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Lazy spotters thread


HillmanImp

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Came across this on my delivery.

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It's parked in one of the shittiest back alleys in Shirley, of which there are many. It's just behind the BMW you can see here. It looks bad and stinks of various take aways as it's behind the shops.

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Anyway I could tell it was a Fiat 126 and closer inspection around the edges suggested it might be nice and shiny.

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So I googled it, as you do, and came up with this .

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It's left hand drive so probably is from Poland. Also when I looked up the MOT history it said it was beige so I also found this which I think is also in Shirley. Have to say it looks better now. Not for the colour change but for losing the worst wheels I have ever seen and the pineapple roofrack.

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Lazy R.A.C. Rally spotting today. Crap phone pictures - I missed the Lancia Stratos which was the first car we saw :-(
Dumped the images here but the highlights are:

(1) Car my wife most wanted to take home - Stuart the MK 1 Escort
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(2) Car I most wanted to take home 

 

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Then it was Escort, Escort, Sierra :-), Escort, 911, 911,  Escort. Escort, Escort so we decided to go home after the next non-Escort and we got this (which looked huge after the Escorts) - a lush Celica

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18 hours ago, 500tops said:

Haven't seen this Samara for ages. So glad to see it's still going! 

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Can't be many of them left now.  I had a really late one on an R plate back in 2003 or so and have to admit it did actually drive surprisingly well.  However it absolutely did make the build quality of the Niva and Riva look like a classic Mercedes or Volvo in comparison.  It was so obviously just cobbled together with whatever they had laying around in the factory.  The bottom of the driver's seat collapsed at one point and it turned out that the canvas under there was a bit of a Russian flour sack.  So for all it didn't drive badly, I really didn't rate its chances of longevity!  In the same breath, when I sold it a couple of blokes did come all the way up to Aberdeenshire to pick it up to export it to Latvia if what they said was to be believed.

It had other exciting features like doors which would randomly decide not to latch properly in sub zero temperatures after you opened them, requiring me to keep a bungee cord in the glove box to tie the front doors together just in case the driver's door would decide to open 90 seconds after leaving the drive in the morning in winter.  The windscreen wipers automatically parked themselves maybe 1 time in 5.  The indicators and brake lights decided to interact with each other at least weekly until I finally ran out of patience and just soldered the wires directly onto the tail light printed circuit boards and did away with the most awfully designed and constructed edge connectors I've ever come across.  The headlights would occasionally just switch off completely when you went to select main beam sometimes as well, usually requiring frantic wiggling of the indicator stalk to restore illumination.  Especially fun when you live in the back end of nowhere in rural Aberdeenshire, so when it's dark, it's REALLY dark!

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1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

  In the same breath, when I sold it a couple of blokes did come all the way up to Aberdeenshire to pick it up to export it to Latvia if what they said was to be believed.

 

I remember my dad saying that Perth harbour was filled with Ladas being shipped back to Russia. This was in the 80s so definitely possible yours was going back behind the iron curtain.

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