Show me a nice old car

Lancia Fulvia. The Club plates are a miraculous legacy in Victoria where cars older than 30 years can be kept legal and on the road for a fraction of the cost of standard registration. Your classic is for weekends. And it means you can collect a few...

Lancia Fulvia by Richard, on Flickr

Full name: Lancia Fulvia Sport 1.3 Zagato ... One of my favorites! Of course, I *am* a Lancia guy...


Lancia Fulvia Coupé in Late Afternoon Sun

enjoy,
 
I stopped by my mechanic's shop today. He had this customer's beauty parked by the door:

1966 Alfa Romeo Duetto Spider 1600
iPhone 11 Pro

Such a beautiful car! All of mine were the later models, with the Kamm tail, but there's something truly lovely about the original design with that beautiful tapered tail. :)

G
 
This was our last DS, a DS23 EFI BVH (fuel injected semi automatic) in blu d'orient with a tabac leather interior. I sold it when I realised I was by then doing less than 1000 miles a year. The looks are one thing but the engineering is something else altogether.

IMG_1959 by dralowid, on Flickr
 
The one we had before was a rusty five speed. I found a scrap car with a Webasto folding canvas sunshine roof fitted, switched the whole roof in a day. For those who don't know a D normally has a composite (similar to GRP) roof.
 
In 1968 I wanted to get an Alfa.
When someone asked, "What's that?"
I could clear my throat and announce
"It's an Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider Veloce."
Poetry. :)
Sadly, my wife did not regard this a valuable feature. I passed on the car, kept the wife.
 
In 1968 I wanted to get an Alfa.
When someone asked, "What's that?"
I would clear my throat and announce
"It's an Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider Veloce."
Poetry. :)
Sadly, my wife did not regard this a valuable feature. I passed on the car, kept the wife.

You can always get another wife. Alfas OTOH, . . .
 
A Speedster rolling by
on a sunny Sunday in Yokohama​

DSCF6320.JPG
Fujifilm X-H1, Fujinon XF 33mm f1.4 lens
Classic Chrome film simulation
Yokohama, Japan - November 2022
Image resized smaller than original​
 
This was our last DS, a DS23 EFI BVH (fuel injected semi automatic) in blu d'orient with a tabac leather interior. I sold it when I realised I was by then doing less than 1000 miles a year. The looks are one thing but the engineering is something else altogether.

IMG_1959 by dralowid, on Flickr

With hindsight I now realise they were comparatively simple and straight forward; no cpu's and much, much less than 486 pages to the owners handbook...

Regards, David

PS And once you've got over the shock you realise that many of the quirks to (say) the 2CV and DS's etc are sensible and the rest are weird. OTOH the suspension is too good; shredding a tyre because you didn't realise it had been punctured can be a pita,
 
1962 Toyota Crown Masterline​

DSCF6278.JPG
Fujifilm X-H1, Fujinon XF 33mm f1.4 lens
Classic Chrome film simulation
Yokohama, Japan - November 2022
Image resized smaller than original​
 
<snip>

PS And once you've got over the shock you realise that many of the quirks to (say) the 2CV and DS's etc are sensible and the rest are weird. OTOH the suspension is too good; shredding a tyre because you didn't realise it had been punctured can be a pita,

I love my 2CV and find it a very good, rational and fun car. Thinking differently is not thinking incorrectly. The 2CV was an excellent solution for the problem presented. My old TA was a great car, too.
 
I love my 2CV and find it a very good, rational and fun car. Thinking differently is not thinking incorrectly. The 2CV was an excellent solution for the problem presented. My old TA was a great car, too.

Reading the PS again I think I should have said that 'the rest' means all the other makes. Almost everything about the DS's and 2CV was rational but not exactly conventional. Years later I still miss the logical layout of the gear box that the 2CV had; putting reverse and 1st together was very sensible and made it far easier to park etc, and 2 opposite 3 was very useful around town.

Regards, David
 
One aspect of the D's suspension that is often overlooked is the steering pivot point being central to the road wheel. This means that when a tyre goes flat the the additional drag is centralised on the wheel and does not pull the car to one side. Hence the reputation for drivers not knowing if a tyre has gone flat. Others may be able to explain this better.........
 
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