Canvas sunroofs are the business. The 'muffler' on top of the engine is actually the air filter housing – if it's anything like those that I've seen on similar-vintage British cars, it's easily removable. Still, it rather ruins the look of the engine bay. With the cam covers polished, the XK engine is a beautiful…

Sacrilege!

So very true. My wife's grandfather, although not a professor, is about as 'professorial' as they come (he worked on PBS educational programs). Tweed, elbow patches, extremely intelligent and well-spoken. His daily driver is a well-worn avocado green Karmann Ghia.

Yeah, that was common to all hydraulic Citroëns until the XM and the Xantia. The feeling of it gradually rising up never got old!

As a former Citroën owner (BX 16v and Xantia), I agree wholeheartedly.

I'm a Scirocco owner, and I approve this message.

I presume that has the same XUD9 engine that Xantias and BXs got? I once nearly bought a Xantia 1.9D with 420,000km on the clock. It still drove great.

Yes! Or when the 'OK' sign would flicker on and off, jitter around, and sometimes be completely obscured by display glitches.

Being a recent transplant to the US (from New Zealand), this is something that has frustrated me immensely. I have only ever owned hatchbacks in the past, and, to be honest, I would have to think very long and hard about owning something that isn't.

It happened for me once (in New Zealand, so a right turn is across traffic).

It's a convertible, but I agree, the coupes look gorgeous – when I was young, my father restored an XK150 coupe, so I know exactly what you mean. I've never had the pleasure of driving a 'proper' British sports car, so I'm really looking forward to getting it on the road again.

I may be slightly biased, but I love the 2000/2500. They may have been Camry-common, but they had enough of a sporting touch to them to be quite an enjoyable drive. The Triumph straight-six is a lovely engine, especially in the fuel-injected form that the European TR5 and 6, and the 2.5PI saloon got. I've never driven…

BMC/Leyland may have had a bad reputation for quality, but I've never had a problem with any of my NZ-assembled cars. My Triumph 2500 is still in the family with over 200,000 miles on it, and has never had any major engine or drivetrain work. The exterior looks a little rough, but the interior looks like new, and it…

1100s and 1300s used to be dime-a-dozen in NZ. Many BMC/BL cars were assembled locally, mostly in Nelson. They're generally thought to be a bit better put-together than their UK-assembled counterparts, and have the benefit of never having been exposed to road salt.

Fair enough. The Mitsubishi was old and throughly worn-out, which I'm sure was part of the problem. A distinctly floppy shift action combined with an unfamiliar layout made for some embarrassing driving, though. And don't get me wrong, I love me some Diesel, but they certainly have come a long way in refinement in…

A lot of Japanese-made vans (the '90s Toyota Hiace springs to mind) had an even better arrangement - they had two proper front seats, and a jumpseat between them that could fold away into an armrest when it wasn't in use.

That looks like an incredibly awesome project. Just the picture of that engine brings back memories... I spent an awful lot of time in a 2500 engine bay for one reason or another. I think that I could probably rebuild SUs with my eyes shut.

Definitely the TR6. I've driven Triumph's 2000 and 2500 saloon models in the past, and love that inline-six to bits. To have that in an open-top sports car would be absolute heaven.

That's a sad story, for sure (I'm restoring a 1956 MGA at the moment). But I certainly wouldn't write off all British cars for that reason. Once a car gets that old, there are so many things that could be potential fire-starters, if not taken care of. Fuel lines split, insulation chafes and cracks, and old seals and…

Back in NZ, a friend of mine had a Mitsubishi van with a very worn five-on-the-tree. I drove it once, and it was easier just to select a gear at random and go with it than try for any particular one.