Article- When did comfort become the norm when buying a car!!!!

Okay I’m guilty I do love some of the modern gadgets and comforts of my new company car, the DAB radio that tells you the band and track name of the song playing, steering wheel controls, 60mpg and integrated satnav, but when did all that comfort and convenience become more important than the driving?

Vespa 150 TAP

Now I’m all one for not spending money on expensive, usually over complicated, solutions to simple problems, this though has to one of either the best applications to cost saving for a military vehicle or, depending on where your looking from, one of the worst!!!!

The basic premise was to produce a light weight vehicle that would be parachuted in to an armed conflict and no doubt cause as much damage as possible. For the British this may have been the lightweight Land Rover or for the US a Jeep. France though had other ideas. To be fair this looks far more terrifying!!!!!

5 years old today

Well we’re 5 years old today, thank you for all those who have liked the Facebook, Google+ and Twitter pages and keep coming back. Please don’t forget to share anything you like to make sure more petrolheads can find us.

Plans for the next year include some more museums, car shows (Ultimate Dubs, The Retro Show, Manchester Classic and many more), a factory tour and many more rare/odd/unusual vehicles.

Cheers

Heath 

Conley Stinger 609, The Ultimate Boys Toy

Now we’ve all seen those YouTube links on Facebook showing what can only be described as an incredible labours of love, what am I talking about? Well those scaled working engines. Hundreds of parts redeuced down and created on lathes from blocks of metal with such dedication and skill that the detail and hundreds if not thousands of hours are a marvel to behold. Now have you ever looked at these and thought “I would love one of those?” well you can.

Triumph TR7 Tracer

Coachbuilder Crayford were commissioned by a Triumph dealer, Page Motors (notice the dealer logo on the side) to convert the 2 seater TR7 into a sporting brake the Tracer was the result.

MAN BAI Janus 4000 “Bifronte”

Tragedy usually leads to innovation to solve problems that previously were unknown. The tragic events of a tunnel fire at Mont Blanc in 1999 resulted in the creation of this fire appliance whose sole reason was to solve a problem. The problem? How to turn a fire engine round quickly in a tunnel which in an incident would likely be full of vehicles. This though is such an elegant, and as with most innovations, simple solution. Why turn it round at all!!! But this vehicle is much, much more, also providing a safe haven to firefighters to take refuge and fight a fire from. Currently there are 3 located in fire houses within the tunnel.

To read much more about the event leading up to this and fully about the vehicle itself head over to CODE3 website, it’s well worth aread.

Ford Fiesta Tuareg

Before the term “cross-over” had been muttered there was one such vehicle in production in the late 70’s that could have carried that name, the Matra Rancho. You remember 4x4 looks but front wheel drive. Obviously Ford quiet liked the idea and set Ghia about coming up with a Fiesta based concept on similar lines.