Grumpy Northener wrote: Wed Mar 15, 2017 10:07 am
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John - Not driven one but I know of one and it's for sale cheap - not seen it but it belongs to Theo Gillam who is one of the longstanding freelance writers for PC - can find out some more details should you wish
Yes please! It may be totally the wrong size to fit me comfortably but unless I have information from an actual owner of such a thing, including an idea of how much effort is involved in pushing down the clutch (I can supply the fish balance for that if need be), then I'll only spend the rest of my life wondering what could have been.
One modern car is sufficient thanks.
But in terms of older stuff, commercials are of interest.
I can see myself ending up with another older Toyota replacing the one I just sold, their commercials are all available with factory auto options and if the UK version has already rotted away, I wouldn't hesitate to buy another import given how positive my experience with the daily car continues to be.
So I also have my yahoo.jp proxy agent looking at average prices realised by these over the past few years:
See the
low floor with high roof proportions? That's why the bB works as my daily car and also why a Mitsubishi like the cute small one above would fit the bill as a second, occasional use vehicle.
But a Barkas would be cool too, IMHO, even though they're probably common by comparison to '60s Japanese stuff.
Worst case scenario? My next door neighbour's drive has recently sprouted a Beetle (automatic) where there was an empty space. That car is on sale at a shade over £400 (no, I didn't miss a zero, that's four hundred!) and it has a year of well earned MOT, new tyres and is fully functional. I could add value to that.
But it's an old VW so something is almost sure to fall off or catch fire if I buy it.
Rich, thanks for those. I would find getting down into a R25 quite painful at the moment but they are fantastic cars, however the daily car should ideally have something significantly older to keep it company, I'm thinking that "too new" should mean anything built since 1990, which means that it would be possible to avoid ECUs, fuel injection and the usual excess of complexity found in today's motors.
Trouble is, I'm receiving a great many solid suggestions both here and at a couple of other fora that I visit and consequently, my mind is now at its maximum capacity with the overflow alarm on the verge of sounding. That said, more
weirdness would be good.
, which certainly leaves plenty of space to purchase and adapt an auto box from something Japanese, RWD and fairly modern. But is a sub-£5k Javelin really going to be substantially rust free and is its interior likely to be salvageable?][/quote]
Has anyone owned or driven a Barkas by any chance? Being blessed with a 2 stroke engine, these would at least allow for clutchless gear changes once on the move thanks to the freewheel mechanism and that's an argument I'd happily take to the DVLA if necessary!
