Alusilber

Yes, I was thinking the '53-'55 Alpine (being, I presume, body-on-chassis) could be a more plausible basis for the 1961 aluminium-bodied special in the small ad. Made in quite small numbers though.

Unless “special chassis” actually meant the builder shortened an Alpine floorpan to give the roughly 78in wheelbase that the mystery car seems to have…🤔

The bloke who drew it up got a bit obsessed about it, put in a huge amount of work creating his 3D model, declared that it was beyond any doubt that it was some kind of Alpine-based special, then kind of lost the plot and got very stroppy with anybody who was sceptical about his hypothesis, despite the fact that no compelling evidence for said hypothesis was forthcoming...

Passed by these two again recently and nothing much seems to have changed since I papped them nearly 5 year ago...

Not weird as such, but last year, SWMBO took her Pug to the local Pug franchise for the Puretech disintegrating wet cambelt recall. The dealer also had a Suzuki franchise, and her courtesy car was a new Vitara, plastered in larger stickers advertising Motability, even on the rear side windows. Lovely 😬.

Just spotted a zinger of an “I think you’ll find…” in the latest issue of Practical Classics…

So the (old) 90 actually had 4.9in more wheelbase than its Series III predecessor, or was that only nominally 88 too?

I've read a bit about Enfield 8000s (having first seen one in the AA's "Drive" magazine some time in the 70s when they were still newish) but never heard of a long wheelbase 4-seater version before. Were these factory-built by Enfield or converted afterwards?

Funnily enough, one of Harm Lagaay's earliest sketches looked a lot like your second picture, before he adopted the wraparound glass hatch. https://www.stuttcars.com/porsche-models/924/

The Audi engine in the bog-standard 2.0 924 (or "N/A" version as it's known in the club) feels a bit agricultural compared to moderns and it's no rocket ship but it can get out of its own way at least. I find it quite comfortable if you don't mind the arse-on-the-floor-feet-out-in-front-of-you driving position. No PAS, so turning circle depends on how hard you can heave on the steering wheel. Because a lot of the bits aren't actually Porsche-specific, spares tend to be less expensive than other Porsches and it's mostly quite straightforward mechanically. On the other hand the 924S or 944 with the "proper" Porsche engine is nicer to drive (based on a very brief go I had in an early 944) but less nice to maintain. Oh and here's a photo from a book of a styling model (which I think I might have uploaded before) showing how it would have looked with a VW badge and a Wolfsburg numberplate.

Speaking of 924s, some of them are now over 40 years old. Would definitely be my choice of ULEZ-exempt transport, but then I've already got one. Mine turned 40 this year, so I'm, looking forward to baffling some poor sod behind a Post Office counter who's never heard of the historic vehicle tax exemption next year...

When I was in Madeira about 5 years ago, a lot of their taxis were still W123s and W124s and still going strong - I even have a Madeira fridge magnet with a picture of a W123 on it!

There have been one or two books written about BRIXMIS, I've read the one by Tony Geraghty - it's cracking stuff.

I found out recently that the aerodynamically-optimised wheels that Tesla Model 3s have are actually alloys with wheel trims. For an alternative, but less aerodynamic look, you can bin the trims and get an official set of Tesla centre caps for the bare alloys for a mere $60. Tesla Model 3 aero wheels explained by the automaker’s former head of aerodynamics

SWMBO used to have a diseasel one of these. The wheels looked the same after a while - the paint on them seems to have been just dusted on. One of the rear light clusters filled up with water and it did have one or two engine issues but not a bad little wagon on the whole. The main place it seemed to be getting slightly crispy in its old age was at the ends of the sills.