Pininfarina Fiat Abarth 2000

Just looking at this car and you know when it was built, that change from chrome and tradition but before the wedge, oh yes we're talking the late 60's early 70's when concept building was all about one upmanship. This was the 1969 offering by Pininfarina fits perfectly in that change in design philosophy.

The Manchester Bike Show

Snow on the ground is not what you need when you’re running a bike show but that’s what Manchester woke up to!!!! It didn’t dampen this event though, granted the car park was a little lacking in bikes, and can’t blame any riders for taking the easy 4 wheeled route. This was the second outing for this event and what a long way it had come over the last 12 months when compared to last year. More room, more dealers, more clubs, more traders and more bikes to look at modern, retro and classic over two halls.

Replicar Curser

In the UK you can only drive a car when you reach 17, however you can ride a moped at 16. This was a way to build a car like vehicle in the UK that 16 year olds could drive on this moped license. The result was a 3 wheeled vehicle, with a tubular steel chassis, rack and pinion steering and a single seat. Power came from a rear mounted moped derived 49cc Suzuki CS50 engine from, ran through a 3 speed automatic gearbox that drove the rear single wheel. Top speed, like a moped, was limited to 30mph. Which when you realise how small this thing that would be fairly scary!!!! Built between 1985 and 87 approximately 100 were produced, which included a very small run of 2 seaters.

Renault Clio V6

There were some crazyly built hot hatched built in the 80's with the onset of Group B rallying, built in order to fill the quota needed to holomogate them. However by the 00's Group B was no more and the need for mad mid engined small shopping cars for manufacturers to go "racing". This didnt stop Renault dusting of the concept that had worked for the 5 and building a version for the next generation.

Owen Sedanca

The Sedanca was commissioned by Gerald Ronson, owner of London-based car dealership HR Owen. The design was heavily inspired by the Lamborghini Espada (which Gerald also owned) and was penned by Chris Humberstone. Coachbuilder, Williams & Pritchard Ltd, were given the job of draping the bespoke aluminium body over a  Jaguar XJ6 chassis, while retained the Jaguar 4.2-litre engine to produce the prototype/concept.

Random Picture

Well another oddly configured coach with the articulated front wheels, just like Santa Fe Trailways Victory Liner-

If anyone can knows what this is then please get in touch via the Facebook, Google+ or Twitter pages.

BPG Works Uno, Uno2 and Uno3

When I first saw a picture of the Uno I honestly thought it was a photoshop, afterall it looked like a unicycle mixed with a sports bike. How wrong was I, not only was this thing real but was also a production bike!!!!! The bike was invented/developed by Ben Gulak following a trip to a smoggy China, he decided to create a small vehicle that could be easily stored as well as being electric to reduce pollution. This was the result, using similar technology as the Segway ie you use your body weight to make the vehicle move. But unlike the Segway this thing looks so cool. So cool that it won a Grand Award at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, it was featured on the cover of Popular Science (June 2008) as an “Invention of the Year”.

Maserati Shamal

Conceived when Maserati was under De Tomaso's stewardship when budgets were tight and finally brought to the public by Fiat after its buyout during its development, in 1989. In fact despite the modern body designed by Maserati's Design Centre in conjunction with Marcello Gandni (Lamborghini Countach), the chassis underneath though spanned back two models to the Spyder in 1984. Now lets get back to that body, you can't miss those widened box arches that hint that this sports car has rally connections. But like so many cars of the era they were just for show, just like that "of the time" bonnet spoiler which I must admit I really like.

SpringDub, The Great Yorkshire Show Ground

Well the UK Dub scene is well into the swing of things and the next show on the list was Spring Dubs. So it was an earlyish start on Sunday morning for the 75mile run over the Pennines to The Great Yorkshire Show Ground, Harrogate. This was my first time at this show but from what the website promised a show and shine, car club stands, an autojumble and trade stands all in a covered area, so that was all the boxes ticked for me for a spring morning.