3 to 1 Supermodified

When I first saw a picture of this car I thought it was just some fun and the middle wheel had just been stood there for effect. But when I really started looking at it in detail it became clearer and clearer that this racer did actually have three wheels mounted on one side and as such needed much more investigation.

Random Picture: The Hot Wheels Car

I would love to get some more information about this car as its looks like a 70's Hot Wheels car built for real and how cool is that, just a name would let me do some research on it and possible do a full write up. Get in touch on Facebook, Twitter or Google+

Lamborghini Jalpa

I love Lamborghini’s particularly rare ones so when I spotted this on the Lamborghini stand at the recent Manchester Classic Car Show I knew it deserved some attention. I say rare but the Jalpa was the most successful V8 car Lamborghini had produced until the recent batch, selling 410 examples between 1981 and 1988. Which means it stays in the “little known” category of Lambo’s which it a shame as it’s a well-proportioned mid engined sports car.

TVR White Elephant

When I first saw this on the TVR Owners stand at the recent Manchester Classic Car Show it stopped me in my tracks and why wouldn’t it just look at it. It had just come out of a full restoration. Resplendent in that beautiful pearlesant white paint it just stood out a mile in the dark room setting.

Manchester Classic Car, Eventcity

Although there had been indoor classic car shows staged at Eventcity in Manchester, Passion and Power was earlier this year, this was the first outing for the “Manchester Classic Car Show”. Looking at the adverts for it in the local press and on the web it looked like it was going to be a good inaugural event. Ran over the weekend I dropped in on the Saturday morning and I knew I was in for a treat when in a fenced off area six or so classic rally cars came driving past the entrance, including a shot wheel based Audi Quattro!!!!

Random Picture: Colonia Speditor Granada

Take a Colonia Speditor which is a 6x2 tractor unit fitted with a horizontally mounted “underfloor” engine and replace the cab with a Ford Granada estate body and this is what you get. Kind of reminds me of a homemade Steinwinter Truck.

Turbo Sonic Dragster

When I first saw this on The Guild of Automotive Restorers website I thought it was a film prop for some B movie the truth was that this thing was real custom built to race, apparently. Built by Dick Dean and others out of the garages of George Barris as you can probably imagine it was fitted with a jet engine and is wrapped in total 60’s custom car excess and paint. The literature of the time described as -

VW Corrado Magnum Kombi

No not a version for a European version of the 80’s moustache wearing PI, but a “shooting brake” estate version of the VW Coupe. Only two prototypes were built by Marold Automobil GmbH in 1989 for VW so they could assess them for possible limited production of 200. The concept was…..erm…..well…whom I kidding who would want an estate version of a GT car when it’s parked next to a Golf with the same engine in the showroom. Thankfully VW didn’t go ahead with this version, probably due to the same reason above.

BMW Alpina 318i Kilometer Marathon Car

With the current trend in making cars as efficient as possible with figures of 60+mpg now getting to be the norm among new cars it’s hard to believe that over 30 years ago a BMW topped out at 88mpg. A competition was staged in 1981 by Auto Motor Sport and Shell for teams to go head to head for the most fuel efficient car over 1km. In total 120 team put cars forward, the most striking though was a BMW E21 318i tuner Alpina gave one hell of a nose job to.

Ford Country Squire Camper

Back in the late 50’s Ford were keen to find out what campers wanted out of a station wagon. The result was this unassuming Country Squire in 1958. To the uninitiated it looks like a normal car with a boat on it, but Ford had been playing with fitting everything a potential camper could want while transporting the whole family day to day.

BMW 328

When I saw this parked up in a line-up of Vintage cars at the recent Chatsworth House Country Show I just couldn’t take my eyes off it. It seemed out of place surrounded by pre 40’s cars with high waistlines and tall radiators. Its sleek ageless lines and sweeping streamlined low slung body whose design is credited to Peter Szymanowski, who became BMW chief of design after World War II, is just so beautiful to behold.