mazda rx8 then the dvla revoked my license

BMW 7 series long wheel base, brand new!!

Daimler Sovereign 4.2 litre (in the early 80's) was a trade in at garage I worked at and no-one wanted it as it only did about 10mpg. Paid £60.00 for it and sold it for £480.00 to a TV company
I think the other reason it was difficult to sell was the colour - bright pink.

I wouldn't say it was flashy but the Triumph Spitfire I drive at the moment certainly turns heads (but that could be the very loud exhausts )and attracts some favourable comments.

Did own a Rolls Roce Silver Shadow for a short time (another trade in) but never drove it.

Oldsmobile Delta 88.

Owned this huge 350cubic inch 17mpg gas guzzler for 3 months back in 1979. With the price of petrol in the USA at that time it cost less to run than my Mini back home! Drove it all the way from California to New York. I had never driven a car with power brakes before and nearly put the salesman through the windscreen on the test drive, shook him up so much he agreed to a huge discount (just to get rid of me I suspect). Happy days!

I had a Nissan Silvia Turbo about 10 years ago. It was white and had pop up headlamps, and went like the wind. I started Parky's just before I sold it and I still miss bombing around in it , made me feel like a boy racer. I now have a 1971 MGB its a bit harder to drive as VERA does not have power steering

I never thought of it as flashy, but the girls did let me take them home in my TR4. Probably because that is about all you could do with it. Take them home.
Funny enough,the best vehicle that attracted the girls wasn't flashy at all and was one the cheapest modes of transport I ever owned. Well I owned a half share of it, and that was an ex-army Austin Champ. It had a 40 hp Rolls Royce engine and could travel backwards as fast as forwards. Not that we ever tried it.

.
I remember them. Some dodgy geezer in Herts bought a job lot off the army and filled a field with them, just about the time hippies were looking for a suitably cool vehicle, and the Beach Boys were scuttling about in beach buggies.

The Champ came, as you say, with an RR engine capable on a good day of achieving maybe 12 mpg (compared to, say, a London double-decker bus's 5 mpg). You also got the jerry can, shovel, two-way radio and windscreen which folded forward onto the bonnet.

I want one!

.

A friend and I took a day off work to go to an auction of surplus Army vehicles in or near Nottingham. Unbeknownst to us we were supposed to view the vehicles the day before the auction.
When we arrived the auction was well under way.
I can't remember if it was just Champs they were selling but when we arrived that was the type of vehicle people were bidding for. We stood and listened to determine what sort of price they were going for. It seemed to be all in the £40 to £50 pound range.
So young twerps that we were we started bidding for a Champ. Unseen. I did say in my previous post that we paid £50 for one. I may have been exaggerating. it may have been £40.
Any way we won a bid. Then we had to join a line of bidders who were waiting to pay for their vehicle or vehicles.
One chap stared chatting to us and he asked which vehicle we had bid on, and what was it like. We told him we didn't know what is was like be cause we hadn't laid eyes on it yet.
This chap nearly fell over laughing. When he finally regained his composure he told us that some of the vehicles out there didn't even have wheels on.
You can imagine how much our hearts sank at that cheerful news.
When we finally got to see it we felt a lot happier. All four wheels were attached.
We had gone to the auction intending to tow the vehicle home. We couldn,t Tax and insure it because it was still unregistered.
In those days, a towed vehicle was covered by the tax and insurance of the vehicle towing it.
We climbed aboard the Champ to see what worked.
First thing we found was that it had the wrong ignition key in it. We thought, no problem, we were going to tow it any way. We tried the lights. Nothing happened. The batteries were as plat as a pancake. We were going to need lights because we knew it would be dark before we got it home.
We decided we would have to play it by ear and perhaps park some where when the light faded.
We started towing.
Now don't laugh. The towing vehicle was an Austin A35 Van. Well the poor little thing couldn't get out of second gear,the Champ was so heavy and that was on a flat road.
A couple miles up the road we called in at a petrol station to fill up the van.
The petrol attendant got chatting to us and suggested we take the Champ to a little garage he new locally. It was run by a couple of young lads who were very obliging.
Off we went to find this garage. We did find it fairly easily.
We explained the situation and the mechanics were over the moon that we had brought the Champ to them. They used to own one their selves when they were younger.
They told us to come back in a couple of hours.
When we went back they had put two new 12 volt battery's on it. (it had a 24 volt system) they bypassed the ignition key. Pushed the starter lever and it sprang into life.
Total Bill, £12. 10 shillings 6 pence.
Okay. may be they were reconditioned battery's.
Their advice for towing it home was to connect the tow rope to both vehicles but run the Champ's engine, If we were stopped we should say the Champ's engine was running so that the lights would operate.
Off we went. The only problem was the darn tow rope kept breaking.
We came to some traffic lights in a town some where. The lights were green when the van passed them but as the traffic was moving very slow, the lights changed to red before the Champ went through.
Champ stopped, Van had to go. result. Broken tow rope again.
With the tow rope gone, The Champ was no longer part of the van.
So it was now on the road e-legally.
Just our luck there was a police officer standing at the junction. I had to stop any way to wait for the Champ to catch up.
The police officer strolled up to us and asked what was happening.
Obviously, we were on dodgy ground but we explained how it was.
The officer smiled and said. Go on, off you go you crafty couple of perishers.
Wasn't it nice when policemen could be a little flexible.
We did get home eventually. It took a couple of weeks to register the Champ and we had a lot of fun with it when every thing was in place.
Our Austin Champ wasn't too bad on petrol. we got about 18 t0 20 miles to the gallon which we thought was quite good considering the size of the engine.

So endeth this posting. I hope I haven't bored every body with my tale.

My clapped out Ford Mondeo.I scrapped it yesterday,Why do I feel sad?