For those interested in old cars.

[MrWolf]

9 minutes ago, steve1 said:

Nobody could ever call the 1800 a pretty  car. Purposeful in rally format maybe but attractive, maybe not.

 

steve

 

Definitely it was the shape of things to come then. It was more attractive than the Maxi though and so it went on....

[Kickstart]

2 hours ago, MrWolf said:

I can just imagine that pump attendant saying "I don't care if it is 3d a gallon cheaper Sir, you can't run your Vitesse on 2 star. It's designed for hedgecutters and is only a couple of octane points above rain."

Best I can remember 2 star was 92 RON . Think originally the basic European unleaded was 91 RON , but not available in the UK (presumably why uk basic unleaded is labelled premium)

 

All the best

 

Katy

[Rugd1022]

On the M6 in the '70s, it looks to me as though all five cars behind the coach as well as the Triumph 2000 could be filled with rozzers, perhaps something was afoot....

 

[boxbrownie]

Millwall away match.....

[APOLLO]

Just after I bought my Rover P5B in 1982 (should run on 5 star, but is happy on todays Tesco cheapest with a dash of redex lead substitute added) a mate bought for £100 a Wolseley Six (1800 body I think). It was a touch tatty but ran superb, and a nice interior. I begged him to keep it and do it up - but - later that year he told us it had been stolen and found burned out on a local slag heap. He got £400 insurance, and a load of stick of us. We guessed / knew what had happened, and used to taunt him that "Your in deep trouble mate, the Pope is looking for you, don't you know that burning a Wolseley is a Cardinal Sin" !!!

 

Brit15

[Northmoor]

1 hour ago, Rugd1022 said:

On the M6 in the '70s, it looks to me as though all five cars behind the coach as well as the Triumph 2000 could be filled with rozzers, perhaps something was afoot....

That's on Britain's first section of motorway, the Preston by-pass.  Useful pub quiz knowledge.

Edited February 2, 2021 by Northmoor

[MrWolf]

BMC actually got the ride quality to a very high standard with the 1800 platform and the layout is pretty much what we use now. But they failed to inspire the desire to own one in most people in the way that the more dated engineering wise Ford's and Vauxhall's did. There were only a few still about when I was at school, most seemed to have dissolved. As children, we all thought of its successor, the Maxi, as an old blokes car. But by then, the old blokes were getting a better deal from Japan.

And that's the view of a bloke who bought an Austin 8 when he was fifteen! 

[Oldddudders]

19 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

That's on Britain's first section of motorway, the Preston by-pass.  Useful pub quiz knowledge.

ISTR it was news headlines, day after day, for being built appallingly. 

[APOLLO]

1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

ISTR it was news headlines, day after day, for being built appallingly. 

 

The hard shoulders of the Preston Bypass did not extend where there were bridges, very unsafe.

 

 

Over the years much work was done, now between the M61 (down to Manchester) and M55 (Blackpool) it's all 8 lane with continuous hard shoulders - very busy.

 

Brit15

[figworthy]

2 minutes ago, APOLLO said:

 

The hard shoulders of the Preston Bypass did not extend where there were bridges, very unsafe.

 

 

Good job we don't have motorways without hard shoulders these days.  Oh, hang on ...

 

Adrian

[russ p]

3 hours ago, Rugd1022 said:

On the M6 in the '70s, it looks to me as though all five cars behind the coach as well as the Triumph 2000 could be filled with rozzers, perhaps something was afoot....

 

 

Is the 3 x austin 3 litres,  can't imagine there were this many together very often.  Very early ones too .

Its quite surprising that quite a few of these still exist.  I went to a car show in sheringham about ten years ago and there was two of them there

[MrWolf]

Never a big seller, Austin 3 litre numbers have been depleted by rust, banger racers and Austin Healey 3000 owners wanting a seven bearing crank engine to go racing.

[russ p]

7 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Never a big seller, Austin 3 litre numbers have been depleted by rust, banger racers and Austin Healey 3000 owners wanting a seven bearing crank engine to go racing.

I thought the  7 bearing engine was inferior to the five as it didn't want rev?

[Oldddudders]

Was that the engine that sank the MGC without trace?

[MrWolf]

8 hours ago, russ p said:

I thought the  7 bearing engine was inferior to the five as it didn't want rev?

 

Didn't stop people from trying.

[Hobby]

14 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Definitely it was the shape of things to come then. It was more attractive than the Maxi though and so it went on....

 

Can't agree with that, the Maxi got rid of that awful stump on the back and had a hatchback and a decent sized boot. What spoilt the Maxi was having to use the 1800 doors... Though it did make the Maxi as spacious inside as the 1800 and well ahead of it's competitors.

 

12 hours ago, MrWolf said:

As children, we all thought of its successor, the Maxi,

 

The Maxi wasn't the 1800 successor, the Princess was, and it was a much better car only let down by a lack of a hatchback and carrying on with the 1800/2200 engines with a 4 speed gearbox. The Ambassador nearly got there but again lacked the 5 speed box which was pretty much standard in that sector by the time it was launched.

Edited February 3, 2021 by Hobby

[MrWolf]

I stand corrected, but if the 1970s models were so much better, how come BL couldn't give them away. As an impressionable teenager in the 1980s, the Ambassador put me in mind of a wet Sunday afternoon in Nuneaton.

 

Morrissey was right.....

[Hobby]

Because the rest had caught up by then and introduced better cars? I didn't say anything about sales other than I felt that the Princess was a better car than the 1800, let down by poor build quality and reliability. The Ambassador was too little, too late, having said that it was just a stand in until the Maestro/Montego range was launched, same as the Ital remake of the Marina.

[Hobby]

OK, it's the 3 litre, but begs the question why BMC didn't do an 1800 estate...

 

https://www.pinterest.de/pin/788974428444014957/

[BernardTPM]

I know the answer is obvious, but which of these two 1964 cars has the most room inside for four passengers?

Austin 1800 - 13' 8¼" long, 4' 4½" high

Cadillac De Ville - 18' 7½" long, 4' 8½" high

 

Yes, the obvious one. There's a quarter of an inch more headroom for the front seats in the 1800 and a full two inches more for the back seats. In combined front and rear legroom the 1800 has 7¼" more.

OK, the Cadillac's extra 1' 0½" of width gives it an extra 2¼" max. shoulder room, but that would only really matter when seating three abreast.

Edited February 3, 2021 by BernardTPM

[Jol Wilkinson]

3 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Was that the engine that sank the MGC without trace?

Ian,

 

the MGC has resurfaced and with only just over 9000 built is now very collectable. With modern tyres and minor adjustments to the suspension and setting up it is said that they now handle well and are good long distance cruisers. The engine had only 5 BHP less than the AH 3000 but didn't have the same appeal to the sports car enthusiast. The more impecunious had to settle for the MGB. Perhaps the near identical look to the cheaper model didn't help with the status conscious either.

 

Jol

[MrWolf]

32 minutes ago, BernardTPM said:

I know the answer is obvious, but which of these two 1964 cars has the most room inside for four passengers?

Austin 1800 - 13' 8¼" long, 4' 4½" high

Cadillac De Ville - 18' 7½" long, 4' 8½" high

 

Yes, the obvious one. There's a quarter of an inch more headroom for the front seats in the 1800 and a full two inches more for the back seats. In combined front and rear legroom the 1800 has 7¼" more.

OK, the Cadillac's extra 1' 0½" of width gives it an extra 2¼" max. shoulder room, but that would only really matter when seating three abreast.

 

The Cadillac lost out because it was built on a seperate chassis for strength, which became a problem as ride height on cars needed to be lower. All of the 1959 GM range had flat cabin floors which led to a lack of legroom, despite the size of the cars. For 1960, the floorpan was modified with footwells between the chassis rails as a major improvement. The technological advances made by the American auto industry wiped the floor with even the most expensive British cars in the 40s 50s and 60s. I still find it amusing when someone boasts about auto dip lights or rain sensitive wipers on a modern car.

As for the 1800's interior space, it does it by having a greenhouse to create shoulder room with slabby doors and roof. If you wanted a roomy and practical car in the mid 60s, not much beats the Vauxhall 101, particularly the estate, which I know you can stack 6'x4' fence panels in. It was wider than the previous model, but avoided having a tennis court for a roof by being the first mass production car with curved side windows, something that other manufacturers didn't catch up with for a decade. The saloon had a boot that would hold at least three bodies, the suspension was simple, effective and reliable and nothing was awkward to get at under the bonnet.

[MrWolf]

I know that it's popular to slag off the Morris Marina thanks to that pub bore Clarkson, but I actually quite like it. The Ital redesign only seemed to emphasise that the design was very long in the tooth though.

A friend still runs a 1300 Super as a daily driver and whilst it's an oily rag motor, it has never been welded. He has toured Poland and Italy in it, 3 up with luggage and only had to reset the points. 

When I was 17, my mate Giles had a true Inbetweeners moment when his mother gave him a bright orange Marina. She thought that my old Triumph Herald ragtop was dangerous, although his sister liked it for showing off in...

We were coming back from college via the twisties that passed for roads round our way in the sensible Marina one afternoon and suddenly lost all control, flying a55 backwards through a hedge. Was it inexperience? Youthful stupidity? No, the nearside rear wheel, brake drum and halfshaft were doing a pretty good impression of a spinning top in the middle of the road. 

There is a happy ending. My friend ended up commuting to university in a slightly red oxided MK2 Triumph Spitfire.

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, Hobby said:

OK, it's the 3 litre, but begs the question why BMC didn't do an 1800 estate...

 

https://www.pinterest.de/pin/788974428444014957/

They were built/converted by Crayfords, as was this:-

 

[Hobby]

Used to tow my stock car with a 1.7 Ital, I'd agree that it showed how long in the tooth they were, but it did tidy up the Marina's looks, though the Marina 2 was quite smart. As usual BMC/BL kept their models going too long and didn't adjust to the changing market, even though they were ahead of the game with FWD they failed to develop it. The Princess for example was supposed to compete in both the Cortina sized car market and the Granada sized one!