Fancy an as-new Morris Traveller for £18,000 or a nice reborn BMW E30 3-series (I do)
www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/classiccars/8796564/Classic-cars-reborn.html
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It's the sort of thing you'd really want to do yourself, but i suppose those of us capable of refurbing our own Traveller are getting a bit thin on the ground now....probably a bit thin on top too..;)
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I used to tune a Morris Traveller for a young (then!) woman who lived in Peckham, S. London (nice part)
It had been restored/rebuilt etc.. and I really used to enjoy working on it, then road testing it afterwards hearing that distinct 1098cc exhaust note as y'all changed gear,
If I had £18k gathering dust, I'd buy one!
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>> If I had £18k gathering dust, I'd buy one!
Aye, me too. Lovely cars. The people who lived in the house across the road from me while I was growing up had two Minors, one was a 'J' plate saloon and the other was a 'K' plate van which must have been one of the last built. I used to love hearing the exhaust bark as they toddled off down the road.
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>>I used to love hearing the exhaust bark as they toddled off down the road.
Hehe! I likes that definition :)
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ISTR they have a very characteristic woof on the overrun.
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Its strange how they make that "parp" noise from the exhaust when changing up through the gears when i can't remember other A Series engined cars making it, even the RWD ones such as the A35 or A40. Could have been due to the design of the exhaust i suppose.
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>>Could have been due to the design of the exhaust i suppose.<<
Yeah, reckon so - probably something to do with what they call 'the tuned length' of the exhaust.
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there is no way I would pay good money for a moggy minor.
Not only is it ugly it had few virtues.
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My brother and I had one once. No problems that weren't rust related.
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I guess that it is easy now to look at the cars we drove when we were young through rose tinted glasses no matter how ropey they were, as they gave us independence and freedom we hadn't known until we passed our driving test and bought our first car. Every now and then i start looking at HC Vivas for sale on the net as this was my first car and it the nearest i could afford to the Vauxhall Magnum 2300 i desperately wanted ! Probably 30 minutes of driving one now would be enough to see the novelty factor rapidly dissapear !
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I'd like to have a classic as a 2nd car and keep the Lancer but being we live 'hand to mouth' down here, that's not on,
I've been watching the antiques road trip on beeb 2 at 5.15pm Mon - Friday and they have a different classic car to visit different areas every week,
Last week they had a beaut of an old MG, and this week (starting Monday) they are visiting N.I. in (what looks like) an old Fiat convertible (I think)
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Well Skip I had a Vauxhall Magnum 4dr 2300 in 1976 and owned it from 16000 miles to 110,000 kept it many years and it was actually great car. Drove a treat and actually pulled like a train and used to tow my speed boat all over the place and it hardly used to even notice it on the back.
It was also extremely reliable, converted the ign to electronic and used to get about 27mpg !
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Interesting - I also had a Magnum 2300 (N reg). It was more like a diesel than a diesel - it wouldn't rev over 4,000 rpm and vibrated like anything below 1,800 rpm. In between, I grant you, it did pull like a train, or diesel!
A few years ago, in one of my old copies of CAR, I found an article by LJKS where he co-drove a Magnum to Turkey, iirc. He said that this was at the invite of Vauxhall, and that the car was much free-er reving than an earlier example he had tried. I wondered if the press car had been 'serviced' by Blydenstein....
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well JohnM(P)
Mine didn't vibrate and used to rev through to the red no problem at all. Valve clearances where crucial on these engines as was electronic ign and the carbs set up. Mine sounded as sweet as anything , went like a rocket and was very smooth. Mine was "M" reg.
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>> there is no way I would pay good money for a moggy minor.
>> Not only is it ugly it had few virtues.
Tsk.
You don't remember, being too young, how good it seemed before the Mini. Nor was it 'ugly' in its day although the first Minor, split-screen sidevalve 850cc thing with no grunt at all and the sweetest handling of all time, was better looking.
But I agree, I wouldn't pay good money for one nowadays - those shock absorbers were just shocking - although I wouldn't mind driving about in a decent one. But you'd really want a Rover V8 lump and disc brakes. If that was the sort of car you wanted. Which it isn't in my case really.
:o}
There's one of those that lives somewhere near here. I've seen it a few times.
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>> Nor was it 'ugly' in its day
>>
>>
Yes it was - I thought so in 1956 and I still do. It had a silly rounded bonnet , didn't have a proper radiator, and an exhaust note that sounded as if it had a potato stuck in the tail pipe.
In an age when real cars had an elegant column-change gear lever it had a thing like a poker a yard long.
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I'm very wary of these so called *as new* old cars. Few years back looked after a prestige 1960s car that had supposedly been through this process at a cost of £30,000. Yet they'd left perished suspension rubbers, semi-seized propshaft uj's, a worn out wiper motor so the blades crawled across the screen... and many more small niggles. Looked magnificent though.
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>>I'm very wary of these so called *as new* old cars<<
gb had the right idea ~ "It's the sort of thing you'd really want to do yourself".
:)
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I think it's a very tempting idea for a car you like, but unless you already know the model well and are familiar with it's quirks and potential weaknesses, it might be better to buy a good one at a lower price, and then use it for a bit before taking it to a professional restorer with a list of things you want doing.
eg proper bodywork repairs, respray, new wiper motor, upgraded brakes, new suspension rubbers, etc etc.
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I came across a few peops in my tuning days that were in the process of restoring classic or vintage cars in various states of undress (the cars not the peops!)
They used to call it 'their pension'
but in the final analysis it was really a labour of love and a up market version of the garden shed (their garage) :)
Last edited by: Dog on Mon 17 Oct 11 at 08:36
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>>>peops in my tuning days that were in the process of restoring classic or vintage cars in various states of undress.
I passed a house last month that was of great interest but sold before we were in a position to view. The old owners were still there and obviously making preps to move. Taken aback to see through the open garage door a 90% restored Rover 3.5 V8 Coupe... looked magnificent.
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Having driven Morris Minors a LONG time ago, I have zero inclination to go anywhere near one again..
One look at the brake cylinder puts me off working on them. And axle tramp is unpleasant when you press hard on the accelerator from rest and unleash all of 54bhp (or so) and the rear springs wind up.
Most have rusted away. The rest should do so..human restoration is unkind to dead dogs.
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>>Taken aback to see through the open garage door a 90% restored Rover 3.5 V8 Coupe... looked magnificent<<
I'd have gone weak @ the knees ;} - I tuned a surprising amount of those 'back then', better than a R/R IMHO.
Some of the customers garages I went in were better than some peoples homes in many ways,
More-than double sized, painted floors, heating, tea making facilities (of course)
Better to be in there fiddling about, than glued to the idiots lantern!
:-D
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>>>weak @ the knees. Indeed.
Probably said before but I turned one down after a test drive as too wallowy... but I was in my 20s and a P6 3500 owner at the time.
Now I'd very much like to travel in this interior again.
www.eppingmotorcompany.com/stock/page2/1973%20Rover%20P5B%203.5%20litre%20Coupe/1973%20Rover%20P5B%20Coupe%207%20Interior.JPG
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A cousin of mine had a Rover 3500. Like the P4 Rovers it had zero traction in snow: almost literally. If ever there was a car needing winter tyres that was it.
I suspect a great big engine at the front, RWD and NOT a 50/50 balance was to blame.
(They were also heavy at the front so once they started to spin the rear, a 180 degree turn was possible.. and if the ice was bad 360 degrees as well)
High days and holidays only.. The road tests at the time were rude about the handling in the wet as well...
Best driven like the clientele they were aimed at.. the elderly bank manager or old mimser.
Edit: HM had one: which proves my point.
Last edited by: madf on Mon 17 Oct 11 at 13:11
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>> >> there is no way I would pay good money for a moggy minor.
>>
>> >> Not only is it ugly it had few virtues.
>>
>> Tsk.
>>
>> You don't remember, being too young,
Yes i do, and no I am not
>> how good it seemed before the Mini.
Exactly before the mini, when was that? 1959? there that's the time the moggy should have died out. Ok be kind then, 1962 when the Ford Cortina came out.
Nor was
>> it 'ugly' in its day although the first Minor, split-screen sidevalve 850cc thing with no
>> grunt at all and the sweetest handling of all time, was better looking.
Of course it was ugly, next to an MG magnette its porker, double bag job ugly.
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It becomes increasingly easy, as you get older, to drown in nostalgia. ~Ted Koppel
Things ain't what they used to be and probably never was. ~Will Rogers
Nostalgia is a seductive liar. ~George Wildman Ball
Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory. ~Franklin Pierce Adams
True nostalgia is an ephemeral composition of disjointed memories. ~Florence King
Nostalgia for what we have lost is more bearable than nostalgia for what we have never had.... ~
Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960
I'm orf out!!
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>> Of course it was ugly, next to an MG magnette its porker, double bag job ugly.
Oh for God's sake. Next to a Bugatti type 57SC even a Mitsubishi looks like a pool of dog puke.
What a load of cobblers people talk about the relative aesthetics of common little cars designed to appeal to common little people in the 1950s.
I would urge you, Zero, to examine the bodies of the sidevalve Minor and the later, much commoner Minor 1000. It's quite extraordinary what a difference a few details make (the most important in this case being the position of the headlamps).
My wife thinks all cars are ugly. She's right in many cases.
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>> I would urge you, Zero, to examine the bodies of the sidevalve Minor and the
>> later, much commoner Minor 1000. It's quite extraordinary what a difference a few details make
>> (the most important in this case being the position of the headlamps).
I have seen them both, it matters not where you put the carrots its still a pool of dog puke.
Ok heres a test, put the 1949 pile of dog puke with the lower down carrots, Like here
www.classicmotor.co.uk/minor.htm
and place it next to a a an even earlier common little car designed to appeal to common little people Like this 1938 beetle
www.cars.e-mond.com/2008/09/1938-vw-beetle.html
You can see how a: the look for the minor was not original, and b: having nicked it they made a pile of dog puke from it.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 17 Oct 11 at 16:12
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Honestly Zero. An all-time classic by an automotive genius can't be compared to a frumpy post-war British piece of poo, of course it can't. People like Bill Boddy complained about the conservative and tinny mainstream British product, compared it unfavourably to contemporary French, Italian and German efforts and eagerly embraced radical designs like the Jowett Javelin. And I agreed with them.
But it's utter rubbish to say that Issigonis's original neat, tidy and cute Morris Minor is in any way at all a rip-off of the beetle. That's just silly.
As son as the Minor 1000 came out everyone bought it because it went so much better than the sidevalve one. For a couple of years in the late fifties it was the motor rich youngsters hurtled about in. The Mini replaced it though. However its appearance is startlingly more gauche than the original small Minor. It's not just the headlamps, it's the bumpers, everything, the whole stance of the thing, perky and assertive instead of mousey and discreet. But if you can't see it, you can't.
You have to remember too that cheap Fords for example still had beam front axles in the latish fifties. Many existing large and small cars had them.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Mon 17 Oct 11 at 17:05
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Exactly the mini replaced it.
In 1959
It should have died then. And the only reason they wanted the blobby minor was because there was an import restriction on cars in the 50s. The choice was puke or nothing.,
I think age has done for your aesthetic memory. You'll be blubbing over those pig ugly bristols next.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 17 Oct 11 at 17:09
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In the late 1970s I was 18 and had an 8 year old MG Midget and a 17 year old girlfriend. I loved them both dearly at the time but wouldn't want either of them back.
At least one of them would be bound to be a great disappointment...even if it had been restored...
:-))
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the bottom probably dropped out of both of them...
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This ostentatiously philistine posture is ill-advised Zeddo. We all know that the choice for British new car buyers who weren't quite rich in the fifties was 'puke or nothing'.
Is there nothing to be said then on the relative aesthetics of common little cars designed to appeal to common little people given that they are all more or less puke?
Surely there is. And I at least have been trying to say some of it, rather than taking refuge in scornful football-fan generalities.
Tchah!
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generally speaking, mainstream British cars of the 40s and 50s were appalling post war grim.
Yes there were plenty of european common little cars with flair.
And those with money to buy those cars, and their larger brethren, wouldn't be seen dead in a moggy.
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>> european common little cars with flair.
>> And those with money to buy those cars, and their larger brethren, wouldn't be seen dead in a moggy.
That shows how much you really remember about the fifties. Of course times have changed a lot and attitudes with them. Loadsamoney anyway until a year or two ago.
But then as now, a lot of people who could afford decent foreign (or British) cars didn't see the point and just bought minimalist poo. Admittedly the poo has improved, but the attitudes give or take the decades in between haven't. People are still suckers for advertising and will buy any old carp. A few discerning enthusiasts apart that is.
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scornful football-fan generalities.
I think football fans have a great choice of adjectives and phrases..
Not that they use the choice they have: most are unoriginal.. but occasionally.
Sneering condescension to the supporters of our national game deserves no place in this forum which is based on intolerance of all.
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I seem to think that AC was the one who embraced the scornful football fan generalities first?
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How you can sustain an argument over the visual appeal of something is baffling. It's almost completely subjective.
I like the Minor. I learnt on one, as did a few here I expect. Nostalgia aside, it was good at nearly everything that mattered. Fast enough, no handling vices (I don't count the axle tramp - that's abuse in normal use) and you can wear a trilby in one. Eminently maintainable and repairable.
At least people bought it for its practical attributes, not for nonsense like 19" wheels, climate seats, aluminium sports pedals, auto-sensing wipers and lights ... (the last two are irritating me badly).
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I learnt to drive on one as well, owned another for a while - lived, loved and slept in it. Good honest little motors.
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A wonderful thought has just occurred to me. The practical, down-to-earth and sensible Lancer is a spiritual successor to the Morris Minor.
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>> A wonderful thought has just occurred to me. The practical, down-to-earth and sensible Lancer is
>> a spiritual successor to the Morris Minor.
Your though processes are a little strange, the lancer is an import. You know, those things that killed the minor?
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It took rather a lot of killing as I recall. 23 years? It wouldn't be unfair to say it died of old age, or that BMC (or whatever it was at the time) failed to replace it before someone else did.
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it should have died in the early 60s
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I had a traveller in the mid-seventies.
In '67, the company gave me a brand new one....white and blue saloon with a sign on the roof.
They changed a year or so later to Mini 850s...bad move, too small.
Ted
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>>I had a traveller in the mid-seventies.
In '67, the company gave me a brand new one....white and blue saloon with a sign on the roof<<
Musta looked like a Panda then Ted.
:-)
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A Panda it was indeed, Doggles...a major step up from the bikes around the city...I think it was '68 on reflection......still had the Velo in 67 cos it was new then.
Ted
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>>still had the Velo in 67 cos it was new then<<
What, like this one Teddy ~ classic-motorbikes.net/images/gallery/velocette_le200.jpg
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The very same, Dogsly. In fact, that looks very like a Manchester machine.
Similar reg no series to mine and stick on letters on the plate, which Manchester used.
Here's the one I had then, and still have. I have a dummy radio pack for the back to interest peeps at the shows. Going to get it going tomorrow, someone I know has one that isn't running well and wants to see how mine sounds.
s479.photobucket.com/albums/rr152/1400ted/levelo/?action=view¤t=le020.jpg
Be nice to hear it again, battery charge, plug clean and fresh fuel should do it.
Ted
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Very nice condition Teddo - sparkling in fact!
I don't know where you find the time to look after all these vehicles, you must have more than Nick Mason
(Pink Floyd)
I must be honest and say the Velo's have never appealed to me aesthetically, I like a bike that looks like a bike :)
Like my old CX 500 custom + 550/4 not forgetting the ole Suzuki GT250.
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people bought it because there was little choice.,
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I remember as a child our village copper in the late 60s or early 70s unfurling his chunky 6ft+ frame out of a Minivan panda. Looked a bit daft but we never said... the days when he knew our names and where we all lived... and that our parents would back him every time.
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>> people bought it because there was little choice.,
>>
there was an element of patriotism too, back then: many of the buyers then had a thing about the Japanese (and most of the rest of the World too, for that matter).
Too soon then, perhaps.
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One turned up, parked on a driveway, just round the corner from me about a year ago. It was a grotty, rusting heap when it arrived, it's now a grotty, rustier heap with flat tyres.
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> Too soon then, perhaps
nothin is too soon for my mother, I had to tell her that the Lancer was European...
She has no idea they supplied kamikaze pilots with their transport.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 18 Oct 11 at 17:18
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Classic cars reborn - -
