The Vicar

Picked this up today brand new off the forecourt on behalf of my employer. 1.0 petrol 7 seater; €24,000 out the door with a bottle of wine and air freshener on the passenger seat. No negotiations, no trade ins. There were about 5 other people picking up identical examples at the same time as me. Not very shite but an interesting experience all the same. I never would have guessed that it was a 1.0, I initially thought it to be a 1.5/1.6 by how it drove. Feels surprisingly well put together too

Not much of an update to this thread recently as I’m back in Rome for a little while. It’s olive season here so we’ve had the mule out and working:

Two from Dublin; the 5 taken by my niece:

With the shite fleet now down to just the Micra, these two have caught my eye in the classifieds. Dunno why: orange one is a 79 1500 and beige an 81 automatic with 20k miles

I've spoken to a multitude of people about 30s Austins (either a 7 or a 10) and something that comes to mind each time is the fact that nobody has anything really glowing to say about them. The closest thing I've heard to a good word is exactly what you've said, that they're an acquired taste. I really need to try one. My issue is, I know if I went to view one and it wasn't a basket case, I'd just buy it anyway. On a separate note, this, while still a long way out of my price range, is inching closer and closer in price to a number I would spend: https://www.donedeal.ie/vintagecars-for-sale/citroen-traction-light-15-avant/34153359

This has really piqued my interest:

Yes, saw that. A green one!

Nice local spin to the sea today:

I’d absolutely love a Riley RM, but again, a bit out of my couple-of-grand playing around budget. I like the look of this too, but already I have a feeling that I’d get a bit bored of it coming from the javelin:

Brought this into Dublin City centre for the first time today (in my ownership). Taking a bit of a break here on a quiet back street, but there was no need, it was perfect:

First time to brave Dublin City Centre traffic, predictably with no issues. Taking a little rest for lunch now:

The Jowett has been a good and positive introduction to old cars of this generation so I would be confident to roll the dice with something else from the same era sometime down the line. My biggest fear with the Jowett was that it might be a bit of a handful, and it turned out to be such a pleasant and simple car to motor around in. I should hope an Atlantic would be even more pleasant! Anyhow, just a dream…for now

I’ve been looking at this in the classifieds for about 18 months now. It’s expensive, quite a bit outside my usual couple-of-grand budget, but it’s been speaking to me a lot lately:

Well, that’s the Wolseley gone. I could never get it right again after the initial gearbox trouble. Will update later with everything we tried; but it has absolutely defeated us. Engine and gearbox have been out countless times in the last month. A new gearbox didn’t solve it, nor did new cables, numerous fluid changes, a new tc from yet another new box, nothing. It was fun while it did work, but never again. As much as I love an old automatic, it’ll be a long time before I bother with another.

Also, not sure if I prefer the badge-less grille look that I’ve been trying out:

Added an auxiliary electric fan to the Javelin today; not particularly out of necessity, it sits perfectly fine in traffic and temp has always been bang on, but I figured it can’t do any harm on a 71 year old car. Forgot to take a pic but it fit snugly and out of sight behind the rad and wired to a discreet switch under the dash:

That’s exactly the plan. For extra frugal points I was able to add it to my classic insurance policy for no charge, so it’s stands me a laughably small amount of money altogether.

Fresh NCT (MOT) on the Micra, clean pass and tester full of compliments:

As a little aside to the main protagonists of this thread, I also picked this up during the week: Only 58,000 miles on the clock with 1 nervous nun owner. I was never a huge fan of these facelift K11 cars but I could not turn this down when it was offered to me. It’s a nice and original example and drives so well. No idea what I’m going to do with it really but again, I just couldn’t say no!

I suppose one would say it has “patina” Theres a few blemishes (bubbles and paint cracks) around it, but I like it all the more for that

Wolseley has been parked out of sight for a while, to preserve my own sanity. I’ll get back to it another time. In the meantime I’ve really been enjoying this. Left it with my dad last week to correctly set the points, adjust the brakes and just get it up to spec, and now I can positively say that it is motoring well. Really well:

Met this nice looking T25 somewhere in North Wales a few weeks ago

There is a guy about 2 hours from home in Northern Ireland who must have about 100 land crabs lying around his farm. I’ve gotten a few parts from him already, so when I went up to him again he had this box ready for me FOC, in the name of keeping another one on the road.

Torque converter was knocking its head off on the Wooley. No reverse or neutral the last few days; so this is how I’ve spent the day with my very patient ex-BMC engineer father: