Cars you didn't know existed until very recently.

[catsinthewelder]

A friend at the local railway society brought his car in to be the load on our restored weighbridge.

It's a 1929 Swift.  Nobody else there had heard of Swift, based in Coventry, shut in the 30s.

[reb]

  On 23/02/2025 at 01:10, catsinthewelder said:

A friend at the local railway society brought his car in to be the load on our restored weighbridge.

It's a 1929 Swift.  Nobody else there had heard of Swift, based in Coventry, shut in the 30s.

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Who manufactured the weighbridge?

(Dad worked in weights and measures, he could have probably identified it from the picture alone)

[Barry Cade]

  On 23/02/2025 at 01:17, reb said:

Who manufactured the weighbridge?

(Dad worked in weights and measures, he could have probably identified it from the picture alone)

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You've just reminded me how I think I met your Dad- He worked at the firm in Auchtermuchty? Had a turquoise 850?  

[catsinthewelder]

@reb S Parsons & Co Ltd of Bradford.

https://bcrailway.co.uk/the-weighbridge-project/

[reb]

  On 23/02/2025 at 01:30, Barry Cade said:

You've just reminded me how I think I met your Dad- He worked at the firm in Auchtermuchty? Had a turquoise 850?  

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That's the one! By the time he died he had a burgundy 850 and I had the turquoise one.

It'll be 5 years in about 3 weeks

[Barry Cade]

  On 23/02/2025 at 02:01, reb said:

That's the one! By the time he died he had a burgundy 850 and I had the turquoise one.

It'll be 5 years in about 3 weeks

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I remember chatting to him in the car park, where I kept my cars in the village centre- I've had a few 850's and was looking at his, and he was admiring my Alfa GTV. Seems like such a long time ago, but in other ways like it was yesterday. 

[reb]

  On 23/02/2025 at 02:06, Barry Cade said:

I remember chatting to him in the car park, where I kept my cars in the village centre- I've had a few 850's and was looking at his, and he was admiring my Alfa GTV. Seems like such a long time ago, but in other ways like it was yesterday. 

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It's funny, the car I most associate with him is the 850 (and he knew basically everything about them) probably because it's what he kept the longest if you count the fact he had two one after the other. I've had either an 850 or v70 available to drive as long as I've had a licence, having had access to his 850 and mum's v70 when I was learning then owning 3 850s and now a v70. I don't know what I'm going to do when there's none left if I'm honest! I'd love another 850 saloon, but they're all either 10v automatics (thirsty and a bit slow) or t5s (thirsty and expensive) while being less practical than the 10v manual v70 I've got now. Wishful thinking hopes I'll have my licence back by the time of the anniversary, so I can go for a drive somewhere personally significant (glenfarg tunnels) but at this point it seems pretty unlikely.

[Barry Cade]

  On 23/02/2025 at 02:19, reb said:

It's funny, the car I most associate with him is the 850 (and he knew basically everything about them) probably because it's what he kept the longest if you count the fact he had two one after the other. I've had either an 850 or v70 available to drive as long as I've had a licence, having had access to his 850 and mum's v70 when I was learning then owning 3 850s and now a v70. I don't know what I'm going to do when there's none left if I'm honest! I'd love another 850 saloon, but they're all either 10v automatics (thirsty and a bit slow) or t5s (thirsty and expensive) while being less practical than the 10v manual v70 I've got now. Wishful thinking hopes I'll have my licence back by the time of the anniversary, so I can go for a drive somewhere personally significant (glenfarg tunnels) but at this point it seems pretty unlikely.

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Fingers crossed! 🤞

[Metal Guru]

  On 23/02/2025 at 01:06, catsinthewelder said:

Came out as the Ora Funky Cat then they got scared and renamed it the GWM.

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Did they do mopeds too?

[Remspoor]

  On 21/02/2025 at 20:48, artdjones said:

I've still got the valve clearance tool in the shed.

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Me too- I had a 1600 HB because I could not find a GT at a price I could afford. That was back in the late 70s

[EyesWeldedShut]

Citroen AX, but in 4x4 flavour?

[lesapandre]

  On 23/02/2025 at 07:59, EyesWeldedShut said:

Citroen AX, but in 4x4 flavour?

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Piste Rouge  🤣

Don't get too excited these 4x4 are not made to go round corners fast , more to take a goat, a bale of hay and a large dog up to the top of a mountain.

Not uncommon but an unmolested one is.

[EyesWeldedShut]

  On 23/02/2025 at 13:17, lesapandre said:

Piste Rouge  🤣

Don't get too excited these 4x4 are not made to go round corners fast , more to take a goat, a bale of hay and a large dog up to the top of a mountain.

Not uncommon but an unmolested one is.

 

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You should see what else the dealership has for sale: one for the Morris lickers?
https://www.leboncoin.fr/ad/voitures/2936741784

I think I'm immune from a Marina TC but we have just booked a Gite nearby in May......

[lesapandre]

  On 23/02/2025 at 13:20, EyesWeldedShut said:

You should see what else the dealership has for sale: one for the Morris lickers?
https://www.leboncoin.fr/ad/voitures/2936741784

I think I'm immune from a Marina TC but we have just booked a Gite nearby in May......

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That's a Belgium built CKD export Marina.

Ad says it has a leather interior too (cuir). I can't tell. 

I've never seen a Marina in France ever. This one is in Belgium still I think.

[uk_senator]

  On 22/02/2025 at 19:20, louiepj said:

Parked next to this at my doctors surgery the other day, looked a bit like a lowered Juke to me....
Couldn't get a photo of the front as there was a person sitting in the passenger seat.

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Seen quite a few of them around London. That ones ripe for an "L" to be written in the dirt next to the badge..

[lesapandre]

  On 23/02/2025 at 13:40, uk_senator said:

Seen quite a few of them around London. That ones ripe for an "L" to be written in the dirt next to the badge..

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LORA? 🤣

[motorpunk]

  On 22/02/2025 at 19:20, louiepj said:

Parked next to this at my doctors surgery the other day, looked a bit like a lowered Juke to me....
Couldn't get a photo of the front as there was a person sitting in the passenger seat.

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I had one as a rental in Germany last year. Absolutely wretched thing. Awful.

[lesapandre]

What is it with the rear lights? Messy design for messy designs sake. Some in the bumper some in the glass. I bet changing the bulbs even is tricky.

[bunglebus]

[lesapandre]

What's this odd model?

Captioned Longbridge 1957.

It's Dick Burzi - BMC design chief and is probably taken in his office in or near the Kremlin - the Longbridge management block. 

To his right in the first picture can be seen a model of Pininfarina's new A40 proposal. 

But what's the car he's looking at? A practical joke to misdirect the competition, something that came in for evaluation or some sort of experimental project?

It's a styling idea - as you can see the rear light and wing treatment are different.

Is this a big Austin that just never got made?

[Aston Martin]

  On 23/02/2025 at 01:06, catsinthewelder said:

Came out as the Ora Funky Cat then they got scared and renamed it the GWM.

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Then renamed again to the 03.

[Verysleepyboy]

  On 23/02/2025 at 15:37, bunglebus said:

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I was just about to post this - saw a link on FB over the weekend for this stylish beast!

[MiniMinorMk3]

  On 23/02/2025 at 22:33, lesapandre said:

What's this odd model?

Captioned Longbridge 1957.

It's Dick Burzi - BMC design chief and is probably taken in his office in or near the Kremlin - the Longbridge management block. 

To his right in the first picture can be seen a model of Pininfarina's new A40 proposal. 

But what's the car he's looking at? A practical joke to misdirect the competition, something that came in for evaluation or some sort of experimental project?

It's a styling idea - as you can see the rear light and wing treatment are different.

Is this a big Austin that just never got made?

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Could it be a failed styling attempt at replacing the Austin Atlantic?

[Verysleepyboy]

  On 23/02/2025 at 22:40, Aston Martin said:

 

Then renamed again to the 03.

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GWM is the manufacturer - Great Wall Motors

All of the range have been renamed to numbers now across the world, which IIRC caused quite a kerfuffle with insurers in the UK who no longer recognised what their customers new car was!

[lesapandre]

  On 24/02/2025 at 10:04, MiniMinorMk3 said:

Could it be a failed styling attempt at replacing the Austin Atlantic?

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Something I have never seen before. It does not look a practical proposition - the curved glass rear window would have been very expensive alone to make - more a styling or 'dream car' study and very similar to a lot of the ideas coming out of the US at the time - and it has none of that practical BMC feel, very space inefficient, but the jury is out.

Fascinating to see Burzi's own office - all kinds of framed sketches on the wall.

This is possibly the A90 Westminster dashboard pod sketch for example.

Burzi probably sketched a lot of other idea stuff that never made it past a first look by the BMC board.

[adw1977]

  On 23/02/2025 at 22:33, lesapandre said:

What's this odd model?

Captioned Longbridge 1957.

It's Dick Burzi - BMC design chief and is probably taken in his office in or near the Kremlin - the Longbridge management block. 

To his right in the first picture can be seen a model of Pininfarina's new A40 proposal. 

But what's the car he's looking at? A practical joke to misdirect the competition, something that came in for evaluation or some sort of experimental project?

It's a styling idea - as you can see the rear light and wing treatment are different.

Is this a big Austin that just never got made?

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Interesting pictures!

No idea what that model was, it certainly doesn't seem to have influenced any production models. 

Vents at the rear suggest rear engined.

[Inspector Morose]

  On 27/02/2025 at 20:49, adw1977 said:

Vents at the rear suggest rear engined.

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Hmm, that’s got me thinking. In the 50s, BMC was working on a rear engined saloon with ERA and it would be natural that Burzi would be brought in to style it. From the photos I’ve seen, this is nothing like what was produced but it might have been an initial styling idea.

The rear engined saloon project was dropped in favour of ADO15 -  mini.

[adw1977]

Some info on the ERA rear engined prototypes:

AROnline

[myglaren]

A 'Trotter' possibly.

Looks as though Trotters may have been involved in its creation.

 

[lesapandre]

  On 27/02/2025 at 21:45, adw1977 said:

Some info on the ERA rear engined prototypes:

AROnline

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Fascinating - yes that's possibly what it is part of. Amazing.

Clearly rear-engined - there are vents beside the rear lights.

First appearance of the word 'maxi' too.