Shep Shepherd

Excellent! I wish you success and good times ^^

Austin Allegro designed by Giugiaro

A nice article about a restored 300: https://heritagemachines.com/restorations/dodge-300s

Going into total recall mode, I'm pretty sure that a friend of my father ran a 300 in the early 1980s, which pulled a low loader as part of his plant hire business. I definitely remember him running an example of the earlier K Series and a Volvo F86.

Here are a couple of photos of my friend Niall's ERF EC14, which he takes to truck shows and in turn uses to transport his tractors to tractor shows:

Got to love the EC range. Apart from the Foden Alpha, they are my favourite late-era British trucks. I'm hoping to have a drive in it one day

I don't recall ever seeing one myself, but they were apparently well-liked by drivers and were pretty rapid. Cab looks a bit narrow, though:

https://www.trucknetuk.com/t/barreiros-c38-dodge-300/230368

You've done a grand job on this, which doesn't really surprise me considering how well your erstwhile W124 came up. Looking forward to further progress 

I grew up near a couple of SEAT dealers, but I don't think that I ever saw a Ronda/Malaga hatchback. I used to see a lot of post-facelift Ibizas fited with 'BRIO' bodykits, though.

On a related note, I wonder if there are any Rondas left? 

I miss the Malaga. It was (in my eyes) a seriously stylish car.

I wonder if any Ibiza Sport Lines exist? Again, another seriously stylish car.

Built at Dagenham during Ford's 'rusty' period, it's done very well to have lasted as well as it has; most of the other Sierras it went down the line with would have been scrapped due to rampant rust by the late 1990s.

Coming from east Kent myself, I can confirm that 'KP' is indeed a Kent registration (issued by the Maidstone DVLA local office), so the car was definitely supplied by a Kent Ford dealer ^^

I have no idea if Ford keep build records of their older models (it would be great if they did, but I don't think the company is really that bothered about its heritage, despite how it presents itself in its publicity and marketing), but emailing their head office with the car's VIN might bear fruit.

Which factory built it, by the way?

The dealer in the photo is Crouch's of Ashford. I'm fairly sure that they shut up shop in the late 2010s. The site of the garage is now flats.

If the car wasn't originally supplied by Crouch's, it could have come from Invicta Motors in Canterbury, Haynes of Maidstone, Doves Ford in Folkestone, Thompson's of Dover or at a pinch, Parkway in Deal or Malcolm Waite in Sandwich, the latter being a particularly shonky operation which somehow still trades today, having taken over the former in the 1990s.

If Ford did 'heritage' certificates, things would be so much easier.

Not me. I'm a Volvo guy and I live in Essex 

On 26/02/2024 at 14:50, egg said:

Cool, there's a few other Kent people about on here in Folkestone(?), Ashford, Rochester, Thanet etc.

I'm from Eastry, but I moved away in 2001. My family still live in the area, though.

The Transit episode was the only one I saw at the time. It's been available on YouTube for years, so I presume the other episodes are on there as well.

The Toyota Spade♠, a car which I saw for the first time when trucking down the M40 yesterday:

Yes, that's the same car in both photos

Not really sure what to make of it, to be honest.

There was a lovely metallic blue Ibiza at the last social. I wonder if it wil be there this time?

19 hours ago, SEATMad said:

Only 15 mins away from me so I'll attend. I'll have to wait until Thursday to get a ticket as that payday for me.

The tickets are free. I booked mine a week or so ago, but I imagine that they are still available.

All being well, I'm going to be attending the event in The V70: 

I'd have loved to have attended the show, but it clashed with the best day of Crufts i.e. the working and pastoral breeds/freestyle heelwork to music day.  I hope that I'll be able to attend next time, perhaps with The Volvo.

I was thinking about attending, but as I attended Crufts last weekend, I've had my fair share of the NEC this month

I hope everything goes well for you ^^

Dempsey and Makepeace was an essential part of my weekend televisual pleasure back in the 80s

So would I. The car is totally the kind of thing I'd love to own, but I don't have the space to keep it

No idea for sure what car this is (something from Detroit from the late 50s/early 60s, going by the transluscent steering wheel), but it's a cracking album cover. Cracking album, too 

I rescued two large pieces of plywood sheet from a skip at my last non-driving job about six years ago, which serve the same purpose.  The mats are probably more practical, though, as they could be stored quite easily in the average car boot. GR9 for breakdowns, roadside wheel changes and away from home spannering, I reckon