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Formula Autos

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  1. Like
    Formula Autos got a reaction from andrew e in Lonsdale yd41???   
    Further update. 
    Not good news though. I think the trail has gone cold. 
    I rang round the scrapyards that Dale frequented and after the whole “what’s a Lonsdale?” conversation was got over, I asked each of them if they have any trace of such a car, or even remembered Dale. Sadly, this got a result from one of them - they had  a record of “Lonsdale/Mitsubishi 2.6 saloon”. No record of any parts having been taken off it. The fact there’s a record of it basically indicates in was “on the stack” at some point, before presumably being baled. Cars that are still in the yard are shown as “parts available”, and it doesn’t have that status in their system. They went over to computerised inventory in the mid-90s, apparently. The timescales all seem to fit with it being Dale’s car. Especially as there’s very little detail like the colour, number plate, and VIN, that they’ve been recording for years now.
    No doubt it’s been recycled long ago. As was to be expected.
    There’s the slimmest of slim hopes in that they didn’t remember Dale, and there’s no colour mentioned in the system. I can’t say definitively that this is the same car, but let’s face it, it is.
  2. Like
    Formula Autos got a reaction from andrew e in Lonsdale yd41???   
    News update.

    I’ve been speaking to a couple of people about the potential Lonsdale - one of them runs a local garage, and knows a lot of the classic car folk in the area. I also asked my parents what they remembered of Dale.

    Firstly, news on Dale. Apparently he died in the past decade or so (certainly a fair few years before the pandemic).  His car collection was smaller than it had been, but he had a few on the road at the time, and might have had some projects stashed here and there. No recollection by anyone of a Lonsdale/big Mitsubishi saloon though. 

    The main things I’ve picked up though are:
    My parents hardly remember him living next door to them - Dale was apparently fairly quiet, and had it not been for the old cars strewn about, they probably wouldn’t have remembered him at all. Recalling anything about him wasn’t helped by the fact that Dale’s partner Julie later lived with another bloke called Dale in that house. The conversation got a bit confused at times - I don’t think that line of enquiry can help.
    Dale was “in the car trade”, and it’s thought that at some point he worked for Steele’s garage in Moor Row (just outside Whitehaven). They were Datsun/Nissan main dealers and, briefly, dealers for Colt Cars. This video is of Steele’s garage in the ‘70s https://www.facebook.com/BBCArchive/videos/474130219626680/
    Dale may have worked in a bodyshop after his days at Steele’s (I think Steele’s shut up shop in the early ‘90s). 
     
    After he split up from Julie he moved to a village called Arlecdon. Apparently you could tell which was his house by the Japanese cars parked on the road in front. He wouldn’t have had storage there for any cars (it was a terraced house), so when his cars were taken off the garden next door to my parents’ house, they were presumably either sold, or some storage elsewhere might have been found for them. This could well have been where Dale stopped owning the Lonsdale; Autumn ‘98, from memory.
     
    Although my parents knew Julie’s surname, her and Dale weren’t married, so they never knew his.
    Dale was a regular on a Saturday morning at the local scrapyards; The Forge at Cleator, “Kenny Wilson’s” near Gilgarran (actually called Broughs, but people still referred to it as Kenny’s, who was the Dad of Malcolm Wilson), and one at Workington (that I can’t remember the name of). Having been many times to “Kenny’s” I know they used to have a too good to scrap/possible classic car area, where they see if anyone wants to buy a complete car off them, before it’s certified destroyed. For someone like Dale, that’s probably temptation right there…
    Dale showed cars at local car shows - the last of which was apparently a Daihatsu Charade Turbo (GTi?), which I remember seeing at a show in Distington one year. I have a programme from one year, listing cars and owners, along with a bit about the car. No sign of it the Daihatsu that year, and owners first names aren’t listed - just initials. There’s so many with the initial D that I can’t infer anything from the programme. Obviously I checked for a Lonsdale too but, unsurprisingly, there wasn’t one shown.
    Through the Daihatsu, there is a possible thread to pull; Camskill (a name some of you may know if you’ve bought tyres from them). Before they went online only they had a tyre depot in Whitehaven. I used it myself a few times (they also did MOTs), and they had a small motor factors/accessories shop. Unbeknownst to me they were also suppliers of performance parts and spares for sporty Japanese cars, and the owner had one of these Charade Turbos. They also did a bit of fettling/restoration/tuning on sporty Japanese stuff too. Dale was apparently “in that clique” - at least as a customer, possibly as an employee.
    Dale was apparently in his late ‘40s when I lived next door to him. Probably heading towards 50 when he moved out about 25 years ago. That would put him at around 65-ish when he died. I’ll see what the local paper’s archive throws up. Finding out where his old cars might have ended up would be a lot easier with a full name and last address.
    Cars belonging to “a bloke who had a load of old Japanese cars” still exist in the area as projects - one of which is the Celeste I mentioned in an earlier post, and another is a Triumph Acclaim (OK, so Japanese-ish) that a local garage owner was going to restore. His garage was shut and demolished for housing, and that car ended up in a poly tunnel in a garden centre opposite. Next time I’m there I’ll check for a Lonsdale, on the off-chance.
    The garage owner I was talking to about Dale reckoned that the Lonsdale most probably got scrapped- it’ll have been worthless at the time, and losing the free storage in a front garden would have, in his opinion, meant Dale would have probably had it collected by a scrappy. Unless someone was kind enough to store it for him. Then it might just have survived.
    Investigations continue …..
  3. Like
    Formula Autos got a reaction from loserone in What should be the next 'retro' car?   
    Starting with the Nissan Figaro, through the New Beetle and MINI, and onto the recent crop of retro muscle cars in the US, it seems that retro sells.
     
    What though should be the next car revived for the modern age?
     
    My idle thought on the subject would be for Skoda to produce a new Rapid coupe - perhaps Octavia based. I know the Rapid was rear engined and all that, but it didn't bother VAG in the past - witness the FWD new Beetle.
     
    Shonky MS Paint images to back up ideas are most welcome.
  4. Like
    Formula Autos reacted to Parky in Automotive bull5hit facts thread   
    James Hunt was the most boring man in the world and all the stories of his drinking and sexual conquests were made up by Marlboro And Texaco in order to make fags and 20/50 Multigrade sexy.  
     
  5. Like
    Formula Autos got a reaction from egg in Autoshite lexicon   
    Sherpa Cabrio/Coupe - MGB Roadster/GT
     
    Cavalier in a shell suit - Vauxhall Calibra
     
    Mondeo in a party frock - Ford Cougar
     
    Pez - petrol
     
    Dizzler - diesel
     
    Dr. Diesel's evil invention - a compression ignition engine running on heavy fuel oil. A dizzler.
     
    J-tin - A vehicle of Japanese origin.
     
    Fugly - Worse than ugly. See also: gopping.
     
    Moto-Scat - A breakaway movement from Autoshite, after a bit of a falling out. Aims to be more serious than AS. It's leader, Leonard Hatred (AKA Milford Cubicle/Marcello Gandini/Lacquer Peel/FOAD/plain old Len) can usually still be found on Autoshite though, as can some of the members of Moto-Scat - so it hasn't broken too far away.
     
    OSF - Old Sporty Ford. Usualy subject to swingeing Scene Tax (see also). Most highly valuable OSFs can no longer be left parked on the roadside, as they would be taken, post-haste, by theiving scrotes (NB: not to be confused with a Scrote, which is a Ford Escort).
     
    Gallic Quality Control - At its most rigorous this can include both a cursory glance AND a shrug of the shoulders.
     
    Spaghetti Marelli - An italian automotive electronics firm. The world's leading purveyors of spaghetti electrics.
  6. Like
    Formula Autos got a reaction from somewhatfoolish in The Autoshite Racing Car   
    [coughs]

  7. Like
    Formula Autos reacted to Datsuncog in Cars you didn't know existed until very recently.   
    Heh, they're that memorable, clearly!
    Funnily enough, I noticed another Beyon last night, a dark blue one, parked in the drive of a house right beside the local Tesco.
    I must have driven past it dozens of times - but it's never even registered with me before.
    It's weird, I always thought of myself as someone who was 'really into cars' but to be honest I don't recognise half the stuff on the road these days.
    I guess when I was younger I had:
    rather more time doing very little; access to Auto Express every week;  terrestrial TV showing me car ads on the regular - not so much a thing with Netflix, YouTube etc; lots of local car dealerships who would launch new models with big graphics in the windows and balloons and stuff to entice you in for a look; a brain that was apparently receptive to noticing very small details about cars, but that now just doesn't seem to. I don't quite agree with the line that "all cars look the same these days, dunnit?" - there's still plenty of variation in shape and detailing, but I just can't summon the mental energy to distinguish between them.
  8. Like
    Formula Autos got a reaction from Skut in The Autoshite Racing Car   
    [coughs]

  9. Like
    Formula Autos got a reaction from adw1977 in The Autoshite Racing Car   
    [coughs]

  10. Like
    Formula Autos got a reaction from 500tops in The Autoshite Racing Car   
    [coughs]

  11. Like
    Formula Autos got a reaction from Rightnider in The Autoshite Racing Car   
    [coughs]

  12. Like
    Formula Autos got a reaction from CreepingJesus in The Autoshite Racing Car   
    [coughs]

  13. Like
    Formula Autos got a reaction from Datsuncog in The Autoshite Racing Car   
    [coughs]

  14. Like
    Formula Autos got a reaction from grogee in The Autoshite Racing Car   
    [coughs]

  15. Like
    Formula Autos got a reaction from MiniMinorMk3 in The Autoshite Racing Car   
    [coughs]

  16. Like
    Formula Autos got a reaction from sdkrc in The Autoshite Racing Car   
    [coughs]

  17. Like
    Formula Autos got a reaction from PhilA in The Autoshite Racing Car   
    [coughs]

  18. Like
    Formula Autos got a reaction from Clunk in The Autoshite Racing Car   
    [coughs]

  19. Like
    Formula Autos got a reaction from mk2_craig in The Autoshite Racing Car   
    [coughs]

  20. Like
    Formula Autos got a reaction from wesacosa in The Autoshite Racing Car   
    [coughs]

  21. Like
    Formula Autos got a reaction from AnnoyingPentium in The Autoshite Racing Car   
    [coughs]

  22. Like
    Formula Autos got a reaction from ChinaTom in The Autoshite Racing Car   
    [coughs]

  23. Like
    Formula Autos reacted to wesacosa in The Autoshite Racing Car   
    I suspect the publicity was a big part of it given it was the learning year but TWR insisted there was an aerodynamic advantage of the estate, and that if the rules hadn't changed to allow full on rear wings for 1995 they would have kept with the Estate 
  24. Like
    Formula Autos reacted to Dyslexic Viking in The Autoshite Racing Car   
  25. Like
    Formula Autos reacted to Pieman in The Autoshite Racing Car   
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