For those interested in old cars.

[MrWolf]

MPG is only really an issue for armour if you can't protect or overstretch your supply lines, in which case you can end up doing a Stalingrad on yourself. Which as we know, doesn't end well.

[MrWolf]

11 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

Yes, extremely good ones too.......from experience most likely the quietest and smoothest in the world.

 

I'd have said the Kawasaki suitcase jobs were quieter. 

You can't beat a Honda GX340 on a portable welder, not all that quiet, but most unbreakable. Just what you need for welding up pipes in the middle of nowhere.

I can't think of any Honda that I would have over my old Vauxhall Cresta though. Other than perhaps one with TT provenance, which I could then sell and buy many cars and bikes.

 

I promise not to mention the "C" word again though. 

 

 

Edited January 19, 2021 by MrWolf
Stupid autocorrect

[Northmoor]

3 hours ago, MrWolf said:

I can't think of any Honda that I would have over........... 

 

RC30, no question.  When I was a student 27 years ago, the local bike shop still had a new, unregistered example, for £6k.  It would be a minimum of six times that now.

 

[MrWolf]

10 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

RC30, no question.  When I was a student 27 years ago, the local bike shop still had a new, unregistered example, for £6k.  It would be a minimum of six times that now.

 

 

Can't fault that. It fits into my Ferrari theory. I remember someone I worked with who was obsessed with Subaru's, announcing loudly that he "wouldn't have any Ferrari given to him".

I would! I would drive it around for a week or two, have a laugh in it, punch anyone who thought I was a footballer or a rapper, then sell it, buy a house, several classic cars and bikes and probably just waste the rest...

The chump was talking ANY Ferrari, a 250GTO perhaps? Sell it and never worry about anything again?

 

Maybe my Subaru driving workmate already had millions, he was always having his heap tuned or rebuilt and had some part of its underpinnings welded every MOT.

I preferred the orange 2 door version that is held together with sheep dung and lumps of the Welsh countryside. The rear seat passengers are always Border Collies in a galvanized shed.

[Northmoor]

The Subaru Impreza is a superb car but they are the expensive squash racquets of the car world.  Everyone bought one thought it made them Colin McRae; in fact it made no difference whatsoever to their lack of driving talent, merely drawing attention to it.

[MrWolf]

Plus I seem to recall something about the rally version having anti surge baffles in the sump to keep the pickup pipe submerged so that the oil pump wasn't at risk of cavitating.

[alastairq]

5 hours ago, MrWolf said:

They make generators for caravans don't they?

 Lawn mowers....and garden diggythings.

[MrWolf]

27 minutes ago, alastairq said:

 Lawn mowers....and garden diggythings.

 

Mopeds on which to balance yourself, a 100kg sack of rice, your eleven children, mother in law and a goat?

One you can use when "experts" assert that the British motorcycle industry died because they kept on selling old designs and didn't move with the times, blah blah blah....

1959 Honda Cub anyone?

[doilum]

11 hours ago, Northmoor said:

The Subaru Impreza is a superb car but they are the expensive squash racquets of the car world.  Everyone bought one thought it made them Colin McRae; in fact it made no difference whatsoever to their lack of driving talent, merely drawing attention to it.

A very easy car to drive sensibly, a safe car to drive quickly, a shiny metal coffin if driven stupidly.

[Nick C]

11 hours ago, Northmoor said:

The Subaru Impreza is a superb car but they are the expensive squash racquets of the car world.  Everyone bought one thought it made them Colin McRae; in fact it made no difference whatsoever to their lack of driving talent, merely drawing attention to it.

 

25 minutes ago, doilum said:

A very easy car to drive sensibly, a safe car to drive quickly, a shiny metal coffin if driven stupidly.

 

I used to have a Forester, which is basically a practial version of an Impreza. Even somewhat detuned compared to the Impreza it was still pretty quick - but horrifically expensive to run, both in terms of fuel usage and spare parts...

[doilum]

5 minutes ago, Nick C said:

 

 

I used to have a Forester, which is basically a practial version of an Impreza. Even somewhat detuned compared to the Impreza it was still pretty quick - but horrifically expensive to run, both in terms of fuel usage and spare parts...

The Australians had a larger SUV called ( I think)  the Outback. It could be had with a full fat 300 bhp motor from the WRX and an auto box. My few miles in one involved a well behaved, legal lap of Mt Panorama at Bathurst.

[Kickstart]

11 hours ago, Northmoor said:

The Subaru Impreza is a superb car but they are the expensive squash racquets of the car world.  Everyone bought one thought it made them Colin McRae; in fact it made no difference whatsoever to their lack of driving talent, merely drawing attention to it.

Years ago some friends built a car based on Impreza running gear. Biggest problem was finding a crashed donor. Crashed ones were either lightly damaged and repaired, or the result of exceeding the cars abilities in which case there wasn’t much left.

 

11 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Plus I seem to recall something about the rally version having anti surge baffles in the sump to keep the pickup pipe submerged so that the oil pump wasn't at risk of cavitating.

Suspect that is the case for most serious competition cars.

 

All the best

 

Katy

[boxbrownie]

11 hours ago, alastairq said:

 Lawn mowers....and garden diggythings.

And......

 

Not sure I’d want to fly in a Vauxhall 

 

[Hobby]

You need an Ford (Anglia) to do that!  

Edited January 20, 2021 by Hobby

[doilum]

6 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

And......

 

Not sure I’d want to fly in a Vauxhall 

 

Not unless it was the 1.7 diesel

[boxbrownie]

18 minutes ago, doilum said:

Not unless it was the 1.7 diesel

In an Astra Van no doubt? 

[doilum]

7 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

In an Astra Van no doubt? 

With windows. My wife and daughter have had seven or eight estates between them. All have achieved inter galactic mileage with few if any engine related repairs. One of the few cars that I would buy with 125K miles on the clock to be a 120 miles per day daily driver, fully expecting it to achieve another 60K before considering a replacement.

Edited January 20, 2021 by doilum

[Jol Wilkinson]

1 hour ago, boxbrownie said:

And......

 

Not sure I’d want to fly in a Vauxhall 

 

What's wrong with German design and engineering? Oh, I forgot, GM owned Opel and Vauxhall until 2017 and the Americans don't understand how to run things properly outside of the USA (unless it's a war and then they aren't very good at that). 

[boxbrownie]

11 minutes ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

What's wrong with German design and engineering? Oh, I forgot, GM owned Opel and Vauxhall until 2017 and the Americans don't understand how to run things properly outside of the USA (unless it's a war and then they aren't very good at that). 

I think you said it all there.....

 

We had R&E centres in both England and Germany, when there were issues that Germany couldn’t resolve where did design engineers come?

 

It was just the British engineers were that much more flexible/adaptable/accommodating.........both teams were just as qualified and capable as each other.....but.

 

Odd thing was when the German engineers came over to do work they became much more relaxed about the whole thing, and strangely when we had to work with the TUV guys from Germany for any homologation work they were easier to work with than the British chaps from the DVSA......go figure.

Edited January 20, 2021 by boxbrownie

[MrWolf]

One thing that the Americans are very good at is organising factories for economy and mass production. If they weren't, Vauxhall would have gone bust in 1925 and we'd all be speaking German.

[boxbrownie]

6 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

One thing that the Americans are very good at is organising factories for economy and mass production. If they weren't, Vauxhall would have gone bust in 1925 and we'd all be speaking German.

Sehr wahrer Herr Wolf........

[MrWolf]

6 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

Sehr wahrer Herr Wolf........

 

Es ist in mode, diese tatsache zu ignorien Herr Braunie. 

[Enterprisingwestern]

17 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

One thing that the Americans are very good at is organising factories for economy and mass production. If they weren't, Vauxhall would have gone bust in 1925 and we'd all be speaking German.

 

The Americans didn't do Mercedes Benz a lot of favours, perhaps it was post war reparation?

 

Mike.

[MrWolf]

The American public bought plenty of them, especially after the 70s oil embargo when it also became fashionable to buy a flash European motor to prove to the Joneses that you had "made it". Give it a decade and the British did the same thing. Two BMWs on the driveway and nothing in the fridge as my father used to say.

Considering how Mercedes was seen as benefitting hugely from Hitler's war machine and certain politically motivated groups wanted to pursue a scorched earth policy when it came to postwar reparations, I think that they survived pretty well. Even now their identity is intact. Not something that you can say for any of our prestige manufacturers.

It's a shame that the likes of Karl Borgward Ag didn't make it to the present day. The same could be said of Triumph, Riley and Singer to name but a few innovative companies that are long gone.  

 

 

Edited January 20, 2021 by MrWolf

[Jol Wilkinson]

In the 70's it became the thing in this country not to buy British, especially cars and electronics. There were some good reasons not to do so, but I have always been bemused that those who had lived through WW2, took to buying German and Japanese cars with such enthusiasm.