Alusilber

My 924 was remarkably unmolested given that it had 9 owners before me, from Colchester to Fife, via the south coast, West Midlands and Nottinghamshire, judging by the surviving paperwork that came with it.

Issigonis was dead against wind-up windows on the Mini - they would rob space from his door storage bins, which he thought were much more important. After BMC merged with Leyland, Harry Webster took over as technical director, and Issigonis was sidelined. They let him continue with his pet projects (like 9X) but the BL management were never serious about taking any of them into production.

But is the boot of a TR7 really big enough to swallow two metal detectors and the associated tackle?🤔

Alas, there will be no 21st century resurrected Aleko... https://www.carscoops.com/2022/11/soviet-era-moskvich-returns-with-a-rebadged-chinese-crossover/

An Ibex F8 by any chance? 😏

Bonus portakabin in the background.

Yes, that’s exactly what they’re doing, Part of the deal between Ford and VW is to use the MEB platform for at least two Ford EV models. By the time they’re out though, VW will have moved on to their next-generation SSP platform… Getting back to the topic, here’s a very dogeared page from the first car brochure I ever got my hands on…

Are they actually going to put the Aleko back into production, or are they going to ship in the tooling for some more recent Chinese model and call it a Moskvitch?

So I took the day off today to do an oil change on my 924. Decided to treat it to a new sump plug and washer while I was at it. Drained oil, changed filter, fitted new sump plug, filled with new oil... then I found a sump plug washer on the ground under the car. Yes, it was the new one. Must have fallen off the new sump plug when I was fumbling about under the car trying to fit it 😡. Then when I was backing the car back into the garage, the wind caught the plastic sheeting I had put down to catch the spills and now there's oil all over my monoblock driveway. Which I only got professionally cleaned last month 🤬. Just as well I found another bag of diatomaceous earth in the attic the other day...

I suppose I’m very atypical for a member of this forum in that, in more than 20 years of car ownership, I’ve only ever owned three cars, and I still have two of them. Until today. After 13 years (and 89000 pretty much trouble-free miles) l’ve finally bitten the bullet and traded in my bASe-model Golf that I’ve had since new… for another Golf. Farewell old friend, you served me well…🥺 When I was emptying it out yesterday, I found three solidified lumps of chewing gum stuck to the carpet under the passenger seat. Which is curious, as I don’t remember ever in those 13 years having anyone in the car who was in the habit of chewing gum… 🤔

Welsh, or Brittonic/Brythonic as it was back the days of the Ancient Britons. Some reckon Pictish in the north of (what is now) Scotland was much the same thing too.

It's worth remembering that between the ADO16 and the Allegro, BMC merged with Leyland. The AD016 (and any reskin thereof) was a victim of internal politics; Issigonis was out of favour, Harry Webster was in, and he took the opportunity to start with a clean sheet of paper.

At least the Allegro looked a lot more modern than the ADO16 - unsurprisingly, since the latter hadn't really changed much since 1962!

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…🤔