Estates....Don't you just love 'em?

[mnde]

Yes, and when the heavens open, the tailgate keeps the rain off your head!

 

I like that picture Richard

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

It was snowing later that night.

[Richard]

The Volvo collects rain in the number plate recess and delivers it to you when you shut the tailgate.

[HereHareHere]

Estates truly are GR9. Other than the odd Rover (and thinking about it the even odder Wolseley 6 and Princess 1700 - and a Triumph 2.5 PI that got nicked and used in a bank job), my dad always had one. First I remember was an E-reg Singer Gazelle, followed later by a Peugeot 504 Familiale we had for years (FVH 897L, I think). That was the first car I ever drove (in a farmyard, age 11). For some reason we had to go and pick it up from a dealer in Wakefield – the final stage of an epic decision-making progress. I have happy and vivid memories of test drives in a Granada estate, a Toyota Crown Custom and even a Scimitar GTE, which was a bit of a FFS-option with three kids. The Crown was my favourite. THIS COULD HAVE BEEN ME (in the back, with the bouquet).

 

 

Then a Lancia HPE (bit of a poncily bijou affair, but we did manage to drive it from London to Sheffield with a Missile Command arcade machine wedged in the back). After that a 505 estate we also had for an age (my dad’s inability to pass a skip full of paving slabs without stopping snapped the springs in the end). He's now into a long run of Volvos (currently a D5).

 

Obviously in the blood as I’ve rarely been without an estate. All autos (living in London rather saps the appeal of a clutch). In the last 15 years: a Merc W124 230 (horribly gutless – even before the oil pressure started to drop away, whereupon I panicked and got shot of it), a Volvo 850 2.5 (lovely until the head gasket went, and though I had it fixed it was never the same again) and now a Mk3 Mondeo 2.0 Ghia X. Something died inside me when I bought that from a fucking car supermarket 7 years ago, but it’s been utterly brilliant. Still feels taut, still starts on the button – nothing replaced but tyres and an alternator. Has also now reached the happy stage of cosmetic degeneration where I don’t need to feel bad about not bothering to put down a tarp or newspapers before piling loads of rank old shit in the back and heading down to the dump.

[danthecapriman]

I love estates, practical and I think they look good too.

 

Heres my Granada 2.8 ghia X.

[myglaren]

Unless it's a Passat B3 estate and the chest of drawers you want to pick up won't fit between the rear suspension struts. Brilliant but for the width restriction.

 

Torsion bars at the back are required for FWD estate cars, nothing else will do. The 406 estate's load bay is very restricted by its fancy whizzbang multilnk rear suspension compared with the torsion bar 405 estate.

 

Or hydraulic suspension

 

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Still getting some strut intrusion there.

[Spottedlaurel]

Unless it's a Passat B3 estate and the chest of drawers you want to pick up won't fit between the rear suspension struts. Brilliant but for the width restriction.

 

Torsion bars at the back are required for FWD estate cars, nothing else will do. The 406 estate's load bay is very restricted by its fancy whizzbang multilnk rear suspension compared with the torsion bar 405 estate.

 

Or hydraulic suspension

 

Or leaf springs, if you have a 100A/Cherry estate.

 

1977 Datsun 100A FII estate (F10) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

This was a dreadful example I picked up locally, but I had one on the road for a few months and it was a great little load-lugger.

[M'coli]

^^^ Aren't they RWD? The mk2 Cav estate managed to tuck its coils under the load bay, so torsion bars are not obligatory for this. I find it frustratingly odd that VAG couldn't be arsed to make an effort for the B3 Passat - even the B2 with its warbling 5-pot had more room between the turrets, or so it seemed on my dad's one.

[Guest]

 

who needs a timber wagon? It was actually a firewood run that killed that car, 'extracting' some wych elm from a rough farm track, it bottomed out and the clutch selector fork decided to gas itself. Should have fixed it really.

 

Why have you got M.Cubicle's car?

[barrett]

^^^ Aren't they RWD?

 

Cherries are FWD my good man. Hence why they are the only reasonably affordable Datsun left.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Why have you got M.Cubicle's car?

 

Nicked it then weighed it in.

[Richard]

Can you still buy a "proper" estate car now? The C5 is the newest estate I can think of that isn't some kind of sports tourer with a falling roofline and tiny back windows.

 

DSC_7967 by RichardB5, on Flickr

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

 

The current Volvo V70 still looks like a proper estate, albeit one with the back lights off a bus.

[ChinaTom]

 

this looks like a proper one too. Doubt the 1.4Tsi engine is the right choice, but a 170 diesel should be fine.

[Timewaster]

Can you still buy a "proper" estate car now? The C5 is the newest estate I can think of that isn't some kind of sports tourer with a falling roofline and tiny back windows.

 

Sports? NO

Falling roofline? NO

Tiny back windows? NO

[Richard]

Two completely unrelated cars welded together? Yes!

[mnde]

Can anyone with Photoshop skills mock up what a Chrysler Alpine estate would have looked like...? Or a Tagora shooting break?

 

Mark.

[Richard]

No photoshop skills required.

 

 

 

Courtesy of http://leroux.andre.free.fr/heuhist.htm

[barrett]

Nice, looks like a modernised Simca 1501 at the back, which I suppose it is really

[Father Ted]

Blingo Multispazz.

You cant half get some shit in em.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Not an estate, it's a van with windows and seats. At least it has proper rear suspension though.

[seth]

 

GR7 Seating

 

[keef]

Wolseley 6 and Princess 1700 - and a Triumph 2.5 PI that got nicked and used in a bank job), my dad always had one.

 

Any pics of the Six or failing that do you remember the reg.?

[Station]

Not sure this has been posted:

 

 

Rover SD1 estate was developed by Solihull but never reached production, due to British Leyland's

financial woes following the Ryder Report. Sir Michael Edwardes, however, liked the car so much that he

used it as his personal runabout. During 1978 and 1979, it was seen frequently in the City of London.

 

Reading the AROnline dev story on the SD1, it was a complete 100% success story, hampered by build quality and typical BL shite.

 

http://austin-rover.co.uk/index.htm?sd1storyf.htm

[Guest EccentricRichard]

I love my 240 Torslanda - so practical, so tough

 

The 850 - well it's ok but it's a bit posh for a proper estate car - full of nonsense like electric windows and leather interior

 

as I have said before - IMHO such gadgets on a 240 estate are like putting bone china handles on a collander!

 

one of my favouite other estates is the BX tdi - parge boot, fast, efficiant and looks cool as fuck with Mr Bertone's uncompromising use of a protractor when designing it!

 

Bertone had nothing to do with the Citroen BX - it was the work of Marcello Gandini (he of the Lamborghini Miura, Espada, Countach, Diablo, Jarama, and pretty much every car that matters).

[Guest EccentricRichard]

Unless it's a Passat B3 estate and the chest of drawers you want to pick up won't fit between the rear suspension struts. Brilliant but for the width restriction.

 

Torsion bars at the back are required for FWD estate cars, nothing else will do. The 406 estate's load bay is very restricted by its fancy whizzbang multilnk rear suspension compared with the torsion bar 405 estate.

 

Citroen hydropneumatic suspension?

 

And, although RWD, the BMW 5T's air suspension takes up f**k all space. Great load-luggers, they are.

[Guest EccentricRichard]

I have something of an obsession with photoshopping estate conversions...

 

I have a better one of a Bordeaux Red P5B Coupé with Silver Birch roof, but unfortunately it's trapped on a broken laptop. The Stag on which that shooting brake is based sold on eBay last year for £18,400! Mind you, the eBay listing was a 900-word essay on the restoration, accompanied by something like 220 photographs...

[Station]

^ Did you do those? They look real!

[Guest EccentricRichard]

^ Did you do those? They look real!

 

Yep, did 'em all. A few are rather shonky... my later (trapped on broken laptop) P5 is much better, and the P6 and Rolls Ghost ones were based on unsatisfactory low-res images, which were all I could find.