Forgotten Cars

[barefoot]

I forgot to mention that as a kid, I couldn't understand why a Zodiac 4 always sounded like it should have an autobox even when I could clearly hear its driver shuffling his cogs n dogs around manually, and I never related the extraordinary rasp that an Alfasud used to make, with the unruly clatter of a Beetle. I am forced to disagree with @Metal Guruabout 911's, the sound of an early air cooled flat six, particularly (I think) the 911T with its twin, triple choke carbs is like the rowdy shout of a car from a parallel universe and big Rover's; back then all straight six P4's, were silent but for the gentle whine of their transmission, The crispy zing of a FIAT 128's exhaust on the other hand was, and remains, an incongruously unexplained treat to my old ears...

[uk_senator]

On 3/29/2023 at 1:00 PM, martc said:

More than allegedly - an actual fact. There was a place on Hedon Road in Hull which bought up old Ladas and flogged them to Russian sailors, the signage was in English and Cyrillic. There were regular sailings between Hull and Russia (actually the Baltic ports) bringing wood into the UK so there was a regular Russian presence in the port (Hedon Road is the road the docks are off). The collapse of the Soviet Union made it viable for the cars to be brought back as the chaos at home meant very poor supply of parts and the sailors also now had access to hard cash, which helped. I have seen, with my own eyes, Russian ships leaving port with RHD Ladas strapped to the deck. 

I've found this ace pic...

...which I'm pretty sure was the place, the Cyrillic sign was painted on a white board propped up on the flat roof. Note the Riva sneaking in on the left.

 Hull was the epicentre of all things Lada, the local taxis were all Ladas which really annoyed the council (but that's another story). They came in through Hull docks and then went up to Carnaby Industrial Estate near Bridlington were they were PDI'd - this was, as mentioned above, quite a professional outfit. The current Mrs Martc knew someone who worked there, their job was to try and make them 'euro' compliant (or whatever it was at the time), he mentioned trying fuel injection and, intriguingly, a 'GM' carburettor with various electronic controls, but it proved too expensive to meet the emissions regs and Lada pulled the plug.

I uploaded the Top Gear episode when Quentin took a Riva up to Hull, it remains my most watched video on there by quite a margin. Unsurprisingly a lot of people in the comments, especially Russians, disagree with Quentins scathing criticism of the Riva..
 

 

[uk_senator]

On 4/3/2023 at 9:44 AM, Soundwave said:

Speaking of Kias that made no real impact here... the Mentor. Available as a saloon, or as a dumpy little hatchback. There was a hatch near me up until a few years ago.

 

I`ve seen loads of the saloons down here, the last one within a mile of me was scrapped only 2 years ago, but I never even realised they made a hatch.. 

[bunglebus]

2 hours ago, barefoot said:

I never related the extraordinary rasp that an Alfasud used to make, with the unruly clatter of a Beetle

I don't hear cacophony from the air-cooled flat four, but the distinctive whistle of one with the stock twin peashooter exhaust always reminds me of the noise crickets and grasshoppers make!

2CV is an other unmistakeable car from the noise it makes. MK1/2 Escort, Mk1 Fiesta, Cortina, Morris Minor, Mini/Metro were all very easy to ID without seeing them.

[MiniMinorMk3]

And then came the 5 pot Oddies, the last of the "I know what that is without seeing it" cars.

[Metal Guru]

2 hours ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

And then came the 5 pot Oddies, the last of the "I know what that is without seeing it" cars.

Focus ST had a five pot long after VAG stopped.

[J R Hartley]

SEAT Altea Freetrack.

 

[chaseracer]

On 05/04/2023 at 20:39, Aston Martin said:

I saw a Cordoba mk2, which you don't see.

Saw one last week in Brum!

[quicksilver]

VW Golf Plus. Like a Golf but bigger. That was literally the marketing slogan.

 

[Metal Guru]

1 hour ago, quicksilver said:

VW Golf Plus. Like a Golf but bigger. That was literally the marketing slogan.

 

Like a Golf that ate the pies!

[goosey]

16 hours ago, quicksilver said:

VW Golf Plus. Like a Golf but bigger. That was literally the marketing slogan.

 

Like a Seat Altea XL, just an Altea with a slightly bigger boot 

[georgeinabz]

And then came the 5 pot Oddies, the last of the "I know what that is without seeing it" cars.

I know what you mean, used to be in my bed and listen to the cars outside go past as a 14year old , minis were dead easy to guess , all you hear now is tyre noise.
My mate's older brother had a Stan Stephens tuned RD350 , definitely heard that from 1/2 a mile away.

Sent from my SM-P610 using Tapatalk

[RoverFolkUs]

On 4/7/2023 at 11:00 PM, quicksilver said:

VW Golf Plus. Like a Golf but bigger. That was literally the marketing slogan.

 

How about something even more obscure; the Golf Cross Plus!  Or something like that

(A watered down Tiguan?)

If that doesn't tickle your fancy, how about an even less useful and slightly more pointless Polo Dune?

[RoverFolkUs]

On 4/6/2023 at 9:12 AM, bunglebus said:

They're that forgettable that I can't remember if I posted it before, but I saw an Aveo yesterday 

Did they just not bother trying to make it any different to the Spark!? 

I was really struggling to tell them apart and I thought you'd made a mistake by calling the red one an Aveo at first 😅

[RoverFolkUs]

On 3/23/2023 at 7:15 AM, bunglebus said:

I have seen one of those on the road - in Birmingham. 

Yesterday I saw a Chevy Tacuma!

Another forgettable people carrier. It is of course actually a Daewoo - a whole company who we didn't know existed, then did, now we've forgotten again

Been there, done that. Actually a pretty decent car, the Daewoo version at least. 

Still see a fair few Chevy versions around this way actually. Haven't seen a Daewoo one for yonks though.

Mine was 5 years old when I got it and I'm pretty sure I gave £995 for it from a bombsite dealer. Those were the days!

I had it for about 4 years. Unfortunately it had a coolant leak which I was (stupidly) ignoring and topping up with water. An unexpected frost came over and I assume it cracked the head because it suffered HGF, badly, not long after.

[EyesWeldedShut]

6 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

How about something even more obscure; the Golf Cross Plus!  Or something like that

Three cars I never knew were a thing - mind you, all three are totally anonymous clone type things (at least to me)

[RoverFolkUs]

Just now, EyesWeldedShut said:

Three cars I never knew were a thing - mind you, all three are totally anonymous clone type things (at least to me)

The daft thing is, they're all FWD. So it's all looks and nothing more than that 😅

Just found out there's a "CrossTouran" - but I don't think we got those in the UK unless anyone knows otherwise

[stuboy]

On 4/7/2023 at 11:00 PM, quicksilver said:

VW Golf Plus. Like a Golf but bigger. That was literally the marketing slogan.

 

never understood there place on the market range of vW

[Markeh]

On 3/12/2023 at 9:26 PM, grogee said:

Chevrolet Epica. There was a V6 one. I drove it, and can't remember anything about it

There was very nearly one less of these on the roads today after one with a rather inattentive driver came close to ramming me up the arse, tyre squeal and all - the speed of the resultant aggressive overtake with swearing and honking suggests it could have been a V6 example.

[MiniMinorMk3]

VW have been making jacked up 4x4 odd balls for over 30 years. Here's the 1990 Golf Synchro Country

[Skut]

The Rootes Arrow based Sunbeam Alpine. I'm sure I remember a book describing it as a stripped austerity Rapier. Not that the Rapier is much better remembered. A great shame as they're nice looking cars. Rootes did badge engineering much better than BMC.

 

[eddyramrod]

I remember these well!  One of my teachers had a white Rapier, and years later a senior classic-car buddy had the Alpine in brown.  I always thought it was a shame there wasn't a bigger engine they could have had; 1725cc and twin carbs looked a bit half-hearted next to a Capri 3000GXL.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Not quite forgotten yet ,but I reckon the 'Over Streetshite will be extinct within a decade. 

Buy one now kids, while you still can. 

Pollitt did a bit to raise the profile of them when he resurrected a scruffy example a while back. 

[Soundwave]

On the topic of "slightly jacked up faux-by-4 family hatchbacks"... Citroen decided to play the Streetwise game with the C3 XTR. I've only ever seen one in the wild, so I assume they weren't a massive seller.

[MiniMinorMk3]

[Dobloseven]

On 4/7/2023 at 11:00 PM, quicksilver said:

VW Golf Plus. Like a Golf but bigger. That was literally the marketing slogan.

 

One of them two doors down from us. 

[eddyramrod]

6 hours ago, Dobloseven said:

One of them two doors down from us. 

You have my sympathy.

[bunglebus]

Dodge Magnum. Legitimately forgot this existed until I just passed one this morning. 

[Leyland Worldmaster]

On 4/12/2023 at 9:12 AM, Soundwave said:

On the topic of "slightly jacked up faux-by-4 family hatchbacks"... Citroen decided to play the Streetwise game with the C3 XTR. I've only ever seen one in the wild, so I assume they weren't a massive seller.

I was given the delightful* task of driving one of these to the local Citroën Dealership to find a thing for it. 

🤢🤮

[Leyland Worldmaster]

37 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Dodge Magnum. Legitimately forgot this existed until I just passed one this morning. 

The 300C's sister car? Never seen one before! 👍