Word

This. Fiat sells the 500 and the Panda, but they gave up on the Punto supermini years ago, and the Tipo is a Golf sized, Turkish built afterthought that mostly competes with Dacia.

Jeez, what the heck did they do to the back end of that poor Renault 11?

Those Renault vans, the Kangoo and Trafic in particular, sell in large numbers under a range of different badges, though. Including Nissan

I’d have sworn blind that the later Lancia Gamma Coupé was another Gandini design in a remarkably similar vein to the Garmisch, but no: the Lancia is the work of Aldo Brovarone at Pininfarina.

If I were to have bazillions to waste on a car, this is the sort of thing I’d blow it on. Not a modern supercar or hypercar: this, a unique piece of automotive art that models what an ordinary car could be.

The 2CV didn’t have any headgaskets either, a result of both engineering vision, steely pragmatism and the history of the mass produced car.

There are dedicated car shows for these endangered species now:

They’re interesting machines, and reasonably rust free ones can be had for chips in France

Yup- nearly all the ones on the endangered list have gone through the Valley of Death, and emerged triumphant. I’m not sure why in the case of the Nova and Cavaliers, though, but different strokes for different folks and all that.

I guess kilometerteller (‘kilometer counter’) doesn’t quite work in English.

I like to think I’m confident enough to ignore others, and do my own thing. But the Manta is a reminder that, however much I like the design of both Manta A and B in isolation, I could never drive one.

And polyurethane v. old skool rubber bushings. Which makes me think you can put an old car’s suspension seriously out of whack without even consciously modifying it from its original bare spec.

My first thought too.

I guess he is now, but wasn’t he liquid cooled during his lifetime? 🤔

Hold on, she’ll be on boost any minute now

In between the Lohner-Porsche and the Kurogane, there’s also the 1903 Spyker 60 HP - the first car to have four wheel drive from a single engine.

Even better as Emma Peel, hooning her little Lotus Elan in The Avengers.

It’s a nightmare for the car companies. They have to engineer a car to reduce injury for people who are strapped in (i.e. nearly everyone) and for the small number of idiots in the US who are not.

How do you mean “they don’t last”? The 1007 is indeed dead & gone, but the Porte / Spade is a perennial favourite on the Japanese school run.