Boys and girls,
This morning's blue skies tickled a piece of dormant grey matter and prompted me to start thinking about a toy for the coming summer.
Something with character that will be fun to drive around the Hants/Berks countryside on warm evenings and at weekends. Shouldn't cost more than about £5K and could be turned into a winter resto' project later in the year.
Up for consideration were :
A '60's American ragtop
A Frogeye Sprite or MG
Any other suggestions or recommendations ?
Kevin...
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TR6
A TR6 needing a bit of TLC with a decent history seems to be worth about £5k at auction these days.
Or a Spitfire (cheaper than MGs).
Piers
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How about a ragtop Series IIA Land Rover? Or a Willies/Hotchkiss jeep?
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Martin
The word is Willys, Martin, but pronounced how you spelt it.
Not a Freudian slip I hope
Regards
John
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John S wrote:
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> The word is Willys, Martin, but pronounced how you spelt it.
The name is Martyn, John, but pronounced how you spelt it.
> Not a Freudian slip I hope
>
> Regards
>
> John
I agonised over Willys/Willies for a full five seconds before I pressed the button. Where's that darn 'edit' button?
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Martyn,
Glad you mentioned the Land Rover.
The top is off ours at present and it looks a very chunky convertible.
David
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David W wrote:
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> The top is off ours at present and it looks a very chunky
> convertible.
Don't! I hate you! Grrr!
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you could always try a lada niva 4X4 convertible, but it would look like a skip.
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More Brrr than Grrr this time of year. Don't worry it won't leave the drive like that.
David
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I bought mine instead of a motor cycle. So by comparison it's quite toasty!
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I bought an Austin Champ when I was younger. ( Much)
5 miles to the gallon, if I was lucky. Was it a 4 litre Rolls engine? Can't quite remember. Torsion bar suspension as I recall. Hand throttle. Jump off it and watch it disappear up the field, driverless. Grow up Davies.
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Martyn
Sorry about the spelling of your name! Yes, we could all do with the edit/delete button.
I should have said 'usually pronounced how you spelt it'. My Willys Jeep owning neighbour reckons the pronunciation is 'Willis'.
Regards
John
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>
> How about a ragtop Series IIA Land Rover? Or a
> Willies/Hotchkiss jeep?
Damn good idea Martyn, BUT...
I was looking for an early jeep last summer but the only ones that I saw were either 'in need of restoration' (read non-runners), or fully restored pristine examples.
I'll add it to the list tho' no harm in looking again.
Kevin...
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Drop-dead gorgeous 1966 Mustang rag-top v-8 289 cu. in. original Candyapple Red, spotless Pony Parchment interior, power hood, whitewalls, full MOT absolutely nothing to fix. You can't have it for 5k though. Might start around double that :-)
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She must be pretty lonely being in storage all the time Growler.
Doesn't she need a sympathetic soul to take her out now and again? I'll be gentle with her.
Kevin...
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Piers wrote
Not the sort of Spitfire that I would be interested in.
Trouble is, the flying lessons are an extra too.
;-)
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Westfield 7 with a Ford 1600 crossflow motor. Several for sale in the back pages of Kit Car magazine around the £5K mark.
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How about two wheels, Kevin. Five grand would get you the sort of performance Ferrari drivers can only dream about. If you don't have a bike licence £500 would take care of that and the remainder would put you on any number of late reg tackle that top out at somewhere round 180mph, with some trouser staining acceleration. Opens up a whole new world, but watch the Gatso's!
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Tom,
I'd thought of two wheels but 'My Little Nest of Vipers' wouldn't entertain that idea unless it was a Hog or an Indian, and the chances of getting one of them for around £5K is pretty remote.
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> I'd thought of two wheels but 'My Little Nest of Vipers'
> wouldn't entertain that idea
Oh you have one of those as well do you?
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you could try getting an old BSA or vincent, as these are proper bikes, (be patriotic)
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Talking of motorcycles being kwik, I was surprised to be told that for a given race track, racing cars are much quicker than motorcycles. True?
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Cars corner much more quickly than bikes, with twice the tyre contact and downforce from the wings. They can probably outbrake a bike for the same reason.
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Kevin,
Alwyn mentioned the Austin Champ - Used to be popular with rich 'poser' kids in the '60's. As ex WD stuff they were sold complete with shovels, jerrycans and radio transmitters. They had a waterproofed 4 litre Rolls engine and BMC running gear. The engine was unbreakable and they could easily outperform a Land Rover in any situation. If you could get hold of a decent Champ, you'd get admiring glances from Sharon - and a few old geezers.
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In about 1952 I saw the Army on the shore of the Great Bitter Lake testing a couple of Champs for their wading capability - air intake swivelled vertically to above the hieght of the driver's head and water up to his elbows. At least they would have dried off quickly in the hot Egyptian sun.
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Triumph Stag with a growling V8
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> "Where's that darn 'edit' button?"
OHHHHH! Sweet irony :o)
Stu.
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Brill wrote:
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> OHHHHH! Sweet irony :o)
>
> Stu.
Ha! I thought that wouldn't pass un-noticed by you!
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Cars with plenty of aerodynamic downforce are much faster in the higher speed bends. Given a power to weight ratio approaching that of the bike, they must be quicker. But so many variations of power, weight and drag occur in different classes of car and bike that one should not generalize.
Possibly more fun on a bike, if you can contrive not to dismount involuntarily.
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Try to find a Morris 1000 ragtop, great little cars.
Eleanor
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The Army Champs my chaps used would go as fast in reverse as forwards. Great fun What?
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triumph herald convertible, morris minor convertible, VW beetle convertible, triumph stag.
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My summer toy is a 1948 Willys CJ2A... My Dad bought it new the year I was born and gave it to me in a no running condition for my 14th birthday (I should mention that I learned to drive on it while sitting on my Dads lap from about age 8 on the beaches of the island) the deal was if I could rebuild it and get it running to the point it would pass the State inspection by my 16th birthday ( And I passed my driving test on it on the same date) it would be truly mine and he would pay for the insurance on it until I was 19... I tore it down into it's component parts redid all the bearings... seals and the electrics (I added a "James Bond" switch gear panel between the fuel tank under the drivers seat and the storage space under the passengers seat.... most of the switches just lit up a jewelled bulb lamp with an printed label of the "activate wing machine guns" under it but at age 16 I thought it was Very cool!
The point of all this is that at 53 headed for 54 years later this machine still hums along at 45mph and will do 60 when pressed, it is bags of fun on the beach and just about the perfect picnic vehicle you could think of for off road alfresco luncheons.
Randolph
Nantucket Island U.S.A.
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Her name is Sally, she's mid '30's but extremely well preserved, you can take her anywhere and she turns heads. She doesn't come cheap, though......
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Just bought mine...
Series III Military Light Weight Land Rover. Had her 10 days and already had more fun than in 10 years of driving "normal" cars.
Easy to find a good one, and easy to work on.
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Graham,
Good man, we need a little more "Series" Land Rover input here...well at least it won't always be me creeping them into every 4WD thread..
David
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