DS19. An old friend had an Estate, diesel engine. It was a fantastic load carrier. Our mate routinely carried spare engines and parts around in it.

This same chap had an Austin Gipsy, again with a diesel motor.


http://austingipsy.net/

Now that was a great workhorse.

I worked on an experimental farm at one time, we had 4 Landrovers and one Austin Gypsy. The Landrovers were fine, the Gypsy's steering was so erratic it kept going through walls. It had to go.

Jaguar XJ6 Coupe.
 

After the end of Jaguar XJ6 and XJ12 Series III production, the boys at Browns Lane considered producing a coupe based on the new model XJ6. They produced a prototype, but it remains the only one made. It now belongs to the Jaguar Heritage trust after being restored and made road worthy. It appears at Jaguar car club shows occasionally, and is seen here with a genuine Series II coupe.

I remember a student at Southampton College driving around in an Austin Champ. It was a formidable looking vehicle, but his main complaint was that it was very thirsty.

O worked at Browns lane for a while Roy. watched the last E type go down the line a few weeks after that I saw the first XJ S go down the line. I was on the XJ6/12 line. fitting front and rear screens on permanent nights.

I saw that line when the XK8 was still a new model. Our club had organised a factory tour in the 90's. It was being used as a store for historic cars and the last few XJ220's that still hadn't been sold.

we owned when we lived in frankfurt a borgward 2,3 with air suspension in sort of bronze shade left hand drive came to england to see parents and was given a 6 months tav free period .no matter where we went and parked when we came back there was always a few guys looking and the asking all about it .on our way back had to get our passports renewed .when we came out the was a man in plus fours smoking a pipe leaning on the wall as I was opening the lefthand door he came over to my wife and excuse me do you speak english ..of cause I do she said .oh sorry thought you where german ask your husband would he like to sell the car .I said sorry we are on our way back and we need it for work and pleasure .he handed me a card and said if you bring it back I will buy it from you
needless to said it never happened we kept it for years.until the air suspension was giving problems so sold it to a dealer for an opel capitan ,which we did sell in england later for a ford granada

Googled the Borgward cars, some very good looking cars.

My first thought was that they were like a Wartburg, they were not all pretty.

One of our neighbours where I grew up had a Wartburg. I think the model name was "Knight?" Not sure now. It looked very different to everything else on the road back then. Just looked it up on tinternet. In production from 1965 to 1988 in East Germany where it was known as the 353. They were sold as the Knight in this country.
https://classics.honestjohn.co.uk/re...urg/353knight/

I have owned a P5b rover coupe 1970 since 1980. I had two in Oz and had the present one flown back to NZ when I left hotel management in that fair country.
Now living in Hawkes bay where there is huge interest in older cars because of the Art Deco theme that prevails in this part of NZ due to the reconstruction of Napier and Hastings following the 1931 earthquake. Actually, Hawkes bay has just been shown on 'Coast NZ', two nights ago. TV at its best in my view as opposed to a lot of the mindless crap on the box. I will post a picture when the boss wakens up and shows me how.

The Rover P4 and P5s were very popular farmers cars, one of my friend's father had the drivers window on his P5 broken and took it to have it replaced. The garage owner, a good friend, rang him to come and check it out. The spare sent was for the coupe, and the fitter had put it in, it was about 4 inches short of the top. They had a laugh about it, then it got properly fixed.

The early P4 had some very odd things, a free wheel clutch for a start. That was a heavy car, why you would ever want to remove the engine braking from the behemoth, which didn't have brilliant brakes anyway, I don't know. Column gear change was another thing you had to work at to learn to love. There used to be so many around, now I suppose they are like hen's teeth.

One for you FJ, one of Uncle Freddie's Dixon- Riley sprint cars, built purely for speed not for comfort.

Riley spares have always been so expensive.

I was buying a Riley Kestrel with a Wilson preselector gearbox, when it got totalled, maybe luckily for me.

Many a Rover P4 ended its life as a racing banger.

In the 1970s they were very popular in Banger/Destruction racing because they would just go through anything else and come out the other side with a few dents.

This is a special that I was aboard (just) for a weekend trip to Presteigne from Bradford. SS(Jaguar)/ Lea Francis, an SS engine in a Lea Francis chassis. What you see is what you get, seat and fuel tank. A tiring trip.


Attachment 205

Attached is a blast from the past in more ways than one, George Brown and 'Nero' his much loved V Twin 1,000cc Vincent.
The event was was the Flying Kilo which took place on Redcar Beach in front of 15,000 people including me in 1950, George set a new record of 136.40mph.
The chap who is with him is Alf Buttress who was Clerk of the Course and a prominent member of Middlesbrough Motor Club which I joined in later years along with Geoff Duke who was also a member and quite liked my 1956 Dommi 88 fitted with Paul Dunstall bits.

I agree. In Oz I bought a P4 in jurassic bone colour. We lived up past Newcastle in a typical Oz house. Garage and laundry under and the house built across the top in a T section. Teaching my wife to drive again after a period of no driving I gave her the wheel. All went well until we came down the drive far too fast and smacked one of the posts holding up the actual house. Later we discovered that the accommodation top part of the house had been knocked off true by about an inch. A bit sluggish but once wound up it could go.

Comrades,
My car from the past hardly fits the 'fantasy' category but it had its good points and its moments.
My second car at the age of about 26 was a Hillman Hunter. It was slapped together in the worst traditions of Australian made in 1970. I think that a lot of the components came from Britain in packing cases and were thrown together at Rootes in Port Melbourne.
I inherited the almost new car in late 1970 and drove it for 30 years until 2000.
Having got all the loose screws and rattles out of it using what seemed like a 44 gallon drum of Loktite it became a fabulous little car. It was almost totally reliable with the exception of one clutch slave cylinder which died in the middle of a major intersection (of course). The YMs and I drove it everywhere across rivers, along gibber roads and through sand in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia largely thanks to it being a manual as well as many miles on bitumen.
If nothing else the car was totally predictable and as driver one almost became part of the machinery.
I got great pleasure in stirring its detractors when Andrew Cowan won London to Sydney in a Hunter.
I've still got it in Mother-in-Law's garage but it hasn't turned wheel since about 2001. I still dream of driving it again one day...............
Solid, simple and reliable even though not a fantasy machine. :wink:
Geoff (YM)

What car?
 

Anyone want to have a guess at this one?


JJ.

Lea Francis?

Hi Chad,


No mate, sorry.


JJ.

Any clues JJ? Did they make sewing machines.

Railton? or Invicta?

There used to be a fantasy vehicle in Torquay in the 1980's. The Landlady of the Marine Tavern near the harbour had two sons, Mel and Max. Mel had worked for the Western Lady fleet, being the summer season engineer on Western Lady III which was based in Torquay. He eventually moved to Southend on Sea and became the Chief amusement machine mechanic at the Kursaal. Max was also mechanically gifted, and built or modified his own motor bikes. He got interested in building a motor tricycle, so that he could enjoy the open road experience without having to wear the compulsory helmet when the rules were changed. He built a few until he achieved his ultimate dream machine. He built a frame around a 5.3 litre V12 Jaguar engine. I sadly don't have any pictures, but I'm sure you can imagine what it looked like. Anyway, pictures of it in motion were near impossible....:big_tongue:

1936 Railton Fairmile

4.1 litre straight eight I think.