Alusilber

In more bad news, Bauer announced yesterday that Modern Classics is to be canned, and Car Mechanics is being sold off to Kelsey. Oh, and Q magazine too 😢 https://pressgazette.co.uk/q-magazine-closes-modern-classics-bauer-fails-to-find-buyer/

Think you might be right. Also fitted to TR7s it seems. https://www.ebay.ie/itm/NOS-TRIUMPH-TR7-MORRIS-MARINA-FRONT-INDICATOR-SIDE-LIGHT-UNIT-/202731253261

Not quite ugly, but a tremendously nondescript-looking hatchback. Not Giugiaro's finest hour. Hope he didn't charge them his usual rates.

NIce. 03 makes it one of the last of the first gen A3s. Still think these are one of the best looking hatchbacks ever. Have you checked the door bottoms for crispyness? Behind the big chunky rubber strips is a notorious rot spot on these.

Think I got every edition of the Daily Express Guide during the 1980s. Like HMC, I was fascinated reading about all the models we didn't see in the UK... Autobianchi A112, Gurgel Xavante, Tatra 613, VW Gol... Compiled by the legendary Gordon and Joyce Wilkins at that time. Found an early 70s edition on a stall at a car show recently - at that time it was the Daily Express Motor Show Review, but the layout was the same. Somehow resisted the temptation to buy it

I love magazines and find it difficult to chuck any of them out. I still have my dad's sparse collection of Car Mechanics and Practical Motorist (which range from 1968 to the mid-80s), plus a few issues of the AA's Drive magazine from the 70s that my dad's mate used to pass on to us. I actually bought a job lot of Drives off eBay a while back to replace some of the ones I remembered but must have got chucked at some point (in particular, the 1978 triple road test of a 924, 260Z and TVR Taimar, which I think was the start of my slight obsession with 924s). Hopefully, one day I'll actually get round to reading them. I've added to that collection with a variety of titles over the years, but for the last 8 years or so it's mainly been PC, with occasional purchases of other classic mags if they have some interesting content.

I've read that the plastic caps under the side windows were Roy Axe's last-minute attempt to improve its looks, raising the belt-line slightly.

A 1963ish Ford Anglia 105E Deluxe in battleship grey. Which I see is now back in fashion these days.

Yes, SWMBO bought it for me a couple of years ago, and it did make me chortle.

Yes, indeed that is a shame. Sam's columns and articles were some of the best bits of PC, and he was definitely their most entertaining writer.

Just discovered this thread and had to read it through from the beginning. Woodwork, metalwork, fibreglassing, welding, soldering, glueing...and lashings of nautical jargon. It's got the lot! 👍

Just did a bit of Googling on this and it turns out the Passat Tetra was renamed Passat Syncro shortly after it was launched, presumably to tie in with the Golf (Mk2) Syncro, although the 4WD systems were quite different.

Saw this on Twitter the other day... a Seat Malaga hatchback, aka a Seat Ronda for the UK market. https://twitter.com/RoadworkUK/status/1248177447612354560?s=20

The filler cap on mine usually hisses when I unscrew it. I take it as a sign that the fuel tank is airtight and therefore a good thing...

I have the 1979 (“finalised for printing on 31st January 1979”) edition of this, acquired from a local dealer at the time. Quite similar but no R6 by then. Interesting that, instead of the usual fuel and temperature gauges, Renault provided fuel gauge and voltmeter on all their models, with only the bigger cars getting temp gauges.