1973 Fiat 124 Sport Coupe 1800
Discussion
Deefor62 said:
My dad had a silver one of those with a Webasto roof and blue interior. I have very fond memories of a trip down to lake Garda in it, getting wonderful views of the underside of the Brenner Pass bridge through the open sun roof
Fabby! This post perfectly encapsulates the Proustian and/or time traveller effects of having old cars, and also of just talking about old cars. Breadvan72 said:
That, as I understand it, is one of the key attractions. She does like her comforts.
On the car front, I tried to interest her in a Morris Minor Convertible, and in a Triumph Herald. No deal. She just thinks they are like the manky old motors that dad drives. There was, however, a recent summer when mum's modern VW POS diesel was super mega unreliable and broke down every ten minutes, while I smoked about in the 70s crapwagons and they all worked just fine. Manys LOLs.
The VW was replaced by some anonymous tiny Mazda hatchback so boring that I fall into a coma when I even think o.....
I'm not particularly risk averse, but I would think twice about a standard Herald or Vitesse myself. Under no circumstances would I buy one for my daughter (who, too, regards her father's old Porsches and MGs with disdain).On the car front, I tried to interest her in a Morris Minor Convertible, and in a Triumph Herald. No deal. She just thinks they are like the manky old motors that dad drives. There was, however, a recent summer when mum's modern VW POS diesel was super mega unreliable and broke down every ten minutes, while I smoked about in the 70s crapwagons and they all worked just fine. Manys LOLs.
The VW was replaced by some anonymous tiny Mazda hatchback so boring that I fall into a coma when I even think o.....
Breadvan72 said:
P5BNij said:
We buy any car says a tenner for the lot if you throw in the air freshener. Deal?
This just in from our foreign affairs correspondent in 1970....
GC8 said:
I think that a Moggie is a brilliant suggestion. Convertible, Traveller (a rather dubious model name now) or a two door saloon.
But no power to escape from sudden danger*, and no crashworthiness, and very, very, very old tech so unless pristine and so unaffordable maybe also unreliable in daily teenager use. Great in a town, maybe, but out in the sticks? Mad rural bus drivers, mad Audi drivers, mud, darkness, other teenagers in hatches, etc.* A problem with entry level cars in general. NB, ex wife does not understand that a car's ability to accelerate rapidly can be a safety factor. She mistakes acceleration for speed. She thinks that noise means fast. She does not understand that sporty cars have better brakes, steering, handling etc. than shopping cars have. Insurers also miss this point, although they may argue sensibly that the problem with latent performance as a get out of jail free card is that the teenager will use the card when not in jail.
Deefor62 said:
My dad had a silver one of those with a Webasto roof and blue interior. I have very fond memories of a trip down to lake Garda in it, getting wonderful views of the underside of the Brenner Pass bridge through the open sun roof
Sunroof! You must have been rich! This one spent plenty of time on the A1 between North Yorkshire and North Berwick. Fabulous car, but when I saw one at a car show recently, it looked very narrow and small.
rjg48 said:
I'm not sure a 17 year old girl would want to driving a 70 year old car.
More modern, safer yet still under the radar
SAAB Drop Top
Nissan Figaro
I give up! ALL modernish Saabs are pretty much performance cars, at least in the eyes of insurers and timorous exes, although not in the eyes of PH (where anything under 10000 BHP or with wheels smaller than 50 inches is a hairdresser car). The convertibles tend to be two litres ish and often have turbos. More modern, safer yet still under the radar
SAAB Drop Top
Nissan Figaro
I say again s l o o o w l y - 17 year old with new licence. Note that word: slowly.
Figaros are good when not rusty, but have cult status and hence prices, and count as too old and therefore as death machines in Daily Mail eyes.
Having finished my six hour Zoom meeting with actual China (ship engineers in a spot of London arbitration bother) I am going to go out and do a Fiat video to get the thread back on track, sort of. I do not mind that the thread steers as waywardly as the super-busted Beta 1300 Coupe with a totally broken steering rack that I once owned, but there are limits*.
*On the Fiat's current tyres of terror, the limits are called 29 MPH in the dry and 8 MPH (if brave) in the wet. STILL no sign of the Dunlops.
*On the Fiat's current tyres of terror, the limits are called 29 MPH in the dry and 8 MPH (if brave) in the wet. STILL no sign of the Dunlops.
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