For The Love of Cars

[RichB]

Butter Face said:

pitboard said:

Wasn't the buyer the chap who bought the Aston?

I thought so but its not I don't think, did he buy it or not? This must all be set up?

Yes, it was indeed the same chap with his son. He actually said that he would re-enter it into a later auction and donate the money to a cancer charity so fair play to him.

[Faust66]

Really enjoyed that episode - thought (had been told) they were going to be restoring a P1800 but I was kind of glad it was a SAAB 96 as I've not seen them much on the TV.

My only complaint would be the lack of Volvo Amazon footage. But then I am a bit biased about that.

[Elroy Blue]

Car sold for £15k yesterday at auction

[SydneyBridge]

Elroy Blue said:

Car sold for £15k yesterday at auction

Wow..excellent result

http://www.coys.co.uk/auction.php?itemID=6101&...

[Driver101]

Butter Face said:

pitboard said:

Wasn't the buyer the chap who bought the Aston?

I thought so but its not I don't think, did he buy it or not?

This must all be set up?

I think all the cars must have been sold at the same auction like last time, but this time they've added each auction on to the end of the show?

I think that because one of the weeks you could see another of the cars at the same auction.

That would explain why the same guy was there again as well.

It was very nice of him to put the car back up for auction again.

[Vipers]

Loved the column gear changes had that on my Austin Countryman which I bought from my brother for £30 about 63.

[pitboard]

Good news that the car raised a tidy sum for charity. congrats to all concerned. I owned a couple of SAAB 96s. Loved 'em. The tartan interior looked great, but pedants would bemoan the lack of door mirrors, door ashtrays and headrestraints.

[Vipers]

pitboard said:

Good news that the car raised a tidy sum for charity. congrats to all concerned. I owned a couple of SAAB 96s. Loved 'em. The tartan interior looked great, but pedants would bemoan the lack of door mirrors, door ashtrays and headrestraints.

Well, I noticed two holes where door mirrors would go, wondered why they weren't there.

[Fishtigua]

I've not seen it yet, is it just the same as the 5 previous ones?

[Halmyre]

Vipers said:

pitboard said:

Good news that the car raised a tidy sum for charity. congrats to all concerned. I owned a couple of SAAB 96s. Loved 'em. The tartan interior looked great, but pedants would bemoan the lack of door mirrors, door ashtrays and headrestraints.

Well, I noticed two holes where door mirrors would go, wondered why they weren't there.

I noticed that too! Still at the re-chromers?

[e21Mark]

Glad the charities benefited.

Considering these 2 are supposedly huge car enthusiasts etc, it's a shame they can't drive with even a hint at mechanical sympathy. Column gear change isn't hard to master.

Anyone know what auction record is being broken next week?

[Scuffers]

e21Mark said:

Anyone know what auction record is being broken next week?

the one for the most inaccurate bullst spouted in a single programme?

interesting snippet from the latter auction info:

Coys said:

HDF 918L was partially dismantled some years ago in preparation for a restoration that stalled. It was recently rescued by Ant Anstead of Evanta Motors for Series 2 of Channel 4's 'For the Love of Cars' and has now been restored by Ant, working with the team at restoration specialists MRH in Hertford.

[simonrockman]

e21Mark said:

Glad the charities benefited.

Considering these 2 are supposedly huge car enthusiasts etc, it's a shame they can't drive with even a hint at mechanical sympathy. Column gear change isn't hard to master.

Anyone know what auction record is being broken next week?

Mk I Transit.

The auction was at the PH/Autosport show.

SImon

[The Don of Croy]

I'd like to have heard a little more about just how much better SAAB were than contemporary manufacturers - Ant kept repeating his admiration but just an example would have been nice - other than the general state of the floorpan (like they did on TG dropping a SAAB onto it's roof together with a BMW 3 series E30 - the Swede didn't buckle).

I know it's not an anorak prog but if he's going to labour a point he could use the medium to show us, rather than just tell.

However, the scenery on that journey across Scotland - beautiful. In the right weather...

[rohrl]

Why did they make a big deal out of keeping the car the original colour "because originality is so important in today's market" then go and reupholster the car in tartan?

I noticed the screw on the seat and the lack of mirrors too. I wondered if maybe the mirrors were removed to put the car in a covered trailer.

[gareth_r]

The script seemed to make a point (repeatedly) that the SAAB's engine was a four-stroke, but I don't recall any mention of the fact that it was originally powered by a 2-stroke. Did I miss it? Perhaps that info was lost in the edit.

I suspect that the fact that the engine was a 3-cylinder 2-stroke running on pre-mix may have been a major factor in the car's lack of popularity in the UK.

They didn't even mention, except in an almost inaudible background discussion, that the engine was a V4 that came from Ford in Germany.


EDIT:
Noticed that the Transit in the preview at the end seemed to have the extended bonnet... doesn't that mean it's a diesel or a V6 ?

Edited by gareth_r on Monday 18th May 10:33

[Scuffers]

which is funny when they spent so much time going on about it's cold start ability!

[Elroy Blue]

Apparently they just couldn't find any mirrors in the period they had the car.

[Vipers]

gareth_r said:

The script seemed to make a point (repeatedly) that the SAAB's engine was a four-stroke, but I don't recall any mention of the fact that it was originally powered by a 2-stroke. Did I miss it? Perhaps that info was lost in the edit.

My limited knowledge of cars extends to SAAB's having 2 stroke engines and was listening for that, can't recall hearing it mentioned, so you didn't miss it.

[gareth_r]

ash73 said:

rohrl said:

Why did they make a big deal out of keeping the car the original colour "because originality is so important in today's market" then go and reupholster the car in tartan?

When they were doing the AM originality was deemed less important than picking a good colour. I thought the Saab was a nice car but looked awful in cat-sick-yellow with a tartan interior. Maybe the owner had the final say?

I thought the main point was that the paint on the interior and boot was too good to respray, so they had to stick with the original colour.

I don't understand the upholstery, though. Easy enough to re-trim I guess.

There does seem to have been a shift from always restoring vehicles (with a finish that is better than anything ever produced by the factory) to keeping the "as found" condition.

I remember, years ago, thinking that it was a shame that Honda had restored a couple of Hailwood's works bikes to pristine condition, rather than leaving them in the condition in which they were last raced. They would be much more interesting if they still had the dents that had been hammered in the tank to clear the handlebars, and the scuffs from the last time they were crashed, and all the little changes that had been made during the season.