Cars you didn't know existed until very recently.

[IronStar]

4 hours ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

https://www.maltapark.com/item/details/9863544

Drive that back? Epic thread.

(I don't think I've ever seen one of these on UK plates???)

Oh dear…I really want this, and flights to Malta are like 30€….

[LightBulbFun]

3 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said:

I had one on my driveway for a while, found by @greengartside in a local scrapyard and @Mr_Bo11ox bravely tried to get DVLA to lift the Certificate of Destruction. Sadly no go, and it eventually got sold to a guy who needed the parts for restoration of a rotary-engined RX4.

3 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Ah, I wondered what became of that scrapyard save 929 - sad that it wasn't possible to rescind the CoD, given its immense rarity, but good that it managed to help other cars live on anyway!

I always feel sadness when I see that 929, because it was only just after it was condemned to that RX4 guy

that I realised the way that people went about trying to reverse the CoD was completely the wrong way to do it, in that they where trying to get the CoD *itself* revoked, but you cant just revoke a certificate like that, because then who is the car then registered to? the DVLA needs someone to be the responsible registered keeper for the vehicle

what someone should of done,  no one ever did was actually, buy the car, apply for its logbook/V5, go to the DVLA and say "Right, I *own* this car and I am its keeper, he is a receipt of sale, here it is in its *complete* entirety numbers matching, as you can see this historically significant vehicle is complete in its entirety with only a CoD being issued in error, so here is a completed V62 form complete with many photographs showing the complete vehicle and its identification numbers so you can record me as the registered keeper and amend the vehicle record to show its not been destroyed" 

(and I am sure if it came to it, there would be probably a number of V765/1 registered car clubs who would of been happy to authenticate the car as not a ringer etc)

a precident has been set for this, there was a very early Rover 75 that was saved and un-CoD'ed like this  

but IIRC one ever actually did that for this 929, they just asked can the CoD itself be reversed, but it just does not quite work like that

and so I always get the feeling "if only I was here/knew better 5 minutes earlier" theres a fair chance it could of been saved

it also saddens me because LNO970P is a Model 70 that survives, and it would of been fun to have had the 2 together

 

 

[Missy Charm]

On 11/02/2025 at 21:50, Aston Martin said:

Ford F250 saloon for Brazil, I believe it's a tax thing.

 

https://www.carscoops.com/2021/01/tropical-cabines-ford-f250-super-duty-sedan-is-the-brazilian-equivalent-of-the-aznom-palladium/

 

 

 

I'd drive that.

Interestingly, the crazy meninos e meninas at Tropical Cabines didn't start, or indeed stop, with the Ford F-250.  There's a whole heap of Brazilian carro-caminhaos:

The above are Chevy-derived offerings from the mid-nineties.

More of the same, although some Ford trucks here.  They also appear to have a jumble of GM fixtures and fittings.

And again.  SUVs!  They may have been slightly ahead of their time with these offerings.

For the driver with the smaller penis.

Ford F-250 Tropiclassic.  Same thing on an older truck chassis.

Doesn't need a caption.

For the driver who doesn't know what his/her car is.

Great for hunting, shooting and falling out of.

Have you ever tied your fibreglass cabin cruiser up at the marina, walked back to solid ground, turned back and thought 'I wish I could drive my boat on land'?  Well, if you haven't, Tropical Cabines have.  See above for Ford F-1000 pleasure-boat-on-truck-chassis unholy mess.  I love it.

Apparently, this is all to get round a Brazilian ban on diesel-fired passenger cars.  I suppose there probably is call in rural Brazil for a vehicle with the comfort and passenger space of a car, but with the ruggedness and off-road ability of a proper truck, too.

 

[DavieW]

Mini Aceman. 

Overtook one yesterday. Another hideous Mini creation. 

 

[Metal Guru]

1 hour ago, DavieW said:

Mini Aceman. 

Overtook one yesterday. Another hideous Mini creation. 

 

I quite like it. (Currently have the pervious model Countryman, well it’s my wife’s but gradually got to like it).

[outlaw118]

Vauxhall Ventora "Black prince" a dealer limited edition with a 5.4 V8, 0-60 in 7.5second. £2950 to you Sir, (August 1974 price) equivalent of £34,250 ish today.

 

[Metal Guru]

2 hours ago, outlaw118 said:

Vauxhall Ventora "Black prince" a dealer limited edition with a 5.4 V8, 0-60 in 7.5second. £2950 to you Sir, (August 1974 price) equivalent of £34,250 ish today.

 

Bank of England calculator says £27445. Bargain!

[GeordieInExile]

5.4 V8 on 13" radial tyres... Interesting!

[Metal Guru]

6 hours ago, GeordieInExile said:

5.4 V8 on 13" radial tyres... Interesting!

I remember when my Dad got a Mk3 Cortina 2.0XL it had 165x13 tyres. They seemed enormous. My first car (Fiesta mk1) had 145x12.

Cant remember when I last had a car with tyres narrower than 200. ( also at £100  a pop instead of £30-50).

 

[Gompo]

13 hours ago, GeordieInExile said:

5.4 V8 on 13" radial tyres... Interesting!

Whenever I see the performance figures for powerful(?) older cars (7.5 to 60mph in this) it makes me wonder how well they'd perform on a modern sticky tyre, even if they were still 13s. Surely you'd be knocking a second of the 0-60 time, if the transmission could take it.

[Snake Charmer]

37 minutes ago, Gompo said:

Whenever I see the performance figures for powerful(?) older cars (7.5 to 60mph in this) it makes me wonder how well they'd perform on a modern sticky tyre, even if they were still 13s. Surely you'd be knocking a second of the 0-60 time, if the transmission could take it.

I would expect the 175/13's to be more smoke on, smoke off than traction.

[Missy Charm]

23 minutes ago, Snake Charmer said:

I would expect the 175/13's to be more smoke on, smoke off than traction.

And you'd be right.  The article about the Black Prince pretty much says, 'the car doesn't handle'.  Heard somewhere else that the V8 Ventora was pretty much undriveable.  

[MiniMinorMk3]

In South Africa they had these

How does one go

 

[Metal Guru]

1 hour ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

In South Africa they had these

How does one go

 

A V8 Viva! WTF?

[17-Coffees]

The Second Gen Mazda2  3 door!

Saw one today and was taken aback that I never knew it existed! I knew of the saloooon but I honestly don't recall this being a thing! 

[lesapandre]

3 hours ago, 17-Coffees said:

The Second Gen Mazda2  3 door!

Saw one today and was taken aback that I never knew it existed! I knew of the saloooon but I honestly don't recall this being a thing! 

Fiesta in a 👘 kimono.

[lesapandre]

13 hours ago, Missy Charm said:

And you'd be right.  The article about the Black Prince pretty much says, 'the car doesn't handle'.  Heard somewhere else that the V8 Ventora was pretty much undriveable.  

The standard Ventora with it's heavy engine was not s great steer I recall.

[Lord Sterling]

Right, so last night, I'd been on a failed mission to try and clear my phone of the thousands of images I have sitting on there when I spotted this photo:

It's a photo from I video I saw online.

Now I can't find anything online about it, there doesn't appear to be any details about it.

The vehicle apparently belongs to a friend of the "bearded man baby" as many here know him as (aka: The bearded explorer) it appeared briefly in a video I saw but that's the best image there is. It's based on a Mk2 Fiesta.

Had anyone come across this before?

[sheffcortinacentre]

Note that one but this type of thing was common on the continent seen similar,205, panda,etc.

It's an 89, first UK registered in 2019 mot expired Nov 2023 ,sorned.

[D.E]

That's a Grunau conversion.

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, D.E said:

That's a Grunau conversion.

Think I've seen one or two, rare tho.

[Lord Sterling]

Yep, cheers @sheffcortinacentre and @D.E. It's a Gruau conversion. Again, not ever seen one.

The Polo especially works, it looks like an in-house job that VW officially offered:

The Peugeot? Not so much...

It looks like it doesn't quite know what it wants to be, a van, an estate car or a tiny camper?

[bunglebus]

Along similar lines, this popped up on Facebook last night - further research needed

[MiniMinorMk3]

8 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Along similar lines, this popped up on Facebook last night - further research needed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That has a passing resemblance to teh VW Vandetta kit that you could buy in the US in the 1970s. I'm not sure if they were ever sold here by the likes of Autocarvan.

 

You could get a pick up in the UK. I had a mate who built one with a chopped roof on the cab and stack exhausts. Here's one that has a stock roof height.

[bunglebus]

Yes UVA did them

[Metal Guru]

28 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Yes UVA did them

Must be a hearse version.

[uk_senator]

I only noticed this recently, I give you the Avensis Verso.. Seems to be Toyota`s take on that inflated Golf Plus thing (where did they all go?).
Not something I was aware of, I don't think I`ve seen one before (although I may have done & not noticed). You`d think they`d have been popular with the mini-cabbing fraternity, but it seems not. There's less than 400 on the road, according to HML.

[lesapandre]

19 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

Yep, cheers @sheffcortinacentre and @D.E. It's a Gruau conversion. Again, not ever seen one.

The Polo especially works, it looks like an in-house job that VW officially offered:

The Peugeot? Not so much...

It looks like it doesn't quite know what it wants to be, a van, an estate car or a tiny camper?

See these Peugeot vans from time to time in France. They were not uncommon. At the time Peugeot did not offer a really small van - after the 305 van finished.

That three-door van known as Fourgonnette or Break Service in France was made to 1990 and was not replaced.

As only total of 86,413 of these Fourgonnettes were built - I guess that Peugeot did not bother with a replacement - the Citroen C15 for example sold over a million vans.

So there was a place in the market for these Peugeot van conversations for those who preferred a Peugeot.

[Timewaster]

3 hours ago, uk_senator said:

I only noticed this recently, I give you the Avensis Verso.. Seems to be Toyota`s take on that inflated Golf Plus thing (where did they all go?).
Not something I was aware of, I don't think I`ve seen one before (although I may have done & not noticed). You`d think they`d have been popular with the mini-cabbing fraternity, but it seems not. There's less than 400 on the road, according to HML.

I don't think they were much good as a people carrier.

The seats were bulky and didn't fold flat like a Zafira.

Picasso's were much cheaper to buy and run.

Scenics had a lot more style.

C-max drove like a Focus.

The verso just missed the mark.

[lesapandre]

Ford B-150 - 1967-72 - built and sold in Argentina only. It's a '3-door'. Two this side and...

one the other!