barrett

I've heard more than one person say this about old cars and I just can't get my head round it. Thin, large-diameter wheels are so nice to handle compared to small, fat wheels. I'd go so far as to say it's one of the best things about older cars! So much more pleasant on a long run. Each to his own I guess!

In the 10 years I've been driving, of the perhaps 15 cars I've had as boring daily drivers, which range from Austin Allegro to BMW E39, only I reckon two of them cost more than £500. Even most of my 'interesting' stuff has been around a grand. I won't claim I've had a 100 per cent success rate but I've had some great motors from shallow-end buying, and expect I'll have many more to come.

My £400 Renault 19 last year had loads of ticket on it, and defnitely felt like a return to old-school Shite buying. The £800 one-lady-owner low miles 206 which replaced it two days later may be incredibly boring, but it was a cheap reliable car with 9 months test and no major issues (so far - touch wood). The issue for me is that incredibly dull cars made in the last 20 years are the same price as something actually interesting (well, still dull, but old) made 40-50 years ago, so why would anyone chose to take the boring option? My Rover P6 cost less than your average 15-yr-old BMW or Honda Civic or whatever. A Skoda Fabia is more expensive than a Triumph Herald, which suggests to me we should all be revelling in buying Proper Shite with all the danger/thrill of galloping rot, shit electrics and mechanical frailty, just like we used to years ago. If anything, it's a golden age where boring cars are expensive and interesting cars are worthless!

Interesting - looks like a much narrower front track than standard, so I wonder if it's been converted to RWD? Makes sense as the Lycoming V8 wasn't exactly a speed machine (and not much scope for tuning) even in supercharges form - which this doesn't appear to be anyway. The roadster is a 1949-50 Edwards

That's great! I thought it was a Cord at first but it's not - but still really cool to see a hopped-up Graham on the salt. HOLD ON is that a proper Cord in the background of the row? Wow!!

Whatever happened to that other Safrane on here that was having a semi-epic 'light resto'?? I cannot for the life of me remember who had it, but I remember it was pissing power steering fluid everywhere at some stage. Did it ever get sorted and back on the road?

Nice. I've driven an 8.32, which is the closest I've come to driving a Ferrari, and it was pretty fucking great, but I'd rather have this tbh

I'm sure the Porsche bits are underneath, but on the surface I'd say that's quite a poor use of three years of development time. I'd be pretty disappointed with that if I was Lada. Arguably, Lada were a bit more technologically advanced than Porsche was in 1975 - wasn't that around the time it was messing around with Rotary engines, etc? Whilst Porsche was still building cars based on a 1938 design in 1975, Lada was bang up to date with a 1966 car.

Brilliant, thank, you - now I know what engine it needs! I had in my mind a period supercharger but that (in my incredibly limited mechanical understanding) sounds a lot more straightforward. Just need to find out what those wheels are, now (and raise about £10,000 I suppose)

I'm obsessed with this car. I've never been able to find out anything more about it, although presumably there are details of everything that ran at Bonneville out there somewhere. I did manage to find another photograph of it with the dealer/entrant's name but even searching that never gave me any more info. If I ever have some money I would love to build a replica of that (probably without the sign-writing), I reckon it's the best-looking Minor of all time

My favourite American car ever for sale at a reasonable price Fortunately, 'reasonble' does not mean 'attainable' so I'll have to be content with looking at the pictures for now, unless anyone wants to buy a Rover P6/ Citroen BX/ Peugeot 205 etc etc etc https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165901378905

Shame-quote time. A mere two weeks later... Le sigh

It's an odd one innit, considering those other period makes all did other Maseratis. The only contemporaneous Maser saloon was the Politoys QP complete with chunky door frames which I image I'll probably own some day... Or the utterly charmless late Mattell-era Mebetoys Biturbo which I definitely will not I reckon the QPIII is one of the best-looking saloons ever, certainly on the era, and if I was rich enough to afford the running and maintenance costs I'd absolutely have one. The same can be said for the QPIV actually, although that seems like a slightly more realistic proposition

Ah, I was wondering what became of that one. I think it was me who flagged up that particular example for sale, so sorry about that... I figured I'd have a similar 'so now what?' reaction when it arrived if I'd bought it, but there is something very appealing about a proper 1:43 scale commercial vehicle. I think £40 is probably a pretty good price for it, from what I can glean, so don't think you'll lose out again. Just don't try and sell it to me.

My favoured pusher of weird small cars 'baskingsharkGB' has had some pretty wild stuff for sale recently. It's always priced pretty high, but I know there's often a deal to be done so I made some lowball offers for a few bits. The end result is him accepting all the offers and me ending up with a big invoice because why would I even bother to add up the total before pressing 'send'? Anyway, here's what a day's wages will buy you. First up, the least exciting, Mebetoys A72 Maserati Bora. When I was a youngster I never really 'got' most 70s cars, particularly wedgy expensive ones, as they all seemed objectively uglier than almost anything made in the preceding decades, but over the years I've grown to love this decade of car styling. The Bora is a great example of something which never used to interest me, but I now think is a lovely delicate piece of design. This is a Mattell-era Mebetoys, one of the first series of cars from circa 1974 which went over to plastic bases and simplified, cheaper castings. It was launched in the crossover period just before the generic plastic wheels came in and was only made with these nice wheels for a short period of time. Later issues are ten a penny but these early examples are much more difficult to find, and so much nicer. This one was a great colour, too, so I sort of had to, really... Save for one tiny chip on the roof it's more or less mint, but overall not a patch on the glory days of the late 60s/early 70s castings. basic base, and it feels quite flimsy and lightweight, plus those nice wheels don't run very smoothly but I'm not going to be pushing it around the carpet so it doesn't bother me. A nice addition, but pretty minor in the grand scheme of things. Next one is a bit more interesting. Mebetoys A44 Bertone (Autobianchi) Runabout The real thing was first shown in 1969 I think, and the model didn't appear until 1971. The stylistic precursor to the Fiat X/19 so one of the more important concept cars of the era, it was a wild flight of fancy and perhaps not the obvious choice for a miniature version (so fits right in with my theme) Despite that, this was one of those cars which seemingly everyone had a go at. There are two scales of Corgi, a Matchbox (c/w tow bar), and a larger Marx which was the only one made in accurate colours. There was also a USSR-built Mebetoys in plastic. The real thing was white and red, but this metallic green looks great albiet total nonsense Unusual sandwich construction with the two metal castings clamping together the red plastic middle bit, plus plastic roll bar, rear deck, seats, wheel and gear lever, headlamps and screen. Feels fairly fragile and unblikely to last long in the hands of a child, which probably explains why it's so difficult to find in this sort of condition. some of them had tail lamps but I'm not sure every example did. In any case, there aren't any on this one. Lastly, another oddball which certainly didn't attract the attention of multiple manufacturers It's Mebetoys A38, Matra M530 Vignale. This is one I've wanted for a long time which seemingly never shows up for a reasonable price. Along with the flip-up headlamps it's got an opening front boot and doors, with tipping seats, full engine detail etc. A particularly good late-60s Mebetoys. The real thing was shown in 1968 and this toy appeared in '69. A handful of people had a go at prettifying the challenging M530, mostly tiny French firms, but the Vignale job was the best-known and most successful (stylistically), with a look ahead to the general form of mid-engined sports cars over the next decade or so. Nowt underneath really, but a good heavy metal base makes it feel solid and tactile. Weirdly, the car was yellow when first shown, later resprayed silver and is now bright red. You can get the toy in silver or red but this gold is the closest to the original shade. Really pleased with this one - it's in perfect condition and didn't break the bank (excewpt on aggregate) That will, I hope, be it from me for the rest of the month. Unless something really special/cheap pops up, obvs.