Driving Song Of The Week: Mew – Comforting Sounds

Classic Car Of The Week: Alfa Romeo Spider.

Very few cars get prettier with age, except the DB7, Jag XJ* and XK  to name a few.

However this is one of the cars which belongs in the other category, were a car starts off beautiful and ends up ungainly, fat and well… almost ugly.
The Alfa Spider, was made between 1966 and 1993, however the ‘proper’ boat-tail style of Spider, was only in production for three years.

The series 1 looked like this, (The wheels aren’t original)

The series 4 ended like this,

 

 

I honestly don’t know what Alfa were thinking.

Over the years they added safety bumpers, side skirts and bigger alloys to try and keep the car looking fresh.  But the biggest mistake is the Kamm-tail, ok yes you had a bigger boot… but it’s a sportscar. The Duetto wasn’t the fastest car in the world but it had the looks. So you got more storage space, but does it really matter, when you compromise everything else?

The kamm-tail is one of the worst things to ever happen to car design, even Chris Bangle was less of a disaster.

This is a series 3.

 

*XJ40 isn’t great.
Series 1 pictures front  rear

The rest of the pictures are from Wikipedia

That’s Not Gone Well: Twice the Polyfilla.

 !!SHOWCAR!! calibra modifed bodykit
it has featured in max power and is guaranteed to turn peoples heads.

brake calipers and engine have been sprayed green.

 

this car is GUARANTEED to get you noticed. 

Raping someone in the middle of Argos, will also get you noticed… can’t say either idea is good though.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

modified vauxhall corsa show car

 

Now this Corsa used to look like this, which is bad enough…

But he is selling it looking like this…

I WANT 50 POUND DEPOSIT WITHIN 24HOURS OF THE AUCTION ENDING

You’ll be lucky to get £50 for the car mate.

Thanks to Ebay…

Calibra

Corsa.

Soft Spot Car Of The Month: Hummer H2.

I know it weighs 140 tonnes, and it does 4 meters to the gallon and yes it’s awful on-road and off-road… but look at it!!!

It’s fantastic.

Future Classic Of The Week: Mazda RX-8.

You may think this is gonna go straight into the classic catagory, but I have a worry.  Most fast Japanese cars if I’m honest, are driven by idiots.

The RX-8 seems to have everything, practicality, looks, performance, great engine and build quality… but again I can’t help thinking about McDonalds car parks on a Friday night.

Best Classified Of The Week: Aston Martin Bulldog

I maybe pushing my luck here, posting a car which costs £1.3 million… it also needs full re-commisioning.

This is Aston’s first (that we know of) mid-engined car, they had intended to do a limited run of the car, but the new owner of Aston at the time decided to end the program.

The picture at the top is what the car looks like now, but it was bought by a Saudi Prince in 1980 who made the modifications. It originally looked like this…

Many changes have been made during the 17 years that has elapsed from the cars unveiling. The silver over light grey machine in now painted in two tone metallic green, whilst the brown leather of the interior had been replaced by stone leather piped in brown. Other additions to the car include (rather bling) gold plating trim to switches and gear stick, roof mounted stereo, ugly but useful rear view mirrors and a TV showing the rear-view of the car. This picture shows the extent that the doors extend into the sill area to enable easier entry and exit from the low seating position.

Interestingly the car has lost the fuel injection system initially fitted and now has quad Weber carburettors. These are I think of the side draught type and are paired up within the ‘V’ unlike the down draught type fitted in a line down the centre as would be found in a Vantage.

So yes it needs a hell of alot of work doing to it, but it’s worth every penny.

Thanks to AstonMartins for the info of the cars various changes.

Random Rant: Nissan Figaro.

Ok i’m finally back after a very long absence and I need to get this off my chest.

I hate the Nissan Figaro… for those unaware it’s a 20 year old Micra in a clown suit. You go to any classic car show and I guarantee there will be at least one of these things there.

Few questions really, who is letting them past the gate?

Why are people taking them there?

Why do random people get excited when they see one?

Maybe it’s just me, but the owners all seem slightly smug?

I swear the next classic car show I go to, i’m gonna turn up in a 1991 Nissan Micra LS.

New Mini Concept

 

It’s the 50th anniversary of the Mini, so what does BMW do? Well they unveil this ugly and hideous concept, a concept which if you ask me will go into production.

The MINI Coupé Concept will be shown publicly at the Frankfurt Motor Show next month alongside the production version of the new Crossover.

Camaro Cabrio

NCE will do a convertible version of your Camaro… conversion price starts at around £8k.

Somehow this company makes money turning, Priuses (What is the plural for Prius?) Dodge Rams and even Range Rovers into questionable convertibles.

It’s bad enough that this company is making rubbish convertibles, it’s even worse when you realise people are buying them.

I could do better with a hacksaw from B&Q.

 Hideous.

‘One in five’ young drivers uninsured.

Hundreds of thousands of young motorists are driving on the roads illegally because they do not have any insurance.

New figures seen exclusively by Newsbeat show more than one in five 17 to 20-year-olds is not covered.

According to the Motor Insurers’ Bureau, which represents insurance companies, that means there are 243,000 illegal young drivers.

That is compared with one in every 20 cars nationally.

 

 

This makes my blood boil. 

Sam, 22, from Kent got caught driving his 1.2 litre hatchback without insurance when he was 18.

He said: “I was driving without insurance because basically I couldn’t afford it, the cost was too high.

“I knew I should have had it but I also knew I was a good driver and I was safe.”

 

 BBC News.