Craigs Countrywide Cack. MASSIVE BELGIAN RENNER TAT HOARD

[Richard]

Would the green lorry be ex GPO telephones?

[VWPowered]

quality pics

[mk2_craig]

Having left my cam in Edinburgh on my previous trip, before it was retrieved I had to use my toxic Nokia. X1/9 nearly got away...

 

Escort looked worth a snap, then I saw what was behind it...

 

Then I saw what was behind this, but phone internal memory wouldn't take any more

 

Range Rover Runt

 

Not one SD1...

 

But two (plus Passat estate and Maxima)

 

Very nice late model Cortina

 

G8 USA

 

Mid Git

 

My Knorr

 

Ooh, something interesting down there.

 

A building site stood in between me and some closer investigation, but being Sunday there was a good chance of not getting intercepted...

 

Paris Blue XR2, sought-after colour but moderate corrosion coupled with leaking aftermarket sunroof had prompted owner to break rather than restore. I now own its engine.

[retrogeezer]

shame about the xr...

[VWPowered]

how i love the weekends

[Lord Sterling]

Fantastic shot, this could almost be a professional shot from the Ford brochure!

 

Lord Sterling

[CortinaDave]

I'm not so much of a fan of the mk5 cortinas, but that one looks a beauty. Lovely!

[michiel]

Ooh, 95s!

[Split_Pin]

 

My Dad always wanted this model, but he went for the 1.6l Estate instead

 

I hope the owner takes off that numperplats surround thing - they belong on chavved -up Saxos ffs.

[mk2_craig]

Has it really been over a dozen years since I last updated this?  Been prompted to do so, by Eddy's Life of Shite thread and specifically the Cyprus chapter.  I went there with the now Mrs_Craig in September 2010 and this is some of the manky old junk we saw (there's quite a bit, I'll split it up into roadworthy and derelict with the first instalment covering the former):

This place had the air of a semi-derelict garage business.  Alfa looked presentable and slightly less dusty than the Merc.

This old Bedford bus was presumably locally-bodied and looked awful but probably still mobile.

Late model Ford D series, appeared to be still earning a living at 30-odd years of age.

These five door Corollas have always interested me, the UK market only seemed to get the three door variant.  I know we did have the Liftback variant of this generation.

We went to some event where the Paphos Classic Car Club were in attendance, I didn't bother photographing the shiny tin but this old Cortina had appeal.  I remember it being f*cking hot that day.

I was impressed to see this FSO pickup still in one piece.

And nearby, a more modern incarnation although hardly in better condition.  Delightfully shonky looking things.

Pleased to see this mk1 Golf tooling along at a fair lick on the motorway when we took a trip further east one day.

These late eighties Integras were pretty rare things even ten years ago.

This was one of my favourite spots.  Lancer?

Metro had clearly seen some "love".

Mini Moke?  Wheels look a bit chunkier than usual, maybe its just the camera angle.

SSG335R, Edinburgh registered Midget that appears to have been officially exported in June 2010

Pair of old trucks, possibly still in service.  Bonneted one suffering an Iveco/Magirus Deutz identity crisis.

Tired looking Fiesta Ghia.  Wanted to bring this one home as a holiday souvenir!  My wife said yes, as long as she could rescue some of the many cats wandering the streets round these parts.  Needless to say the Fiesta stayed put.

[Spottedlaurel]

Great update, long overdue!

[eddyramrod]

39 minutes ago, mk2_craig said:

Has it really been over a dozen years since I last updated this?  Been prompted to do so, by Eddy's Life of Shite thread and specifically the Cyprus chapter.  I went there with the now Mrs_Craig in September 2010 and this is some of the manky old junk we saw (there's quite a bit, I'll split it up into roadworthy and derelict with the first instalment covering the former):

This place had the air of a semi-derelict garage business.  Alfa looked presentable and slightly less dusty than the Merc.

Metro had clearly seen some "love".

As you may well expect, I know the owner of that garage with the Alfa and Merc, and, since you visited, that Metro too.  It's Andreas!  Same chap you had your hire car from!  The Merc was actually Costas's car when he was a student, his wife was driving the red Panda last time I was there (those were his hire cars lined up), and I've seen the Alfa on the road.  Costas brought it to an event I organised earlier in 2010.  I was trying to work out how I could justify buying it...

The event you were at looks like the September British Forces gala.  I would have been there with the Capri.

And inside that building is an unused, unregistered, FSO Caro pickup.  The moment I can get back there with enough Euros in my hot sticky paw, it's mine.  That, I definitely would buy!

[eddyramrod]

And by the way, cats?  Why not?  I brought my dog from there!  She had been abandoned at Andreas's garage...

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, mk2_craig said:

Needless to say the Fiesta stayed put.

but why? it sounds like a Win win situation to me, some prime autoshite and cats! lovely!

 

good spots tho I enjoyed looking at them  esp the Old bedford and FSO pickup

[eddyramrod]

That Mini Moke, by the way... it'll be an Australian one.  They had 13" steels as standard.  Last time I was there Andreas had three or four Mokes, or the remains of, around his yard.

[mk2_craig]

I couldn't quite get my head round the registration marks Eddy.  There seemed to be a vague correlation between vehicle age and the first letter so the older ones like the Cortina and Alfa were earlier in the alphabet than the newer ones such as the Golf and Mitsubishi. However, using that logic the D Series truck was registered later than the Integra. so a secondhand import presumably? And the Corolla/Fiesta are different again. I wonder if there's some sort of online checker facility.

 

Was there any regionality as to how the marks were issued, and was it only certain letters?

[eddyramrod]

AFAIK there isn't a checker we can access, and there's also no regionality that I know of.  Marks are issued in strict rotation, so when my 1971 Capri arrived on the island, it was registered with whatever was current, in this case JV.  A 71 car registered there new would more likely be wearing EV.  There's also, unlike here, no personalisation and no trading.  The car gets what it's given and wears it for life. 

As I understand it, the system went like this: first, a sequence of numbers, up to four.  Next, a letter, followed by up to three numbers.  Then two letters, and later three.  Some older cars can be registered on import as "Antika" (antique) which gives them up to three numbers followed by one letter, of which I've only seen A but they may well have moved on a bit, I haven't visited for a while.  Plates beginning with T denote public transport, and Z (red plates) for rental cars, although in recent years the Z seems to have been dropped.  Thus, TXR 96, a number plate I salvaged off a scrap minibus, is actually XR 96, the T referring to its role in life.  When I last visited, the 3/3 combinations had reached sets beginning with L, and I suspect by now M.  Cyprus also used leading zeroes, so for example my Granada might have been GF 008, but there doesn't seem to be any consistency or enforcement over this.  My Granada duly wore the shortest number plate I've ever owned, in GF 8.

Hope this helps!

[mk2_craig]

Cheers Eddy!  Thinking about it, I'd probably gone to that event in September 2010 mainly because you had let me know beforehand that you would be there for a while, but I think by the time we turned up you'd already left.  I don't tend to point the camera at proper shiny classic tin much - these two appear to be the only attendees I bothered taking a picture of:

A30 or A35?  I'm not sure how to tell.  Whatever, not much in this view to suggest it wasn't taken in England

Zooming in, I can see the word PREFECT on the badge.

Moving on.  I promised some abandoned stuff.  This Minx didn't look that bad, though clearly not in regular use.

While this Mini certainly didn't look past saving.

Minor had a nice shine and looked like it might have been well looked after for most of its life, though something had bounced off its wings more recently

Whereas this Datsun had obviously been retired for some time.

Shame about the newish Daewoo getting in the way of this pair

I got quite excited about this, marginally less so when I realised it wasn't a Lonsdale.

Now then.  I was blissfully unaware that this place belonged to your friend Eddy.  Proper hoard - tat as far as the eye can see.  Is that an Avenger nearest the camera?

Rover P6 probably the standout here, but...

...what's this on the five spoke alloys?  Delta?

An actual, real-life Polonez.  I couldn't believe my eyes!

Round to the other side.  Blue car is a Mk1 Uno, can't quite make out what's either side of it.

A better look at that mk1 Fiesta and Clubby estate.

Escort 3 hiding between the Astra and green Merc?

Can't now remember whether this was the same venue, but DAIHATSU MOTHERFUCKING CHARMANT!!

Older long-term laid up stuff - what's the van?

I found this with some very dead trucks.  Any ideas?

Wonder whether this ^^^

...had anything to do with this.

Closer look.  Probably been there since 1983 or something.

This Albion looked a bit earlier

Couldn't half rot these old Ergo cabs, even in sunny Cyprus.

Not far from our holiday apartment, another Albion, older but more intact (slightly)

This early Suzuki Swift looked to have fallen out of favour and someone had taxed the wiper blades.  It was parked up next to:

An indescribably shagged 2-door Escort.  I would love to know the story behind this.  Probably long gone now.

 

I think that's it from that particular visit - we did come back to Cyprus five years later, but landed at a different airport and stayed on the east coast this time.  With a toddler in the equation the opportunity for shite-spotting was somewhat more curtailed.  At some point I'll have a look to see if I did manage to photograph anything on that occasion.

[timolloyd]

If that Escort is still there, it’s probably worth thousands

 

Great spotting, thanks for sharing.

[chaseracer]

The 'Delta' looks like it's the Prisma saloon version, and the green thing is a Vauxhall Victor FB.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

1 hour ago, mk2_craig said:

 

Wonder whether this ^^^

...had anything to do with this.

Closer look.  Probably been there since 1983 or something.

I'd love to know the story on that.

Not logged as exported and tax ran out in 86, so would only have been eight years old at the time. Wonder what it was doing there? Some sort of BL transporter? 

[dome]

That is EXACTLY where I'd want to find a Manta. RHD, tatty, not rotten. Be still my beating heart.

[eddyramrod]

22 hours ago, dome said:

That is EXACTLY where I'd want to find a Manta. RHD, tatty, not rotten. Be still my beating heart.

Andreas had a handful of Mantas last time I was there...

So much to reply to!  Yes, that was an Avenger, and is probably still there, as will be the Polonez.  As for the two Jags...

I went inside that garage once, there was a third mk10 inside.

I would say @chaseracer has identified those cars correctly.  The mystery van is either a Mazda or Toyota, probably early 80s.

It's amazing what Andreas can do with an old Escort!  I watched him build this one - even helped him a bit - and here it is on Export Day, when it was sent to Limassol to be shipped to Ireland as a rally-school car.  It has a 2.0 Pinto under the hood.  No idea what was in the shell beside it but I believe that was one of his old rally cars.

He's pretty handy with a Mini too and always has a few around.  This one belongs to Costas's wife.

And the green one belongs to Costas himself.  Both are formerly owned by regular (Brit)  customers who became friends, and both of whom have now died.

[dome]

36 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

Andreas had a handful of Mantas last time I was there...

So much to reply to!  Yes, that was an Avenger, and is probably still there, as will be the Polonez.  As for the two Jags...

I went inside that garage once, there was a third mk10 inside.

I would say @chaseracer has identified those cars correctly.  The mystery van is either a Mazda or Toyota, probably early 80s.

It's amazing what Andreas can do with an old Escort!  I watched him build this one - even helped him a bit - and here it is on Export Day, when it was sent to Limassol to be shipped to Ireland as a rally-school car.  It has a 2.0 Pinto under the hood.  No idea what was in the shell beside it but I believe that was one of his old rally cars.

He's pretty handy with a Mini too and always has a few around.  This one belongs to Costas's wife.

And the green one belongs to Costas himself.  Both are formerly owned by regular (Brit)  customers who became friends, and both of whom have now died.

Are you still in contact with these guys?

No ulterior motive, honest.

On an unrelated subject, look what I got for Christmas

[chaseracer]

14 hours ago, mk2_craig said:

 

Wonder whether this ^^^

...had anything to do with this.

Oxfordshire plates, so more than likely.  Left behind after a Cyprus Rally, maybe?

[bigstraight6]

I seem to have seen and photographed most of the Cyprus tat pictured here, the Morris traveller that was something of a landmark in Coral Bay had met an undignified end when I last saw it in 2019, the Cresta and Zephyr were both well loved though and indeed the Ford was a daily driver....

[somewhatfoolish]

On 2/5/2021 at 7:36 PM, mk2_craig said:

 

I found this with some very dead trucks.  Any ideas?

Vauxhall Victor?

[eddyramrod]

3 hours ago, bigstraight6 said:

I seem to have seen and photographed most of the Cyprus tat pictured here, the Morris traveller that was something of a landmark in Coral Bay had met an undignified end when I last saw it in 2019, the Cresta and Zephyr were both well loved though and indeed the Ford was a daily driver....

The Morris was looking shabby last time we visited, so while the pic above is sad to see , it's not entirely unexpected.  Zephyr is a new one on me!  Must be a relatively recent import, as the number plate testifies.  The Cresta has appeared since our last visit and I have him on Facebook

[bigstraight6]

Nice one Eddy, we are hoping to be going back in September and the way the vaccine rollout and the numbers are going we might be lucky, I love Cyprus as much as Devon!

[eddyramrod]

As we do (but for Devon, substitute The Lakes).  Don't forget to take a load of pictures!  We miss Cyprus badly but the old enemy, funds, won't let us go back for some time yet.