For those interested in "Modern Classic" Cars

[steve1]

Both my Sister and one of my mates had Nova Saloons like that. Sister's was red and mate's a nasty shade of brown.

 

Would love to know what's under the bonnet of that Escort!

 

steve

 

[johnlambert]

On 19/06/2020 at 23:34, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

 

I bet the engine is a bit of an upgrade from hers - 2 cylinder 500cc 10HP.

 

I hated the car at the time, especially as Mad Max had just come out and all my mate were getting their licences in their parents V8's..

 

She traded it in October 1981 for a Suzuki Hatch, - that was 800cc and 3 cylinders - I remember the joy I felt when I could get to 100km/hr for the first time!  Still, Suzuki  hasn't brought out a retro model of the Suzuki Hatch and probably never will.

Wasn't the quoted power output of the Fiat 500 something like 18.5hp?  You know you're dealing with low power when 0.5hp is a significant part of the total.

 

Just checked, the original 497cc version was 12.5hp

 

According to Wikipedia there was a "Sport" with 499.5cc and 21.2hp.  Wiki also lists the power for the 500 D as 17hp.  The later Fiat 126 in either 594 or 650cc versions had 23hp according to Wikipedia but I'm positive the factory quoted 22.5.  I had a 126 as my first car, great fun when it worked.  I'd love an old-school Fiat 500 but they are so expensive to buy.

 

[big jim]

Found out the rattle from the exhaust is in fact a knackered catalytic converter, unfortunately it’s part of the exhaust manifold so it’s going to need one of those now! 
 

Slowly losing my will to live with the blue car but on the plus side I was looking at putting a racing manifold and cat on it within the next 6 months anyway, just can’t afford to bring it forward to this month thanks to the cutch cylinder so that’s that car parked up on the drive for another month until I can get it done 

 

thankfully the weather is just right for the convertible 
 

 

Edited June 24, 2020 by big jim

[monkeysarefun]

7 hours ago, johnlambert said:

Wasn't the quoted power output of the Fiat 500 something like 18.5hp?  You know you're dealing with low power when 0.5hp is a significant part of the total.

 

Just checked, the original 497cc version was 12.5hp

 

According to Wikipedia there was a "Sport" with 499.5cc and 21.2hp.  Wiki also lists the power for the 500 D as 17hp.  The later Fiat 126 in either 594 or 650cc versions had 23hp according to Wikipedia but I'm positive the factory quoted 22.5.  I had a 126 as my first car, great fun when it worked.  I'd love an old-school Fiat 500 but they are so expensive to buy.

 

 

Ours was a mid-60's model  actually built in New Zealand and was called The Bambino  I recall. According to Wiki that was the D model with 17HP but In the 15 years or so before we got it, I'd be surprised if one or two HP hadn't managed to escape.

 

I think we paid about $600 dollars for it in 1980. Mum wanted a small car because her Honda 50 bike was too cold and wet in winter.  She was thinking Mini, dad reckoned they were too hard to change the fanbelt on or something and arrived home with this instead.  When  traded  in for the Suzuki 4 years later he get $750 for it!

 

I do recall being embarrassed when learning to drive, going up a loooong  steep hill, looking in the mirror and seeing a line of cars behind me as far as the eye could see, mum wouldn't let me pull over - "No, you have to get used to that in this!"

 

We had a red setter, I remember driving around with it in the car, it sitting in the back seat with its head sticking out the sunroof  ears flapping away....  For some reason  that car combined with that dog  was a brilliant, if inexplicable, chick magnet

 

 

Edited June 24, 2020 by monkeysarefun

[Classsix T]

Just to clarify the Suzuki car bit from earlier, this is the Ignis:

Which undoubtedly carries design cues from the much older SC100/Cervo:

But much like the rehashed Beetle and Fiat 500, probably shares very little else in common with its very much older sibling...

 

C6T. 

[peanuts]

think this may just belong in here interesting article about a rarity 

https://petrolicious.com/articles/the-citroën-bx-4tc-is-the-group-b-homologation-special-that-its-maker-tried-to-erase-from-history?fbclid=IwAR3Df3XzBhGDYW7e7Fui1H1un6irWZ9rAZe0S0fPymyUtJqitFJ9v5Yp-CI

[russ p]

Latest addition to my fleet 1.8VVC

[big jim]

Nice!

 

my mum had the 2l T bar roof version in the same colour back in the mid 90s 

 

(is it T bar or removable glass panels I’m thinking of?) 

[russ p]

9 minutes ago, big jim said:

Nice!

 

my mum had the 2l T bar roof version in the same colour back in the mid 90s 

 

(is it T bar or removable glass panels I’m thinking of?) 

 

Cheers Jim

They are removable and stow in a bag in the boot 

[big jim]

Yeah that’s the one she had

 

it started out with a rover engine but it got swapped out for a Honda one under warranty after it started using oil very early on in its life! 
 

my mate had a tuned up 220 turbo with, looking back now, a god awful ‘predator’ body kit on it with massive rear wing, it went like stink though but Retrospectively looked terrible.

 

if me from now went back to 1996 in a time machine id be telling him to Think again about the kit that’s for sure 

 

 

Edited July 8, 2020 by big jim

[steve1]

Didn't 99% of all body kits look bl**dy awful when they were added anyway?

 

steve

 

 

[russ p]

9 hours ago, big jim said:

Yeah that’s the one she had

 

it started out with a rover engine but it got swapped out for a Honda one under warranty after it started using oil very early on in its life! 
 

my mate had a tuned up 220 turbo with, looking back now, a god awful ‘predator’ body kit on it with massive rear wing, it went like stink though but Retrospectively looked terrible.

 

if me from now went back to 1996 in a time machine id be telling him to Think again about the kit that’s for sure 

 

 

 

I'd have loved a turbo but there are so few good ones and in the rare occasions good ones come up they are very expensive. 

The two litre T series engine is a very good engine if looked after , when rover were part of BMW the T series had the lowest warranty claims by percentage of any other engine across the whole BMW group.

Austin rover didn't always get things wrong 

I think all the coupes had the T bar roof the racing ones would have had some kind of steel replacement 

[big jim]

The new Mini Cooper GP3 was released a few weeks back, only 3000 being produced with 575 coming to the UK, a 300 bhp, £30k supercar worrier 

 

it just got that little bit rarer, now there are only 2999 of them after this guy totalled his In his garden minutes after getting it, all for the sake of a few YouTube likes!

 

 

 

[43179]

Modern classics/future classics -   not sure where they fall , but the 159/Sportwagon/Brera are drop dead gorgeous looking little family of cars , with 'that' V6 too -  i just never get tired of looking at these -  though I'm not too keen on the styling of the back of the Brera.

 

Conways , Avons and Alfas ,  pretty much all my favourite things are in that photo 

 

tfn

Jon 

 

 

[Phil Mc]

1 hour ago, big jim said:

The new Mini Cooper GP3 was released a few weeks back, only 3000 being produced with 575 coming to the UK, a 300 bhp, £30k supercar worrier 

 

it just got that little bit rarer, now there are only 2999 of them after this guy totalled his In his garden minutes after getting it, all for the sake of a few YouTube likes!

 

 

 

The cars a tool....

 

 

.....and so is the driver. 

 

cheers,

Pil.

[Joseph_Pestell]

1 hour ago, big jim said:

The new Mini Cooper GP3 was released a few weeks back, only 3000 being produced with 575 coming to the UK, a 300 bhp, £30k supercar worrier 

 

it just got that little bit rarer, now there are only 2999 of them after this guy totalled his In his garden minutes after getting it, all for the sake of a few YouTube likes!

 

 

 

A friend of mine decided that he would much rather not have his new Lotus delivered by a factory driver. So he caught a train down from RAF Valley down to Hethel to pick up the car.

 

It never got back to Valley. He wrote it off, as I recall, somewhere on the M1.

[Joseph_Pestell]

I woke up two days ago to find various vehicles invading my car park. After a short while, the mundane T5 and Land Rover Discoveries were joined by a 356 replica and a rather nice Series 1 Landie.

 

It turned out to be a film company who thought that the car park of a closed pub would be useful as a base. The director was a bit embarrassed to find that the car park was also filling up with contractors' vehicles. Fortunately, I also have access to a large field and we were able to sort things out amicably.

 

The 356 replica, a cabrio. was really rather nice. But careless research/casting as the J reg no gives it away as a replica rather than the real thing. I got caught up in Dorset with filming of "Wimbledon" which used a similar replica but that one had a non-suffix registration from an older Beetle.

 

 

[Joseph_Pestell]

41 minutes ago, 43179 said:

Modern classics/future classics -   not sure where they fall , but the 159/Sportwagon/Brera are drop dead gorgeous looking little family of cars , with 'that' V6 too -  i just never get tired of looking at these -  though I'm not too keen on the styling of the back of the Brera.

 

Conways , Avons and Alfas ,  pretty much all my favourite things are in that photo 

 

tfn

Jon 

 

 

 

Totally agree. I am very tempted by a Brera even if it has the power at the wrong end.

Edited July 15, 2020 by Joseph_Pestell
Typo

[MJI]

My boss has a 3l V6 Alfa hatch with 4WD.

 

Not sure what the model is but even though I am shortish my head hits the roof.

[boxbrownie]

10 hours ago, Phil Mc said:

The cars a tool....

 

 

.....and so is the driver. 

 

cheers,

Pil.

And it was because of the ground......nothing to do with the fact the Pratt holding the wheel.......

[Kickstart]

11 hours ago, 43179 said:

Modern classics/future classics -   not sure where they fall , but the 159/Sportwagon/Brera are drop dead gorgeous looking little family of cars , with 'that' V6 too -  i just never get tired of looking at these -  though I'm not too keen on the styling of the back of the Brera.

 

Conways , Avons and Alfas ,  pretty much all my favourite things are in that photo 

 

tfn

Jon 

 

 

It isn’t “that” v6, rather a GM derived engine.

 

My father had a 2.2 L Berra (another GM derived engine) Which I drove once or twice. Can’t say I particularly liked it. Engine was nothing special and the car was a very heavy lump. The platform was a joint venture between Alfa and Saab. If I wanted a Saab  I would have bought one! The engines also managed to wear out their cam chains quite quickly , and around 40~50 k miles it could wear enough that the cam sensors detected things were out . So it landed up with cam chains that lasted as little time as belts but cost more to replace.

 

Looked good though, and build quality generally seems to have been very good.
 

I would massively prefer a 156 over a 159, and for a coupe the GT might not have had the looks but had less weight and a far more entertaining engine.

 

All the best

 

Katy

[big jim]

There is a scrappy in Wolverhampton near the railway that also sells cheap cars and I noticed when I passed on the train the other day there is an Alfa GTV convertible in the lot, I found the website As I’ve bought an exhaust from them in the past but it’s not advertised on there yet, tempted to go and have a closer look 

 

I’ve got to drive to coseley later to collect some new wheels for the cooper S so may come off the motorway a junction early and have a look 

[big jim]

duplicate post 

Edited July 16, 2020 by big jim

[MJI]

2 hours ago, Kickstart said:

It isn’t “that” v6, rather a GM derived engine.

 

My father had a 2.2 L Berra (another GM derived engine) Which I drove once or twice. Can’t say I particularly liked it. Engine was nothing special and the car was a very heavy lump. The platform was a joint venture between Alfa and Saab. If I wanted a Saab  I would have bought one! The engines also managed to wear out their cam chains quite quickly , and around 40~50 k miles it could wear enough that the cam sensors detected things were out . So it landed up with cam chains that lasted as little time as belts but cost more to replace.

 

Looked good though, and build quality generally seems to have been very good.
 

I would massively prefer a 156 over a 159, and for a coupe the GT might not have had the looks but had less weight and a far more entertaining engine.

 

All the best

 

Katy

 

I don't think the GM V6 reached Alfa.

 

That said it was an excellent engine. The only flaws were.

 

Older - coil pack location, EGR.

Newer - poor valve seals, lower compression.

All - location of thermostat.

 

 

[Kickstart]

9 minutes ago, MJI said:

 

I don't think the GM V6 reached Alfa.

 

That said it was an excellent engine. The only flaws were.

 

Older - coil pack location, EGR.

Newer - poor valve seals, lower compression.

All - location of thermostat.

 

 

In the 159 and Berra it was a derivative of the GM High Feature engine

 

Few details of the various versions here

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_High_Feature_engine

The V6 used in the GT was the traditional Alfa V6

 

Fiat and GM had a stock swap in the 1990s are did various bits of collaboration. But one of the conditions of the agreement was a put option, where Fiat could obligate GM to buy Fiat Auto. Cost GM a lot of money to get out of that put option.

 

All the best

 

Katy