***** This thread is now closed, please CLICK HERE to go to Volume 14 *****
Sightings of the good bad and the downright ugly...
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 1 Oct 11 at 20:31
|
Further to my post re a V8 engined motor bike seen at Bruntingthorpe on Sunday I have found the details. This man is a very serious engineer! He made the V8 engine from two Hillman Imp engines!
Two race tuned Hillman Imp engines, Yamaha XJR1200 front end, Honda CBX fuel tank, Suzuki rear wheel, Kawasaki Z1300 gearbox converted to chain drive, 4 x 40 IDF Webbers, Rover distributor. All contained in a homemade stainless steel frame and fairing. Won MCN Special of the year in 1985.
Link with images www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/community/Profile/?&user-id=3101057
|
|
Just been to Spain for the annual family holiday. We were in Granada for a while and went up to the Sierra Nevada ski resort for a day (no snow at this time of year though). The road winds up and up to about 2750m (I think) where there are a couple of car parks, a number of snack bars and a barrier preventing further progress up the mountain. So, really the end of the road. In one car park we saw 5 UK registered Aston Martins with a further UK Aston in the next car park. These were overshadowed by the 2 Bugatti Veyrons, one black, one white, both German registered, parked nearby. Both the Veyrons were attracting some attention. Quite a sight really. There was nothing going on to explain why so many facy cars were congregated in the same place.
|
|
I use Eurotunnel quite often and it is an unusual day, in the Summer at least, when there isn't a one make group of exotic cars going off for some continental bash. That said a group of English reg cars in Spain sounds like a long way to go! I guess the road is sporty, when clear of mimsers, and the view from the top is worthwhile. Good luck to those to those have the money and time to own a nice car and use it for grand touring!
Last edited by: Meldrew on Tue 30 Aug 11 at 06:44
|
Last time we came back on Eurotunnel we were in a carriage with an Aston, Porsche and Ferrari. Talking to the 3 drivers, every year they go on a week's driving holiday, just the 3, no passengers allowed and no wives for sure!
That year they had done 2 or 3 of the Top Gear "roads" including , is it the Stelvio Pass or something like that.
The Aston had its passenger mirror ripped off by a truck in a petrol station, the owner just shrugged his shoulders and said the car was not an ornament, it was there to get used and abused.
Of course, my 11 year old son was loving being allowed to sit in these cars and the drivers were happy for him to do so.
True petrol heads!
|
Plenty of unusual Bank Holiday metal about today, even though the weather wasn't up to much.
Highlights included a light blue Aston Martin Lagonda going round the Brampton Hut roundabout this evening, and earlier on a brand new Focus RS racing (and comfortably beating) a Civic Type R on the M1 - made a fantastic noise.
|
Parked within 100 metres of one another, alongside a canal in Amsterdam yesterday...aCitroen DS & GS, TR6, Rover 3500 (pre SD1) BMW 2002 and a pair of Saab 99 Turbos.
More interesting than the Red Light District.
|
|
That reminds me, I saw a TR6 yesterday in Mid-Wales - how small it looked....I recall when it was my favourite sports car - that I liked it for its butch hairy chested and chunky looks....I had a ride in one once, drunk I was as was the driver...
|
|
That reminds me, I saw an Aston on Sunday. A DB5, in dark blue, C registered. Looked very weel cared for so I assume only allowed out on dry days.
|
|
Today rode down to Harlech for a brew with a friend.....en-route (horrible traffic) saw an immaculate and unmolested Vauxhall Calibra - on an R plate I suspect it must have been the last of the line, it had a cream interior, which I suspected was standard on the last cars. Lovely looking car (I know it was a bog standard Cavalier)....hope this one survives. Also spotted was a beige MGB GT - discrete V8 badge on the grille, suggested it was somewhat rarer...I wanted one of them as well.
|
I could never see Calibras as anything other than sort of "Alan Partridge" cars.
Now an Opel Monza on the other hand...
:-)
Last edited by: Humph D'Bout on Tue 30 Aug 11 at 21:57
|
>> I could never see Calibras as anything other than sort of "Alan Partridge" cars.
>>
>>
>> Now an Opel Monza on the other hand...
>>
>> :-)
www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201131408621486
How about this tho?
www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201133410418201
|
A side road in the village here had a dark green Herald estate parked up.....Not many left, I'll bet...and even fewer Courier vans.
Evening paper ran a small article on a local classic car show with a photo of a pale blue ' Rover M6 1600 coupe '.......any guesses ?
Ted
|
Back down to earth, I saw a very tatty Fiat Tempra this afternoon, missing wheel trims, dents, the whole post-apocalyptic look, was motoring though.
|
>> I saw a very tatty Fiat Tempra this afternoon
Ah, the much derided "larger" FIAT. Mk 1 Croma, Regata, Tempra, Marea. All triffic cars. Hardly any left. Shame. Still fancy a 20v 150bhp Marea HLX. Some of those left around, not too many in decent nick I'd wager.
|
>> >> I saw a very tatty Fiat Tempra this afternoon
>>
>> Ah, the much derided "larger" FIAT. Mk 1 Croma, Regata, Tempra, Marea. All triffic cars.
>> Hardly any left. Shame. Still fancy a 20v 150bhp Marea HLX. Some of those left
>> around, not too many in decent nick I'd wager.
I always wanted a Fiat 130 coupe. One of the best looking large cars ever made IMHO.
|
|
Oh yes, Z. And a big old 132 saloon. Hmm. Class.
|
|
I also saw a very tatty ( arent they always ) early 90's Fiorino van in town - not often you see earlier ones of those, though they only stopped selling them a few years ago.
|
I had a Regata Diesel (my fourth Diesel) for some time, bought at Carlisle auctions whilst on holiday in the lake district where my mk1.5 Golf 1600 Diesel was written off by a numpty pick up driver straightening a blind bend.
The non turbo 1900 engine (they also did a TD that went like hell) knocked spots off most of the equivalents for power and frugality.
The rest of the car was OK, comfortable and handled well like almost all Fiats.
Parts prices made it too expensive car to keep long term but it didn't rust as bad as the earlier models.
|
I think the Regata is possibly the most under-rated car of all time. My 1.3 70 version (4 speed gearbox!) was a delight. Quite nippy, very spacious and economical, never went wrong. Survived a few hair-on-fire drives from Nottingham to Gibraltar and back, handled everything I could throw at it. Apart from snapping a cambelt, which was my fault for not changing it. I got away with only a single slightly bent valve which then "ticked" a bit, but the car soldiered on for years and miles, I sold it to a truck driving uncle as a runabout when I moved abroad for a while, and he ran it for years without issue also.
Remember the Regata 70ES? First car with stop start technology I think, introduced in around 1983. Similar aerodynamic styling enhancements to a VW Bluemotion, all 25 years ahead of the competition.
|
>> a very tatty Fiat Tempra
My mate bought a new one of those. He pulled up outside to show me, and one of the front indicators fell out as he stopped.
|
Not sure if this should be in here or the winter tyre thread but saw an MG pivoting beautifully on top of a cobbled verge just off a roundabout in Glasgow.
Woman driver had, I am guessing, given it too much welly, the front or back end had slipped out (depending on which axle the good tyres were on) and the car was balanced beautifully on the sills. Front wheels in the air, back wheels in the air!
|
|
Outside a pub near here an hour ago, a decently stark and standard-looking matt black 3-litre Bentley tourer. I didn't see the colour of its label but the radiator was less churchy-looking than some and chrome, not nickel or brass coloured. Mid to late twenties I would think. A very nice usable vintage car.
|
On the A3 earlier this evening, a Lancia Beta 2000 Spyder.
R reg, white, with the hood down.
I guess it must have had a lot of steel replaced in the last 35 years.
And the engine didn't smell too healthy either.
|
|
Last Friday I was driving across to the other side of Sydney and saw, on Marsden Road at Eastwood, a 1920s Vauxhall. I saw a Volvo Amazon later that day too but that, by comparison to the Vauxhall, was relatively ordinary....
|
|
An Anglesey Garden Cemtre this morning - two 1964ish E-Type Jags, a more recent XKR and M plated XJS and a brace of more recent XJs....what was going on ? ! I know which one I'd prefer...
|
|
Mk3? Escort (first FWD) on B plate 1984 ish?, a normal 1.3L in red which hadn't dulled, pristine rust and damage free condition but looked like a cared for daily user, young chap popping into Wickes'.
|
|
At my local American car & hot rod meet last friday, a 1941 Cadillac La Salle, looking as fresh as the day it rolled off the assembly line. Outstanding.
|
Saw a Ford F-100 (fourth generation I think) in a McDonalds car park near Herne Bay. As far as I could tell the bodywork was in good condition, and it started up on the second attempt.
I had my camera with me, but the ruddy battery was dead.
|
|
Fords always started on the second attempt didn't they? Certainly that's how it was with the Cortinas and Anglias I remember.
|
|
There was a knack to Cortinas. Handbrake on, into neutral, hold clutch down, press accelerator to floor once and release. Turn key, instant start.
|
"There was a knack to Cortinas. Handbrake on, into neutral, hold clutch down, press accelerator to floor once and release. Turn key, instant start."
It was similar with Fords that had a manual choke: accelerator to floor and release / choke out / fire up without touching the accelerator again. Same with two Renault 5s that SWMBO had, although in this case Renault were obliging enough to tell you to do that in the handbook.
It shouldn't have been an unusual sighting, but it was 11 days into September before I saw my first 61-registered car - the churchwarden's new Jaguar XF - , despite driving about 500 miles since 1 Sept. A sad comment on the state of car sales, and a lot worse than 6 months ago, when I'd seen a lot of 11-registered cars before getting mine on 11 March.
|
Unusual driving school car outside my house this afternoon, looks like she kan kan knock off the wheel trim.
i606.photobucket.com/albums/tt148/know_wun/DSCF1182_1_2.jpg
|
|
Very competitive at £99 for 10 lessons, if you're not fussy about wheel trims.
|
|
Must be tough to make money at those rates. Take off costs of running/financing the car and fuel and you're not left with much.
|
Thats the "come on" - the hook. Its only 10 lessons, what girl is going to pass after only 10?
Each lesson is £39.99 after the first 10.
Must be making a fortune, she will probably replace all the hubcaps next week from petty cash.
We have another driving school car round here, its a brand new Skoda Fabia VRS.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 15 Sep 11 at 17:22
|
|
should have been called Karnt-Kan! - some instructress! karnt even put her belt on correctly!!
|
One or two recently:
Up to Sheffield on the Uni run today. Lots of RS/Cosworth etc Sierras and Escorts on the M1, RS track day at Donington I think. Several very well preserved/restored Escort Mk3's running under their own power. Best of the lot though was a Mk1 Mexico on J (70/71?) plate, on a trailer but looked as though it was too loved to go on the road.
Quite a few classics on the A5 between Kilsby and Weedon later in the day too. Couple of what migt have been forties Rileys, a 3.5 litre Rover (the sort Ted Heath rode in as PM) and an E-type. Rare to travel that bit of road and not see something of interest. Proximity to Silverstone helps and Towcester Racecourse hosts the odd event. But the A5's a nice drive as an alternate to the M1.
Meanwhile, John's Motors a bit further down the A5 at Foster's Booth has a pristine Hillman Minx of the pre Arrow type (Series IV?) on offer for around £4500. Two tone fawn paint and IIRC quite low mileage. This family run business often has interesting cars on displayand has a sideline in Reliant 3-wheelers. Not easy to stop in the car but a good point for a breather if passing on the bike.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sun 18 Sep 11 at 21:37
|
I was followed into the centre of Marlow on Saturday by a double bed.
It pulled out of a petrol station as I went by. It had all the bits required to be legal as far as I could see, lights indicators, registration plates etc, kept up with me no problem at town speeds
|
Quite a few recently.
- A prefix registered Morris Ital 1.3 estate, in orange. Excellent condition, driven by a couple who looked like they might have owned it from new
- A plethora of Jags on the M25 on friday (a 1970's XJ pillarless coupe, an original S-Type in dark metallic grey and a lovely 1960's dark green E-Type coupe)
- In the car park at Brooklands (a Jag club day?)- a lovely D-type (German registered, Ecurie-Ecosse badges, looked real to me), an XJ220 and a mystery car: a sporty thing with Jag badges, looking for the world like a bigger, fatter caterham/ Lotus 7. Reminiscent of the 50s racers, but headlights on stalks outside the bonnet (not an XK 120 or 140). Any ideas? There were 3 of them. All had pre-prefix reg numbers, so clearly 60s or earlier.
- Yesterday, a multitude of 60's Brit metal, all on Belgian plates, on the M23 & 25.
Cheers,
Alex.
|
>> mystery car: a sporty thing with Jag badges, looking for the world like a bigger, fatter caterham/ Lotus 7.
>> Reminiscent of the 50s racers, but headlights on stalks outside the bonnet (not an XK 120 or 140). Any ideas?
How about a Kougar?
www.kougar-cars.com/sports/images/car9.jpg
|
>> a sporty thing with Jag badges, looking for the world like a bigger, fatter caterham/ Lotus 7.
>> How about a Kougar?
Yes, from the description it might be one of these modern specials. But at a meet of 'classic' Jaguars might they not have been SSJaguars from the late thirties? There were two models, a 2.5 litre and a 3.5 litre, the pre twin-cam pushrod engine also used in the Jaguar Mk V (early post-war, replaced by the Mk VII). The SS Jaguars were very sporting looking, a bit flash, with suspect brakes like all Jaguars until discs, and a twitchy handler on the limit by accounts.
Just a thought. I haven't seen one for a while but I really fancied them when I was a small boy.
|
Not Kougar nor SS. Kind of horizontal ovoid rad intake without a grill.
I did take a snap, will upload tonight.
A.
|
>> horizontal ovoid rad intake without a grill
Lister perhaps...
|
Mystery car solved: Ronart.
Essentially a very posh kit car (a built one will set you back £90k).
I'd never heard of them, but here they are: www.ronart.co.uk/Ronart/about.html
Ta,
Alex.
|
In the supermarket car park on Saturday, I saw an H-reg silver Peugeot 205 GTi 1.9, slightly lowered and fitted with non-standard alloy wheels but otherwise tidy.
It was driven by a quite elderly couple (at least in their 70s), who told me with some pride that they'd owned it from new! The old boy definitely had a mischievous glint in his eye, good luck to them both.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Mon 19 Sep 11 at 16:40
|
Northbound on the A49, heading towards Tarpoley on the bike, I was tucked in for some miles behind some sort of Audi 4WD.
What was unusual was it's plate......V10 CYS. A bit of spacing and judicious use of a yellow bolt made it look like V1CCYS.
Just ripe for a tug but what struck me, if it was indicating that Vicky owned the car, was the complete absence of an apostrophe !
Some people just can't maintain standards ! I d'spair !
Ted
|
|
Probably a greengrocer's daughter and they'd run out of 'em.
|
They had run out....I've ordered a slack handful from Rymans !
Ted
|
Was behind a 20 yr old Nissan Sunny in white, this morning.
It was the booted version and looked mint.......I'd have a punt on it being one owner from new.
Nice, simple, everyday cars......bland, but ideal for an elderly couple to knock about in.
Comfy, economical and reliable...auto version even better.
Ted
|
>>Comfy, economical and reliable<<
And full of rust no doubt :)
|
Probably not, Doggy, after surviving this long.
Pal's dad had an H reg.....no corrosion anywhere after 17 yrs ownership.
I guess some owners just want to keep a car as long as they can and go to extra lengths to preserve it.
Ted
|
|
I'm surprised Teddy, in the 80's/90's Datsuns used to rust fairly rapidly, but then you get cars like your Jowett and older that appear quite sound, or is it a case of 'keeping em peeled', and stopping any rust before it declares squatters rights :)
|
|
In my experience Nissans and Hondas of the '70s were rustbuckets but by the early '80s (when I bought my first Accord) Honda, at least, had sorted it out pretty well.
|
Talking of Datsun's, I didn't pay too much notice as I was driving, but there is one parked not far from me, in baige, I reckon its of around 1978 vintage. Looked in good nick.
The gardener next door has an H reg Nissan Sunny in red. Apart from a little bit of rust on the sill it looks brand new.
|
If you're thinking of the yellow one at the top of Egerton Road, Rats, that's a 120Y...rear wheel drive. I think the guy's an enthusiast for them.
My lad had a 120Y automatic, Cracking engine and box but the front strut pushed the bonnet up in the end. He had to park down a bumpy drive at the rear of his flat.
Ted
|
|
A scruffy looking Reliant Rialto - two up with a tubby driver that gave the little car little chance to stand up straight.
|
I had a widowed aunt who was a little bit rounded. For years she used to accept a lift from a fellow who had a Reliant Robin. She often wondered as to his intentions but he never pursued her other than to offer her lifts. Eventually curiousity overcame her and she asked him why he so often stopped for her. Sheepishly he admitted that on some of the hilly corners near where they lived she had proved to be the almost ideal ballast.
I've been in Italy since the weekend. The hire car proved to be a Lancia Miura. Odd sort of thing. Bit like a Meriva I suppose. Fairly horrible anyway.
|
Lancia Miura Humph? You (or they) wish ;-)
Must have been a Musa.
Every time a new Lancia model is announced in France I wonder if it's time to return to the fold. Then I take a look at it...
|
|
On my trip through southern sweden the other days, I saw a UK (M reg) Reliant Rialto, I think it was (the one with fiesta headlights). I don't see many UK reg cars here, and have never seen a 3 wheeler.
|
Was behind a dark red Opel Vectra Estate on Hungarian plates this morning.
Ted
|
Driving up from Dover last Wednesday morning Jctn 2 M20 I was surprised to see two artics joining north bound, the second of which swung straight into the second lane to begin the elephant race up the M20. I half expected to see an MAN badge on the front.
Never seen that from an artic before. UK plates too.
|
I didn't think there was any access northbound at J2 of the M20 gmac:)
Pat
|
|
You're right Pat, it is the unlisted slip road immediately after the M20, M26 split off the A20/227 roundabout.
Last edited by: gmac on Fri 23 Sep 11 at 07:33
|
Got ya gmac, that would be J2.5 then:)
Right at the bottom of the pull up Wrotham Hill. The one we all dread where the phone signal dies at the top!
I suspect the overtaking one would be empty and he didn't want to get stuck behind the loaded one.
Pat
Last edited by: pda on Fri 23 Sep 11 at 08:07
|
>> I suspect the overtaking one would be empty and he didn't want to get stuck
>> behind the loaded one.
>>
The reason I put it in unusual sightings is I expect it from cars going from slip road to lane 3 and vice versa on approach to an exit, I thought it unusual to see from an artic pilot.
|
We call it making good progress and anticipating the road ahead:)
Pat
|
>> We call it making good progress and anticipating the road ahead:)
Which is OK so long as the cars approaching have the time space and wit to react and get over to lane 3 in order to accomodate the Siamese trucks.
We've both seen this manoeuver carried out when the 3 or even 2 lane road was far too busy to merge into like this.
It doesn't look too good when something around 60 ft long and 17 ft wide suddenly takes two lanes straight out, it's saved the overtaker around 5 seconds from their day and tarred us all with the brush again.
Some truck drivers should and could moderate their driving, a chap i know has just lost a good job due to proof...i won't say any more but you can probably guess what i'm saying Pat, video and repeated.
|
I think gmac would have told us if there had been any baulking of traffic or a screech of brakes, GB.
I'm sure you've practiced progressive driving and taken an opportunity when one has presented itself that didn't apparently cause a problem.
Or have you forgotten how to be a proper lorry driver now?:)
Pat
Last edited by: pda on Fri 23 Sep 11 at 12:34
|
This was not intended to be a "lorry drivers are rubbish" commentary.
As I said I just found it unusual, can't ever remember seeing it happen before.
Traffic was light which was unusual in itself for a UK motorway in the SE during daylight hours.
|
That's exactly how I took it gmac, hence the logical explanation assuming traffic was light and no offence was caused to anyone.
I would have done exactly the same thing myself!
Pat
|
>> This was not intended to be a "lorry drivers are rubbish" commentary.
>> As I said I just found it unusual, can't ever remember seeing it happen before.
Didn't take it as such Gmac, but it does stick out like a sore thumb when trucks take out the road in such a manner, it prompted you to post it anyway.
Wasn't necessarily criticising this particular scenario Pat as you'll see if you reread my post, as Gmac vouches there was no problem but maybe he is an aware driver, not all are.
However i've seen this and similar happen more times than enough....and the violent swing into the middle lane with the obligatory one flash of the indicator once the truck is half way into the lane causing all sorts of braking and swerving around them.
Haven't forgotten how to be a proper truck driver, i never knew in the first place :-)
Video is something some our colleagues should think of when they act the idiot, losing a £33k easy and short houred job isn't fun, and some car drivers can be bothered to film and report with the evidence if they feel aggrieved enough.
Some companies take such reports very seriously.
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Fri 23 Sep 11 at 12:56
|
>> Video is something some our colleagues should think of when they act the idiot, losing
>> a £33k easy and short houred job isn't fun, and some car drivers can be
>> bothered to film and report with the evidence if they feel aggrieved enough.
>> Some companies take such reports very seriously.
Quite a few cyclists mount cameras on bars or helmet and post the results on you-tube etc. Most just look to me like the normal cut and thrust of city commuting but there's onewhere a fuel tanker takes a thoughtless/aggressive entry on an occupied roundabout & comes within centimetres of the rider.
In scotland I think.
|
>>However i've seen this and similar happen more times than enough....and the violent swing into the middle lane with the obligatory one flash of the indicator once the truck is half way into the lane causing all sorts of braking and swerving around them.
<<
I agree, but it was so pleasant to get a forum post that DIDN'T criticise lorry drivers, then what happens?... a lorry driver wades in a criticises his colleagues:)
I've joined the M20 at that junction, fully laden in an old F10 with a 240BHP engine and believe me, I used to need all the forward planning I could muster to get up Wrotham Hill. (along with Jubilee Way, Fraddon Hill and the one out of Bath on the A4)
Pat
|
Saw a Studebaker Golden Hawk in Bromsgrove a couple of times this week, looked exactly like this:
www.toywonders.com/history/Studebaker-Golden-Hawk/StudebakerGH_mainpop.jpg
Looked and sounded great.
|
|
A Lamborghini. Not that unusual for Stockport, but this was an Aventador (the new one). Think it was the same one driven by Autocar in this weeks edition.
|
|
A powder blue, slightly scruffy, XJS being driven out of the hospital in Rouen (Normandy) driven by a blonde who appeared considrably younger than her car. Still a striking car 30 years on...
|
Another Jag, this time an E-type. Mint B reg in a grey green shade parked in Chancery Lane around 16:20 today. Top down; some specualtion amongst observers as to how it might have fared in Monday's 17:00 cloudburst.
Our security guys reckoned it belonged to a tenant of the barristers chambers on the corner of Bream's Buildings.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Wed 28 Sep 11 at 22:59
|
A snot green SEAT 127* of 1970s vintage, LHD on Eastern European plates of some sort. Trundling along the A14 near the Weetabix factory at about 45mph this morning.
*Looks exactly the same as a FIAT 127 apart from the badge.
|
I saw an MG Magnette parked up in New Brighton today. The owner was in the car so felt too cheeky to take a photograph. Must have been late 50's and looked every bit as luxury as a Jaguar from the time. A far cry from the Chinese crap.
Saw a FIAT 128 yesterday near me and I smiled at the driver as he went past :). This caused him to crash into a lamp post (joke). Looked in very good condition and was a RHD.
Saw a Chevette on Saturday, was a T reg and looked like a base model, was in as new condition and it really made me smile.
|
I still have a bit of a yen for a really nice Magnette ZB varitone - preferably maroon and cream. Mainly I guess because my father's boss had one new and it was the first car to really make an impression on me. His (474 AYB where are you now?) even had those cool twin stopwatches on the dash.
I started saying this when you could buy one for less than a grand and I saw one advertised the other day at £15k...
And yes, I think it's a darned insult to call the latest Chinese effort a Magnette. But when did the likes of they ever give a toss?
Last edited by: Mike Hannon on Fri 30 Sep 11 at 11:01
|
Wonderful cars Michael, if I had your sort of money, I'd have to get one :)
www.mgcars.org.uk/mgccz/Australia/alison/alison.htm
|
My father had one, ZB varitone in blue and silver.
I miss it deeply. Those lovely green lit Jaeger instruments in the real solid walnnut dash. The speedo in a semi hexagonal like the badge.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 30 Sep 11 at 12:45
|
|
A friend of my father owned one, maroon and grey ISTR. Leather and walnut and pipe tobacco. Marvellous. Proper car.
|
Those forties and early fifties Magnettes, essentially prewar in their body style, were cute looking and refined but (like most MGs actually) not all that impressively sporting. I can't remember now whether the badge-engineered Magnette, in the same body as the Wolseley 15/50 (was it?) came out before or after 1960. In any case a late English friend who lived in California had one of those for a while. But like most small British cars it couldn't really take US conditions.
Passed a thirties/40s MG two-seater on the road yesterday. I suppose it was a TC but it looked a bit big for that so may have been some other model. It's easy to make mistakes with rare old motors if you only get a two-second glance at them.
|
Ere's the Wolseley ~ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wolseley_1550.jpg
I don't think they have to be 'all that impressively sporting',
even my MGB Roadster was a sluggard compared to todays Fiesta etc..
|
Interesting comment under that picture Dog linked to:
This has to be one of the best looking car designs ever made. Compare it with the total anonymous crap we have to look at nowadays.
Now I have difficulty telling that car from anything else produced around that time, because I became conscious of cars in the 1970s and never really had enough of the older ones to look at to get to know what distinguished them. It has round headlights, an upright grille and chrome round the windows, as did everything else in those days. But I can tell a modern Fiat from a Ford easily enough - if not a Kia from a Hyundai - so it just shows that 'anonymous' design is more in the eye, and ignorance, of the beholder than in the object itself.
|
>>Interesting comment under that picture Dog linked to:<<
I didn't notice that at the time Will, too 'taken' with the car!
>>so it just shows that 'anonymous' design is more in the eye, and ignorance, of the beholder than in the object itself<<
The same with many things really, I was 15 when Pink Floyd started 'cutting' their records, and I wont have a word said against them :) where as they do absolutely nothing for my brother, who is 16 years older than me.
|
Thank you Dog, the very one. The MG had a chrome strip coming off the back of the front wheel arch I think.
Of course MGs are what they are, pleasant sporting tourers with character, although the character became quite diluted with increasing parts-bin and badge engineering.
Of the post-war standard MGs the MGA was really the prettiest and nicest, and the unreliable twin-cam probably the most sporting. But there were MGCs, nice brutal lorry-engined thing tweakable to terrifying levels, and there was the BGT V8 as well. Plus all sorts of individually tweaked and souped-up Bs.
|
I've tuned & driven all those cars Sire ~ MGA/B/C/BGTV8/Magnette etc.. I luv them for what they are (warts n' all)
I should have got 'into' classic/vintage cars really, like my Sisters boy in Eltham, he's made a mint!
Plus my neighb in Truro ~ www.brooklandsclassics.co.uk/forsale.php
|
>> Thank you Dog, the very one. The MG had a chrome strip coming off the
>> back of the front wheel arch I think.
for the ZA it did but not in the ZB Most of the body panels noticeably the bonnet and front wings, were different from the Wolsey.
It was never a sporty car, but with twin SUs breathing its 1500cc engine it was no slouch either by the standards of its day. Supremely comfortable, nice ride and the handling was much better than the rolling Wolsey.
|
>>and the handling was much better than the rolling Wolsey<<
Cardinal?
|
|
Saw a fairly tidy C reg Metro van today. By fairly tidy I mean it wasn't all rust that said knowing what a brand new Rover 100 did in a crash, I would dread to think of what crash protection a 1986 Metro would offer!
|
|
Interesting week in France - mainly motorbikes. In everyday use in Rouen, I saw a Vincent Black Shadow, a Honda CBX, and a Kawasaki 1300 (a shaft drive liquid cooled monster from the 80s) - I'd happily bid for the last two, they seemed happy enough.
|
By an amazing coincidence, I saw a CBX in Limoges this morning, only one I've ever seen in France. I always fancied one but they must be a bit ungainly.
And, at an autojumble near here this afternoon, a 1969 Vauxhall Viva HB Crayford Convertible, in 'concours' restored condition, on UK plates and with a tax disc, no less. I never knew such a thing existed. Very pretty I thought...
|
Here's the one I saw. Certainly looks like the same wheels.
The magazine on the side contains an article about it in something like Practical Classics.
Sorry about pic quality - ancient phone...
www.flickr.com/photos/64660965@N03/?saved=1
Last edited by: Mike Hannon on Sat 1 Oct 11 at 16:45
|
Unusual Sightings Volume 13 - Meldrew
