***** This thread is now closed, please CLICK HERE to go to Volume 13 *****
**** This thread follows on from VOLUME 11 *****
Another thread for commenting on rare, unusual, old or just plain daft cars etc.
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Slightly surreal moment near Edenbridge this afternoon two austin princess (wedge shaped) both looked better than I remember most of them when they were new
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Ah well, the design was ahead of its time even if the engineering wasn't.
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Another vicarious sighting. Friend saw this yesterday in Sainsbury's car park (Rhyl -N. Wales - branch) a red Austin Maestro turbo - carrying an advert for "Maestro Computers"
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I saw a Montego today. Nothing unusual, but this was a Walmart carpark in Pittsburgh and the car was a brand new Mercury Montego. Possibly not one of the better chosen names for a new car and an apparent change in direction for the company that gave us the Cougar, the Bobcat and the Marauder.
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The other day - Friday, I think - I was tootling along minding my own business when rapidly towards me came a yellow Leon with headlights on and fixed roof-mounted blue lights flashing. I dutifully made way for it and noticed as it passed that its bonnet bore a big sticker showing Seat's corporate advertising slogan. I didn't see who was inside but it looked for all the world like a Seat dealer's courtesy car, done up for police use. Anyone else seen anything like this?
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A council lorry in a lay by where rubbish had been fly - tipped. Parked right by them and then they drove off ignoring it. Sorry totally wound up by that. Obviously I am unlucky enough not to live in Utopiashire but I still pay enough Council Tax to start a small war.
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V plate Marina 1700 estate, the noxious exhaust fumes from which made me stab the recirculate button. It had clearly had a major accident at some point as it was crabbing down the road at a very odd angle - quite a scary sight on its skinny little tyres at 60mph.
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I once drove a V-reg Marina, it was my neighbour's and he wanted my opinion on whether it was as bad as he thought it was.
It was.
One thing I remember was the strange crab-tracked way it seem to drive. Maybe it was more than the weird angle I was forced to sit at to reach the pedals...
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Jensen Interceptor III on Thursday in a North Devon town.
MD
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Not strictly motoring, but nonetheless inexorably linked anyhow. I knew it was something different from the sound alone, the unmistakable sound of a V12, wheeling above our local town's High Street, the Bank Holiday crowd largely ignorant or deaf......looked up and there it was that unique silhouette
of a Spitfire.....brilliant well worth going on a drudge trip to town to see that.
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last thursday i was standing on ladybower resevoir when a chinook helicopter came skimming along the derwent on full bore, i really thuoght it was going to hit us .....marvelous
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last thursday i was standing on ladybower resevoir ......
How do you do that - I always fail miserably and get wet.
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Today, parked at the end of my block, an imeccable (but restored I think) cream 2-door Volvo 122. Probably the only Volvo I would actually like to own, but I suppose a really good one would cost a bit.
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1965(?) Mustang, 289 (I know that because that's what the badge said) seen in sunny Clerkenwell, scruffy and slightly seedy. The car was a bit ropey as well. Lots of head turning from assembled drinkers outside pubs.
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saw the other day a Morris automatic ??? , a very low car, friends of mine had several Moggy's and travellers, but this was very different and I was very surprised to see it was an automatic -what could it have been ?? It was very old no. plate
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On the A47 near Peterborough today:
A white Mk 1 Cavalier two door being towed and...
A convoy of four De Loreans, one of which was "Back to the Future'd".
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On a car park in a village in the middle of nowhere in central France, an absolutely mint condition (as far as I could see) Rover 825 diesel hatchback from about 1990. Any car in mint condition is a rarity in France - but this! Even the alloys were unscuffed.
It had a for sale sign on it - 1000 euros (700 quid). If it had been an 827 I'd be driving it now...
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Coming home on the M5 this week I passed an old VW campervan, not such an unusual sight you say for this part of Devon - however it had the number plate WX05??? (where the question marks represent three letters that I cant remember!) - how could this be? It was clearly a lot older than 2 years, from my untrained eye it was probably a mid seventies model. Since the intro of the new number plate system, has this coding replaced the old Q plate? Or is it possible that someone built the old body onto a new chassis, hence the new plate?
DB
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The only VW camper van with a modern number that I know of is
static.flickr.com/34/122504581_6e4729b142_m.jpg . I:~)
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It would be a Brazilian one, made until recently.
But inferior, and a bit poor quality.
Still the looks are there and the originals were crap- I had one or two!
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Yesterday - 22nd June - saw a camper van (old style like in the 70's) with a WX05 prefix - local area of Bristol. IIRC it was purple with a white/lighter coloured top.
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This would be a Brazillian import as there is or at least was an importer in the Bristol area ...Cheers...Keo.
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Just come back from the annual gathering of Ferraris, classics and sports cars to raise money for cancer research and held at the excellent Circuit Val de Vienne, just south of Poitiers, France.
No less than 400 Ferraris there this year, of all types from about 1951 to the three Enzos that did a formation (slow) lap with their doors up as they approached the finish line. Also many, many sporting classics with lots of Brits - well worth the trip. Cost of 2 days viewing, racing and entertainment, 20 euros (14 quid).
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custard coloured opel kadett parked round the corner from me, k reg no road tax (exempt i think)
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>...exempt i think
Yes but it should still be displaying a disc. My S-in-L has one in her 1968 Morris Traveller - she just doesn't have to pay for it.
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While enjoying a Sunday afternoon stroll, spotted a bright red 1975 Rover 3500 V8 in immaculate condition. They seemed a lot bigger thirty years ago!
Clk Sec
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Last week in Chesterfield town centre I walked past what appeared to be an original AC Cobra 289. It was on a suffix -A registration and had authentic-looking AC badges and 289 badges on it; in a dark green non-metallic paint with wire wheels. I didnt think it would be a kit as most Cobra replicas are 427's, but then I checked on the interweb and found a few companies doing 289 replicas.
Then at the weekend I saw another one in rural Nottinghamshire. Not seen one for many years then I see two in a week. So they can't both be real ones and its likely that neither of them were!
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Mitsubishi i-car coming out of the QintecQ site near Chobham (probably won't be that unusual this time next month)
Audi R8 on the A3 near Guildford. It would have looked infinitely better had it not been sitting in a lay-by in front of an unmarked traffic car obviously having been pulled over.
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What unmarked plodshire car was it? NOt the black BMW?
------------------------------
TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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It was a black Volvo S40. In my youth I used to note the reg numbers too, but that was then, I'm slower now.
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Aerial Atom sighted bombing down the M5 in Somerset yesterday evening. Bizarrely passing a 1963 Austin 1100 in a ghastly "invalid" blue/green colour. Real contrast in design.
Sighting cheered me up considerably, having just been nearly forced into the mid carriageway crash barrier by an very large lorry moving into my lane without warning just as I was going past him. Thanks mate!
_______
IanS
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Sofa being driven around Elephant & Castle
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Sofa...
One of Edd China's creations?
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No idea!
Was RHD and had a flower pot at the front. Sort of brown corduroy from the look of it.
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Today, I followed an immacualte Jaguar Mk10. This was round some back road estates with lots of small roundabout in Camberly.
It was painful.
I swear that the Queen Mary was more nimble and changed direction easier - It rolled more than a fishing boat in a tsunami.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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With flabby old springs and well-worn shockers
It resembled an ancient go-go girl rotating her, er, embonpoint...
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Not so much a sighting as a hearing, perhaps, but a blue Metro in the Perth Road today was emitting an old fashioned, full blooded, big end knock; I had not heard that sound in years.
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Still makes your heart sink though, until you remember with a jolt of surprise that it's not your car.
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Having seen posts about sofas I'm not sure that having seen a McLaren Mercedes SLR shoot past me on the M25 near the A243, at one of the (very rare) moments anybody was moving at all last Friday at about 6pm, counts does it?
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Seen entering Bugbrooke (Northants) around 07:50 this morning, a Vauxhall Victor FC101 Estate. C plate so c1965 and in two tone blue, navy below the window line, cambridge blue above.
They'd normally die from rust inside 40 months - how's this one kept on for 42 years?
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I saw a break down truck being towed by bigger breakdown truck yesterday. Made me smile anyway...
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Weather must be bringing them out...
Citreon C6
Vauxhall Monaro VXR
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3 wheeler Morgan in Datchet on Tuesday evening - but then I suppose that is the area for sightings.
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Just back from 2 weeks on Costa Blanca- saw an AC Cobra between Altea and Calpe (may have been a replica) and the same Citroen SM twice- once in Benitachell and once on the road to Javea. Was also an old Renault 4 knocking around. Most ludicrous holiday sighting was a fully chavved Nissan Almera- stupid bodykit- plastic effect chrome alloys, low rider suspension and furry roof lining (looked like a tacky sheepskin rug). Woeful panel gaps and one of the earlier models- and for sale for non negotiable EUR 13,000!
This morning saw one of late wedge shaped Lotus Esprits on the M5 between Junctions 22 and 23.
Slightly less exciting were my first sightings of the new C class (saw 3) and new Mondeo sat outside Valencia Airport.
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I saw the white Lotus Elite (late, wedge-shaped, not a real Elite) again the other day, parked in my neighbourhood. Its flip-up headlamps were up though. Looks fairly carp on a car that isn't a world-class beauty to start with.
It probably wouldn't be too difficult to make a manual control for them if the original solenoids (or whatever they have) fail.
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Saw an old Citroen coupe earlier on on a suffix H-reg, a soft top hood, not sure which model.
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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A Bugatti Veyron in the paddock at Silverstone today (Ferrari racing day).
I hope that an aerial photo of all the assembled Ferrari's will be published. They did a good job arranging the cars in model order and it was certainly an impressive sight.
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Over the weekend saw a gorgeous Jaguar XJ model in a light metallic green but it was a convertible and I am sure it only had 2 doors. It wasn't a XJC and looked like a farly new XJ saloon which should have 4 doors but it only had 2 and it looked real nice with the hood down.
This was outside Bristol Parkway train station...Cheers ...Keo.
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Could it have been this? www.jaguar-xj8.com/1996%20Dailer%20Corsica%20Conce...G Truly unique if it was.
That's it that is exactly what i saw never seen it before in the area but will keep my eyes open to see if I can see it again...Cheers...Keo.
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This morning on a driveway just outside Limoges and evidently in regular use, an Austin Gipsy 4x4 - the LR lookalike from BMC. Hadn't seen one in the UK for decades.
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Coming back round the M25 and up the M11 this afternoon I noticed:
- more TVRs than I could count, all with "07" stickers on their doors
- a Ford GT
- a new Ford Mustang
- several Astons
- an F40 closely followed by a 360 (probably just recovered from Silverstone)
- a non-UK registered De Lorean
- several Maseratis.
Anyone know where they were all going?
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Were they all heading south? It's Le Mans this weekend.
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A shredded cassette tape strewn on the roadside. Didn't think anyone used cassettes any more?!
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Something I forgot in my earlier post was a Police Mondeo at the Dartford Tunnel with "ANPR Interceptor Unit" on the bumper. Shades of Mad Max!
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On the outside lane of the M8 yesterday , a driver/rider on a large quad bike thing probably doing 60mph in nose to tail traffic. In heavy rain wearing just a t shirt and no helmet.
He looked so uncomfortable, so unsafe, so wet. But I bet he thought he looked cool!
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Yesterday and today, the retro looking BMW Z8 (thing it has the running gear from the old M5)
The guy opened it up, what a noise. Nascar-time.
Oh, and in Cumbria, a blonde girl on a Police motorbike. Honest.
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On the way to Dover on 1 June, on the M20, 4 DeLoreans heading north, in line astern.
Plenty of old Renault 4s, Pug 504s etc in France (following on from a previous comment about how one never saw then any more).
--
Career: (n) Job, profession.
(v) Downhill, rapidly, out of control.
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White Vauxhall Victor Estate, R reg, must have been a 1976 or 1977. Didn't look too rusty, and was moving at a fair lick. The only Vauxhall of that era I vaguely liked, and with its fastback rear hatch perhaps a precursor of today's lifestyle estates.
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Not a very exciting one, this, but I followed a silver Nissan Stanza the other day - a car that I thought had quietly slipped away without anyone noticing!
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....But more interesting today, at a car park near Longleat, an early 1970's Citroen DS ambulance, which had a tall, coachbuilt rear body section. It was white with a blue light and was left-hand drive but with a British registration - old suffix J-reg.
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I had a matchbox version of this in olive green !
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A Tata Indigo SW (station wagon) in Menorca - absolutely hideous.
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Hitchhikers.... on the Isle of Mull.
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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A lovely Gordon Keeble on the M1 contra flow southbound yesterday afternoon. NOt many made & this one looked & sounded fantastic!
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Whilst recently in France a Renault Spider in Yellow (attractive) and, recently, there have been comments about Land Crabs or lack of them: One parked about a mile away yesterday, so they do still exist!
--
Tim{P}
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Just heard an automatic Mini(old type) go past;I'd forgotten they existed-funny to hear the revs going up & down like that.
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I overtook a noble old white convertible c. 1950 (when it would have been called a drophead coupe) with a diamond-shaped grille, going north on the M6 yesterday near Stafford. As a child of the 50s I thought I would have known what it was but this one stumped me.
Fortunately I remembered the number - LXU 591 - and mycarcheck.com has told me it's a Healey. Pre-Austin, that is. Lovely swooping lines, and good to see it alive and being driven.
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A proper Healey Avant. Aluminium handmade body. Riley 2.5 twin-cam 4cylinder.
Never fancied them myself but they had a name.
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Healey Avant? Was that the sporty estate version?
Or are you dreaming of upgrading the Escort? ;-)
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Or are you dreaming of upgrading the Escort? ;-)
I seem to remember there was an estate model actually...
I believe the real Healeys were tremendously good in an understated sort of way. That Riley engine was terrific too, 4-pot or no. The only one I really liked the look of though was the Silverstone, leather straps on bonnet and cycle-type wings (rather flash ones).
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Never heard that name Healey Avant. Seems to be called that on French websites only. Is this what we know as a Healey 100 in the UK?
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Never heard that name Healey Avant.
There should have been a comma, obviously, between Healey and Avant in my first post above, in reply to our fellow member Avant. Mike hannon was extracting the urine...
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There's a sort of a connection there in that my previous car, the beloved Audi whence came my pseudonym, also had a 2.5 litre engine.
But of course that was German. When that noble old Healey was new, British cars were the best in the world - Healeys and Rileys at ehr forefront.
If you were the sort of person who had a Riley in the 50s, you might have had a Triumph in the 60s and 70s, but you'd now have a BMW. I think I'll start a new thread with this thought - what would we have driven 50 years ago?
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sorrreeee...couldn't resist.
Maybe it was a Healey Abbott - didn't the Farnham coachbuilder do a lot for Donald Healey in the early days?
You're right about the engine, Riley went their own way with a not-quite-DOHC. I guess it was just too advanced for the BMC bosses to cope with.
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Typical, was going to post about the 6 wheel Hummer Limo we saw in Morrisons car park last Saturday, when I saw a bright pink one going up the M5 this morning! Driver of the Blue one on Saturday did not look at him when myself, my wife and my 4 year old daughter burst out laughing at it. Chavtastic.
Was cheered up by the sight of an immaculate green and gold Citroen HY van near Wellington last week, and a vintage Rolls Royce near Bridgwater )not sure which type though- but looked a bit like the Goldfinger one).
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A mk1 Fiesta XR2 on the way into work this morning. Forgot how good they looked.
It was in metallic (Caspian??) blue and completely standard looking, right down to the original pepperpots. Lovely burbly but not OTT exhaust note as well, something no affordable modern car seems to have any more.
I was offered a very nice one of these with a known history for a bargain price when I was 17, but was quoted £2200 per year THIRD PARTY ONLY to insure it. :-(
Cheers
DP
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Nearly forgot- there was an old Commer camper van going south down the M5 this morning.
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an old Commer camper van going south down the M5 this morning.>>
Hmm ...... I wonder where that was going!
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Saw it between Taunton and Wellington- so not Pilton festival, unless their geography is really bad (like everyone who thinks festival is in Glastonbury!).
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Still catches the eye when you see one, I reckon I see one, apart from mine, about once a year now
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Not very unusual these days and sorry to mention it, but a very shiny and new black Hummer in Westbourne Park Road just now with the registration number V4 HUM. It was passing a very dirty but also newish Mercedes CLK (or something like that) 55 AMG, coated with urban road dust but obviously in regular use. Unusual because the owners of such cars usually keep them clean...
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A bit of a cheat. The new Smart car on German plates on temporary display outside at MB World at Brooklands.
IIRC it is released in the Autumn in the UK.
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Just outside Swindon on A420 a really nice (restored) Triumph TR4/4a/5 - not sure which on an 'F' plate. Glorious in white. Wire wheels - looked the biz.
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white porsche cayenne stretched limo going over speed bumps looking obscene.
a white y reg mg metro looking rusty,
and a electric g-wizz actually moving (not parked) looking a complete joke.
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today whist sat at the lights i saw a silverish delorean on the back of a car transporter on the A47 hinkley road leicestershire, i dont think it had a fluk capacitor fitted but you never know , if i see it again last week then i know that it has got one fitted
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Today, between St James's Square and Jermyn Street, a new Aston Martin with a double-bump roof like someone's buttocks in the air, and a Z on the back I suppose for Zagato... Didn't know this one existed. Also lots of Gwhizes including three parked in a row.
Ten minutes' walk away in nastily congested Soho where I had gone to deliver a heavy typescript to a small publisher for my wife, a few very scantily-clad youngish women standing in doorways and offering passers by a haircut, or that's what it sounded like among all the darlings. Is this some kind of euphemism for a soft drink costing £50? In my youth it was sleazy men with brylcreemed hair and camel-hair coats urging one to visit a 'French bar'. Same sort of thing I bet.
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God, it's dull round where I live...
Seeing an Austin Gipsy got me wound up!
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A very original looking Fiat Tipo in a blue. An easy car to miss in the streetscape, this car is locally registered and I see it regularly. SWMBO had a Tipo for a year (on a G plate) it was a diesel. Superbly dynamic car, dodgy and downright strange electrics, very roomy little motor. We liked it and were strangely saddened when it went. It never broke in around the 25k she put on it....
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In the local Garage just now - a lovely blue Ford Escort Cosworth, engine sound,club stickers and the grin the size of the Cheddar gorge on the c12 year old passenger's face seemed to confirm it was authentic...
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Mercedes SLR with an SLR personal reg. Second one I've seen around my area.
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Two today, both round Towcester so possibly to/from or part of a BMC event:-
First what appeared to be a v. well preserved BMC 1100/1300, mk 1 version. Duo colour paint in pale blue/cream - possibly a Riley Kestrel version but I couldn't get near enough to tell.
Secondly, around 20:00, an A40 Pinnifarina in red. Again very well preserved, pre 1963 judging by the registration.
Oh, and a rather scabby Triumph Spitfire in Milton Keynes.
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Strange how I remembered the Tata SW I saw in Menorca, but forgot about something else we saw.
Imagine a very old Spanish town with tightly packed streets, one of which appears to be the centre of the local car repair/tyre fitting business. Walking past one of the repair centres and peering in reveals an absoultely immaculate De Lorean.
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Having posted the above I did a search and there is an online De Lorean register - this is one of only two in Spain, built in Aug 1982.
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Well, at least it won't tarnish in the Spanish atmosphere!
Outside Limoges this afternoon, a Triumph Herald convertible, closely followed by a tidy Spitfire. Must be an owners' club.
A few minutes later, a roar followed by the appearance of a Renault Dauphine Gordini.
They were a handful enough as standard, goodness knows how a souped up one ever got around corners...
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Coming home today along A5 between M6 and Telford I saw all these Alfa Romeo's coming the other way - dozens of them and I am sure one was a SZ or it looked like one - turned out to be an AR owners day at Western Park - also saw what might have been a Mrs Robinson one as well - I love the looks but not sure if I would buy one.
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"Mrs Robinson one as well"
Don't start; the discussion cost me £4.95 for a Graduate DVD yesterday - such is the power of the web.
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Mk1 Cortina in white, very well presented, last night in Dunstable Road, Luton.
Not sure why it was parked on the footpath, don't think it was broken down.
VB
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One of those fibreglass, very wide rear track, with extended wheelarches both ends, Austin Healey 3000 near-replicas. This one said V8 on the back, and was in nice shiny dark olive green. I followed it into Sainsbury's car park this afternoon where it, and I, lost ourselves among the hundreds of other vehicles.
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A rather tatty Ferrari 250 Testarossa on the M25 coming back from the FOS at Goodwood on Friday night. Typical Italian electrics - only one brake light worked. It sounded dead gorgeous though.
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