barrett

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

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

2022's been a weird one, has't it? Dunno about you lot but I don't really feel like I've done much motoring this year. I guess after two years of basically nothing happening we all sort of 'eased into it' this year and I was definitely quite selective about where I went. Also, just feeling flippin' old man and not wanting the hassle of driving shit old cars everywhere, plus no money really, it's all been a bit mediocre. I only bought two cars in the whole of 2022 which I think is an all-time low but honestly some of that has lost its appeal and there have been far few occasions recently when I've been figuring out how to raise £xxxx to buy some hopeless old shed. I also smashed my phone and lost a load of pics, so my documentation of what did happen is a bit limited.
ANYWAY, with all that in mind I present my very brief YEAR IN REVIEW. I guess the first thing was fucking off to France for a few days for Rétromobile in February. This was GREAT mainly because it was the first time I'd been out of the country in ages. The show was much smaller than it has been, with less to see, and I didn't snap much but it was just so nice to be in Paris eating food and seeing people I hadn't seen in ages. This scruffy old Lago was my highlight, I think

On the way back we went to Compiegne for the second motoring-themed exhibition in the Chateau. It wasn't quite as good as the one back in 2018-19 (which was the last thing I did as Covid struck) but seeing cars in such absurd surroundings is a total head trip and I really enjoyed it

The unique Chapron Hotchkiss-Gregoire coupé (displayed in the coach house) was a highlight

I think the next thing was the VSCC Light Car & Edwardian Section Welsh Weekend which is the one Vintage car thing I'll always make an effort to get to. Great cars, the 'right' sort of old car people for the most part (because nobody can take light cars too seriously) and good driving. We cheated a bit and took the Riley as the Palladium still wasn't ready (and still isn't a year later!) but I drove this thing for like 500 miles that weekend and it never missed a beat

It met the 'other' Palladium, which sadly has now been sold to France!

A couple of friends who were planning to come along got Covid and had to miss it, so another friend organised a 'consolation tour' in Sussex/Surrey for them. Just a handful of nice people in their nice cars going to nice places

Inclusing to the Watts gallery with the incredible chapel in the grounds

Then in May it was the Vintage Revival at Montlhéry. If you like prewar cars (particularly weird French ones) this is an absolute must. Once every two years, it's full of stuff you'll never see anywhere else and it's super relaxed and casual with minimal bureaucracy etc, plus you're in France so there's always lots of good food and wine etc. Went down in style in a borrowed Voisin (as one does) which was deffo the correct car for this type of journey


Incredible stuff at the event itself, but this Airflow coupé was my highlight

Plus loads of things like this Derby

Apparently I didn't do anything in Summer, but September was Beaulieu time, with the usual assortment of old tat (I bought one thing only, which I actually needed!)


I guess the same weekend Her Maj popped it, and Hampshire responded in kind with this classy display in Lymington

The following month (?) we were invited to tag along on the annual GN Jolly, an event for GN and very early Frazer Nashes which this year was organised by some friends and based around their house in Normandy. I obviously don't have a GN, so we took the Peugeot 202, which did very well and - luckily - wasn't the only non-Vintage car there

This was five days of dicking about, eating nice meals, drinking lots, nosing about nice bits of Northern France, all highly civilised and moderately relaxing



Lovely stuff. Then I did LOADS of work and to celebrate, threw a party (which was also quite a lot of work). Old-car friends and colleagues all came to our office for a drink and lunch and it was very, very nice


Since then I've basically just been trying to catch up on my sleep, but just as the weather really started to turn we realised loads of our cars (and stuff) were still stored at our old office space and needed to be moved asap so the property could be sold. This involved a 12-hour day of shifting old shite, but it did mean I got to see a few old friends I hadn't seen for a while:

It started to snow just as we were strapping the last heap down

It then got even colder, luckily* whilst loads of cars were parked outside waiting to find a new place to live...


After another full day of tidying, we managed to make enough room to get everything indoors and tucked up nice and warm for winter

I'm trying to remember if I'd driven anything interesting this year, and the answer is 'not really', but I did enjoy testing these two out (not my photos, obvs)


And that, really, was 2022. I've done about 8000 miles in a Peugeot 206, which are words I never thought I'd be saying, and haven't really driven my old cars much at all except for the Riley. However, I think the Renault and Rover are both having some work done in January so I hope they'll be back in rotation soon. I reckon 2023 is gonna be MEGA stressful at work and just in general, but I'm gonna try to motivate myself and get to as many old car things as possible, and try and put some more miles on all of my own (roadworthy) heaps and maybe even get some more of them into use again... cheers!
 

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

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

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





Le sigh

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





Le sigh

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





Le sigh

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





Le sigh

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





Le sigh

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





Le sigh

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





Le sigh

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





Le sigh

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





Le sigh

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





Le sigh

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





Le sigh

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





Le sigh

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





Le sigh

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175580536465?hash=item28e16a5e91:g:qDYAAOSwJ7Bjypfg

Not stopping to take a photo of these, so have a google shot. Never seen them move.

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

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

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

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