What is / was this?

[Urko]

This was me hob-knobbing with local rodders and a very tidy T3 (mine is the AMC on the right)

 

[Asimo]

Mine in 1977 at ten years old.

 

12volt electrics, disc brakes, four-stud wheels and swing axle rear suspension so the best of all TLs. Doom blue. Rear boot is huge and engine access is good too even though the engine is under the boot floor.

Much better than a Beetle despite being very similar underneath.

I bought it without the N/S headlight. The elegant headlight support bracket was replaced with home-made wob* at some point. 

 

*out of date polyester resin mixed with builders sand.

 

[Urko]

 

*out of date polyester resin mixed with builders sand.

 

 

Top job!  And as if to prove my point - reflective number plates.

[vulgalour]

I used to see a green one doing the commute when I lived in Sheffield and walked to walk in the 2010s, probably 2007-8ish and it always brightened my day.  Never did get a picture of it.

[Squire_Dawson]

Not an attractive car at all, but was not Volkswagen attempting to shed off the Beetle image by this point and modernise - but it took the Glolf to turn around the company's fortunes? If Billy Rootes had actually taken on Volkswagen, chances are the Earth would not be plagued by them today! 

[Alusilber]

I do have a soft spot for Type 3 fastbacks - definitely near the top of my fantasy classic car garage list. Seem to remember seeing quite a few of them around when I was a kid in the 70s, mostly orange ones, though maybe my memory is playing tricks on me, and some of them would have been Type 4s. Shame most of the few that are left have been buggered about with. The one on the flatbed is the earlier shortnose version which was prettier - the longer nose was added later mainly for better crash protection I think, but didn't do much for its looks.

[Pillock]

The correct identifier for the Typ 3 fastback is TL.

This is also written on the back:

 

 

 

Hence the Germans coined the nick "Traurige Lösung" - miserable solution - for these.

Unless it was the injected one - TLE - or the cut price one like my first - TA.

TA had no chrome side trim and, erm, that was about it. Everything else seemed the same.

 

 

[Pillock]

Here's my second one.

 

 

Front looks odd as it's a fibreglass flipfront, which was neither early nor late in appearance. A bit of a mixture. Twin Webers, 1776cc, a single seat, half the metalwork missing meant it was pretty rapid. The flames on the front weren't my doing, instead they revealed themselves when sanding back the matt black.

 

Should never have sold it but money was tight after getting kicked out of two houses in quick succession.