Medlem Tony Wawryk

These are surely three quite different cars, especially the W124/C124, which I would say is a class higher then the Prelude and E30?
The only E30 I’ve driven was a 325iSport, which was a lot of fun; the Prelude is not such an exciting drive, but it is a sharp design, certainly more interesting than the E30 in my eyes.
As an Alpina replacement,…[Læs mere]

What a fine collection – will have to visit if/when I next fly to Milan. The Lancia Stratos Zero turned up at the NEC Classic in 2022 on the Lancia Owners’ Club stand – easily the most dramatic car at the show, and about as extreme a wedge as you could imagine. Underneath that astonishing profile was a Lancia Fulvia.

A very interesting Matinee to enjoy with my morning coffee. The “almost modern but still analogue” feeling is something I also get with my C123 – power steering, electric sunroof, central locking, electrically adjustable passenger door mirror, electric windows (only two working, at present; fortunately, the front two. There is one warning beep -…[Læs mere]

Claus, I’m sure you wouldn’t regret it, especially if you could tie it in with another event or two, and a long classic road trip, of course!
Jens, the GTA in your picture looks pretty much identical to the one I saw – except the colour, obviously – so I have to assume that a specialist somewhere is creating these convertibles, but I haven’t…[Læs mere]

On my recent long trips to Germany I have also been disappointed by the small number of classics I’ve encountered along the way – you would think that on a 3,000km round trip in June I would see a decent number of classics, but sadly not. Weekends here in the UK I often see a few being driven locally, usually on their way to an event, I presume. I…[Læs mere]

The Lolita is sadly such a completely imbalanced mess of a design, it hurts my eyes.

As for the 914, it might not be conventionally beautiful, but I’ve always liked it and I think the design – clean, simple lines – has dated really well, and I’d be happy to have one in my garage, even the basic 1.7-litre, ideally -as @skaanning says – in a…[Læs mere]

That little boy with his face to window of the Jaguar showroom was me back when I was about 8 or 9 years old – my father and I would regularly visit Byatts of Fenton (the dealership) to look first at their used car selection, and then at the new showroom, although the object of my fascination back then was the E-type, although that got replaced…[Læs mere]

Kai, thank you so much! That means a lot me, I really appreciate it!

Re my comment above – I see I wrote “Dino” when of course I meant “Coupe”…oops…pity we can’t edit our comments.

Smoking in cars…I remember all too well, and am delighted that people don’t do it anymore, unless they’re in their own car without passengers, and even then, the car will stink. I had my own one-man crusade against in-car smokers – at least, if it was my car, I got my own way. I had to ask one of my bosses back in the day not to light up in my…[Læs mere]

460bhp and EUR400K render the name “Runabout” completely meaningless. I wonder how heavy the new car is to require such power? Surely 120bhp and maybe EUR50k (still not cheap) would have been more suitable, and many more could have been made and sold to a wider market – but I don’t think that was ever the point. Luckily, there are still a good…[Læs mere]

A nice report to read to start the week with my coffee. The Taunus GT and the Opel Rekord P2 particularly caught my eye this time, cars we almost never see here in the UK but that I remember from my visits to Germany as a boy.

@ce – I was making a broader point regarding cars that are not what they are clamed to be, but in the above case, it’s almost worse because of the price. And even though the car was registered in 1980, you mention that the chassis is Hawk, and since the engine is Alfa, the original Stratos parts (if there are any) must presumably be the body and…[Læs mere]

“The Stratos That Wasn’t” exemplifies why I find the replica side of classic cars so irritating – so many of them carry original badging and other details without saying anywhere what they really are. I see it on Stratoses (Strati?), Porsche 356’s with Reutter badges, AC Cobra’s etc etc and almost none of them are honest enough to put a Hawk, or…[Læs mere]

One more from me for this discussion – the Triumph GT6 / Spitfire. While the Spitfire is an undeniably pretty car as a convertible, I think the GT6 – especially the Mk III – is a very successful coupe adaptation, both versions designed by Michelotti, of course. It looks purposeful and fast, altogether more sporty – and was given a bigger engine to…[Læs mere]

@holm, yes the MGB GT is a fine example – while the roadster is OK, the GT is a much better-looking car.

Based purely on the photographs above, I think the Barchetta Coupe looks better than the convertible. Staying with FIAT, the Dino Coupe which followed the Spider is at least as attractive as the convertible, though it’s not really a coupe version of the Spider. Designed of course by different houses.

A more modern example would be the Porsche…[Læs mere]

@holm, there was a project Arna there, too – perhaps your chance to save a spare?