Endangered Species

[TimD]

Just a daft thought.

This morning I passed on the road a 1978 Chrysler/Talbot Alpine. Pre face-lift, it was a time capsule of just how I remembered them. Cream/beige bumpers, chronic timing rattle, gentle puffs of black smoke pouring from the exhaust....

And it made me realise it must be ten years since I last saw one. If the one I saw today isn't in active preservation, it is likely that it, too, will follow its brethren to the great scrapyard in the sky before long.

Are there any automotive orphans that have actually disappeared completely, do you suppose? Series production cars that were once common but now utterly disappeared from sight?

I know that the 1956 Singer Hunter is represented by only three known survivors. Are there any scarcer ones?

And would you save one if you had the chance? I know that I would love to recapture a little bit of my childhood by preserving a Hillman Avenger and a Sunbeam Rapier H120. Both models are getting thin on the ground.

And then of course there's my strange predilection for Mk4 Ford Zodiacs....

Do you have a soft spot for everyone else's cast-offs?

[woodyracing]

If I could preserve a car it would be the Ford Escort Cosworth, not very old (1992-1996) but becoming ever more scarce. The car has so much history to it, it would be a shame if they were to disappear.

[Ray Bell]

Of course, those cars most prone to cancer would be the ones at greatest risk.

Here I would be looking for a nice Peugeot 404.

[paul c]

I was reading that the number of Morris Marinas/Itals on the road actually halved last year. Like you Tim I find it a shame when cars such as these seem in danger of extinction, even if their only value is to show how far car design and manufacture have come.

My softspot is for the Opel Manta B (and A to an extent) in GTE form. I had one of these for a couple of years. Mechanically a sound car and a lot of fun to drive, even if it was a Mk1 Cavalier in a party-frock. Not that good with the old tinworm though and getting parts for them is getting progressively harder. Prices in the UK have stayed pretty stable for several years now at around £2,000 for a decent one, which seems to be about average for the 1980's sports hatches that have any level of cult following (eg. Scirocco, Golf GTi, XR3i). What are we to make of those who buy a car like that and then spend thousands of pounds transforming it into a near race-spec. road car though? Whilst there's certainly something to be said for small mods that update a car, perhaps for safety reasons or for that personal stamp of creativity, surely part of the fun of running a car like that is experiencing the character of the decade it was built in.

[woodyracing]

Originally posted by paul c
What are we to make of those who buy a car like that and then spend thousands of pounds transforming it into a near race-spec. road car though? Whilst there's certainly something to be said for small mods that update a car, perhaps for safety reasons or for that personal stamp of creativity, surely part of the fun of running a car like that is experiencing the character of the decade it was built in.

They probably pick those models to start with because they are cheap, and they can gradually build up their cars. Theres not many cars i can think of that someone hasn't modifed in some way.

[djb]

Ford Pinto or Maverick, the AMC Pacer, a Chevy Chevette or Polaris, now those babies give me a tear in my eye when I realize that I haven't seen any in ages......

but seriously, perhaps moreso here in Canada, because of the winter/road salt thing, there is a constant slow shift of a certain decade's cars that slowly become less and less numerous on the road, to finally petter out to nothing.

As you said Tim, for those of us who keep a visual (and emotional) image bank of various cars in our heads, it is a pleasant surprise when an unexpected car from our past pops up and really stands out simply because we haven't seen one in "X" number of years.
It's interesting to note that while we share memories of more well known automobiles, the models you mentioned mean absolutely nothing to me, as we probably never had them over here.

[Ray Bell]

Know what you mean about that joy you find when you see one... I pulled up on a lonely road to top up my fuel on the way to Melbourne the other month... a Peugeot 203 loaded with people pulled up at the nearby intersection moments later!

[TimD]

djb, there's a chap not so very far from me who has an AMC Pacer mouldering on his driveway. It's got an original 1976 registration, so it must have been imported new, but it hasn't turned a wheel in at least a decade.

You mention that some of the cars I mentioned meant little in North America. Well, as far as I know, the Chrysler Alpine was marketed for a while as the Simca 1308, but I know for a fact that what I call a Hillman Avenger was marketed in some territories as the 1971/2 Plymouth Cricket.

Very sturdy little cars, and I'd like to save one before they all wind up on the oval shale circuits of Great Britain.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by TimD
djb, there's a chap not so very far from me who has an AMC Pacer mouldering on his driveway....

Funny you should mention this, there was one in exactly the same condition in a driveway in the Brisbane suburb of Wynnum West when I was there a few weeks ago...

[SL]

Time to pull that Ford Edsell out of the garage now I think.

All those who brought one at the time and to embarased to drive it and tucked it away out of sight must be laughing their heads off now.

Now I think of it did Bugatti not issue Royalle's to Viceroies of countries ? Is there still not one missing ?

SL

[djb]

Well well, Tim and Ray, I would never had thought that the Pacer would have been anywhere else but here in N.A. I can't imagine it's "greenhouse" effect down under-now THERE'S some vinyl seats you wouldn't want any exposed skin getting near! It really was a funny bird wasn't it, and you do not really see any of them anywhere, mouldering or not. I have very vague memories of the Cricket, although its' rather plain lines certainly did not make much of an impression on me as a kid, when across the street at Redshaw's British Car Garage, there were all those lovely Jags, Triumphs and brethren.

[DAVID PATERSON]

Hey Charger!

[redback]

My soft spot is Isuzu Bellets. For those that don't know them they are a quirky mid-60's Japanese car. I have a sedan and a GT. The GT has heate instead of heater engraved on the dash panel under the switch.

[strad]

Dave? 69 Charger?
I liked my 69 Roadrunner.
Tim
Take that Cricket and dump in the small 383, with a Cam Dynamics cam and some stiffer slugs, narrow the rear end, put on a four link, or ladder bar rear suspention, and some wide wiennies, and twice pipes.. and prowl Harrow for anything that moves

[strad]

For an oddball I'll take one of those AMXs what 67-69...