Cars you didn't know existed until very recently.

[Bmwdumptruck]

On 06/07/2023 at 15:05, quicksilver said:

Didn't have a clue what this was when it drove past.

It's an Armstrong-Siddeley Sapphire 234 converted into a drophead, supposedly as a replica of a factory prototype. I don't think I've ever even seen one of the saloons it's based on.

 

On 06/07/2023 at 17:22, artdjones said:

A 236 with steel wheels is a bit of a strange car. It has the straight 6 from the previous range, and isn't very fast. 

The 234 uses a 4cylinder version of the powerful 3½ litre Sapphire engine, and is more powerful than the six, making a decent sports saloon. It still has the weird rear aspect, but wire wheels and a decent colour lighten the appearance.

I had an Uncle who use to restore Armstrongs back in the 80’s. He got quite a name for them, also use to make batches of cills for the owners club.  He won a car of the show award one year for a Saphire Star which was previously owned by Sir Frank Whittle.  The last car I remember him doing was one of these smaller 234’s for a guy that ran a Modified Clubman estate and a MK4 Zephyr that had been his family’s hotel limo until he sold up and retired.  
My Uncle also owned a pair of Saphires, one of which was a longer limo version, they use to do wedding hire with them,  borrowing the Star and another locally owned Saphire when needed.  He also had a second Limo but never managed to get it restored. 
Didn’t Mathewsons auction one of these that turned out to be one of the last ever made? 

[Richard_FM]

On 25/12/2023 at 09:50, Bmwdumptruck said:

 

I had an Uncle who use to restore Armstrongs back in the 80’s. He got quite a name for them, also use to make batches of cills for the owners club.  He won a car of the show award one year for a Saphire Star which was previously owned by Sir Frank Whittle.  The last car I remember him doing was one of these smaller 234’s for a guy that ran a Modified Clubman estate and a MK4 Zephyr that had been his family’s hotel limo until he sold up and retired.  
My Uncle also owned a pair of Saphires, one of which was a longer limo version, they use to do wedding hire with them,  borrowing the Star and another locally owned Saphire when needed.  He also had a second Limo but never managed to get it restored. 
Didn’t Mathewsons auction one of these that turned out to be one of the last ever made? 

Ironically there was an Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire jet engine, but not designed by Sir Frank Whittle.  It was originally a Metropolitan Vickers engine before their jet engine programme was bought up.

[bunglebus]

[MiniMinorMk3]

Matra M72 from year 2000, that almost became the new MG Midget

Sports car projects : Matra M72 - AROnline

[RayMK]

11 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Oh dear!  His must be really small.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

The Vauxhall Ventora VIP. Apparently only 250 were produced in 1973 and were top spec with a numbered plaque on the dash. 

I first heard of it on this Facebook group- it's amazing how many people on the thread think it's a modified Morris Marina...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/729338430573719/permalink/2569868116520732/?ref=share

 

[High Jetter]

Did they have a modified grille? That front doesn't look familiar

[MiniMinorMk3]

11 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Did they have a modified grille? That front doesn't look familiar

That's stock FE Ventora with the chip cutter grill and big black Griffin in the centre.

[quicksilver]

15 hours ago, Dick Longbridge said:

The Vauxhall Ventora VIP. Apparently only 250 were produced in 1973 and were top spec with a numbered plaque on the dash. 

I first heard of it on this Facebook group- it's amazing how many people on the thread think it's a modified Morris Marina...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/729338430573719/permalink/2569868116520732/?ref=share

 

Something very odd about that comment thread. It seems to relate to an entirely different photo as they're all talking about a modified Marina with Golf running gear parked next to a Polestar.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

1 hour ago, quicksilver said:

Something very odd about that comment thread. It seems to relate to an entirely different photo as they're all talking about a modified Marina with Golf running gear parked next to a Polestar.

It's bizarre, isn't it? The only thing I can think of is it's registered as a Morris for some reason and they've jumped to conclusions.

The conversation about the door handles is just plain odd though as there's no similarity whatsoever. 

[bunglebus]

It relates to this pic

Which is of the garage find 70s custom Marina which has for inexplicable reasons now got Golf TDi running gear, possibly even the whole floorpan

[bunglebus]

I don't know what is is but apparently you can buy it on Alibaba

[LightBulbFun]

2 hours ago, bunglebus said:

I don't know what is is but apparently you can buy it on Alibaba

please tell me thats electric, so @Kiltox has to buy one

would make for great clickbait, "I repowered my Aixam with the drive train from a Bugatti* "

[Dabooka]

9 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

please tell me thats electric, so @Kiltox has to buy one

would make for great clickbait, "I repowered my Aixam with the drive train from a Bugatti* "

Surely it’s would be ‘I repowered my Bugatti with a drive train from an Aixam’

Who wouldn’t want to see that?!

[bunglebus]

Casalini Sulky

They've been making microcars since the 50s

[Missy Charm]

We've all heard of the mark 3 Mondeo.  Almost everybody will have been in one, a good percentage have driven the things and plenty have owned them.  Not a rare car, by any means.  But did you know that mark 3 had a Taiwanese sister?  

Me neither.  The car shown is a Far-Eastern market Ford Mondeo Metrostar, manufactured (or assembled) in Taiwan.  The Metrostar was an ordinary European Mondeo underneath, but had a few local alterations to make it more appealing in the Asia-Pacific region.  The smaller petrol engines and diesels weren't available and most, if not all, had automatic transmission - the Metrostar was sold as a luxury car.  Equipment levels were correspondingly higher and, seemingly, only the saloon body was offered.  Principal amongst the differences, however, was the styling.  The European mark three was one from Ford's Germanic styling school, as opposed to the mark 1 and 2 following transatlantic lines.  The Asians seem to prefer the transatlantic way, meaning that the Euro-Mondeo required a new look for their market.  Thus the car was given a generic, late-nineties American-style makeover in Taiwan and the Metrostar was born.  The end product looked something like the third generation Ford/Mercury Contour would have, had such a thing existed.  Indirectly it did, in the form of the later American Ford Fusion, which looked a bit Mondeo like but was mechanically unrelated.  A shame really, given that the Mondeo Metrostar was better looking than the genuine Stateside article it was supposed to be aping.  

Most Metrostar stuff on the internet is Chinese, meaning it's difficult to find.  One can glean, however, that there were a number of styling revisions during the car's life:

and:

and even a tarted-up one:

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Just spotted this in the car park at Fistral. 

Fucking hideous. A few £££s worth by all accounts, looking online. I initially assumed it was a barried Rangie with a shite bodykit. 

Money doesn't buy taste. 

[sdkrc]

2 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Money doesn't buy taste. 

Money doesn't buy taste but it does buy the shittest private plate in the country.

Do you like Lancia Delta Integrales?

Do you like Jimnys? 

Why not both...

[horriblemercedes]

5 minutes ago, sdkrc said:

Money doesn't buy taste but it does buy the shittest private plate in the country.

 

I'm not sure I agree. If my name was Stigeve I'd be pleased with that plate 

[MiniMinorMk3]

1 hour ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Just spotted this in the car park at Fistral. 

Fucking hideous. A few £££s worth by all accounts, looking online. I initially assumed it was a barried Rangie with a shite bodykit. 

Money doesn't buy taste. 

Didn't know the Stig was married to Eve.

By the way that is a Rolls Cullinan Black Badge with a SPOFEC Wide Boy body kit. My guess it is either a ball kicker or lottery winner that owns it.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

32 minutes ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

Didn't know the Stig was married to Eve.

By the way that is a Rolls Cullinan Black Badge with a SPOFEC Wide Boy body kit. My guess it is either a ball kicker or lottery winner that owns it.

Doesn't SPOFEC require medication?

The same motor was spotted in that there London a couple of years ago and people seem to have been fawning over it.

https://www.autogespot.co.uk/rolls-royce-cullinan-black-badge-spofec-overdose/2021/05/14

It's on this YT video at 2.35 as well. I wonder who owns it? 

 

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

Didn't know the Stig was married to Eve.

Stig of the dump?

[MiniMinorMk3]

1974 Lancia Beta Mizar

Lancia Beta Mizar (1974) - Old Concept Cars

[martc]

Reliant Sabres - well known in these circles. But did you know they sold them in The Netherlands, LHD and everything?

[Remspoor]

3 hours ago, martc said:

Reliant Sabres - well known in these circles. But did you know they sold them in The Netherlands, LHD and everything?

Why not Reliant also sold three wheelers there too. My wife had one, before I met her.

[martc]

Right, contrary to your natural instincts, this is not a SEAT Malaga, it's a Greek market only SEAT Gredos. It is identical in every way to a Malaga, but isn't.

And why isn't it? Well, Malaga sounds very much like 'malaka' which is a rude word in Greek. Like other SEAT names Gredos is geographical - a mountain range in central Spain.

The rude Greek word, don't look if easily offended.

Spoiler

Thought you'd look - it's dumbass.

 

[Wack]

On This Day 3 January 2009, media outlets reported that a rare unrestored 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante Coupe had been found in the garage of a British doctor. A month later, on February 7, the car sold at a Paris auction for the sum of $4.4 million.

The black two-seater, one of just 17 57S Atalante Coupes ever made by Bugatti, had been owned by English orthopedic surgeon Harold Carr since 1955. Carr, who died in 2007, reportedly had kept the rare vehicle parked in his garage since the early 1960’s and hadn’t driven it in five decades. The car was built in May 1937 and originally owned by Francis Richard Henry Penn Curzon, the 5th Earl Howe. Curzon was also the first president of the British Racing Drivers’ Club and a winner of the 24 Hour Le Mans race.

When it was built, the 57S Atalante Coupe was capable of reaching speeds of more than 120 mph at a time when the average car couldn’t do more than 50 mph. It was also notable for its low-slung frame and V-shaped radiator and featured pig-skin upholstery. At the time of the auction, Carr’s car was said to be in good condition and had 26,284 miles on its odometer.

The Bugatti car company was founded in 1909 by Italian-born Ettore Bugatti (1881-1947) in present-day Molsheim, France, and became known for producing expensive, cutting-edge sports cars and racing cars. From the time of its founding until the 1940’s, the company built fewer than 8,000 cars. Following the death of Ettore Bugatti in 1947, the company went into decline and changed hands several times. In 1998, Volkswagen bought the rights to build cars under the Bugatti name. In 2009, the company introduced the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport, a sports car convertible which was capable of speeds of some 253 mph and carried a price tag of more than $2 million. The Veyron could reach 60 mph in under 2.5 seconds.

[Remspoor]

Opel Kadett Aero C.

Built by  Baur Bodywork in Stuttgart . Only 1,332 examples were built.

 

[artdjones]

On 02/01/2024 at 15:07, MiniMinorMk3 said:

1974 Lancia Beta Mizar

Lancia Beta Mizar (1974) - Old Concept Cars

Gullwing doors are a waste of time but otherwise a really pretty car.

 

[Timewaster]

On 03/01/2024 at 15:19, martc said:

Right, contrary to your natural instincts, this is not a SEAT Malaga, it's a Greek market only SEAT Gredos. It is identical in every way to a Malaga, but isn't.

And why isn't it? Well, Malaga sounds very much like 'malaka' which is a rude word in Greek. Like other SEAT names Gredos is geographical - a mountain range in central Spain.

The rude Greek word, don't look if easily offended.

  Hide contents

Thought you'd look - it's dumbass.

 

A guy I know has a Greek cousin and calls him "Malaka".

 

He told us it meant wanker.