The VW Kombi Type 2 T1 camper van..

These vehicles were slow, didn’t stop too well, and were not exactly spacious. Mpg was around 25, and you never wanted to be behind one on a hill, even a shallow hill. They had length but were not really any wider than a car, making them easy to park up anywhere, and had a lot of equipment in them for the size. Best of all, they were not so large that they were impractical as a daily drive.

The T1 has a droopy face look, big eyes and it looks friendly. It isn’t an intimidating vehicle like other vans and conversions. It’s a VW which means that it is well constructed and reliable. Most of all, it is ‘home from home’.. see below

After a searing day on the beach, tired from wandering around a seaside resort, or ravaged from a few hours at the amusements, you could open up the side and relax. Brilliant stuff as long as there was only two of you.

For more, you had to hitch up a caravan, get the weight distribution right (few ever did), remember to get a tow hitch fitted every time that you changed your vehicle, become the most hated sight on the roads during the summer period…… haha..

The T1 also made a great canvas for self expression..

If you had given this treatment to a Bedford CA or a Commer FC, you’d be spending many days in the ‘house on the hill’, but it suits the character of the VW.

As is usual with Euro vans, the Type 2 T1 was available in whatever version you wanted, from camper van as shown,, to panel van,high top panel van, pick-up, ambulance, paddy wagon, minibus, you name it and somebody somewhere was producing a conversion kit.

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..

"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.

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.

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.