Practically Classics Forum

A classic rally went by the shop last night, just after closing time. There were MGBs, Spridgets, 911s, Big Healeys, Lotus Cortinas, a couple of Bristols (Both S6 & V8), Escorts, Volvos, Triumph TRs, Minis; you name it

It was good to see. The only thing I would say (If anyone reading this was involved in the event), is that some of them were clearly going over 30mph. I mention this, as it is an area where the Police sometimes set up a speed trap and also because it could give the sport a bad name. Yes some of the moderns are driven a lot faster but they do it more quietly than some of the rally cars and you know what some of the do gooders are like A few years ago, there were complaints about speeding and this resulted in a speed trap being set up. Something like 80% of those caught speeding were from the village (Of Llangynidr). What do they say about the pot calling the kettle black

A few pics from last Wednesday's meet at The Coopers Arms, Derby.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ukjeeper/ ... 233001472/

I was surfing barryboys having a giggle and I saw Barry Glover!

Ooh, that's effing lush!

On my trip to the tip on Sunday in Mrs FB's VW Touran, I saw a white mk1 mini pickup with a canvas roof over the load area. Very smart it was too. I also saw a Sierra Saphire which i consider worth mentioning as I can't remember the last time I saw one on the road.

And finally some green military type thing. it was a 4x4 pick up type vehicle and very high ground clearance and a 2 seater LHD cab. it was on a W suffix plate but I have no idea whatsoever what it was.

Sorry, no photo's but was driving at the time. I also knocked myself out cold on the VW's open tailgate when I was returning the rear seats to the proper place. Had a rather nasty concussion so I may have dreamed it all!!

Went to post a letter yesterday and the RO80, that I saw a weeek or so ago, was in Llangynidr Service Station. I only saw the left front corner from a distance but I recognised it straight away. With modern cars, often, unless I see a name or a badge, I don't know (Or care) what it is. Just as I got back to the shop, a SWB Series 2A Land Rover drove past the shop.

Should be a fair bit of spottage from tomorrow. I am going to Le Mans and en route to the ferry, hope to call into Beaulieu. I haven't been there in over forty years.

There should be plenty of spottage at Le Mans - here is the entry list - http://peterauto.peter.fr/files/pdf/lmc ... -entry.pdf, which includes some past winning drivers of the 24 hours.

Have a good trip au Mans, Martin. Here's hoping it's as exciting as it appears to be when there's footage on the telly.

I'm extremely envious.


I spotted something this morning. 3:45, so only just light and I was driving south on the A9 by Perth, on the way home from a placement visit with one of my more entertaining students - the first I've had to carry out during an employer's night shift and what a disorienting experience it was too! Anyway, the thing is, I have no idea what I saw but it appeared to be some sort of 1940s saloon, American perhaps, with a single lamp in the middle of its bonnet (plus the headlamps out in the wings of course), styling similar to the US-built Fords of that period and a DeSoto-ish roof line with small windows and broad pillars. I was sitting at a constant, radar guided 69mph (I always set the Glof's cottaging control to 1 mph under the limit as 3 of my current points are a result of Police Scotland's policy of releasing cameras to the wild so that [the cameras] might breed ) and this odd old motor sailed past as though I was standing still so either its driver was a local who knew precisely where every camera in the area would be at that time or he just didn't give a toss, but the exhaust note of the old car was strange, not as musical as a V8, nor as consistent as an IL6. IL8 maybe? The "hood" was certainly long enough.
I swept through Edinburgh on the way back East as it would - so I assumed - be quiet at that sort of time (I had assumed badly, the feckin' place was heaving as per usual) and in the capital, so it seems, it's compulsory these days for every third building to have a Morris Minor stood outside. OK, that remark may have been slightly exaggerative. Edinburgh folk like their classics and Minors are always around given their suitability for daily use, but today, there were more than I think I've seen on any single day since the early '80s.
Then, coming past the cement works on the coast road to the south east of the city, two 1950s-style Bedford buses in Trossachs Trundler livery were clearly lost as they operate out of Callander and serve that area, which is a good 50 miles away to the north west.
Finally, on the way into Berwick as I wanted a roll & egg and had time to kill, I did spy an apparently near perfect Subaru Sumo in the dark blue that was applied as default colour to these weird, yet highly effective Rascal-sized vans in cases where they weren't required to be finished in the livery of someone's floristry business. I felt almost old when it dawned on me that I could remember having PDI'd these vans when they were being sold new and even more scarily; that I found myself remembering the torque settings required for attaching bits to other bits when working on the abused examples we used to see through the dealers' workshops when I was with IM all those years ago. It's amazing what hunger can do to the human mind.

Spotted at a The Fling Festival last weekend. Looks like an ex-military comms vehicle now pulling duty as a burger (wild boar!) bar.

stripy porsche

alfa diesel




3 year old rosies version of the italian job

On leaving my hotel in Portsmouth this morning, spotted these beauties in the car park;