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Overheard 2 five year old boys walking past my Mini a few years back, their comment still makes me laugh "Wow look at that funny little car from the olden days!"

nick@dunsdale wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 1:30 pm city.jpg

Sorry Mab nicked your pic

I was looking at this picture and thought.

How well the mini has stood the test of time for a car who's silhouette basically never changed in 41 years of production. (clubmans aside)

And now even 62 years later it still look's current and nowhere near antiquated.

Or am i just a typical mini lover looking through rose tinted glasses lol

Is there any other cars that have stood the 60 odd years old test of time so well ?

Excluding exotics such as Jaguar Aston Martin etc

My mum had a City identical to that, FRN769W, bequeathed to her by her Uncle. It was a cracking car, i drove it when i passed my test, it went REALLY well, one of the best 998s I've driven. Sadly it ended up red and white and a rally car.

SMOKE GREY wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 9:15 pm

nick@dunsdale wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 1:30 pm city.jpg

Sorry Mab nicked your pic

I was looking at this picture and thought.

How well the mini has stood the test of time for a car who's silhouette basically never changed in 41 years of production. (clubmans aside)

And now even 62 years later it still look's current and nowhere near antiquated.

Or am i just a typical mini lover looking through rose tinted glasses lol

Is there any other cars that have stood the 60 odd years old test of time so well ?

Excluding exotics such as Jaguar Aston Martin etc

My mum had a City identical to that, FRN769W, bequeathed to her by her Uncle. It was a cracking car, i drove it when i passed my test, it went REALLY well, one of the best 998s I've driven. Sadly it ended up red and white and a rally car.

Looks like it disappeared from the road around 1992....a Mini City of that era is now a rare car to see in original standard spec.
FRN769W
✗ Untaxed
Tax due: 27 February 1992

I’d say the Mk1 Escort still looks the biz, in fact the curves of a good few 60s cars still look great, it’s the boxy cars of the 70s and 80s that look terribly dated.

There a design that still looks fresh.

When you see classic cars of the 1950/60/70's in modern traffic they do now look very small, narrow and vulnerable now we are so used to seeing bulky modern cars and oversized SUV's as the norm. I was following an MGB GT the other day and it looked much smaller and narrower than I remember when they were a common sight on the roads. The other thing I usually notice when following classic cars in traffic including early Minis is the smell of exhaust fumes, many seem to be running far too rich or stuck on choke.....or maybe I have just got used to the cleaner exhaust emissions of modern vehicles? I remember being a passenger as a kid in my dad's car when he would be trying to overtake a bus or lorry belching out visible stinking diesel exhaust fumes especially going up hills!

mab01uk wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 9:45 am When you see classic cars of the 1950/60/70's in modern traffic they do now look very small, narrow and vulnerable now we are so used to seeing bulky modern cars and oversized SUV's as the norm. I was following an MGB GT the other day and it looked much smaller and narrower than I remember when they were a common sight on the roads. The other thing I usually notice when following classic cars in traffic including early Minis is the smell of exhaust fumes, many seem to be running far too rich or stuck on choke.....or maybe I have just got used to the cleaner exhaust emissions of modern vehicles? I remember being a passenger as a kid in my dad's car when he would be trying to overtake a bus or lorry belching out visible stinking diesel exhaust fumes especially going up hills!

Have you tried fitting a modern car in a 60's or 70's or even 80's single garage.

Cars are so wide now even a medium sized hatchback wont fit in or barely fit in

I have one customer with a Mazda 6 that has to get out of the car and push it as he cant open the doors once its in the garage.

He has no parking at all outside his house but has rented a lockup that he has had since the 70's

Cars are all far too big nowadays. I reckon they should be taxed like they are in japan by LENGTH!

If they were, I'd be selling my 4.93M long Volvo V90 fricken quick!!!!

miniminor wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 9:05 am There a design that still looks fresh.

images (2).jpeg

Not as fresh as this

miniminor wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 7:21 pm Overheard 2 five year old boys walking past my Mini a few years back, their comment still makes me laugh "Wow look at that funny little car from the olden days!"

Best comment on this thread and shows how strong our rose tinted specs are.

I think the mini is timeless due to it's incredibly long production run, so it doesn't seem stuck in the '50s, '60s, '70s.... and it's familiarity.

I think the the thing that ages most designs is bumpers. The introduction of integrated bumpers was a HUGE development in post war car design, even more so when they went body coloured. That is really when everything started to look the same between manufacturers. and to a lesser extent chrome, which can be deleted / darkened)

Look at any classic without seperate bumpers (or where removing them is not obviously detrimental to the design) and many classics with good proportions can look contemporary.

Best example is the Porsche 924 and 928s, sedigned in the early to mid '70s. They still look very much more recent in design. The 914 also. Aside from the Wire wheels, the Lotus Elite of 1957 (or the Ferrari 250SWB of the same year) could be launched today with very little modification and still look amazing. As would the Elan.

The Ginetta G15 (with it's split Beetle front bumper and an elf / hornet rear removed) could look like a contemporary design.

As noted above though, all need to be scaled up by at least 25%, as that is what would make them stand out. They're all minis now!

Al

Can it be that Crash structure legislation means we have the same looking modern cars that need to be made massive is size irrespective of manufacture .. like it or not this has saved Lives.

Couple of 80,sCars suggestions for the pot are the Audi URq & Lancia Delta both with Painted Bumpers... we should be pleased there are plenty of Mini Spares suppliers with good products ready available .. not so with later made Cars ..to get parts for a URq that is a big problem not just body & mechanical parts,Correct Tyres are also difficult to obtain

You need your best pair of Valentinos for these

By the way, Porsche never fitted chrome bumpers to their cars. They put on the odd chrome/stainless over rider on the 356 and early 911, but the bumpers were always colour matched to the body. And before anyone says 914, that was a VW with a VW engine.

914.

A VW-Porsche collaboration (but designed by Porsche) with a VW or a Porsche Engine. 914-6 was pure Porsche.

The 924 was another collaboration, but with only a VW engine

914s are absolutely ACE. I will have another. A brilliant piece of packaging and design.

Al

Pete wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 11:06 pm I’d say the Mk1 Escort still looks the biz, in fact the curves of a good few 60s cars still look great, it’s the boxy cars of the 70s and 80s that look terribly dated.

I dont think you can beat the looks of a Mk1 with nice arches fitted.

I see the odd mini In Great yarmouth and they look about the size of wifes wheelbarrow

hicklingmick wrote: ↑Fri Oct 15, 2021 7:43 am

Pete wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 11:06 pm I’d say the Mk1 Escort still looks the biz, in fact the curves of a good few 60s cars still look great, it’s the boxy cars of the 70s and 80s that look terribly dated.

I dont think you can beat the looks of a Mk1 with nice arches fitted.

I see the odd mini In Great yarmouth and they look about the size of wifes wheelbarrow

I also like a mk1 escort the lines flow so well

The only let down is on bog standard one sitting on 12" wheels does look a bit crap.
There is so much clearance just looks out of proportion
Sitting on nice set of wider wheels and lowered an inch or so drastically improves the look

I wonder where my lovely RS1600 FMX 800J is now

For me the ultimate in simple 3-box design is the Fiat 124.




But for performance it has to be the last word in shark front BMs that started with the Neue-Klasse in 1962

surfblue63 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 6:16 pm You need your best pair of Valentinos for these

Lancia Fulvia and Alfa Romeo 105 series GT Stepnose are among my favourite car designs. Fulvias with their weird canted over engines to allow a lower bonnet line are classic Lancia overengineering. They are great little engines but a complete PITA to work on in the car because it's so canted over you have very little room to get to anything. The Zagato designed and built, Fulvia Sport is also great with some wonderfully whacky features like the electric rear window/hatch that you can open and close with a switch on the dash to improve airflow through the car. You also need to open it with the electric motor first before you're able to open it by hand all the way so you can use it as a bootlid.

Here's a picture I took of a few of Zagatos during the 50 years of Fulvia celebration we did with the Lancia Club Nederland at Zandvoort. They also did a great 4 door, 3 volume Berlina of the Fulvia. Typically the most common model of those in S1 had a column shift rather than the floorshift of all other Fulvias. They also had completely mad dials that were rotating barrels to show the speed and revs... I'd still like a S2 Fulvia Berlina with the 5 speed box and regular dials to turn into a regularity rally car for multi-day events, just a shame that spares cost the earth compared to Mini/MG etc.

You've caught the best angle of the Fulvia Zagato there. I always thought it looked a bit of a dull car from the front.

And here's another Fait 3-Box, the 131 Mirafiori in 2000 TC (Racing ) guise




and the best of the bunch the 131 Abarth that beat Ford into submission in the WRC manufacturers championship.