One to drive - one to look at - and one to work on. Your ideal 3 car fleet?

2,190 · February 1, 2021

46 minutes ago, NorfolkNWeigh said:

Seeing Alan Clark there, reminded me that in his column in Car, one month, him singing the praises of the one car he’d definitely keep if he had to thin his amazing and eclectic fleet...

A Tdi Discovery! He reckoned he could get from his Kent Castle to his 25,000 acres of The Scottish Highland’s , quicker in his Disco than any other car including his modern Continental R. Basically because he could drive flat out in a laden Discovery and make half as many fuel stops than in ( probably also flat out) his Bentley .

His motoring diaries were a great read. Recommended.

35,370 · February 1, 2021

These have caught my eye today so:

To drive – Bugatti Divo

To look at - Spyker C8 Spider

To work on – Invicta low chassis 4.5 Ltr

The thoughts behind my choices:

I would love to turn up to the Truckers Rest Cannock for a greasy spoon breakfast and move on to the worst car auction I know to marvel at the crap in this £5 million car. What would you all think of me! I am guessing I would have spent every £1 I had to get it so needing a low cost breakfast and free entertainment means nothing would have changed.

Back in 2012 I went to a car show and there was a Spiker C8 Spider there, at the time I fell in love. I even looked seriously at for sale cars but £90k was out of reach. A few days ago a YouTube Shmee150 put up a review and rekindled the love. His driving impressions were of a raw sporty car so it did not make the daily driver spot.

Way back I used to help look after the roof down Low Chassis Invicta in the picture, all old fashion standard engineering I understand. The worst electric problem was power at the start of the wire, no power at the end of the wire, it must be broken easy to patch it or run a new wire.

5,511 · February 1, 2021

Made some snap decisions, hopeful representing some truths without overthinking it!

One to Drive - Citroen AX (boggo edition, preferably with a daft name)

One to Look At - Ford Granada Mk1 (saloon, vinyl top mandatory)

One to Work On - 90's Pushbike (realistic expectations about actually getting it to work!)

(AX image taken from rac.co.uk; Granada image taken from gomotors.net; Saracen Trekker image is my own)

5,293 · February 1, 2021

This is hard, to actually make a fantasy garage choice.

I'm excluding the Volvo 740 that I've recently acquired. It's the dream for me, that car, for all the criteria. But that's not allowed so I'm going 100% fantasy garage here.

Drive: MG ZT-T 260 with aftermarket supercharger. Then I might even try to find the Rover 75 grill and bumpers etc and badges just for extra twat/Q car vibe. Or maybe not.

Look at: Audi 100 coupe

Work on: assuming I magically got good at fixing and working on cars... Jensen Interceptor

Backups: BMW 5 series E39 estate V8 or the Volvo V70R AWD. These two could be either the drive/look at categories.

I think a spare 'work on' could be a Triumph Dolomite. Or a Volvo 240 for all three criteria. Or a Saab 99 turbo.

This is difficult!!

17,197 · February 1, 2021

A truly impossible question. there are few cars that I'd want to own just for looks, or just for how they drive. I see no point in a car that looks good but goes badly, or vice versa (possible exception being a Panhard 24CT which looks fantastic, but is a major disappointment on the road).As I'm basically incapable of working on cars the 'working on' thing never comes into my mind, really, other than how expensive something will be to get other people to maintain.

Saying that - if I had one car to satisfy my love of driving, I'd go for a Flavia coupé, which also happens to be most agreeable to look at

Now, I'm sure a small Voisin is very nice to drive, but they are a little underpowered, and the idea of working on a sleeve-valve engine fills me with dread, but to look at there are few things in the world I'd rather gaze at than this particular type of factory saloon coachwork on the C4S chassis from circa 1925. None of these survive so I'd have to build a replica (I know just the C4 chassis I'd use, too)

Now, if I really was forced to carry out my own maintanence on a car, I'd have to go for something as simple as possible. I think I could probably just about get my mind round an 1172cc sidevalve Ford, so I could have any number of silly plastic specials from which to choose. Perhaps a very well-sorted Nordec/TWM, with the requisite Aquaplane goodies bolted on so at least is wasn't too horrendous to pilot

Obviously that's all subject to change tomorrow

22,209 · February 1, 2021

The choice is vast and if money no object why that few. I've driven most of my "dream" cars and some were disappointing in reality. If I could probably a 240 Volvo estate as daily, a Gordon Keeble to look at a Land Rover 107 Station Wagon to work on (not that I would work on it) and Citroen C15 van as reserve.

The reality is that I have my Panda to drive and my J40 to look at. Nothing to work on as I'm not up to it

6,930 · February 1, 2021

If we are to reduce it to three cars (and assuming that a basket case fo restoration is not included) then...

Daily runner

It could be any of these but since this one here is lying a-molderin in the barn it would save a few bob to pay for the other two to drag it back out and resurrect it. As daily runners go the VX220 is overlooked.

Now we need one to drive when you are in the mood and you also need something to work on - nothing stopping it being the same car. A real one of these is far too expensive and I can live without all the baggage that went with them so a South American copy would do me just fine.

Given that we are short on seats, carrying capacity and pretty much everything else we need a multi-purpose vehicle that can take up the slack. That can only mean one thing.

That would do very nicely indeed.

18,412 · February 1, 2021

6 hours ago, Tim_E said:

This is hard, to actually make a fantasy garage choice.

hes asked 3 different questions

my fantasy garage is and would be completely different

cos ideal to me means i could (in the case of the lambo if i could find one/or afford it) that i could buy them all

fantasy means no chance (see six cyl for 2 outta 3

18,412 · February 1, 2021

11 hours ago, STUNO said:

To drive..........Holden Grange, Big, very comfy, Handles and 6 litres fast.

cadillac in a dress or did this happen first?

ps find me one of those toranas - me likey

22,791 · February 1, 2021

3 hours ago, JimH said:

If we are to reduce it to three cars (and assuming that a basket case fo restoration is not included) then...

Daily runner

It could be any of these but since this one here is lying a-molderin in the barn it would save a few bob to pay for the other two to drag it back out and resurrect it. As daily runners go the VX220 is overlooked.

That’s a very good colour!

I ‘ve been wondering about these; a bloke in a pub once told me they had more room inside than their Elise antecedants.

Is that true? I wanted to buy an Elise when they were a new thing, but I couldn’t get in. And 25 years later I am even harder to fit in small spaces.

But if a VX was bigger inside than the Lotus then perhaps it would make number 3 in my real, rather than fantasy, world alongside Van and the Grand Vitara daily.

28,272 · February 1, 2021

8 minutes ago, Asimo said:

That’s a very good colour!

I ‘ve been wondering about these; a bloke in a pub once told me they had more room inside than their Elise antecedants.

Is that true? I wanted to buy an Elise when they were a new thing, but I couldn’t get in. And 25 years later I am even harder to fit in small spaces.

But if a VX was bigger inside than the Lotus then perhaps it would make number 3 in my real, rather than fantasy, world alongside Van and the Grand Vitara daily.

Wasn’t the Europa a bit roomier and accessible than the Elise and Exige ?
A neighbour had a VX220 a few years ago and he always claimed everything about it was better than a real Lotus, must admit I always assumed it was a bit like Skoda drivers raving about how much better they are than the equivalent VW or Audi they couldn’t afford...

February 1, 2021

29 minutes ago, NorfolkNWeigh said:

Wasn’t the Europa a bit roomier and accessible than the Elise and Exige ?
A neighbour had a VX220 a few years ago and he always claimed everything about it was better than a real Lotus, must admit I always assumed it was a bit like Skoda drivers raving about how much better they are than the equivalent VW or Audi they couldn’t afford...

I'm pretty sure that they did improve the Elise platform with GM money for the series II, and launched both it and the VX220, which had a longer wheelbase for the Ecotec 2.2 engine.

And the Europa S is riding the same LWB VX220 chassis, and the turbocharged 2.2

So the Europa S is a rebodied VX220 with luxury appointments inside

6,930 · February 1, 2021

More room and luxury are relative terms. The tub is the same as the S2 Liz so I’m not sure where the extra space would come from. It fitted me nicely enough to do 90k in it.

February 1, 2021

14 minutes ago, JimH said:

More room and luxury are relative terms. The tub is the same as the S2 Liz so I’m not sure where the extra space would come from. It fitted me nicely enough to do 90k in it.

Yeah, the longer wheelbase was mostly to fit the 2.2 inside

6,930 · February 1, 2021

It’s also only a smidgin over an inch longer. There isn’t that much in it.

3,221 · February 1, 2021

220 needs a V6...and VX had enough of them right upto the 3.2..

likewise, why didnt Rover drop the Turbo K series or even the KV6 into the MGF??

4,251 · February 1, 2021

4 hours ago, hairnet said:

cadillac in a dress or did this happen first?

ps find me one of those toranas - me likey

I'm not aware of any Cadillac version, they were sold in US in quite large numbers, I am sure many US felons appreciated the rear legroom, I think they were badged as Chevrolet for that purpose.

Those early Toranas are very collectable now and have now gotten expensive.

19,021 · February 1, 2021

On 31/01/2021 at 19:14, Eyersey1234 said:

To drive I'd be quite happy with my Mk2 Focus, to look at I'd say a 60s Jaguar S Type and to work on a Mini Cooper, a proper one not a BINI

I learnt everything I know repairing minis on the cheap. I hate them now.

6,930 · February 2, 2021

11 hours ago, bezzabsa said:

220 needs a V6...and VX had enough of them right upto the 3.2..

The very last thing the VX (or the Elise) needed was more power. It was more than brisk enough in standard form, cost three fifths of fuck all to run and had a slightly dull but utterly vice free engine which you were happy to live with day in day out. Adding more weight, more power and making the rather teeney wee fuel tank last even less time wouldn't have helped very much at all.

There are a number of cars that people have "criticised" for having a chassis which could handle much more power. For a road car that situation is just fine by me. I like the idea of having plenty in reserve.