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