correct, they were extremely expensive new.
They're worth about £60k now, so the only advantage over an F40 or 959 ,(which are now 20 times the value), is they're extreme rarely.
I believe they sold less than 20, but i could be wrong
(incidentally i don't own this car, i just posted it because it's unusual and not widely seen.)
You could be onto something regarding the left-over paint... At least BL was known for using the remaining drops of paint for the chassis of the TRs and the Spitfire. E.g. It's 'normal' to have a wild-coloured chassis under a BRG body. Red, yellow, shades of blue... All is documented.
And further back in time, when the TR2 was launched: they had an odd variety of eye-watering colours... The wife of the Standard-Triumph CEO was in charge of picking colours. She even had a few cars installed with... a dashboard covered with wicker(!) trim.
Her interesting colour choices are in line with the modern-day Porsche colour Frozen Berry!
Yup that's restoring old cars !!
if you can't DIY the work it can be very very very expensive.
mind you if you're doing a long term high value restoration 100 Euros per hour seems a bit steep.
on a big project would hope to pay nearer to £50 per hour for a 200 hour plus restoration.
i knew of a DB5 that had £600K spent to restore it to concourse condition from a wreck.
(they're complicated and expensive though as superleggera body with aluminium panels on steel space frame and steel chassis.)
Very interesting, didn't know about the wild chassis colours on Tr's etc, using up left over paints.
back in the 60's and 70's i think there were far less 'wild' colours than today, and a lot of grey's, browns, and pastel colours.
Agreed today there is a fashion for very bright colours, like Porsche Lizard Green, Miami blue, Wildberry, Voodoo purple, Speed yellow etc, as well as very flat colours like 'Crayon'
no probs !! easily done
the 7 litre V12 is a monster of an engine
lister-le-mans-engine-bay.jpg
Old - Probably posted before, but a quick(ish) Cooper S is always a hoot IMHO.. this one always brings a smile to my face anyway
Modern (ish) - Not that interesting or quick, I just like the way it looks
Both tucked up for the winter as I tootle around in tweaked Type R
Last edited by stiglet; 13th January 2023 at 12:26.
If you happen to have found a bloke who charges you 50 gbp/hr I would strongly advise you to stick to this guy! Going rate is touching € 100 /hr and some are even more expensive. But I cannot see why. Well, apart from this guy perhaps. He has customers from all over the world. Including Pebble Beach Concours contenders like Evert Louwman.Yup that's restoring old cars !!
if you can't DIY the work it can be very very very expensive.
mind you if you're doing a long term high value restoration 100 Euros per hour seems a bit steep.
on a big project would hope to pay nearer to £50 per hour for a 200 hour plus restoration.
https://autorestauraties.nl
nice little stable you've got on the go there Stiglet, Coopers S great car. I had a '66 Morris 1275 S MK1 many years ago. Greatly regret selling it. 1340 running a webber 45, and it did go well.
The V8 is a very pretty car, and you're falsely modest to say it's not interesting. It's an Aston !! they're all interesting, even a turkey like a Virage is interesting, (despite the dreadful build quality of the last hand built cars during the Virage era.)
Type R great car. driven a Mugen version with 240 BHP. fantastic handling and peach of an engine, plus pretty bullet proof.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Love that Mini! I was half owner of a Mk1 Cooper S, but due to a prolonged restoration I lost interest and sold my share to put into the 930. Whenever I see one as good looking as this I have a touch of regret, but the restoration is now into its 5th year and I suspect it will never be done, but not my problem any more.
Regarding the 930 and the Cobra. 930 was and always will be my dream car. It's just the coolest thing in the world to me.
The story of the Cobra is convoluted, but it's part of the family and not really something I can judge objectively. It's exciting, loud and looks fantastic, but it's not particularly nice to drive. Some poor choices were made in its life and it has a monster engine which keeps eating up clutches and gearboxes. Even though I am the keeper of it, I can't really make any drastic decisions regarding it, otherwise I'd take a few steps back and redo some things to make it more reliable and pleasant. As it is it's more of an amazing icon than something we actively enjoy, which is a shame.
Old watches and old cars have a similar vibe I love them both and all the arcane know how that goes along with it
I’m running these 2 at the moment although the +2 is for sale as I fancied a soft top so I got an Elise, that’s not old enough for me to show in this thread. Thing with cars is they take up a lot more space than watches.
These are cool as they are both 1600 2+2 from the early 70s. The Lancia is piece by piece engineered and the V4 engine is a superb invention. The Elan +2 is a Ford block with a genius twin cam head from Lotus and it’s a pragmatic British parts bin special. They are both great solutions to the same proposition. The Lotus wins in a race though.
and as a Saturday bonus for my fellow enthusiasts here is Monica Belucci getting out of a Fulvia Sport, not my pic hahaha
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Some great cars on here . 'Love the Elan and the 930. ( and Monica)
One of the few cars I found genuinely frightening was a 7 litre Cobra.
The mini is a bit of a bitza - It's got a 1380 lump with a 286 cam and a 45 Dellorto, straight-cut gears and an LSD - 'goes well enough on a good day !
The only other classic in the garage is my old Merlyn which is not that fast but still a hoot to drive
Last edited by stiglet; 14th January 2023 at 14:27.
Monica B. stepping out of the Fulvia. That pic: Same iconic power as a well-dressed Connery leaning on the Aston
Three currently (sadly down from the heady days of five):
The III is a blueprinted (many years ago) A+ The IV is a K, but with all aluminium plenum chamber and so on. The composite body is far more rigid than metal monocoques and the nitrogen suspension is set up as Alex Moulton originally intended, leading to a ridiculously smooth ride and immense grip. There's no lifting a rear wheel as you break hard into a corner as happens in even the best set up racing mini. Aided by the Brabham streamlining underneath - this was redesigned by Gordon Murray and his team - the Midas has a lower drag coefficient than the Elise, and generates useful downforce at speed. It's certainly fun to drive, but its no go cart.
[QUOTE=Corporalsparrow;6140414]Three currently (sadly down from the heady days of five):
Nice! I would love a look at that Elite and love the Alfas too. Please share the specs.
Here are my oldies!
The first is a vehicle I purchased off this very forum late at night after a couple of wines! The idea being it would be a cheap ish birthday gift for my dad who could run around the village in it and use it as a car for the dog.
It didn’t turn out to be that cheap in the end as my dad refused to drive it in the condition it was in. It has now had quite a lot of money thrown at fixing it up and is basically a new car underneath.
The brakes are still a bit scary though, so the next job is to try and get some sort of upgrade for those.
The second oldie I purchased on an online auction, also after a couple of wines, it needs a bit of tidying up but generally seems to run ok.
I didn’t realise when I bid on it but it turns out the previous owner is a well known Rolex expert.
Maybe it is because of my age and what I saw when I was growing up but I just love the look of this shape SL and they waft along so nicely, perfect in the summer with the roof off.
I am not sure the third is old enough for this thread at 16 years old but I thought I would post it anyway.
I am pleased to say that no wine drinking was involved in this purchase.
This is an absolutely amazing car to drive and I think the 997 shape is aging really well.
Last edited by JoePattinson; 15th January 2023 at 04:36.
The 5-series I bought in 1981...
The restored Pantera my brother currently owns...
More pictures of the pantera please!!
One of my favourite cars
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I guess because the Cob is an FIA racecar, it's probably heavily modified, and race cars can be a bit savage, and slightly undriveable on the road.
however if it's got interesting history, and in period modifications, it would probably be a shame to put it back to standard.
just a though regarding the gearbox, I know a chap that runs some of the FIA cars that run at Goodwood revival, etc, and he doesn't tend to have gearbox problems with those cars, so i'm sure it could be rebuilt to make it reliable.
Loving watching Bangers and Cash on TV, lots of nice finds.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
agreed, watches and cars go together like bread and butter
love your Elan +2, looks good in white.
That Lancia Fulvia with the Zagato body looks really special.
and Monica Belluci ain't bad either !
Lancias from that time were beautifully engineered, and unusually for a sports car of that era the Fulvia was front wheel drive.
one of my favourite Lancias of the 60's was the Lancia Flaminia Supersport Zagato. I love the curvy body, and the double bubble roof shape, (although that's not very visible in this photo)
TZ flaminia zagato red.jpg
M4tt,
Thanks for the comprehensive explanation of the specs of your 2 Midas's
The composite body car sounds very high spec, with Nitrogen filled shocks, flat floor streamling underneath, probably with a venturi to develop downforce.
Agreed racing mini's will lift an inside rear wheel, and a properly set up car doesn't do that.
I described my own '66 Cooper S, (which was modified, running a bulkheaded Webber 45, ported / flowed head, 3 branch manifold, and dynoed at just over 100bhp), as a go cart, (meant as a compliment to it), as it was so direct and alive, with wheels at each corner... so it turned in, and changed direction like a go cart.
nice to see a stateside post.... love the BMW, and amazing you've had it so long. very unusual.
Your brothers' Pantera is very special, immaculately restored, with all the polishing, and painted engine bay, (unlike the factory underseal finish). also looks like it's fuel injected, with ali heads, 17inch wheels, stainless exhaust, group 4 arches etc, so heavily ugraded.
a friend over here has a 1989 GT5S, and i had a GT5 in the late 90's and really regret selling it.
Makes me smile as it’s such a good scene in Le Mans 66 where Iacocca shows the kind of pic you mean and says ‘James Bond doesn’t drive a Ford’ and Henry Ford II says ‘that’s because he’s a degenerate’, something about that always tickles me. I can’t believe anyone in this thread hasn’t seen that movie more than once but if you missed it I can highly recommend.
agreed le mans 66 is a really good watch. excellent film, based on a true story, with a bit of hollywood shizzle thrown in for good measure.
I saw it on amazon a few times now.
love the way HF II nearly soils himself when Carol Shelby (Matt Damon) takes him for a test drive in the GT40 development car on the airfield track.
I spent several years restoring this old lady to her former glory and eventually sold it due to losing my storage. I found a picture of it in a history of Bedfords book where my work was completely missed from the history quoted! It was originally languishing in a scrap yard (not a recycling centre!) and as a "birth year" find, I bought it on the spot! Totally stripped, shot blasted, nut and bolt rebuild, etch primed undercoated and glossed, rewired, then admired! For info, it had stood in the "scrap yard" for several years and after a drain and refill of fuel, oil and coolant, started within 10 seconds of cranking, running well and ticking over sweetly. A careful test run, on trade plates and she was judged good to go. Even the clutch and brakes were free!
I know that it isn't a car but the photos of my Jaguars are long gone!!!
Last edited by tixntox; 2nd February 2023 at 23:01.
2 of my old cars that I’ve now passed on to new owners. Admittedly chalk and cheese but both pretty rare in their own right.
Although I loved the Twin Cam I actually got way more looks and positive comment on the Ami 6
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I remember the Ami6 from a really enjoyable episode of TopGear when James May bought one at Auction, in order to drive on a Rally in Cyprus or Sardinia, (I cant remember which island in the Med.)
He had great fun in the car, and also had a glamour model co-pilot !!
The twin cam is rare and very cool.