the time they were being made there were much cheaper and faster cars available.
Cheered me up quite a lot to have seen and heard that near-immaculate PVT car, from my own youth when this country still had a motor industry and a range of genuinely different and distinctive cars... until I had to pay 160 quid for two tyres for the jalopy. Progress has a thousand ways of biting you in the rump.
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On a short drive from Reading to High Wycombe just now, the sublime and the ridiculous. A burgundy Jensen Interceptor, and a gold Morris Ital.
The Jensen wasn't quite minty looking somehow, looked like it sees regular use (brave guy), and the Ital was an utter rust ridden shed.
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>> and the Ital was an utter rust ridden shed.
As good as the day it left the factory...
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The Ital was a wonderful example of taking an already poor car, the Marina and updating it to make it worse, horrible things
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Actually there is one very good thing about the Ital.
The use of the "A+" engine in a longitudinal configuration makes it an ideal donor vehicle for uprating something worthwhile.
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thats just like sticking a bigger stick up a pigs ass.
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I had a hankering for the old 1.8TC. Faster acceleration than an MGB and the handling could be improved (surely couldn't be made any worse) with a few tweaks and mods.
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>>I had a hankering for the old 1.8TC.
I tuned more-than a few of those, not too bad as it happens, although the Cortina was preferable.
I did a phew of these too with the same engine, great fun! www.c5martin.co.uk/pilgrim-bulldog/
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Marina/Ital did make a good standard donor vehicle for some things.
One the very best lorry mechanics* i've ever known used to make a few sit up and beg wedding cars, no not a kit his own design made from scratch in his spare time, good combination of 20/30's design with up to date (70/80's) but simple rolling chassis.
The 1.3 A plus was a good engine, i did many miles in a Marina service van so fitted, surprisingly fast economicakl and decent handling van.
*That same mechanic rebuilt/redesigned the rear suspension on a double drive rolonoff skip lorry we were using on a tip far rougher than the design could cope with, limped back one Friday with the suspension ripped from the rear axles...(wrog spec lorry in the first place)
With extra axle locating beams welded to the rear axles and existing bushings/arms strengthened the vehicle was afterwards virtually indestructible and never gave a moments problem again.
Alan should have been working in industrial vehicle design in a hands on position he had no time for bull shine and pretty but useless decoration on working vehicles, wish i'd had his skills.
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I agree with you gb that the Marina 1.3 was better than people think despite the rubbish Armstrong front dampers.
But it was still a piece of crap, like the Ital. A Minor 1000 under the skin, well after its time.
What I want to know is, why does everyone bang on about BL's most pants products when I have tried to start a discussion about Alvis cars?
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>>What I want to know is, why does everyone bang on about BL's most pants products when I have tried to start a discussion about Alvis cars?
'Cos everyone didn't have Lud's money and BL's best was all we could afford.
;>)
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>> 'Cos everyone didn't have Lud's money and BL's best was all we could afford.
Yeah, and you bought them new. My own 50-year car-owning record is a chain of rough and weird old cheap or free or borrowed jalopies with three or four exceptions that I can think of.
People would rather dream of supercars than pay attention to the largely vanished world of many distinct marques of real cars, a world already struggling to survive when I was young with Austin and Morris getting together and starting to swallow the rest of the industry bit by bit at ever-increasing speed down into the khazi. I was there thank goodness and at least saw and heard the things in normal use, and had a few rides and a couple of drives in some of them. But there are others here who can say the same or more - Roger the club-racing Rasta, Slidingpillar in his vintage... I won't call it a cyclecar Sp, others who have driven, owned and fettled proper machinery.
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I learnt a lot as a pimply 18 year old using my dad's Marina 1.8 to go on the pull - one brown trouser moment, when that grunty old lump and a (straight) damp road nearly caused me to lose it - taught me a lot about RWD...
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A million or so years ago, I flew to the Isle of Man on a 36 hour business trip. I needed to visit Peel, Ramsey and Douglas having of course flown in to Ronaldsway.
So I decided to hire a car and all they had available at short notice was a beige 1.3 Ital estate or it might have been a Marina I really can't remember.
Anyway, before I took it back to the airport I had a couple of hours to kill so I decided ( like you do ) to take it round as much of the TT circuit as I could.
As you are probably aware, apart from a few built up areas, there's no speed limit on the island.
Frightened the life out of myself. I can honestly say that I've never before or since driven anything with such dreadful handling.
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When I was a student, friend bought an Alvis TC21 (I think),
Valve seats dropped within 2,000 miles..The repair would have cost more than he paid for the car so scrapped.
I owned a series of Rovers 16, 75, 90,110. Reliable and easy to work on but thirsty and lousy in snow - Aberdeen had lots.
A35 was far less comfortable but cheaper to run.
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I didn't mean to forget Ted who has a highly distinctive fifties car, a connoisseur's car at the time too.
How are you Edouardo? Split sternum knitting well I trust. Best to you.
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A 1966 (D plated) Daf (badged Daffodil) in a council estate that I passed through today - Rough as the proverbial but clearly in use.
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You really wouldn't want to mention you had one of those at the school re-union would you?
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Better than a say a Roomster.
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I actually have a Roomster, but I tell everyone I have a lancer....
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Saw a bright red Renault 9 in Edinburgh on Thursday.
Paintwork was all fresh though obviously a respray due to paint run and some orange peel effect. Still impressive for an F ('88) plate though.
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Brought me lorry up the A361 Burford-Chipping Norton-Banbury today (nice change), on one of the open sections south of Chipping an oncoming Micra getting a jolly good move on overtaking a slower car, Micra driven by a senior lady driver, good on her.
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Me, 18 years old in my Triumph Spitfire, some squeeze or other in the passenger seat, roof down ( well in truth it didn't have a roof ) was well and truly spanked on an uphill stretch of dual carriageway by an old biddy in a Datsun Cherry and a woolly hat.
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Delivered a Network Q used Astra (curvy one) convertible turbocharged thingy very rare to a small town/large village dealer in deepest Dorset/Somerset many years ago, seriously quick car.
An older lady (well past retirement) but sprightly as spring chicken came bounding up the road to the garage all excited when she saw the lorry go past her house.
She'd bought it for a birthday present, for herself, good on her too.
Too many youngsters old before their time as it is, good to see the oldies living life.
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Unusual Sightings Volume 18. - Alanovich
