Leyland P76. The butt of many jokes, including people calling it a P38 (half the car it should be). Supposedly poor build quality and unreliable, but the ones I had were fine. Even to the point of my daily driver being tight and rattle free after 25 years of life including having been driven off a cliff (albeit low)…
Maybe not my most vivid memory, but probably my earliest and most significant memory was at the age of 8 being asked by my dad late one night if I wanted to see some race cars. We drove a few miles through the suburbs of Melbourne where we stood on the side of a main road heading out of town, and I remember thinking…
My current daily is about the closest you could get to a true land yacht experience in the Australian market - a 2003 Ford BA Falcon Fairlane Ghia. Basically a long wheelbase Ford Falcon, whose closest US equivalent would be a Crown Vic. Compared to everything else I have ever owned, driving it is as comfortable as…
I bought this 2003 Ford BA Fairlane Ghia 2 years ago with almost exactly 150,000 miles on it. Most of my other vehicles are older than me (and I’m 51) so to me it feels brand new.
In my experience, when you tighten a wheel nut until you hear a “TAK” you also feel it as a jolt/shock through the wheel brace, so it is probably intuitive for deaf people too!
Holden Hurricane:
No mention of the Mazda Cosmo 110S right next to the yellow Testarossa? Despite only seeing a tiny bit of it in the first pic, I spotted it immediately and couldn’t get excited about anything else afterwards. I have what is probably an unhealthy obsession with them.
Easy choice.
Amphicar?
Hah! I know (via an internet forum) the guy that built that van, which is called ‘Disturbia’ - the little rectangular clear lenses set into the front spoiler are reverse lights from a Daihatsu Applause - I know this because I found him that pair at a scrapyard and sent them to him.
My Fiat 850 Sport Coupe had a similarly odd layout from a potential failure perspective. The engine was longitudinally mounted in rear engine configuration, with the radiator beside it, so the water pump and fan was on the end of a long stalk that bolted to the side of the block. The alternator was driven by a belt…
Datsun 180Bs (Datsun 610) had a tach that was an option on the base models (only standard on the ‘sports’ model SSS coupe) but was easy to retrofit - there were 2 wires plugged into each other in the loom right behind the location for the tach that fed the ignition coil, so all you had to do was pop out the instrument…
1985 Kawasaki GPz750 Turbo (already have the non-turbo GPZ750-A3 version)
I submit my vote for ‘Watch Out, We’re Mad’ from 1974, with Terence Hill and Bud Spencer.
I had a Series II Sport Coupe, and fit in it OK at 6'1", although an extra set of knees would have been handy. All 3 pedals have to fit in quite a small space, so you have to choose the right shoes to drive one - when I drove mine in workboots it was too easy to accelerate while trying to brake, or clipping the brake…
I think one of the reasons they weighed a ton related to the fact that things like the rear quarter panels, sills and roof all bolted on, so performed less of a structural role than in a ‘normal’ car, requiring more metal in the structure underneath. The De Dion rear end was probably also heavier than a more…
No Dice - it’s not a ute (or even rarer, a 6 seater ute!)
These were a very budget subcompact model, so chances are those are actually the fanciest wheel available from the factory.Although they are not as plain as they first appear, take a close look - they have a 4-spoke design pressed into them, rather than being a plain smooth rim.
I had a B10 wagon with a ‘big block’ conversion - the 1200cc A Series from a B210 replacing the original 1000cc. Despite 12" wheels, a 4 speed box and a 1:4.375 diff ratio, I managed to get it up to 180km/h for nearly an hour in the middle of the night on a narrow country back road. Around 9000rpm, no dropped valves…
Morgan. If only because it’s my name too, so a Morgan boot badge looks great on my tool cabinet.
