US Virgin Islands? They drive on the left there, UK-style, so for the purposes of delivering mail an LHD jeep would be more logical than an RHD one.

The problem goes beyond beauty or ugliness. The Z3 Coupé simply did not quite fit in the rather conservative look of the BMWs of its era.

When the 1998-2002 clown shoe BMW Z3 M Coupe was first presented to management (the first prototype of the Z3 Coupe, rather), the executive was lost for words. He just stood there, silent [...].

German-market Minis also had latches, possibly from the very beginning.

Is that a French numberplate on the Royce??

Raph, it is a pity you did not elaborate on BMW Technik GmbH – and the role of Lagaay.

Lovely workmanship. The concept, I am not so sure; it seems terribly irrelevant.

Those jerricans in the back:

I don’t dislike the Allegro as much as I should (probably because the first one I saw was a mimosa yellow one with huge auxiliary lamps and big wide Minilites. I was at an impressionable age) but I have no doubts this –this– is something else:

If anything one could argue that the proportions that are a bit off are the Golf A1's, not the original Delta’s. And I like the first Golf a lot, let me tell you, but it is a bit dumpy. Give to Caesar, etcetera.

Are you sure those are 14" alloys? I remember that design in 13", but maybe they were also available in 14".

About time someone realised what a little gem an early Delta is. I still remember how the press raved over it, back in the day.

Well, both the first Golf and the Delta were designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro. In fact some angles of the Delta seem to suggest a sort of more angular and grown-up, four-door first generation Scirocco (also by GG).

Well, the good thing is that you fixed it and even more importantly, that you still own it.

Loved it. Also impressed by the pictures. Paraphrasing Aldrin, “beautiful - magnificent desolation”.

Good point. Apart from the rally ones (just two or three) there was no Alfetta GTV with the V8... although there is a strange and convoluted story about the German importer asking Autodelta to fit the Montreal engine (the “normal” 2.6, not the marine-spec, flat-plane crank, 3.o V8 which was used in La Bomba) to…

Chairman Kaga! You managed to fix yours and still have it then?

Yes! You are so right; in fact I could have said:

Cocaine (or other psycotropic agents, for that matter) has never had anything to do with inconsistent panel gaps in extremely expensive, extremely rapid Italian cars. In Italy they just don’t put a lot of effort in that particular area of the product.

I’ve read that the real psycho-bastards adorned with Baracca’s lucky charm are the Lampredi-engined ones (375 “Mille Miglia”) that competed in the Panamericana races.