Practically Classics Forum

Oh look, the internet has provided footage of our man GHT becoming aware of the existence of the Maestro..

"Oh look, the internet has provided footage of our man GHT becoming aware of the existence of the Maestro.."


Isn't that the mad arse car with the talking voice and V8 engine?

WANT IT!

OMG That is just hideous I would rather pickle my eyeballs than look at that - but wait GHT may well have point according to this report of the top ten worst British cars of all time http://www.carsite.co.uk/news/article/t ... time/12818 - sadly both the Allegro & Maestro feature in the top ten along with another six BL / Rover stablemates - but wait what's at number one JOHN ?

At least I don't compete with GHT when it comes to the worst shirts & shoes worn in the country (maybe world)

Being best at being bad is still being best at something!

i read that nonsense, was it written by the local know it all from the pub?
ive owned & driven most of the cars while my maestro van was a pile of sh##e & my metro was worse the marinas & allegros etc we had were great little cars..

Grumpy Northener wrote:OMG That is just hideous I would rather pickle my eyeballs than look at that - but wait GHT may well have point according to this report of the top ten worst British cars of all time http://www.carsite.co.uk/news/article/t ... time/12818 - sadly both the Allegro & Maestro feature in the top ten along with another six BL / Rover stablemates - but wait what's at number one JOHN ?

British built cars of the fifties and early sixties were, in the main, robust. Reliability was always an issue, but with such things as alternators replacing dynamos, reliability improved. When the car companies amalgamated, it was actually nationalisation by any other name, the management wasn't ruthless by disposing of factories and bringing the curtain down on many of the classic marques. The whole episode was a political football. To the unions, public ownership meant job security, and to get the public to buy the cars, a doctrine of buy British was espoused. So much so, that drivers of the early Japanese cars would sport a car sticker that read Buy Blitish. Those cars in question really did have a shocking reputation. Like many others, I bought into the Buy British campaign. In 1972 I bought my wife a brand new Mini. It was awful, mechanical and body panels problems from day one. In the end, it had to go. Stupidly, I replaced it, in 1976, with a brand new Allegro. That was so appallingly bad that I would have willingly traded it back for the Mini. Still a sucker for punishment, I traded the Allegro for a brand new Maxi, that was in 1978. The Maxi lasted until 1983. I won't bore you with the catalogue of problems, but the car cost about £3700 brand new, I managed to get £400 for it. From then on, apart from a Talbot Rancho, I have bought German and so have millions of others, which probably helped speed the demise of BL.

Grumpy Northener wrote:At least I don't compete with GHT when it comes to the worst shirts & shoes worn in the country (maybe world)

There was a youngish guy in the supermarket who told me that I looked like a c***. He was wearing worn out jeans, a T-shirt with a profanity printed on it, a pair of trainers, caked in mud and a baseball cap, although not worn back to front, the stitching on the peak was coming undone. And of course he also had that modern fashion statement, the six inch belly overhang.

One of these is long overdue on the list (shame it's advertised at twice it's actual real value)

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C800696

That's a cool old truck.
What actually is it as the seller has put the make and model both in as "fire engine"

Terry - I believe that it's a Austin K4 - built from the 30's to the early 50's (this is probably an early 40's model and certainly not 1965 as advertised) - petrol engined early ones being three & half litre and the later ones were 4 litre - Bedford also made a very similar looking truck designated as the 'OB' model range again with three and a half litre straight six petrol engines - the Bedford range in particular led to some very smart evocative bus / coach designs of the era http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/28200692 ... mvSB=true- I'll get ma coat - sorry anorak as I am beginning to sound like one