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eBay tat volume 3.

Ross_K

By Ross_K
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sheffcortinacentre Rank: Lancia Gamma

sheffcortinacentre

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, Asimo said:

Marina suspension.

This has piqued my interest as it seems too near to the end of the model's life to bother to redesign suspension. According to Wiki, September 1982 and front dampers were changed to telescopic and rear springs were changed from multi leaves to parabolic. Perhaps the lever-arm damper makers (Armstrong) went out of business?

 

To little to late

GlenAnderson Rank: Austin Maxi

GlenAnderson

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, Marshall2810 said:

Screenshot_20240520_153235_eBay.jpg.6ff57a08dd2d7b1b9cb6efcaf2cf13fb.jpg

Not long ago you couldn't give these away

I still wouldn’t have one if you gave it me. The cynic in me says the 40 bids have come from his mates, and it’ll be back “because of a timewaster” in a day or two…

Mr_Bo11ox Rank: Matra Rancho towing a Tagora

Mr_Bo11ox

Posted
Posted

I don't see how those Metro soft tops can be anything other than flippin rubbish. Would be interesting to know how much commonality there is between those and the MGF though, I guess the bulkhead and sill structures are probably very similar

  • UltraWomble, EyesWeldedShut and grogee
  • Like 2
  • Agree 1
EyesWeldedShut Rank: Lancia Gamma

EyesWeldedShut

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, timolloyd said:

Quality bit of eBay AI ffs

image.png.78728e4a24f0b09ab2695e7db6576bcd.png

I bet that engine in a motorcycle would be a very short-lived piece of motorcycle history too. 
I do love a good AI yarn

EyesWeldedShut Rank: Lancia Gamma

EyesWeldedShut

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, Mr_Bo11ox said:

I don't see how those Metro soft tops can be anything other than flippin rubbish. Would be interesting to know how much commonality there is between those and the MGF though, I guess the bulkhead and sill structures are probably very similar

You got me a-wonderin' there too.
I had a morning GoogleFoo and found the AROnline bit about the car. Reckons only mega changes to the Metro shell were at the back end. Also says the Rover 100 convertibles had  powered roof (I never knew that).
Typical ARO site though - a quick squint turns into a twenty minute read though article after article - I ended up reading the MGF bit (yet again)

  • garethj, Mr_Bo11ox and Remspoor
  • Like 3
MarinaJosh Rank: Austin Maxi

MarinaJosh

Posted
Posted
15 hours ago, grogee said:

My guess is that:

1) BL muddled decision making and departments not talking to each other, 

2) Maestro and Montego programmes overrun so the Ital replacement date is later than planned, 

3) Marketing demanded an upgrade to this piece of shit because customers were discovering rivals that had front wheel drive, more interior space, a non-stupid dashboard and suspension that didn't date from the 1950s. 

In other words this was a stopgap to try and retain at least some customers. 

But it is an interesting* aside for a BL nerd like me. Huge want for a late SLX estate with all the 'toys' (I can't imagine what they would be though). 

It wasn't really a redesign- it had been available for many years as a Special Tuning product. It co-incided with production moving from Cowley to Longbridge. Various other changes happened too including once again fitting various pieces of trim which didn't feature on the last of the Cowley Itals (I'd love to think it's because BL had already shipped the remaining stock to Longbridge, only for somebody to realise they still had some Itals to finish but didn't have all the bits!)

grogee Rank: Isuzu Florian

grogee

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, MarinaJosh said:

It wasn't really a redesign- it had been available for many years as a Special Tuning product. It co-incided with production moving from Cowley to Longbridge. Various other changes happened too including once again fitting various pieces of trim which didn't feature on the last of the Cowley Itals (I'd love to think it's because BL had already shipped the remaining stock to Longbridge, only for somebody to realise they still had some Itals to finish but didn't have all the bits!)

That in itself is mental, the effort of tooling up a factory in a different location, for maybe 12-18 months production... Yes they had the tooling but it had to be relocated and set up again and probably trialled before full volume. 

There were some seriously suspect big calls made at this time including changing the Princess into Ambassador for a similarly short production run. Was the Ambassador sold overseas? 

EyesWeldedShut Rank: Lancia Gamma

EyesWeldedShut

Posted
Posted
33 minutes ago, grogee said:

Was the Ambassador sold overseas?

Was it sold in the UK? :-)
Apparently so: I was in that there London back then and the  Ambassadors that I saw on a regular basis were two fleets of black ones - The Met had a couple of dozen to ferry around the top brass and there were also loads and loads of them floating around Whitehall for the lower end govt. types, MOD people and so on. (Maggie got a Jaaaag - the Whitehall fleet changed to Rover 825 as soon as they came out)

Otherwise, they were just not visible out and about - probably as frequent a sight as a Rolls Royce to be honest. A truly unremarkable car.
 

  • NorfolkNWeigh and grogee
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Momentary Lapse Of Reason Rank: BL Wedge

Momentary Lapse Of Reason

Posted
Posted
18 minutes ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Was it sold in the UK? :-)
Apparently so: I was in that there London back then and the  Ambassadors that I saw on a regular basis were two fleets of black ones - The Met had a couple of dozen to ferry around the top brass and there were also loads and loads of them floating around Whitehall for the lower end govt. types, MOD people and so on. (Maggie got a Jaaaag - the Whitehall fleet changed to Rover 825 as soon as they came out)

Otherwise, they were just not visible out and about - probably as frequent a sight as a Rolls Royce to be honest. A truly unremarkable car.
 

They were out there but rather faded into the background as so similar to the Princess.

 

A friend had one as his company car, liked it for its ability to trundle along comfortably as a saloon and then back seat down hatch open and swallowed huge loads.

He was the Rep for a company who repair lorry transmissions

He moved a lorry gearbox for the company he worked for from Ellesmere to Preston as a Friday night emergency rush job.

I went along as ballast, front seats as far forward as we could cope with and this lorry gearbox on the folded back seat.

Back end was down a bit but the hydra-gas coped OK.

Fork lift driver at Preston nearly shat himself getting the gearbox back out.

Run back was quite comfy.

 

A lot of the crazy business decisions back then were because of the Trade Unions.

  • Remspoor and grogee
  • Like 2
colino Rank: BL Wedge

colino

Posted
Posted

My dad always tried to buy Blitish, so after Princesses, he moved on to Ambassadors.  I really didn't remember it as being much better.  The lip you had to lift anything over was high and it was made much more cheaply than the good old Princess.

Cavcraft Rank: Matra Rancho towing a Tagora

Cavcraft

Posted
Posted

project car - Picture 1 of 4

project car | eBay

'This Renault Megane is a must-have for anyone who wants to embark on an exciting project'

Laser eye surgery using several WW2 search lights?

  • nomiST, Shite Ron and UltraWomble
  • Like 2
  • Haha 1
lesapandre Rank: Talbot Tagora

lesapandre

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, grogee said:

That in itself is mental, the effort of tooling up a factory in a different location, for maybe 12-18 months production... Yes they had the tooling but it had to be relocated and set up again and probably trialled before full volume. 

There were some seriously suspect big calls made at this time including changing the Princess into Ambassador for a similarly short production run. Was the Ambassador sold overseas? 

The Ambassador was not even made in LHD!

lesapandre Rank: Talbot Tagora

lesapandre

Posted
Posted

"A lot of the crazy business decisions back then were because of the Trade Unions".

Is that written up anywhere? Certainly they were trying to avoid redundancies. But that was also why successive Governments poured billions in.

My hunch was the Ambassador was to show Government something was happening.

horriblemercedes Rank: Lancia Gamma

horriblemercedes

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

My hunch was the Ambassador was to show Government something was happening.

I thought it was to spoil us

Cavcraft Rank: Matra Rancho towing a Tagora

Cavcraft

Posted
Posted

motorcycles scooters - Picture 1 of 9

motorcycles scooters | eBay

This time next month it'll probably have a Chinese 140 engine, a quilted bog warmer for a seat and several quid's worth of shit glued/No More Nailed/screwed/thrown onto it. 

Bianconeri Rank: BL Wedge

Bianconeri

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

You got me a-wonderin' there too.
I had a morning GoogleFoo and found the AROnline bit about the car. Reckons only mega changes to the Metro shell were at the back end. Also says the Rover 100 convertibles had  powered roof (I never knew that).
Typical ARO site though - a quick squint turns into a twenty minute read though article after article - I ended up reading the MGF bit (yet again)

There's another here at £9995 and 'not to be confused with the 1.1 version' that seems to have never existed anyway.

https://www.carandclassic.com/car/C1702420

and, would you believe it, another. This one at a more sensible asking price too.

https://www.carandclassic.com/car/C1693761

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