Shite ancient and modern

[wuvvum]

Well my trusty 406 ran out of T&T last night, having racked up nearly 4,000 trouble-free miles in the last three months, but it's going to need a bit of loving to pass another test - at the minimum it'll need a tyre, a side repeater, a front passenger door handle mechanism and front brake pads, which means that realistically, with the MoT fee and 6 months' tax, it's going to cost a minimum of £200 to get back on the road. I wouldn't necessarily begrudge paying that, because it's a bloody good car and I only paid £185 for it with 3 months' T&T so it doesn't owe me much. However, whilst idly browsing through eBay motors I found this.

 

 

It's a TD75 so I anticipate the performance being similar to the Pug's, but I've found that to be an advantage in some ways as I have no choice but to go with the flow, which keeps my fuel consumption down. It's T&T'd until the end of January, it's done 96K (so 44K less than the 406), has a recent new clutch and sold for the princely sum of £200. I'm hopefully going to pick it up at the weekend - just have to see if it proves as reliable as the Peugeot.

 

Over the bank holiday weekend I also managed to acquire this.

 

 

 

It's a 1945 Austin 10 which belonged to a mate and which I swapped my P6 for - he'd nearly finished restoring the 10 but had got bored with it, and I was fed up with finding more and more rot on the Rover. The 10 needs a head gasket (but I've heard the engine running and it's sweet), a couple of wiper blades, a bit of wiring and the steering box tightening and it should be more or less ready for a test - I'm hoping to get the gasket ordered this week, and being a side valve engine it'll be a ten-minute job to do. I anticipate the car being fairly dire to drive (28 bhp, cart springs all round and rod brakes do not bode particularly well) so I don't know how long I'll keep it, but it'll be fun to trundle around in for a little while anyway - and with the number of speed traps round here at the moment (the Norfolk Constabulary Christmas party budget is obviously in deficit) it could prove to be a godsend. I'll take more pics once it's running and I can get it out of the shed more easily - it should look better in daylight.

[dollywobbler]

Crikey, nice old Austin! Steering is horrible on these even with everything in good order. Keeps you busy!

[pogweasel]

zOMG. That Ozztin is immense!

[reallyloud]

Blimey! That Austins a surprise. I was expecting to see a Hillman or Volvo. Thats a whole different experience! I would like to turn up to some show in that dressed as a gangsta wrapper or maybe a giant mouse just to baffle the concensus. Do those Fiats have the 1.9 Multijet lumps? The 1.3 is a very good reliable unit.

[michiel]

Loving the Austin - for some reason I feel a slight need to own something very old somewhere in the future, perhaps it's because there's no need for MOTs anymore in Holland (for pre-1959 cars)...