Cars You Never See Anymore

[dessiato]

It's just unfathomable. If you delete the indicators and whatever else is in the bumper, it looks generic American, even vaguely statesmanlike. As it is, it looks like it belongs deep under the sea. So why did they do it?

Some designs are a bit avant-garde and get better with age, like Bangle's stuff, but this one was never going to improve.

They were quite a good car, if you could live with the looks. The estate was huge. Just so ugly.

 

[BassJunkie]

Alfa Sud, one careful owner.

Can I be the first to say "That'll polish out" ?

 

[BassJunkie]

I miss these, it's because of these I've loved the sound of V8s all my life:

 

[CrabbedOne]

My father briefly had a monkey shit brown one of these.

It was a good looking but very grumpy car that seemed to be always in need of a good shouting at when broken down.

 

[CrabbedOne]

The brother's beloved Imp. Best feature was it came with a manual crank starter which was just as well as the starter motor was always bust.

 

[bi0boy]

I miss these, it's because of these I've loved the sound of V8s all my life:

I remember they were still futuristic when I was a toddler. I had a toy police one.

 

[CrabbedOne]

Nostalgic Linky.

I think that's the same model as first machinery I ever drove a significant amount. A 1960 Fordson winch tractor we used for dragging out trees. This one was still in use in 2010.

I recall it used to wheelie rather easily when you hit the throttle. Note the lack of safety cage. Easy to roll in a wood as well.

 

[bi0boy]

Nostalgic Linky.

I think that's the same model as first machinery I ever drove a significant amount. A 1960 Fordson winch tractor we used for dragging out trees. This one was still in use in 2010.

I recall it used to wheelie rather easily when you hit the throttle. Note the lack of safety cage. Easy to roll in a wood as well.

There was a bit of that on twitter this morning

 

[CrabbedOne]

Some more modern hot winch tractor action from the same site:

"Hi ho Silver!"

 

[CrabbedOne]

Incidentally:

Best job evaah! I can still smell it forty years later. Bit more exacting than I recall.

More like the real thing.

 

[existentialist]

My father briefly had a monkey shit brown one of these.

It was a good looking but very grumpy car that seemed to be always in need of a good shouting at when broken down.

My brother bought a V8 one as an MOT failure to be an engine donor for his MGB. He liked the Rover so much he got it through the MOT and drove around in it for about a year. It was one of the traditional 1970s shit colours, brown or green sludge, anyway.

 

[DownwardDog]

You don't see these anymore because the government had them all destroyed. They probably created more disabled people than they helped.

I remember getting a lift in one from my Great Uncle Jimmy's friend 'Bernie' in the late 70s. Even at the tender age of 11 I could sense that this vehicle had an air of wrongness about it.

 

[existentialist]

You don't see these anymore because the government had them all destroyed. They probably created more disabled people than they helped.

I remember getting a lift in one from my Great Uncle Jimmy's friend 'Bernie' in the late 70s. Even at the tender age of 11 I could sense that this vehicle had an air of wrongness about it.

Made in Thames Ditton by AC Cars, I believe...

 

[nuffsaid]

Some nice pics of 1970s US cars here:

Eerie portraits of cars in 1970s New York – in pictures

 

[SikhWarrioR]

Incidentally:

Best job evaah! I can still smell it forty years later. Bit more exacting than I recall.

More like the real thing.

Best way I have seen of moving trees roots and all is with one of John Fowlers {Of Leeds} products

 

[dessiato]

I always wanted one of these

 

[weltweit]

I once went in one of these:

 

[Stanley Edwards]

I always wanted one of these

I would still buy one if I found one and had the money. Fuck knows how you maintain one today. CX2400 Turbo for me in light metallic blue and matt black leather and trim.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I once went in one of these:

someone i was at primary school with, his dad and two uncles had three consecutively registered DSs - one or two were this colour

 

[weltweit]

someone i was at primary school with, his dad and two uncles had three consecutively registered DSs - one or two were this colour

The one I went in was owned by a Dutch photographer friend who had travelled down to the south of France to buy it. It wasn't as shiny as the one above if I am honest. The one above is a sweetie, I wouldn't mind one of those myself.

 

[Backatcha Bandit]

My old man had one of them (CX2400)... he was 6'6" and could sleep in the back. I remember that the speedo looked like a set of bathroom scales. He used to let me drive it around the yard, until I stoved the front wing in whilst reversing in through the warehouse doors.

I had one of these in the '90s:

Saab 99 1850cc... Pure class. Same engine as a Triumph Dolomite, which rotated in the opposite direction to nearly every other engine on the planet.

When I got it (cheap) it would only do 6 mpg and ran like crap, as the previous owner had done the timing so it was firing after top-dead-centre, rather than before.

 

[Sirena]

My father briefly had a monkey shit brown one of these.

It was a good looking but very grumpy car that seemed to be always in need of a good shouting at when broken down.

I remember when the Rover 2000 first came out and what a stunningly beautiful car it was, compared to other contemporary cars on the road.

It's hard to see that now but it swept onto roads filled with dumpy little baby Austins and Morris Minors and flat-backed, sit-up Fords.

 

[Stanley Edwards]

This thread has turned into 'The Car you wanted your Dad to Buy'.

 

[weltweit]

My dad once had one of these, without the sunroof, it had overdrive (a switch on the gear lever)

 

[CrabbedOne]

This thread has turned into 'The Car you wanted your Dad to Buy'.

I would have shot my dad in the knee with my .410 if he came home with that.

 

[hash tag]

Made in Thames Ditton by AC Cars, I believe...

Well blow me! The same company that made the legendary Cobra, who would have thought it! Originally founded in West Norwood.

 

[existentialist]

Well blow me! The same company that made the legendary Cobra, who would have thought it! Originally founded in West Norwood.

Indeed, the very same. I used to have to go past the factory on my way to games lessons at school - I grew to quite like the smell of epoxy resin

 

[Backatcha Bandit]

My dad once had one of these, without the sunroof, it had overdrive (a switch on the gear lever)

Is that the 'Sprint' (16v 130bhp)?

 

[weltweit]

Is that the 'Sprint' (16v 130bhp)?

Yup .. 130bhp, really? - it didn't seem so fast to me as a kid ..

 

[dessiato]

Just seen one of these.