DAF 66..

DAF were always going to have a tough time staying in the car business. The company started with the weirdest looking thing, the DAF 600, and they kept their decidedly ‘Eastern Bloc’ styling for quite a while. Mind you, under the skin, there were even stranger things.

This is DAF’s take on continuously variable transmission, CVT to you, used in the later DAF 55, and the point at which you should quit with the sniggering.

So the car only had a steering wheel, stop and go pedals, and a lever which determined direction of travel. What more do you need anyway?

So, you start the engine, ensure that the front wheels are pointing in the intended direction of travel, push the lever into FORWARDS and then you use the go pedal. As the speed increases, centrifugal weights act on the pulleys, the engine revs drop away, and you are in motion. It was ingenious automatic transmission which was simple and it worked for small engines.

At the traffic light grand prix, a DAF 66 could beat the very best. Styling hadn’t changed too much, but by time that the 55 had arrived, the rear wings had been tined down, and the 66 is sporting a very ‘Triumph TR6’ look.

You’re still laughing, aren’t you. Well quit it right now.

I used to watch Rallycross on British TV years ago, and one year, I forget which, two Dutchmen entered a couple of DAF coupes.

This DAF is in the lead and that is what the two original DAFs did. They lead from start to finish, every race, and for the whole year. In fact, the were in front until the two Dutchmen got bored with winning and withdrew from the sport. They more than proved that the DAF and its weird transmission was more than a match for any of the other cars.

Has that cleared up the unwarranted laughter? I sincerely hope so..

DAF cars were not high speed racers, but they were fast enough and tough enough to do very well in endurance rallies and the likes of Rallycross.

There were no new models after the 66, but the transmission lived on in the Volvo 340 which would have been a DAF 77 had Volvo not essentially bought out DAF.

My mother owned two Daf’s, a 55 and a 66, and she loved them. Unfortunately, when Volvo took over the marque, service had to be done by a less than honourable local Volvo dealer. The last straw was when the local dealer switched wheels and brand new tires that I had got fitted for four tatty wheels and part worn tires.It was a sad ending to what had been a happy partnership between my mother and her funny car.

Porsche..

There is no number up top because I like ALL Porsche cars. What is there not to like?

You want well built and fast? Buy a Porsche. You want a car that will be as good in 30 years as it is today? Buy a Porsche. You want class? Buy a Porsche.

This is a 356, the first Porsche if you don’t include tractors and Tiger Tanks. They are easy to make. You scale up a standard German jelly mold, cut a space out for entry by driver and passenger, use the basics of the engine made for VW Beetles, apply good quality go faster parts to it, add four wheels, and hey presto, you have a light, nimble two seater sports car which will become an icon.

You then make a fastback type, and eventually scale it up again and you have a 911..

This is a new 911, but the marque has hardly changed in shape, but under the skin. Porsche cars just got better and better, aided and abetted by the best Boxer 6 cylinder engine ever.

Porsche cars didn’t change much because they didn’t have to change. The original 356 was a winner and Porsches have been winning ever since.

This is a Porsche 917, and it didn’t understand the concept of coming in second unless there was another 917 in front of it. Porsche cars are like that. None of them understand second place.

Porsche also make others, front engined even, like the 924/944 and 928’s of the past. See here..

This is the 944..

.. and this is the 928..

If you want see the latest, take a look here..

http://www.porsche.com/canada/en/

What you see is a frightening show of German motoring class. Like Mercedes and BMW, everything is carefully planned and crafted, not shot from parts guns loosely aimed at the middle of the factory floor. Every process in the manufacture of these cars is first class, and Porsche is the ‘sports’ section of the German auto industry. Even the Cayenne is a sports model, and about the only Porsche where I could still get in and out, being the old crock that I am these days.

The only setback to owning a Porsche is the cost of buying and maintaining it. Having said that, it is a more affordable supercar than a Ferrari or Bugatti, and a far more sensible daily drive than all of the other wedge shaped, often ugly, competition.

Porsche is the only marque that didn’t lose sight of its original target.

I was given the opportunity to ride shotgun in an aging 944 one time. I am sure that I should have said ‘V1’ at some point but I couldn’t speak. It would be something to go into a Porsche dealer and sit in a new one, but you know how it is, if you break something, you have to buy it. Not on what I get per annum..

Triumph TR..

There is only one thing better than a Triumph TR, and that is …………….. TWO Triumph TR’s, except for the TR7 which was ugly, not built in Coventry, and a car which should have been called anything but a TR.

Right from the Start, the TR’s were built to be winners, and they won many races in their own class, and occasionally gave much bigger stuff a real ‘drubbing’.

This is a TR2, nice sculpted intake, frog eyes, compact, fast, good handling.. a winner..

 

This is a TR3, the one with the super-sized ‘grin’, still with frog eyes, but a larger engine, compact, fast, good handling.. another winner..

This is the TR4, styling by Michelotti, slightly froggy eyes, the last of the four pot TR’s (a Standard Vanguard 2.0L), compact, fast, good handling especially with IFS.. yet another winner..

The TR5 was essentially a TR4A with 2.5L straight six motor, and it was the fastest production TR ever with a claimed top speed of 125mph.

The Triumph TR6 was a TR5 between the front and back wheels, but received a Karmann front and back end., was compact, fast, good handling and was yet another winner..

It was also the best seller of what I like to think of as REAL Triumphs, which had to be made and driven out of the gates of the Standard-Triumph, Canley Triumph, whatever you like to call the plant in COVENTRY..

This is the Triumph TR7 (PU as in pig ugly) and horrifyingly the best seller of all which just shows how low good taste had fallen. It was not a REAL Triumph TR because it was made up in Speke (Liverpool), no disrespect to the guys there.

 

Oh, and by the way, you could have any colour you liked and it didn’t have to be red. I have just shown you each car as equally as I could.

It was difficult to get these cars in the UK because almost all production went west to the USA. In fact, it was difficult to get any soft-top sports car in the UK for the same reason, and when you consider that we invented the soft-top, noisy, upholstered roller skate, and had no issues with soft-tops and bad weather, it was all rather annoying.

For the TR7, Triumph could have sent these to Mars for all I cared. They were ugly, unreliable and should never have been given a TR number. PU 7 is a much better name, and I don’t give a hoot that it gave birth to a V8 powered TR8.

Repeat after me.. The TR7 is NOT a real Triumph.. got it?

All of the others were great cars, and the Americans loved them, especially for racing. Well, lucky them. We would have raced them too, ya know, and those of us who could get a sporting Triumph, we invariably got pole position at any traffic light grand prix..

Cinquecento..

It predated the British Mini, it was shorter than the British Mini, it was slower than the British Mini, but stuck in Rome traffic, it was everyman’s Ferrari, especially the model shown in the photo..

This is a Fiat ABARTH 595 and you should never laugh at them. They don’t like people who laugh at them..

Fiat’s of this era had bags of character, free revving engines and were all round fun. So what if they were small and noisy. Even the narrowest of streets were no barrier to the 500, and they were tough little cars.

Admittedly, when the Fiat 126 was released, Italians couldn’t wait to get out of 500’s and into the new 126, but that doesn’t take away from the fact the Cinquecento was an icon in its own lifetime.

So, now we are looking to be more fuel efficient and drive smaller cars, and guess what? The Italians have just the car, and with a tweak here and there..

.. and hey presto.. it’s a Fiat ABARTH 500, still not much room inside but far better appointed, a nice free revving 1.4L in the front and as much fun and character as you will ever have time to shake a stick at..

It is also still recognisable as a Fiat 500, which is more than can be said of the new Mini and its relationship to the original.

I had a sit in one of these at a Chrysler dealer, and if I could have brought it home with me, I would have done. Unlike my Jeep Grand Cherokee, the 500 fits like a glove, and I well remember ‘a wheel literally at each corner’ driving from my time with a 1293 Stage 3 Mini.

The Cinquecento is a car which brings a smile from people who see and the lucky driver. It is a ‘happy’ car, a fun car, and if you want to get around a city, this car should be top of your list, the old one or the new one.

Trans Am..

Specifically, the ‘78 Trans Am Special, immortalized in ‘Smokey and the Bandit’.

This was the best looking American muscle car of its day, and the black colour, gold trim and big bird set it apart. It definitely didn’t look so good in white or gold.

The car was a GM F-body which it shared with the Camaro of the same period, but the four rectangular lights up front suited the styling more than the two ‘rounds’ on the Camaro.

It missed out on the 455 by a couple of years, was never the fastest GM car ever, and was fitted with a Chevy engine for ‘jumping the bridge’ in the movie, but who cared. Needless to say, it was a popular car, and I don’t know anybody who doesn’t like it.

It was a cool car, made even cooler when driven by the ‘Bandit’, and I wanted to drive one too.

This was a second generation car. The generations which followed totally lost the plot, and there hasn’t been a Pontiac to beat the ‘Bandit’ edition since. In fact, ALL GM cars lost the plot in the 80’s and on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_Firebird

There was no 220..

The Datsun 240Z was a 125mph, 0 – 60 in 8s car which looked like a European supercar but at a fraction of the price. It was given the 240Z name because it was powered by a very nice 2.4 litre OHC engine.

It’s a copy, exclaimed the British public, and it has no racing pedigree. Oops..

Nissan had an answer for that. In 1971, a 240Z won the East African Safari Rally and it looked like a …. 240Z.. and then Nissan did it again in 1973, by which time it was all getting a little boring. The winning, not the car..

It is a difficult car to criticize, and as time marched on, it became even more difficult because Nissan released a 260Z and then a 280Z and it still looked almost the same and it was fast and cool and cheap, apart from the insurance of course.

There was enough room up front to fit a 350 small block V8 too, and some did it. Wah.. Cars that looked this good and fast shouldn’t ever be as cheap as the 240Z. Owners never complained, and the rest of us look enviously from the interiors of our 1300L Capris. It was tough but somebody had to do it.. 

The car still looks good today, bodied as it was in timeless elegant GT attire.

A look around a very nice example of the marque.. worthwhile watching..

Chevy S-10.. the ‘big’ little truck..

I am annoyed that I can’t find a photo of the S-10 that we had. It was a real workhorse and had helped move a few people and their chattels from one house to another. With the extended cab and long bed, it was a real handful to park anywhere.

This is NOT the actual S-10. Ours was two tone Bright Teal and cream, a fairly rare colour combo for the S-10 pickup, but the photo above shows the 1992 type admirably well. There aren’t too many around that look like the one above because the S-10 is a very popular vehicle for customizing, as in low riders, high riders, and the type that can jump about like a scalded cat.

On the topic of scalded cats, the 4.3 V6 could step of the mark very quickly indeed, reaching its top speed in remarkable times. Of course, being a pickup there was little weight to hold it back.

Unfortunately, having little weight meant that wet weather and snow were not the best times to go out. I used to load it up with bags of salt/sand mix and leave the snow in the back in an effort to increase traction, but even that could work against what I was trying to achieve. To suggest that the S-10 was tail happy is something of an understatement.

On the bright side, the cab didn’t take too long to warm up as there was not too much of it, even in extended form.

With all of the options, it was comfortable, fast, and you would get to know every gas station for miles because you would have to pull into one at regular close intervals. Gas mileage was not a strong point of the 4.3, but fun was in abundance. It could pull 6000lbs too, better than many SUVs can do today.

S-10 owners will tell you that it is the best truck they have ever had. I would agree.

Re customizing, there is no shortage of ‘go faster’ parts from just doing little bits to personalize right up to 12 second quarter miles..

More on the S-10, the small truck with a huge heart..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_S-10

Ginetta G21

This is one limited edition car, only 70 ever made, but it was a good looking car and it was quick. Getting one was difficult enough, getting it fixed was even harder.

This car came from a manufacturer who supplied kit cars for road and race, and under the shell was a mix and match of engines, transmissions, axles and suspension. It was not the kind of car where you could go into a local auto repairer and say ‘Fix it’.

It never altered the fact that I would have really liked one, but I was acutely aware of the issues already mentioned, and finding one even in a country as small as England was problematic. Add to the equation that those lucky enough to get one would never part with it, one was just left with dreams.

The car was fast, getting up to 60mph in less than 10, and a top sped of 165mph would keep a smile pinned to one’s face all day. And remember, there would only ever be another 69 people lucky enough to get the same view as you.

Ginetta still make cars, and if you see one from afar, you could be forgiven for thinking that it is an Italian supercar of some description. Take a look at the current model line-up on the Ginetta website, as nice a combination of road and race cars as you will ever see in any brochure.. http://ginetta.com/g60 

As affordable sports cars go, Britain is STILL the place to look, and even though some may be less affordable than others, Britain is STILL the place to look.

.

"the vehicle does not meet the fundamental technical requirement of a motor-car ...

… it is quite unattractive to the average buyer ... To build the car commercially would be a completely uneconomic enterprise."

This was the response by the British motor industry when offered what was to become a motoring icon. Do you recognise it? 

The photo shows a 1949 split window type. Over time, it received grille slots in the engine cover and larger rear light clusters, and a one piece rear window which improved vision via the interior rear view mirror.

One of the selling points on the 70’s Beetle was a rear light cluster the same size as a regulation UK football. It was the first time that a manufacturer decided that larger rear lights were a good safety feature

Mechanically, it was very simple, a flat four air-cooled engine, driving a gearbox which fed power directly to the rear wheels. The only mechanical connections from the front were gear change and accelerator pedal. Fuel and spare wheel lived up front. 

The whole car sat on a floor pan to which were fixed all of the important parts, and were you to remove the original body, you could replace it with something more ‘groovy’… like a Beach Buggy.

Who said that a VW Beetle couldn’t be fun? Weatherproofing was a another question altogether..

Anyway, the old Beetles were made up until 2003, but there was already a new Beetle around, front engine, front wheel drive, better able to conform to increasing safety standards and the competition.

The Thunderbird..

I am not a great fan of Fords but on occasion, they get it right. Such was the case with the Ford Thunderbird in 1955.

For an American, front chrome was not overdone and there were no over-extended tail fins, but the design came from the looks of European cars. It was a two seat, convertible, ‘luxury personal car’, originally lined up against the GM Corvette, but it was no sports car, despite the stock 4.8L V8. I saw one of these, just as in the photo, a few years ago in a Canadian mall. It was the prize in a draw, and I have to admit that I really wanted to win it. That didn’t happen by the way.

Unlike European soft tops, the hood folded back into the trunk. It was a complex system and hood down left little room in the trunk sitting ahead of the spare wheel. It didn’t matter though. With a passenger capacity of two, who needed a large trunk anyway.

Changes were made over the next two years to the front end but nothing too drastic. Then. for 1958, somebody had the idea to make it an ugly four seat convertible, and it all went downhill.

This car is an American classic that doesn’t look like it is going to eat the car in front, and it is a size that would fit into a modern day parking space. From ‘58 on, the car got uglier and larger and, by the time that it had completely lost its way in 1997, the name was mothballed.

For 2002, somebody decided that it would be good to resurrect the Thunderbird, and guess what? It was a clean looking stylish two seat convertible with styling cues taken from the original car. Sadly, it only lasted until 2005. With sales falling off, the car was discontinued. Maybe the majority had got used to the big ugly T-Birds and actually liked them. Strange people..

A note for Brits: If you think that you have seen a front like this before, you would be right. The basic design was used as a four seat convertible and regular saloon in the UK called the Consul MkII in 1956, but it lacked the grace of the Thunderbird, being more slab sided and with a rear seat so low that only the tallest could see out over the doors..

It’s a Daimler..

.. and quite a large Daimler. Body work is by MCW, the lightweight Orion, but this has the ‘Manchester’ front which I believe originated from the Roe bodied Manchester buses.

Early CVG6’s had the Birmingham front which was flatter and had headlights placed further inboard of the sides. The Manchester front is the better looking of the two.

So, why is it a favourite of mine? I used to travel to school on one of these, and it is a Daimler bus. See the nice Daimler badge on the front. This signifies that the part which keeps the body, engine et al from dragging along the roads is made in Coventry, essentially my home city.

Motive power came from a Gardner 6LW, an 8.4 litre superlative diesel, which was coupled to the back wheels via a pre-selector gearbox. All of this enabled sixty three passengers, the driver and conductor to travel around Coventry.

OK, so it is not the most famous of British buses, but it is the best looking, even in Coventry’s muddy red colour.

As a kid, I used to listen to the slow idle of the 6LW while it was parked at the terminus close to my home. You can hear it here..

One other thing.. these buses had open rear platforms that one could jump on and off. The Daimler Fleetlines and Leyland Atlanteans (the type behind the CVG6 in the photo) that followed all had hydraulic doors which didn’t open until the bus had stopped. Safe, yes, but people waiting at the stops always stood right in front of the doors, and you sometimes had to fight your way off. Jumping off just before the stop was a better way and far more exciting.

Ahh, the good old days..

The Amazon

.. aka The Volvo 120 series. The photo shows a four door 122S. I took my first driving lessons in one of these.

Everything about these cars looked and felt tough. The external panels could not be pressed in under thumb pressure like many other makes. The dash was all steel and minimalist. The doors shut with a thud sound, not a ping. They were high sided too.

The front seats were made from a material that held the passengers in place, and the front seats had adjustable lumbar support. They were probably the best seats of any fitted to what was a mid-sized family car. The trunk was cavernous, but the lid used to catch stuff if cases etc were piled to high.

The gear shift was a long lever coming from way up front, and there was plenty of movement, but it was mated to a good gearbox. Performance was quite sporty, courtesy of a well designed 1.8L four pot unit fitted with twin carburettors. They made good towing cars as well, despite the smallish engine.

The Volvo 122S was so good, my father kept it for four years, two years longer than anything before or since. He panicked at four years, but he need not have done so. These cars are so reliable and tough enough that over half of all production are still running around somewhere.

It is the kind of vehicle which makes you confident that you will always complete every journey and in one piece.

Volvo continue to make the toughest cars on the planet, and I would have liked to include a crash test but I couldn’t find one so I will tell you about and incident.

I was backing out of the driveway, and started my turn to position myself on the roadside. Unfortunately, I turned inches too early, and the front bumper caught a two foot high brick pillar, demolishing it and part of the wall to which it was attached. Inside the car, I felt and heard nothing. It wasn’t until I looked out of the side window that I saw the mess. I got out of the car, expecting to see the nearside front corner of the car showing the worse of wear, and all I could find was a scratch on the front turn signal lens. If only the wall had fared so well..

A nice little video here..

Morgan - the Plus 8

I have always wanted one of these, or even a Plus 4, but the waiting list was forever and they weren’t cheap.

Other issues are being lucky enough to have a partner who is not averse to real Morgan motoring, that is roof DOWN..

It has to be one of the best looking cars ever to sport running boards or not sport running boards. Just look at it. This is an ash frame, clad in aluminium panels, a 3.5L V8 under the bonnet, sliding pillar front suspension which gives an original bumpy ride and heavyish steering, but who cares.

Yes, of course you are going to get blown around behind that small windscreen. Top speed was around 130mph but you would have to be mad to try it. National speed limits are good, and you will reach them very quickly: under 7 seconds to 60mph.

Trust me, that is fast when you are sitting close to the road surface.

Compare this to the modern stuff where it is difficult to distinguish between a Toyota and a BMW. The Morgan Plus 8 has looks, style, character all of it’s own.

Morgan still make the Plus 8, but the styling has been modernised along with everything else, and it has a BMW 4.7L V8, but the 1968 – 2004 Plus 8 will always be my preference.

The soft torpedo shape is elegant and classic, and if I was still living in South East Spain and had enough disposable cash, this is what I would be driving. It will NEVER be mistaken for a modern carbon-fibre Frisbee of the type that so many like to drool over these days. It is a Morgan..

Five doors?

In 1964? This was the year of the Renault 16. Two doors on each side was the norm, but the large rear door was not. Estates and ‘Shooting Brakes’ were not new in Britain, but a regularly styled family car, albeit a French regularly styled family car, with an opening back? That was new.

In standard form it was a bit of an ugly duckling, call it ‘awkward’ styling if you will, but it was roomy inside and very comfortable. The rear folding seats could be set in a variety of positions, more than the driver could remember, so it was always a good idea to have the manual handy. Oh, yes, the spare wheel was under the bonnet, so didn’t get in the way of the seat permutations and load.

Eventually, a TS model was released which finally gave the vehicle decent performance but the best was yet to come. In 1973, Renault released the TX version. It was the most fully loaded family car I had ever seen.

It featured electric windows, centralised door locking, good heating and decent facia vents, a very slick five speed column shift gearbox, the best car seats I had ever sat on, rear seatbelts, incredibly good Cibie headlamps, a very novel map reading light which actually illuminated where you needed illumination, rear window wash/wipe, and a ride not too far off the Citroen DS.

It’s worst feature was heavy steering at parking speeds, and if that is the worst thing said about a car, you know that it is a good one.

TX performance was more than adequate but as with all smallish four cylinder engines, when pushed hard, it was a little raucous. Having said that, if you just want to cruise along the N7 in real comfort, who would have cared?

Canadian Snow Plows..

If you happen to live within the North American snow zone, you are really going to appreciate this one. I think that the one in the photo is an older International, but still being used in Ottawa. The business end has been folded away on the right side of the vehicle. So, what is there to like about these things?

They get full marks for being ugly, and after a session on the roads, they are the grubbiest trucks on earth.

They’re definitely not fast, and passing them when they are flinging out salt and sand behind them is hazardous to say the least.

They leave mountains of snow across the front of driveways, and sometimes they knock down whatever is at the side of the road when plowing rural areas. One should NEVER ever stand at the side of the road when one of these vehicles is strutting its stuff because the driver doesn’t always have a good view. Just ask a mail box for confirmation.

BUT, they really are beautiful vehicles. Canada in the east and centre is a lot flatter than you might think. Both areas border the high Arctic, and the capacity for snow and drifts is beyond the comprehension of many.

If it wasn’t for these and their drivers, you wouldn’t get the kids to school, get to work, get to the grocery store, or get anywhere at all. Mind you, there would be no point in going to the grocery store because there would be nothing to buy. Most of what is bought in Canada gets to the stores courtesy of road transport.

To finish, I have posted a video of formation snow clearance on North America’s busiest highway, the mighty 401, which starts on the Ontario – Quebec border and finishes at Windsor Ontario on the Canada – USA border.

Mercedes 230 SL

In 1963, we all got treated to a Mercedes sports car which we may be able to afford. It was pretty much a M/B220 shortened by the length of the rear seats and foot well, and being a Mercedes means that it was built to standards which much of the rest of the world did not understand.

Note the lack of rubber noses, huge bumpers and over-riders. Safety was built in from the get-go, not something thought about after the horse had bolted.

It was powered by a 2.3 L, fuel injected straight six which gave it 125 mph on the Autobahn, putting it in the league of the fastest TR’s of the day. Unlike the TRs, the soft-top fitted well and was not the whistle inducing, leaking, flapping things that were British soft tops.

There was a hard top too, Pagoda style which could be bolted to it, and if you could afford the car, you could afford somewhere to store the hard top.

Everything about the car is neat, nicely squared off. The front is typical Mercedes, the large ‘Star’ and vertical headlight binnacles. At the back, nicely formed rear lights and another ‘Star’ which reminded you that you have good taste.

In-between, it looks like this..

Note the padding in the wheel centre and along the top and lower edges of the dashboard.

The 230 SL was a in a different league to the British TRs and Big Healeys. The car was refined, not the kind where you had to hang on for dear life, fighting with the controls in a bid to keep the shiny side up.

It was also beyond the pockets of TR and Big Healey buyers. That isn’t and wasn’t a bad thing because we all needed a dream, and for me, this car was ‘the’ dream.

Triumph GT6..

They called it the ‘poor man’s E-Type’. By the time it made it to Mk III version, it was one of the best looking cars to ever roll out of the Canley plant.Why didn’t it sell very well?

Maybe because:

• It was developed from the Spitfire which in turn grew out from the Herald. Do I hear ‘Girl’s cars’? It was actually a Vitesse chassis and engine with Spitfire panel bolted to it
• It was always overshadowed by it’s ‘TR’ cousins, a problem that the better selling MGB GT never had, because the B didn’t have any illustrious cousins.

OK, so rear three quarter vision was not particularly good, but look at it. Can you tell that the car was a bit nose heavy because the straight 6 engine weighed more that the Spitfire inline 4’s did? Not with uprated front springs, you can’t..

In 1972, the year before Triumph dropped the GT6, 112 mph and a 0 – 60 in 10 seconds wasn’t bad and comfortably better than  ‘B’ GT could manage.

In the end, safety laws and emissions limits killed it off. Where the MGB was adapted and was the worse off for the changes, Triumph let the GT6 go. Personally, I am glad that Triumph dropped it. To overburden this beautiful little car with rubber noses, jack it up to get the headlight height to conform, and add weight to get the safety features incorporated would have killed it off anyway.

As it is, one can still find the GT6 in various states of restoration, and it still looks every bit as good as ever it did.  

The best three box design ever.. the E30

It is one of the Ultimate Driving Machines, at the time, the most affordable Ultimate Driving Machine. Despite the upright front end, it actually challenged cars like Citroen in the ‘drag coefficient’ stakes. It’s headlights were good for 70mph vision on dark winding country roads. A ten year old example would drive better than a new car of almost any make.

The car was designated E30, and was the car which saved BMW from oblivion. It was the preferred transport of the ‘upwardly mobile’, and if you have ever driven one, you will understand why.

The photo shows a 2 door 318i, the junior model if you will. Even so, ALL of the models were subject to meticulous design and construction.

The engines are very efficient, and there isn’t an aftermarket device that can make them any better. The car’s handling will suffer if you make ANY changes to it, lowering it, wider wheels and tyres etc.

Inside, the dashboard controls are turned towards the driver and are as ergonomically placed as you will ever find in any car. The seats are firm but they hold you well. The brakes are powerful but never grab, and the Getrag 5 speed gearboxes are slick and short throw.

When you get into an E30, you can just sense the difference between it and any other three box car.

The only criticisms are the height of the boot (trunk) lip, and the fact that they can get tail happy when pushed very hard, especially the straight 6’s.

The M3..

Despite looking like one of the family, very little of the standard E30 was used. The front spoiler was lowered and designed to get maximum air to the front brakes. The bonnet, roof and sunroof were the only shared exterior panels. The trunk was raised to improve stability at high speeds.

The engine was a mix of parts and designs, essentially a four cylinder M10 with six cylinder technology added to it.

Front suspension was of the type used on the M5 as were the brakes, rear suspension was typical E30.

To help with 50:50 front rear balance, lighter panels were used, and even the battery was moved to the back of the car.

The end result, a car which absolutely deserved the title ‘Ultimate Driving Machine’. Of course, there is a price to be paid for a car which performs like the M3. I am not talking about money here. The M3 is a handful, a little bumpy and quite noisy, and may not suit everybody’s vision of an every day drive.

So there you have it. The E30 BMW, arguably the best ever small saloon, convertible, Touring (Estate), road racer and AWD.

Yes, AWD signified by an ‘X’ added after the ‘i’ in the rear badges..

That was a GTI?

A GTI what exactly? It was a VW Golf GTI.

This car almost single-handedly killed off the small cheap British sports car. It could manage almost 110mph, wasn’t drafty inside, didn’t shake, rattle or roll, didn’t get stuck on sleeping policemen, could easily seat two adults and two kids, and there was room for golf clubs in the back.

You didn’t have to fight with it to keep it on the road either. There were no nasty quirks like lever arm suspension, a la MGB, swing axles a la Spitfire, and cart springs a la Midget. It was built like a tank, and it didn’t lose bits to the side of the road. To add insult to injury, it would start every morning, first turn of the key.

What we were witnessing was the birth of the ‘hot’ hatchback, a sporting theme applied to a ‘shopping trolley’. This car could give a Triumph TR6 a good run for its money. What it lacked on the straight (a theoretical 7mph) was easily made up at the first corner.

As with all good things, they come to an end. The Golf put on weight, losing the crisp lines of the original, and some of the raw performance too. The sprightly character was lost, something that never happened to the British affordable soft-tops. They were originally designed as upholstered roller-skates, and stayed that way into oblivion.

The S’es

The year is 1961, and a man called John Cooper had been working with a BMC Mini. Having driven one and discovered the amazing handling and road holding of the car, he saw potential for a lot of fun and chequered flags at the end of rallies.

The first Cooper, an ‘848’ stroked to 997cc was the first. There was also a 1071cc version, and it is this one that was the first Cooper S. Two other S variants appeared, homologated for circuit racing, a 970cc and the famous 1275cc.

Unless you were a ‘club’ racer, the only S of interest was the 1275.

The photo shows an authentic ‘63 Cooper S. This car started a huge industry in customizing and tuning which still exists today. Regardless of what Mini you owned, a standard Mini, Clubman or Moke (if you were brave enough drive fast on what was essentially a floorpan with a windshield), there was a tuning company somewhere in the UK which had a mass of parts waiting for you to buy and collect.

OK. These cars were noisy, bumpy, uncomfortable, cramped, they let in water around the doors, the battery would rot its way through the boot floor, and they wouldn’t do 100mph on 10” Minilites.

Like any owner cared. These cars were as fast through bends as they were on the straights, the exhaust note was worthy of an engine with five times the displacement, and the induction roar from the wire pancake filters was better than anything on any car radio.

Torque from the 1275 was such that you hardly had to use gears below 3rd, and only really needed second for starting off on steep hills.

There are cars running around now with S badges pinned on them, but they are nothing like the originals. BMW may e build them well and I don’t doubt that they are way more comfortable and refined, but who ever bought a Cooper S for comfort and refinement.

The Cooper S was the most fun you could have in a cheapish car available straight from any BMC dealer showroom.

At age 60 and falling apart at the seams, I doubt that I could still get into and out of a Mini, but I would like the chance to once again take a ‘hot’ Mini over Hardknott Pass in Cumbria. Talk about excitement.. WOW.. 

Incidentally, it was the 1071 Cooper S which made the car famous on the Monte Carlo Rally, not the 1275.

The Silver Cloud..

I sat in the back of one of these a long time ago. The other rear passenger was a cute blonde girl, but we were both too young to know what to do next other than snigger and sit for a few minutes before alighting. That was the last time I ever had the chance to sit in such an impressive vehicle.

Power was always rated as ‘adequate’, but the owner would not have concerned himself with technical details. More important was the state of play with the decanter and glasses, ergonomically contained in a beautifully crafted drink cabinet within the back of the front seats.

They say that, on the move, one could only hear the clock in the dashboard. There are others who say that the clock was deliberately made to be that noisy such that the makers could claim ‘one can only hear the clock’ regardless of the thrashing under the bonnet.

It doesn’t matter, because this is a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud Mk 1, one of the finest cars in the world. The body shown in the photo is stock R-R, but one could have any permutation inside it.

For the cost when new, one could have had built a substantial four bedroom house in only the very best bricks, so these cars were not exactly in range of the average family man. That isn’t a bad thing. If they were too common, they would have lost their prestige. As it was, one had to travel to London to see these elegant old girls being driven around.

What a dream.. being chauffeur driven to the Savoy just in time for cucumber sandwiches and a cup of Darjeeling, accompanied by the cute blonde girl.

Two horses..

The design criteria:

• Cheap to make
• Cheap to fix
• Low Maintenance
• Must drive over a ploughed field at 40kph without breaking eggs placed neatly in a basket
• Have enough room to accommodate a medium sized pig or twenty chickens
• Removable seats such that the operator could stop and take lunch in style and comfort

Yes, it is the Citroen 2CV. Note the side windows which facilitate the easy ejection of Gauloises cigarette butts.

I don’t think that I had ever seen anything so ugly as the 2CV. The originals looked to have been constructed from surplus corrugated steel, and were even uglier than the 1966 model shown here. Every panel was removable, doors included, and the retractable roof rolled back to the top of the boot lid. The 2CV was a convertible with typical French attitude.

The two cylinder air-cooled engine did not give the car any sporting pretentions, and you wouldn’t want one of these if you lived in England’s Peak District because uphill performance is ‘bad to not going to make it’.

But wait. Fuel consumption is in the same league as a moped, and you really can take the doors off and the seats out. This is a car for the serious picnicers, the type who in 1963 would casually pull up on the centre reservation of the M1 and take tea and sandwiches while watching the MG’s, Triumphs and big Vauxhalls strut their stuff in the fast lanes.

It’s a shame that Brits didn’t have the courage to buy 2CV’s back then. They were a source of amusement for British holiday makers driving down the N7 in France in pursuit of sunshine and a bit of glamour. These were the quirky things that leapt out at one of the many ‘Passage Protegé’ side roads.

Don’t mock the 2CV. The suspension allows these cars to get over quite rough terrain, and there are few cars which can corner with all four wheels in contact with the road while the body lists over at an angle where, if it was a ship, you would have abandoned it hours ago.

Needless to say, it was not the ugliest car ever. There were two derivatives, one called the Dyane and the other called Ami 6.

Citroen brought the 2CV forwards with fancy colour schemes called Charleston and Dolly, and these did catch on in the UK.

For me, it is one of the motoring greats, and it made the roads more interesting than they ever are today.

The Metropolitan

I was around 5 years old when I first saw one of these. It is an Austin Metropolitan, essentially a Nash Metropolitan but made at BMC’s Longbridge works. I liked it so much that I declared that this was the car I wanted when I grew up.

It never happened. There was a dire shortage of these by 1970, only nine thousand or so ever having being produced and I wanted something that could easily be repaired. Alas I never got my ‘rubber’ car that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a fairground bumper car ride, or maybe even floating in the bath.  

It was not to British tastes for sure, and prospective buyers were few. In Britain, we were still obsessed with cars painted in camouflage colours finished off with a coat or two of laquer. The two tone, bright cheery nature of the Metropolitan was in stark contrast to home grown stuff and the dour post WWII countenance of many a Brit.

Performance wise, it could manage 70mph if you believed the blurb, and could manage 27mpg flat out, again if you believed the blurb.

Basically, it was all just too much, but is a collectable these days.