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Odd, bad or just plain exotic...
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Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 1 Aug 16 at 10:13
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Seen on Bayswater Road (London) today a Mk1 Ford Transit. X-reg, so 1982? Proper builders van, loaded to the gunwhales, mat grey painted dented bodywork, smoking exhaust, copy of 'The Sun' on the dashboard, etc., etc. Not only is unusual to see a working Mk 1 Transit these days, but it was a tailgate model, which were rare when new, never mind 34 years later!
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>> Seen on Bayswater Road (London) today a Mk1 Ford Transit. X-reg, so 1982? Proper builders
>> van, loaded to the gunwhales, mat grey painted dented bodywork, smoking exhaust, copy of 'The
>> Sun' on the dashboard, etc., etc. Not only is unusual to see a working Mk
>> 1 Transit these days, but it was a tailgate model, which were rare when new,
>> never mind 34 years later!
mark 1? that was from 65 to 78 " C to T suffix"
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>> Seen on Bayswater Road (London) today a Mk1 Ford Transit.
Mark 2 actually. Mark 1 was 1965-78.
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OK, it was the facelifted Mk 1. Slightly squarer front end, but same as the Mk 1 from the front doors back. Did Ford call that a Mk2 ?
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Did Ford call that a Mk2 ?
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Not officially; but it's generally referred to as such.
BTW I do agree with you that it's a rare sight, especially on that kind of work. You don't even see many as motorhomes these days.
Last edited by: Harleyman on Fri 12 Feb 16 at 20:39
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Indeed they did, had different lumps up front and interiors too
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 12 Feb 16 at 20:40
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The early ones had V4s, didn't they? My parents bought a D-registered swb Mk1 Dormobile conversion that we drove all over Europe in on camping holidays. Parents, me and 2 brothers for weeks at a time. How on earth did we all fit?!? It had the sliding front doors that were left open as we drove - excellent air conditioning for Italian summers!
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>> The early ones had V4s, didn't they?
Indeed, was dumped in favour of the pinto engine.
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That Ford V4 was compact (why it was built in the first place), but had a weak bottom end. Very few would last 100,000 miles.
What about the VW V5? Now that was a peculiar engine if you like.
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>> >> The early ones had V4s, didn't they?
>> Indeed, was dumped in favour of the pinto engine.
Yes, the Ford V4 was a POS owing to its weak bottom end, but it was used in cars as well as the Transit. One of my fellow Clapham minicabbers, a very nice charming naive young fellow, had a car - called a Consul I think - with that transverse V4 lost in the cavernous space under the bonnet. He loved it dearly because it was the biggest car he'd ever driven.
He wasn't a reckless kid in true Clapham style, but it went the way of all minicabs eventually. It was run into by someone else I think.
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>>the Ford V4 was a POS
The Cologne-built Taunus V4 was a different kettle of fish though, also fitted to the Saab 95/96.
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In white, travelling northbound on the A55 (towards Holyhead).....first one I've seen in the metal. It looks a lot better than the photos I've seen.
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Eyes and be holders then I suppose. I've seen a few and they more or less gave me a migraine.
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Actually, the penny has just dropped, you used to own a Roomster didn't you...
;-)
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:-).....160k for a big Roomie....! I
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Saw it again the other day on Britannia Bridge. Definitely LHD and then a Bronze LHD one in Chester....horrid looking one
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>> In white, travelling northbound on the A55 (towards Holyhead).....first one I've seen in the metal.
>> It looks a lot better than the photos I've seen.
>>
Well it could hardly look worse! I would put this in the same category as a Range Rover Evoque convertible (see other thread). Hideous on so many levels.
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4 seater in white, on the prom yesterday. It was roof down, so don't know if it has a folding hardtop or soft top. Attractive lines... Should have taken a photo of it.
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Googled it... A rebadged Chrysler 200, newer version of the old Sebring
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Seen on Saturday morning parked in Wincanton High Street - a well-looked after 1938 Rolls. Nothing all that unusual as such - but it was the actual car - EYM 345 - that my prep-school headmaster owned in the late 1950s.
Harry Milner-Gulland was one of the finest headmasters and teachers of his generation. He loved the Rolls as a car and almost as a work of art, but he saw the practical side and swapped it in about 1959 for a 1939 Silver Wraith which had extra seats and could take most of the football or cricket team in it. Long before the days of seat belts! I hope that that one, FLU 670, is still around somewhere.
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Saw a Rover 800 fastback on the M40 yesterday, really tatty and with suspension in such bad condition that it was leaning all over the place. V-reg. I was doing 70 in the inside lane, and as it overtook me a Jag XF overtook it - really striking difference in size between the vehicles. The 800 really doesn't look like a large executive car any more.
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Leaving Christchurch this lunchtime, returning to Spamcan Towers, in amongst the Honda Jazzes and pristine old Rovers; a Gallardo LP550-2 Valentino Balboni. Spamcan Junior nearly blew a gasket with excitement as I overtook it in the mighty Avensis. Really nice warm sunny day darn sarf; seemed to bring the classics out. In the space of half an hour we spotted a Jag. mk2, a Triumph TR4a, two Morgans, a Corvette C3, a '67 Mustang and a Mk. 1 Escort.
Last edited by: spamcan61 on Sun 13 Mar 16 at 20:10
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>>Odd, bad or just plain exotic...
Yep, just about comes under that heading: jwvsw.org/carriers.pdf
[3 carrier groups + USS New York]
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This afternoon,being driven past Sandown Racecourse, Esher a Bond Bug.
No ordinary version but a very very rapid one.
I was behind it and it seemed to have no silencers whatsoever but appeared.
to have four exhaust pipes poking out of the back.
No wheels hanging out of the bodywork. It accelerated like a big bike .
Any ideas about its spec ?
Google may have the answer.
farm8.staticflickr.com/7216/7181465899_02e66496ea_b.jpg
s668.photobucket.com/user/Nik_da_Greek/media/Bromley%202012/bondbugengine.jpg.html
Some action.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yvrMAYFRFc
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ePWT23lk38
( Beware four letter words in the written comments. )
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Not seen one myself in the flesh, but my Mum just came back from Australia with loads of photos, and I was looking through them last night, when up pops a photo of her sitting in a large, racing green convertible sports car/GT with cream leather seats. I didn't recognise it at first and asked: "what's that then?". I have no idea, says Mum.
Closer inspection revealed those MkIV Escort/Orion door handles and locks, the kind Aston Martin used for a bit. But I knew this was no Aston. Then I spotted the wheel hubs - blue AC badges. A-ha! Further googling reveals the car to be an early 90s AC Brooklands Ace. Belongs to a lady friend of my mother's who lives on a big (well, it's probably tiddly by Oz standards) 2000 acre ranch a few hours from Canberra somewhere. Lovely motor, obviously a lady of exquisite and individual tastes.
Mum says it went like the wind. I'm sure it did, but she usually drives a FIAT 500L 1.3 diseasal.......
www.brooklandsace.co.uk/
I always liked that lady* and am looking forward to visiting her next year when I go to Australia.
*I have never met that lady.
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It's certainly no Aston. What is it about low-volume car makers that they think a thing that will sell largely on looks will sell on looks like that?
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I think it's a fine and interesting beast. Remember, this one's in Australia. Land of the GM Ute. It's probably the best looking car for 1000 miles.
I wouldn't have bought one brand new, no, but as a thing to entertain me for a day, I'd love a look around it and a burn up down some private roads. Ford V8. Awooga.
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From the front, it looks sort of depressed. Put upon perhaps, certainly not at peace with the world. In fact it looks more or less like I do in the mirror in a morning on the very odd occasions when I've had a drink the night before. Sort of green and droopy.
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>> From the front, it looks sort of depressed. Put upon perhaps, certainly not at peace
>> with the world. In fact it looks more or less like I do in the
>> mirror in a morning on the very odd occasions when I've had a drink the
>> night before. Sort of green and droopy.
From the front, it immediately put me in mind of Marvin the paranoid android - Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and they ask me to take you to the bridge.
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Original AC Ace was a handsome barchetta sort of thing, with the smooth but relatively tame AC six-cylinder engine. After a while someone had the good idea of putting a tuned Bristol engine in the car to give it more go as the Ace-Bristol. There was a rather ugly ill-proportioned fastback coupé version. Losing patience with these candy-ass 2 litre pushrod engines, the American Carroll Shelby (I think) re-engineered the whole thing around a snorting-monster V8.
Someone I knew slightly had one of those. I hardly even went in it, but still cherish the memory of that car dropping me somewhere in North London and taking off like a scalded cat, Vrooom! - gone.
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>> the American Carroll Shelby (I think) re-engineered the whole thing around a snorting-monster V8.
Called the Cobra. How gaga of me to forget to say that.
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Allegedly after racing in an Allard.
Go figure, as my kids say.
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I used to see one quite regularly on the B3270 at M4 J11. Same colours as your link.
Think it belonged to someone at Foster Wheeler.
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Only 58 ever made. Surely makes it a bit special, however inelegant the schnozz.
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>Surely makes it a bit special, however inelegant the schnozz.
They actually look better in the flesh than the photos, Quite well proportioned, especially with the top down.
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Sidney Allard was a hero of my youth. The cars were terrific too although not always good-looking. He used to campaign them in the Monte Carlo rally, I mean chapeau, all those icy tail-out bends.
The best-looking Allard ever was the J2. There may have been a V12 variant, but I don't know where the engine would have come from so perhaps not.
Even the J2 had that front suspension with long wishbones that made the wheels go this way and that, using and scrubbing all the tyre surface and then some...
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Allards were splendid - mostly powered by the Ford V8 engine, so the power-to-weight ratio must have been a strong point. Looking Allard up in Graham Robson's 'British Cars 1945-80' I was surprised to see that Allard struggled on till 1959. But they were made in small numbers and so were too expensive, and were seen off by the Austin-Healey and Triumph TR2.
That AC in the pictures isn't bad-looking - a lot better than the awful AC 2-litre saloon that was around in Allard's heyday - and even more so than Mrs A Senior's Fiat 500L.
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Saw one of these yesterday: www.mevltd.co.uk/kit-cars/mev-exocet
Couldn't really understand what it's about, other than a re-build for a rotten MX5.
However, here's an idea for Manatee: www.mevltd.co.uk/kit-cars/mev-replicar
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>> Saw one of these yesterday: www.mevltd.co.uk/kit-cars/mev-exocet
Someone here who witters on about Westfield's might like one when he becomes too embarrassed by his sons mountain biking abilities. A sort of stopgap between mountain bike and decrepitude. :-)
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Yeah right !
I was encouraged yesterday by a chance meeting more or less at the top of a Welsh mountain. Or to be more accurate some way down the other side of it. My son and I had stopped for a breather and were soon joined by another mountain biker. I was indeed "feeling my age" at that point but my spirits were lifted when our new companion took off his helmet and revealed himself to be considerably older than me.
On chatting it turned out he was 75. He'd just completed one of the "black" descents which in turn meant he'd had a very long and arduous climb to get there ( maybe an hour and about 5 or 6 miles of climbing steep loose track with no respite ) A black descent is by default very technical but in simple terms it requires a lot of strength and determination and no small measure of skill.
I sometimes feel like I must be the oldest guy on the hill but he reminded me that age isn't necessarily the limiting factor if you keep yourself in shape.
Maybe I've got a year or two yet in me !
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Were you encouraged that there was someone 20 years older than you up there, or depressed by how tired you were feeling given that there was someone 20 years older up there?
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"Saw one of these yesterday:"
A friend has been building an Exocet - in fact, it must be nearing completion; I must give him a call.
Maybe when my son's MX5 mk1 dies, it can be converted to one of these.
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^^ I think. Definitely looked exactly like the 11BL in the photo on this link:
www.oldtimerverzeichnis.com/cars/citroen/alle.html
What's the difference between that and the Light 15 below it though? Bit before my time, these motors.
The one I saw was black, with very faded paintwork, but evidently in good running order crawling through Hartley Wintney on the A30. Youngish chap driving, probably a Hipster thing to drive such an ancient car in original, unrestored condition.
It had the original metal banana shaped number plate on front, I wondered how it got through an MOT like that, but then twigged it's MOT exempt.
Reg number 618 UXK - any way of identifying the precise model from that?
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Looking at the MoT history, it does make you think that perhaps dropping the MoT requirement is not wise. The list includes some pretty potentailly catasrophic failure points in the recent past. Certainly not owned by a knowledgeable and caring owner
Registration number: 618UXK
MODS - before you delete this - it is not possible to link to the site -only Copy and Paste as below.
Vehicle makeCITROEN Vehicle model11 B Date first used31 December 1949 Fuel typePetrol ColourBlack
MOT history of this vehicle
Test date4 April 2012 Expiry date3 April 2013 Test ResultPass Odometer reading44,689 miles MOT test number6854 9539 2001
Test date8 March 2011 Expiry date21 March 2012 Test ResultPass Odometer reading35,022 miles MOT test number5674 0756 1009 Advisory notice item(s)
Nearside Front Tyre worn close to the legal limit (4.1.E.1)
Nearside Rear Tyre worn close to the legal limit (4.1.E.1)
Offside Front Tyre worn close to the legal limit (4.1.E.1)
Nearside Track rod end ball joint has slight play (2.2.B.1f)
Offside Track rod end ball joint has slight play (2.2.B.1f)
all tyres preished
Test date26 February 2010 Expiry date21 March 2011 Test ResultPass Odometer reading28,266 miles MOT test number9010 4715 0092 Advisory notice item(s)
Nearside Track rod end ball joint has slight play (2.2.B.1f)
Offside Track rod end ball joint has slight play (2.2.B.1f)
Test date22 February 2010 Test ResultFail Odometer reading28,189 miles MOT test number3531 8365 0042 Reason(s) for failure
Nearside Headlamp aim too low (1.8)
Nearside Stop lamp not working (1.2.1b)
Offside Front suspension has excessive play in a lower suspension ball joint (2.5.B.1a)
Advisory notice item(s)
Nearside Track rod end ball joint has slight play (2.2.B.1f)
Offside Track rod end ball joint has slight play (2.2.B.1f)
Test date6 March 2009 Expiry date21 March 2010 Test ResultPass Odometer reading23,088 miles MOT test number8635 8596 9069 Advisory notice item(s)
Nearside Rear Tyre worn close to the legal limit (4.1.E.1)
Offside Rear Tyre worn close to the legal limit (4.1.E.1)
Test date23 February 2009 Test ResultFail Odometer reading23,051 miles MOT test number1814 0435 9067 Reason(s) for failure
Nearside Stop lamp not working (1.2.1b)
Nearside Rear Brake hose bulging under pressure (3.6.B.3)
Nearside Rear Suspension component mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded (2.4.A.3)
Parking brake: efficiency below requirements (3.7.C.1b)
Advisory notice item(s)
Nearside Rear Tyre worn close to the legal limit (4.1.E.1)
Offside Rear Tyre worn close to the legal limit (4.1.E.1)
Test date3 March 2008 Expiry date21 March 2009 Test ResultPass Odometer reading10,965 miles MOT test number8635 7376 8043
Test date1 March 2007 Expiry date21 March 2008 Test ResultPass Odometer reading14,662 miles MOT test number3010 6016 7073
Test date28 February 2007 Test ResultFail Odometer reading14,660 miles MOT test number6133 7985 7007 Reason(s) for failure
Nearside Headlamp not working on dipped beam (1.7.5a)
Test date22 March 2006 Expiry date21 March 2007 Test ResultPass Odometer reading9,920 miles MOT test number4820 2108 6014 Advisory notice item(s)
seatbelts fitted to vehicle at time of test front and rear
Test date8 March 2006 Test ResultFail Odometer reading9,875 miles MOT test number8531 1796 6095 Reason(s) for failure
Nearside Outer Front Seat belt anchorage prescribed area is deliberately modified which significantly reduces the original strength (5.2.6)
Offside Outer Front Seat belt anchorage prescribed area is deliberately modified which significantly reduces the original strength (5.2.6)
Nearside Outer Front Seat belt insecurely fixed to the vehicles structure (5.2.1a)
Offside Outer Front Seat belt insecurely fixed to the vehicles structure (5.2.1a)
Nearside Front Direction indicator not working (1.4.A.2c)
Nearside Steering rack gaiter insecure (2.2.D.2d)
Offside Steering rack gaiter insecure (2.2.D.2d)
Offside Front suspension has excessive play in a lower suspension ball joint (2.5.B.1a)
Nearside Front Brake pipe excessively chafed (3.6.B.2c)
Nearside Front Brake pipe fouled by moving parts (3.6.B.2a)
Advisory notice item(s)
Nearside Track rod end ball joint has slight play (2.2.B.1f)
Offside Track rod end ball joint has slight play (2.2.B.1f)
seatbelts fitted to vehicle at time of test front and rear
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Blutigen Holle, as the Germans don't, but ought to, say.
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Cheers, FL. So what's the difference between an 11B and a Light 15? Some thing below the skin, I expect?
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Isn't it just the difference in horsepower between onze chevaux and quinze chevaux?
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Saw one of the these this morning. Fittingly for a Jaguar Mk 2 pastiche it was British Racing Green, and better proportioned than I expected.
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>> Saw one of the these this morning.
>>
Saw a silver one this afternoon. It has lived, for several years, opposite the entrance to Sandown Racecourse car park in Esher.
Its rear is on view as you drive up to the shops.
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Saw a little convoy of 5 Caterham 7s this morning, all different bright colours. Really jolly sight. Hope they have a great day out. Wonder if anyone on here has ever owned something similar? ;-)
Then I saw something I couldn't quite identify. As it approached it looked like an Austin 7, then as it passed I noticed it was a wagon/estate version, with a rear end looking like a prototype for the Morris Traveller - i.e. of wooden construction. Odd thing, was it a genuine production model or a home-made contraption, I wonder?
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>> A
>>
>> www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/model-y.htm
>>
>> Like this?
>>
Could be, Scoob. All pre-1950s cars look the same to me.
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www.ebay.co.uk/itm/222114768873
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 14 May 16 at 17:11
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Yup, that looks about right. :-)
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'Cor! What'll she do Mister?'
'89 million decibels my son. Listen and learn.'
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There was a black ragtop one outside the shops yesterday with the top down...it looked quite good.
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>>
>> There was a black ragtop one outside the shops yesterday with the top down...it looked
>> quite good.
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why? was it on fire?
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>> a black ragtop one outside the shops yesterday with the top down...it looked quite good.
It isn't a bad-looking thing as cars go (Herself thinks they are all ugly).
Tastes differ obviously, but I'm afraid the Jarpie youngster and old Roger-Rodge are lacking aesthetic sense and very easily influenced, anxious to march in step.
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The good, the bad and the ugly, and the ugly, and the ugly.............................. ∞
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It's definitely my kind of car. Saloons always make me aware of the wasted loadspace above the boot. I like the front end of the Cruiser too. There's an American breakdown truck locally which is similar in that respect:
tinyurl.com/h3jmwhl
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It still looks like a London taxi.
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>> It still looks like a London taxi.
Tall and narrow you mean? Its plastic chin spoiler often hits the road and it carries its tail high like some sort of animal in an embarrassing condition.
Rolls along all right though, so far, fingers crossed, could do with an oil change etc actually. Cars are always nagging at you like snotty brats.
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Must admit, I've never been entirely at peace with ( OK make that don't like ) the styling. But, if I needed a spacious load lugger / inexpensive hack with a bulletproof Mercedes Diesel engine, I'd certainly consider one.
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Top Gear the other night reminded me of something I saw just round the corner from us at the weekend - some 'lucky' owner has 3 Rialtos and a Bond Bug:
goo.gl/maps/qExJECG1qDB2
Looked a bit shabby though.
Last edited by: Focusless on Tue 31 May 16 at 07:15
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I didn't realise we'd been such near neighbours, Focusless! Norton Road, Woodley, is just round the corner from where we were (Hudson Road) until 2 years ago when we retired to North Dorset. For some reason I thought you were in Lower Earley.
We divided the house, a semi which we'd extended, into two, and sold one half to one daughter and we rent the other half to the other daughter.
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Hah - small world!
Yeah, we moved from Lower Earley to Woodley (Colemans Moor Lane) in 2010. And now we're off to Wiltshire; I was down that road warning the properties that back onto ours of the potential for disruption due to the live band playing in the mar-quee in our back garden on Sunday afternoon during our 'house cooling' party :)
Well, we hope we're moving - *still* waiting for contracts to be signed. Just got copy of valuation on our place today, with a number of red markers in it which might result in more prevarication...
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Seen at Claygate, Surrey an H reg Rolls with a silver/chrome wrap.
It might have been this one ?
www.behance.net/gallery/20043435/Kirk-Originals-Silver-Shadow
Time lapse of the wrap
www.youtube.com/watch?v=stBvywP2ImU
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Today a Jaguar XF with a chrome wrap parked near the refuse tip in Epsom.
Each to his own!
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Of all the days to leave my phone at home... pulled into my favourite roadside tea bar just outside LLangadog on the A40, absolutely superb 57 Chevrolet pickup in there, quite a rare year and one of the most handsome IMO.
then on to deliver to a farm right up in the back of beyond outside Builth Wells; on the way there I pass a house which often has one or two very desirable British classics outside (think he restores them) and today was no exception; a 1960's Alvis convertible and an utterly delicious 1930's Lagonda. Both incredibly handsome machines.
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Had lunch today in a village in deepest Limousin and parked up the road was a very tastefully restored Moggy 1000 Traveller, just like the third car I ever drove. 844TYC where are you now?
Even the shade of pale blue looked right, rather than the dreadful turquoisey hues you often see on restored ones. The plate told me it has been around here for at eight least years and the village is only 15 minutes from ours, yet I'd never come across it. As I always say, France is a big place...
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In the late fifties got a long lift in a late-thirties Delahaye, a wonderful gent's cruiser that could (and did) maintain 100mph in the rain, even over cobbles. This on the old A1 before it became an Autoroute, nearly all single carriageway but mostly very wide. The cat was a hell of a driver, delicate. You could feel and see him staying just the right side of getting sideways.
I suppose he would get run in for going like that today.
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I love the juxtaposition of the last two posts - a Moggy, followed by 'the cat was a hell of a driver'.
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The connection is the 1950s.
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To get even more tangential, how driving must have changed since then. Yesterday, as I sat in seemingly interminable traffic in central London I began to reflect on how I sometimes used to nip home in the car from my office in Wells St ( just off Oxford St ) to my flat in Fulham for lunch and that was the early 1980s. It would take most of the afternoon to make that round trip now. The Wells St office had a car park on the roof which was accessed by taking your car up and down in a lift.
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www.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=63061
This van is now at Squires Garden Centre Long Ditton ( near Surbiton and also The A3 Hook underpass )wb
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Often seemed a bit of a funny thing to me, Moggies and the owners/drivers one came across. I drove the one I did simply because I could and that was enough for the moment. It belonged to my girlfriend's mother who had learned to drive in the Land Army and never really changed her style.
Many years ago I had a pal who wouldn't drive anything but a Traveller and spent half his time looking around for the next one. He was a plumber and pub organist so found them practical but he didn't drive them because he was scared of anything else. In some of his spare time he drove a fire engine.
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>>pub organist
Tell me his signature piece was Roll out the Barrel...
;-)
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I had two a 1960 Series 2 and a 1967 model. OK cars for a learner, especially in the RWD handling skills department.
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I had a Midget, which was a Morris Minor in drag.
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Fri 17 Jun 16 at 16:38
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I was in a back street in Limoges yesterday when I spotted a rather smart 2-door Volvo Amazon parked next to a Peugeot 403. Very nice, I thought.
Then, across the road, I noticed a partly smashed glass office frontage with a vintage car just visible behind it. I crossed and peered in, thinking it would be just another big Citroen or Renault, but no. It was a Voisin, a legendary motor that I have never before seen in the metal. Gabriel Voisin was an aircraft designer who, turning to four wheels on the ground, decided to build a car to aircraft standards. It was once said that his creations looked as though they had been designed by a man who knew all about cars but had never actually seen one! They had aero-type sleeve valve engines, many other advanced design features, a fantastic art deco radiator cap mascot - and cost more than virtually any other car on earth. Among owners were Rudolf Valentino, Maurice Chevalier, General De Gaulle and Francois Mitterand, who is said to have had four.
I took pictures and dashed home to email them to my son (almost as erudite as I) and my knowledgeable friends. To my surprise, they all came back and said they had never heard of the make.
Ah well, I'm not sure I could ever find the street again anyway. Maybe it was all a dream, but Google is your friend...
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"This simply is one of the most beautiful cars ever made" ... and I want one!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wHPTltWAtE
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Not sure about the dodgy camo interior though!
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Could always fit some genuine imitation leopard skin seat covers, like I had on my Zephyr in the '70's.
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Must have been a funny looking leopard.
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Oh, I forgot to mention the matching steering wheel cover.
:-D
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if that car was originally a french one, why was it R.H drive? - and it must have been nice to be impaled on that rad mascot!! ;-)
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So that the chauffeur was on the pavement side and able to open the passenger doors quicker. Also common on sports cars as many alpine passes were not surfaced and one needed to see the road edge.
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It is LH drive, but you're viewing it in a video, which is akin to a mirror image.
To view it correctly - you need to watch it in a mirror, upside down, with one foot in a bucket of iced water, duh!
(*_*)
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All those Voisins are real classy beauties. My favourites are the black fastback four-door saloon and the yellow barchetta thingy.
Trailing clouds of smoke... but I think Voisins had sleeve-valve engines which were always smoky from new.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sat 23 Jul 16 at 16:41
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The Voisin is rather reminiscent of the British Burney streamlined car of a bit earlier in the 1930s.
I think it may genuinely have been RHD; the numberplate is the right way round, and is one of those UK numbers issued when someone has taken the original off the car to keep as a personalised plate.
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Please read my earlier post at 1625 - it is right.
Quite a few luxury cars made in France, Italy and Spain were right hand drive for the reasons I gave. Question - have you ever seen a left hand drive Bugatti? (not counting the modern pretend ones which are dressed up VWs).
Search around for pictures if don't believe me. Alfa Romeo (Italy) and Hispano-Suiza (Spain). There are of course others, but they're the ones that come to my mind.
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Some old type of Bentley parked up locally today. Two door soft top. Had a wicker basket strapped on the back, above the spare... I've Never heard of Blockley tyres before.
A friend told me it was rebodied..LXO 762. Looked very nice but being a heathen, think I'd prefer an MX5, mk1 Elise or any kind of modern soft top.
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Blockleys are a good tyre. Decent amount of grip from a period looking tread pattern. Don't need any new tyres yet, but when I do, I'll be buying them.
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>> I think it may genuinely have been RHD; the numberplate is the right way round
I took the LHD mirror comment as a joke post.
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as an aside... notice many car ads/pictorials have a fudged number plate?
using a combination of A H M O T U V W X Y and 1 8 and 0?
That is so the pic can be mirrored for LHD and RHD markets.
I see a few of them in Euro/US mags, which are shot locally - the background gives it away.
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Those Bugatti Royales are monstrous things. Before power steering they must have needed a lot of muscle to drive at low speeds, or park.
There were very few made, and only three actually sold. I suspect the model broke the company financially. Only a megalomaniac could have made the thing, or bought one.
Even so... chapeau!
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>> as an aside... notice many car ads/pictorials have a fudged number plate?
>> using a combination of A H M O T U V W X Y and
>> 1 8 and 0?
I had not, I'll look out.
I have a genuine registration mark on my heap of an MX5 that reads backwards. I'm childishly pleased by it.
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Mk1 Transit - Builders van - Boxsterboy
