Practically Classics Forum

Here is my father's Mini in the pits in 1961.


That is the one he supercharged. It would have been fitted with a tow bar (I think I can just make it out), as he used to tow his Cooper single seater with it. They flew over in some kind of ex WW2 or Korean War transport aircraft.

I hadn't been to Le Mans in years and I must say I dislike the extra chicanes. When I last went, it was just the Ford Chicane; I think the approach to the Esses is now a dog's dinner and I think the Mulsanne has been ruined. Still it is Le Mans and it's still special . Indianapolis is a meaty corner.

As to today, a light blue Frogeye went by the shop.

Yesterday on local TV here in central/west France they interviewed a bloke who had a mint 2CV.
Nothing odd in that, I hear you say.
There was. This one had - wait for it - chrome wire wheels.
Bloke said they were made in UK at the time when 2CVs were built in Slough.
I'm rarely rattled but I never want to see anything like that again.

I popped along to Hartlepool Rovers Rugby Club for a small car show. I turned up late
due to mother went out with the only car key.

Seen earlier today. For a change, I was actually parked at the time so was able to fiddle with the infotainment doo-dah and make a picture. Only trouble was that I was at the far side of the car park from the Riley, hence the extreme zoom and grain.

You can just make out two thirds of the local Wilson, Keppel and Betty tribute turn doing their practising in the background.

was out cruising the local green lanes of north wilts on saturday and saw a bright yellow Mk 3 Cortina towing what looked like a 70's Sprite caravan on the A4 between Avebury and Caln.

Fatbloke wrote:was out cruising

Nothing at all wrong with that, American Graffiti is one of my favourite films.

Today, I saw a Ford Thunderbird coming out of the area of Shields that's known as "Little Latvia". Big, black and very, very shiny I had to look up the year as it's not one of the T-bird shapes I was familiar with. I tend not to go down there unless nobody else is prepared to be fed cake. Lots of lovely cake and strange-tasting tea that doesn't half hit the thirst, but today had a student to take home after he had broken his poor head with a Ford Granada camshaft cover. The engine was ok and apparently a broken nose is a badge of honour among the student's peers so we shouldn't be sued for this.
Here's the type of T-bird I saw and if you were the lucky person driving, I was the one with the dumb grin on my chops looking at you from the red Golf that was just passing the High Lights in a Northerly direction.


Same colour as that one and also with hard top. Very nice it was, I don't know whether I've seen one before today.

In Clayton near Manchester. Nice to watch out for Classics whilst transporting humans

Ooh! Now, what's the name of that colour? Is that Saffron? Nice looking estates those were and bizarrely - in a way contrary to normal practice - the estates were a good bit shorter than the saloons. Not that this matters when a car is amply massive to start with.

It's not unlike bracken (My V8 colour) but I don't think it is quite the same. What are 2000/2500s like on spares or put another way, how do they compare with MGBs, for spares availability

Back to my spottage and a classic car run went past the shop today (It's not open but I am doing a bit of tiding up out the back and my father is servicing the Hydrovane) and I spotted a Frogeye, two Daimler SP250s, a TR3, a Bristol (V8 model), an XJ40 Jaguar (Some of them will be old enough to be called classic now), the was an A40 Somerset or it could have been an A70 (Hampshire I think....without checking); I was some distance from it and only saw it for a fraction of a second. There were others but I'd have needed a note book to recall them.

With an MGB I believe that absolutely everything - including roadster screen frames again - is available these days, the T2000/T2500 are well served for parts but I can't see them being as well catered for as the B, a shame as they're a highly capable car with stacks of internal space (makes the rival P6 look very cramped by comparison) and are lovely to drive, especially with the short stroke 2000 engine though the 2500 has its supporters too.

Which brings me to another T2500, the Tahiti blue one I saw last night on the A1 just North of Middleton Tyas, site of the famous Scotch Corner Hotel, after I'd been to a small meet in Richmond with some people from a music-based forum I frequent. I was cruising at a steady 70mph and the old Triumph shot by as though I was parked. It sounded absolutely glorious.

Then, on my way back home, I dropped off the A1 at the Angel and came through Goatshead and across the river at the swing bridge to relieve the A-road boredom. There I followed a minty green, clearly modified Vauxhall FD (Victor or Ventora? No idea as I never saw it from in front) estate. I say clearly as it had just the two doors and some very fat tyres. Heading north out of Toon, just by the Gosforth Park where Race For Life was still causing some traffic disruption even at that time of the night, I was overtaken by yet another old motor, in this case a MK3 Cortina. I'd seen him approaching in the mirror so swiftly got around the car I was passing and back to 60 so that 'Tina driver had space to pass me and pull back into the northbound lane. He seemed surprised that someone in a bland, though admittedly nearly orange, modern motor had got out of the way just for him and I was greeted with a thumb and some friendly waving from within the Ford, I reciprocated and off he went, I thought no more to it but this morning, when I opened the kitchen door for my first look over the beach, what should be parked down there along with all of the usual VW Transporters and Astra vans (seemingly the current surfer transport of choice around these parts)? No, not that MK3 Cortina but the modern Camaro looked like one before I'd put my lens in! So there you have it; Cortina owners: Don't pish your next Month's wages up the wall on an American muscle car tribute act, just keep the Ford and never put your contacts in.