quicksilver

A mad one that makes no sense other than confusing people: get a Maestro and a Montego and swap the front ends over to make a Monstro and a Maestego. That should be doable for a lot less than 10k so I'd use the change to create a Princessador in the same vein.

Or how about a 4x4 Triumph 1500 with a Dolomite back axle and a Saab Turbo engine?

Rootes have form for this.

One of the hanging variety for to put upon the wall please.

The Reliant Scimitar Princess Royal. Comes with a photo album of Princess Anne with her Scimitars and an audio cassette interview discussing her liking for them that the owner can play in response to the inevitable comments.

Top speed limited to 45mph as that's the fastest its target demographic will ever drive. Also has a built-in blue badge holder on the dashboard and a removable shopping cart built into the boot.

Good call! I agree the original front was better so I'd definitely choose that. Basically I want what the V8 would have been if it was launched early on in the 75's life.

Absolutely this. I'd paint it Nightfire Red or Amaranth and I think it'd look awesome, as would an SD1 to the same spec. Or as a more modern equivalent, a Rover 75 V8 Tourer with supercharger, Monogram paint, Personal Line leather and all the nice stuff from the early cars that Project Deprive removed (and the original front end styling - thanks LBF). I fear that might blow the 10 grand budget though.

Hornet - there's a name from the dim and distant past that Stellantis presumably own through a long series of mergers: Hudson > Nash > AMC > Renault > Chrysler > Stellantis. No idea why they chose that name as modern crossover buyers are unlikely to have any knowledge of the Hudson Hornets from 70-odd years ago. I'd never even heard of the Alfa Tonale it's based on, come to think of it.

Apparently some royal might have once had one. No idea who as I've never heard such a story.

I think that's the only one, built for urban work in London, and it was a while ago. The reg is BX67 MKU and it's no longer in use with Explore but still taxed so it's out there somewhere. Would make an interesting conversion from Oxford Diecast's forthcoming dustcart model.

Not me, but I have seen both of those cars today. I think it's a young lad from Milton Keynes.

He did well to find it as we're well away from the main roads. I think that's the chap with the grey Carina @wuvvum met at FOTU, so I've papped his car and he's papped mine. Had to chuckle at the comment "I bet it's loaded with options" as it has none at all and is exactly standard Ghia spec as per the brochure.

Same as on Bob the R6, it looks so cumbersome. This one being RHD will be even more fun* as the clutch cable loops round the front of the gearbox to connect on the left.

I've seen pictures of those but didn't know their name. One of the worst 'replicas', second only to the TR40 that made a poor innocent TR7 look really not much like a Ferrari F40.

Definitely the same cab shell. Different doors and grille but the rest is the same. The grille design reminds me a bit of the Leyland G cab.

I think the EuroCargo cab was all new and shared nothing with the Ford cab but is itself an over 30-year old design. It's had a couple of facelifts, but the cab shell is the same one that was introduced in 1991. Ashok Leyland in India may still be using the original Ford cab though.

And where did these disappear to? It's been 20 years and like most of the lots in that sale nothing seems to have been heard of them since. I would have expected them to turn up in museums as they're not exactly useful except as display pieces.

An Agila taxi sounds grim, even worse than the Meriva one PH driver worked round here a few years ago. Someone in Milton Keynes has managed to get a Toyota Yaris plated as a PH car.

I wonder if that early drop was a batch of prototypes/development cars that SAIC took off the road once their work was done.

Blimey, there's a blast from the past. You must have downloaded that a long time ago (before we met) as it's from my old site on fotopic, who went bust in 2011. It was one of the first photos I took with my first digital camera in October 2003 (over 20 years ago!), parked in the old coach park at Milton Keynes shopping centre where the hideous hotel is now.

<pedant> It was Jeffs, not Jeff's. The founder was a Mr Jeffs, not a bloke called Jeff. </pedant> Even the company got it wrong though as I remember at least one vehicle with legal lettering reading "Jeff's Coaches Ltd", a company name that never actually existed.

The big problem with partworks is that they're all or nothing and that's a major long-term commitment without knowing what's coming and how big the collection is. Once you cancel that's the end and you can't pick and choose, so getting the models you want, especially if they're later in the series, can entail buying a lot of unwanted models as well. Collectors don't want that level of commitment; they just want to buy the models they want when they want with no further risk, as Atlas Editions found out to their cost. At least with diecasts, each issue was a self-contained displayable item in its own right. The kit partworks are pretty much useless if they're incomplete so you're tied in to finishing the subscription to avoid being left with an unfinished item of little value.

These were at Stondon. The Allegro is now at Gaydon and the 1100 at the Great British Car Journey.

Modelzone went bust in 2013 and all their shops closed then. The brand was bought by WH Smith and 10 Smiths stores have a Modelzone section. None are anywhere near me and the range available online is extremely limited and not cheap so they're not worth bothering with. An illustration of the problem is that Modelzone's closing down sale prices were still more expensive than Hattons' regular prices.