For those interested in old cars.

[boxbrownie]

Found some piccies of our Elan after the resto......

[boxbrownie]

And the one I didn't fit in..........

[Porkscratching]

6 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Older cars are not neccessarily unsafe in an accident, see my post about my Nissan Prairie above. It doesn't matter what age of car you are driving if a heavy truck rams you into the back of another heavy truck in front of you. The one thing that is likely to prevent classic cars from using the roads would be a ban on all but electric vehicles but few of us will still be around when that happens.

There's already a London firm producing electric conversion kits for both Morris minor, and series Land Rover..the snag there is they're 10 grand a pop, way beyond my means, however being a bit of an engineer, I reckon I could create a mounting system to mate the original gearbox to and elec motor.. if it all gets too stupid I may well give that kind of thing a go..just to spite the b'stards....!

 

[boxbrownie]

And something of a classic now.......the very first Sierra Cosworth........

[Joseph_Pestell]

22 minutes ago, Porkscratching said:

There's already a London firm producing electric conversion kits for both Morris minor, and series Land Rover..the snag there is they're 10 grand a pop, way beyond my means, however being a bit of an engineer, I reckon I could create a mounting system to mate the original gearbox to and elec motor.. if it all gets too stupid I may well give that kind of thing a go..just to spite the b'stards....!

 

 

I knew that he was working on a Landie - but not that he had finished it. I must get back in touch and take a trip to see him.

 

My local converter to electric, Silent Classics, also does cracking conversions. He basically uses a complete Tesla kit. As soon as I sell a house, I am looking to purchase a Mazda RX8 for Jack to do.

[russ p]

25 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

And something of a classic now.......the very first Sierra Cosworth........

 

 

Was this the only red one? Shame they never had this as a production colour it looks superb

 Moonstone blue always seemed an odd choice of colour for me

[Rugd1022]

2 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

And the one I didn't fit in..........

 

Mk3 GT40, my oh my oh my.... clearly RMWeb requires a 'you jammy, jammy bar steward' button!

[polybear]

8 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Older cars are not neccessarily unsafe in an accident, see my post about my Nissan Prairie above. It doesn't matter what age of car you are driving if a heavy truck rams you into the back of another heavy truck in front of you.

 

Seems that modern cars are strong to the point that it can take a fair bit longer to cut you out of the wreck now (source:  Herts Brigade Fire Chief I was talking to a while back).  They also have to be very careful where they cut - short out the wrong wires and there's a risk you'll set an air bag off, which may not do an already injured occupant much good.

[boxbrownie]

1 hour ago, russ p said:

 

 

Was this the only red one? Shame they never had this as a production colour it looks superb

 Moonstone blue always seemed an odd choice of colour for me

It was the only one in red, in fact it is the homologation model..........

[boxbrownie]

1 hour ago, Rugd1022 said:

 

Mk3 GT40, my oh my oh my.... clearly RMWeb requires a 'you jammy, jammy bar steward' button!

....yes we had both GT40 models out on the track that day.......well you have to, don't you? 

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, Porkscratching said:

There's already a London firm producing electric conversion kits for both Morris minor, and series Land Rover..the snag there is they're 10 grand a pop, way beyond my means, however being a bit of an engineer, I reckon I could create a mounting system to mate the original gearbox to and elec motor.. if it all gets too stupid I may well give that kind of thing a go..just to spite the b'stards....!

 

The main cost is the batteries. I recently checked out some second hand hybrid and electric cars. I was surprised by how cheap they were until I got to the bit that says "Needs new batteries." They can set you back as much as £5,000 a time.

25 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Seems that modern cars are strong to the point that it can take a fair bit longer to cut you out of the wreck now (source:  Herts Brigade Fire Chief I was talking to a while back).  They also have to be very careful where they cut - short out the wrong wires and there's a risk you'll set an air bag off, which may not do an already injured occupant much good.

My daily driver, a Hyundai i10 has windscreen pillars so thick that they can easily hide a motorcyclist. I have got into the habit of peering round the pillars when pulling out just to be sure.

[polybear]

2 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

My daily driver, a Hyundai i10 has windscreen pillars so thick that they can easily hide a motorcyclist. I have got into the habit of peering round the pillars when pulling out just to be sure.

 

Agreed - my car has the same issue; I drive various types of hire car as a part of the job and it can be a real issue.

[russ p]

27 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

It was the only one in red, in fact it is the homologation model..........

 

Must have been a late registered one as it's on a D plate. 

I believe the first Maestro Turbo is on an H plate where most were  F or G

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, russ p said:

 

Must have been a late registered one as it's on a D plate. 

I believe the first Maestro Turbo is on an H plate where most were  F or G

My brother-in-law was a test driver for Fords at Dunton when the Sierra was introduced. All the vehicles being tested ran on trade plates and most were scrapped at the end of testing and were never registered* so its unusual for one to have escaped, probably because it was 'special'. * Most test vehicles did not have car tax or VAT paid so could not be sold on. When they were scrapped proof had to be shown to HMRC.

Edited September 3, 2019 by PhilJ W

[Kickstart]

5 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

Found some piccies of our Elan after the resto......

 

 

Very nice

 

First car I was ever in was a Lotus Elan.

 

All the best

 

katy

[boxbrownie]

13 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

My brother-in-law was a test driver for Fords at Dunton when the Sierra was introduced. All the vehicles being tested ran on trade plates and most were scrapped at the end of testing and were never registered* so its unusual for one to have escaped, probably because it was 'special'. * Most test vehicles did not have car tax or VAT paid so could not be sold on. When they were scrapped proof had to be shown to HMRC.

What was his name? I must have known him as there were only 5 official “drivers” at Dunton, this Cossy was registered after homologation for “personal” reasons, basically SVE didn’t want to scrap it, I thought it might eventually make its way to the heritage centre with Colin and Ivan from the workshop but I cannot find any trace presently. 

Might have gone the same way as a particular RS200 we had at Dunton as a suspension buck........scrapped into somebodies garage at home under a tarpaulin

[PhilJ W]

My b-i-l was not one of the 5 'official' test drivers AFAIK, mostly he was testing Transit vans. He was originally based at Boreham testing the heavy stuff and was transfered when Boreham closed. When testing the Ford Cargo truck it took him as far afield as Finland and Morocco. When the Cargo was introduced he could be seen in some of the advertising shots.

[boxbrownie]

11 hours ago, Kickstart said:

 

Very nice

 

First car I was ever in was a Lotus Elan.

 

All the best

 

katy

You never forget your first 

 

[boxbrownie]

30 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

My b-i-l was not one of the 5 'official' test drivers AFAIK, mostly he was testing Transit vans. He was originally based at Boreham testing the heavy stuff and was transfered when Boreham closed. When testing the Ford Cargo truck it took him as far afield as Finland and Morocco. When the Cargo was introduced he could be seen in some of the advertising shots.

I joined Dunton in 1977 just a few years before we stopped HGV development, it was a PITA having truck chassis taking up space in the workshop but good fun testing, the braking tests were the most amusing......I remember the Chief engineer of trucks once saying “never stop hard in front of a 30 tonner, we cannot put enough tyres on them to make them stop” 

[Wolseley]

Some times, an old car sighting is just a matter of luck, as in 2012, when I was on one of my visits to Canberra and stopped off at Old Parliament House, now the Museum of Democracy.  By sheer coincidence, my visit coincided with a club run of a group somewhat curiously titled "Dinosaur Drivers" although whether that is a reference to the cars or the drivers I'm not sure.  Here is the sight that greeted me when I got out of my car at the carpark:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[russ p]

I think more stuff escaped from BL than ford. I had a prototype 16v O series which I fitted to a maestro. I assumed at the time it was a prototype for the rover 800 but water pump was not suitable for FWD, turned out it was for a car that was never built using a TR7 platform 

[PhilJ W]

An interesting car has appeared on Facebook. It looks like a 1938/39 Ford Prefect Drophead but in fact it is a Russian copy called the KiM 10-51. Less than 200 were built before the war stopped production and now there are only 7 known survivors. After the war the plant built a copy of the Opel Kadet using tools taken from Germany.

[Killybegs]

On 02/09/2019 at 21:01, Jol Wilkinson said:

MGB's are still reasonably priced compared to many other convertibles of the period. E types and Lotus Elans seem to have become collectable assets (a friends S4 Elan has almost doubled in price in four years). AH 3000's command serious money, followed by TRs and 60's Sunbeam Alpines, but Spitfires, Midgets and MGBs are down the bottom of the price list. MGC's and V8s are the Abingdon products that command rather more serious money now but are still fairly cheap.

 

To think I only got £100 for my 1962 Sunbeam Alpine at a car auction in 1969. Mind you, it was just starting its third trip round the clock and its second gearbox and back axle were getting tired (both bought from car breakers). I've forgotten how many times the aluminium head was skimmed! In those days I was doing getting on for a 1000 miles a week for work, hence the high mileage. My expenses were often more than my salary, no company cars in those days!

[Wolseley]

Some rusting Americana I saw a few months ago on a drive from Dubbo to Orange:

 

[Porcy Mane]