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Mash

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Posts posted by Mash

  1. Hi folks, long time no post!  I had a really fab day at FOTU, my first time at the event.  I'm sorry I didn't meet with all the shiters present but a fab day had by all and great to see those who I did have a yarn with. It seems I managed to hide all the crappy bits on my Sunny's bodywork pretty convincingly too 8)  There were some awesome cars there and for me the mint 505, Tempra and trio of Stellars were real highlights along with Hirst's Quintet, a model of car I haven't touched since 1986.

  2. I knew as soon as this was officially announced that the neagativity would be piled on in spades.  I for one am going to get the build date of my 1974 car verified and apply for a change in taxation class immediately and take full advantage of it.  If it is repealed at some stage then so be it but for now let's celebrate a small old car victory.

     

    The only fair system is to pay for usage whether that is per miles or per gallon of fuel and I can't see that happening any time soon at the moment.  I have five cars and I can only use one at a time so if I can reduce my costs, I'll take it and say ta very much.  When I want to run one on a dry day in winter but can't because I have to have it on SORN it's a pain in the arse.

  3. It is pretty annoying when TV gets the cars wrong but to be honest most of the people watching are not massive pedants like us.  Budget and location and timing play a big, big part in it.  I've had fun on the sets I've been on but the deadlines and changes sometimes mean you just have to lump it.  By the end of Heartbeat though I did think it had become laughable and they obviously couldn't give a stuff about any kind of period detailing.

     

    On a more positive note, I went to see Rush the other night and I thought it was fucking brilliant.  To have assembles full grids of period cars and dressed the sets like they did took some doing.  There were a few minor inaccuracies but the whole was so well portrayed that I didn't mind that for example, Hunt had his proper Hesketh in 1973 instead of a March.

  4. Our local "niche" dealer took one to a show earlier this month so I thought I'd have a bit of a nosey at it.  Seemed ok to me, not unattractive and no bits coming away in my hands.  Yeah, maybe, would be my verdict if looking for this type of new car.

  5. What you have to remember is that it is just that - an affordable small car for developing countries.  If it was imported here you'd want it to be very cheap.  The expectation of new car buyers in Europe is much higher and if this was brought up to that acceptable standard there'd be no point - there's the Micra already and the price would be too high.

     

    My understanding is that Datsun is a new name to most young people but one that does have a heritage.  They don't remember the days when the cars were slated and in a lot of these countries the Datsun image was not the same as the blinkered one over here.

     

    I know I'm biased having 3 Datsuns in my fleet but I do think they deserve to succeed and I think it's a cool idea reviving the name for a budget brand.  After all, the large cars like the Cedric and Laurel were never given the same credibility here as the smaller cars and in the domestic market Nissan predominated anyway.  One of the reasons Datsun was used here in the first place was to differentiate from wartime Nissan products so that grandpa wasn't too offended.

     

    I'm not sure calling it Cherry or Sunny would have worked though.....

  6. I think climate change is happening, I'm sure it can be demonstrated scientifically.  Me driving well-maintained old cars and prolonging the life of them is not really contributing to it greatly.

     

    I do worry about the amount of emissions put out by factories producing tat in the far east and aviation and shipping.  We have a new processor for bark or some such organic fuel stuff near where I live which will go to fuel the nearby Drax power station as an alternative to coal.  Very laudable - although I am of the understanding that said bark material is shipped across from Canada in a big diesel powered ship....

     

    Most green solutions are superficial - the public in general don't get to see (or want to see) the non-environmentally friendly aspects behind the smokescreen if you pardon the pun.

     

    I reckon overpopulation is an issue, people are living longer these days too.

     

    However, I also think the greatest and most imminent threat to our existence is global conflict.  We didn't worry about the environment through the mid 20th century because we had nukes poised to destroy us and that was scary enough for everyone.  Now that we have that situation again I think that the environment is a slightly secondary issue.

     

    Peace man, then we can think about how to build massive solar powered ships to get our tat from China!

  7. I have only seen a couple of them on the road so far and I do like the look of them which coming from me as a confirmed hater of anything new is a revelation.  Definitely Aud iA1/Fiat 500-ish in the vein of these "funky" little cars everyone is doing these days but, yeah, probably would.

  8. I chanced upon the Postal archive website this evening and I hadn't realised they had so many ace vans in preservation.  The link below goes to the heritage fleet listing.  Click on the article number down the left column and it brings up a larger image.

     

    My faves would be the Leyland EAs which are nigh on extinct but also the TV Detector van which is an actual MORRIS Sherpa!!!

     

    I'm easily pleased.

     

    http://catalogue.postalheritage.org.uk/dserve/dserve.exe?srch_AnyText=heritage+fleet&dsqWords=Phrase&srch_AltRefNo=&dsqCmd=SearchBuild.tcl&dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqServer=localhost&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&btnSearch=Search

  9. though they were called Stanzas

     

    No, Stanza is a completely different car although the resemblance to the B12 Sunny estate is there if you squint a bit!  Dollywobbler is right - there was this and the older shape B11 that ran concurrently up to 1991-ish.

     

    This model Sunny is a confusing one because only the estate and coupes are actually Sunnys proper.  The hatch and saloons we got (N13) are Pulsars everywhere else which is descended from the Cherry range hence N and not B in the model code.

     

    *anorak off*

  10. I mostly stick to 1/43rd but I have some of the more chodley 1/18 like the Norev CX and Otto R14.  Just got the Norev R16 in black which is lovely.  And I've got the IST Lada in beige which is identical to the one my grandad had.  I had to treat myself to the Otto Fiesta XR2 Mk2 as well as these models are just fabulous.

     

    A 1/18 Marina or Allegro is high on the wish list but boggo British cars are few and far between in this scale.  Wolseley 6/80 police car would look fab too.

  11. I've been using my 155 since November last year and so far so good, proving quite practical and a real change from my usual run of economical, reliable J-tin!

     

    IMG_0765_zpscff73e09.jpg

     

     

    I do use the Sunny quite a bit in good weather though:

     

    002.jpg

  12. It's a good idea to start with a rolling extension of next year's plan to give 1973 cars the exemption but I seem to recall reading that the reason they'd only gone for this date is that there is a sharp rise in surviving numbers of vehicles post-1974 and that revenue would be hit too hard to extend it past that date.  Can anyone prove or disprove this?

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