Bramz photos of 2020, a bit of pick and mix

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I do have the horn for the Zagato Aston Martin, stunning in the flesh. The last proper Aston for me; none of that Ford engined stuff, and the Virage was such a pig.

TFP.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Split_Pin]

I am really surprised to see how much 70s and 80s cars are still on the road in Madrid as I though they had all disappeared. On my more recent trips to Spanish islands there was almost nothing interesting at all.

Great to see cars like the Spanish-faced Renault 12, early 5 and a Horizon and also hardly a new-style anonymous plate in any of your pictures.

Cheers man!

[bramz7]

I think Madrid is probably the best place for old cars in Spain, to be fair most European capital cities (excluding Paris now) seem to have rich old car seams running through them. I daresay you could visit somewhere else in Spain and see nothing. 

 

Also worth mentioning I did walk around 100km in 4 days, which isn't what most people do on holiday.

 

Have some more:

 

[TrabbieRonnie]

Great pics!

 

Think this post makes it clear why we all love old cars... there really is something for everyone.  I love the way the older stuff can look well-designed, aggressive/sporty/family-friendly/solid whatever, but are still obviously very much mechanical machines.  The  modern stuff really does look like those cheap and nasty matchbox cars you get in Tesco! 

 

My pal just bought a Reno Codger*… it makes a weird 'welcoming' noise as you get in, and locks it doors as soon as you leave it/approach it.  Apart from that... there is just nothing there...

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Interesting to note that Spain's previous registration system has similar format to that used in Bulgaria. Wonder if they get plate cloning problems?

[Skizzer]

Megaspots. Thank you.

That gold Dodge Dart-alike 3700 GT is particularly awesome. I didn’t know Barreiros made cars as well as trucks until I googled that. Every day’s a school day.

Oh, and the grey Seat Toledo base is the dead spit of 320Touring’s, I think.  I’d forgotten how oddball (and now rare) those are.

[bramz7]

So a week or so ago, I was lucky enough to get a chance to visit a field full of old cars in rural Scotland. Surprisingly close to my relatives, and I got to meet two people (Scott/FOAD/Shite Knight/Dodgy, the other was a long term friend off of Flickr) to have a look round.

I won't be disclosing the location publically. It's not out of bounds to people but out of respect to the owner, I don't want to broadcast their address.

Most of the stuff was diesel, including the black Uno. Some of it only lasted on the road 5-6 years.

 

This really is tip of the iceberg stuff as a lot of it was covered in the dense undergrowth, maybe I should go back in winter.

 

[Jon]

There's some absolutely cracking number plate font spots there! Here's a selection of my favourites:

 

No UK plate nerdery would be complying to the rules without the addition of a Serck. Favourable level of patination, too.

 

Inclusion is mainly for the satisfying dimensions of the 'O'. Very good.

 

Late raised digits effort and awkward pause between numbers and letters in the centre add an element of whimsy, sure to start a thrilling conversation at any social foray.

 

Admirable drilling of holes right in the corners of this square beaut, beckoning the eye to enjoy the vast swathes of unadulterated yellow . Top marks.

 

Pleasingly late font, with bonus double digit number - indeed, VRS is almost a Citroen model name of the time. I will have to take away some points for the Arnold Clark ledger, sadly.

 

Who isn't enamoured with a nice curvy S? But watch out boys, the abrupt ending of the tip of the '6' has, well, knocked it for 6!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

This one's got it all - confident lower leg of the R and staunch structure of the E provide a secure sandwich to the more graceful G, allowing it to revel in its more playful scripture. Lovely draw-down of the upper half/curvature meeting point of the 5, satisfyingly ovalled 0 and a 7 which denotes beauty in its simplicity, which is in stark contrast to the hurried, compressed nature of the W; rather like it's bunched between other commuting numbers and letters on a very packed, hellish tube train.

Who said placca plates are crap? Not all of them, see!

 

But this one is cream of the crop. Powerful font with a mixture of down-to-business, no-nonsense structure of the  X, R , H and 1, then lovely artistic flair of squashed top 5, cheeky 9 and S which makes a brave statement with its almost-too-long end tips. All combined in a very BOLD letterset and a black border. UK number plate nirvana, perhaps?!

 

Anyway, disregard all the above tosh if you will but I firmly think this thread deserves to be at the top of page 1 again. 

 

Thanks Bramz and Thanks aka FOAD for getting access to this great place again.

 

 

 

 

[Mr_Bo11ox]

10/10

Excellent work. That white NSU Prinz was for sale on car and classic as a feasible 'project' a few years back, there was no price tho (never a good sign) and the interior had a shoulder-high grass crop growing in it then, so unsurprising to see it parked in the same spot maybe 5 yrs later.

[barrett]

Ha, that's my thought every time I see a photo of that Prinz. I seem to remember it was actually suggested something like £4k would buy it or something ridiculous like that.

Anyway, this place really is great. Absolutely knockout view nicely augmented with a smattering of decaying old tin. I think anyone with an ounce of sense would aspire to that very lifestyle.  

Excellent bonus follow-up from our Jon there, too, just confirming this thread as a 'top notch read ' once again. Good effort all round and don't let the bastards grind you down etc

[Angrydicky]

12 hours ago, Jon said:

There's some absolutely cracking number plate font spots there! Here's a selection of my favourites:

Late raised digits effort and awkward pause between numbers and letters in the centre add an element of whimsy, sure to start a thrilling conversation at any social foray.

Excellent analysis but I think this one is actually a secondhand, older riveted letter type plate that has had its digits removed, and those old trailer/caravan type stick on letters you used to be able to buy in camping shops and motor factors, stuck on it.

Basically a really half-arsed and very tight effort at making a new plate for it!

[jon.k]

Those are just fantastic. Is it a scrapyard or a mad collector?

[bramz7]

Had a free day today so wondered over to Harry Bucklands in Cheltenham. 

It was as good as hoped. I had a bit of cash on me today so recovered a few bits in the hope I can find new homes for them, happy to sell stuff for as near cost as viable for me.

Obviously you can get all emotional seeing stuff like an early 80s 626 and 23k Rover 825 Hearse in the scrapyard, but the reality is, both were shot to bits. The Rover had began to rot really badly in the coachbuilt body, and the Mazda was crunchy all over. 

I was a bit surprised to see no one had touched the Mazda, so took off the grille, the centre console/arm rest, one rear light (I nearly cut my thumb off getting it out so didn't bother with the other, and the majority of the front end chrome with indicator cluster, as it looked far too clean to be binned.

I also nabbed the Proton GLS and Volvo 440 grilles, some small bits off of the 800 (the pristine rear mudguards and a fascia panel from the interior), the spotless rubbing strips off the Clio and the full set of centre wheel covers too.

 

I enjoy visiting this place. They are proper laid back. 

[greengartside]

Please tell me you nabbed the Michael Barrymore tape.

[bramz7]

Went to a pleasant part of North London today, as it has always been decent for older stuff, and my hunch was right. It's amazing how much you can see in a relatively small area when compared to other places, for example Twickenham was utter cack when I went a few weeks back. This free train travel into London sure has it's perks! (Although I was in zone 3/4 for these photos...)

 

The rancid looking (but oddly solid at the same time) Passat was last spotted by me in 2011! I can't believe it's still about. 

 

 

[RobT]

Crikey, that's some haul.  The mint Maser and those two Volvos in particular.

[bramz7]

Last week I went to Mulhouse, which is right by the Swiss/German border.

 

I saw some cars, as per.

 

R

Rough XM the first find of the trip, lovely.

Dangel 4X4 J5 no less.

 

Loads of Eurovans still around, I like how these Citroen badged ones were badged Evasion on the continent. 

Whoever owns this has spray canned half the dashboard gold. 

More to come, plus some spots from Basel...

[MrSchwifty]

Some great spots there!

@bramz7 That field of stuff in Scotland. Was any of it for sale or available for parts? Especially if any of the 505's were diesel. I'd kill for a chance to go and womble some bits there - 505 stuff is beyond difficult to get! 

[bramz7]

3 hours ago, MrSchwifty said:

Some great spots there!

@bramz7 That field of stuff in Scotland. Was any of it for sale or available for parts? Especially if any of the 505's were diesel. I'd kill for a chance to go and womble some bits there - 505 stuff is beyond difficult to get! 

Thanks.

 

As far as I know, stuff is for sale but they don't like to break up cars, even if it is quite far gone. Probably stand a better chance if you went there in your 505, but that's not to say that would definitely work either....

[Tenmil Socket]

Hammerhead shark...

[Schaefft]

Damn, I've been there in April, saw a lot of nice shite but not on this level!

[bramz7]

I can be quite thorough with my exploring! I did manage to find the nice areas and the not so nice areas too. Overall better than Lille, which is sadly quite shit. 

[bramz7]

 

More from Mulhouse. This surprisingly tidy 405 was near the Gare.

This even nicer one was very close by. Presumably 'Signature' was a high spec.

Grim.

Thought this made a nice backdrop, turns out it was a school! Good thing no one saw me.

306s seemed to outnumber anything of similar age by approx 5 to 1, this was a nice one. I do like the older style plates too.

This was the best shot, sadly.

Reasonable number of ZXs about.

No surprise that 106s are still incredibly common given they were made by Peugeot in Mulhouse.

 

Anything old and non French is incredibly exotic.

Filled me with joy seeing both of these, the Fiat in particular was a highlight.

19s are still common too.

Pretty dismal attempt at a drive by shot.

 

Whats French for 'no smoke, no poke'?

A few houses had second cars which were older 4x4s. this was the best.

This was the car park of an abandoned apartment block (squat now I guess) right by the centre and with river views. Gross.

This looked pretty good.

Still a fair few older BMWs about, and none of them are modified.

,p

This sent my shite senses into overdrive, nice early Clio with a rare 1.7 engine, as used in the 21 and 19s, Not quite early enough to get the ridged Renault diamond though.

 

Next up, Swiss shite.

[strangeangel]

I've missed this thread up to now... hats off to you, some great spots in here 125436/10.

 

[bramz7]

Wow, spotted threads do so well on here now don't they?

 

Oh well, here is what Basel gave me.

This was my first spot of note and my first thought was 'Jesus that's pretty clean for one of those...'

Pales compared to this though, lovely.

Those Swiss plates manage to look quite classy in my opinion.

There was a reasonable amount of older vans on the go too, and all very clean. 

Not a vast amount of German tat, mostly older Mercs and the occasional BMW.

Also a lot of old Toyotas.

 

Right after taking this, I dropped my camera and it then died the next day. Good one

 

Nice pun on the side, actually quite surprised to see one of these there.

Nice.

Nice to see stuff so pedestrian over here in such nice order over there.

Gleaming. 1.6 as well.

Badged 'Swiss Star'. A lot of 90s stuff had small badges on it exclaiming it was the Swiss edition or something, which generally meant superior specification, like AC for example.

Don't actually know what Chevrolet this is. 

Funnily enough there was a similar 190 in Mulhouse, except it had lost all its wheeltrims, and the paint had gone completely flat.

Early one with the mental rear lights.

Don't usually bother but how clean?!

Is this a genuine ex US GT6?

These look so right in flat front form.

A lot of modern Cadillacs as well, not sure on the model but it was huge.

Hey look it's a Sintra in drag.

Phwoar, 5 pot Marea Weekend, yes please.

Couple of tidy old Volvos. I did expect to see more of these, and there was a few later 700s badged as Polar...

Not particularly old but the graphics made me take the photo. 

Seeing this reminded me of the time I came across an identical Swiss Passat in Palermo a few years ago...

Easy to forget these also look good in stock form.

Somewhat lowered, but still a pleasing find.

Another Marea to give me a crisis.

Unfortunately I didn't see the badging but it could be a V6...?

Given the proximity to France, there was  very little older French toss about.

 

And that was that. I did miss out a few spots in this upload but I was genuinely surprised by how nice Basel was, albeit very expensive. 

I might go to Zurich or somewhere else one day, as it was an enjoyable few hours, and the old car scene was far better than anticipated. And the people were nice. 

[wuvvum]

Interesting how many of the cars in Mulhouse still have the old-style number plates - I hardly saw any when I was in France in July.

That silver Chevrolet looks like a rebadged Oldsmobile Alero.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Swiss regulations are very strict on cars and their roadworthiness, which might explain why it's rare to see a grotty one on the road. As I understand it,  you're not allowed to make modifications that deviate from the standard specs.

Also the Swiss have rather more disposable income on average than we do, so they are more likely to be able to keep their shite in good order. 

I last travelled around Switzerland in 2006, using Zürich as my base (a friend gave me a lend of his flat whilst he mitched off on honeymoon with his new wife), and can't remember seeing any down-at-heel chod at all. If there was any, it was off the road with registration plates removed. 

[Skizzer]

When I worked in Switzerland in the 2000s a local colleague told me it was illegal to have a dirty car, although I can’t find proof of this online.

Mine (a UK registered Audi A4) got filthy from driving on motorways in winter, and I once came back to where it was parked after a weekend away to find someone had washed it for me.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Swiss vehicle guidelines (German PDF only)

Additional Swiss vehicle memoranda

[Skizzer]

2 hours ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Swiss vehicle guidelines (German PDF only)

Additional Swiss vehicle memoranda

Mmm, don’t see anything about cleanliness.

I do see that they aren’t fans of wob, pigeon-shit welding or gaffertaping over holes in the chassis - unfachmännische (inexpert) repairs, a pretty big insult if you’re Swiss.

You just don’t see dirty cars in Switzerland  though.  Old cars, yes.

 

Loving your fachmännische spotting skills as ever though Bramz.  I don’t know why spotting threads don’t generate more excitement:  those of us who like them, like them a lot.