PICS! Classic Motor Show '13

[Lucky]

Well, my plan went all to sh....., to quote the immense and awesome Streets of Fire (a rock'n'roll fable. It says so on the byline). Originally I was going up on the train on the Friday, to avoid the crowds that infest it on the weekend. However, Rich/Phil (or Eeyore as he's now known, for services to misery) blew it out in a fit of male menopause grumpiness. The plus side was I was now free to drive up and thus give th' Boy Ada a lift. The downside was he could only make the Sunday. Which, as previous experience has shown, is rammed with lugubrious Brummies blundering around like a herd of incomprehensible sheep, getting in the way of my photos and generally not apparently having a clue about cars or indeed, what the smeg they're doing there at all.

Oh well, needs must...

It would have been better, I suppose, leaving at five a.m along twisty unlit country roads to collect Ada-san, had all my dashboard lights not failed. Oh well, once I'd got used to not having any idea about speed, revs and the state of the engine besides what my ears told me, it was OK and made good time. It was only after collecting Ada and getting onto the A3 that we met more traffic, all of which seemed intent on flashing me. OOoh. Sure enough, pull over at a garage; no rear lights. *sigh* thankyou Mazda, or whichever designer saw no issue with putting pretty much every lightbulb on the car into the same bloody circuit.

Lying half-in the car under the dash, legs in a puddle and contorted like a politicians' morals gave access to the fusebox and a blown 10 amp. Replaced it with the spare. Turn lights on. Blows. Replace it with something else I thought I could do without. Blows. Buy some fuses from garage, replace it again. Blows. Fduks sake. Obviously that ain't gonna work then. No realistic way of diagnosing the fault, we try Ada's suggestion of replacing it with a 15A fuse. Lights stay on for ten seconds. Blows.


*sigh*


Replace it with 20A fuse. Holds. Cautiously nudge out into traffic on the A3, waiting nervously for the actinic smell of electrical fire to pervade the cabin. No such luck, the evil bitch obstinately refuses to catch fire. Balls. You're worth more to me dead than alive, car, watch your bloody step from now on.

So, Birmingham. Or the NEC anyway, which is the next worse thing. Car hasn't caught fire, lights still work. Winning. ten earth pounds to park, massive walk to NEC from car park. Remembering why I hate the soulless, horrible place. The NEC's not very nice, either lol. Couple of woollybacks in the queue cheek us up about the way the RX-7s exhaust fumes were making their eyes water following us in. Count themselves lucky it wasn't smoke inhalation that did for them. FDUK hoodies make friends and influence people wherever you go. Righteous.

Finally make it into the cavernous exhibition halls (only one booth taking card payments on tickets. And they don't have a terminal, they basically have to hand-enter all your card details onto a normal computer keyboard. Hmmm, that looks secure, then). Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge building, crammed with excellent, arcane and obscure vehicles from all eras and every corner of the globe. Now we're talking. Let's get on, shall we?

These are in no especial order other than that in which we wandered around aimlessly. There's no real vetting for relevance or sense, sorry about that. It really is a humungous chaotic place, very hard to get any kind of theme going. Anyway, as luck would have it, we came in right by the American section. And, errrrm, some Vauxhalls



Pink Cresta is pink! Mind you, I guess Crestas were kinda a British Amercian car...



...although Ventoras were kinda a British German car. Reminds me of car-spotting in the Professionals and suchlike, lol



Funny how the first thing anyone ever does to a car is put alloys on it. Some cars just seem to suit wheeltrims though



Cavalier kit is.... werrlll. It's ah... it's um. I dunno really



That's better. A proper Yank muscle car...sorta. The Plymouth Duster was a sort of entry-level job really, though as with anything, you could spec it up. But largely it was kinda the XR2 on the other side of the Pond. Just bigger!





Personally, with a very few exceptions, American cars lost the plot very badly towards the end of the 70s and never got it back. This Firebird TransAm is rather the ultimate expression of how wrong it's got. Ada seems to like it though





The Thunderbird is another classic example, the later ones are truly horrific in every way. Early ones I have a lot of love for, though. especially the interiors



Never again will an accounts department sanction such utter lunacy in gauge form. And the world's a poorer place for it



This is a properly early one, a '57. IIRC this is the first year they had the porthole window in the optional hardtop.



and the fins reached for the skies



a more "traditional" interior, this was a sportscar back then. Well, in context. None of that swing-over steering column to make it easier for five-burger-a-day waistlines to get in



Faux wing vents are always plain wrong, mind



This was a serious powerplant back then. Still is, truth be told, with a little love



No display of Americana is complete without a Mustang fastback in Highland Green, of course



anyone ever actually seen the car chase in Bullitt? It's not actually very good, I'm here to tell you. Never have and never will understand why all the pundits put it number one all the time, sagely stroking their beards and nodding sagaciously in a fey and rather coy way. Lovely car, no question. But movie "experts" are tossers



This is cheating. I'd have been more impressed if this bloke had arranged his parking so all the GT logos were straight. Rather than taking the wheeltrims off and putting them back on square



This gold '69 Charger seems to be at every show, so just the one now. Nope, that it, that's your lot. Go read my other threads if you want more, lol



Unlike last year, when there were loads of Yank cars, this year seemed to be the year of the 'Rod. No bad thing in itself, although I am legendarily bad at identifying what they are. Or were. I'll have bash, though. Errrrm... a 32 Ford?



'33 Ford. Maybe



This one is absolutely, unarguably, a '39 Ford. Allegedly. Possibly



This one is... errrmmmm... ahhhhh... actually, WTactualF!?



On closer inspection, it appears that it's Rover V8! That's different. Must be a Buick, then...



It's a rat-rod, see? Rat rod, geddit?



This is a Ford. For a change. Flathead sidevalve thing





And this is... well, it's a Ford. Pickup. God, it's rough writing these threads, y'know. This one's orange as the MRC president's tan



And we all know the only thing better than a sorted hotrod is a sorted hotrod with a blower



I'm not sure if actually chosing your outfit to match your car is something to be applauded and afforded the correct respect, or if it's one of those face-palm-interface moments and a sad Spot-the-Cat-from-Hong-Kong-Phooey-noise moments. Make your own mind up, whichever it is, that's a lot of hyphens in anyone's money



Ooooh, actually the only thing better than a sorted hotrod with a blower is a sorted hotrod with a shiny set of velocity stacks





give it a minute, I'll change my mind again, lol. Compelling case though, innit? Think this is a Pop. Unless it's a Prefect. Or an Anglia. Did I mention I suck at old Ford ID-ing?



This one's an Anglia. I only know because there was much RR discussion on whether it was the car of the show.



It's certainly pretty bloody impressive, some awespicious engineering prowess on show, especially the interior (which was really hard to photograph, sorry). Car of the show, though? Hmmmm







By now, despite our stupidly early start, the place was starting to get properly full up and it was getting difficult to get good pics already. This was the main reason for my wanting to go on the Friday, to miss the excessive crowds, but it wasn't to be. However, it did mean that if, for example, you wanted to take a photo of something as utterly humongous as a Pontiac Catalina, you could forget it. Add the really poor light levels that meant the ISO number was stratospheric on the camera, and I can only apologise for the appalling standard of photography in this thread. Anyway, here's as much of the Catalina as I could get a clear shot at



Shame, cos it was a proper trippy paintjob with scallops and sparkles and LEDs illuminating it all. Bummer



As befits the longest production run sportscar the world will ever see (might have made that bit up. No, actually that sounds about right) there are always plenty of Corvettes at these things.



They were well jammed in and there was no way I was going to be patient enough for a decent pic overall. Never mind, as I always rant about, it's all in the details



Old vs New. Nice



Nash were a very un-American undertaking in many ways, producing small cars with handling and light weight a consideration, little engines without massive cubes and cutesy European handling. Despite the Metropolitan being perhaps the dinkiest American runabout evar, it does boast one of the most preposterous mascots of all time



Given that it takes about a week to walk around the immense bulk of a Lincoln Continental, there was no chance of getting a pic of that either without fools in the way, so it's details again



The dash is stark contrast to the mad curves of the exterior, with it's unrepentantly square clocks and nasty stick on faux imitation fake pretend wood!



The original boulevard cruiser, an Impala. You have no idea how long I had to wait for this shot, lol. This is a proper '59, just like Ramon from Cars



matched in length and ostentatiousness only by this '54 Caddy Type 62. Lovely paint on this that didn't really come out in the pics. You'll just have to take my word



An Americanism that's catching on ever more strongly here is the idea of the Shop Truck. A workhorse that still looks cool and advertises your business even stood doing nothing, even more so when you're tootling around in it. And if it's all about grabbing attention then quite frankly there's little that trumps a gargantuan Ford F5 tow truck. On air



Like Mater's bigger, cooler brother. Except he wasn't a Ford

[Lucky]

This next one's more than a bit special, easily one of my cars of the show. Whitewalls and big moondisc hubcaps speak of an era redolent of elegance and class, of blatantly shouting what you had via timeless style and luxury



although the interior is surprisingly tight for such a massive car.



albeit extremely well appointed. There are many cars today with less instrumentation, and certainly far less well constructed, lol. Mind you, if you think the interiors' sorted, you should see the outside...



Boom!



I believe this to be a Packard Super Eight of circa 1940. And it's gorgeous



Sharing stand space with the Packard was a Buick Super Dyna Flow straight-eight which to be fair was no less amazoid



...although much harder to get a full picture of. So you'll have to make do with little vignettes. I can only assume this must have been restored, but the job's a good 'un with microscopic attention-to-detail



I imagine finding one of these sunshades is a bit of a challenge nowadays. Excellent thing!



I guess the dash didn't leave the factory in these colours, maybe it did. Anyone know? Write in and let us in on it if you do



The Buick Ventiports at the time of this beastie were a sure-fire guide to engine size. The straight eight was much more affected in length by the capacity of the cylinders than later V8s were, and the Roadmaster with the bigger engine needed an extra long bonnet, hence gained an extra ventiport over the Super's three. So now you know. Later the fourth ventiport came to denote the body size of the car rather than the engine, before reverting to three or four to show V6 or V8 engines in later years still. Confused?



Anyhoo, this one only had three so it's the smaller, almost insignificant 272cu i engine producing a majestic 90-odd bhp. Lol. Only in America!



You wouldn't want one running over your foot, mind



One of the best things about this world of ubiquitous internet intrusion and shared identity is that anyone who has any level of affection for anything, no matter how mundane, trivial or perverse, can seek out-like minded individuals... or freaks, as they're also known... and wallow in a self-affirming orgy of gestalt geekiness. Or, as it's also called, an owner's club. Nowhere is this trait so pronounced as in the car world. Now any model, once derided as the sole preserve of misers, those bereft of any style or taste, or the embarrassingly insane, now has an owners club of anywhere from nonchalant to rabid enthusiasm.

In the bad old days of the last century (yes, I'm listening to King Crimson's 21st Century Schizoid Man as I write) the faff of mailing lists, stamps and the difficulty of seeking out fellow sufferers...ahhhh, enthusiasts... through the medium of the small ads or whatever "ahem... Chairman of the British Leyland Unloved Uglies Association seeks like-minded individuals to huddle together in a damp church hall and compare their shared love of beige, unreliable SOHC shonkers, home-cut Kelloggs gaskets and a faint smell of burnt coolant/oil mist. Reply C/O Billy N. O'Mates, PO Box 13 (unlucky for some haha)"... kept the formation of single-interest niche-model clubs to a minimum. Now, the emancipatory power of the INterNetZ means even these social pariahs have a thriving community of shared misery. And, most relevantly, a stand at the NEC Classic Motor Show. Bear witness....



Should we care about the Metro Owners Club, then? Really? Yes, actually, you damned well ought to. Because without the humble Metro, beloved shopping trolley of Mrs Miggins, geography teachers and assault grandmas everywhere, we would never have had



one of the most insane, bonkers, vicious



brutal, uncompromised, pure and unalloyed



rally weapons ever to be unconvincingly homologated from the unlikeliest of cars. Ladies and germs, I give you the Metro 6R4. If you're not stirred to tears by now, go and check your pulse and then have a nice sit down and a cup of tea. There, there





There really ought to be a word in the English Language for "glorious insanity". I bet the Germans have one, they have a word for everything, simply by their humorous technique of squashing lots of words together until they make one, admittedly long and preposterous, word. Bet they have a word for "Metro 6R4"



And still on the subject of owners clubs for everything, never will you see such a formidable display of formation hard parking as that on show on the Heinkel/Trojan/Isseta/Messerschmidt/whatever bubble car stand;



Wonderful little eccentricities from a more innocent age when the solution to urban traffic problems involved making smaller vehicles, not massive ones and then trying unconvincingly to offset their horrendous net pollution and congestion deficit with feeble and ill-conceived electrical snake oil. I mean, imagine, the foolishness... how could small, nimble, economical, cheap, frugal, simple, easy to manufacture vehicles be in any way a solution to dwindling resources and increasing overcrowding? (This is sarcasm, by the way. If you're struggling, go and sit and have a cup of tea with the 6R4 haters)



Messerschmidt is my own personal favourite, not least because it's like a little fighter plane without the wings. And fuselage. And tail. And cannon... ahhhh. Bad analogy. OK, it's like a fighter plane cockpit. On wheels. You could drive it making "achtung, Schpitfeur" and "buddabuddabudda" machine-gun noises whilst wearing a flying hat and goggles though, and I'm sure no-one would mind. Bandits at ten o'clock? Why that gives us two hours yet! Get the kettle on, Ginger!



It even has an aeroplane-style tiller steering "wheel"! Minimalist dash takes "austere" and runs with it



Jowett was a rarity in the British car industry in that it managed to die all by itself without waiting to succumb to the creeping malaise that eventually claimed the rest of the once-glorious marques. Still, at least the Bradford (hence the "Bradford" van once a mainstay of the delivery industry) and latterly Blackburn-based firm managed some greats before they shuffled off, more a victim of Britain winning the War but losing the Peace than anything else. No wonder, given how much ironmongery they needed for each car, lol



This gaping Javelin demonstrates some of the innovative technology they implemented, the way the grille folds up under the bonnet to improve access. Or maybe they expected owners to spend a lot of time under the bonnet fixing stuff?



Order of the Road, presumably, for extraordinarily sanctimonious drivers of the 50s



Jupiter was a sporty little number for its day and even boasted a nice handlebar moustache just like Brigadier-General Fortescue-Smythe (ret) who was presumably the intended clientele.



Innovative flat-four OHV with twin Zeniths could perhaps have made a more convincing performance case for the proposed export market that was seen as Jowett's salvation. It would have dramatically increased their allocation of rationed materials such as steel had it been a major success



This is one thriving owners' club it is unarguably good to see, keeping salient points of British engineering heritage alive that perhaps were otherwise lost through no fault of their own, just circumstances conspiring against them



I like the dash on the Jupiter, although the slanted steering wheel would presumably inflict insanity and acute lumbago in short order. Liking very much not-very-period radio, but only because I covet its rotary-engine motif knobs



Another late, lamented British marque is



oh, come on! Allard, obviously! Sydney Allard was one of the great tradition of British sporting manufacturers, a man of singular dedication and application. Mostly to making the sort of cars he enjoyed driving, with some success it must be said. He set speed records at the Brighton Trials, rallied with success and is seen as the father of British Drag racing when he brought the concept back from the States post-war. He tended towards cars that were simply a means of tying the biggest, hairy-arsedest monster of an engine to as little periphery as was strictly necessary to get it to run and drive. These tended towards big Chrysler V8s but he wasn't fussy; he used Ford flatheads to great effect and dabbled with Buick, Caddy and Olds as well. The J2 is perhaps the ultimate expression; a car much like the Lotus 7 but for those who'd thought about "adding lightness" but decided "adding obscene amounts of grunt" was a better proposition



Huge banjo steering wheel, rev counter, fuel and temp. That's all you need. The speedo is on the passenger side, presumably to give them something to focus on besides screaming.



The Palm Beach (yes, that's what it was called. Dunno why. Madness can't be ruled out) was a different proposition. Designed to cash in on the export market for small, light and nimble British roadsters, they were initially available with the four-cylinder engine from the Ford Consul, the MkII moving to Jaguar straight-six XK power.



The beauty of the hand-built small-volume nature of Allard Cars was the bespoke variation in spec. Customers could order a stripped-out racer or a fully-trimmed cruiser. Like this rather pretty example


There was even one with a v8 shipped to one customer. Must have been lively!



This is how you were more likely to see one, though; stripped down, race numbers, no bumpers, huge airscoop, barrelling along stages and hillclimbs



In fact, there was a stand by the Allard one with several examples of great British post-war gentleman's expresses. No idea what the stand was, but it was compelling viewing. By way of illustration;



Bristol 405. I've always had a soft spot for Bristols, not just because the word itself reminds me of one of my favourite things in the whole world, but also because of their innovative, excellently-engineered, stylish, fast, capable and downright pretty vehicles.



No idea why it has a spotlight in the nose, It just does.



No two Bristol dashes seem to be identical, though I'm sure they must be. The steering wheel seems to be retrimmed with Leatherface's leftover snippets



Also here was a fine old Lanchester that proved completely impossible to get a full photo of externally, so you'll have to make do with one of the art deco radio-style dash layout



and a big Healey that showed of curves that can only really be described as "voluptuous"



Hmmmm



Dash is not so much a nice veneer as apparently hewn out of a mighty forest oak in a single massive slab



Excellent "whiplash" line from the front fender down to the rear and up again. Mmmm, whiplash. Sorry, still thinking about the word "voluptuous"



The Cobra Club had some excellent examples just next door, including some nice narrow-arch older cars. I always seem to end up with loads of Cobra pics though, so I tried to limit my excesses here.



and to be fair, who isn't a little bit excited by the sight of just quite so many Webers, lol





Oddly, the next stand across seemed to be something to do with freemasonry, although I guess given how many circuit judges, MPs, senior Rozzers and other well-heeled and affluent loonies can boast affiliation, I guess it shouldn't be a a surprise they can afford a couple or three nice, rare and expensive motors. Such as this C-type



Again, a proper race-inspired dash



There was one car that really stood out, though. Fortunately Ada seemed to make friends very quickly with the very kind and polite gent on the stand (maybe he knew the right handshake) and the dude was more than kind enough to let us in for a better look



can you tell what it is yet, lol? Got canards! And you thought your glue-on JDMy0 carbon fibre ones were a bit modern and trendy, eh? I tell you what, though, just look at the quality of that rivetting!



HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE brake drums and proper engineering going on in the suspension and steering links. Make no mistake, this is an out-and-out hairy-chested race car...



....but of course, being Italian, it also has to be stunningly beautiful to look at as well. Dunno, it's like the law or something





...albeit astonishingly uncomfortable to drive, given how tight the cockpit is. So narrow in fact, the brake and accelerator are on one side of the transmission tunnel and the clutch the other side. They bred drivers tough back then!



This is, of course, a Maserati 250F, a Grand Prix-conquering racer of the 50s. As Ada's suited friend so nonchalantly declaimed, this one was simply a customer team car. Had it been one driven by Moss or Fangio, it would have been in the millions of pounds, rather than the paltry hundreds of thousands this one was worth. Joking aside, great thanks are owed to the guy for letting two scruffy herbets in FD:UK hoodies come in past the ropes and poke around his telephone-number-value charge for the day, asking stupid questions and taking slightly awestruck photos. Show some respect, please

[Lucky]

This big old Sunbeam was another car that simply reeked of an era when British engineering stood for something.



My favourite bit being the fold-up extra seat in the boot, which of course required special little footholds to be created for the gentry to access their impromptu seat. And a separate windscreen! All of which begs the question would it not have been easier just to design the car as a four-seater in the first place? Ahhh, but where's the fun in that?



Chevettes are of course the best car the world's ever seen (in-joke) so the only thing better would have to be a wide-arched one, surely? Minilites make any car cool, anyway. And no trace of partisanship there, I assure you



I've always had a soft spot for Deloreans, and have wittered on endlessly about them in past threads. Not that anyone ever reads them...



...so I'll refrain from gushing too much here. Suffice to say there's a fair bit of DMC lurrve about in here.



I think they're one of those designs that was either timeless or so hopelessly dated at launch that it actually never goes out of style. That might be me talking bull as usual. It's still funny how Giugiaro spent his entire career essentially knocking out cars that all looked exactly the bloody same, yet they all somehow managed a fresh and unique identity. I guess that's the thin line between genius and madness



Anyway, the Delorean OC always have a well-appointed display, not just the cars but models and clothing (ahem... apparel, no doubt). Most impressive



Not that you really need to over-egg the pudding when the car has such a cool party trick!



In fact, perhaps the only let-down (other than the engine which is adequate in it's own right, but just not what it should have been. The car deserves a lump as bonkers as the exterior) is the slightly fusty interior that's the only part that has dated.



The Imp was one of the great little car success stories, and it seems there have been just about as many versions of them as there are cars still around. This one's a Sunbeam, so I guess strictly speaking it's a Sport rather than an Imp



I'm not entirely sure how you make a rear-engined car into an estate, but I guess it didn't stop VW from making one into a van. It actually looks like a hearse for midgets to me. This'll be a Hillman Husky then, the coffin-carrying roofline made necessary by the engine stuffed under the floor



While we're talking about strange concepts, this next one's definitely a bit of an oddity



Panther Westwinds produced bespoke cars throughout the 70s, with some success it must be said. They had the distinction of mostly pre-war styling with modern underpinnings and equipment, and were defined by outrageous pricing. The DeVille was for many years the most expensive car listed for sale in the UK. Luminaries such as Ollie Reed and Elton John apparently had one. So not at all overblown then. They were based on Jag v12 engines, tube chassis of Panther's own design and bodywork that was supposed to mimic Bugatti's Royale. Hmmm. Well, you can make your own mind up on that last bit... Only eleven convertibles were made, so this is a rare old thing in anyone's language



Perhaps even rarer was the Panther Solo. Only 18 were made, several exported and one used as a crash test mule. Allegedly only eight remain in the UK



The owner was very chatty and happy to show us round the car. It was explained as to the exact reason why the mid-engined Ford Cosworth lump was offset and angled to one side, as well as how difficult it was to then mate all the running gear up to it, but I'd glazed over a bit by then and none if it is still lodged in my memory



The owner got a bit more grumpy when we asked if we could see how the pop-up headlights worked, because when they're down it's hard to envisage what they'll be like when up... or even how they'll achieve this. We found out why this was a major deal for him, because it meant re-connecting the battery... which meant chucking all his stuff out of the car so he could lift the passenger seat and then fumble about balancing the seat on his head whilst trying to re-connect the battery terminals underneath. So please have consideration for how much effort went into getting this next pic, lol. For future reference, they rotate on the front-rear axis



So, more Bristols, then. Mmmmm, Bristols....



This one's a 401, designed by Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera. Bristol had spent the War making aeroplanes (funnily enough, that was their primary business, after all) but turned to cars afterwards, making BMW-engined and stylistically echoing grand tourers.



The dashboards were always an engrossing thing to look at, with bespoke dials in a variety of Art Deco forms and Bluemels steering wheels, elegant controls. Lovely







The first car to be produced on the Frazer-Nash licence was the 400, a BMW 328 engine on a 326 pre-war frame and a steel body based on the 327.



You can see the BMW influence clearly in the kidney nostril grille. This is a later version, as proved by the spare wheel being mounted outside the boot, rather than inside which intruded into the already tight passenger compartment on earlier cars.



On later models, such as this 403, Bristol brought some of their innovation in design to bear and the spare wheel was packaged in otherwise wasted space, in a flip-open compartment in the wing behind the front road wheel. You can really see the benefit of Bristol's past in aeroplane manufacture in the slippery shape of the car here



These cars were considerably improved in performance over the earlier iterations, and Bristol introduced all-wheel Allfin drum brakes (aluminium finned) but later reduced these to front wheel only as the car was actually over-braked for its 105mph performance!



No idea about the clearly aftermarket hare mascot though. Not a clue what the story is there



Skip forwards several years to the late 70s, through to the 90s, and we have the 412 or Beaufighter cars, named after the legendary plane. These benefitted from a deal to run Chrysler V8 of a mere 6-odd litre displacement as well as Zagato styling (sometimes called "challenging", sometimes "striking". Sometimes "hideous"). Whatever else they were, they weren't slow. Sadly, all my exterior shots sucked donkeys so you have to be content with this one that proves at least Bristol hadn't lost the knack of turning out a beautifully-appointed dash



Despite lingering on with a variety of low-volume models such as the Blenheim, Bristol finally succumbed to the inevitable fate that seems to be the lot of all British manufacturers, and went into receivership in 2011. Which is a bit of a shame, because their last hurrah as of 2004 had been the new Fighter



which is a bit of a thing. Featuring as it does one of these



and let's be honest, any car that features a 7-litre Dodge Viper V10 has to be worthy of some love, even without the gullwing doors, dramatic styling and luxurious, well-appointed and spacious cabin that can accommodate anyone up to 6 foot seven! I can only apologise for the crap photos, mind. The car was rammed with punters and it just wasn't possible to get a clear shot



Real bloody shame about Bristol going under. This thing can hit 62mph in four seconds and the traditionally excellent Bristol aerodynamics enable a top speed of 210mph! For the truly berserk owner, a turbo option could be specified, dropping the 0-62mph sprint by half a second and engorging the top speed to a frankly alarming claimed 225mph



And another couple of departed Brit marques next. First, the Standard Vanguard. Post-war this was sold as the most technologically advanced car in the world, and in fact it probably wasn't too much of an inflated claim. Funny hare-lip styling though...



The Standard Ensign was much-used by the Forces, apparently. This wagon certainly has some presence. I was glad to see this because I had a photo of a de-badged one converted to a drag car that I'd been trying to identify what it was for ages. The swage line into the rear doors was instantly recognisable. Hurrah, another mystery solved



The Triumph 1800 Roadster is another wonderfully swoopy car that puts the word voluptuous in my head. Mmmm. This weeks' Sesame Street has been brought to you by the demise of the British car industry and the word "voluptuous", lol. Triumph became a subsidiary of Standard post-war, of course, and ultimately led to the famous TR series roadsters



The badge was in no way self-aggrandising and designed to imply Triumph products bestrode the world like a colossus. Oh no, actually, that's exactly what it was supposed to do. Britain firmly centre of the globe...



....oh, look. A TR-series roadster! Almost as if it was pre-planned to work this way. No-one appreciates the work that goes in here behind the scenes, y'know...
Anyway, this is a TR2. You can tell by the recessed smiley grille



Interior is robust but well-appointed



The TR5 was a half-way house, keeping the Michelotti-styled body of the '4 but introducing the six-cylinder engine that would continue into the '6. This was very modern car, with fuel injection, disc front brakes, rack and pinion steering and a host of other engineering innovations.



...not very much like the ill-starred TR7 then. Still, it's impossible to ignore even now. Designed by Harris Mann (who also penned the equally wedgey Princess) and billed as "The Shape of Things to Come" it's only a shame it wasn't also the shape of reliability to come. Perhaps it was never going to transcend the ugly death throes of the Leyland conglomerate...



Another legendary name, with even more unshakeable ties to Coventry than Triumph, the Coventry Climax company and engines have been in more things than Cassanova. Literally the engine that launched a thousand race cars, forklifts, fire engine pumps, street cars.... etc, repeat to fade... The badge with Lady Godiva, of course, reflects her origins as a Coventry girl. If you go down the main drag at closing times you can still see plenty of young ladies emulating her famous streak through the city, wearing not much more in the way of clothes...



Not often you see a little Austin given the hot rod treatment. Cute li'l thing, innit



I love the ill-fated MG SVR X-power things. Despite the fact they consistently seem to feature appalling offset fails.



Designed by Peter Stevens (yep, the same guy who either saved or ruined the Esprit, depending on your viewpoint) apparently to look like it was a kitcar, boshed together on the basis of the Qvale Mangusta (nee de Tomaso) , manufactured in Italy (Modena, no less) and finished in the rather less glamorous surroundings of Longbridge, it's a miracle any of them ever ran at all, let alone made it into production!



Shoved along by a Ford L-series V8 of about 4.6 litres, they are capable of around 175 mph and featured carbon fibre bodywork for lightness. Of course, this guaranteed a humongous price tag and only 82 were completed. Not every day you see Cobra and MG logos in the same shot, though



although it must be said, MGs are not necessarily strangers to an embarrassment of powerz, as evidenced by this very subtle supercharger setup on this old racer.



Love these old Jaeger dials, did I mention that?



The paddock that contained Bonhams auction cars was roped off and surrounded by polite but uncooperative flunkies, which was a shame because there were some cool as cars in there but I couldn't get anywhere near most of them. A couple that did come out were this excellent and street-ready looking RS200



and the unmistakeable wedge profile of a Ferrari 512 Berlinetta Boxer. Wen you compare this to the bloated monstrosity of the Testarossa that followed it, you realise what an amazing job they did of packaging the immense flat-12 boxer engine. Although arguably they did it by cheating and not leaving any room for normal sized humans with two legs in the cabin



There were a whole tranche of replica Stratos being flogged at last years show, but one is enough really. Fortunately, this one was sat on its little plinth looking just as mad as it first did all those years ago. Clarkson, of course, hates them. Which goes to show exactly how far away from understanding the culture on which they commentate a journalist can get when they start to believe the cult of their own personality. If it's too impractical, you're simply too old





The TVR owners stand ought to bring some shock and awe, and we weren't to be disappointed here. First thing to grab the attention was



none other than the White Elephant, rescued from the back lot of derelict cars behind the obsolete factory buildings and restored to former glory. This was once the MD Peter Wheeler's personal transport, a 5-litre Holden powerplant shoving the prototype bodywork along. It was decide this 185mph projectile was too dated for the 90s and Holden power deemed unsuitable, so the Griffith was born mere months later. Like, whut? Damn fine wheels on 'er, too



Oh, OK, I see what you mean about dated now. Mind you, still a fantastic piece of history. Wheeler used this as a shooting brake, having a modified dog basket incorporated into the floor behind the passenger seat for Ned the gundog, and a compartment in the boot to hold shotguns, cartridges and pheasant corpses!



Slightly more modern but with not much less shock and awe was the outrageously sculpted form of a race-prepped Sagaris



I understand the strakes and flaps were never intended for cooling purposes (a criticism often overheard "they haven't even got vents in, what's the point") but rather for aerodynamic efficiency, to affect laminar airflow and break drag. Or maybe it's just to look hard and alarming?



I tried my hardest to get a decent photo of the Z1 and it's party piece doors. Mostly, I failed. It's just one of those cars where as soon as you get the camera setup for a decent shot, some fool comes and sticks their mullet right in the middle of the shot. Even with Ada trying his best to herd punters out of the way by strategically walking in the way, this was the best we managed. Still, you get the idea. BMW, still bonkers after all these years, lol



Here's something a bit different then. If you get it from this first pic then award yourself several million concept car cognoscenti cool points.



This one'll give it away, then



ALthough it looks almost sane and normal from the front! This is of course, the Ogle Sotheby Special Aston Martin. Commissioned and paid for by WO Willis tobacco company in the early 70s, it was intended to be the poster boy for the new Sotheby range of ciggies and was originally in their blue and gold colourscheme. The brand failed, and it was repainted in the white and red of Embassy instead. Based on a one-off tube Reynolds tubing frame with the engine and running gear of an Aston V8, and fibreglass bodywork, the distinguishing features are many. You've already noticed the single-piece stainless rear panel with twenty-two rear lights. The harder the driver braked, the more lights were illuminated. The wraparound glass with bizarre privacy striping and stainless roof hoops are also clear to see, as are the concealed headlights revealed by flaps that folded down. The interior boasted an across-the-car rear seat, making it a strict three seater.



There were only two of these made, so this is a rare chance to see one as both are in the hands of private collectors. The second car featured carburettors rather than the fuel injection of this original, resulting in a large bonnet bulge to clear the Webers. The cars were named after David Ogle who penned the original design, albeit neither was built until after his death, the concept being realised by Tom Karen.



Should you wish to see more mundane and ordinary Astons, however, I can offer you the almost passe form of a DB5? Haha, illustrious company indeed when a DB5 is the average example of the marque on the stand



I guess this DB2 is a bit more special, if through no better reason than rarity. I always found the grille slightly clumsy, myself. I'd still have one, like, just sayin'



The Alfa stand proved frustratingly popular and the only photo I'd impose on your better nature with is of this lovely little Giulietta, de-bumpered and sporty



Likewise, the Maserati stand, which was a disappointement anyway. Last year it was stuffed with Khamsins, Boras, Meraks and all the evocative names of Orsi/Citroen/deTomaso ownership. This year, all I can offer you is some lovely period Zenits



and the extremely odd quilted motif on the c-pillar of a second-gen Quattroporte

[Lucky]

So, deTomaso Panteras then. Maybe it's just cos of when I was born, but these have always been one of my absolute top ten cars. Maybe it was the Matchbox replica, the way it destroyed almost everything except the Countach at Top Trumps, maybe just the exotic and intriguing sounding name. Or then again, it could be the stunning looks



Yeah, I guess I could be that shallow. Funnily enough, it's one of those cars that only ever gets mentioned in a collector context, in a sort of "you only want an early one, they ruined them later with all the spoilers and that" kinda way that pub authorities declaim rather pompously. Much like all those column inches written about the "purity of line" of the first Countach, blah blah blah...



...of course, this is only really of relevance to people with enough money, literally more than sense, who see a car only as an investment to be locked away. If you're of a more sensible disposition and understand that the sole purpose of a car is to drive, and actually use it for this purpose then you presumably understand that any Pantera is good. And funnily enough, they do seem to be a car people buy to actually drive. Happy days



Even though the cabin is not exactly what you'd call salubrious. Cosy, shall we call it?



The entire car, after all, is mostly somewhere to hold a humongous Ford Cleveland 351cu in V8, a ZF transaxle and some wheels. Actually giving the pilot somewhere to sit is of secondary importance







Whilst we're on the subject of Ford engines, I guess it'd be a travesty not to picture some big V8s in their most natural habitat



Rather like Cobras and Lotus 7s, I guess it was inevitable that GT40s would become a mainstay of the replica car world. After all, how can it fail? Amazing looks, race pedigree par excellance and err.. utter impracticality mean it's hard for any red-blooded trackday enthusiast to refuse their allure



Just add legendary race livery like this Gulf example for instant cred



I did like this photo before, because it shows the "nest of vipers" header configuration... that was before I noticed the twin Malpassi fuel pressure regulators the size of pedal bins. Up till then I was feeling quite pleased with my "manly" 82mm diameter one, but now its like a bad case of pee shyness at the pub urinals



Ferraris, then. If we must, I suppose



To be honest, they've never been my favourite things on four wheels (with notable exceptions) and I'm so traumatised by doing protracted battle with their ridiculous naming conventions on the Goodwood Italiano thread that I'm not even going to tell you what this one is or why. Write in if you like, lol. No prizes, it's just for fun



There are, however, undeniably some Ferraris that absolutely require a photo or two



This particular club certainly knew they had it made for shock and awe. Even my withered, cynical and stony heart can't fail but be lifted a bit by the sight of a stand combining an Enzo, F40, F50, 308GTB...yada yada...



Ada was like a cat who's just invented mouse-flavoured ice cream and queued up to get in for a closer look. I was a bit too meh to spend ages queuing. They operated a very sensible policy of only letting a handful of punters onto the stand at a time to minimise the damage from sticky fingers and belt buckles. As, not surprisingly, it was a very popular resort, the queue was long so me and Peedey (who'd showed up blithering on about a Hakosuka GTR he'd seen earlier) took a few perfunctory shots over the ropes and wandered off to look at Lamborghinis, leaving Ada in Fezza heaven





Broad chubby bum on that Enzo though, innit? Ferraris always suffer from being under-wheeled for me, too. Or am I just hyper-critical? Alright, I am, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong!



I'm gonna need some help on this one. My filename for this one lists it as a "Fiat wossname" and life's too short for me to spend hours floating around in Google Images trying to find one. Let us know if you know, lol. There must have been some reason I took the damned thing



Right, those Lamborghinis we talked about, then. It's funny, when you see a LM002 in isolation, bereft of a frame of reference it just looks like a big, blocky and ridiculously ugly 4x4 not too dissimilar from any other



It's only when you see it in close proximity to a familiar object, like, say a human being, you realise just what a preposterously gargantuan monstrosity it actually is. Like a 4x4 from an alien planet, designed for creatures vaguely human-shaped but half as big again. No wonder they develop the worst mpg of any vehicle this side of Thrust SSC



Those aforementioned Countach lines, then, blurred by modern additions of scoops and fins



Cos I mean, you wouldn't, would you? If someone offered you one cheap you'd come over all coy and fey and stroke your beard disinterestedly bleating about how you couldn't ever quite come to terms with the way Gandini's purity of original vision had been so cruelly brutalised... yeah, righto. You would, you know you would



This particular one is a bit special anyway, being some kind of 25th anniversary model apparently. Got dish...



and yes, I do realise the daftness of "special" Lambos, yes they're all special. I knew that. Jarama is nice, bit of a rare old thing even in its day.



Wish I could have got a shot with its bonnet down to emphasise the wedgey styling.



the plus side being that it did give us a chance to get a pic of the heart of the matter, that wonderful Bizzarinni V12



Vulgar and modern it may be, I reckon no-one's gonna complain about the stand finding space for a Murcielago SV



I have a perverse obsession with modern Lambo lights. There are little worlds all of their own in there, a rhapsody of projector nacelles and LED units spreading like blooming flowerheads. Or something *cough*. Anyway, ahem.



And this, of course, is how it all started. Ferrucio Lamborghini, gentleman farmer and doge of a thriving tractor empire, so fed up with his Ferraris' unreliability and the company's "meh" atttitude to customer service, motivated to build street cars to blow the Fezzas into the weeds. Its rumoured that Bizarrinni was offered a cash bonus for every single horsepower above the Ferrari V12 his powerplant made. Obviously not an issue on this little 2241R...



But of course, it's not all about power. It's also about looking fine in suspenders and stockings. Well, in my head it is, anyway. For many people, that's always been just as important a part of supercar ownership, and perhaps for Lamborghini one car has always been a blessing and a curse



A blessing because it's unarguably one of the most beautiful automotive forms ever penned. A curse because it's a bitch of an act to follow!



Yeah, those legendary eyelashes are surefire giveaway, aren't they? Isn't it funny how they're one of the most admired styling cues when they're on a Miura but on a modern BMW Mini Twisted-Abortion-Clubman or whatever they actually induce an almost uncontrollable need to vomit in anyone unlucky enough to see one?



Anyway. The Lamborghini Miura. Please be upstanding



Not completely sure why this was paired up with a Ferrari 208GTB turbo. Unusual engine configuration, but it does look lovely in that 308/288GTO shape that was such a definitive profile in my Matchbox-swapping youth. Nice candy colour paint too



911s are another car that everyone else loves but somehow just don't move me and never have. Yeah, I know I'm not normal, but they just don't. With that said, I do admire the engineering prowess and the way they've stuck with it to produce one of the most efficient sports packages ever. More importantly, I love nice bit of Candy Apple Red



However, sharing stand space with that Carrera 4 was a Beetle that frankly made the Porsche look a bit piss poor and ordinary, despite sharing a colourscheme!



Ada did try to educate me about the various difference between categories of modified Beetles, but to be honest my puny brain gave up Winnie-the-Pooh style before he'd got very far, so I can't tell you what style of Bug this is. Race modified or something. All I saw was the carbon fibre poking through the flawless paint like a little flash of stocking-top. Errrr... brought to you by the words "voluptuous" AND "stocking-top", it seems. Ah, well. Seems I really am a pervert as well as weird



There's a lot of plumbing going on in here. Several Weber IDAs need a lot of juice, I guess. Nice fan



More carbon fibre inside in the race-orientated dash and fittings. Lovely



There's another German marque we haven't mentioned yet, I believe, and it's even better known than Heinkel to be fair. Sadly, there was an example of perhaps their most iconic and awe-inspiring car on display, but in no way was it possible to get even a half-way clear shot of it. So you'll have to make do with snippets



This big straight-six lump with its very early example of mechanical fuel injection had to be laid over to one side of the engine bay, which is why all original SLs were left-hand drive.



although I think it's fair to say it's remembered more for its party piece doors than anything else. Unless you're proper enthusiast material in which case you probably still get misty-eyed over Stirling Moss' Mille Miglia victory and Jenks' invention of the rallying roadbook... in which case award yourself several internetz cool points and go off for a self-congratulatory polish of you Order of the Road medallion. lol, someone must know what they were all about



Some marques don't really need to shout themselves up. After all, no-one with even the most perfunctory interest in motoring or cars can be unaware that Bugatti hold some of the absolute crown jewels. They've produced some of the most expensive and desirable cars ever, from the immense Royals designed for kings and emirs with engines so powerful the surplus were used in locomotives, the most beautiful shapes such as the Atalantiques, the most successful over-the-counter privateer racers ever such as the Type 35s



in all their variations



with supercharged or N/A engines that nestled in chassis and engineering so gorgeous it could have been intended for museum display rather than racetrack abuse



....wonderful gentleman's racers such as this one-off Type 51



IIRC this one was re-bodied at some point pre-war and was rediscovered hidden in a Paris sewer boasting the unknown bodywork on top of a Type 38 supercharged engine and chassis. It's since been separated from the impromptu running gear and returned to a 51 chassis so both can continue as separate cars.



...and of course, the fastest thing ever to be sold over the dealers' counter off the forecourt (well, in theory), the Veyron Super Sport World Record Edition, for when the normal 250mph of the "stock" Veyron simply isn't enough and you actually need that 267mph potential....



....so with all this in mind, it seems slightly unfair that they also had the prettiest ladies as greeters on their stand



...who were much in demand for posed photos all day long. Perhaps it was their cross of 1920s Flapper and Ann Summers catalogue girl dress code, I dunno

[Lucky]

Classic and Sportscar Magazine had a feature the month before the Motor Show about the cars the Beatles used to own, and there was a display of the cars from the feature in one of the hall entrances. For some odd reason whoever put on the display had booked a stand big enough for three cars, which was a real shame as it had to accommodate four, plus stupid cardboard cutouts of the Beatles themselves, in case there were any show-goers who might have actually been rescued from a jungle swamp on Guadalcanal where they'd still been fighting the Second World War for the last sixty years and thus were unaware of what the Beatles looked like. Certainly, I can't imagine anyone else on Planet Earth doesn't? So, it proved impossible to get a good photo of the cars and again, you'll have to make do with details.



George was apparently the true petrolhead of the crew, as evidenced by his choice of one of the finest-handling mid-engined sportsters of the age, the Ferrari Dino. Whose spidery Compagnalo wheel that just was



Lennon was allegedly an appalling driver, treating the accelerator like an on/off switch and this was especially alarming when coupled with his taste in stupendously powerful behemoths like this Iso Fidia, shoved along by a 5.4 litre Chevy V8



Ringo, despite being a preposterous buffoon responsible for crimes against music such as that vocal on Yellow Submarine, showed surprisingly good taste in cars. In fact, his choice is also one of my all-time favourites.



the high-speed gentleman's club on wheels that is the Facel Vega. Mmm, sumptuous!



And you thought French cars were all about horrid little tinfoil shopping cart hatchbacks or glorious Citroen insanity, eh? The Facel Vega was an awesome thing, thrust delivered by the Chrysler DeSoto Hemi 275 cu in V8 meaning it was a truly quick car whilst cosseting the occupants in wonderful luxury. A genuine GT in every respect



Just look at that dash, one of my faves. Ringo might have had respectable taste in cars, but I'm still not sure if that's enough to forgive or forget Thomas the Tank Engine



And McCartney? He had a DB6. But you don't wanna see that. He's proof that only the good die young, and nothing will ever excise the appalling crimes against humanity that were Mull O'Kintyre and the Frog Chorus. So, moving on, how about a nice Bentley?



Not a bad way to sell insurance, as this seemed to be the centrepiece on some insurance company or other's stand. A blower Bentley. Mmmm.



No wonder the string-backed driving glove so beloved of codgers everywhere was developed; sawing away on that sisal-covered 36-inch wheel must have inflicted blisters the size of plums on unprotected flesh!



Nice Beetle. Again, Ada did tell me which "-style" this was, but it's long gone now. I like the rear wheel spats though. Like a speed record car. Only really really slow



I took about eight almost-identical versions of this one as it was illuminated by colour-changing LEDs and I couldn't decide which one I liked best. To be honest I'm still not sure but I thought you might get fed up if I posted them all



A few random snippets next. Nice to see a legendary car given a new lease of life. If I understand this aright, this is a homage to the 1937 Chevrolet used by Fangio in the Turismo Carretera series in his native Argentina. It competed in the 2013 Paris to Peking Rally, sponsored by Evans waterless coolant which seems to be acquiring quite a reputation. I wonder how it works with rotary engine water seals...



Not quite identical to Fangio's baja-styles original beastie, but a cool homage nonetheless.



An Aston Martin DB5 engine bay. Dunno why. Nice though, innit?



Some very early Citroen deux chevaux. ANd to think the prototypes of these were concealed by burying from the NAzi invasion force as they were considered a national treasure to avoid falling into enemy hands. Loving the straked fullers for strength in the cheap and substandard steel construction. Mmm, all cars should be ribbed for extra sensory pleasure



There really can't be many of these wee beasties left running around. I remember a mate's dad having one of these from new and even back in the days of black and white it had already started rusting. You could actually hear the thing rot from twenty paces, it went through that quickly!



Still, I suppose they did sell a gazillion X1/9 in various versions, so there must still be some left. And that Bertone styling is still funky today



Lancia seem to always manage to represent with a severely entertaining selection of cars at the show. I guess this is made easy by having so many utterly jaw-dropping cars in their history, such as this lovely humpty-backed Aprilia



Now, there's a C-pillar on a car that was never envisaged having to filter into the crush of the M25 from a short filter lane...



We all love Fulvias don't we? Classic diminutive yet prodigiously capable race and rally slag, typical Italian slightly effete good looks. What's not to like?



As is often the case, the Zagato version is almost unrecognisable from the "donor" car. I still can't make my mind up, not better, just different. And reminiscent of the Citroen SM, oddly



And this is what it's all about; that amazing tour de force of engine packaging that is the narrow-angle V4. So narrow an angle that both "banks" of cylinders are able to share a single head. Awesome thing



Remember way back when this thread was young and the dinosaurs still roamed the Earth, we discussed how Giugiaro managed to essentially design the exact same looks into every car but still retain an individuality on them all? Well here's another



The Lancia Beta Montecarlo coupe. This seems to be one of those cars where there's no such thing as a standard car, they're all furkled about with to some degree. This one gave me a chuckle as I was admiring it and some lugubrious Brummie declared to his mate "It's a Ferrari. Must be, hers got Ferrari lights on the back". Oh yeah, so it has.



One of very few cars where it's hard to imagine it'd look better with dished wheels. Dunno why I thought that, but it's true innit



There seemed to be quite a variety of engines. From what you'd expect, the Lancia twin-cam four



to blown Alfa conversions



But this was the one that really caught the attention;



Yeah, they were rocking a proper full-fat rally Montecarlo, complete with most impressive engine packaging (mega short-run turbo setup, for example), one-piece lift-up widearch clamshells, slicks on wiiiiiiiide wheels, ooooh. I'm getting all unnecessary again now



Martini colours too, proper. As has many times been avowed on these threads, everything looks better painted in booze or fags livery





And so from one legend of motosport to another



Oh come on, really? Stop sniggering at the back, Skoda have been genuine contenders at times. Ok, let's try this one then;



Nice little sporty-looking drop top, yeah? Slightly dated lines but pretty enough. Can't quite place the look? Yep, it's an early Felicia. Awesome



What about this then? Could be the back of a late 30s American saloon, or some Brit big beast like a Humber or something, even an old Lancia



But it is of course one of the rarest cars in the show, a Skoda 1102



Groovy innit? No, I'm not kidding. You need to get yourself out of the habit of sniggering every time the word Skoda is mentioned. Just look at it, it's wonderful!



Dashboard takes minimalist to a new errr... height? I guess the roads weren't up to much in the Mladá Boleslav area in the late 1940s, you probably didn't really need to worry about how fast you were going



Some designs have a purity all of their own and no matter what is done to them it proves almost impossible to improve on what was original. This next car might be a case in point. In fact, from a little section it's probably pretty tricky to even tell what it is



Hmmm. Nice colour, I guess. It does prove how all Alec Issigonis' timeless design needs is a set of wide arches and Minilites poking out. This is... ahh.... errm. Wrong, I think is the word.



Awesome Rover Viking mascot is awesome. Grrr! Fierce!



Another of my favourites now, and a mainstay of the Classic Show. They always have a great stand, with enthusiastic owners happy to chat... although not enthusiastic in that sorta bus-spotter adenoidal way of all too many single marque obssessives. These are people you're actually comfortable chatting to without constantly eyeing up potential escape routes as you get backed into a corner with relentless "ere, and I tell you another thing, the 1929 Rudge Sidevalve Flangethrust torque convertor arrangement was the first in the world to feature reciprocating pinion spine-locked trunion grommets an all, though everyone thinks it was them Germans wot done it first on the schnell Eingriffsflansches Ritzel in the 1927 Straße und Schiene Obliterator.... wait, where are you going, I only just started..." Ahem.... anyway, these;



And yes, it is German but fortunately without any Ritzels. To be honest, these extremely sexy little coupes are a well-kept secret, being pretty rare over here. Most were for the domestic market or shipped to the lucrative American sportster sector. They are, of course, Opel GTs



And how cool is it having a 1:18th scale replica of your actual car, right down to the wheels and red-top engine conversion, on the parcel shelf? NO rear hatch or door of any kind on these, by the way, any luggage space was strictly accessible only via the cabin! And who says the Germans are all efficiency and no fun, eh? Oh yeah, and that aftorementioned red-top conversion?



According to the owners we were chatting to, this is a common-ish upgrade for the slightly asthmatic 1.1 litre OHV or 1.9 litre OHC original engines. Does require a bit of packaging, though. These cars are tiny, and needed bonnet bulges as stock to even fit the carburettor on! The interiors are surprisingly accommodating, though



Despite featuring pop-up headlights, they have a slightly unique take on them which makes for a good party trick. Both headlights are rotated up anti-clockwise using a crank handle under the dashboard. No electrics here, nothing to fail. Just a big linkage. How very teutonically efficient! It takes one turn of the handle for the lights to rotate all the way up, along a front-rear axis like the one on the Panther Solo we saw earlier



And they lend a certain bug-eyed charm to the looks of the car that is so sleek with them lowered



And while we're at it, how about a few more random German slices of interest? Maybe a nice orange late Manta engine bay? Honestly, is there a single GM product that those Vauxhall boys haven't stuck that engine into?



A 924 with very tokenistic Martini stripes? Odd. Was this an official colourscheme, anyone know?



And it's been a few posts since we had one of Hitler's favourite runabouts, so we must be overdue another one. Here we are;



have a couple! I know it's blasphemy for me to say this, heresy even amongst Veedub congnoscenti, but I actually prefer the later style of Beetle with the bigger rear windows in them



There, I've said it. If you don't hear from me again you'll know I've been hunted down and killed by the VW equivalent of the Mossad, the Online Aircooled Scene Police. I like the wee Pope's nose numberplate light, though



My brother crashed our old family Beetle into a tree when he was about eighteen, ended up with the raised Wolfsburg castle-and-wolf logo from the steering wheel embossed into his sternum in bruise. Served him right



WTF is this all about, then? Did they? Really? Blimey!

[Lucky]

Without Rich/Phil (now known as Eeyore) and his abnormal ability to decipher Detroit windscreen sticker VIN plates, we were unable to ascertain if this;



was genuine or not. I'm guessing probably not, given who stupidly valuable that would make it, but anyway, it certainly looks the part



and after all, there was an actual genuine 350 parked up at this years Mopar Nats, just in the paddock. You'd have thought putting something like that in the concourse it'd walk it all day long, but I guess if you're cool enough to have a genuine Shelby GT you can afford a bit of nonchalance.



To be fair, even if this kiddie isn't a real one you still would, wouldn't you?



Been a while since we've had a 308-shaped thing, so here's one. From the plate, I have some vague recollection this was once owned by a member of a certain popular modern beat combo. That'll teach me to do these threads nearer the time I took the pics, so I can actually remember some of these things



I love old racing cars. I love the engineering on them, which in many ways is superior and uses better materials to what you see on modern cars. So it's just as well the Vintage clubs brought some along for us to trunk at then. Check out the supercharger/SU carb assembly on here!



And this old Era has some serious presence. (No, not that kind of Era...)



Just look at the tough elegance in these suspension linkages. Rhapsody in metal



and you have to love and respect any car that's, like, a century old and yet has a boost gauge front and centre on the dash



Here's another bit of very humble and self-effacing Triumph mascotry, then. Yes, it's a Gloria. Try to think of the name in a Van Morrison/the Doors Live in Concert sort of way rather than a Les Dawson/your great aunt Gloria who smells faintly of wee and Werthers Originals sorta way



She's a bit more glam than your great aunt, anyway!



As I believe I've mentioned (just once or twice, lol, but it doesn't matter cos no-one actually ever reads this drivel) I like Citroen Traction Avants not because of their weird and very... well, very Citroen uniqueness such as button pedal brakes, first production front-wheel drive etc etc



but more because they look like a production hotrod. Either that or the sort of thing Bonnie and Clyde would have tooled around in had they been louche meh-type Gauloise-smoking Frenchies. I mean, look at it, it looks like it's already had a roof chop!



Right, a slight tangent now. I'm going to have a little self-indulgent vignette now about bikes. As my first automotive love, I always like to see nice bikes although I realise not everyone shares the passion so I generally try to keep it brief. So here's a select few oddities that stirred my darker feelings. Who, then, can fail to be moved by such a spectacularly 70s concoction as a BSA rocket 3 X75 Hurricane?



Designed by legendary bike head and customiser Craig Vetter to appeal to a more trans-Atlantic audience and to cash in on the custom bike ethos (think Evel Knievel was approaching the height of his fame), the bike was a spectacular flop. But damn, don't it look kitsch and desirable now? Haven't seen one in years so it was great to see two in concourse condition here



BTW, interesting factoid, anyone know how Robert Knievel got his nickname? It came from his days as a tearaway in Butte, Montana where he spent his time between mining, brawling and petty burglary and he happened to be sharing a cell with another local small-time criminal. The arrestin officer hitched up his gunbelt, tipped his stetson to the back of his head (he may even have flobbed into a spitoon laconically, not sure exactly how Wild West post-war Butte Montana actually was), leaned on the bars and said something along the lines of "Well, lookee here, boys. We got us two no-torr-AY-ous criminals right here in the one cell. We got Awful Knorfel and Evil Knievel right here". True. Modern bikers can thank their lucky stars that they no longer are at the mercy of Zener Diodes, an arcane electrical form of regulation so complex and full of fearsome quantum physics that even Nils Bor would have to go and have a quick lie down after pondering their obscure and preposterous workings. Neat oil cooler is neat



This here is a legend of motorcycling; pretty much the first mass-production water-cooled two stroke. This is a Suzuki GT750 triple, nicknamed the "kettle" because of the distinctive water jacket. If you look closely, you can see the Suzuki engineers still finned everything they could just in case. Water cooling? That's the next thing to magic isn't it?



This one's been rep-ed up to resemble one of Lord Barry of Sheene's Tom Heron-run Forward Trust GP bikes. And a lovely job they've done too. I looooooooove two strokes. They're fantastic, and the reason I also love rotary engines. It;s the simplicity and lunatic power delivery, once sampled you never forget or lose the hunger for it. Plus who doesn't love the smell of burnt two stroke oil in the morning? Smells like... victory. Some day this war's gonna end...



This one definitely brought a lump to my throat. And my trousers. I used to have one of these, admittedly not an SP in Fast Orange Jamie Whitham/Rob McElnea livery. But to be honest, any YZF 750 is a fantastic bike, and mine was by some clear margin the best bike I ever rode...not just owned, but rode. And I've been around, let me tell you, lol. I swapped it against a FireBlade which is one of the few regrets in my life, and proof you should never meet your heroes. Other than my wedding night, few things have been bigger disappointments than Honda's "finest". Awful things. YZFs, now, that's a whole different animal. Hnnng. Please excuse me, I need some time alone now...



Honda, being Honda, have to do something different. When the "big four" Japanese manufacturers all dabbled with turbocharging bikes, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha all went for the simplest and most accommodating engine option, the one which was so ubiquitous it even gained the appellation "UJM" or Universal Jap Motorcycle, i.e. an across-the-frame in-line four cylinder. Honda, of course, chose possibly the most unsuited configuration possible, and also chose to strap their turbo to a model that was already an object of great derision in terms of performance, styling, reliability and mechanicals, the couriers' favourite hack the CX500/650. Also not-very affectionately known as the Plastic Maggot. Indeed, not event he passably-styled original but the "updated" Eurostyle monstrosity.



It was great to see a club stand absolutely full of Maggots, and trubos as well. We (well, I, whilst Ada stood and tried not to look too bored as his eyes glazed over) had a good long chat with the owners, reminiscing about good old times on the despatch circuit when happiness was a bacon sandwich and a hot Maggot. Plus, it has a huge "OBRUT" sticker on the front fairing, so people looking in the driving mirror can tell exactly what it is that just boiled over and stopped in a huge cloud of steam and engine parts behind them



Sometimes, of course, Honda doing something differently pays off and you end up with a genuine motoring icon. So much derided by the fools and playground bullies the like of Top Gear, I think we're now starting to see how true genius is only recognised outside of its lifetime and the NSX is rightfully taking its place at the top table of sportscar desirability. Prices are only ever going up from here, wish I'd had the £25g or whatever it was to get this one in the auction!



And on the topic of sporting coupes that never really got the appreciation they deserved in their lifetime, how about one of these then?



I've always wanted an XJS, ever since I was about eight and in the Cubs and my Scoutmaster or Akele or whatever they are drove one. Not in Police colours, obviously. I think in the light of the current popularity of re-hashing old 70s child abuse and Operation Yew Tree and that I'd better stop there before this paragraph gets any more worryingly suggestive. Anyway, it HAS to be the V12. No-one ought to be allowed to buy an XJS and worry about fuel economy!



I still prefer E-Type coupes to the droptops. Dunno why. Maybe it's the bonkers side opening builder's van-style rear hatch



Taking photos of this particular E-type was in now way precipitated by the extremely photogenic Jaguar stand ladies who were associated with it, of course.



There was one car on the jag stand that didn't really need to be draped with lovelies to encourage attention. Question; what's better than a bit of carbon fibre?



Oh yeah, a whole shedload of the stuff. This is the C-X75, stillborn I thought, but maybe it's been resurrected. Or maybe this is one of the five prototypes that were actually completed, not sure. It's pretty, innit?



Proof that hybrids don't have to be Prius pious and tedious! Oh, you didn't know? Yeah, these were intended to be Jag's entrance to the hybrid market, with four-wheel electric motors and gas turbine auxilliaries, producing around 780 bhp in total and the carbon chassis monocoque for lightness and strength. Well, now you're talking! Why the hell have we been wasting time on appalling blancmanges with the performance of a wet lettuce like Insights and suchlike?



This DB2 drophead was featured in an article in Classic Cars last year. The gimmick was to recreate the coastline drive that Tippi Hedren took in the Hitchcock classic The Birds in a similar DB2 drophead.



For some reason the grille upsets me less on the open-top than on the coupe version. Not sure why. Sleek elegant lines are a testament to the coachbuilders art



And the dash is a bit special. Possibly even worthy of an "OMG"



Got a random pic here of a Vauxhall VX4/90. Not really sure why, other than it's a fine-looking beastie. The sporting upgrade from an FB Victor, the classic coke-bottle lines even manage to pull off having two too many doors



This next one was malingering hitherto unsold on a dealers' stand. Like, how had they not managed to sell it?!



an immaculate '71 Charger, six pack 440 magnum R/T for less than thirty grand? Seriously, like this is the one you want!



I was entertaining all kinds of wild schemes in order to take this home with me... like I don't really need two kidneys, I'm sure I could eBay one, and if I flogged my firstborn child to the Devil that'd raise a few more quid...



Sadly, it wasn't to be. Awesome car, soooooo much want. I'd need a bigger garage, mind, but that's a minor point



Once they'd stopped messing around with motorbike sidecars and badge-engineering Austin Sevens, Jaguar set about making some seminal sporting coupes and roadsters. The only drawback being the hangover from their biker days, in the company name of SS Cars, from Swallow Side Cars. Post WWII, the letters SS had kinda unwanted connotations, hence the name change. However, before that were gorgeous sportsters like this SS100



I'm not quite sure what this fellow is doing as a mascot though



Funny how the lines of the C-Type never seem to go out of fashion. Timeless



A bit like he Porsche 356 Speedster really, which is probably why companies like Chesil seem to make a good living from building replicas. And to be fair, they're pretty convincing replicas, and not a cheap option by any means. And if you want a Speedster, let's face it, you're not going to be getting a "real" one for anything like this sort of money. So why the hell not?



A lot of the stands in this area of the Show seemed to be auction sites or dealers flogging stuff (and by now we'd walked what seemed about twenty miles and been on our feet for five hours straight, it was all starting to become a blur). Despite our debilitated state, some things you couldn't ignore. Such as this rallied-up MkI Escort. Yours for around £60 grand



No, that's not a typo. Apparently that's what a MkI 'Scrot with any kind of pedigree seems to sell for nowadays. And this wasn't even a Mexico or RS when new, it's been adulterated by race teams over the years from the spec the original car had when it rolled out of Dagenham... as a £600 car! What was the German again for "glorious madness"? (As it happens, it's " glorreichen Wahnsinn" but that's not quite what I had in mind...)



Around this point we basically collapsed and realised that the show was simply toooooooooo massive to get round everything, and we were about to pass out from hunger and be found centuries later as fossilised remains like in Raiders of the Lost Ark or something. So we went and finally found somewhere to eat... which is a bit misleading, there were eateries on the corner of every hall but approximately a third as many seats and tables as there were people wanting to use them. Sort it out, NEC. We finally wedged ourselves in on a table with a bloke and his son, which was fine except for I had to keep remembering not to swear. And I'm a train driver, it's like ****ing punctuation to us. Anyway, none of the food looked awful but none looked wonderful either and in the end I ended up with battered cod and chips. Which was actually quite nice, as it happens. The oddity being I drove from Sussex, where I live literally half a mile from the sea and the local fishermen sell their days' catch on the beach at the end of my road... to Birmingham, which is about as far from the sea as it's possible to get in the British Isles. To eat cod. And yeah, I know they have a beach but it's under the M6 flyover, not exactly the same as the beach we have here... Right, interlude of strangeness over, have a Ford. A '31. Maybe. I think



Couple of BelAirs lurking about the place, too. Always got space for a nice BelAir



I've taken more than a few of this candy red one over the years, but it always bears repeating



I'm not entirely sure why the baby blue one was propped up at this odd angle. Maybe it was supposed to make it look like a lunging predator or something, but given its considerable size it looked more like a collapsing hippo



Some more Jaguar-based weirdness? OK then. Maybe the sight of twelve cylinders, six Weber IDAs might get you a bit tingly?



The Ronart W152 is another one of those gloriously bonkers British small-volume manufacturers who see something they think people will buy... usually rich and slightly deranged people... and go do it. Produced by Spyder Engineering, who built chassis for Lotus, the chassis emulates that famous backbone. The engines and running gear come from Jag XJs. The styling is designed to emulate 50s Grand Prix cars. And why the hell not?



Hey presto, a modern (well, in 1986 anyway) GP car for the road. Well, sort of for the road. People are going to notice as you potter up the shops for a pint of milk in one of these.



But just in case you missed it the first time... DANG!



Another SS100 shows off an early (and slightly clumsy) version of the now-iconic Jaguar "leaper"



Nothing clumsy about this though....



I didn't get the asking price on this, nor whether it met the price. But to be fair, if you had to ask you probably couldn't afford it!



Such a great shape from any angle. I know they had all kinds of troubles at release, I know they had half the number of cylinders they were meant to, were about five years late, and three times the price, but just look at it! You'd still have been happy with one, wouldn't you? And it was, for a couple of months, the fastest production car in the world ever



You don't see a lot of these about



....and to be fair it's a bit of a surprise to see this one, especially if it was actually driven here.



Why? look a bit closer! Scary tyre is scary!



Anyway, this is, as you've worked out from the hubcap lettering.. or maybe from your excellent knowledge of obscure Americana... the forgotten marque of that great land, a DeSoto. Great mascot!



For no obvious reason anyone could easily understand, the marque was named after the 15th century Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto and was a long-held subsidiary of the Chrysler Corporation. They produced some excellently leftfield cars with exotic names such as FireDome or PowerMaster. This is, rather disappointingly after that promise, a Business Coupe Deluxe from 1948



The stand flogging this obscure 40s Americana did see fit to put on a greeter as well, although I wasn't sure if she'd come straight from Panto as Buttons



Rubbing shoulders with the DeSoto was this elderly Buick with a toothy grin

[Lucky]

I like the decal work on this 70s Camaro. Not my favourite style of Camaro by a very long way, but it's nice to see a homage to the old-skool lurid murals given a modern twist with iridescent vinyl



and I'm guessing it was "money hungry" to build, too, judging by the quality of even humble componentry like the bonnet... sorry, hood... lifters!



We've been missing a few vital components up till now in our trundle round the world of classic vehicles, and mostly that's been Japanese marques. I guess there's even now resistance in some circles in this country to the idea of Japanese machinery being considered "classic". Although with rare exotica such as Toyota GT2000s making millions of dollars now, maybe the times are truly a-changin. Let's go with something a bit more humble though, shall we? How about a nice little Hahhhhhnda



Tidy li'l S800 not-at-all-influenced-by-the-TR-roadsters, no no no no, not at all mister. Honest. I like the all-incorporating headlights, though they look like they're off something else, kinda. Have I seen them somewhere before, maybe the other way up?



Funny how when copyist designs were flooding out of Japan people were openly derisory, and they would never catch on. Now we've been through the period when Japanese manufacturers have dominated the technological and sales thrusts, especially on two wheels, and no-one's laughing any more. Except at the Chinese and Indian and Korean copyists currently finding their feet. Give it time...



Another Japanese legend, or part of one, next. The straight six so associated with Brit sportscars and American base models, the coupe bodywork that was part GT, part 1/3rd scale muscle car. The Z-series was certainly a sum of the markets it was intended to conquer.



I like these induction boxes and the exquisitely machined throttle linkages on the carb bank. Nice work in here



The GTROC stand had managed to pull of a couple of attention-grabbing coups, more on one later. The other seemed to be a proper Nismo-built competition GTR35 in some level of GT spec. Mmm, carbon...



Epic ventage. Offset fail



In fact, on the subject of vents, the engine bay of this GTR demonstrates something quite nicely. In this day and age of computer stress analysis when components can be made as light yet strong as possible without the need to make them again and again and see when they break, when computers can model aerodynamic factors without needing a multi-million buck wind tunnel installation, when part prototyping can be vaccuum-formed in minutes from numeric-control terminals or CNC milled from billets in hours, and when engine builders can summon an embarrassment of power almost with ease, it's getting more tricky to exploit that tenth of a second's edge on the track. It seems the latest thing is not how the air interacts with the profile of the car, but getting it into and through the car in as efficient and controlled a way as possible. Obviously F1 has been playing with this for ages, but from the look of this, it seems cooling and intake air management are being treated with as much reverence by Nismo as how they get the car itself through the air. Or maybe I'm talking bollocks as usual



Rather unexpected by fantastic to see was what must be one of the most exclusive of owner's clubs. Only one hundred of these Bertone-styled and Chrysler-powered 60s GT cars were made, and the OC has documented all of them, making it a true resource for any prospective owners. Although that may be a long wait; despite that it has one of the best survival rates of any marque, with 95 cars from the hundred still running, not many people want to part with one once they have it. What is it?



Why, it's obvious isn't it? What a give away that iconic badge is! The Gordon-Keeble GK1, of course. A genuine 140mph gentleman's express



They hide their size well, but it takes a fair-sized car to hide a 5.4 litre V8 with such ease



It also occurs to me we haven't talked much about British Fords, so here's some to rectify that. How about a nice limited edition Capri GT 3-litre?



There, that's better isn't it? This swage line always holds my interest... it's like ; WHY? Why not, I suppose.



IIRC this particular model was a homologation one, to allow some kind of competition use. Maybe that explains the prodigious boot duck-tail



Immaculate at first glance, they want to get that rust blister looked at though. Be a shame for such a rare and beautiful example to get away from us



I'm still not sure what this "backbox" intake is all about on this Twin Cam-ed Escort. I wasn't sure last year either, when I took a very similar photo, I seem to remember



MkIs with Twin Cams. Life is good



If all engine bays were this perfect... well Autosol would fetch more than gold on the stocks and shares



I dunno what it is with the Cossie boys, either. They seem to either be grunge-loving power junkies with cable-tie engineering holding stupendous amounts of power in their engorged boost hoses, or OCD polishing junkies with a taste in stainless covers for everything and matching silicone joiner strategies. And nowhere in between. See if you can tell which this dude prefers, lol



This is clearly the MkII younger bruvvah (well, they are from Essex) of the rallied-up MkI we saw earlier at ludicrous sticker proce.



The only deviation my old man made from Beetle ownership when we were kids was some shonky old gargantuan Wolseley sedan he picked up cheap. I dunno, it must have been proper cheap because even back then it was terrible, always breaking down. All I remember is it being about the size of a London bus, but blacker than a coal hole and smellier than yo momma. The old man claimed he liked it because the rozzers back then used Wolseleys (God alone knows why, the wretched thing didn't have enough lunge to even get out of its own way, let alone chase down a band of blaggards in their Jag MkII) but at night the radiator grille badge was instantly recognisable as a Wolseley because it lit up when you turned the headlights on and traffic used to allow him past... because it's better to follow a copper than lead one. I to this day have no idea if this is true or just one of the mind-games he used to love playing on his kids to turn us all into twisted people-hating freaks who never believe a word anyone tells us. Maybe both these things are true. Certainly here is a Wolseley with aforementioned radiator grille light emblem



By now we had reached the END and in fact I was feeling a bit like having a Martin Sheen Apocalypse Now-style breakdown. If I want to route march twenty miles a day, I'd have joined the Army. Except for my flat feet and copious cowardice, of course. Anyway, we finally made it to the end hall of the exhibition, and the autojumble. Which was pretty much what you'd expect really, only it was late by now and many stallholders were packing away. I still like to take some photos of things like these signs, mainly because they all have signs up saying "no photographs" and I have a problem with authority. Another reason I had to knock back what would no doubt have been an otherwise stellar career in blindly obeying orders



Tool? You been loaning yourself out again? I have absolutely no idea what this next lot were selling but I have to say I found myself curiously lured towards buying some. Why does soft porn sound so much dirtier in German?



Turning around and hobbling back towards the way out on our footsore feets, we stumbled (almost literally) on one last set of wonders and had to make time for one last sortie into automotive nirvana. To wit, a stand of proper rally slags of great menace and severe purpose. This Opel Manta/Cav whatever, for example



Gorgeous bit of tig artwork on the bars and supports. Bet the team welder would weep for days if that lot got smashed off on a rock



To be honest, the engine bay was just as well-appointed. That brutal purity of a competition car, nothing there that doesn't need to be. Loving the carbon/kevlar headsteady brace thingy



This RS200 is a bit more what you expect of one than the auction white car earlier!



Again, we see the attention-to-detail that goes into controlling airflow through a competition car. Roof spoiler isn't just there as a functional aero aid or to earn the pilot scene points for cool, but to actually work as an engine bay intake as well



And you're never going to hear me complain about having to photograph two Metro 6R4s in one day. Brutal, evil, badass mutha of a car. I love these things



Hmmmm. I wonder if you'd be able to get these wings through NCAP crash test compliance nowadays...If you listen carefully you can hear the noise of Health and Safety officers having aneurisms over their bowl of sugar-free cornflakes (skimmed milk, of course) at the very thought



Not so much an engine bay as just a big boot, with a vast engine chucked in and then the hatch slammed shut before it could escape again. Looks like a caged wild beast



"Barn find" are two of the most over-used words in the classic car world, coming to be synonymous with basically "parked for a while" but our next car was a literal barn find. And also a superb objet d'art



A 30's Ford woody wagon dug out from some mid-west barn and dragged here over the Pond more or less untouched. What an excellent thing, you certainly don't get "patina" (another overused word) like this any other way. I like the seller's sense of humour, too; "Please don't touch, you'll disturb the termites"



I'm not sure if this wing is rust, a poor attempt at a brazed repair or simply a massive bird strike. I wasn't going to lick it to find out



I wish I had the money and space for something like this, just so I could clear coat it and drive it exactly as it is



And so there's only one car left to show you before we head home into the chilly rain of the Birmingham night for a couple of laps of the STUPID inane bloody road system that seems to be designed to let you g anywhere you want except the sodding southbound M42 /rant
*ahem* As you know, I always like to end on a high and this car was definitely one of the high points of the show. If it had been finished and all up together then one of the cars of the year



Can you tell what it is yet, lol? Shall we pan out a bit?



This might help...



Yep, she's only a genuine actual proper "Hakosuka" KGC10 Skyline. Awesomes



The owner was pretty nonchalant, though I got the impression he'd probably spent long enough on the stand over the last three days to never want to answer stupid questions about his car ever again. I got that he works on cars' Skylines in particular as a day job and this is his pet project that he tinkers away with over the years when he gets spare time



Yeah, if it was mine I'd be spending every waking minute working on it, too, but I guess the dude has to eat. So whilst it's sad seeing it not finished, like the pulleys, belts, fans, ancilliaries, gearbox and a lot of the interior aren't there at all and plenty needs tidying up, it is definitely far better than not seeing one at all



Dunno if you can tell, I like this car a lot?



And that includes the oh-so-period seats with their large eyelet cooling motif. So much like another motorsport legend, the GT40







And that's about it, that's all I've got. Thanks for joining us and reading through/looking at my drivel here. As usual, I shall await the torrent of corrections and informative points in the right direction where I've gone astray, but I've done my best. And hopefully some of those jaded characters out there who think static shows of old cars are a bit dull might find a bit of the passion re-kindled in their flinty hearts by some of my humble offerings. And spare a though for me and Ada-san, who having walked around what felt like the entire West Midlands, now had to cram into a ridiculously cramped, hot, smelly (it's the fumes) and noisy RX-7 for the four hour drive back south.

Still, the lights worked all the way back (and still do) and nothing caught fire. That's a pretty bloody good day in RX-7 ownership

Thanks for sticking to the bitter end. Now go away

[KiwiDave]

It's almost like being there Nik. How thoroughly enjoyable, what-oh and similar japery.

Now, just to prove that I did, in fact, read through the whole passage and didn't simply gaze at the pictures, I thought I should reward you with your favoritest thing in the world and I quote '........ I've always had a soft spot for Bristols, not just because the word itself reminds me of one of my favourite things in the whole world' .....





There's two of your favorite things ... a pair of Bristols. No.. really, thank me later

[spirit r]

Fantastic: don´t know how to load up so much pics in one unit. Only can load three pics per unit and then must do a new upload.
Master of the upload

Interested about more information:

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