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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.

Peter Laidler wrote: ↑Fri Oct 15, 2021 10:28 am I wonder where my lovely RS1600 FMX 800J is now

DVLA: 'Vehicle details could not be found.'

Unusual that a J reg vehicle is not still listed?

It was maize yellow. Could it still exist as a cherished number somewhere? I suspect that as these cars hit, say, 8 years old and really started to loose value, they were broken up. Nice car but I found that it needed meticulous mechanical maintenance.

Undoubtedly the mini looks good and has stood the test of time, I have a suits in my wardrobe like the one the gent is wearing and still waiting for them to come back into fashion!