The Worst Cars Ever Sold in Britain

[Junkman]

I'm not convinced.

 

Consider this was made behind the Iron Curtain, designed around a Wartburg windscreen:

 

 

The maker could only dream of the liberties and parts availability his Western colleges enjoyed.

 

But if there is a will, there is a way.

[DSdriver]

...Or the realisation that fitting doors to a car is quite challenging when the hinges are hidden on the inside so they just had to use a couple of hinges they've got of a Bendix fridge and bolted them to the outside of the door as it was 200 hours less work than pissing about and getting it to work properly...

 

If I recall correctly TVR were still having problems with hinges on grp doors on the Chimera.

[RedSparrow]

I think a lot of kit car designers must've felt saddened when told what bits they had to use.

 

Indeed the Melkus was quite an achievement considering the chap just had a Wartburg to work with. I'm pretty sure it was a government initiative though, so he would have had access to more foreign parts. Great looking thing.

[skoda_fan]

Yes I have both the Giles Chapman books and they're some of my favourite bedtime browsing. "Worst cars..." contains most of my faves! Also worth tracking down are "Naff motors" by Tony Davis and "The world's worst cars" by Craig Cheetham. In a different vein is "Ten careful owners" by Steve Speller, basically a compilation of random photos of cars and their owners taken some time ago in the Worthing area. Something fascinating about it, and could have led to an interesting series of similar books of pix taken all around the UK?

[Station]

I bought that 'cars that time forgot' on the M6 service station in Birmingham, when my driver was stuck in traffic in 1997.

[Rocket88]

I have a MASSIVE want for a Panther Rio. Sadly I doubt the dream will ever be realised unless I defile a Dolomite with about 3 tons of wob and some Granada headlights.

 

 

Your halfway there with most Dolomites, and the Granada lights shouldn't be hard to find.

[flat4alfa]

Yes put me on the list for one, cheers

[gtd2000]

I once owned an Eagle SS kit car with a 2.0L Ford Motor in - my "wee brother" is in the car - this was taken about 20 years ago now!!!

 

[Cavcraft]

It would be difficult to chose between the Rapport Ritz and the Panther Rio...

 

 

 

 

[Andrew353w]

I bought a copy of this book for my Father, as a stocking filler for Christmas a few years ago. It's now in my book-case!

 

Sadly (or perhaps NOT so sadly, for Autoshite fans) between us our family have owned several of these cars, including Dafs, Ladas, FSO/Polski Fiats, Reliants, Bedford Beagles and others!

 

It's a book well worth buying if you see it in a charirty shop.....

[garycox]

I've got this book somewhere, can't find it at the moment though... I think it's got the Simca 1301 in it(?)

[Station]

I think the only decent looking kitcar is the Caterham/Locost to be honest, and then 'Robin Hood' ruined it by sticking hideous front arches on that belonged to a limo from the 20's.

I wonder at any point the creator/designer actually thought 'Jesus, that looks terrible' when he fixed trailer board lights to the back of an OK-ish looking car.

 

"Geometric NIGHTMARE!!":