For those interested in old cars.

[MJI]

Neary 6 years ago I had a nasty smash, head on in front of me and one of the cars missiled into the side of mine.

 

Newish BMW wrecked, with a shattered front wheel I suspect shattered before the accident.

A Peugeot I think, no front end, finished off on my B pillar.

 

My Omega saloon, smashed in side would cost £3000 to repair, anyway I drove home. About 12 years old. I had it for 8.

[runs as required]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

Someone mention Beetles?

This was in Peel last week - UK plated, B suffix IIRC.

I  hate them personally.

Also this local car, right up Alastair's street, a Buckler.  I know the owner. Malcolm, er, Buckler.....

I agree about those late model curved windscreen beetles. The African ones were scary for long journeys because they'd no fuel gauge, just a reserve tap you turned under the scuttle (as well as turning the rear view vertical to remind you you were on reserve and on no account pass by an isolated petrol pump.

 

Is Malcolm's  Buckler the owner-driver's actual 'own make' Buckler? Also do contemporary Manx car registrations follow  UK style year numbers - i.e. MN type regs are a thing of the past? 

dh

[steve1]

Seen in Howden today. The grey one is an MG, couldn't see the cream one clearly.

 

steve

 

[PhilJ W]

Both are MG's.

[New Haven Neil]

19 hours ago, runs as required said:

I agree about those late model curved windscreen beetles. The African ones were scary for long journeys because they'd no fuel gauge, just a reserve tap you turned under the scuttle (as well as turning the rear view vertical to remind you you were on reserve and on no account pass by an isolated petrol pump.

 

Is Malcolm's  Buckler the owner-driver's actual 'own make' Buckler? Also do contemporary Manx car registrations follow  UK style year numbers - i.e. MN type regs are a thing of the past? 

dh

 

IIRC it was Malcolm's brother or father that made them, they were a 'brand' not a one off.  He's some relation to the late Mike Hailwood - yes that one.

 

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

 

There is no age relation to any Manx registration, then or now.  I don't know when the the MN as a prefix or suffix to a number fits in to the MAN ones timescale wise, but many people keep numbers and transfer them on the new or newer vehicles.  We have several MAN ones, on the bikes and the camper.  Our cars just have 'as currently issued numbers', which is in the series NMN 123 A just now.  That series is almost finished, I saw an NMN XXX Y the other day, they last about 18 to 24 months, next up is OMN.

 

If you're VERY rich, they did a short run of 'MANX' numbers which can be seen around and about, mostly on supercars, of which there is a huge amount of here, or on pimped up Rangies, Overfinch and the likes.....ugh.

[polybear]

On 21/09/2019 at 13:51, Hobby said:

A close up of the radiator and it's cap may help with ID?

 

No such luck I'm afraid - a quick piccy from the car window was all I could manage en-route to the car park exit, and I'm now back home

[Stubby47]

This is an appeal for information and I thought this might be the best thread....

 

My first car was a BMC Morris 1100 /Austin 1300 style Princess Vanden Plas.

Behind the front seats were built in, polished wood tables which folded out on a pair of chrome arms. These allowed the table to go from vertical to horizontal by somehow crossing the shaped arms.

 

What I'd like, if possible, is the geometry and dimensions for these tables, as I believe the same principle could be used for a fiddle yard.

 

Any help you can give will be very much appreciated. 

 

Stu

[Southern Steve]

On 20/09/2019 at 10:23, Owd Bob said:

That Midget looks really tiny. It's a major thing that frightens me to death as well, the size of our Rascal camper is minuscule, but swmbo fell in love with ours at first sight and after two years of resto' and just into the third, we are still no nearer getting it on the road, although it's all there cosmetically and it just needs a few minor mechanical jobs, but i'd rather leave it until next spring before we take it for an mot.....or more like until i've got the bottle up to drive it   

 

Well it's not called a "MIdget" for nothing I guess!

[alastairq]

8 minutes ago, Southern Steve said:

Well it's not called a "MIdget" for nothing I guess!

Strange that when Austin badged, it's a 'Sprite?'

[w124bob]

I don't know if this Youtube channel has been linked before but it's new to me, I particularly like the French classics. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-pTKpkmFBjnEFFceOm3tuw

[Hobby]

12 hours ago, alastairq said:

Strange that when Austin badged, it's a 'Sprite?'

 

Which is also something very small... Appropriate enough, especially as it was a re-use of a previously used MG name which suited it!

[rockershovel]

Not strictly “old cars” , but I see that the infamous Army and Navy Flyover has been condemned and work has started on demolishing it... traffic was bad enough there with it in use! 

 

[rockershovel]

13 minutes ago, Hobby said:

 

Which is also something very small... Appropriate enough, especially as it was a re-use of a previously used MG name which suited it!

 

My good wife once owned a frog-eye Sprite, which she referred to as a “Spridgefire” 

[RANGERS]

No pics I’m afraid but driving through Sheringham yesterday revealed an MGB GT, Mk2 VW Polo, VW Beetle 1303, Mk2 Transit, Commer PB Camper, Wadham bodied  Morris LD ambulance with a coachbuilt camper conversion and a series 2 Land-Rover. As we know Russ has his collection of AR models in addition to these, is Sheringham a hotbed of classic car ownership or just  stuck in a timewarp?

[alastairq]

2 hours ago, Hobby said:

 

Which is also something very small... Appropriate enough, especially as it was a re-use of a previously used MG name which suited it!

 

Not really that small, actually....not like a mini or a FIAT..or a Matiz?  

Wasn't the Sprite name actually a Riley thing, rather than MG?

[The MG Midget was  a follow-on from the Sprite...so Mk2 Sprite is a Mk1 Midget...but MG used Midget before, pre-WW2...]

Anyway, the smaller a car, the more nimble it is on the road....a lot more nimble than a lumbering MGB, at any rate.

[Hobby]

The car was launched as the Austin Healey Sprite (of frogeye/bugeye fame) and then metamorphosed (complete change of body) into the Mk2 A-H Sprite/MG Midget and then via Mks 3 & 4 into the Austin Healey Sprite (Healey name dropped 1971) and MG Midget before finally becoming just an MG Midget. The Sprite and Midget of the 60s/70s were the same car, good old BMC badge engineering! (I had already said that the Midget name was a re-use of a previous name!)

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin-Healey_Sprite

 

Riley certainly had a car called a Sprite in the mid 30s, so as they were owned by BMC they'd have had use of the name, though whether they were named after that car or just thought that it was a suitable name for the new car is anyone's guess!

 

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

Edited September 26, 2019 by Hobby

[alastairq]

Yup, I had one [a mk4 sprite]....

 

Back in the days when I could get behind the steering wheel.

Between myself & a good chum, there are several in bits....[he's just sold a good mk4/3 bodyshell!]...

He also has a B [and has had many in the past]..and done a spiffing roadster conversion...proper job done.

He prefers driving his mk3 sprite, to the MGB...more pleasant to drive. Maybe because it's lighter?

Living as we do not far from an old 'importer-of-wrecks' from the USA, there has been a small succession of cheap imports obtained...Midgets, Spitfires, etc...including a LHD spitfire that we sorted [to get rid of the Americanizations]...Most were literally 'full of sand'...with sun-damaged upholstery.  Easy fixes, as we had a good stock of mechanical parts,and bodies were reasonable. The LHD Spitfire was brought back to UK spec-&-a-bit...then advertised for sale...snapped up by a Frenchman!  Purchased, sight unseen, his intention was for us to pick him up from Hull station ,he had a carrier bag full of cash....then for him to view car, and drive it back to Paris that night!  With That in mind, chum went over the car with a fine tooth comb to make sure it would 'get him home' at least...[he also had a small bag of tools]....chum is a qualified mechanic & diesel fitter....even though the car was cheap. pride and all that meant any issues were dealt with, sufficiently. Fella turned up, kicked tyres, we gave him some sandwiches and a working torch, and off he went into the night! Occasional messages to mark his progress...next we heard he was parked up outside his flat in Paris....to find the car was being used for an impromptu fashion mag shoot! [They happened to be passing, saw the Spitfire, and proceeded to drape folk over it...so we found out.]

 

If we sold on a 'runner'.....it would get the new owner form one end of the country to the other.....but that was us! To us, a 'runner' meant the car worked.....maybe not 'pretty', but it worked.

[boxbrownie]

3 hours ago, Hobby said:

 

Which is also something very small... Appropriate enough, especially as it was a re-use of a previously used MG name which suited it!

Exactly, small.....nimble and hard to catch......a far better name than some today 

[boxbrownie]

3 hours ago, rockershovel said:

Not strictly “old cars” , but I see that the infamous Army and Navy Flyover has been condemned and work has started on demolishing it... traffic was bad enough there with it in use! 

 

Well it was a temporary structure.........how many decades ago now? 

 

And let’s face it, it’s a lot older than some of the “older cars” presented in here 

Edited September 26, 2019 by boxbrownie

[Northmoor]

Here's a couple of interesting vehicles spotted during lunchtime walks in the capital:

 

[steve1]

Were you in the vicinity of Cornwall Rd for the Minors? Not far from Waterloo.

 

steve

[Northmoor]

1 hour ago, steve1 said:

Were you in the vicinity of Cornwall Rd for the Minors? Not far from Waterloo.

 

Correct....  The Cortina estate was in a street near the back of Tate Modern (Bankside Power Station).

 

[Oldddudders]

10 hours ago, Northmoor said:

Correct....  The Cortina estate was in a street near the back of Tate Modern (Bankside Power Station).

 

The skip was a bit of a giveaway.

[PhilJ W]

10 hours ago, Northmoor said:

Correct....  The Cortina estate was in a street near the back of Tate Modern (Bankside Power Station).

 

 

27 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

The skip was a bit of a giveaway.

It was one of the exhibits then.

[peanuts]

morris minor giving a modern traffic car a bit of a work out