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Old cars that now look tremendous.

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    #76
    Old cars that now look tremendous.

    Ah, Rotary engines in cars. A great idea, if only man could actually build them in a way that worked.

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      #77
      Old cars that now look tremendous.

      hobbes wrote: When I was 16 I went out with an 18 year old who had one of these. That 6 weeks or so were absolutely mint.

      Triumph Herald Ragtop

      You went out with my sister?

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        #78
        Old cars that now look tremendous.

        If your Dad was a Concorde Pilot and your name is Charlotte, possibly.

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          #79
          Old cars that now look tremendous.

          evilC wrote: Didn't the Herald hardtop have a removable roof panel too? In fact, weren't all it's panels 'bolt-on'? (I don't know if you could buy a cloth roof to fit on it.)

          I had a friend who had one - possibly as a first car. Either the suspension or the subframe(?) on one rear corner was fucked, meaning he could only give a lift to two passengers at a time. Guess who had to walk!
          I think(?) the Herald was the last British car to be built on a traditional frame — rather than some form of unibody construction. For it's size it was as heavy as fuck, that I can vouch for.

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            #80
            Old cars that now look tremendous.

            evilC wrote: I quite like the old Consul.

            And Kevinho is right about the old Polo. That is the perfect shape for a small hatchback - like a mini-estate, in order to maximise luggage space.

            I considered getting one of them as my first car, but in the end I plumped for the Fiat Panda (a 96 model) as it has the same 'mini-estate' profile, with the vertical rear glass. (It's considerably more upright, of course.)
            I meant to add how great the Panda was, and is. My wife and I had one of the mark II versions (04 plate) not long ago and loved it. My parents and her parents had each owned Unos in the 1980s as well.

            Here's a classic piece of Panda design.



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              #81
              Old cars that now look tremendous.

              Amor de Cosmos wrote:
              I think(?) the Herald was the last British car to be built on a traditional frame — rather than some form of unibody construction. For it's size it was as heavy as fuck, that I can vouch for.
              Oh, go on! Thereby hangs a tale, I'm sure! :-)

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                #82
                Old cars that now look tremendous.

                No love for the beautiful Citroen DS range yet?



                And here's the DS 19 that saved Charles de Gaulle from assassination in 1962 on show in China:



                12 OAS gunmen sprayed 140 bullets at the presidential DS as de Gaulle made hs way to Orly airport. As well as killing two motorcycle bodyguards, the 4 tires were punctured. However the DS's unique hydropneumatic suspension system kept it level and driveable and the chauffuer managed to speed off.

                After the event de Gaulle refused to travel in any other car and when FIAT tried to take over Citroen in 1969 mon president limited their share to 15% keeping Citroen french

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                  #83
                  Old cars that now look tremendous.

                  caja-dglh wrote: Ah, Rotary engines in cars. A great idea, if only man could actually build them in a way that worked.
                  DGLH - have you heard about the trochilic (aka toroidal / oscillating-piston / swing-piston / 'pistonless') engine?

                  It's also kind of rotary, though in a far more logical kind of way. Info here and here (for instance).

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                    #84
                    Old cars that now look tremendous.

                    evilC wrote:
                    Originally posted by Amor de Cosmos
                    I think(?) the Herald was the last British car to be built on a traditional frame — rather than some form of unibody construction. For it's size it was as heavy as fuck, that I can vouch for.
                    Oh, go on! Thereby hangs a tale, I'm sure! :-)
                    Not really I'm afraid. As mentioned in a previous post my sister's first car was a Herald convertible (the original design). Occasionally I'd have to help push it out of a ditch or snowbank, so I know it was a lot more weighty than it's size suggested.

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                      #85
                      Old cars that now look tremendous.

                      Geoffrey de Ste. Croix wrote: No love for the beautiful Citroen DS range yet?


                      Oh man. I vividly remember the first time I saw one. It was sometime in the late 50s. We we're visiting my grandparents in a small Yorkshire village. On a walk one afternoon we turned a corner, and there it was. Like something out of Dan Dare. Totally incongruous parked beside a leafy lane. I half expected it levitate, and fly off at warp speed. It was that custard yellow colour. Probably like this:

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                        #86
                        Old cars that now look tremendous.

                        Almost an overlooked model, as it was ordinary compared to their older sportier models, but I loved the Sunbeam Rapier in the 70s, with its fastback:

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                        Kind of like a Jensen for the working man!

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                          #87
                          Old cars that now look tremendous.

                          Although I've got much love for the DS, the SM edges it for me, with its '70s-era-space-age tech edge, and its fuck-you-oil-crisis attitude



                          And I've seen some Jensen talk here, but none of the CV-8 yet

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                            #88
                            Old cars that now look tremendous.

                            That fastback is something sweet. I love a good fastback sedan.

                            My personal favourite the is AMC Marlin.

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                              #89
                              Old cars that now look tremendous.

                              I meant to add how great the Panda was, and is.
                              Oh god, that's so wrong it's almost right again.
                              Actually no it's not. It's just totally wrong.

                              My Dad bought one at the auctions once. It was a bag of shit. Noisy, underpowered, it had a weird smell. It used to stop for no reason on the motorway and then start 10 or so minutes later as if nothing was wrong. (And despite stripping the engine, nothing appeared to be.)

                              And it had quite the most uncomfortable and dangerous back seat of any car ever. Basically a (slightly) padded sling strung between 2 metal bars. If you sat on them for more than about 3 minutes your legs went dead.
                              Horrible bloody things.

                              Oh and it looked like one of those cars disabled people drove.

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                                #90
                                Old cars that now look tremendous.

                                evilC wrote: As an '80s kid', I've actually got a thing for box-y, minimal design in cars. I particularly like the Ford Cortina mk.4/5 and the Granada Mk.2:

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                                Actually, when someone said about the MK1 Granada, I looked at the MK2 and realised I quite liked the clean low-fi design of it. That Cortina is alright as well. Indeed, that means that, from 1 through to 5, the Cortina looked nice.

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                                  #91
                                  Old cars that now look tremendous.

                                  I loved that very boxy Panda as, when we were caught in a very narrow lane in Portugal that was a dead end, I was pretty much able to lift the back end to turn it around.

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                                    #92
                                    Old cars that now look tremendous.



                                    The Ford Consul: lovely. An attempt to make an "American-style" car, I suppose, on a slightly more sensible, British-road-friendly scale (and with a slightly more sensible mpg).

                                    For me, one of the best things about old cars is the fact that they used to come in actual colours, without "metallic" at the start of the name. Nothing like a nice snooker-table-green Ford Consul. Wouldn't get that nowadays etc.

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                                      #93
                                      Old cars that now look tremendous.

                                      First generation Mk 2 Toyota Corona



                                      Second generation Mk 2 Corona Coupe



                                      Toyota Crown Coupe

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                                        #94
                                        Old cars that now look tremendous.

                                        Whilst out for a random (i.e. pointless) drive, the other day, I was passed - in relatively quick succession - by first a Maserati Ghibli and then a DB6.

                                        I suppose that, since I was on the A286, coming up form Midhurst towards Guildford, it could have been Clarkson & chums, but I was too busy looking at the cars themselves to notice the drivers. Can you blame me?

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                                          #95
                                          Old cars that now look tremendous.

                                          Speaking of Ford RS200's, the replacement has always had a soft spot in my heart



                                          Nice from the back in all

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                                            #96
                                            Old cars that now look tremendous.

                                            Mental things!

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                                              #97
                                              Old cars that now look tremendous.

                                              evilC wrote: Mental things!
                                              Jaysus, 0-60 in 3.5 seconds??? In a thirty year-old car that was loosely based on an escort? I love it even more now. If I could change one thing about it, I'd like to see slightly more angular headlights, similar to those on the classic blue paint and gold rimmed Subura Impreza WRX, the classic Colin Mcrae model, though the picture I've chosen is the pimped-out 22B STI.



                                              But I'm nitpicking.

                                              I also really liked the old Honda CRX VTEC from 1987. There's something about the lines that I always liked



                                              One last entry, the ford GT40. It amazes me that this car is fifty years old. It's aged beautifully, I reckon.



                                              EDIT: Have to say, group B rallying was effing mental!

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                                                #98
                                                Old cars that now look tremendous.

                                                I'm also thinking about alfa romeo's and lancia's, but I'll have to come back to that as I really should be asleep.

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                                                  #99
                                                  Old cars that now look tremendous.

                                                  Finally a mention for Lancia who probably produced more beautiful car designs than any car manufacturer in these decades.

                                                  Stratos Road.



                                                  Stratos Rally



                                                  Early concept version by Bertone



                                                  Lancia 037 Rally



                                                  Lancia 037 Stradale. This was the homologation road going version of which 200 were produced. Beautiful.



                                                  and the mighty S4. With a 0-60mph time of 2.5 seconds, the acceleration on this supercharged AND turbocharged beast would take your face off. Before the Portuguese F1 Grand prix in 1986 they took an S4 around the Estoril track and it managed a time that would have seen it qualify sixth on the grid for the race. Not try taking your McLaren through a forest!



                                                  Lancia S4 Stradale. Again, the homologated road-going version of the Group B car with a detuned 250bhp output. Very distinctive looking and it shows how very loose the connection was with the Delta.



                                                  Another angle of the same car.

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                                                    Old cars that now look tremendous.

                                                    The Ford RS200 looked a lot better than it went - here's a shot I took of it on its UK debut in the hands of current Ford WRC team boss Malcolm Wilson.



                                                    And I wouldn't normally praise anyone who drinks Vodka Kick or Amigos tequila flavoured beer, but I'm glad that a lot of people must do, because they've given Steve Perez enough of their money to enable him to buy and run an original Stratos on UK rallies in recent years, and it is just a magnificent sight and sound.

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