What cars would you like to see reborn?

[scooter]

We got out rather quickly.................

It was at that point your guardian angel decided to take up drinking and smoking

[McColm]

Tell me about it! A V8 Marina did its best to kill me, but failed.

It wasn't just in an Estate body, they were going to put V8s in saloon and coupes too, but the nearest they got to 'production' were the 5-6 World Cup Rally cars, only 3 of which took part IIRC.

The one that I crashed in was a 4 door (I think...) that we were testing to measure wheel hub loads etc. and the instrumented wheel hub ITSELF failed, and the wheel and most of the front suspension took off down the MIRA 1 mile straight, leaving us behind with no means of steering, nor support for the front left hand corner of the car! It promptly turned left, went right through the Armco barrier and rolled down the embankment on it's roof......

We got out rather quickly.................

[PR19_Kit]

That's a very 'different'  front end on the Marina Estate, looks a bit Droop Snoot-ish.  And from the date mentioned in the article, 1973, that was quite a long while after the other V8 projects, which were done in 1969.

Thanks for the scan, you learn something new every day.

[Later] Actually reading the article in AROline they DIDN'T use the V8 in the CAR Mag car, although they thought of it. The car actually had a blueprinted MGB 4 cyl. 1.8 litre engine, the same block as the larger engined standard car. It was still prety quick for the time though, 0-60 in 10 secs dead.

[Old Wombat]

1972 Ford ZF Fairlane 302 Windsor motor



Owned one many years ago; was like driving a boat but she could cruise at 80mph sipping a mere 28mpg stock.

[thundereagle1997]

   I miss the Holden company so much

[Pellson]

The proper Land Rover Defender rather than the fragile soccer mum pretto van they replaced it with.

Hang on, someone is actually doing that..
>>The INEOS Grenadier<<

[Rheged]

Tell me about it! A V8 Marina did its best to kill me, but failed.

It wasn't just in an Estate body, they were going to put V8s in saloon and coupes too, but the nearest they got to 'production' were the 5-6 World Cup Rally cars, only 3 of which took part IIRC.

The one that I crashed in was a 4 door (I think...) that we were testing to measure wheel hub loads etc. and the instrumented wheel hub ITSELF failed, and the wheel and most of the front suspension took off down the MIRA 1 mile straight, leaving us behind with no means of steering, nor support for the front left hand corner of the car! It promptly turned left, went right through the Armco barrier and rolled down the embankment on it's roof......

We got out rather quickly.................

Another fine example of  English  understatement..


As to Pellson's comment about the new shape Landrover, a friend who still goes out with a Lake District mountain rescue team tells me that they were loaned one "to play with" as part of Landrover's test programme.  His comment was that it may not look as rugged, but it would do EVERYTHING that an old style Defender could do.

[PR19_Kit]

We got out rather quickly.................

Another fine example of  English  understatement..

Hehehe I guess.

We were upside down when we stopped, both me and John Barlow, the observer, were still held in place by our 4 point harnesses, and he was facing backwards too. John said 'What should we do now?' (I might add he was at least 20 yrs older than me and much more experienced in such matters...) I yelled 'Get the hell out, the tank's still full!' So John promptly bashed his quick release and fell on his head! 

I put one hand on the roof, now below me, and hit my QR as well, so my landing was a tad softer, but it still hurt. We then both yanked our doors open, which amazingly worked, and ran like hell. The car didn't brew up though, thank goodness.

Our test engineers were over the moon as they'd braked the mobile lab very hard, which was connected to us by a multi-core retractable cable, and had a complete record of stresses and strains of a REAL crash!

[McColm]

The Mk5 Ford Cortina, once a formidable sight on the British roads but when was the last time you saw one? For me it was in Manchester back in 2016, it could have been the Mk4 as the two looked remarkably similar. The Germans produced their own version and I think but I could be wrong that these were exported to Australia and renamed Holden with the bigger engines with slight design tweaks.

[Dizzyfugu]

Yes, in Germany it was called the Ford Taunus.

[su27rules]

Second the Volovo Amazon!!

[PR19_Kit]

Mk 5s had a louvred grille, whereas the Mk 4s were much simpler, and the 5s rear view mirrors were larger and 'grew' out of the A Post, but the 4s were on short stalks.

I ran a Mk 5 1.6 litre Estate for almost 3 yrs and 15000 miles in the late 70s-early 80s and it carried all sorts of stuff easily and was remarkably trouble free

Apart from the cracked exhaust manifold (replaced my me in the car deck of a ferry half way across the North Sea....) and a cable loom through the bulkhead that came detached and totally immobilised the car just as I came ashore in Holland. (NOT on the same trip as the exahaust repair...)

[Pellson]

Tell me about it! A V8 Marina did its best to kill me, but failed.

It wasn't just in an Estate body, they were going to put V8s in saloon and coupes too, but the nearest they got to 'production' were the 5-6 World Cup Rally cars, only 3 of which took part IIRC.

The one that I crashed in was a 4 door (I think...) that we were testing to measure wheel hub loads etc. and the instrumented wheel hub ITSELF failed, and the wheel and most of the front suspension took off down the MIRA 1 mile straight, leaving us behind with no means of steering, nor support for the front left hand corner of the car! It promptly turned left, went right through the Armco barrier and rolled down the embankment on it's roof......

We got out rather quickly.................

Another fine example of  English  understatement..


As to Pellson's comment about the new shape Landrover, a friend who still goes out with a Lake District mountain rescue team tells me that they were loaned one "to play with" as part of Landrover's test programme.  His comment was that it may not look as rugged, but it would do EVERYTHING that an old style Defender could do.

..but absorb the dents and scratches with the dignity of the old one. If you dent a wing on the New Defender, you need to fix it. Not so much in an old one. And I really miss that.

Of course the New Defender is competent. If it wasn't, then you would have heard about it..

Have a look at the Grenadier.  It isn't as posh, but it definitely is more durable. I know which quality I prefer.

[jcf]

Invicta 

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[zenrat]

Gorgeous.