johnlambert

I believe you reverse park carefully! Possibly with the aid of a spotter.

It was nice to see some classics out and about this weekend despite the occasional downpours. There was a Jaguar XK150 DHC that looked, sounded and smelt wonderful. An Alvis TF21 and a Renault Alpine A110 (not sure I've ever seen one of those in the wild before). Sadly no pics as I was either driving or it was pelting down with rain at the time. Oh and a couple of old 'bikes; a single-cylinder Ariel and a Triumph twin (don't know enough to identify them more than that).

Ask 100 people "What makes a classic car?" and you'll get at least 110 different definitions. For some it's cars of a certain age, for others it's the presence of chrome bumpers, or wire wheels. It usually boils down to, "Any old car that I like is a classic, and any that I don't like is just an old car". Still, it's always fun to discuss over a cuppa or a pint.

I had to do the same in Warwickshire today. No cycling event as far as I could tell just people out for a Sunday bike ride. There seems to be a strain of road user who absolutely has to get past any cyclist as soon as possible; whatever the prevailing road and traffic conditions.

That's a great layout but I've clearly been hanging around Wright Writes for too long, as the firt thing I noticed was the lack of lamps on the steam locos.

I remember driving one of those when they were new. I wasn't that keen on it, but I'm in no doubt that it was a very good car; lots of performance, plenty of grip, well balanced. Can't remember when I last saw an Ibiza of that generation.

Duplicate post - oops!

Is the Corvette behind the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am? I've seen replicas of KITT and KARR around Warwick.

Not to mention the desire of some to run big locos on an oval of 2nd radius track. Do I have to find my own hiding place or can I join you?

Yes, auto-trailers were used to strengthen some railcar services. From memory there are some pictures on the Warwickshire Railways website including a description of the railcar running around the coach.

I'd be surprised if the boot lid on a Hilman Imp opened far enough to reach the wires, the (rear) engine cover certainly wouldn't. Not sure what you're referring to when you said, "And weren't they aluminium?"; the main aluminium component in the Imp was the engine. Imp saloons had an opening rear window that would, I think, open high enough to reach the OLE.

I recall that it's not an offence to alter the mileage displayed, but it is an offence to mis-represent the mileage when you are selling the car. As people have noted, cars sometimes need to have the instrument cluster replaced. I've got a motorcycle that was a grey import with a KM/H speedo, the last owner replaced the clocks with some calibrated for miles, so I know the mileage displayed isn't the true figure and if I sold the bike I'd make the situation clear. I suspect there are some receipts that would allow the true mileage to be estimated if it really mattered.

A trip into Leamington this afternoon proved that driving standards are sitll as high as ever. Drivers who don't know the rules around using a box junction, drivers mounting the pavement to pass cars on the nearside and access a left turn, poor parkking and general impatience.

Nice to meet you today.

As I understand things (which may be wrong) you won't lose your no-claims discount but your premium may still increase as this incident may suggest to the insurance company that you are a higher risk than it previously thought.

Some pictures from inside the main exhibition hall.

Here are some photos from Race Retro at Stonleigh Park in Warwickshire.

I noticed that the coach isn't carrying a tail lamp.

Don't you hate it when someone tries to squeeze an extra platform into their layout and it ends up unrealistically narrow?

I'll try and commit that bit of trivia to memory. I had a feeling competition cars were different and the Maserati 250F of the 1950s had the centre throttle. http://www.grandprixhistory.org/mas250.htm

The BMW Dixi version of the Austin 7 also has its manifolds reversed, no idea about the engine internals. Thanks to all who have responded on the subject.

I volunteer in a car museum and you can see the evolution of all kinds of things including the control layouts. I don't think anything influenced the Model T and I don't think anything was influenced by it, at least as far as the control layout is concerned. On the T the accelerator is on the steering wheel, there's a pedal for reverse, one for low gear and a brake pedal (in that order, left to right as far as I remember); to the driver's right (on RHD cars) are levers for brake and one I think was a sort of clutch. By the 1920s I think it was fairly standard to have pedals for accelerator, brake and clutch but the accelerator was sometimes between the clutch and brake rather than being on the right. I've heard a couple of explanations for the brake being on the right; to make the brakes easy to find in an emergency, in the narrow footwells of cars at the time (just move your foot over to the right as far as you can and press); the other is that heel-and-toe operation of throttle and brake together (when changing gear whilst braking) is easier with the accelerator in the middle. Then there were gear levers that could be central but were more often to the driver's right (on RHD cars) and the pattern might be back-to-front or mirror image of what is now conventional. As Top Gear said, it was probably the Austin 7 that popularised the now familiar layout of clutch, brake accelerator. You've made me wonder when the last car was made with a centre accelerator. I suspect some expensive European sporting cars were still offered with centre throttle in the 1940s and the layout may have persisted even longer on racing cars.

You beat me to it with the Ford Heritage comment, I recognised the Model T. I drove that Model T some years ago and must have met your mate; I remember getting a run through of the controls from someone called Ivan. You need a lot of instruction the first time you drive a Ford Model T as it's control layout is completely baffling to the uninitiated.

No, I didn't see any SAABs. There were some SAABs (99 and 96 models) participating but they probably started from a different point. I also noticed some mad, brave fool entered a Citroen SM (didn't see that one either).

Last week the Rally Monte-Carlo Historique passed through Banbury on the way down from the Glasgow starting point. Here are some of the participants.