Spottedlaurel

I was in the strange position today of being out and about in the car on my own and having plenty of time to kill. Other than getting a surprisingly good haul of 1:1 spot photos, I made use of it by going to a boot sale, then a toy fair, which netted me this lot: The JPS Lotus was £1 at the boot sale, half the price of another one I saw later. The rest were from the toy fair, which was a bit sparse but that was good for my end-of-month cashflow. Apart from the Sierra, they aren't particularly smart, and the Majorette VW and Jeep have missing tailgates, but none of them were very expensive. Even the Transit milk float was only £3. Trader who sold me the Sierra told me he cuts them up to make P100s, but this one was too good for that fate....

Camry update. Garage reported that the code suggested LH front ABS sensor is at fault, but they can't get hold of one at sensible cost. Spent much of this evening removing one off the spares car. Not easy when it's the side that is against the hedge, and the car is on gravel. Eventually get car jacked-up and wheel off. Everything was undoing OK, even the arch liner fixings. Unfortunately I failed at the final hurdle, when the sensor snapped-off in the housing. Having done a search, which I wish I'd done when they first told me, it looks like I might be able to get a new one from a UK supplier for £30. Just need to check it's correct for my car, then fingers crossed it is that one that's at fault.....

Nice selection there. Toyota truck might be a Dyna? The 120Y is a 3-door, we never got that permutation (just the 5-door estate, and a 3-door panel van). Can't remember if we got Clio vans, but we did the Nova. I remember a colleague having one. Simca looks ace.

Camry taken for an MoT this morning: Both the failure items as expected. Unfortunately I only found out about the headlight last night and it was too cold/dark to faff around changing it when I knew it would fail on the ABS light. Pleased to find no rot/brake/suspension issues. Will get them to advise on what's up with the ABS and get it sorted. I have the spares car here if need be, although I do wonder if there's a bit of rodent damage. I could do with getting it on the road again as I seem to be doing a lot of extra miles due to various dad's taxi duties, and it's not ideal to keep using the Sunny at this time of year.

Yes on the Crown, good to see, likewise the Sunny in another shot and also the garages.

More kits: 1:24 Fujimi Nissan Skyline GTS Saloon (R31) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:24 Hasegawa Jaguar XJ-S V12 HE by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr The latter quite an old issue, and a bit smelly, but it somehow seems appropriate?

Citroen GS Camargue: https://dyler.com/posts/411/citroen-gs-camargue-the-first-joint-creation-of-bertone-and-citroen Didn't know about this one until I picked up an old Majorette version recently.

Good old Medler's had a couple of those Cordias: 1983 Colt Cordia x2 c.1996 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr And a Tredia, of course: 1984/85-ish Colt Tredia Turbo c.1997 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr A page or two back I think someone mentioned the stack-light Mazda 929. We did briefly get the estate here: 1979 Mazda 929 Estate c.1998/99 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Correct, and there were a couple of variants: 1974 Datsun 160J SSS (710), Billing JAE 2001 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Followed by this hatchback: Datsun 160J SSS (A10) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr The latter was one of my favourite Datsuns, I did around 20k a year in it during the mid '90s. Buzzer on reverse, as it was where first would be on most other cars thanks to that dogleg 'box.

I've done it once or twice, also left notes/had chats with owners in car parks. 1988 Nissan Sunny 1.6LX 5dr (N13) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr See the bit of paper on the windscreen? Later that day the elderly owner rang me, a few days later it was on my driveway (and still is). 1988 Nissan Laurel 2.4SGX (C32) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr A knock on the door and polite chat with the owner also worked with this one. I had no need for it at the time, but did find someone else for it. 1988 Ford Escort 1.6GL 5dr by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr It nearly worked here, but it came available just when someone offered me the Camry V6 below which I'd also left a note on, so Trigger had the Escort instead. 1991 Toyota Camry V6 saloon by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr My polite notes have worked a bit too well, it's a shame when the owner rings and for whatever reason I haven't been able to go for it. Stupidly, one time I dismissed someone who asked about a car I was driving. It was the bronze 5dr Starlet, and he ended up buying it a bit later after I'd unsuccessfully tried to move it on through eBay. Best sale I've ever made, he still has it 13-14 years later and it's in great condition.

I did things to the Camrys this weekend: 1. Put Sunny's battery onto the estate, it started first time. I needed to move it so I could cut the hedge, so I went via the long route up and down the track which leads to our house. It still drives so nicely, as it should with the new clutch etc that I got fitted when it was resurrected after the write-off. Going to ring up the local garage and get it in for an MoT soon. Interior is damp, especially headlining - probably sunroof drain holes blocked. The Lexus wheels and tyres I bought off Semi-C last year have held air perfectly, better than the V6 alloys it used to sit on. 2. Stood on the Camry saloon spares car so I could cut the hedge alongside that one.

99.9% confident they were destined for racing. The bigger stuff was never so popular for export, even back in the '90s when the Sunnys, Violets and Corollas were commanding silly amounts and getting stolen as a result. Having seen countless examples of these stripped-out for racing over the past 25-30 years, I'm pretty confident that the white bottom middle one is a Nissan 300C,: 1986 Nissan 300C (Y30) x2 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Had these consecutively, and an estate a year or two beforehand. The rest are Toyota Crowns, bottom left one an early model: 1970/71 Toyota Crown 2300, c. 1994/95 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1978/79 Toyota Crown 2600 Auto, DFH65T (1986) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1980 Toyota Crown 2.8 Super Saloon, LDF667V (1988) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr On the subject of Crowns, here's a real oddity that found its way here. I don't believe these were officially sold in the UK, but they were importing Corona back then so maybe it came across for evaluation? 1967 Toyota Crown Deluxe 1900, PLK990E (1970) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Interesting to see a few of my photos/scans already on here....... The Mitsubishi Colt 1100F was never sold in the UK, it seems that an example was brought here and given a road test or two but nothing happened until they started selling Colt (as a brand) around 1974. 1975 Colt Galant 1600 saloon c.1996/97 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Here's an early one that I used to see around the Stowmarket/Elmswell area. The coupe version looks great: Colt Galant Coupe by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr I could break AS with the amount of photos and cans I have on this sort of rubbish, so for now I'll just leave this here: February 2016 Line-Up by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Four years later, only one of them has gone (LS400, still around though I believe?) and the rest are still here and working even if the Camry and Laurel are currently SORN and in need of being MoTed.

Got this old listings magazine off eBay, not one I'd seen before: Car Buyer Sept-Oct 1979 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Chock-full of ad's for some mouthwatering stuff. Sadly no pictures though. Car Buyer Sept-Oct 1979 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Something for everyone here! I'm intrigued by the 1968 Daihatsu from JK Sportscars, and also their 1974 Datsun 120A Samurai (actually Samuri) was also a bit of a rarity. Would have been one of these: Datsun 120A Shoo Samuri TGT 390M by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Oh yes. Some fool on here had one once: 1997 Toyota Camry 2.2 Sport by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1997 Toyota Camry 2.2 Sport by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Used it on a couple of trackdays, was good fun. Still got the unsuitable 17" alloys from it in the shed. Unless that AutoTrader car has had the body kit removed, Connolly leather interior swapped for cloth, and steel 15" wheels and stock height suspension fitted, it aint a Sport.

Blitz! issue 15, Rye House Interpromo team meeting: Blitz! issue 19, Hednesford pre-68 Unders: Blitz! Photo special, from a meeting at Worthing: Not easy to tell, is the last one definitely a 16? These would all have been around 1996/97. Maybe it was starting to get scarce to see in regular use on the road, but there was still plenty of '70s bilge around and he could probably get them from various scrapyards as there wouldn't have been much of a market for parts. Sobering to think that a 20-year old 16 then would be the equivalent of a Mk1 Megane now.....