Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

The aching want.

I rather like those. There's a lot of really nice Pinifarina lines disguised by some clumsy sharp angles.
The front is a bit meh, but it's basically an updated Daytona.
It's not hard to imagine a skilled coachbuilder could turn one of those into something very beautiful indeed.

Mind you a 456 is faster, newer, prettier, and generally cheaper.

pretty much every car he likes is a money pit, it's just his taste...

what about a roller, niall? an early silver shadow or equiv bentley - i reckon they'd be great to own. probably spendy though

a 240z?

waft

It is known as character ;) actually he hasn't stuck a TVR on the list.

How about a cheapish RX8, preferably with a recent engine rebuild, thrash is it till it goes pop.

You have owned a wankel engined car.

They were neither money pits or what ever. The H van will be more family oriented. This came from the Luberon, very solid and still had the french CT.
I grew up around more usual performance and vintage cars, I guess I found them boring. There are more Lister Jaguars, Bugattis and even D type Jaguars than there are that red Mazda. Having driven My fathers cars, including Ac Ace, Hwm etc I can say that they are great buy id rather change gear at 9000 rpm than enjoy the torque of a big old 6.

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H vans are shit, I hate H vans. Why people thing they make great vans to sell pancakes sorry crepes.

At a guess you have the english parts diagrams.

No, although they are nice, I used to drive dads e30 m3 when i had just passed my test. We had a 240z race car ex Samuri racing. Rust makes cars rare. When I found solid cars then I bought them. Lace work is for people with serious issues or more time on thier hands than they should.
Rotary motors are just increadable, unless you have had a heavily ported 13b running through a Weber Ida then you have sadly missed out. An example of one is below. Running efi though but similar.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W2kJ0WinbkM

The link might work.

550 Maranello (how much are they now anyway?) Last saw one stuck in a snowdrift in Sedona, AZ. Some old boy had taken it our for a spin in a blizzard. Sounded marvelous. 456s are lovely, understated Fezzas, I had a mate with a midnight blue one years ago. Classy. If I ever get enough disposable cash, I'd have a red Testarossa in a heartbeat, sexiest back end on a car ever. I suspect values will explode in the not too distant - a couple of years back you could buy nice ones in the US for USD50k.

Oh and XJ12C instead of XJS.

and might be a bit chestwig for London but 1970 Camaro split bumper....a very pretty car once you bin all the boy racer bits.

Continuing the Quattroporte meme, the first of the new gen ones are getting cheap...one of the nicest saloon body shapes in years and they sound epic.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2005-MASERATI-QUATTROPORTE-AB4-S-A-GREY-STUNNING-WITH-PRIVATE-PLATE-TAN-LEATHER-/301750561913?hash=item4641bc2c79

What estate could I replace the Volvo with?

Jaguar?

If I get a new car it'd be a Tesla estate, for now I'm only considering older stuff.

What could/would go wrong with that Maserati?

I once met a man who paid £20k for a 3200GT from a main dealer with a year warranty. It was probably about 5 years old I think. In the warranty year it had £14k worth of repairs. He didn't keep it beyond that.

if i was to wire up 2 or 3 old spotlights, to run off a battery, what wire would i use?

Aston Lagonda?

I really want a 2007 RS4 Avant. I almost bought one on a whim instead of my M135. I just love the stupidity of them. MPG killed it for me though the V8 is just too damn thirsty.. Maybe one day when i don't have to commute so far.

How much would you sell the Volvo for?

Also, whilst on the subject. Paul Newmans old Volvo 960 with a supercharged Ford 5.0 V8 crate motor was on an episode of chasing classic cars the other day. Was awesome. One of the best sleepers ever.

Following the Newman recipe...there's an article up on the Selvedge yard about his VW beetle sleeper with a V8 in the boot.

Hands off, it's mine first.

You can't ever sell it, @Dammit you've sunk too much money into it.

I was thinking about that whilst walking to work this morning.

As I think I've said before, I'd probably prefer to "lend" the Volvo to someone, then at least I (on paper at least) still have the result of the thousands that I've sunk into the car - looking at it, probably well over £20,000 on top of the purchase price if I include everything.

I try to avoid calculating how much I've spent on it, for obvious reasons.

I just have a slight itch for something new. In an ideal world something small but that I could still go somewhere with the bike and some luggage, as contradictory as that sounds.