***** This thread is now closed, please CLICK HERE to go to Volume 9 *****
Following on from Stargazer's original thread, Vol 2, Vol 3, Vol 4, Vol 5, Vol 6 & Vol 7:-
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=23902 (Vol 1)
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=23901 (Vol 2)
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=25308 (Vol 3)
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=31443 (Vol 4)
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=32419 (Vol 5)
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=34483 (Vol 6)
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=39531 (Vol 7)
Another thread for commenting on rare, unusual, old or just plain daft cars etc.
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Despite seeing them on the forecourt when first released, I have never seen an MG RV8 until last weekend. Still looked superb.
StarGazer
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Argghh, edit button, oh for an edit button. 'never seen an MG RV8 on the road....
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Lovely car that almost a swan song for Rover group. I saw one of these on trade plates before their launch....I'd have one.
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But why didn't they keep the original MGB body shape - it was so perfect. Even now they look pretty, more so than Morgans or any modern retro cars.
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Probably to house underpinnings that would verge on being modern.
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PU
I seem to remember that the original MGB/C body shell tooling went to one of the Heritage manufacturers....they were approached by Rover to manufacture some panels for the MG-RV8
so some panels and the overall shape are familiar but the nose and headlights for instance got restyled slightly.
StarGazer
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Sg,
You're right - lovely car though....very sad.
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Delage Drophead Tourer. Glutton Bridge, on the Derbyshire Staffordshire border.
Grey and blue and a beautiful car.
--
I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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A few weeks ago I saw a car (on the M5 I think on the opposite carriageway so I couldn't see what nationality it was) towing a strange caravan thing which resembled one of the semi trailer type caravans you sometimes see pick-ups pulling, but the towing point for this 'caravan' was on the roof of the car!
Very odd.
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Saw an M reg Capri Mk2 in the queue for the motorway this morning. Looked pretty tidy. Also spotted a Renault 12 estate (also M reg) recently- again wasn't in too bad condition.
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Wasn't the Renault 12 built under licence in Romania by Dacia? Think some were imported after the 12 went out of production.
--
I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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In the centre of Limoges today - a real live Triumph TR7!
It looked to be hand-painted and the headlights looked like they were held in the up position with gaffer tape but it was moving under its own power.
And to think I left the UK to avoid embarrassments like this...
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Ah yes.
How come the TR7 wasn't mentioned in the thread about ugly cars?
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A proud - blue, not very dated looking (from the rear anyway) J plated Austin Maxi. A55 Westbound coming into Wales this afternoon.
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A proud - blue, not very dated looking (from the rear anyway) J plated Austin Maxi. A55 Westbound coming into Wales this afternoon.
Yes PU, the Austin A55, did a good run in a hired one before I had a licence, made the tyres squeal and only once ran out of road ... fortunately there was an escape route ...
Perhaps one shouldn't admit these things.
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No, Lud. It was a Maxi. ON the A55 in North Wales....
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I heard him AW. But there was an Austin A55 and that's what I was talking about.
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Today , a Daimler Conquest Drop-head tourer in metallic green and an MG T type.
Again near Glutton Bridge.
Been told the MOT place there deals with older cars- so get your flask and sit by the roadside on the Derbyshire/Staffordshire border!
--
I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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Yesterday, an immaculate Audi 100 coupé, from about 1970. Gorgeous thing - never seen one before.
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>>>How come the TR7 wasn't mentioned in the thread about ugly cars?<<<
I don't think that the TR7 was ugly, more that it just didn't 'look the part' for a sports car. And I wonder if the TR7, with its diagonal styling line, short dumpy body and chunky rear inspired the designer of the Alfa Spider!!!
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Yes they were gorgeous cars, all spindly (like the Beemers of that time) in a very Germanic way....Friends in school had an Audi 80 on an M Plate, I remember going with them on the pull !
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www.uk-classic-cars.com/accgb.htm
And a suitably pretty picture of a coupe.
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Yep, that´s the one. It looks even better in the metal IMHO too. Looking forward to seeing another one.
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Last night about 8.45, outside a pub on a bend at the top end of Scrubs Lane, a whole lot of elated young people in yellow tee shirts jumping up and down on tables and waving flags.
What could they have been on about?
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I've just come back from a 2 week holiday in Malta, and if you are an enthusiast for old British cars, it is the place to go!
Sights included several Mk1 cortinas, capris and escorts, triumph toledos, hillman avengers, Vauxhall vivas, austin 1100s, Ford Anglias and too many more to mention.
It was a bit like "Life on Mars" set in the Mediterranean.
They drive like madmen too, very entertaining.
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Light Car Company's Rocket, around Danbury in Essex.
They are much much bigger than they look from a photo.
www.ultimatecarpage.com/pic.php?imagenum=1&carnum=...3
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Immaculate 1966 Vauxhall Victor 101 (FC) sighted on the road near Norwich yesterday. Rare sighting beacuse most of these rotted so badly that few made it to the 1970s let alone 2006!
_______
IanS
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There is, or has been until recently, an immaculate Victor 101 in the Frome area - grey in colour.
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Another unusual lorry sighting parked in layby on A36.
8-axle artic carrying 2 short containers. As well as the usual 6-axle layout for a max-weight artic (3-axle tractor coupled to 3-axle trailer) the trailer had another pair of lifting axles amidships.
This didn't look like a special heavy haulage vehicle and the tractor was UK registered. The trailer could have been foreign, I suppose. Something designed to cope with weak bridges?
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Maybe the containers were nuclear waste flasks. Lorries like that - bonneted(?) Leylands IIRC - used to haul flasks from Hinkley Point to the railway at Bridgwater, en route to Sellafield, with motors like that.
There used to be some interesting military installations just over the border in Wiltshire, not far from Frome...
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An eggshell blue Lancia Flavia, see it most days, it is in imaculate condition and used everyday, even to take kids to school(the owners kids go to the same school as my own, thats why I see it so often.)
Although he does park a few streets away, well the way they do the school run in those 4x4's its no wonder.
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Also there's a 1970's Merc thats around here alot, don't know what model, but its bigger than most of the modern ones.
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Wish I could edit the above.
Just to add, the merc is repetedly parked right up to corners, and about 1 to 2 feet from the curb! How can anyone be so careless with a classic?
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Saw a stretch Hummer H3 Limo going the other way on the motorway last night like this one www.booklimo.co.uk/hire_super_stretch_hummer.php and 5 minutes later a 'normal' Hummer H3.
Did wonder what the Limo would be like off road though.
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Saw one of those (Dutch?) 3 wheeler jobs that were shown on TopGear a few years ago - the ones where the body leans dramatically. It was the same shade of Orange as the one shown on TG.
Also saw a small micra-sized Lexus, yes Lexus, the other day. Obviously an import, I didn't catch the model name. Had one of those Nissan Figaro type paint jobs - pastel green lower half, with a cream top.
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Would it have been a Mitsuoka, Chad? There are some fine examples here: www.austin-rover.co.uk/
Look under the faking it section...
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The "Dutch 3 Wheeler" was a Carver - www.3wheelers.com/carver.html
Can't find any info on any small Lexus' - perhaps someone had done a very good job of pasting Lexus badges an unusual jap import.
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I saw a Fiat 130 in Bath a few months back. It was the first one that I've ever seen. I remember going into a Fiat dealership back in the 70s and asking them where I could see a 130. I think I had seen the model in a pack of top trump cards but couldn't understand why I never saw one on the road.
Another interesting sighting was a Ferrari F40 spotted driving round Aylesbury one Friday afternoon in rush hour. It looked out of place but a welcome sight nonetheless. There was another F40 in Tescos car park in Buckingham last year.
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A5 southbound at Kilsby c10:00 this morning immaculate H suffix (1969/70) Humber Sceptre - towing a modern caravan.
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Was driving locally today when i saw 4 hippy-like individuals , all stepping out of a .... no not a vw campervan ....... a k-reg rover 216..!!!! Change in tastes?
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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Coming off the Autobahn at Pforzhaim -a Fiat 126 Cabrio. Urgh.
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A new XK8 Convertible in a terrible light blue colour with a beige roof -yuck. Not the sort of thing you expect to see parked outside a scruffy amusement arcade in Cleethorpes!
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Don't forget Amusement Arcades are an all cash business - there is money to be made!
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German bus owned by a company called "Fuecker" however the "e" had been dropped on the decals on the back... static.flickr.com/77/180555701_1fa37fa9bc.jpg?v=0
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Parked at a car boot sale in SW France - but not 'a vendre' - a very nice Dyna Panhard of the early 1950s, about the size and shape of a Morris Minor but technically more interesting, with an air-cooled twin under the bonnet. And the visible mechanism for the sliding side windows looked to have more engineering in it than most complete cars of the time.
Shame that Panhard, a pioneer of motoring, got swallowed up by the big boys. The last one, IIRC, came out badged as the Citroen GS.
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> about the size and shape of a Morris Minor but technically more interesting, with an air-cooled twin under the bonnet.
Sir Alex Issigonis had originally intended the Moggy to have 800cc and 1100cc flat four water cooled engines - this explains the huge amount of space surrounding the engines that were actually fitted in production - but these ideas were unfortunately canned due to development cost.
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Today I was followed on the A36 by a a grey 1920's open tourer which looked very similar to 'Gumdrop' of childrens' picture book fame. But I don't think the car was an Austin - don't know what it was.
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A white Renault 5 Turbo 2. Engine where the rear seats should be and as pretty as a surgical boot (to quote someone). A pretty scary device to drive I imagine.
--
I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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Must be limo season down here, following the hummer last week saw (what I think was) an Excalibur limo a couple of days back. Truly truly horrible.
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how's this for an unusual sight .A broken down Hi Lux pick up!! well i've got one! I think i'd beter report it to top gear!....maybe ask for some spares
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Driving up the M1 this morning, saw a black original-shape VW Beetle, but on a 52-plate. The thing that alerted my curiosity was that it had steel wheels with small black plastic hubcaps. I didnt have chance to see if it was LHD or RHD. Imported from Mexico or Brazil I presume?
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I saw my first Citroen C6 today. Citroen's answer to the Vel Satis? Sections of the car, seen in isolation, look good but the car as a whole - oops!
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Nooooooooooooo ! It's beautiful, mind you I've got a corrupted asthetic hard disc...
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C6?
Agreed, lovely body PU, but dire dash - the bit you are actually faced with looking at from behind the wheel! - almost like they ran out of cash to do a pukka job.
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Reading that back, I'm referring to the C6, PU, not the fine physical specimen you perhaps are!
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Yesterday
On the way to Tescos spotted a red Mark 1 Astra GTE. Lovely looking car.
On the way back from Tescos spotted a red XR3i
Must have been a day for older hot hatches
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On the A3 Kingston bypass in Surrey on Saturday, a black BMW M3 doing a bit of very brisk and competent lane-weaving, with the number plate O505LOW... Nice to think there are BMW hooligans with a sense of irony.
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I entered a tunnel with a newish M5 in my wake, hooligan yowl to the engine on full chat. I hate diesels :-{
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This morning, outside a restaurant near Limoges, a dark green T-series Alvis Graber-styled drophead coupe from the early '60s, on Belgian plates - sublime.
2 minutes later, a Vectra with those wheeltrims that go on spinning after the car stops - ridiculous.
One hour later, parked in the street in Limoges centre, an early open E-type, with gorgeous Dunlop wheels like a D-type, much more tasteful than those dreadful chrome wires fitted to everything old these days by people who know no better.
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The other weekend, A4, Isleworth area... a Pagani Zonda.
Until I saw one I didn't believe they actually existed.
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coming home from work down the m62 from the m60 to the m6, the whole of the m62 was standing or crawling eastbound (which is not an unusual sighting) - so much traffic yuo could hardly see tarmac.....
except for the prison van with three or four police vehicles with conspicuously (sp ?) armed officers maintaining an 'exclusion zone' around the prison van.
I wasn't aware of any trials going on thar require that level of security - any ideas ?
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Go on, get out of the car...
www.mikes-walks.co.uk
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EURO MP's???
vbr..........MD
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apparently on the roof of these vans they have a sticker saying escape hatch (terry wogan) has anybody tried these?
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Cruising along the M40 motorway on my motorbike a few days ago - tedious, but I had a meeting schedule to keep and the fun of an A-road ride home to come later as compensation - I came across a Bugatti, one of the Type 35 series, I'm pretty sure, itself cruising about about seventy. With a rare gap in the traffic to play with, I paced myself to a little more than the Bugatti's speed, pulled the clutch in with my revs dropping to idle, and for a few seconds enjoyed falling back and then running alongsidei; what a wonderful straight eight!
Make that two compensations for taking the motorway.
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A DeLorean. I've never seen one before. In th ecar park of a body shop near Northwich.
JH
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Congratulations SjB. And yuck, JH.
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Renault Vel Satis in Tescos car park. My God thats one ugly car!+
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That's part of the attraction of the Satis !
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Renault Vel Satis in Tescos car park. My God thats one ugly car!+
Each to their own, I guess; I think they look great, and full marks to Renault for not only being whacky but whacky that works; everything is in scale and proportion, just like the current generation Citröen DS, sorry C6.
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My local Homebase.
Sunday morning.
A nineteen twenties Rolls Royce Silver Ghost.
"Oxford Tourer" model to be exact, I think.
Jeez, I hate taking the V70 to DIY stores and supermarkets, but to take such a motoring icon...!
Made me smile to see matey come out with trolley full of DIY gubbins and pile it all on the back seat!
Good Man.
Much better than stuck in a museum or only used for wedding duties.
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A mint, bog standard looking Moonstone Blue Sierra RS Cosworth on a D plate.
What a lovely looking car that still is when it's in that kind of condition.
Cheers
DP
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At Classics on the Common, nine DeLoreans arrived in convoy with their gullwing doors open. The event was a tremendous success again this year, with 2000+ exhibitors. Not bad for no entrance fee and only a £3 exhibitor fee.
www.classicsonthecommon.com/
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Don't forget Roger, you've already chipped in for the DeLoreans...or you did if you are my age.
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Well they never sent me mine mh, and I bet you didn't get yours either.
Not that I much wanted one of course, but I could have sold it to someone who desired an undeveloped overweight Renault-engined American car with gullwing doors and unmaintainable finish....
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lol! A few years ago I had the chance to examine a DeLorean closely for the first time and I was appalled at the way it had been put together, let alone the low rent fixtures and fittings and the basic design issues.
What amazes me is that people now buy them for an arm and a leg and then want to go round showing them off!
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a black and chrome stretc>>>>>>>>>hed hummer with 3 axles on the back looked mint as he passed me and took two hours due to its length......
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A blue Noble M12(?) yesterday afternoon, making steady progress, niiiiiiiiice.
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Last night about 7, on a trailer at the top end of Elgin Avenue, an HRG aerodynamic coupe. There can't be more than a dozen or so in the world as the model didn't sell well. Indeed HRG were on their uppers when they produced it, and I believe under the skin it was the same vintage-style machine as the ordinary HRG open 2-seater, including beam front axle on cantilevered springs, although perhaps the aerodynamic had a higher final drive ratio.
Later, towards Camden Town, glimpsed a very sound, wide-wheeled Austin Healey 3000 with a tatty roof but very healthy exhaust note vanishing through the traffic. Might have been one of those more recent replica ones perhaps, had flared wheel arches.
Later still, we were followed by what the driver of the car thought was a special Porsche racer, but when it went past on the inside at Lords Roundabout it turned out to be another navy-blue Noble like PU's...
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Just Googled HRG, not very thoroughly, and can't find a single picture of an aerodynamic coupe, they're all roadsters. So last night's was even rarer than I thought.... The ordinary 1500 is exactly as I remember it, crab-tracked like a chain-drive Frazer Nash, unsurprisingly as HR Godfrey had worked with Frazer Nash in that company...
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My Travels today
A yellow MK1 Cavalier.
BBC Man. "Is this the thin end of the wedge where your cars won't be designed in the UK any more ?"
Vauxhall Man "Oh No, no, no." Dull thud as he trips over his nose
A Porsche 914 - not their most elegant design.
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Saw a next generation Freelander on Tuesday in garish orange on trade plates. Was only a passing glimpse- but not very exciting.
Also saw a Jensen Interceptor recently. Been in love with these since I was 6 years old, so very exciting (for me anyway).
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>>Also saw a Jensen Interceptor recently. Been in love with these since I was 6 years old, so very exciting (for me anyway).
A garage near me has had a nice metallic blue interceptor III for sale for a few weeks now, about 14 grand I think.
Anyways my unusual sighting for the weekend was Lymington Morisson's car park on Sunday morning, a Kubelwagen and Schwimmwagen parked next to each other, looked like the genuine article rather than replicas. I wondered if the Schwimmwagen's owner was going to take it for a quick dip in the river.
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in reply to Spamcan- would love to have one of those- but just haven't got the money for it.
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Theres a sharp almost 90 degree turn near work 2nd gear corner, - was going a bit quicker then usual - went round and saw a Red Enzo coming the other way - came parallel to me just as I was on the exit of the corner. The lane is fairly wide, and I think I must have scared the driver, as he was tootling a long.
Imagine my insurance premium if I'd side swiped that thing!! I think the driver would have got out an killed me though.....
Saw a Carrera GT on the moterway.
Also Masarati Quattroporte - what a beautiful car.
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What looked like a Jaguar Mk2 approached from the opposite direction, but it somhow didn't look quite right. As it passed I saw it was one of those bizarre Japanese creations based on some Nissan or Toyota!
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Had a few yesterday as was a classic car rally on the sea front. Only drove past it as didnt seem that exciting- Hillman Hunter estate, Early 80s Maxi estate, a few capris (including one with a really tacky bodykit. May have been a few hidden gems in there, but we were in a rush so didnt have the time.
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A new Mercedes SLR with a local reg. It sounded awsome even pulling away gently from a red light. How many of these have been sold?
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Driving in & around High Wycombe today, i saw no less then 5 MkIV Ford Escort cabriolets, all driven by chavs of course!!
Time of year anybody? Not that its been very bright though today.
--
Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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...............As well as another one this morning, but this time with a body kit!
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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Im loathe to mention that there's one in the village.
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frazerjp and PU: why is an Escort cabriolet any more noteworthy than any other cheapo repmobile cabriolet? Obviously no driver in his or her right mind would give a second thought to any of the cramped torsionally-floppy overweight things, but as we know a lot of harmless innocent citizens drive about in them I suppose because they think it makes them look rich.
And frazerjp, how did you know the Escort cabriolets in High Wycombe were driven by chavs? Did you interview them all, or did you just think they looked as if they might have tattoos if you could get a proper look at them?
Or were you perhaps a victim of HJ's eccentric view that Escorts are chav cars just like BMWs?
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Lud i noticed as they drove past, they either wore baseball caps with burberry patterns on them or skinheads, also couldn't help noticing their right hand is holding the steering wheel at the top center. :-)
--
Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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Does sound convincing I must say. Perhaps there was a chav convention in the hellfire caves just up the road.
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Guilty.
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Funnily enough i saw another Escort Cabriolet along London Road this evening, couldn't see the driver this time as the windows were blackoned with dark tints.
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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A nice DB9 today, lovely.
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Today on M25 or M3, can't remember which - I could not believe my eyes when I saw one of those little fake steam locos like they use at theme parks etc. driving along the opposite carriageway! It was towing one carriage (trailer) - presumably because that's all it was allowed to tow on a public highway. It was red with yellow lining-out and looked to be bowling along at about 50 mph!
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New Aston Martin Vantage - v nice.
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This morning, just down the road, what looked and sounded like a virtually new VW 1300 beetle.
Where are they being made? Brazil? Indonesia? I thought the emerging world VW factories were now producing old Golfs and Passats.
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