Practically Classics Forum

Penguin45 wrote: Sat Jan 21, 2017 1:07 am How very dare you. I run an entire forum dedicated to the delightful beast that is the Landcrab. Well, I suppose somebody has to do it.
My father's favourite car, the Montego Countryman. The old boy's 90 now and rather "knows his mind". Done in by living 400 yards from the Atlantic Ocean in Cornwall - rear sills and arches went and I live 360 miles away. Which was a good excuse for me not to weld it all back together again.......

P45.

How very dare I? Quite easily, you see, when I was conceived, my parents really, really wanted this baby that they were trying for. Whereas lovers of the bland, the boring and the banal BL cars, well their parents weren't trying too hard, so lovers of those cars must have had a Dad who probably pulled out too early and as a result, all the appreciation genes, that would have given them an understanding of beauty, wound up in a Kleenex tissue and got flushed down the loo.

I'm finding myself in agreement with GHT, the Fiat monstrosity is an affront to my eyes. I'll give you that but don't concede any ground on the others.

I'm actually wondering if I should be fitted with a British Leyland badge, after all I'm British and was manufactured in Leyland ok, they didn't actually manufacture cars in Leyland, but it was famed for its Wagons, Buses and Tanks. Sadly I believe they are about to build houses on what was the "new" Test Track

GHT wrote: Sat Jan 21, 2017 6:04 am...this new site takes some getting used to.

Eh? The site hasn't changed, it's just that now, we're all using the same theme, one which reads from left to right in the style of "The Scimitar and its four bears" ( Don Pither, 1987, ISBN: 0951287303) and "Renault, the cars and the charisma" (James Dewar McLintock, 1983, ISBN: 9780850595826). MInd you, I've had my signed copy of Mr Pither's otherwise absolutely lush book for many years and have yet to find the bit with the bears..


The only motoring related tome I can find in the house which does read from right to left is this one:


Which has its spine to the right and was a gift from the proxy agent I use at Yahoo.jp to do my bidding on things I need that are over there.

I'm actually wondering if I should be fitted with a British Leyland badge

Can only but agree with Arceye - there is a chunk of BL motors in my present ownership, Rover p6 V8 along with a couple of BL examples that are stock - Mini Mayfair & Austin Meastro, previous BL motors have included a Austin 1100, Fright Rover Sherpa, Marina TC, Jaguar XJ6, Rover P6 V8 S, various Minis & A60 Cambridge - You have not really lived unless you have owned a handful of the splendid BL offerings.

I have lived alright, lived to regret the name BL. In 1972 I bought her a brand new Mini, it was absolute rubbish, you would think that I would learn, but no, come 1976 and she agrees the Mini has to go. Thank goodness for that, it's been in the workshop more than it's been on the road. But what does she want to replace it with? Horror of all horrors, an Austin Allegro, that became a rust bucket within two years and ended up being traded in for, where's that paper bag with two eye holes? An Austin Maxi, profanities cannot describe that car, it was beyond pain, beyond wallet busting repairs, beyond belief. That three and a half grand car, (price new in 1978,) was traded in about five years later for a measly four hundred quid for a Rancho. And the Rancho was no better, typical Peugeot, if you can't repair it............................ The Rancho had this starting problem, not often, just every now and then. It simply wouldn't do anything on the key, like the battery had been taken out. Quite by fluke I found out that it would start if you hot wired it. I told this to the Peugeot dealer from whence we bought the car. What did they do? Fitted a hot wire terminal to make hot wiring easier.
So never again since 1983 has BL or Peugeot darkened my garage.
After it took three cars to learn the lesson of BL, I vowed it wouldn't take three Peugeots to make the same mistake.

never again since 1983 has BL or Peugeot darkened my garage.

In (fewer than thirty) words, what makes your 1950s MG saloon, itself a badge engineered, parts bin car, better than its 1980s equivalent with a Maestro badge? I consider a "practical" classic car to be one which works as daily transport as well now as then.

Oohh, good question that John.

I was just about to post my thoughts on BL products which runs somewhat longer than 30 words but you may have made it redundant, seems a shame to waste all that prodding of keys so I'll post it anyway

I reckon GHT has just been unlucky.

I have had a few minis from bog standard 1000's to a bored out 1275 "stage 3" job that stands in my mind as one of the most fun things I've ever driven. They are so simple I have found them really trouble free, the same goes for the Austin 1300 GT I used to own that kept up with cars 20 years newer and again never failed me.

My sons first car five years ago was a 1978 mini 1000, tatty and welded to within an inch of its life but he flogged it for a year and 20 thou miles and all we had to do was a head gasket and a wheel bearing. Bearing in mind its age and the abuse it was taking I don't think that is too bad at all, at least a head gasket change is only a leisurely afternoons work. I've always said I'd trust an A series engine to take me anywhere. An engine that came about in the 50's and made it through to the 90's powering all manner of workaday cars quite happily is no mean feat.

I used to have a Rover P6 2200, luxury and style, good cruising speed and again pretty reliable that could keep up with far newer cars with more grace than they could ever muster.

I did once own a Triumph Dolomite 1500 that was pretty miserable for cutting out, but it always got there in the end, that though was more my reluctance to spend cash on worn out ignition components than it was the cars fault.

Then there has been an Austin A50 and now the A30, both very capable machines of their era and still usable today. And a scruffy Morris Minor I dropped a 1275 Ital engine I rebuilt into, that could go pretty well and never had any problems.

All so mechanically simple that nothing need scare the most basically equipped (and very basically skilled) home mechanic, not something you could levvy at a ten year old Diesel Mondeo today.

I'll admit that few were actually trouble free, but so simple to fix by the roadside in most instances by twiddling with the points and cleaning the dizzy cap you couldn't really complain. Perhaps this stood out more when other brands had gone to electronic ignition, but even this is a painless and cheap upgrade, in fact I've just done it to the A30 today.

Not all was rosy with BL, blame the unions, blame under investment and bad management, but we always remember the bad bits and it gets repeated and grows.

Anyway, just sayin...............

What do you think of Fords? I've never been keen though I once owned a Corsair that will forever hold a sweet spot in my memory, 70's Escorts nothing special, 80's Escorts and Orions were no better than late BL offerings yet every one seems to have forgiven the blue oval.

arceye wrote: Sat Jan 21, 2017 8:34 pm Oohh, good question that John.

It's a ridiculous question, John's got annoyed, not like him though. Just after WW2, the MG factory suffered a catastrophic fire, it took until 1947 to rebuild and restart car production. The only car that was available to start was the Y type.
Gerald Palmer was responsible for body styling and, in essence he took a Morris Eight Series E four-door bodyshell in pressed steel, which is where John is coming from with his badge engineering, added a swept tail and rear wings, and also a front-end MG identity in the shape of their well-known upright grille. The MG 1 1/4 Litre Saloon retained the traditional feature of separately mounted headlights at a time when Morris was integrating headlamps into the front wing and it was also to have a separate chassis under this pressed-steel bodywork, even though the trend in the industry was towards ‘unitary construction’.

The car featured an independent front suspension layout designed by Gerald Palmer and Jack Daniels (an MG draughtsman). Independent front suspension was very much the latest technology at the time and the "Y" Type became the first Nuffield product and one of the first British production cars with this feature. The separate chassis facilitated the ‘Jackall System’, which consisted of four hydraulically activated rams that were bolted to the chassis, two at the front and two at the rear. The jacks were connected to a Jackall Pump on the bulkhead that enabled the front, the back, or the entire car to be raised to facilitate a wheel change.

In 1952 MG Car Company updated the "Y" Type and an improved model was launched, known as the "YB". The "YB" had a completely new Lockheed twin leading shoe braking system, 15 inch wheels and a much more modern hypoid type of back axle. Road holding was also improved by the introduction of smaller 15-inch (380 mm) wheels (the "Y" and the "Y/T" both had 16-inch (410 mm) wheels). The "YB" also had an anti-roll bar fitted to the front of the car and stronger shock absorbers, or dampers, were fitted.

As much as the very successful TD owners will tell you to the contrary, the Y type was not a result of the TD, rather it was the other way around, the TD's chassis was a shortened version of the Y type, they shared the same engine, but the TD's was bored out and twin carbs fitted to give more boost. If it was a case of badge engineering, what's that row of cars on the left in the Abingdon factory?

I'm never annoyed, it's too much like hard work!

Great image there, GHT, I wonder how many massive health & safety infringements we're seeing on that production line? (That wasn't in fact a question, Rich would have my bawbag for a watch case if I derailed his thread further..)

JPB wrote: Sat Jan 21, 2017 8:23 pm

never again since 1983 has BL or Peugeot darkened my garage.

In (fewer than thirty) words, what makes your 1950s MG saloon, itself a badge engineered, parts bin car, better than its 1980s equivalent with a Maestro badge? I consider a "practical" classic car to be one which works as daily transport as well now as then.

That is where we differ, and vive la difference. I'm simply not into, so called, modern classics. When members post about their 1980's cars, I simply have to bite my tongue. Enjoy your Maestro and don't pay any attention to an old fart's mockery. When you all post the drool emoticon, there's not much I can do about it. I deleted the laughing emoticon so that it wouldn't cause friction.
My car is an accessory to my lifestyle, my 1940's juke box, 1930's wireless, (radio) vintage clothing, old phones, 35mm camera and so on and so on. Other than the Goodwood Revival, I don't go to classic car shows, nor am I a member of any car clubs. In the early days of owning my car, a fellow MG owner asked if I was in an MG club, when I said no, instead of saying that I could get spares, cheaper insurance, this, that and the other, he said "WHY!" In a tone of voice that made it sound like an interrogation. I thought, "well, you for a start," but then thought better of it and kept quiet.

On a serious note John, BL was all but nationalised, governments were reluctant to let them have the necessary money for research and development, so they were forced to cut corners, make savings, do the best they could, it showed in their cars. You might look up how many cars per employee they made, at the time of their demise it was about 18. The Nissan Sunderland factory was producing something like 300 cars per employee at around the same time.

When I had those bad experiences, the opposition was not very significant, but with every poor car came another lost customer until eventually there were no more customers. Very sad really, especially when you see the success of some of the marques that were sold off like Jaguar, Land Rover & Mini. There's not much else to say, the affinity held by many for the various marques in the company means that the memories will never die, even though production is long gone.