luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
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Club RR Member Number: 45
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PICS! Classic Motor Showluckyseven
@luckyseven
Club Retro Rides Member 45
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Nov 25, 2012 12:42:00 GMT
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Wotcher! It's humongous pic thread time again. Another show I'd never made it to before and was determined to make, and there's plenty of good stuff to hopefully titilate your fancy (ooer) but be warned, if you wander in here it may be a while before you make it back out again, this one's huge. Or to put it another way....oh my gosh! Trust me, this one's a stinkah! So, me and Rich/Phil decided we couldn't face the long, dark winter without a single dose of cool car therapy so we agreed on a long pilgrimage up to the wilds of Birmingham for the Classic Motor Show at the NEC. I was half-tempted to drive but both being train drivers it seemed daft not to exploit the wonderful (and heavily discounted, lol) public transport system of our fair Isle, the wonder of the civilised world. Well, it was in Victorian times anyway. Sadly it hasn't improved much since... Original plan was to get one of our own trains from Brighton up to St Pancras and walk along to Euston and a Virgin (or whatever they're called this week) to Brum International. First failure, rail replacement buses along the South coast so I had to drive to Brighton anyway. Then it turns out ours aren't going to St Pancras, the tunnel's shut for maintenance. OK, London Bridge and then the Tube, then? Nope, Northern Line has works on it. ****S sake. Oh, well, Victoria's nice and it gave me a chance to have a righteous breakfast of soss an hegg muffins under the Golden Arches before a Tube hop to Euston. Shared a fag break with George Stephenson, father of the railways, in the depressing rainswept quad outside Euston (he didn't say much, he's only a statue) and listened to the conversations of fellow early travellers (mostly in Russian, some Arabic, some African) before we finally managed to find a seat that wasn't reserved on a Virgin going north. Set off from home at half five a.m, arrived in Brum at about ten. Bloody railway, awful way to travel. Who the hell would do it? They recently discovered the grand Doric Arch that used to front Euston. It had been dumped in a dis-used lock. Says it all really. Anyway, next year I'll be driving up, especially if I have to go on a Sunday again. But we're not here to grumble about how rubbish the railway is, we're here to look at cool cars. Having walked the eight miles or so through the NEC complex from the station to the one door that seemed to give access to the show hall, we were separated from twenty one and a half Earth pounds for the privilege. Any musings as to whether it would be worth it were dismissed as soon as we got through the giant sliding doors. Bloody hell, this thing's humongous! Even better, cos it's halfway through the last day, they're giving the show guide programmes away gratis instead of charging another £7.50 for them. Cool beanz We decided the best thing was to progress around in a sensible, orderly pattern so as not to miss stuff. Within seconds that had gone out the window as my magpie-like attention was irresistably snaffled by some shiny things...  Yep, the funky money-no-object brushed stainless of the Delorean Owner's Club stand. Lovely.  Funnily enough, there were a LOT of signs pleading with people not to touch the cars because it's a nightmare to get fingerprints off. Needless to say, people ignored these utterly. Pity the poor Delorean owner, lol. Maybe that's why there were only two cars on the stand, or maybe all the others just broke down en route  Dents like that must be enough to make a grown man cry, as well. Not like you can skim some pug on and blow it over. Note how the doors hang at different angles and heights to each other here, too. That's common...  but I love these cars, for all their faults, for all the poor build quality, for all that they have an asthmatic Volvo/Renault lump hanging out of their rear end, for all that you need to know in advance which of those excellent one-off wheels is going to get a puncture because they're different sizes front and rear...  ...I love them because they're utterly mad, bonkers, unique, funky, and funded by a coke-peddling, fund-embezzling, Thatcher-scamming, Belfast-rejuvenating, GMC-baiting lunatic, which is beyond cool in anyone's language, and we will not see their like again! Plus, they were styled so well by Giugiaro that they still look futuristic even whilst they've become hopelessly dated, and that's a hell of a trick to pull off.  Apparently, something happens at 88mph but I'm not sure what  Just over the way from the Deloreans was the Lotus OC stand, presumably to commiserate with each other about having to take the engine out to swap headgaskets or ancilliary belts. Some lovely cars from Colin's fenland works had managed the trip though, like this racing Excel apparently sponsored by Taittinger Champagne. Which clearly is properly cool  A white Esprit. Hmmm, wonder why the owner chose the reg plate...  I've always thought the Elan 2+2 was slightly awkward stylistically but there weren't any of the "normal" two seat dropheads so this'll have to suffice  Not even sure what the collective noun for Lotusses... errr, Lotii...umm... is.  So that was it, by now our tactic of following a sensible pattern around the stands was hopelessly in tatters as Rich/Phil stumbled upon a whole tranche of old Fords. That was him for the next long while. The first bit of Blue Oval heaven came in the shape of the Cortina club, featuring such gems as this Jeff Uren-modified 3 litre V6 Savage  You know you've arrived when you can put your name on the bonnet of a car you've built without having to buy individual eBay stick-on chrome letters to do it. Uren was building fast Fords before the invention of eBay anyway  Not sure if the wonky Shelby stripes are deliberate on this pick-up  A properly Life on Mars type Cortina in period 40-Marlboro Lung Brown   Crocodile boots not pictured  This Lotus Cortina had some interesting modifications. I like the backbox induction housing, perhaps the most obvious touch  It was impossibly clean inside and out, as evidenced by the mirrors underneath to show the underside just as immaculate as the top  Just because race car doesn't mean you can't have a wood veneer dash  By now we were helplessly lost in a sea of Fords, going back into time from the Cortinas to Pops  Some of which were clean restos, some in need of a bit of work. We all like a good bit of patination though, don't we?  These are the cars that people actually drove when I was little. It's funny that they're Classics now. Of course, at the time we all lusted after exotica, just like now, but somehow you always take for granted what's right under your nose. At the time, you see old Zephyrs  on every street corner and they were just part of the scenery. By the time the Sierra reared its ugly head they were gone, and now it actually gives you a nice warm feeling to see one and think "blimey, and old Zephyr. What happened to them all". Of course, the same can now be said of Sierras as well, and there's probably a lesson there to appreciate what you've got now before it's gone or some such. Any car marque is only a finite thing, and once they're gone, they're gone for good. Anyway, here's another nice Zephyr lol  and some Zodiac details, just so as not to neglect the other big Ford from back in the day;  Was it really named after a serial killer of the time?  Ford Prefect, besides being an apparently innocuous name for someone from the planet Betelgeuse to adopt, was a funny dumpy little thing with slightly awkward curves even back in the day. A bit like Roland from Grange Hill.  In which case, the obvious thing to do is smash its doors in with burnt orange metallic and pinstriping and period touches like a mahoosive sun visor. Like Roland in a tutu, then, but they'd both get attention.  Rich/Phil was in hog heaven once we reached the Granada stand, since he's a serial Granny owner.  I could never afford one back when they were expensive, and I can't afford one now they're an appreciating classic. Back when I was at 6th form college I had a mate with a 2.8 v6 I used to blag lifts in. When my only transport had pedals, it seemed grossly unjust but there's always a kid like that in class, I suppose. Not jealous. Not at all.  In case you didn't know, styled by Ghia, lol  The Blue Oval and Stella, go together like... well, like wife and beater, I suppose (this is a joke, in no way to be taken as a mission statement. Or advice)  This granny seemed to be stuffed full of Edelbrock v8, which can hardly be a bad thing. I wish we'd had more time, for all sort of reasons, not least of which being I'd have then been able to read through people's build history files. There's a few weeks reading in this show, y'know  Quality wingnut, lol  Moving ever forward in time now, we came to a new generation of performance Fords. First up, the Sapphire Cosworth. Incredibly clean, this burgundy beast goes a long way to upset the long-held adage that four doors is two too many  I mean yeah, we'd probably all take an RS500 given the choice, but this is a 2-litre YB turbo after all and that's none too shabby whatever it's shoving around  Not sure if red ones are faster or not...  "Impossibly clean" is an oft-used cliche when discussing show cars, but this Escort Cossie was some sort of paradigm of that very cliche.  ...after all, you need to be confident in your detailing skillz to have it up in the air with mirrors to show off the underbody. It looks like it's never been driven, simply breathtaking.Whether that's a sad thing or not is up to you, I guess  "that" whaletail in full, lol  |
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
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PICS! Classic Motor Showluckyseven
@luckyseven
Club Retro Rides Member 45
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Nov 25, 2012 12:44:17 GMT
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...and whilst we're on the subject of Escorts of questionable morality...  Ahhh, it's all very well done, I supppose but I'm not sure if this sort of thing is exactly to be encouraged?  ... this sort of thing most emphatically is, though;  Take one humble and not-in-too-great-a-condition Escort. Much like this, in fact;  then sink half your life and an eye-watering amount of money and effort into it and maybe you'll end up with something half as good as this;  Yeah, they're the same car. No, really, they honestly are. Now, that's a resto job!  Moar Escorts..  Yes, it actually is!. And for all those fans of the Professionals (the TV series, not the excellent film starring Lee Marvin, Jack Palance and Burt Lancaster... and the indescribably lovely Claudia Cardinale, of course, if you haven't seen it I'd suggest you do). Yeah, wrong colour, sorry.  OK, enuff wid da old Fords, huh? For now. There's no getting away from the damned things, they infested the entire show sporadically. I'd like to pretend that's abad thing, but y'know it's not. Still, moving into a new hall brought a selection of random supercars on a shop stand. They were for sale, for the right price. Oddly, there seemed to be a huge number of the lost Ferrari;  the 512 Testarossa was once Star Trek awesome, a never before seen styling excercise (some might say over-styling), a new way to squash a ridiculously vast boxer-12 into something that could pass as a sportscar. Of course, that was in the Eighties, and like that other style icon of the period, shoulder pads, they now seemed consigned to the shameful side of kitsch. Which is a shame, considering the ridiculous performance they represent. Still, buy one now. They're cheap (for a Fezza). Oddly, one of the other cars for sale was a nice looking big Healey, which I snapped and moved on. It was only when I looked through the pics I thought "something ain't right there". Any ideas?  This was a surprise as well, although arguably this engine did go on in some way to power the most enduring of supercars. Still, an aging Beetle seemed odd company for Ferraris  Wonder if bakelite will ever stage a comeback  Next door were a couple of stands modelling the most stalwart of British sportscars  Not sure if it's like Dr Who actors and your favourite is the one you first remember watching, but I reckon Astons are the same. For me, a sledgehammer V8 is still the Aston because it's the first I remember seeing and wanting. And it was indefatigable in Top Trumps. This Volante reeks of gentleman's club indolence and quality  But if I had to sketch the quintessential Aston Martin, it'd be this  Or maybe this Vantage...  Details, details...  So by now you're all jumping up and down and shouting at the screen "how can you claim a big, heavy blunderbus like that is the ultimate Aston, you buffoon* What about..." OK, OK, keep your wig on  * insert favourite expletive of your choice here is this the sort of thing you were after?   Plenty of iconography from before even I was born around these parts. I always used to think "Tickford" was a by-word for "really disgusting" because all I knew it from was the hillariously ugly Lagonda. But then I didn't know Lagonda once meant something else, too. Funnily enough, I didn't see any of them at the Show  I'd have liked to have taken more pics on the Aston stands, but they were not surprisingly rammed with punters, so it was difficult to get the entire cars in. I won't bore you with loads of pics of a bit of car with idiots blundering into the shot, you'll have to be happy with some details  I suspect I'm in a minority here, but of the earlier DBs I prefer the 6. I think it's because I think the ducktail was a better ending than the fat bottomed boot and vestigial wings of 4s and 5s. Discuss, lol  ...and so back to the V8, this one is glorious colour-matched shinytude  Oh, all right, one last DB then. They used the same indicator and sidelight glasses as Austin Minis, y'know  Between the two Aston stands was a stand for one of those rather cool custom speed shop sorta places. They had a fair range of stuff, not sure how much of it was all their own work, but this 'rod held my attention;  I believe this to be based on a 1932 Model B, but I freely admit my rod-geek mojo is of a low ebb. Happy to be contradicted  Whoever built it has an eye for attention to detail, that's for sure.  Sharing room with this '32 (perhaps) was the awesome and amazing Jensen Seagrave Viperceptor  The rear end was my first sight of it, and my first thought was that it was nice to see someone resto-modding an Interceptor for a change rather than trying to get it back to concourse. The interior was well done, too, nicely trimmed with modern electronics and suchlike, even a digital gear indicator  but it was when I got round the front end and saw inside I finally understood what all the fuss was about, and twigged why there was such a mass of people crowding round. In fact, it was so popular I had to knock them the hell out just so you can see the car, lol  Ooof! Hell of a car, hell of a concept, superb!  Dunno why, but no matter what I do Photobucket will not allow that pic to be the right way round and frankly life's too short for me to waste doing battle with a POS website that only has one job to do and can't even be professional enough to do that properly. Moving on... plenty of 356s were made in everything from coupe to drophead, but if those now pretty-expensive genuine cars are out of your pocket, you can always invest in the still none-too-cheap but really top kwoll Chesil replica  Moving rather up market in the classics-for-sale section was this rather grand Jaguar Type V  which simply reeked of quality and privilege. A bit like David Cameron but with a less annoying accent, lol  I've got furniture with less wood in it than this car. Yours for around 57.5 grand.  Almost a thousand pounds for every year it's been alive, which doesn't seem so expensive put into that context. The car, not my furniture  Front end like a waterfall in chrome. Oooh, poetry  Parked up next door was an Alvis of similar poshness  A 1952 TA21, in fact. Alvisses (Alvii?) always seem to have top-bombing mascots and this one was no exception  |
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
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PICS! Classic Motor Showluckyseven
@luckyseven
Club Retro Rides Member 45
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Nov 25, 2012 12:45:54 GMT
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By now Rich was grizzling about needing tea, so we went in search of a cafe. Which to be fair, isn't hard because all the halls seem to have a caff of some kind in one corner. Even on a tea mission I couldn'thelp but keep getting distracted by nifty bits of automotive treasure as they caught my eye in passing; a properly tidy Lotus Cortina bay...  ... a mad turbodiesel race car...  ... a lovely rally slag styled 'scort...  ....a gorgeous Jag XK140 in burgundy....  ...with it's proud leMans-winning pedigree proudly taunting all and sundry from the rump...  Even standing at the caff (all the seats were full) there was plenty to draw the eye without having to even move from where we were. Plenty of stuff I'd never even heard of, let alone seen before. For example;  A 1925 Bean 14 Tourer. Ever heard of them before? Nope, me neither!  According to the For Sale note (written in felt tip, no less) it's a very rare barn-find. As you can probably tell by the wonderful patination. The number plate was cool, too, it was "MR" and some numbers. Which makes this Mr Bean. Oh, yes... What a great emblem, too  More common, and not something I normally get very excited about, but there's something about a fat-bottomed Porker turbo of a certain age that is undeniably iconic  Even more so in B&W  Pausing with our cup of tea gave us a chance to have a mooch at the show guide (probably should have done that ages ago, lol) and realise we'd missed a huge chunk out. The halls were arranged in basically a massive C-shape, and by coming in and turning south we'd missed the end of one of the arms of the C out. So we headed back the way we came, taking in all sorts en route; a herd of more Alvii... Alvisses... Alvitude...  errr...this is an Alvis. There were others  Mmm, shiny SU carbs. Best induction noise evarr. Sound like a two-bit whore trying to suck-start a Harley. Or what I imagine that to sound like, anyway  See? I told you Alivisii... errr Alvins .. err... always have the best mascots. Although maybe "gayest" would be a more accurate description. This one's called "the camp discus thrower". Possibly  Here's something. There seems a bit of a trend for companies making classics more modern and civilised by updating their running gear and suchlike. This E-Type was showing off some seriously nice engineering that I hope Mr Lyons would have approved of  Looks like Hi-Spec or similar re-engineered for E-Type applications, and nuthin' wrong with that  There was a section of cars that appeared to be largely made out of wood. Oddly, no Moggy Travellers, but such things as Humber shooting brakes and this wonderfully ugly Allard;  Lovely though it was to see all the polished and patinated wood, and undeniably well crafted though they were, none of them could be described as pretty cars. Perhaps this was the best way to view them;  Moar Healeys. Whatever happened to the days when an ex-rally driver from Darkest Cornwall could set up his own car manufacturing company on pretty much sheer force of personality alone? Maybe the recent world economic climate proving that amalgamating all the car marques into giant anonymous conglomerates isn't necessarily the way forward will make space for a return to small-volume niche manufacturers in the Noble-Ginetta-grown-up-kit-car sort of mould. Can only hope so  IIRC the earlier versions had triple carb setups but later ones went to dual. Owners breathed a sigh of relief and deleted one of the vacuum feeds from their balancing gauge setups  When I grow up, I want my name engraved on a cam cover, too  endearing toothy grin, lol  Another Prefect, even older and still not a very convincing way for Betelgeusians to hide in a crowd  Another Humber, this time with less wood but with a funky mascot. I like old mascots, not just because of the "up yours" to Elf and Safe Tea that they represent. TBH, when you're being run over by a twenty-foot long two tonne station wagon, being impaled on a chromed swallow is probably the least of your worries  In one corner of this hall there was a company offering a different kind of replica kit. One that had me come over all unnecessary. Probably one of my fave cars ever;  Especially in iconic fag packet livery (another thing the Thought Police have eradicated from the world, and it's a duller, less colourful place for it)  Rich/Phil picked up a price list and proceeded to gleefully read out snippets from it through the day, perhaps taunting me that even a replica Stratos will forever remain beyond my shallow pockets  This one started at about twelve grand for the basic kit, but all the good stuff added a whole load to the enterprise  especially since I guess you'd just have to go for the top-of-the-range Alfa V6 engine setup  which not exactly true to the original, certainly suits the Bertone-penned bodylines pretty well  The company marketing these have even re-commisioned the original Campagnolo coffin-spoked wheels. For around 1500 quid a set  Finished perfectly by period lettering decals  If this was a replica, it was certainly a properly good one. If it wasn't, I guess it was one of the rarer cars in the show;  The unmistakeable lines of the Peter Brock-designed Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe. Top bombing. Who says American cars can't make circuit racers?  |
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
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PICS! Classic Motor Showluckyseven
@luckyseven
Club Retro Rides Member 45
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Nov 25, 2012 12:47:34 GMT
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On the same stand, an original AC Ace, the car that would swell up in the grip of steroid muscles to become the Cobra. This is when it was a much more discreet, English sort of conveyance  Compare and contrasted with...  Yeah, cos that's subtle and understated, innit, lol? A shiny bare-metal Cobra 427. Hell, yeah!  I could have taken a hell of a lot of pics of this car. Oh yeah, actually, I did!  but I think you'll agree, it sorta lends itself to a bit of admiration  Nothing like a mahoosive 427 cubic inch V8 in a little sportster weighing the same as an empty can of beer to get the blood flowing. Tasca Ford are a famous Rhode Island dealership who've put out several top-notch specials over the years. Dan Gurney should require no introduction...  Continuing into the farthest end of the "C" we stumbled across still more UK Ford stands, this time a gaggle of Capris  MkI still the best-looking, no? And that venetian blind rear window cover, how of it's time is that?  Here's a rare old beast indeed, a RS3100 Spa Special, one of only 250 built worldwide to homologate for the express purpose of wresting the European Touring Cars championship back from the BMW Batmobiles. A Cosworth-derived quad-cam 32 valve v6 ought to do it, then  Quite a set of curves, too  And now for something completely different, a whole posse of cute little Nash Metropolitans  Hardly a well-known model, though recently featured in Retro Car, these are perhaps an acquired taste but I find them quite endearing in a sorta kids-toy-car kinda way  Coming in all the dolly mixture colours of the rainbow, and featuring the world's most preposterously overstated and huge bonnet mascot evar!  Yep, she's a big lass, alright, especially on such a teeny tiny car!  Subtle branding cues extend to the hubcaps, too, lol  Thank the Lord we made the decision to make our way back past what we'd already seen to the far end of the halls because other wise we'd have missed all sorts of "classic" Brit insanity. I got all misty-eyed on the Marina OC stand. Strange but true! This  Is something I spent three happy years looking at. I had a Marina fastback same spec as this when I was at Agricultural college. It lasted a forty mile daily roundtrip, driven over fields and mud, carried up to six or seven passengers (and several dogs!) without complaint, put up with minimal maintenance, and generally was horribly abused and neglected. Never missed a beat or broke down once, the most reliable car I've ever had bar none. Strange, but again, true. Note the wide and upwards-pointing gaps around the indicator/wiper stalks, just the right size and angle that were you to catch your cigarette on the wheel whilst driving the butt would drop right inside the steering column cowling as set fire to the ignition wiring. Go on, ask me how I know... Here's one to get all lustful over, then;  I think that's a genuine Mumford Marina convertible. For those who don't know, or have blanked it from memory cos it was so horrific, Mumford Ltd (not to be confused with the modern popular folk-pop combo Mumford and Sons) was the West Country Leyland dealership who offered a warrantied convertible conversion for all specs of Marina. Presumably because the handling wasn't compromised enough on the standard car and they thought what it really needed for the full gamut of terrifying road manners was to add scuttle shake into the equation. To be fair, it didn't really help the looks all that much either, but there it is; it is what it is, a genuine piece of British Leyland insanity. The interiors came in all sorts of on-the-edge colourways such as violent purple. This one isn't so awful but it is... well, it's BLUUUUUUEEEE!  Speaking of past British strangeness, there were a couple of fellas with what claimed to be the actual truck used by the Great Train Robbers. If you paid them a quid you could have your photo taken sitting in it. But you had to supply your own camera, too. Hmmm, keeping the entreupenerial spirit of the Robbers alive, lol. I skipped the sitting in it and paying a quid part and went straight to the taking a picture with my own camera part  Who'd have thought, since we're in "OLd Brit cars you never thought would be classics" corner, that so many Allegros would survive to... well apparently, to become classics?  For those too young to remember the death throes of the tottering Leyland edifice, pretty much all the Allegro was famous for was having a square steering wheel, and being allegedly more aerodynamic going backwards. This latter has been disproved by the incomparable Mythbusters, not that I'm implying the Porsche 928 they used for their experiments is in any way analagous to an Allegro. However, given how many were dotted around, you wouldn't believe how hard I had to look for one with a square steering wheel! Most have been replaced by aftermarket, you'd think the owners were embarrassed of their heritage or something. There must be a glut of square Allegro wheels cluttering up eBay or something. The one I found had the window up so mostly the pic is of reflections of some random old fat bloke, but I had to work for it so you have to see it now, lol  The OC displays were great, with period ads reproduced and everything. I say ads, I mean of course "blatant lies". You could count on the toes of one hand the number of times wispy-moustachioed post-adolescent Allegro owners didn't come back to their car in the Wavy Line car park to find some alluring scantily-spandex-clad beauty draped languidly over the bonnet. In fact, the photoshoot for this ad was probably the only time it happened in all human history...  This one's a bit posh; an Allegro Van den Plas, as built by the famous coachbuilder more used to the rather more rarified end of the market. Complete with huge fake Rolls-Royce-alike mock Tudor grille...  ...walnut... well, wood anyway... veneer. Well... thin wood dashboard.  ...Wilton carpet. Well... carpet.... and fold-down picnic tables in the backs of the front seats. I was once quite badly ill in one of these on the way back from a party where I'd had slightly too much. A mate very kindly gave me a lift, but the soggy suspension wallow was enough to finish me off. I tried to minimise the damage to the genuine imitation faux leather vinyl upholstery and genuine imitation Wilton pile by confining my regurge to the picnic table, but they weren't really designed with volumetric efficiency in mind and it wasn't the most successful plan ever. The car always smelt a bit funky after that. This one's rather better presented, top marks to the owner for the spread!  Austin Princess. Later became the Ambassador. Fooling no-one. Enough said, move on  No discussion of weird British Seventies frippery would be complete without a Bond Bug. So here's a Bond Bug  It would appear it's even the one restored on Wheeler Dealers, judging by the autographs on the console. Oooh, a genuine TV personality lol  |
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
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PICS! Classic Motor Showluckyseven
@luckyseven
Club Retro Rides Member 45
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Nov 25, 2012 12:49:57 GMT
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Here's one of my favourite ever bits of motoring eccentricity, proving no-one does deranged like the English. Take mum's shopping car, fill the boot with engine, stick severe amounts of spoilerage all over the front and back, design wings so sharp you could shave with them, fill what's left of the bodywork with vents, all wrapped around a tubular race chassis. Plonk on top of a four-wheel drive system, leave the Metro steering wheel stock for added oddness  Just mad from any angle  that bootful of V6 engine  Oh yeah, the doors were stock Metro as well weren't they? Under all the ventage and stuff. MG wheel great touch  I guess Construction and Use might have something to say about these wings were they submitted today, lol  It was around this point that we realised there was no way we were going to get round every stand in the day we had. With this in mind, we agreed to head for the Yank section so Rich/Phil could indulge his need for massive pushrod engines. A quick glance at the show guide revealed it was the entire opposite end of the other arm of the "C". curse word! So off we set, not even pausing at the Classic Bike section because although I love bikes, Rich couldn't care less so it seemed better to spend time on something we both liked. Fortunately that meant we could safely miss out almost an entire hall of cars as well cos it was filled mostly with French things. Apologies to any French afficianados out there, I was quite badly scarred by Renault ownership and even the thought brings me out in hives now. I did take pics of one car en route, actually;  "Little Reggie", a competition-prepped Renault 4CV R1063 that's competed in two leMans Classics. Fair enough. But only cos it's cute, mind  Hmmm, popping out into the next hall on the bottom end of the "C" the first things to greet us were the sad guppy faces of some Daimler Darts  They always make me think of a depressed-looking bottom feeder, they look like they even have little barbels in the corner of their mouths! This blue one looks quite snazzy, mind, not bad for a car that allegedly had so much chassis flex the doors would come open under hard cornering. Or is that another urban myth?  Old tween-war Triumph Dolomite (yes, I know it's not what you think of as being a Dolomite but it is, trust me)  Some serious metalwork adorning the front end  Rocking a rather risque mascot quite full of joi de vivre, in contrast to the slightly sober shape of the car itself  and another rather fine deco Triumph mascot  The Footman James stand had a rather iconic British car to draw in the punters.  Yeah, that bloke with all the diamonds in his face's supercharged XKR from one of the very silly Brosnan Bond films  It's funny when you see these cars up close, they make a very good job of making them look quite realistic on-screen, even though they clearly get up to quite preposterous antics. But seeing them up here, they look like film props and that's it. In no way does this look like a real Vulcan cannon. It seems to be powered by a starter motor. How cool would it be if it were real, though, lol?  Some lucky punter recently unearthed a barn-find Spitfire that was featured in Practical Classics or whatever. It was on display here, and it's a hell of a thing;  Why so special? Looks pretty cruddy after all, doesn't it?  The reason is here;  and here;  Yep, 162 genuine miles from new. Then it was waxoyled head to toe and shoved into storage, then left for decades. Underneath it's basically a brand new Triumph Spitfire 1500. Amazing, has to be seen to be believed. Go out and buy some waxoyl NOW!. By way of example, one wing has been cleaned off and it looks like brand new. Awesomes!  A car that was part-way between a classic Brit two-seater and a tiny one-third scale Yank musclecar was the original Datsun sports coupe. I always have time for these, they just look so right.  This is a later 260Z version. I especially like the spoiler... so much so I nailed one to my own car, lol  Badge looks like it was hewn from girders left over from building the Empire State building but probably weighs less than bacofoil, knowing the Japanese  Someone has a sense of humour here. An Isetta, the original and perhaps defining Bubblecar. Mmm, nice tartan  The awe-inspiring grunt of the BMW-built 236cc single pot engine!  Like I said, nice to see owners of classics able to not take themselves too seriously  ... and speaking of which...  ...this WW2 fighter-art inspired Morgan three-wheeler made me chuckle. I like the shark's mouth Mustang motif, and the RAF numbering to mathc the license plate...  ...oh, and Molly of course!  This was next to the Rolls-Royce fanciers association, or appreciation society, or whatever they're called. Certainly nothing as vulgar as an owner's club. I managed to miss taking any pics of the cars, perhaps because Rollers are so completely irrelevant to me. I like the early coachbuilt ones, they were awesome, but for decades they were just pointless massive over-engineered slow things and leave me mostly unmoved. The less said about the current German things the better. However, I did manage to get this;  Here's a lovely bit of affordable Italian flair, chic, and dash in a fine Pininfarina styled case  Given how many rotten, neglected and tatty relics of Spyders there were around not so many years ago (Richard Hammond's, for example) it's nice to see such an immaculate one. As good inside as out  Thought my luck had changed when I saw a pair of blondes in matching convertibles. They seemed very wooden and unresponsive though. *sigh* Story of my life  |
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
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Club Retro Rides Member 45
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Nov 25, 2012 12:51:36 GMT
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Now, this is a proper gentleman's express, a Bristol 411. I think a Series 3? Rockin the best part of 6.5 litres of Chrsyler V8, this is a grand tourer in the old skool  In fact, I spent a long time on the Bristol stand. Excellent marque, fantastic quality and such curves!  ...such as on this 403 (I think), which is a very rare car, only something like 250 ever built. A coefficient of drag of about point three is impressive even today  The elegance of the bodywork continued to the interior, with gorgeous Art Deco instruments and the iconic Blumel twin-spoke steering wheel  Nice in wood, even more aesthetic in white such as in this 402 (maybe)  Later Bristols lost the BMW Frazer Nash-style front kidney vents in favour of an intake more in-keeping with the companies' aero heritage, such as on this 405. Different from the 404 mainly in wheelbase and being a four-door,  This was the Bristol model that introduced the innovation of keeping the spare wheel beneath a lift-up flap in the front wing, along with lockable storage compartments under the other bodyworks. Such an innovative manufacturer, truly the best of British. And what shapes! The Vintage Car Club had some cars on show that are to all intents and purposes both irreplaceable and probably measureable in single figures of examples left. For example  A 1923 Bugatti Type 30, the first appearance of the eight-pot that would go on to power legends like the Type 35 racers. This was a road car, a tourer producing a healthy 80-odd horses from it's single-cam three-valve lump.  Nice to see some carpentry on a car as well, isn't it? lol  As I've wittered on about many times before, I've a thing for instruments, and the ones in old cars usually rock my boat. These Bugatti ones are no exception, being functional yet elegant in a way people like Pagani would do well to note  This wide-eyed spraddle-legged critter is something I'd never even heard of before  A 1915 Lenox, four-cylinder four litre sidevalve styled very much on the early sportsters such as the Stutz Bearcat and Mercer raceabout, often accepted as the first proper purpose-built sports car. Hardy lot then. Wooden cabin and monocle windscreen offered little in the way of comfort  The front lights blew me away, they're like something from Tiffanys or Lalique! Must have been absolutely shockingly useless at night, but how fantastic are these?  Actually, this car had a lot of mod cons, given when it was made. A horn, powered no less. It's a Klaxon, in fact, as the legend proudly stamped into the case errrr... trumpets. Sorry  ...and a clock. Though you had to hand-wind it, at least you didn't have to take it out of the fixture to do it. Ahhh, the days of innovations like rim-wound clocks!  Even had a spare wheel, though it looks like you had to bolt it to the spokes on one of the existing roadwheels. Handy. And a rear light. Good advice...  Moar groovy old instruments. Speedo looks like a ships' compass or a barometer or something. Mileometer is pretty arcane. Like a timeclock from Fritz Lang's Metropolis Here's one modern-day Vauxhall enthusiasts will appreciate  This is the 1920s equivalent of sticking a RedTop in your Nova, a 1927 Vauxhall 14/40 chassis with a 1922 Stutz Bearcat six-pot four-litre engine crowbarred in. Twin-spark ignition, too, mind. Pushing drive out through a '30 Rolls gearbox, this is the original Max hybrid and if they'd had McDonald's drive-thrus in the tween-wars era no doubt this would have been there in the car park lairing it up and doing doughnuts  ...fancy fiddling with your advance-retard settings using levers on the steering wheel while trying to control an evil-handling torque-laden tonne plus of ash-framed behemoth. Ian Ferguson, Vintage SportsCar Club Committee Member and Librarian, we salute you for regularly using such a bonkers device on modern roads! Brave fella  From ancient to modern supercars, then.  I understand this to be a Marcos LM600 Evo, but that's about the limit of my knowledge, I'm afraid to say. Other than to say... bloody hell! It's a bit of a thing, innit?  I love the way the raw carbon is allowed to poke through the excellent paint colour, like a cheeky little hint of suspender at the top of a well-filled stocking...  Oooer.  Hhhmph? Sorry, you were saying? This blue one seems a much more sedate version... not! It looks like Woody Allen in his Hydrovac Suit from Sleeper!  It's got much less of an offset fail going on than the orange one, too  And if we're talking supercars, well for me it doesn't get much more super than this;  Oh, yeah! Panteras make me feel like a five-year old again. I had a Matchbox one that was pretty much my most prized possession for years. Just so right I mean, yeah, it's insanely overblown styling but somehow manages to be relevant in a way lambos and suchlike just don't manage. I could see myself driving this to the shops for a pint of milk.  Yes I bloody well would! This orange one had even more show to match the go;  It looks hard as ****, even in such a girly colour. Like it's contempleting it's next murder  This made Rich/Phil inordinately happy because it's the same Ford Windsor 351 Cubic Inch motor as he has in his Cougar. Albeit a bit moar shiner enough. And his doesn't have Roush heads with valves the size of frisbees...  I guess all the other many achievements he'd fulfilled thoughout his life paled into insignificance the day Alejandro deTomaso actually got his own company logo made from his initials and home country's flag engraved onto the UJs of the driveshafts in a car bearing his name. I know I could die a happy man if I ever got there...  This burgundy cherry one seemed to be chained up. Presumably in case it got loose and hurt anyone for "looking at it funny"  Ooooh, Panteras... that's it, I'm no good for anything for a while now. I'm gonna have to pop off for a lie down in a darkened room  |
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
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Club RR Member Number: 45
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PICS! Classic Motor Showluckyseven
@luckyseven
Club Retro Rides Member 45
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Nov 25, 2012 12:53:46 GMT
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It was at this point that something utterly disastrous happened  No, not this indescribably top Shelby GT350 '67 fastback, but rather that at this point my camera battery went flat. I swapped to the spare only to find it was on one bar and flashing. Musta forgot to charge it. ****! From here on I was on seriously borrowed time...  Fortunately we'd finally reached the grail of the American car section, so after Rich/Phil had spent a while swapping mobile phone build pics with the dude who owned the GT350 we dived on in. OK, one last one...  There was a decent mix of Americana, plenty of muscle like this sorted 'vert Camaro  ...which even managed to pull of the hardest of tricks by being a yellow car that didn't look curse word  A '69 Charger in rather top burnt orange... but not that sort of orange, lol  I've seen this up at the Mopar Nationals before. You have to wonder at the level of detailing that repaints everything after what must have been at least an engine-out rebuild, but leaves all the wiring dangling out of its gusset  but you gotta admit, it looks mighty fine  At the other end of the spectrum was stuff like this '52 (think) Ford Country Squire Wagon, complete with excellent patination...  ...and the Holy Grail of oldskool Yank cool, a window-mount "Thermador" car cooler, basically a big tank you filled with ice and then the passage of air through it as you drove sucked cold air into the car.  This is the problem, you spend ages trying to get a shot and then right at the last second someone blunders in a sticks their mullet right in the way!  This '57 Chrysler Imperial took eight weeks to walk around it was so vast!  It was whilst lining up a shot of the Ventiports (TM) on a Buick Dyna Flow Super that my spare battery gave up the ghost. This was annoying, all I could do now was give each battery a few minutes to rejuvenate in my pocket and then swap them over. I'd get maybe five or six photos out of it before it'd die again and I'd have to go through it again. This was clearly annoying, and meant the only way I could take pics was to focus it all in, then quickly turn the camera on, take the shot, and turn it straight off again! Not ideal, and some came out of ....errr... extremely questionable quality. Still, some were passable so I soldiered on bravely lol  Cobras, cobras everywhere! Plenty of 'Stangs around, too. As I guess you'd expect of the car that sold zillions and pretty much invented the muscle car (OK, OK, it was the original Pony Car but YKWIM). This wild cherry '69 flicked my switch rather. Mmm, louvres again  Pleased most people, judging by how long I had to wait for a clear pic of it... with my camera focused ready but turned off. I tell you, it's no way to take decent pics lol  Its funny really, we're so used to thinking of these cars as expensive classics now that it's easy to forget they were once a cheap car built for blue-collar men in the street. Built to a price. That as many have lasted as well as they have is a testament to how strong they were built in the first place  There were a surprising numbers of new Mustang GTs too, in various iterations of performance package. For a start, the new Shelby GT500;  looking hard as a coffin nail in coalhole black with ghost stripes  Nice to see the American muscle car hasn't lost its love affair with brand identity and iconography, too  Another Shelby variant, the Super Snake. Also in black (nearly). Well, you know what Henry Ford felt about colours...  ...and just for variety, a black one  this is the monolithically tuff-looking but cringeworthily-named "Dominator" supercharger-boosted version. Awesome car, terrible name. Has all sorts of Blue Oyster Bar connotations...  Mustangs, however, are not the only fruit. How about this for swinging to a different beat?  This, in case you were wondering, is the extremely understated and modest  ...gold-leaf coated...  ...leather and sheepskin appointed with one-off machine-turned dash...  ....personal Cadillac of none other than Liberace. Hmmm, musta been the shy, retiring type then...  What a superb mascot, shows a bit of lust for life there even if the rest of the car's a bit drab  Mind you, the average car driven by the man in the street can be almost as bonkers in America of days gone by. Here, have a random Studebaker  As would be expected from the other main survival story of American power cars, there was an entire stand given over to Corvettes. Just about every generation was represented, even the really vulgar and ponderous eighties versions. More delicate on the eye were ones like this Stingray  See, details, details. I know I bang on about it all the time, but is true, innit. The little touches make the car  I love how on the earlier 'Vettes the twin cockpit-pod motif was carried right across the whole car, even down to the dash treatment. They loved their fighter plane fantasies, post war, aye  There were a couple of later power monster ones, all of which I failed to get a good pic of. You'll have to be content with this Corvette Bear sitting on an LS plenum  but to be honest, who wants to be taking photos of modern tupperware torpedoes when there are cars like this on the same stand?  albeit the dash is perhaps a bit of a mess  Not quite a first-gen, I guess since it's a twin-headlight job and Chevy had stopped trying to flog the straight six as a power unit and accepted V8 was the way forward  Not bad longevity for a plastic car, eh? By now the Corvette offered 280-odd bhp from a 283 cu inch motor, the "one hp per cube" tagline proving an advertising winner  |
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
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Club RR Member Number: 45
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PICS! Classic Motor Showluckyseven
@luckyseven
Club Retro Rides Member 45
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Nov 25, 2012 12:55:39 GMT
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We paused for a moment at the Dream Rides paddock, as much to allow my batteries to recharge as ourselves. I really can't emphasise enough the size of this event! To think I was wondering if 20-plus quid represented VFM, I wouldn't have felt shortchanged if it was half as much again. You just can't really take it all in in a single day. Anyway, while I was caning a can of emergency back-up Relentless it seemed a good chance to watch the Dream Rides. The gimmick here is that punters rock up and pay a donation (for charideee, mate) and then get a pass ride in one of many supercars on offer, having negotiated the fee with the driver. A great idea, though how exciting it is trundling around the NEC carpark is moot I suppose, even in a Lamborghini. The standard of bunny girls has fallen in later years, however  Bless her, to be fair this lady was doing an amazing job of compering it all and keeping things moving. My feet were aching by now, hers must have been killing her, how she kept smiling and laughing I've no idea. As to the cars on offer, well they were of random status, in honesty;  I guess you wouldn't have been too downhearted to have scored a go in the Countach! I'm not sure how the rides were allocated, whether it was down to how much you donated, or simply the luck of which car rolled up when it was your turn  ...in which case, how gutted would you have been to miss the GT40 by one slot and end up in the MG Midget, lol? Still, it was funny watching the dude getting into the GT40. I've had the privilege of going round Goodwood in one, and I can testify ingress is neither easy nor elegant  Plenty of really cool cars were on offer, as well, such as this.... Ferrari. Maybe. Couldn't tell if it was a replica or not. Truth be told, I utterly suck at Ferrari identification anyway, partly cos I don't really have that particular badge on my anorak, and partly cos of my number-blindness and the fact they too rarely give the bloody things names. I'm sure someone will correct me, but I think this is a 330P or somesuch?  Hideous vulgar horrendous droptop ersatz Rolls-Royce thing made me slightly sick in my mouth before mercifully disappearing from sight. I mean, honestly, LED chav-lights on a Rolls? Puh-lease! Horrid thing, built for sheiks and footballers. It offends my eyes  Again, if it was the luck of the draw you'd be roight cheesed orf to get the Corrado rather than the Sagaris. Even if it was a VR6  Lancia Delta Intergrale; just three words but so much conveyed in their few evocative syllables. Never quite understood how Lancia managed to name their cars with utter gibberish but still make them sound so exotic!  Suitably refreshed by the Dream Rides processing past our eyes, we nudged back into the Americana for a last ramble before heading on. Here's an icon for you;  Yeah! It's Ramone! From Cars! As voiced by the incomparable Cheech Marin, half of Cheech and Chong no less, and responsible for many *ahem* .... wasted hours in my impressionable youth. None of which is really relevant to the overblown styling glory of a '59 Chevy Impala  It's even got Chevy bow-tie logos shaped into the exhaust tips! can you imagine the meeting where the preliminaries for this car were rubber stamped? Pitching a twenty-plus foot car with room for only four people, with five acres of one-off wrap-around glass front and rear, electric everything, fourteen square yards of hide, a grille made up of fifty separate pieces. Even the damned aerials are works of art. Yeah, build that one, just run it past the bean-counters first, yeah? ooooooooooo-kay  Inside got just as much shock and awe as out!  Moving from the "stock" cars to more modified stuff, we find Honky Tonkin' II, an excellent old-skool style gasser built on a '64 Chevy Nova platform  TBH, I'd love this even if it wasn't drenched in lustrous thick metalflake. the fact that it is certainly doesn't do its cause any harm!  And then we were amongst the true one-offs, the proper blue-blooded rods and sods. Starting with this rather fine yellow 30's model B. I know the flame job has possibly become the most over-used motif in the history of art, but I like the subtle touches here like the faces ghosted into the fender flames  This '22 T-bucket is a bit more hardcore. Especially the exhaust run, right where your arms go! Hard to believe this began life as a gurt big Model T  ...rather like this Barris-stylee one. Reminds me of the Creepy Coupe, lol  Brown is the new black, y'know. It's very next season, darlings  More Model B righteousness, in classic colours. Could almost be out of a Gulf advert  Poster boi  I can't put a number plate on it, officer, there's nowhere to mount it on the axle...  Now then. Here's something you don't see every day  In fact, I think I can reliably say you'll probably never see another one!  This, gentle reader, is the competely glorious insanity of the Cosmotron  ^^ that's the back, BTW, that angry face, the front looks like this;  To be accurate, this is the Cosmotron II, presumably so as to avoid any confusion with the giant particle accelerator at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in the U.S. Although it looks like it dates from a the height of 60's bonkers car customisation, I gather it's a modern take on old themes (the car, not the particle accelerator. That's not changed stylistically since it began hunting mesons back in 1953). Check out the madness of the interior;  Barberella and George Barris' curse word lovechild made this  I love this car (can you tell, lol?) just for being so hopelessly over the top bonkers, but also for being actually really well built and designed. This is no mock-up; it's got a tax disc and there are pictures of it driving on the street!  Details are hazy, but I reckon it's based on a BMW Z3. Anyone knows better feel free to jump in  Wow. Well, it's tricky to follow that one really, but I'll have a go. We were by now thinking of heading back, given there was still a four-hour plus train journey ahead of us. There was still too much unexplored though, so girding up our loins (never quite sure what that actually involves, but I think that's what we did) we plunged into the murky wastes of Euro-trash  I'm not sure if a 1949 Beetle was what George Lucas had in mind when he came up with the look of Darth Vader, but he's a car guy, you never know  I have a long-held love/hate Beetle relationship. I love the look, the laid-back vibe, the noise, and the nostalgia. I hate the rot, the cliquey-ness, the cost of them now for a good one, and the memories of being wedged into the parcel shelf above the engine back in the seventies when my mum had to transport a friends' kids as well as her own three in out humble Bug!  One very much like this, in fact;  I guess I love them more than hate. We always had them when I was a kid, not because they were cool or funky back then but because the old man was tight and they were the cheapest thing with four wheels that wasn't a pram. Just. Got some curves on her though, ain't she?  I suppose this sort of thing is inevitable when Beetles gather together, but at least they suit rat-look more than most cars  Funny seeing a Baja so far from the West coast, a dark rainy day in Brum seems a million lightyears from sunny California dreamin'  This dude seems to have done his pinstriping with a bathroom sealant gun, rather oddly. Shame, cos otherwise we love metalflake, lol. As already established  |
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
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Club RR Member Number: 45
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PICS! Classic Motor Showluckyseven
@luckyseven
Club Retro Rides Member 45
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Nov 25, 2012 12:57:50 GMT
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Original Scirocco, yep, that old cliche again; it's impossibly clean!  Ze Germans have turned out some pretty spectacularly good cars in their time, this is no secret. They have also been responsible for some utter shockers. For example, Auto Union (or Audi as they like to be called recently) have made some of the most amazing race cars ever, capable of 200mph at a time when people still thought you asphyxiated if you went faster than a horses' top speed. Their top-of the range modern v10s are incredible tours de force of engineering. Their diesel race tech has won leMans, the toughest race on earth outside the rallies. However, they also built this, and for that alone can never again be taken seriously.  I mean, W T actual F!? Moving hastily along, part of the marques merged to make the Auto Union was the workaday DKW whose most impressive contribution to world motoring was arguably the DKW Duck amphibious wossname.  Possibly better to remember them for that rather than stuff like this, lol. Guess it has a certain awkward charm, the kind of thing a family of Citroen H-vans would keep locked away in the attic if anyone called round cos they were too embarrassed at their inbred child  Good grief  Gahhh, I feel the need for some beauty after that set of monstrosities. How about  a nice, calming nest of Opel GTs? Lovely little things aren't they?  somehow, a thrown-together car with French styling on a set of Opel Kadett leftovers really shouldn't work as well as it does, but I think they're gorgeous little cars, hints of Corvette in there as well as Toyota 2000GT and even (whispers) 250GTO. This blue one has had an engine swap to a modern GM/Vaux unit and is presumably pretty lively  Opel GT factoid of the day; the headlights were operated by hand using a long-throw lever mounted on the centre console by the gearstick. Apparently this is quite an effort! Aerobic headlights, who'd have thought?  Moar groovy Opels, then. How about a Manta Targa? Can't be many of these left! They were hardly common back in the day  Monza was pretty much better than new  The beige velour interior rocked out big style, but I just couldn't afford the camera battery life to focus through the glass to get it. I tried and failed, moved on.  No discussion of European oddities would be complete without a visit to the East. I think this very race Skoda was at the Gatethering. I failed to get any good photos of it then, too. Sorry  Early Octavia shows....errr... shows unique styling exercise  Damn, style has always been a speciality of Skodas, let's be honest  and still more unusual European strangeness. There used to be one of these around Sussex that had motorbike-style expansion chambers fitted to the exhaust. Sounded like the apocalypse and was presumably on the constant knife-edge of blowing up but you have to respect that sorta dedication from the owner. This one's rather more "stock", if there is such a thing  This is a Saab 92B, a transverse water cooled two-stroke twin cylinder with three gears and a freewheel function to prevent engine seizure due to oil starvation on overrun. Hmmm, wonder why that never caught on, lol  Separated only by the badge and a few feet from the Opels were some Vauxhalls. Same difference? Don't tell the owners that , lol. A lot of people think the two are interchangeable, both being owned by GM and having had plenty of badge-engineered crossover in the recent past. Maybe they assume this all happened when the rest of the British car industry crumbled into the centuried dust in the seventies, but Vauxhall was actually acquired by General Motors in 1926 and Opel in 1931, so it's an association that goes back into the mists of time further than many people realise. Anyway, how about a Lotus Carlton?  Hell of a thing, a Lotus-tuned and suspended supercar-rivalling sedan capable of having its turbocharged 3 litre straight six propel it up to around 180mph! So, what's not to like? A rare, rare car, too, they didn't even make 1000 of them  By way of contrast, here's a Velox. Or is it a Cresta? IIRC they shared bodyshells for a while and were separated by trim and equipment levels. I'm gonna say Velox, jump in if you like lol  I love how American mascots and motifs were all rockets and fins and sleek streamlining, futuristic Dan Dare stuff and Vauxhall's answer was a very British, rather plump and un-aerodynamic portly pigeon thing  Now this definitely is a Cresta. And what a fine colour it is, too  Moar rather fine emblemry going on, this "hood" ornament reminds me of the planetary colossus motif on Edsels. But then, the entire car is like a little shrunken American sedan  How about this for a fine mascot, then? The Griffin, apparently, goes from strength to strength. And if you remember that, you're old  Proper job! I'd love to hear the noise this lot makes on full honk!  I realise, BTW that I've neglected our Porsche-appreciating brethren in this thread. I'm sorry, Porsche just don't move me and never have and with my battery suicide issues I certainly didn't have energy to waste on cars that didn't blow my skirt up. Here's one that a bit funky though, in an effort to redress the balance  That's the beauty of a show this vast, one minute you're wandering through stands similar cars, like hordes of Vauxhall Cavaliers or something, and then you turn a corner and randomly blunder into an RS200 all opened up like an insect about to take flight...  ...or you're trying to get past the MR2 OC stand as quickly as possible in and there's just this random Toyota 90CV Group C racer sat there...  ....or a whole posse of GT40 (reps) in one of the more iconic motorsport colourschemes ever  |
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
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PICS! Classic Motor Showluckyseven
@luckyseven
Club Retro Rides Member 45
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Nov 25, 2012 13:00:58 GMT
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By now we were pretty much spent, and the knowledge of the long journey home was ushering us ever-closer to the way home. We decided we'd just have to accept we weren't going to see everything, having already sacrificed a trip round the autojumble because that would have been fatal; once you're in there you're in for hours. Although I did get a copy of Road & Track featuring a group test of an S2 RX-7 up against weirdness like an Alfa Spyder, MR2, CRX and oddly, a Pontiac Fiero. For just a quid, too, bargain! Even on the way out I couldn't help but keep stopping for more pics as we stumbled across stands stuffed with awesomeness. For example, I'd have been properly gutted if glancing through the show guide on the train home I'd have realised we'd missed...  ...the Lancia Beta club stand. Most of them were the astonishingly sexy Pininfarina-styled Montecarlo mid-engined rear-drive variant. Which frankly made me rather moist  Not like you'll see any cross-over styling cues to Ferrari or anything....  This one's a bit different, a Beta Coupe Volumex, the supercharged version of the coupe. For when an "ordinary" Beta Coupe isn't exclusive enough, lol  nestling round the back was the predecessor to the Beta, the equally gorgeous and iconic Fulvia (got it right this time, lol)  Just when we thought we were about to make it out (and believe me, by this time I could have really done with a ciggy!) we found an entire hall we'd missed somehow before. It was stuffed with Italian exotica, German engineering, and lots of beautifully-sculpted metal up for auction. We had to force our aching feet to make one last push over the top... Photos here are very few and far between because my long-suffering camera batteries had pretty much stopped even the slightest resurrection shuffle, I was getting maybe two pictures per swap and having to wait ten minutes for them to recharge enough for the next two. Tedious! This DB4 was presumably the star of the auction block, estimated at 180 to 200 thousand of your finest English pounds! But there you go; find another if you think that's steep  Funny old mix of cars in the auction paddock, linked only by being unusual and shiny (actually, the MGB was only one of these things). More 512 Testarossas (testarossii?), I saw two. Damned things are everywhere!  ...and even some rather nicer-looking Fezzas, lol  Escort Mexico was as if it had just rolled out of the shed at Dagenham, just perfect!  In fact, there were quite few Fords of various and disparate ethos up for sale  Turning away from the auction (some of the cars hadn't sold and were sitting forlornly with "Get in touch... might be available" notices on them but we didn't think any would be within our price range of about £2.60) we found some German race cars. And who says they don't have a sense of humour?  BMW are another marque that just don't speak to me, hence the dearth of pics of them (although I've often felt I could be persuaded by a fire-breathing 850. In matt black) but if you don't love the bonkers 350CSL Batmobile then you've no soul and shouldn't be in a car show, lol  The Ferrari enthusiasts club (or whatever rather grandiose title they've given themselves) had some different cars to what you'd expect, some proper classics. As I've already confessed, I suck at IDing Fezzas, but I believe this to be a 250 GT Lusso Berlinetta? It's certainly a bit lovely, whatever it is  Arguably this isn't actually a Ferrari at all, but it is definitely one of my favourite Ferraris nonetheless. In fact, one of my favourite cars, I think you'd have to look at a lot of cars to find another as pretty, as right as the 246 Dino. Especially nice in silver!  In fact, there was a bit of a silver supercar vibe going on in this hall. Here, have a silver Lamborghini  I don't recall ever seeing one of these in the "flesh" before and I was struck by just how damned long it is! Went on forever, parking must be a distinctly traumatic experience  Of course, no discussion of Lambos would be complete without one of these silly things  ...and the one that started it all, the original Lamborghini. Lol  ...and then over the way to another Italian Supercar manufacturer, and another silver dream racer (ooooh, David Essex, kwol). Maserati, this one's a Khamsin. Pointier going backwards than forwards, lol  I love older Masers, they're another car that makes me feel six years old again, probably due to fond Matchbox memories.  Here's a Bora. I don't remember seeing them in such a rainbow of colours before, I guess that's a very Seventies thing. Better than boring old rosso, I suppose  And a Merak, the V6. Family heritage very much apparent. Clarkson still deserves severe punishment for what he did to one of these. Utter barbarism.  I love the way these cars came from a time and a culture where they'd happily plonk those flying butresses on either side of the engine bay whether they performed any function or not. Just because they could, all right?  It's always sound advice to finish on a high, so I'll bow out on one of my favourite, if not actual favourite, supercars;  I love the EB110 Bugatti not just because of it's singleminded purity of function and it's jaw-dropping styling but simply because it came out of nowhere at a time when motoring was distinctly beige and sensible, and they over-specced it to such an utterly ridiculous level that it took ages for it to really be surpassed. And it was kinda the forgotten supercar, every gets wet over Ferraris and the McLarens and Lambos such, but this just quietly got on with the task of rearranging time and space like a massive turbocharged blunt instrument.  It's a mad, overblown, over-powered "Screw you" to legislative restriction as well as to the laws of physics, and for that alone it's worthy of much love.  So that was the day over. We hobbled the miles and miles (it seems) through the NEC complex on our aching feet back to the station and a Virgin back south. There were problems on the line from Victoria, the Brighton train was cancelled and we had to crush onto the next one with about two thousand other grumpy peevish passengers. A massive row and fight broke out at Clapham with some Fulham fans having a barney with some punters who they thought were holding them up getting on the train. You'd have thought they'd be happy, their team had won, after all. Railways, eh? Rubbish way to travel, it'll never catch on... I got in at 9p.m, having left the house at half five in the morning. Had to get up for work the next day at 2:30a.m, so it's fair to say I felt the burn a bit that Monday, lol. In summary it was an expensive, exhausting day out, and I didn't see anywhere near all the show had to offer. Would I do it all again? Hell, yeah. But I might give the train a miss next time. That's it, I'm spent. Thanks for reading as always. Now go away |
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Nov 25, 2012 13:53:22 GMT
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Cracking pics and write up  , the engine in that Pantera  BTW [Anorak on] the 6R4 has a standard steering wheel and dash as it's a Clubman spec car, more powerfull International spec 6R4's have a bespoke dash and wheel [/Anorak off] |
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72 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400. 95 BMW E34 525i Manual. 80 Lotus Elite, sold  86 Mk4 Escort RWD V8, sold |
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Nov 25, 2012 14:44:53 GMT
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Wasted a whole Sunday afternoon reading all this drivel......  Enjoyed it immensely, thanks!! ;D |
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
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PICS! Classic Motor Showluckyseven
@luckyseven
Club Retro Rides Member 45
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Nov 25, 2012 14:52:16 GMT
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lol, you're welcome. I wasted a whole Sunday walking around the show...and pretty much a whole Saturday night sorting pics and writing said drivel ;D Better than real life any day hahaha That's a great bit of trivia about 6R4 trim levels, why aren't there more pub quizzes with questions like that? |
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Nov 25, 2012 15:55:19 GMT
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Excellent blogging!........ Cars were ok too!  |
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'71 Arrocuda.... '71 Sunbeam Rapier Turbo (The Grim Rapier).... '63 Hymek D7076..... Audi GT5S
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Nov 25, 2012 16:36:00 GMT
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Great pics!
How did you managed to take the pics? On Saterday it was extremely busy. So people would walk into you picture frame all the time
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 Click picture for more |
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task
Part of things
Posts: 374
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Nov 25, 2012 18:26:50 GMT
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Nice post, lovely photos :-)
The Dart doors were an issue on the A spec cars but was fixed when they released the B spec.
I did the dream rides stand last year, you set a price for a ride in your car and people choose what car they want to go out in. Last year it was a 20 min road route, not sure what they did this year though.
A few cars were doing the route almost nonstop and others didn't go out more than once or twice.
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Nov 25, 2012 18:47:55 GMT
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Fantastic!
Was there last year. Taking pictures is a real pain unless you wait until it is about to close!
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Nov 25, 2012 19:01:51 GMT
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some great pics there kidda, loving the viper powered jensen
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Nov 25, 2012 19:36:24 GMT
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Nice pics. I went on the Friday, it's the only day to go in my opinion, just too busy on the weekend days, but they really took the p155 this year, £27.50 each on the Friday. I paid to park, bought two tickets & two breakfasts & that little lot, liberated me of £82.00 before I'd seen a car! If you like your Deloreans, mines amongst this lot.  |
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
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PICS! Classic Motor Showluckyseven
@luckyseven
Club Retro Rides Member 45
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Nov 25, 2012 19:42:21 GMT
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Cheers, guys. It's certainly a hellish place to take pics, it was absolutely heaving. It's just a matter of being patient and/or rude when people blunder into the way, lol. I have to say, it was bloody frustrating when the batteries went flat cos each time I took a pic it had to be perfect or I didn't get a second chance. But then, I've no-one to blame but myself  Abject muppetry That's a top pic of the Deloreans, fantastic. Hopefully you get the idea from my text that I have a lot of love for them |
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Last Edit: Nov 25, 2012 19:43:28 GMT by luckyseven
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, the engine in that Pantera 
Abject muppetry