Thread 28605254

Non William Towns cars are encouraged.

>>28605254 (OP)
MY EYES!

'61 TR3a

Random TVR

>>28605254 (OP)
How did this man ever achieve his prominence in the car industry? I have much greater respect for Harris Mann than Towns.

>>28605261
Saw a Spitfire today.

>>28605265
I do like the wooden six wheeler. It has a space in my Secret Volcano Base.

>>28605270
Ian Callum was a godsend to both Jaguar and Aston Martin.

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/opinion/forgettable-nearly-every-angle-p1-designer-frank-stephenson-jaguar-type-00

lol

>>28605279
I can't remember which part of pic is a Ford Sierra but I know some of it is.

>>28605269
Pretty cool, there's a british car club in my southeast US town I see meeting up now and then, wish I knew when and where their meets were so I could take pics. Some guy ~15 min away parks an MGB on the street.
I've always been a Triumph fan, TR5 is one of my favorite car designs ever.

>>28605292
It would seem both you, and some of your neighbours, have good taste. :)

>>28605287
I believe, during the time Ford had a stake in Mazda, Callum also did some training with them.

I wish Lotus had put pic into production.

>>28605327
Carry on cabbie is worth a watch.
Not sure if the clip is
https://youtu.be/TZ34jjSnYEk

>>28605340
sex

Also, they seem to be mostly driving Austins.

The Landcrab...

One of the most underappreciated cars of its era. The second car ever to win 'European Car of the Year', in 1965.

So this is the ugliest cars to ever exist thread?

>>28605378
You need to make an Edsel thread for that.

>>28605378
Not exactly...

If you do have an interesting British car to post, please do. :)

>>28605388
Retropower sounds fun.
Morris thingy, not a 1000.

The Jaguar XJS was the very last car to have design input from Sir William Lyons himself.

>>28605398
Can't say I agree with the spirit of the conversion personally. Lol.

>>28605408
I first got into a Morris 1000 from a Fiat 128. The owner was quite upset that I "hoofed it".
Rev it until it won't go faster then shift isn't the done thing apparently.
I think it still exists.

>>28605415
Never seen or heard of that before, pretty cool.

>>28605419
Lol. I've always thought building up the revs, then shifting before the engine reaches its limit, is normal. Were you not used to a manual? :)

>>28605423
No, the guy was a shift just above idle person rather than a shift just before peak power one.
All good fun.

>>28605422
Jowett was an interesting company, and with very interesting ideas; but didn't have the same scale in production as its competitors in order to effectively compete.

Of course, after WW2, any car company that didn't export was expected by the goverment to merge or die. American soldiers had seen British sports cars when they were stationed in Blighty, and many desired to own one. Therefore, every British car company needed to export its own sports car. This is what gave rise to Austin-Healey for example.

Jowett ultimately couldn't compete and sadly had to fold as a company.

>>28605428
eeeughh! Not bad for eco-driving, but terrible for almost everything else.

>>28605418
Limiting the V8 to the coupe was such a dumb decision.

>>28605308
it's some black guy as I found out when I saw him sitting in his gaudymobile.

>>28605254 (OP)
I get that it's made of wood, but why did it need two extra wheels?

>>28605552
They came with four too.
Aesthetics probably.

>>28605550
Probably not enough sales to justify a Roadster, they only made 2,500 of them probably due to it being released during the oil crisis, and the rubber bumper era. The dumbest decision was to not just use the Rover V8 from the get go, especially considering that the 'B was already designed to accommodate a V engine. I reckon if they didn't faff about re-engineering the 'B for the C-Series, they would have had WAY stronger sales with the V8 and would have also offered a roadster version, as they did with the 'C.

>>28605550
Probably not enough sales to justify a Roadster; they only made 2,500 V8's, most likely due to it being released during the oil crisis and the start of the rubber bumper era. The dumbest decision was engineering the MGC, and not just using the Rover V8 from the get go, *especially* considering that the 'B was already designed to accommodate a V engine. I reckon if they didn't faff about re-engineering the 'B for the C-Series, they would have had WAY stronger sales with the V8 and would have also offered a roadster version, as they did with the 'C.

TBF, they did come up with pic...

...and pic...

>>28605260
Your eyes, you say? Some dude thought this was an improvement on the original V12 E-Type design.

>>28605642
It's almost endearing how fucked-up that thing looks.

>>28605642
...why? :( ....

>>28605634
RV8 Bonnets are interchangeable with MGB's, and I'm kinda torn on whether or not I want one...

>>28605550
There's always at least one converted V8 convertible in the classifieds at any time.

>>28605646
https://www.bmh-ltd.com/vehicle-parts/mgb-and-mgb-gt-parts/

British Motor Heritage was a spin-off of British Leyland, and today possesses much of the original tooling for a lot of BMC vehicles. If it's just the body panels you want to swap out, then I'd suggest you at least speak with them. See what they can do.

>>28605642
>couldn't even be arsed to swap the utterly unfitting windscreen too

>>28605658
Oh, you can still find RV8 bonnets for (somewhat) reasonable prices, I've been looking for a long while. Their availability is part of what's attractive to me, but my biggest gripe is that it feels a little "Max Power", for some reason. Meh, a problem for future me.

>>28605747
Hehh! Don't mock...

>>28605747
Fugg, too excited at not needing to captcha

>>28605747
If you don't like Caterham or Donkervoort, then perhaps look at Westfield.

Interesting that no-one in these threads ever posts a Vauxhall...

>>28605762
I almost bought a Westfield, but decided to get my bike licence instead.

>>28605378
there's no need for a thread for that, just look outside and you'll see them

>>28605775
Just how far do you have to go to post Vauxhall that isn't GM/Opel?

>>28607087
I think it was in the 1970s when Vauxhalls started increasingly to be based on Opels, although initially the Vauxhalls would still have redesigned when compared to the equivalent Opel.

>>28605384
Edsels are endearing, though.

I'm not British nor of the 60s so I've got little idea here, figure anons here might help. Writing a story set in the early 60s in London and with a main character who used to be a racer, no longer races, still wants the fastest best car around, is like upper middle class. What'd he be likely to get? Would it be British? Foreign? Etc

>>28609534
100% a Lotus.

>>28609534
Like >>28609562 said.
Pic rel is from 1967 TV serial "The Prisoner" where the protagonist - a spy - owned a Lotus 7. He kept it parked on the street too.

>>28609534
Fastest and best...? If you mean something that does it all, including comfort, then probably a Jaguar E-Type is probably the default choice. If you want something that's more raw and sport focused, then I'd say a Lotus Elite or Elan... maybe a Europa if you're feeling spicy? Even spicier still, and quite a "if you know you know" type car, consider the TVR Griffith 200. It was supposedly violently fast and extremely twitchy, but was near untouchable in the right hands. Very eccentric choice, thoug, but I could imagine an ex-racer wanting one of those, just to be different.

>>28605333
Looks like it wants to sell me a pork bun

>>28605435
I find it funny that first lincoln and then american pimps decided to put rr grills on cars to make them more luxurious independent of brits who had it as industry standard practice for years at that point

>>28609720
To be fair, Vanden Plas used to be a literal coachbuilder known for fine quality and luxury, which could trace its roots all the way back to 1870. When they transitioned to working on cars, they became a favoured coachbuilder for Bentley, Alvis and for Austin's limousines. But then when they were bought out by Austin and merged into BMC, management realised quickly that they could sell some of their regular cars with a really high mark-up just by sending them down to Vanden Plas' Kingsbury works for a bit of extra trim and polish. Eventually, after Kingsbury was closed down, the Vanden Plas name became little more than a trim level.

>>28609534
I could conceive of a Jaguar E-Type being a very good choice, given your description of the character. But like others have said, a Lotus makes quite a bit of sense. At the time, they were racing (and winning both races and championships) in Formula 1; whilst also producing cars such as the 7, Elan, Elite and Europa.

>>28609713
At one point they planned to make their entire range of cars like that.

Personally, I like it. :)

It reminds me of what Lamborghini would also try to do.

>>28609534
I should also say that the Jaguar E-Type does have quite a bit of racing pedigree, with many being converted or specialised to racing. Additionally, it was the natural evolution of the C-Type and D-Type, which together won the highly prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 1951, 1953, 1955, 1956, and 1957; facing of against much stiff competition.

Also supposedly described by Enzo Ferrari himself as 'the most beautiful car ever made'.

>>28609534
Another small point.

Many countries have traditional racing colours. Italy is red. Germany is silver. France is blue. The US is blue and white, whilst Japan is white and red.

And the UK's traditional racing colour is green.

Given the period with which your speaking, it may be your character may prefer a green car, given his racing career.

>>28609534
See what I mean?

>>28609534
Also, just throwing this out there, but you may perhaps consider the AC Shelby Cobra? As I understand, the car came about from Carol Shelby wanting to stick a Ford V8 into an AC Ace.

In that sense, the car is Anglo-American.

>>28609534
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kihky2dewCs

I wonder if you're familiar with Goodwood?

>>28610337
The very first production Land Rover.

>>28610415
I rewatched Micro Men this evening, its fully subtitled on the toobs. Still great.

>>28610519
Always preferred Acorn to Sinclair, personally. :)

happy with all the replies, thank you anons. for the purposes of the story it'll be a fictional car, but I wanted to know comparison points so it makes sense and isn't just some nonsense- plenty of replies of what'd be actual cars used under those circumstances will help. All of them lovely, too- aesthetically I certainly tend to prefer a lot of cars from this era

>>28605907
OI DO YOU HAVE A LOISENCE FOR THAT BIKE?

>>28610978
Lol. I can't help myself. Pic is a tuned and improved version by Lotus of the Ford Cortina.

>>28610978
In case you want a sporty / racey car that isn't a coupe.

Good luck with your writing! :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBLlVUc0sEU

A tractor started with a shotgun shell.

>>28611283
these days people end their subaru with a shotgun shell

Staaaaag

>>28611371
Staaaaaaaaaag.

>>28610036
From that angle it looks like a ute

>>28605284
Frank is so based

>>28611523
Mid-engined.

>>28611570
Yeah, but the body shape around the engine deck is unusual

>>28611654
I would like to go to one of these one day (as a spectator) but I live in flatland.

>>28611681
It does look fun.

>>28611654
>>28611681
>>28611692
My dad sold a Standard Vanguard to a guy who had one of those trials cars. It was pretty impressive, and very scary to imagine driving. It had a supercharged flathead 4 cylinder (maybe a morris sidevalve?) that he had bored and stroked, and I think he said it made somewhere around 120 to 150 hp. Ridiculous power for one of those.

When I was a baby, my dad had TWO of these, a 2300 and a 2600. So if one wouldn't start he could just drive the other one lmao

I have three or four very comfy memories of sitting in the back, drifting in and out of sleep on long drives. I was sad when my dad sold them.

>>28611883
Comfy.

Do you have any pics of the interior?

>>28605645
Man in a shed technology.That's how the world got started.

>>28607087
If we really must have a Vauxhall.
I was in a Viva once.

>>28612669
A man-in-a-shed stuff is the Lotus 7, or a Pembleton.

>>28605642 is just an abomination.

>>28612683
At least it's the Lotus version.

>>28605408
That was a really popular colour for some reason. My grandmother had one just like it.

>>28605430
If you read the history of Jowett it will make you blisteringly angry. Everything was fine and the smallest hiccup of an anticipated tax cut the following quarter slowing sales this quarter, and their body supplier closing (so wtf? Make your own body, that is the easy bit) and they just upped and closed down. They weren't even making a loss. They could have just built chassis for stock while thet sorted out body supply.

Has to be be Freemason skullduggery. The whole thing makes no sense. Nice looking cars that were selling well.

There is a good display of them in the Bradford Industrial Museum. I recommend a visit.

Imagine closing right before the biggest motor car boom in history. Incomes rising, tax falling, petrol coming off ration. It beggars belief.

>>28613563
I'm not sure I can agree with you

It's always a terrible shame for a car manufacturer making good cars to go bust; ultimately I do not think that Jowett had the economies of scale necessary to compete well against BMC, Ford, Leyland or Vauxhall in the long term.

They closed down relatively on their own terms, and with dignity. But it's a shame their name is not more widely know.

Like an MR2 but heavier and less reliable.

>>28612683
Why only one colour option? Very, very dark green too.

>>28610415
i drove one of these before they launched it, when they were going around the country promoting them to children

>>28609534
Sunbeam Tiger. Another Carol Shelby car, this time a Rootes Group convertible with a Ford 260 or 289 shoehorned in.

A real british classic.

>>28611636
>>28611637
Sexiest Bond car

Best-proportioned of the more recent Aston Martins

But this
>>28611636
>>28611637
is the Daddy imho, especially in 7 litre Oscar India form
>Yes I know the factory didn't make the 7 litre, only 5.3; but conversions exist.

>>28615029
For me, it's the Zagato. Don't @ me, I've always thought it looked fucking cool, even when my dad first introduced it to me as 'the ugly aston'.

>>28615086
Shit.

Fucking great thread bongbros. Can't afford a classic car myself but I'm buying an '02 Bonneville this weekend and I couldn't be more excited.

>>28616391
What the nelly!?

Bentley Continental R Project 116 by Mulliner. Some Italian dude spent deep six figs to race up his Conti, 200kgs lighter, 425hp and 670 lbft.

>>28616436
Not a bike man myself, but I hope you enjoy it!

Does this shitbox count?

>>28616503
Now there's two names I haven't heard in a long while

>>28616514
The automotive industry is poorer without either.

>>28616508
>vectra lights
y

>>28616538
I don't believe they are exactly the same lights as the Vectra, but certainly MG Rover's designers were thinking on similar lines.

>>28616538
Incidentally, I have heard that some of the design work that went into this concept may have been reworked by Rover's then parent company Beemer into the BMW 1-Series.

>>28616557
>I don't believe they are exactly the same lights as the Vectra
The RDX60 pre-dates the Mk2 Vectra by a couple of years, so rather than the RDX having Vectra lights, I guess the Vectra has shortened RDX60 lights. Still weird to see. Maybe the Vectra design team took the RDX design in the same fashion as the Dodge Viper designers did with the BMW Z1 headlights?

>>28616569
>Maybe the Vectra design team took the RDX design in the same fashion as the Dodge Viper designers did with the BMW Z1 headlights?
Errr... You may know more than me on this topic.

>>28605430
>>28613563
IIRC the main thing that bedevilled Jowett was gearboxes. Problems with straight-cut gears, was it? And of course the Jupiter lost them a fair bit of money, because it was a stupid vanity project. At the end of the day Jowett was a commercial vehicles manufacturer that dabbled in passenger cars, and I don't think they had the necessary design and product engineering capacity to replace their rugged but ancient commercial offering. The capital to do so was in any case eaten up by the Javelin project.

>>28616589
I can see the Graber similarity with the swage line on his P6 coupes.

>>28616590
The Javelin was an attempt to, like practically very British automotive company post-war, take advantage of American interest in the petite and agile sports cars their soldiers had witnessed when stationed in Blighty during WWII. The Labour government of '45-'50 had an 'Export or Die' policy, whereby any company that exceeded exports to 75% of total sales could receive extra rations of vital materials such as steel and aluminium (this was done in order to increase foreign currency inputs that could assist in the UK's post-war reconstruction). And considering all the aforementioned, if a British car company could seize that market, or even a portion of it, they could gain significant advantage against even larger competing firms.

The Jupiter therefore does make sense as a good try in securing some segment of the American market.

>>28616592
Hmmmm.... The GTS was based on a P6 chassis...

>>28616614
>The Jupiter was an attempt to, like practically very British automotive company post-war....
Uuuugh. I'm tired and an idiot.

>>28616614
Oh yes I realise, and Bill Lyons completely lucked into the success of the XK120 (which he thought would be an ultra low volume, semi-bespoke enthusiast car), but the reason I call the Jupiter a vanity project is that Jowett neither had the performance, nor the looks, nor the value to be able to compete in the export sports car space. IIRC it was also horrendously overweight. Sure, if they'd gone to Saoutchik or someone and made it look outrageous then it might have been a useful halo model, but I just don't think it ended up doing anything useful for an already horrendously overstretched company.

I also didn't mention in my previous post that Jowett were probably doomed after Gerald Palmer went to Nuffields (then BMC, of course). Who could have replaced him?

>>28616626
I don't think the Jupiter is particularly ugly, personally. Certainly not as much a vanity project as the genuinely stupid Austin Atlantic. But yh, it wasn't the best in its class in any real regard.

I shall also agree that, in hindsight, it's very easy to see that Jowett was somewhat overstretching itself. Maybe if it had constricted itself to just making Bradford vans, things could have been better, or ended up like LDV. It's hard to know.

>Gerald Palmer
Huh. I didn't know he cut his teeth on Jowetts.

>>28616645
I don't give Austin any credit for this, but the A90 at least had the unintended benefit of supplying the engine for the early Big Healeys, which was certainly a more satisfactory arrangement than the Nash lump Donald had been working with before.

>>28616645
>I don't think the Jupiter is particularly ugly, personally.
Depends on the angle, and I will say that they massaged the proportions beautifully in the promotional literature, but from some angles in person they look dreadful. Much less attractive than the Javelin, which was a very tidy if Beetle-ish design. I think they should have gone to a carrosserie, personally, but maybe they didn't have the budget.

>>28616660
I honestly have never driven an Austin-Healey, nor a Healey sports car. I therefore can't comment, I'm sorry to say.

>>28616670
If the photo you post is intended to be an unflattering angle, then unfortunately I must still state I think it's a good looking car.

As beautiful as an XK120? No. But did it cost as much, if anyone could advise me?

>>28616674
They are agricultural but powerful. I don't remember the scuttle shake being as bad as the TR Triumphs. At any rate they were a great British sales success, and unlike they A90 they always looked cool.

Sadly, and I'm afraid it's a very boring opinion, I really do think the MGB was the best of the British basic wind-in-your-hair sportscars. BMC and then Leyland went progressively ruining it as the years war on, culminating in the ridiculous ride height jack-up of the later cars, but in their early years they were sweet cars however much Clarkson and May take the piss out of them.

My neighbour's taken me for a drive in his XK150, and as you might expect it's a completely different class of car even to the big Healey. Just better in every way, but who's got that kind of money?

You seem knowledgeable, do you drive anything of this era? I had a suspicion that you might be the Triumph enthusiast that often posts on /o/, but I might be way off base there.

>>28616676
>did it cost as much
I am here quoting from the great Tatra87 on CurbsideClassic:
>"It cost £1087 after tax – about £150 less than the Jaguar XK 120"
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/automotive-history-british-deadly-sins-50s-edition-part-1-jowett-javelin-and-jupiter
Sadly, that was way too much. I'd have had the Jag.

>unfortunately I must still state I think it's a good looking car
By all means, you're welcome to your opinions. I rather like A40 Somersets, so I'm in no position to lecture anyone!

>>28616679
Lol. I'd consider myself a British Leyland enthusiast more than anything else; as I'm fascinated by the sheer potential I believe that conglomerate had, and just how badly it was squandered by bad management, poor circumstances, and militants in the trade unions.

And no. As much as it's a romantic idea, cars of that era are quite problematic to own, what with the insurance, maintenance, and parts. As such I regrettably don't own a classic.

>>28616682
Ooof. the Jag's definitely the better purchase then.

Also, what's wrong with the Somerset lol? :)