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Unusual Sightings and associated memories in here.
Last edited by: VxFan on Fri 28 May 10 at 19:08
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Quite unusual to see the double flash of a speed camera doing it's work round here.
A big yellow double flash in the distance outside Old Trafford cricket Ground this morning for someone coming towards me fairly rapidly.
Luckily the vehicle it was venting it's spleen on was a big white, stripy van with blues on the top
on it's way to Trafford General Hospital, no doubt !.....
Might even have been my eldest girl driving it !
Ted
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Fully restored red Triumph TR4a ... on Watchdog last nite :)
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A Ford Mondeo diesel belching black smoke like a VW PD.
Unusual on the basis that if the much-maligned diesel particulate filter does anything, it keeps the exhaust looking clean.
It was an 06 taxi so had proably done a lot of work.
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A 1980s Renault Alpine GTA. Stunning car. This one in silver, spotted in Reading.
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>>A 1980s Renault Alpine GTA<<
Wow! That's some car ~ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Alpine_GTA/A610
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That's the fellow. Was utterly gobsmacked when I saw it.
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I was never over fond of the V6 engine used in that great looker - not that I've ever come across one.
But the same engine could be found in the big Volvo's, Pugs & Reno's + the DeLorean.
I used to dread having to tune the critters.
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Yep the Renault 30 carried that multi make V6 - I one lingered in our family for a few months - classic French car big armchair seats and a magic carpet ride.....nice.
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The good lady had a Renault 30 V6 when they were quite new back around 1979. It was an auto... perhaps a TX or TS model... in black with grey/blue cloth. Elec everything, huge armchair seats and a pleasure to waft around in. Fuel a bit hefty at 17-24mpg.
Last of a long line of V6/V8 motors we owned in the early days.
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I never sold an R30 when I worked for a Renault dealer, but I did sell a few R20s - same body, smaller engine.
As others have said, nice way to get about in a wafty, armchair sort of way.
Central locking and leccy windows were luxury fittings in those days.
I wonder what an R30 would feel like today, compared to, say a Mondeo or an Audi A4.
I suppose it's nearest counterpart would be Citroen C5.
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Funnily enough the relative we bought the 30 from traded in for a super met silver 20TX 5-spd will smart alloys. I'm really struggling to remember the 30's spec level now I remember it wasn't a TX.
Ours looked just like this.. www.renault30.com/photos/r30/02_02.jpg
Better angle, wrong colour... forum.avtoindex.com/foto/data/media/65/Renault_30_TX_1978_30.jpg
Last edited by: Fenlander on Fri 30 Apr 10 at 15:32
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Not too far from me (near my local off-licence) is a Citroen CX 25 Safari in fairly good nick. I think the person that owns it is a bit of a Citroen fan as he also has an XM Estate, in itself fairly rare these days.
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Forgot about this one - on an intersection near Universal Studios in Orlando - a very untidy DeLorean with the license plate McFly on it. It looked barely alive with broken rear quarter lights with some exotic growth on the inside. Sheddy as hell.
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McFly - sounds like a contaminated burger.
Happy memories brought back by posts above - my first company car was a 20TS in 1980, the first of seven Renaults, all reliable over big mileages. The 20TS was perhaps the most comfortable car I've ever had, and following, as it did, a Chrysler Horizon, it was a revelation.
Certainly an 'unusual sighting' now as Renaults of that era rusted horribly.
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>> Certainly an 'unusual sighting' now as Renaults of that era rusted horribly.
>>
So true. When in France in 2008, we saw a couple of rather manky 18's , a scattering of 5's and inevitably a fair number of ageing 4's but nothing else earlier than 1990-ish.
In some cases, like the 14 for example, their extinction cannot be counted as a great loss to the world of motoring.
I agrere with you about the 20 though; the TL was perhaps a tad basic but the better-equipped TS and TX were well-liked by their owners at the dealership where I worked.
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Quite so. I had a shed of a 20TL that was an excellent motor, but the rusty reaper got it. I can't remember when I saw one around here. Likewise the 14, likewise the 16, likewise the Citroen GS. Likewise the C6, come to that.
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When I worked for a Renault dealer I quite liked the Renault 9 - a Ford Escort sized saloon.
The R14 did look like a slug, but it was supremely comfortable as most Renaults were in those days.
We had a top-of-the range demo which had what Renault called firmer suspension.
It still had a compliant ride, but didn't lean quite so much in corners.
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>> When I worked for a Renault dealer I quite liked the Renault 9 - a
>> Ford Escort sized saloon.
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>> The R14 did look like a slug but it was supremely comfortable as most Renaults
>> were in those days.
>>
I remember the day our first Renault 9 arrived; quite a handsome little beast by the standards of the day and touted as a world-beater by the factory. I was sort of impressed till I happened to lean on the wing and it gave way like a soggy carrier bag. I've seen thicker metal on a tin of Spam!
Had a 16TS, yes it was a dreadful rotbox but with that bench seat and column change it made a superb passion wagon! ;-)
Apart from its ugliness (made a Volvo 340 look like a Ferrari) the 14 suffered from the habitual Renault curse of those days, a rotten gearchange. ISTR it had the same system as the 12 (a far superior car) those rectangular rubber bushes like exhaust mounts which fell apart in extremely cold weather.
It didn't help that our parts manager, a man born to be beige, had a 14 and liked it.
Last edited by: Harleyman on Tue 4 May 10 at 00:01
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My eye for 80's metal picked out a mint Audi 100 CD saloon, circa 1986 in red on a driveway in Market Harborough today. The depth of the colour really stood out, it looked showroom fresh.
Very pretty big cars those, few left now, they dont seem to survive as long as you might think.
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Moggie Minor van. Nothing unusual in that, except this one was LHD in very good looking condition and seemingly still being used for what it was designed. Around La Aldea de San Nicolas, Gran Canaria.
Guess where I was when the bed-bugs bit me?
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>>Guess where I was when the bed-bugs bit me?<<
In bed.
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Just spotted a Y-suffix Ford Capri 2.0 Calypso in powder blue, bouncing along an uneven road, being followed by a shiny new, creamy coloured Lancia Ypsilon, with UK plates. The good old Capri looked so strangely small, even against a modern supermini type thing.
An odd pairing.
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DeLorean came past me this morning peak time down near old Severn Bridge, must be quite rare now in road going form.
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Three Ford Anglias on the A1(M) in North Yorkshire.
One beige and two maroon, two of which had contrasting roofs.
All three cars looked to have been restored sympathetically.
Reminded me just a little of the latest Fiesta.
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>> quite rare now in road going form.
Deservedly rare in any form. Piece of crap, and looks it.
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>> Deservedly rare in any form. Piece of crap, and looks it.
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Not at all, when they were current i was blitzed by a local one and managed to have a chat with the owner, it sported mostly Lotus Cortina mk1 engine box and running gear.
Fords were great cars for poor young working class boys, a bit of handy spanner work and a few scrapyard vsists could transform the (usually) underpowered Ford into a handy beast, many parts being interchangeable 'tween models.
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Tesco car park in Abergele - A Citroen DS3 and a Renault 4 - I know which I'd prefer despite it being the colour of a turd.
Last edited by: Pugugly on Sat 8 May 10 at 16:17
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Sold quite a few R4s in the early 1980s.
The women liked them because they could hang their handbag off the gearstick.
The dealer was in a posh part of London and several customers asked if a cello would fit in the back, which it would.
I think for little Jemima the cello was the urban equivalent of a pony.
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R4 the car you always promised yourself you would never own ;-)
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...R4 the car you always promised yourself you would never own...
As we have a little more room to breath on this forum, I'll tell you a story about an R4, a cancelled order, and a peer of the realm whose word really was his bond.
The peer was a customer of the Renault dealer, alhough we always dealt with his agent in Brook Street, Mayfair.
The family had several R4s over the years, and ordered their latest one over the phone.
Cutting a short story short, the agent called to cancel the order a few weeks later, after we'd prepared the car and fitted a couple of extras.
The agent went on to say the car would be paid for as previously agreed, because they'd agreed to buy it, but they would not collect the car.
We would keep it and sell it on their behalf, although the family accepted it would take time and they would lose money.
Heady stuff.
We had taken a £250 deposit, but not registered the car.
My directors, quite rightly, were not keen on taking full payment on these terms, so I was told to tell them we would keep the deposit, and leave it at that.
I relayed this message by telephone to the agent, who passed it on to his Lordship, who was clearly sat with him.
They were so pleased at only losing the deposit that his Lordship insisted on coming on the line to thank me personally.
Some people are not keen on wealthy landed families, but at least this lot had some genuine class to go with their money.
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Not Lord Rattle of Wythenshaw was it ?
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...Not Lord Rattle of Wythenshaw was it ?...
Ha-ha, but no.
One of the family's seats is now a large hotel by the Thames and, topically, one of their female ancestors made history after an election 90-odd years ago.
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I am not from Wythenshawe thank you very much :)
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I owned two R4's about 45 years ago, 850cc I think they were. :-)
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sat 8 May 10 at 20:09
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Deeply cool too ON !
Did you know that they had a shorter wheelbase on one side than the other? Bit like a Haggis in that respect.
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>> Deeply cool too ON !
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>> Did you know that they had a shorter wheelbase on one side than the other?
>> Bit like a Haggis in that respect.
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But the haggis compensates by being a 4x4, and uses the asymmetric wheelbase for rock hopping to the heather grazing areas.
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It has been years since I've had a real Haggis. Most of the stuff you get down here is fake. Sheep's stomachs stuffed with minced offal and mutton and passed off as the real thing. In fact I gather only Fortnum and Mason stock fresh wild haggis now and even they are on a quota due to its semi-protected status.
The Hag-isch or "mountain pig" is becoming quite a rare beast in the Highlands now. A distant relative of its lowland cousin the hedgehog but with short coarse fur instead of spines the wild ones do indeed still exhibit the strange mutation of having their ( usually ) left legs grow shorter than their right ones. Thus enabling them to remain upright while grazing on the mountain heather fields while progressing anti-clockwise. The much rarer left biased Hag-isch of course navigates the same pastures clockwise. Like red and grey squirrells there has been a long and bitter battle between the two sub-species to the decline of the smaller left oriented or "Corrie-Duked" Hag-isch.
Not much real eating on either type and most are now poached before maturity but nothing finer when camping in the mountains than a wild Haggis cooked slowly in tinfoill on an open fire while a few convivial drams are supped.
Last edited by: Humph D'bout on Sat 8 May 10 at 20:51
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As a lad, after i saw my first lamb, I vowed never to eat leg of lamb again.
My mum said it was so they could stand up on the side of hills, so I was happy to munch again.
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>> Did you know that they had a shorter wheelbase on one side than the other?
I know our R14s had that feature - Dad had a couple of those when a Renault garage opened near us, and I think he'd had some problems with the Escort. (We had a long succession of the latter going back to a brown 1.1 1968 G reg.)
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I must be super cool, my daughters will be seen in public with me, but not in some of my cars. :-)
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...I owned two R4's about 35 years ago, 850cc I think they were. :-...
By the 1980s there was a GTL version with side bumpers and a whopping 1100cc.
Car weighed nothing, so it was actually quite nippy - if you didn't mind cornering on the doorhandles.
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Brilliant cars, with that umbrella gear lever sticking out of the dash they carried over to early R5s IIRC.
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Ne'er mind all that. What about the half long legged Haggis.
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I shot a few as a teenager Martin. The Sergeant Armourer at Cultybraggan army camp where we were sent one Summer as cadets while in sixth form showed those of us interested how to make a simple air-rifle out of an innocent looking ski-pole. The technique as I recall involved the insertion of some narrow bore tubing, an old French centime coin and the clutch return spring from a Land Rover Lightweight.
The ski pole only held one shot so the training at the army camp came in very handy in honing our shooting accuracy. The following Winter having left school a bunch of us got temporary jobs teaching skiing in the Highlands and of course took our air-rifle poles with us.
It sounds preposterous now but we affected to wear kilts while teaching skiing. It had an interesting effect on the English girls students who must have found it quaint but more fascinatingly it offered us the opportunity to wear sporrans. Not the small dress sporrans worn at faux highland weddings but proper, full sized hunting sporrans which could easily accomodate a "wee hoagy" as they were colloquially known. The hunting sporran also had a handy rear compartment in which you could store a good thick slice of Selkirk Bannock to ward off the hunger pangs during a long day in the mountains. We used to make a few bob on the side selling our catch to the local game dealer.
As mentioned above, the vast majority of what is sold as Haggis in England and indeed the more tourist oriented areas of lowland Scotland is in fact a poor imitation made up of other meats, offal and breadcrumbs but a proper wild roast hoagy is a delight indeed especially if you catch it yourself.
For those interested to sample it, it is as I said semi-protected now and butchers rarely display them but if yiou find yourself in the rural north of Scotland and engage in friendly converstion with a butcher you could always ask if he has one or two hidden away "special" customers. Remember to use its local pronunciation though so they can see you are no fool. The nearest English phonetic I can type is "Hoag-ish" As in "Wid ye have a wee Hoagish tucked away doon there for me today Mr McPherson by any chance?"
Last edited by: Humph D'bout on Sat 8 May 10 at 22:36
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>>........ Mr McPherson by any chance?"
Is that the best motoring link you could of?
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Mr mcPherson struts around his shop by all accounts.
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>> Brilliant cars, with that umbrella gear lever sticking out of the dash they carried over
>> to early R5s IIRC.
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It did; in fact the whole drivetrain was common to both cars, and to the lesser-known 6 which you may recall resembled a smaller 16.
In those days Renault parts tended to be fairly standardised across the range, I doubt if that's true now.
Earlier 5's ( the basic model) also had the 850 engine as fitted to the 4; some customers actually preferred the smaller lump as it was a bit more rev-happy.
It's a pity 70's and 80's Renaults were so prone to rust, they made some very practical cars back then; and I still think the Fuego was a thing of beauty, even if its internals didn't quite match its looks.
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>>...I still think the Fuego was a thing of beauty,
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The last one I recall seeing was burning brightly ( well at least the head was ) in a side road just of the A309 near Hook.
The fire brigade just monitored the fire as the dash melted etc. A sureal scene.
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Just had a sit in the press hack new Bentley Supersports cabrio. 600 bhp allegedly. Guy across the road has it hiome from work for the weekend. Black, black wheels, black hood, black leather sports seats.
Jeez it's nice........
My Mondeo estate's better though. Just got a lawnmower into the back of that. Poncy Bentley wouldn't have got close to accomodating that....Pah !.....
:-)
Last edited by: Humph D'bout on Sun 9 May 10 at 10:26
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Is there a tiny, tasteful Union flag on it ?
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Still loads of R4s on the road in this part of the world. You see more of them than 2CVs. There's even a sort of amateur one-make racing series for them in south west France. You see painted-up competition ones all over the place in some areas.
I'd forgotten too, a couple of weeks ago at a car show near here was a Fuego. First one I've seen in years. My brother had one years ago but he sold it eventually because (I think) he was fed up with me ridiculing him. 'My name is Fuego'. Bleurrrrrghhh
Actually, I forgot the Fuego because at that show, among the usual horde of Maigrets, 2CVs etc, was a genuine Type 35 GP Bugatti in what looked like original, unrestored condition. I couldn't believe it wasn't a fake until I saw the magneto with 8 plug leads on the fascia. I found out afterwards it lives locally and the guy just drives it around. Now that's what I call a pension fund.
Incidentally, PU, did you know Abergele was once the scene of a famous railway disaster caused by a broken truck coupling? 1868 it was...
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Thanks Mike - sadly since living here, I've invested in two railway related books, Parry's Railway and another by a famous railway photographer - fascinating length of track - incredible views in some places.
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A Fuego taught me the hard way to always drop a bonnet from a few inches to close it.
I leaned on the leading edge of our demo's bonnet to close it and left a palm indentation where the metal curves over towards the lip.
Even now I wince when I see someone push down on a bonnet to close it.
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Ghastly little car the reno 4 - I'd rather drive the skoda estelle (and that's saying something!)
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Don't be coarse Dog. They are both excellent machines but the Skoda is more interesting, if only because the R4 was a successful me-too rip-off of the 2CV, designed some 10 or 15 years before it and in its early versions rather insultingly under-engined. The gearchange, which everyone praises including me, was a straight theft from the 2CV.
Anyone who thinks Estelles were unpleasant or boring to drive can't drive, or hasn't driven one in proper fettle (very few were after a year or so on the road because people didn't think the fine tuning mattered. It did).
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Not sure if this is unusual but I 'aven't clapped me peepers on one before.
Just back from a weekend with the caravan and this was parked a few spaces up.
tinyurl.com/32zwhy7
SSangyong Rodius 270SX CDI. When I saw it from the side, at first, I thought it was a fastback with a small van parked on the other side. Awful looking thing at the back, looks like someone's removed the hatch and put a square box shed in it's place.
The elderly owner spent hours doing something around rear bumper level and constantly standing back to check it.........then repeating the process again...and again. Might have been fitting some sort of stickers. Irish plates so no idea of age.
Ted
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You've just reminded me. I was watching Wheeler Dealers over the weekend, an episode about a BRG Spitfire. On his journey to view the car, Mike Brewer was driving a Ssangyoung 4x4 of some kind. I thought that to be most bizarre.
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They were designed by BMW
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The engines are Merc or ersatz Merc. The three pointed star is proudly displayed in the middle of the hubcaps.
A close up of the back end of a stock one, not this striped up two-toner, reveals a horrible mish-mash of mad design. If you just imagine it as a fastback, it looks quite acceptable !
Ugh.
Ted
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They were proper Merc engines in them. I was joking that BMW designed them and was going to say when challenged that they were designed to draw attention from the X6 and prove it was possible t make an uglier car.
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>> they were designed to draw attention from the
>> X6 and prove it was possible t make an uglier car.
They failed.
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I saw a white X6 today - they don't look elegant but I couldn't catch it on a bendy road - it was being driven with some gusto.
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If you were on the bike, they dont do corners, and if it was the CRV - nor do they. Did you keep the old 3 series?
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 10 May 10 at 22:04
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I was in a very lithe little Astra 1.6 - he was going some, someone else's fuel. The 3 series went - unfinished as it was - one of Mrs P's (the original) least democratic decision...
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Yesterday late PM, Blower Bentley on the M40 N'bound. Passing everything including me. Full chat I'd say. Old buffer in tweeds driving it roof orf. Great sound.
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Lovely. I saw a beautiful original Blower Bentley in Cognac a couple of years ago, in unrestored ordinary condition. Looked the biz. It even had the remains of 'just married' painted on the back. On the rev counter at the 5.5k mark, or thereabouts, was a piece of Dymo tape with the word BANG.
We were bimbling along a main road earlier today, roof down on the Beast and enjoying the sunshine, when there was a sudden roar and an Aston Martin DB6 Volante blasted past. Guy never even looked around...
Personally, I wouldn't like to travel with that roar all the time. I prefer a muted whoosh.
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There aren't many blower Bentleys and one would think even fewer driven on the road, so you are both very lucky (if that was what they were, really no offence).
I have to say I wouldn't choose a blower as my Vintage daily driver, were I so fortunate as to have one. A stark 3 litre or 4.5 would do fine, Speed Six the real berries but a bit unwieldy for today one would think. Got to keep those finned front drum brakes in impeccable fettle and have a strong right leg, but even then...
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Oh this was the real deal Armel. The Scottish Bentley owners club used to meet at the pub across the road from my old house. I've spent many a summer's evening chewing the fat with owners and inspecting their beasts while supping on a pint.
One particularly tatty example ( not a blower ) looked as if it had been once painted metallic gold but had seen much better days aesthetically. When I asked the fella why he didn't have it painted he rather modestly and quietly pointed out that he couldn't really afford to. It had in fact been once covered in gold leaf.......
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Heh heh, a Maharajah's job Humph. Sorry for doubting you. I must say Mike's rev counter detail sounded pretty convincing too...
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Yes I'm sure it was the real deal, one of the original 50, although there are plenty of fakes about. I guess they are the shiny 'investment quality' types that hardly ever come out.
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I daresay the bikers have seen one before i hadn't, being trailered on the A34 a very smart big bike with hearse sidecar...lovely black coach finish fully kitted out with varnished wood interior fittings.
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There are several around the country, GB, one actually owned and operated by a priest!
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>> one actually owned and operated by a priest!
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Thanks HM, most unusual.
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Link to his website;
www.motorcyclefunerals.com/
I met Paul at the BMF Rally at Peterborough some years ago; our club (Harley-Davidson Riders Club Great Britain) has a stand there every year. Very nice bloke, does a first class job.
He actually came to us for advice as to which Harley he should buy!
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Interesting HM thankyou, i couldn't tell you if the one i saw was from his stable...the hearse seemed sleeker than those but being trailered it would appear different anyway.
On the funereal theme i still love to see the well turned out coach and four.
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Just pop up here for a coffee, GB.
In use every day....choice of 3 colours with matching horses.
Local CO-OP also have an Austin 20 hearse.
Ted
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Hmm, interesting. A few years ago I was toying with ideas to fill my idle moments and I wondered about buying a couple of ex-UK Daimler DS420 hearses to do funerals for Brits and others over here (yes expats do die in exile). What passes for a hearse in France is usually a Transit-type van or minibus with a bit of curly plastic transfer decoration around the back windows. Dignified they are not.
Trouble is, France is a big place to cover with a Daimler at 12mpg, so I gave up on the idea even though I had an enthusiastic potential business partner/second driver. I guess I'll be making my last trip in the sort of motor I wouldn't be seen dead in.
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Just out of interest, here's a link to pix of the show in the town near me this weekend, courtesy of franco-oldtimers.com, containing a few nuggets. We didn't take the Beast because I dont do shows, but the old Prelude is in the background of the pic of the XK140 DHC...
www.franco-oldtimers.com/Meets%20and%20Events%20%28F%29/2010%2005%20CVAM%20f%C3%AAte%20%20-%20St%20Junien/
Please mods, do away with this entry if the link takes up bandwidth. I don't really understand how these things work.
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Yesterday in the afternoon sun, on the way back to London from Sussex, a vintage Bugatti tourer, French racing blue of course, not a type 35 so perhaps a 51 but I'm not good on Bugatti types, coming the other way.
I so approve of people exercising such cars instead of letting them congeal in a museum.
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In Glasgow on Friday, a Morris Ital obviously still in daily use, some rust under rear bumper etc.
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>> In Glasgow on Friday, a Morris Ital .......
That's a class motor in parts 'o Glesga isn't it Bobby ? Especially if it still has hubcaps, some fake sheepskin seat covers and a Feu Orange dangling from the indicator stalk.....
:-)
Last edited by: Humph D'bout on Sun 23 May 10 at 15:32
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Humph, it was going along Paisley Road West and looked kind of weird with its old style dashboard with a satnav suckered to the windscreen above it!
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Tell me there was a Gregor Fisher ( Rab C ) lookalike behind the wheel !!
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There was a Rab C lookalike behind the wheel, but no sign of Mary-doll !
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www.crosthwaiteandgardiner.com/
This was a company my dad did business with and as a small boy a workshop full of Bugattis was just amazing to a small boy.
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Mike, if you don't have my new email address, ask the authorities here for it. I may be in your part of the world over the next fortnight or so. Sorry but losing my desktop has inefficiently lost my old email addresses.
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Not a vehicle, but related, and nowadays rare enough to make me look twice;
On the forecourt of a garage in Newbridge-on-Wye, a two-stroke oil dispenser, one of those things where you set the dial to the correct mixture and pumped it in. Looked to be still in use, I'd guess for the local farmers etc with chainsaws.
Virtually every garage had one back in the mid-70's when I first started riding bikes.
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...Virtually every garage had one back in the mid-70's...
Yes, the garage I worked at did.
It used to live 'around the pumps' and was run over more times than enough - the same fate befell the galvinised watering can.
Jap bikes with oil pumps were largely responsible for making the mixer obsolete, as were resealable plastic bottles of two stroke oil with ratio markings on the side.
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The garage I frequented when I had the Wartburg had a hand-operated two-stroke mixture pump. If I wanted more than a couple of gallons I was expected to pump it myself.
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John's Motors at Fosters Booth on the A5 often has a few interesting vehicles on the forecourt.
ATM there's a 1967 E Daimler Sovereign. Wire wheels and a red leather trimmed interior including a bench front seat (auto transmisssion). Enough instruments and switches to look like a flight deck. Unpriced.
A few Reliant's, mostly Robins (they used to deal the brand). Round the back a 1960's Hillman Minx in two tone brown/fawn. Local pre 63 registration; looked immaculate.
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Just got back from a hot weekend in the caravan down Humphwich way.
That SSangyong Rhodus was still there but did see a flat-nose Morris tourer and a large Crossley tourer out in the lanes around Byley. Lot of bikes out and the obligatory nuisance cyclist on the main road holding up an artic for about 2 miles with a huge queue behind it, including me. Could easily have pulled into a gate for a minute or two but, of course, looking behind is a no-no.
Ted
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Saw an '88 Mazda 626 at Morrisons today, tatty but taxed. Rare car these days. Also a wire wheel MGB driven by middle age couple, complete with headscarf for the lady - very quaint!
The other day I saw a true rarity, cant be many left now - VW Passat on an A-reg, hatchback in dark grey, totally spotless, driven by an older gent.
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Driving into town this afternoon, saw an Aston Martin DB6, on a UK private plate, turning round on our little road, after evidently going the wrong way. That's (see above) two DB6s here in a week.
Just a little further on I spotted a very tidy Lancia Beta HPE on a Fiat dealer's forecourt.
I went smartly round the nearest roundabout, back to garage and offered him money.
But - not for sale.
I'd buy a nice one like a shot to use as an everyday car (again) because they are just so practical and fun but I think that's the only one I've ever seen in France. It wouldn't be a problem to run it as, of course, all the mechanicals are Fiat-derived.
Interestingly (to me, anyway) the script on the back said Lancia HP Executive, which is correct. All the UK ones only had HPE on the back and everyone used to think it meant High Performance Estate.
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They were very nice cars in their time - sadly in the UK the only bits that didn't rust were the windows and the tyres and led to the demise of the brand here (very sad)
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I know I've said this before but mine didn't have a spot of rust on it anywhere! A few years ago, just down the road from here, I looked at a 1978 Beta saloon that was so clean I couldn't believe it had ever been dirty, let alone rusty. Such a shame that one little aberration on the part of a designer had such drastic consequences.
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it appears one of my neighbours has a new veyron in a brown choclate colour.
sounds fantastic and i watched it drive up the dual carriage way and accelaration was immense.
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Saw some sort of Japanese looking mini mpv in St.Helens that was painted up as an old split screen vw bus. Anyone any idea what it was?
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Just to answer my own question just found out it was a Subaru Sambar like this en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:VW_Bus_lookalike_2.JPG only in orange and white.
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Unusual Sightings Volume Three - Ted
