Lazy spotters thread

[HMC]

Ghosty, think I spotted the same Aston as you on the previous page when I was in London Friday just gone

[Lacquer Peel]

[Ghosty]

Ghosty, think I spotted the same Aston as you on the previous page when I was in London Friday just gone

I saw it on Friday as well!

[spike60]

I think your unknown Volvo thing is a mate of this camper spotted at the Ring a couple of years ago. Heavy Duty!

[spike60]

A couple more hard core campers from the Nurburgring where the stubby Volvo was. Dunno how mere mortals got in and out, didn't fancy this campsite.

Does anyone know what the red one is? I thought it was a MAN but looking again probably not.

[Lacquer Peel]

Magirus-Deutz.

[phil_lihp]

Finally on the way home I spotted one of the southwestern Phil's in his little Rover 220. Unfortunatly the other half wasn't quick enough to get a snap

 

I took quite a relaxed pace on the way home, that little 5 doesn't half go doesn't it!

 

Incidentally did you ever find out what that bumper came off?

[panhard65]

I took quite a relaxed pace on the way home, that little 5 doesn't half go doesn't it!

 

Incidentally did you ever find out what that bumper came off?

Yeah the 5 does get along quite nicely for a 1.4. The bumper is austin 1100/1300 and too short to fit my truck so if anyone wants a rear bumper for one let me know.

[quicksilver]

1981 Austin Morris Mini City by quicksilver coaches, on Flickr

 

Most Minis are shit but this one is delightfully shite, pov spec and beige

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Seen this

 

 

...A few times round Alsager, its in really nice nick and I like the fact that there is no phone number, address, website or anything on it. Its just a van that says 'CARPET SUPERMARKET' in a cool old font.

[trigger]

I spotted this old Escort at Walton on the naze today.

 

 

 

[Luckythirteen]

Buick Roadmaster.

 

Thankyou...I think that just made the list. Roadmaster...it may not *be* good, but it sounds good! Roadmaster...

 

 

Have a SEAT just to keep it on topic. Look, it has an AA badge and everything!

[fordperv]

a spot from earlier whilst out and about

 

now the evenings are getting lighter spots from the dogwalk

 

my personal favourite, zoomed pics so you can see the patina

 

 

 

autoshite focus saloon and bonus coupe

 

 

 

 

 

in stoke the streets are paved with shite

[HMC]

Scene brush attacked civic

 

 

 

BMW e30 losing out to some seat or other, presumably a rental car which was bouncing off the rev limiter by the sounds of it

[wackywacerwill]

Spotted an actual electric car in a charging bay at Heston services yesterday. It looked majorly shite in a modern car way though due to having burger in one hand and coffee in the other I got no pics.

[panhard65]

Went to the WEC at silverstone this weekend not many shite spots but I had to snap this piece of crap on the campsite.

[richardmorris]

^^ Didn't you have a box of matches to hand?

[panhard65]

^^ Didn't you have a box of matches to hand?

Well the campsite rules were pretty strict with regards to campfires. I expect an exception could of been made though. There was a lovely LDV camper van that made up for it but was attended everytime I went past so no chance of a pic

[HMC]

Mossy volvo in a Plymouth back street

[theorganist]

Golf spotted in Much Wenlock in 2012

 

 

When I played in organ at Great Whitley Church last year there was a Baptism in the service, and this was one of the guests following me (in the Maxi) up the lane to the church!

 

 

This Golf turned up at a VW specialists last year, I think they are selling it as it was still there recently. The strange thing is it was owned new by one of my Friends mums then he owned it after back in the late 90's!!

 

 

This was for sale at a small sales lot near my place of work a few months ago. It may well still be there it was a few weeks ago

 

 

A preserved Leyland or Daimler Fleetline on a day trip in Kinver High Street last month. It is the old West Midlands Travel colours. These were once a regular sight at Stourbridge Bus station and I remember travelling on them in the 80's and early 90's.

 

 

 

When I drove to work in the Princess the other week I ended up following this through Oldbury and Rowley Regis until he turned up a side road. Our small "convoy" got several stares. It looked nice, it had alloy wheels but they suited the car well!

 

 

My next door neighbours 05 plate Rover 45 and another neighbours Porsche 944 over the road!

 

[Inspector Morose]

Ah, 4041. There's a story about how this survived to be preserved. It's also the earliest WMPTE standard design Fleetline left now.

[Squire_Dawson]

Ah, 4041. There's a story about how this survived to be preserved.

 

Go on...

[Inspector Morose]

It's very boring and only of interest to hard core busists. All others look away and carry on to the next post whilst I don my anorak, open the bottle of Lucozade and unwrap my mars bar.

 

4041 was one of a dwindling number of early standards left on the system around 1984 and was based at Park Lane, Wolverhampton. It's condition was poor and it really was at the end of its life. At the same time WMPTE was undertaking a refurb and modernisation of its later Fleetlines (6301- onwards) which included a strip down to frame, repair, new panels, full mechanical rebuild, re trim and so on. One day the allocator at Park Lane couldn't find 4041 for service and it slowly dawned on all at the garage that a delivery driver had taken it by mistake to Central works for refurb. It was assumed that the mistake would be found out soon as no early buses were to included in the program and so it was forgotten about.

About six or so weeks later, a very shiny 4041 was delivered back to the garage fresh from overhaul. A trip over the pits discovered a bus rebuilt back to as new a condition as was possible, new engine, gearbox, axles, stress panels, part body frame, panels, trim. Thousands must have been spent on the thing. The only things not fitted was the air operated power steering conversion as it didn't fit on the early chassis.

After that it had a bit of a easy life due to the lack of power steering as it was not popular with the drivers and so it sat in the garage for most of its new life.

In 1986 WMPTE was taken away from its rate paying owners and one of the first decisions by its new private, money oriented masters was a fleet reduction which included 4041. Discussions with Aston Manor museum in Birmingham brought an eventual safe home for 4041 although technically it was still owned by WM Travel and so it survived to this day, mainly due to a mistake by a driver.

 

There is a tale of an earlier chassis that was completely rebuilt and rebodied at a fair cost in about 1979 after sitting around as a chassis for about 10 years and only lasted three years before being scrapped so WMPTE was used to spending lots of money for no reason.

 

I'll go and lie in a darkened room now.

[theorganist]

Thats a very interesting story, thanks.

 

Would the new engine have been the same type as the original?

 

I loved the Fleetlines, preferred them to Metrobuses, which I also quite liked!

[Inspector Morose]

Gardner 6LX as original but replaced by a LXB derated to 170bhp. Not sure what it's got now. I dropped out of bus preservation in the late 90s when it all became too cliquey and political for me.

Metrobuses were a good workhorse but boy, can they rot. I saw one at Walsall going through its mid life overhaul at 5 years old where the entire framing between decks (the inter floor) was rotten to the point of collapse. It was in service the week before like that. That and the tales of dodgy early gearboxes, framing breaking up, loosening because the door would be set so it opened too fast, crap wiring, an early cooling system where the engine had its own cooling circuit which was cooled by another, separate water circuit with a water-water heat exchanger in between. Etcetera etcetera etcetera...

[theorganist]

That doesn't sound too good.

 

I don't have the interest is buses that I used to.

 

A lot of those Volvo(?) ones from the 90's seem a lot more tatty and rattly than the Leyland Nationals did in the early 90's although they aren't half as noisy as the Nationals were!

[PhilA]

It's fairly new by shite standards, and also not on the correct continent, but these were all shite from the point the ink was drying on the final design sheet.

 

Parked up my van this morning and this afternoon a little more chod had accumulated around it.

 

 

20140424_161508 by renault9gta, on Flickr

 

02 Chevy Astro, 99 Ford Escort and a mid 00's Ford Ranger.

 

The Escort is the grim deal here. The Ranger is just a rebadged, re-re-designed Mazda. My Astro can trace its roots to the early eighties, with more facelifts than they'd care to admit to.

The Escort also has a "surprised blow up dolly" face. I'm surprised they managed to get away with designing something so deplorable.

 

The back end is equally bland, coming from the Ford Probe Weekend Design Workshop

 

20140424_161528 by renault9gta, on Flickr

 

I couldn't any get closer to it because was making me nauseous. The interior is grim, parts-bin special across the Small Fords range of the era. 

 

20140424_161623 by renault9gta, on Flickr

 

We have a Taurus that shares a lot of interior components. It looks and feels like a cheaper version of something from the eighties. Tiny dials, badly lain out and poorly labeled. It looks as comfortable as a dentists' office.

 

It was also complete with a set of jump leads on the back seat, which was the icing on the turd.

 

--Phil

[brickwall]

This is the most inappropriate thread title in Christendom.

[phil_lihp]

I can't help but like those Astro vans despite the ancient design, they're just so 'American' in their appearance and are as much a part of the street furniture as Crown Vics - again probably due to the prehistoric underpinnings.

 

When I was in LA our airport shuttle to the hotel was a very old and tired Astro with what sounded like a very large V8 in it.  No seatbelts, lots of body roll and a very loud and enthusiastic driver who had two speeds; flat-out and stop.  A highly memorable ride.

[PhilA]

I can't help but like those Astro vans despite the ancient design, they're just so 'American' in their appearance and are as much a part of the street furniture as Crown Vics - again probably due to the prehistoric underpinnings.

 

When I was in LA our airport shuttle to the hotel was a very old and tired Astro with what sounded like a very large V8 in it.  No seatbelts, lots of body roll and a very loud and enthusiastic driver who had two speeds; flat-out and stop.  A highly memorable ride.

 

4.3 litre V6. That is the way it has to be driven.. flat-out. The gearbox holds the revs until they hit the red, by which time the engine is so badly out of breath it's really struggling.

 

Mine fights to make 80mph and it's in good mechanical condition.

 

--Phil