Missy Charm

Heard enough of the Boss?
Try the Bus!

His guitar playing was characterized by maximum overdrive pedal...  
Love guns and cars and money ?  Hip-hop is for you!

The album featured wedding disco favourites such as 'Money on tha Floor, Fo' Sho' and 'Blastin' Suckas Wit' Ma Water Pistols'  
Don't forget motorbikes!

Battleaxe (named for the then Prime Minister) released this heavy metal rip-snorter in 1983.  Lead singer Richie 'Revved Up' Rawlinson penned all the chart-bottomers on this rarely heard LP.  Tracks include 'Burn Down Bejams', 'Timothy Whites Riot' and 'I Beheaded the Managing Director of the British Shoe Corporation' .  All were inspired by Rawlinson's work as a filing clerk at the Godalming social security office.  

Growing up there was one of these down my street. a 1.3 GL 4 door. Aged 10 you could keep your ferraris etc, what i really wanted was one of these. I absolutely loved them.
Back then they were cheap first cars (around 1990) couple of hundred quid and scrap it when the mot was up. That is assuming it hadnt dissolved already, or been crashed.
Then a strange thing happened. They vanished overnight and then slowly they started getting expensive. By the time i started driving they were not mega expensive, but just hard to find.
My route to a mk2 escort was avoid 2 door (££££££) avoid uk RHD (££££££ plus most heavily welded or rotten)
So here we have a solid LHD import 1.3GL which is being delivered next week…

 



 

 

 

 

Heard enough of the Boss?
Try the Bus!

His guitar playing was characterized by maximum overdrive pedal...  
Love guns and cars and money ?  Hip-hop is for you!

The album featured wedding disco favourites such as 'Money on tha Floor, Fo' Sho' and 'Blastin' Suckas Wit' Ma Water Pistols'  
Don't forget motorbikes!

Battleaxe (named for the then Prime Minister) released this heavy metal rip-snorter in 1983.  Lead singer Richie 'Revved Up' Rawlinson penned all the chart-bottomers on this rarely heard LP.  Tracks include 'Burn Down Bejams', 'Timothy Whites Riot' and 'I Beheaded the Managing Director of the British Shoe Corporation' .  All were inspired by Rawlinson's work as a filing clerk at the Godalming social security office.  

Yer never alone with a Centura XL...  

Yer never alone with a Centura XL...  

You'll be stuck with that until Katie Price gets her driving licence back...  

You'll be stuck with that until Katie Price gets her driving licence back...  

You'll be stuck with that until Katie Price gets her driving licence back...  

You'll be stuck with that until Katie Price gets her driving licence back...  

For some reason there are hundreds of old Vauxhall Astras round my way.  These ones:

But not that many of the next generation.  

Someone will know the actual answer, but I suspect the last car to be fitted with a manual column change was the Nissan Cedric Japanese taxi.  The taxi  was based on the 1987-debuting Nissan Cedric private car and remained in production until, unbelievably, 2015!  It was sold only to commercial clients, of course, and was equipped with various oddities to suit the Japanese taxi driver - including, until some point in the production run, a column-change manual gearbox:
 

Quite when that feature was dropped I don't know, but other things about that photo suggest it's a fairly recent car.  The radio is certainly nineties, if not early 2000s.  
Toyota's Crown Comfort taxi seems to have gone over to floor change for the manual somewhat earlier than the Nissan, so perhaps doesn't count.  

Someone will know the actual answer, but I suspect the last car to be fitted with a manual column change was the Nissan Cedric Japanese taxi.  The taxi  was based on the 1987-debuting Nissan Cedric private car and remained in production until, unbelievably, 2015!  It was sold only to commercial clients, of course, and was equipped with various oddities to suit the Japanese taxi driver - including, until some point in the production run, a column-change manual gearbox:
 

Quite when that feature was dropped I don't know, but other things about that photo suggest it's a fairly recent car.  The radio is certainly nineties, if not early 2000s.  
Toyota's Crown Comfort taxi seems to have gone over to floor change for the manual somewhat earlier than the Nissan, so perhaps doesn't count.  

We've all heard of the mark 3 Mondeo.  Almost everybody will have been in one, a good percentage have driven the things and plenty have owned them.  Not a rare car, by any means.  But did you know that mark 3 had a Taiwanese sister?  

Me neither.  The car shown is a Far-Eastern market Ford Mondeo Metrostar, manufactured (or assembled) in Taiwan.  The Metrostar was an ordinary European Mondeo underneath, but had a few local alterations to make it more appealing in the Asia-Pacific region.  The smaller petrol engines and diesels weren't available and most, if not all, had automatic transmission - the Metrostar was sold as a luxury car.  Equipment levels were correspondingly higher and, seemingly, only the saloon body was offered.  Principal amongst the differences, however, was the styling.  The European mark three was one from Ford's Germanic styling school, as opposed to the mark 1 and 2 following transatlantic lines.  The Asians seem to prefer the transatlantic way, meaning that the Euro-Mondeo required a new look for their market.  Thus the car was given a generic, late-nineties American-style makeover in Taiwan and the Metrostar was born.  The end product looked something like the third generation Ford/Mercury Contour would have, had such a thing existed.  Indirectly it did, in the form of the later American Ford Fusion, which looked a bit Mondeo like but was mechanically unrelated.  A shame really, given that the Mondeo Metrostar was better looking than the genuine Stateside article it was supposed to be aping.  
Most Metrostar stuff on the internet is Chinese, meaning it's difficult to find.  One can glean, however, that there were a number of styling revisions during the car's life:

and:

and even a tarted-up one:

Whereas I have to make do with a Ford Soft-Focus...  
The VW Touareg isn't well named either, given the moniker's derivation from 'Tuareg' - a collection of peoples in the Middle East and Africa known, amongst other things, for mass rape, pillage, slaughter and the use of child soldiers.  

Holy thread resurrection!
I bought myself a Mayflower on Saturday after years of wanting one. For once I spent proper money (four figures!) and got a decent one as my project queue is out of control and it’s embarrassing how few of my cars are actually on the road. The solution is obviously to buy MOAR cars.
It’s a bit of a sad story this. It was cherished for years by some old boy in Northumberland who bought it in 1969 and presumably when he died or gave up driving it was sold and immediately got plate raped. The original number MRM 79 ended up on a Range Rover and the car ended up down south with a chap who spent over £7k at a vintage Rolls Royce and Bentley specialist having work done. It’s had a full suspension rebuild with all new springs, bushes, kingpins, new loom, fuel pipes, recored rad, rebuilt carb, distributor, new brakes all round, 5x new Michelin XZX tyres and loads of other stuff. 
He then became ill and died before he had a chance to enjoy it. His son sold it for a fraction of the money spent to a chap who barely used it as he found it too slow. Also the gear linkage had been apart when the gearbox was out and they hadn’t got the adjustment correct so 1st to 2nd was very difficult. He used to slip the clutch and move off in 2nd which isn’t ideal on a Mayflower as 2nd is quite tall, being only a three speed. So he PXd for a Morris Minor it after doing about 150 miles. And made another whopping great loss on it.
I bought it from the dealer.
Spent a bit of time adjusting the gear linkage and now it’s a lot easier to engage, it was possible before but there was more of a knack to it.
It drives like a new Mayflower in 1953 would have done. The ride is excellent and the engine quiet and smooth. The steering is nice and taut with little play and it’s a delight to drive. 
There are a couple of minor tinkering jobs to do. It has no headlights at the moment. I’ve traced the fault to the switch so I’ve got a good used one winging its way to me.
The drivers seat is sagging and it needs restuffing. The leather is all quite dry and needs feeding. But the interior is amazingly well preserved, it’s all original. The headlining is in perfect condition and it even still has its original rubber mats under the carpets and underlay .
It also needs some decent numberplates as the cheap and nasty ones fitted look crap. The rear one hasn’t even been stamped, or fitted, straight. I’ll get onto Tippers when I get the V5 through.
One of the most amazing things with this car is how straight it is. It’s had the undersills replaced but apart from that, it’s had no welding at all and doesn’t need any. I can’t see any filler in it at all. 
It’s a great little thing to trundle around in and ok, it’s no speed demon but it’ll go at 45 all day and I’ve had it up to 50 a couple of times.
Here’s some pictures. Is @vulgalour still around on here? I’m sure he’ll like it.
















 

Honda Jazz 
Ford Fiesta
Ford Escort
Mini Mayfair
Proton Razzle

The Daewoo Tacuma "Xtra Cool" 

Someone will know the actual answer, but I suspect the last car to be fitted with a manual column change was the Nissan Cedric Japanese taxi.  The taxi  was based on the 1987-debuting Nissan Cedric private car and remained in production until, unbelievably, 2015!  It was sold only to commercial clients, of course, and was equipped with various oddities to suit the Japanese taxi driver - including, until some point in the production run, a column-change manual gearbox:
 

Quite when that feature was dropped I don't know, but other things about that photo suggest it's a fairly recent car.  The radio is certainly nineties, if not early 2000s.  
Toyota's Crown Comfort taxi seems to have gone over to floor change for the manual somewhat earlier than the Nissan, so perhaps doesn't count.  

Someone will know the actual answer, but I suspect the last car to be fitted with a manual column change was the Nissan Cedric Japanese taxi.  The taxi  was based on the 1987-debuting Nissan Cedric private car and remained in production until, unbelievably, 2015!  It was sold only to commercial clients, of course, and was equipped with various oddities to suit the Japanese taxi driver - including, until some point in the production run, a column-change manual gearbox:
 

Quite when that feature was dropped I don't know, but other things about that photo suggest it's a fairly recent car.  The radio is certainly nineties, if not early 2000s.  
Toyota's Crown Comfort taxi seems to have gone over to floor change for the manual somewhat earlier than the Nissan, so perhaps doesn't count.  

Someone will know the actual answer, but I suspect the last car to be fitted with a manual column change was the Nissan Cedric Japanese taxi.  The taxi  was based on the 1987-debuting Nissan Cedric private car and remained in production until, unbelievably, 2015!  It was sold only to commercial clients, of course, and was equipped with various oddities to suit the Japanese taxi driver - including, until some point in the production run, a column-change manual gearbox:
 

Quite when that feature was dropped I don't know, but other things about that photo suggest it's a fairly recent car.  The radio is certainly nineties, if not early 2000s.  
Toyota's Crown Comfort taxi seems to have gone over to floor change for the manual somewhat earlier than the Nissan, so perhaps doesn't count.  

Had a brief flirtation in the 1980's with both a Renault 4 GTL and a Pug 304 estate that had kind of 'dash' mounted gear changes as the gearbox was out in front of the engine so gear linkage was just a big, steel rod lying over the engine. 
In my book that's not a column change but t'internet reckons it is?
R4 was a 1980s model but the Pug was circa 1975

Someone will know the actual answer, but I suspect the last car to be fitted with a manual column change was the Nissan Cedric Japanese taxi.  The taxi  was based on the 1987-debuting Nissan Cedric private car and remained in production until, unbelievably, 2015!  It was sold only to commercial clients, of course, and was equipped with various oddities to suit the Japanese taxi driver - including, until some point in the production run, a column-change manual gearbox:
 

Quite when that feature was dropped I don't know, but other things about that photo suggest it's a fairly recent car.  The radio is certainly nineties, if not early 2000s.  
Toyota's Crown Comfort taxi seems to have gone over to floor change for the manual somewhat earlier than the Nissan, so perhaps doesn't count.  

Someone will know the actual answer, but I suspect the last car to be fitted with a manual column change was the Nissan Cedric Japanese taxi.  The taxi  was based on the 1987-debuting Nissan Cedric private car and remained in production until, unbelievably, 2015!  It was sold only to commercial clients, of course, and was equipped with various oddities to suit the Japanese taxi driver - including, until some point in the production run, a column-change manual gearbox:
 

Quite when that feature was dropped I don't know, but other things about that photo suggest it's a fairly recent car.  The radio is certainly nineties, if not early 2000s.  
Toyota's Crown Comfort taxi seems to have gone over to floor change for the manual somewhat earlier than the Nissan, so perhaps doesn't count.  

Someone will know the actual answer, but I suspect the last car to be fitted with a manual column change was the Nissan Cedric Japanese taxi.  The taxi  was based on the 1987-debuting Nissan Cedric private car and remained in production until, unbelievably, 2015!  It was sold only to commercial clients, of course, and was equipped with various oddities to suit the Japanese taxi driver - including, until some point in the production run, a column-change manual gearbox:
 

Quite when that feature was dropped I don't know, but other things about that photo suggest it's a fairly recent car.  The radio is certainly nineties, if not early 2000s.  
Toyota's Crown Comfort taxi seems to have gone over to floor change for the manual somewhat earlier than the Nissan, so perhaps doesn't count.  

Someone will know the actual answer, but I suspect the last car to be fitted with a manual column change was the Nissan Cedric Japanese taxi.  The taxi  was based on the 1987-debuting Nissan Cedric private car and remained in production until, unbelievably, 2015!  It was sold only to commercial clients, of course, and was equipped with various oddities to suit the Japanese taxi driver - including, until some point in the production run, a column-change manual gearbox:
 

Quite when that feature was dropped I don't know, but other things about that photo suggest it's a fairly recent car.  The radio is certainly nineties, if not early 2000s.  
Toyota's Crown Comfort taxi seems to have gone over to floor change for the manual somewhat earlier than the Nissan, so perhaps doesn't count.