Most Inappropriate Daily Driver

[Hippea]

Who has the most inappropriate daily driver?

My friend daily drives a 1981 Lotus Eclat as his only car, covering around 7k miles a year. Can you beat that?

[MadmanO/T People]

I once ran a Fiat X-1/9 as a daily.

[Hippea]

MadmanO/T People said:

I once ran a Fiat X-1/9 as a daily.

It doesn’t count if they were nearly new at the time

[bobtail4x4]

I ran a spitfire over a autumn winter spring period several years ago, the top was never up even in rain,

[V 02]

Surely someone must daily an Ariel Atom?

[lost in espace]

My 9 seat T5 must qualify, use it to commute 6 miles each way and not much else. And I don't even have any seats in it at the moment.

[ConnectionError]

lost in espace said:

My 9 seat T5 must qualify, use it to commute 6 miles each way and not much else. And I don't even have any seats in it at the moment.

Without seats, so a van?

[4Q]

bobtail4x4 said:

I ran a spitfire over a autumn winter spring period several years ago, the top was never up even in rain,

My 2nd & 3rd (only) cars were spitfires, you could see the road through the floor pan of one of them and the roof leaked so badly on both it was hardly worth putting up.

[HJG]

My '69 big block Corvette suddenly became my only working car. With a 100 mile round trip commute, nothing forced me harder to get the others sorted.

[Missy Charm]

Hippea said:

Who has the most inappropriate daily driver?

My friend daily drives a 1981 Lotus Eclat as his only car, covering around 7k miles a year. Can you beat that?

Sorry, but I don't understand what's so wrong with the Lotus Eclat for daily use. From memory they are proper four seater cars with biggish boots and plenty of modern conveniences. The fibreglass body won't rust either, so it doesn't matter too much about leaving one in the rain. The engine is probably a bit highly strung, but otherwise an Eclat won't be that different to a normal car. Perhaps I'm out of touch!

[sixor8]

Yes but the chassis isn't galvanized, is it? I had a couple of Lotus Excels (the one after the Eclat) in the 1990s and they had protected chassis (galvanized steel) but not the Eclat. Kudos for using one as a daily.

[shtu]

Missy Charm said:

plenty of modern conveniences

Oh come on now.

[Castrol for a knave]

I ran a 1967 Alfa Spider as my DD for 2 years, doing about 8,000 miles a year.

Longest business trip was Stoke Newington to Kyle of Lochalsh.

[Chubbyross]

There’s plenty of people who daily Caterhams. But I’m not one of them.

[B'stard Child]

From 2001 to 2007 this was my daily driver - it was 10 years old when I bought it and already had parts availability issues



It never let me down but the list of jobs needing doing was growing by the year

It took me till 2014 to get it back on the road and even then it wasn't completely fixed - always something needs doing

[Missy Charm]

sixor8 said:

Yes but the chassis isn't galvanized, is it? I had a couple of Lotus Excels (the one after the Eclat) in the 1990s and they had protected chassis (galvanized steel) but not the Eclat. Kudos for using one as a daily.

Galvanized chassis from 1980 onwards, apparently.

[ChocolateFrog]

Hippea said:

Who has the most inappropriate daily driver?

My friend daily drives a 1981 Lotus Eclat as his only car, covering around 7k miles a year. Can you beat that?

SG54.

Who else dailies something more exotic than a Murcielago.

[FamousPheasant]

My grandfather used to rock about in a 1926 blower Bentley well into the late 70s as his main car. Even then, I can only imagine quiet how ridiculous it was.

[993kimbo]

HJG said:

My '69 big block Corvette suddenly became my only working car. With a 100 mile round trip commute, nothing forced me harder to get the others sorted.

I ran a ‘65 big block Corvette roadster as my daily commute from Chelsea into central London. Heavy clutch, manual gearbox, no power steering,no aircon.

Had a 69 454 Camaro a bit later. Could have bought a house with the petrol I spent.

[RVB]

4Q said:

My 2nd & 3rd (only) cars were spitfires, you could see the road through the floor pan of one of them and the roof leaked so badly on both it was hardly worth putting up.

The lady I was dating/living with in the mid/late-1990s ran a green Triumph Spitfire as a daily (? EGG 500X ?) and I can remember it spending half its time being fixed/welded by a friend of ours, along with its leaky roof, being barely able to reach 60mph and me being so cramped that I couldn't walk after spending more than half an hour in it.