JimH

Citroen SM and early Meraks.

Weird, non-linear scale and a wildly ambitious maximum reading when the vehicle was capable of an absolute maximum of 28 mph with a freaky odometer layout as an added bonus. This is the speedo from the Scammel Pioneer.

I always thought it odd that the speedo on the Goddess flipped the numbers round depending on their position. Nice clear scale, though.

Here's an odd inner scale. And in French...

They were reasonably convincing as a low volume car and had some funky touches including a sill mounted shift.

That lad has some good stuff on his photostream. Another super tractor that is still with us. Now lives in the Museum of Liverpool I believe. Actually, it's a plug ugly thing and I suspect the jury rigged front axle means it steers like a pig so it can jolly well stay in the museum.

Still around and still on pneumatics. I've never seen it and there are few photos.

I've checked in the small print, looked under the sofa and rummaged through the dog beds just in case one of them had pinched it but drew a blank. I simply cannot find the dilemma. Really, GiB.

Didn't BMW mostly call their two door saloons a coupe? IIRC a E30 brochure from the late 80s described them as such. However, it's the only one I can think of.

Is there any such thing as a two door saloon now? Like a proper saloon with a proper back seat that works and everything?

Heavens no. Were Michael to be found guilty of Acting Without Due Care and Attention a sensible brief would advise him to ask for 135 other offences to be taken into consideration.

I looked back a few pages and didn't see it but soz if it's old news. I reckon this is is the most desirable car ever. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Citroen-CX-25-GTi-Turbo-2-Familiale/265730791809

Without doubt. I just won't be quite as lazy loyal in future.

I dare say this is discussed elsewhere, however... I'm a lazy sod. If something is arranged and stays arranged and the lights come on, the credit card keeps working and the cars stay legal then I'm not going to shop round. I can't be arsed to save a few pence flitting from one service to another. I'm also happy to tick the "recurring billing" box if it stops me needing to remember something. I really think I'm the sort of person you want as a customer. Uncomplaining and lazy. So why is it that there are some that just take the piss? More specifically why does the RAC always take the piss? I've paid them money for the past twenty years and called them a sum total of four times (not counting the European hiccup but that was paid for separately). On one of those occasions (too embarrassing for words) you were unable to help me so I had to sort myself out but I still carried on giving you money). But no, each year it is the same - send a renewal notice with an odd "administration and what the fuck ever" charge of between £50 and £60. Every year the person on the end of the line mutters something about introductory discounts not applying anymore and offering to knock it off the bill. I mutter something about if you do that again I'm cancelling it, rinse and repeat. Only this year the same thing happens, I go and see what the cover I think I've got costs me on line and I see that the renewal this year is cheaper. Ah well, that's nice. Then you notice on page 2 in quite little letters is a description of your cover which is not national recovery but instead roadside assistance with the promise of a 10 mile tow. Hang on, I've been paying you, or at least assuming I'm paying you to get me home. Forgive me for being a smart arse but if you can mend it then so can I so all I want you to do it recover the twat if it is broken in a need to get it back to the workshop sort of a way. It now appears that when Dearheart called to complain about the spurious admin charge last year they made it cheaper by reducing the cover. Gee thanks. It turns out that you now want to stiff me £20 more for useless cover than you charge on the internet and if I want the cover I need you want another £35 or so. I know that it is my fault for not reading what I am supposed to read but it still struck me as what my Grandfather would call "sharp practice". It turned out that the AA was having a "Jubilee Sale Now On" so national recovery for two people was £106. Why do this? It hardly presents an impression of a company that is going to be around for the long haul of you are constantly trying to nickle and dime people. Whinge over.

There is still stuff going on but certain jobs are taking forever. One job that took an age was to epoxy the steel sheets onto the sides of the body. The original design specified Plymax aluminium clad sheets but these days you can't really buy Plymax unless you want a building's worth manufactured to your spec. The other problem I had with using plymax was that you would need to screw through the boards which would leave hundreds of screw heads to fill and I really didn't think that was going to stay looking good for any length of time. So our approach was to building the body then glue the steel (easier to keep paint on them) sheets onto the ply sides using epoxy. This meant screwing battens up to rest the sheet on and then try as best we could to keep it pressed to the side while the glue went off. Working with any sort of sticky stuff over that sort of area is a messy job and when you are balanced on a scaffold working vertically then things get even messier. My overalls now stand up by themselves. The finished job The edges of the panels are screwed in place and then there are 2x1/2" trims in tulipwood to tidy up the edges, corners and joins in the sheets. It doesn't really come across in the photo but the sides are very, very flat. The other side is done as well so we are nearly done with epoxy. The inside got primered and undercoated which made everything look much more jolly And then it got top coated which made it look less primrosey. No1 apprentice did most of this which is handy because there is a lot to paint and you have very little room to move. An exciting, interesting job it is not. However, it looks much nicer than bare wood. This is the other job that is being painfully slow - the rear doors. Most of the designs for Sentinel bodies used the standard flat bed tail gate with a pair of doors filling in the upper two thirds. Not very dissimilar to this one here The problem with this set up is that it would work really well in a loading bay but living with it as something to play with would be a bloody nightmare because each time you needed to get in the back you would have to both lower the tailgate and open a door and I just knew that what you would end up doing is opening the tailgate, scrambling onto the now horizontal gate the limbo under the top door without opening it. The other massive problem with this design is that I would have to make both a pair of doors and the tailgate and even more hinges. If I had to make a pair of doors than I may as well make two slightly longer doors and that should seriously reduce the number of bits I could make a mess of. The other thing I've never taken to is the chevron boarding that was common on such doors. The sides were smooth so the back doors should look the same so in the hope of keeping things flatter I was going to line the doors with 3/4" marine ply with sheet steel glued to it set in an oak frame. And that is what I have been doing for the past few weeks. Just to make everything easier the top of the doors are curved to sit inside the curved roof beams. There are then a couple of ledges to take the top two hingers and it was all designed so the marine ply is fixed in from the rear once the steel is glued to it. This is the story so far lying rear face upwards so you can see the rebate for the ply. Another view. The bit of wood in the middle running top to bottom is just lying there. It's actually one of the diagonal braces which will get fitted once the plywood is in place. Of course the best thing about this kind of job is that once you have made one you get to make another one all over again. Something to look forward to, anyway. After that we need to work out some vaguely period looking hinges and catches. And probably some sort of safety device to limit the movement of the doors if the wind catches them. They aren't massively heavy but there is a fair sail area. What else have we been up to? A few weeks back we took a drive to visit @nacho man who was kind enough to sell us 50kw of winter motivation. We've been after one of these for a while. They don't come on the market very often and this one is lovely. The ducting hasn't arrived to point one of the outlets into the middle workshop. It is so much easier to get yourself fired up to do some work when the workshop is warm. And this was the other job. Find out why the Transit was drinking oil. Not the easiest thing in the whole world to remove. It looked like it had had some work done not long before it was demobbed from emergency pothole patching duties such as a new clutch and cam chain and it bore the marks of having corners cut - half the bolts holding the gearbox to the bell housing missing, for example. Nothing wildly exciting to report other than wear on the pistons and rings which doesn't seem too grim for 185K. Big ends and mains measure (and look) as good as the day they went in. When the new pistons and shells arrive it can get popped back together. Everything else is already here. And that is about it. Don't expect too much progress because the doors have a while to go yet. And I have a big pile of windows to fit.

Maybe if they hadn't spent so much on the picnic they are clearly not going to eat they could have afforded the optional alloys.

It is interesting to idle away a few minutes with a classic car mag from the late 80s and measuringworth.com just to see how completely tonto things went back then. We aren't even close to it at the moment.

Anyone who has driven a Goddess with a full water tank will probably understand that the increase in height is unlikely to have made the driving experience any less "bicycle clippy".

Possibly but the advert claimed it was the only one. There were at least a few Rivieras built. However, this was the early 90s when everyone was piling in and buying into any old shite so it's possible the advert is complete bollocks.

The VX220 and its many derivatives is from the same family as the Elise and its many derivatives. The Pontiac Solstice and it's many derivatives was a very different (and very much more conventional) platform.

No photograph but reading an early 90s classic car mag last night I saw a classified advert for a "Lotus Eclat Two Position Convertible". It was also described as the only one built but didn't say who was the only one to build it. A quick goggle throws up nowt. Any ideas?

We briefly had a Scarab a good few years back which was bought at a fire sale for a couldn't be turned down price. It had been used as a yard tug for most of its life so although it ran it was a long way off the finished article. In an effort to determine whether it was worth spending the effort of there were a few jobs done to get it mobile - the front suspension design is truly horrific - and after a couple of weeks we set off down the track to give it a test. Early indications were not good as the driving position would be considered a bit uncomfortable by the Inquisition and the hidden right hand gear change was going to be hard work in traffic. However, the tin lid was put on it when we met the postman in his van coming the other way down the track. He looked at my old man in the driving seat and then he looked at me in the passenger seat. I think we both registered the look on his face at the same time because neither said anything, my old man turned round and we drove back to the workshop in silence. Shortly after that it was sold. It was bought by a lad in Hudderfield who owned a builders' merchant and a few Scammells but as far as I am aware it hasn't seen the light of day again. Perhaps his postie gave him a withering look too. The steering box is in the centre of the vehicle and the steering wheel isn't. The crazy angle that the steering column sits at is not an optical illusion.

IME the most common is sellers being completely and totally and absolutely unaware that the car had ever been in an accident ever. In one particularly memorable case the pretence was maintained even when it was suggested that the paint on the front end was still reeking of solvent.