HMC Quattroporte assaulted

[lesapandre]

An AA or whoever call out would be interesting.

"What marque?"

"An Austin"

"A what?"

"Austin"

"What model?"

"A Burnham"

"It's burning!"

"No"

What year?

1930

Long silence...

Old cars are fantastic. No one believes that anything before 2010 is a car...

If it plays up it should start "on the handle". They usually come with some massive iron starting handle.

You need to get a deerstalker hat to drive this - perhaps a huge stick-on beard too.

[HMC]

75? Yes the fiat 500 twin air engine went pop so - what to do? buy an even older car. In mitigation its a cheapy diesel auto so technically the least likely to go wrong of all 75s. We will see.. The tow bar has already been useful 😂

currently the only pic..

[2flags]

Good buy on the Rover. Diesel automatic, with reasonable maintenance should last a long, long time. Good engines, good gearboxes, rust can be a problem on the sills and the rear suspension, but other that that, a very nice and pleasant place to sit. Being the tourer is a useful thing too. 

[HMC]

3 minutes ago, 2flags said:

Good buy on the Rover. Diesel automatic, with reasonable maintenance should last a long, long time. Good engines, good gearboxes, rust can be a problem on the sills and the rear suspension, but other that that, a very nice and pleasant place to sit. Being the tourer is a useful thing too. 

Last owner over 2 years did the fuel pumps, rad fan, rear arms, plus other bits and bobs - £2.5k in reciepts (!) im hoping this bodes well. 

[lesapandre]

Out in this tonight. Nice ride height like the 'Orstin'

Locals amazed as usual...sinister after dark shot...this only 43.

Solidarity with the Burnham...

[Dyslexic Viking]

23 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

Out in this tonight. Nice ride height like the 'Orstin'

Locals amazed as usual...sinister after dark shot...this only 43.

Solidarity with the Burnham...

I really like the 60 series Land Cruiser but they are probably too much  tractor for me.

[lesapandre]

8 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

I really like the 60 series Land Cruiser but they are probably too much  tractor for me.

They are ok. A real handful to drive yes a very aquired taste - solid  axles front and rear on cart-springs with a full girder chassis - probably quite a lot in common with the Austin - wall of torque - the engine red lines at 3500 rpm - pushrod operated. 

[Sigmund Fraud]

2 hours ago, HMC said:

Yes the fiat 500 twin air engine went pop so - what to do?

Shame, I was secretly hoping that your TwinAir ownership experience would disprove their terrible reputation.

What was it that killed it, in the end ?

[Coprolalia]

9 hours ago, wuvvum said:

I believe these days it's known as "advance / SEN".

This had me wheeze-laughing so hard I had to step outside the house so I didn't wake the kids.

[2flags]

4 hours ago, HMC said:

Last owner over 2 years did the fuel pumps, rad fan, rear arms, plus other bits and bobs - £2.5k in reciepts (!) im hoping this bodes well. 

That sounds like all the usual suspects have been taken care of. Just have to watch for rust in the sills. Remember, if there's a scab, don't pick or poke it!!

[gadgetgricey]

Loved my 75's . Diesel auto estate best model.

Even better if you have a working webasto as takes ages to get heat in the cabin without.

Can't recall if you have had one before.

What are you initial thoughts??

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, Coprolalia said:

This had me wheeze-laughing so hard I had to step outside the house so I didn't wake the kids.

Used to be ESN BITD

[captain_70s]

5 hours ago, lesapandre said:

Out in this tonight. Nice ride height like the 'Orstin'

Locals amazed as usual...sinister after dark shot...this only 43.

Solidarity with the Burnham...

Blimey, haven't seen one of them since about 2004, and the one I saw was very rusty then! To be fair it was a Y reg I believe and Aberdeenshire isn't famed for being kind to cars...

[Morris 63]

20 hours ago, lesapandre said:

Out in this tonight. Nice ride height like the 'Orstin'

Locals amazed as usual...sinister after dark shot...this only 43.

Solidarity with the Burnham...

I need to visit specsavers again - as I scrolled down to this on my phone, my first thought was "is that a lifted Volvo 240 estate?"  

[Pieman]

22 hours ago, lesapandre said:

You need to get a deerstalker hat to drive this - perhaps a huge stick-on beard too.

My old GP had a beard and a deerstalker, wore a waistcoat and a cravat too.  I remember him driving an MG Midget for a few years but he would certainly suit a vintage machine like this Austin.  I believe he is still practicing in his 80s!

[Asimo]

The Austin's wheels are ace. I have heard them called "artillery wheels".

Are they cast iron?

They make every contemporary aluminium wheel look trivial, fussy and ridiculous.

[lesapandre]

I don't think they are 'cast'. That would make them quite brittle? 

[HMC]

Ill have a read of my book and find out.

A strange consequence of driving the 12 about is that the 1954 daimler conquest century feels oh so modern and slick with its preselector gearbox. 

A modern, among moderns, relatively speaking?

[HMC]

20 hours ago, Sigmund Fraud said:

Shame, I was secretly hoping that your TwinAir ownership experience would disprove their terrible reputation.

What was it that killed it, in the end ?

i began to suspect the headgasket was going, and more recently also it became very difficult to start when cold. so much so if you touched the accelerator within 2 mins of starting it it would die and then be impossible to start. occasionally the car would refuse to crank despite the fuel system priming up. apparently the valves are actuated by oil pressure and is a sensor that if isnt happy will deem the oil level incorrect then it wont fire. the sensor is buried and needs much dismantling. Anyway i decided to bail out; which makes me sad as i loved the concept of the engine but it was throwing up more problems and was basically unreliable.

[2flags]

I love the idea that a 'modern' car is unreliable, so you go and buy a car that's 100 years old!

[wesacosa]

where did the Samara end up? assume off forum. I think that's one I'm going to regret not going for

[Sigmund Fraud]

10 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

where did the Samara end up? assume off forum. I think that's one I'm going to regret not going for

The Samara is still on the forum, and may well be up for sale again in the new year !

[lesapandre]

" The 1954 Daimler Conquest Century feels oh so modern..."

Thats one of the quotes of the year...😁

[Surface Rust]

2 hours ago, HMC said:

Ill have a read of my book and find out.

A strange consequence of driving the 12 about is that the 1954 daimler conquest century feels oh so modern and slick with its preselector gearbox. 

A modern, among moderns, relatively speaking?

Is the bonnet slightly open or just in need of some adjustment?

I love the slightly awkward styling, a little too dumpy to carry off the sweeping wing lines!

[HMC]

15 hours ago, Surface Rust said:

Is the bonnet slightly open or just in need of some adjustment?

I love the slightly awkward styling, a little too dumpy to carry off the sweeping wing lines!

Agreed- its so 50s - usually the brochure artwork shows the ambition, and the reality is a bit different! 

[lesapandre]

The body design and build of these are by 'Carbodies' a subsidiary at the time of BSA who had the overall control of Daimler.  

Daimler made the chassis and engine etc. The pre-select gearboxes were made by 'Wilson'.

The factory has only recently been demolished. They designed and made the bodies for the FX4 taxi for a bit.

I don't think the panel fit was particularly great even when new - and being chassis built the tolerances require some opportunity for flex anyway.

Very conservative styling for the era - charming but these must have seemed dated even when new. Ford for example had gone for a curved screen and ponton styling as early as 1951 on their Zephyr range - which at two-thirds the price took a chunk of Daimler sales. Jaguars at the time were more curved but more elegantly styled and again cheaper.

Would Daimler have done better with less dumpy styling - maybe - but the problem was they could not make their cars cheap enough however good they were. 

Once the Post-War car market was saturated by the mid-50's their sales dried up. Having no manual g/b option as well was a poor decision.

But hey-ho they have left us some great cars.

[Six-cylinder]

19 hours ago, HMC said:

i began to suspect the headgasket was going, and more recently also it became very difficult to start when cold. so much so if you touched the accelerator within 2 mins of starting it it would die and then be impossible to start. occasionally the car would refuse to crank despite the fuel system priming up. apparently the valves are actuated by oil pressure and is a sensor that if isnt happy will deem the oil level incorrect then it wont fire. the sensor is buried and needs much dismantling. Anyway i decided to bail out; which makes me sad as i loved the concept of the engine but it was throwing up more problems and was basically unreliable.

I had been considering another Fiat 500, they do look good. Last time I had a very young diesel Lounge but it had been fitted with 17 inch wheels and the ride was jarring. The engine had a very narrow power band and the promised 68mpg turned out to be 45 mpg.  This time I thought about a  £30 road tax petrol, but I keep hearing how easily they break. Maybe I should just stick to my Seicento.

[LightBulbFun]

12 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

I had been considering another Fiat 500, they do look good. Last time I had a very young diesel Lounge but it had been fitted with 17 inch wheels and the ride was jarring. The engine had a very narrow power band and the promised 68mpg turned out to be 45 mpg.  This time I thought about a  £30 road tax petrol, but I keep hearing how easily they break. Maybe I should just stick to my Seicento.

in your case I would not be worried about the engine going pop, but @Mrs6C pinching the little 2 cylinder engine for her 2ft narrow gauge locomotive chassis! forget locking wheel-nuts, you need locking engine mount bolts

[wuvvum]

57 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

The engine had a very narrow power band and the promised 68mpg turned out to be 45 mpg.

That sounds exactly like the Twin Air petrol...

[HMC]

An odd occurrence with the 75- i locked it the other day and the car beeped (a sign it believed a door or bonnet or boot wasnt closed- they were) i went back to it the following  day and the battery was flat. It hasnt done any of the above since. Would the ecu thinking a door was not shut cause the various systems not to power down and cause a current drain?

Yours pondering over a twilight pint in Tavistock