Just to get away from Politics and viruses, this photo will make all the 50+ guys smile with memories. I rescued this from an old car club years ago. It hangs on my garage wall. There are a lot of the cars that I saw coming through my dad’s hands, when he ran a second hand car business in the 1970’s. If you check out the Simca plugs, you’ll see why I laugh when people ask on this forum if 110 Bhp is enough for a Fabia. Although today’s cars are much faster, I bet you’d be hard pushed to do Bristol to Weymouth quicker nowadays, due to the amount of traffic, than our old Sunbeam Rapier or S type Jag 3.8... which I hated as I wanted a new Cortina 2.0 GXL!! 😄with a blue light like my friends dad had ...( who was a Fire Brigade chief) . My dad had 6 old Jags all in working order,  in the early 80’s parked at our house.  Here’s a 420 with chrome wire wheels, tinted windows and a E-type engine and the XJ6 4.2 reg that I got to drive as a 19 year old on leave from Germany. The most exotic one I got to drive on my leaves back in the UK was a NSU RO 80  again, mine for a week or so. The best handling was an Alfa 2.0 GTV. 

40 minutes ago, Redboy said:

....this photo will make all the 50+ guys smile with memories.

 

👍

 

At the point I'd just got my third car (a 1.6XL Mk3 Cortina), I'd been helping my Dad de-coke his Wolsely 18/85, of course using his array of BSW spanners - none of this weird metric stuff.  As he took it out for a test drive, we drove past a garage in Brede that had a red 2.0 Mk4 (poss.Mk5?) x-pack, which I thought was a real thing of beauty.  Wanted it so much, I even sat in it, but alas I couldn't afford it.

 

Gaz

1 hour ago, IamGaz said:

 

👍

 

At the point I'd just got my third car (a 1.6XL Mk3 Cortina), I'd been helping my Dad de-coke his Wolsely 18/85, of course using his array of BSW spanners - none of this weird metric stuff.  As he took it out for a test drive, we drove past a garage in Brede that had a red 2.0 Mk4 (poss.Mk5?) x-pack, which I thought was a real thing of beauty.  Wanted it so much, I even sat in it, but alas I couldn't afford it.

 

Gaz

You mean like my Crusader? Ex Rep car 75000 miles in its first 3 years, it ran really well. Motorway miles are easier On the car than urban traffic.... at least they were in the 80’s

My Dad has a bit of a fleet of classic cars.

 

1980 Talbot Sunbeam Lotus which my Grandad bought when it was 6 months old.

 

 

1989 Sierra Sapphire Cosworth 2wd and completely standard. Another of Grandad's cars, he purchased it in the early 90's when he wanted something more user friendly than the Sunbeam.

 

 

1971 Ferrari Dino 246GT. My great uncle bought this one in around '76, '77. Apparently, it was a toss up betweeen him buying this or a Capri, I think he chose right. It's all original and unrestored.

 

 

Next up, not strictly a classic, probably more a future classic, Renault Sport Clio V6. With the Dino being so valuable now, my Dad wanted something that gave the same noise and thrill but at a fraction of the worry of anything happening to it. This one spent a fair while in a collection so had just 8500 miles on the clock when Dad bought it.

 

 

The final car in his collection is his Westfield 11 kit car, a replica of the 1950's Lotus 11 race car, it runs on MG Midget engine and running gear. 106bhp in 500kg it goes well enough.

 

 

Out of all of them though, I keep pestering him to relinquish the Sunbeam Lotus, gives me the tingle when driving that one 🤣

Can't beat a good classic! Still got mine for now (talking of Capris) but it will be up for sale very shortly, sadly after 12 years needs must😣

It was a low mileage 2litre Laser. Now at its heart is the 2.9 V6 cosworth from the granada scorpio😍

 

I remember going to work in a new 2.8 Capri as a passenger in 1985 it would go sideways at the traffic light grand prix. 

1 hour ago, niceyellow vrs said:

My Dad has a bit of a fleet of classic cars.

 

1980 Talbot Sunbeam Lotus which my Grandad bought when it was 6 months old.

 

 

 

1989 Sierra Sapphire Cosworth 2wd and completely standard. Another of Grandad's cars, he purchased it in the early 90's when he wanted something more user friendly than the Sunbeam.

 

 

1971 Ferrari Dino 246GT. My great uncle bought this one in around '76, '77. Apparently, it was a toss up betweeen him buying this or a Capri, I think he chose right. It's all original and unrestored.

 

 

 

Next up, not strictly a classic, probably more a future classic, Renault Sport Clio V6. With the Dino being so valuable now, my Dad wanted something that gave the same noise and thrill but at a fraction of the worry of anything happening to it. This one spent a fair while in a collection so had just 8500 miles on the clock when Dad bought it.

 

 

 

The final car in his collection is his Westfield 11 kit car, a replica of the 1950's Lotus 11 race car, it runs on MG Midget engine and running gear. 106bhp in 500kg it goes well enough.

 

 

 

Out of all of them though, I keep pestering him to relinquish the Sunbeam Lotus, gives me the tingle when driving that one 🤣

What a fantastic collection, all of them were ones to aim for. 

2 hours ago, Redboy said:

You mean like my Crusader? Ex Rep car 75000 miles in its first 3 years, it ran really well. Motorway miles are easier On the car than urban traffic.... at least they were in the 80’s

 

Yep 😎 Can go off people y'know 😘

 

Often wonder what I'd think if I got in one now.  I had several FIAT 132's in the 1980's and wonder the same about them too.  Looking at the few that are advertised now, I think the memory will be better than the reality 😞

 

Gaz

I'm not in my 50's but enjoying the thread 👍

 

It's not a classic yet but I saw an 80s Ford Granada only yesterday.

 

I used to lust after those big 3.0 motors as a boy, and the big Vx Senator. Still love a barge with big displacment to this day.

I'd love to own a Citroen CX like my dad had when I was a kid, 2.4l Pallas model in blue. It replaced a GSA that he had from new 'til the scrapman cometh  My first car was an 80's VW Polo 'breadvan' A51XMW, that car stood some abuse and came back for more, i rather fancy one of them too!

 

 

 

^^^ I dare say it can be looked on as an ‘old-un’ saved, but oh what a pity...

 

Good job we don’t all like the same things! 😀
 

(But then I had a 1958 1000 Traveller)

My not quite a classic yet 'Old Barge' (Gone but not forgotten)

 

Vitesse model, tinkered up to 240bhp at the flywheel.

Edited 29 June, 20214 yr by Pagan-Image

And Another of my older almost a classic cars, My Mk1 'Sterling' TWR special, with the 2.7 V6 and TWR suspension and bodykit (Only 150 ever made).

 

Got reversed into and written off by a total barsteward.

 

 

17 hours ago, Pagan-Image said:

My not quite a classic yet 'Old Barge' (Gone but not forgotten)

 

Vitesse model, tinkered up to 240bhp at the flywheel.

The 800 vitesse was a very underrated car. They were a great driving good going thing. I’ve had an FDH coupe sitting in the garage for the last nearly 15 yrs. never take it out but still runs very well. 

1 hour ago, UndertheRadar said:

The 800 vitesse was a very underrated car. They were a great driving good going thing. I’ve had an FDH coupe sitting in the garage for the last nearly 15 yrs. never take it out but still runs very well. 

Ahh the Japanese spec export cars, that were never sent. Worth a bob or two now.

1 hour ago, UndertheRadar said:

The 800 vitesse was a very underrated car.

The only experience I had with an 800 was of a "dealer queen", that had spent 6 months out of 8 since first registration in the dealership...

2 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

The only experience I had with an 800 was of a "dealer queen", that had spent 6 months out of 8 since first registration in the dealership...

The Vitesse was probably the best of the bunch, especially in Lux spec. The standard models, although well equipped were pretty crap to drive. Set up for comfort rather than sportiness, they had a tendency to wallow. The Vitesse had different shocks, bushes and springs, which made it handle very respectably. There were more than a few surprised faces in 'hot hatches' when I used to breeze past in climate controlled luggzzurry. 

 

Interestingly the 800 was the only production car at the time with double wishbone front suspension like an F1 car, which is why with soft springs and shocks it was so comfy.

@Pagan-Image - I'm not sure what the Vitesse suspension has to do with problems with the automatic transmission and/or the power steering? My point was that the car wasn't that well built.

Yeah the Auto box on the standard 2l was woeful, and the Vitesse had a different steering rack, but I totally agree on the build quality, perfect examples of "That'll do" engineering. 

 

Still I enjoyed mine  

Edited 30 June, 20214 yr by Pagan-Image