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

Paging @Dammit (though I’m sure he’s aware already, but just in case)

https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2020/products/porsche-classic-communication-management-infotainment-systems-classic-cars-20622.html

Thanks - it has been doing the rounds. Issue is, I have no lower-centre-console:

Which means that if I were to swap to a double DIN unit then I'd have nowhere for the HVAC controls to go. The other thing which is sub-optimal is that the PCM units only have amplified outputs, so I'd need to convert those to pre-amp outputs before plugging into my amplifier.

To some cars are just a thing that you never own. Want something that they get in and drive yet never have to think about anything other than turning the key, putting in fuel and taking the car for a service when the car says.

How many cars, do you feel connected to the road, when driving?

MK1 MR2 with more seats ;)

That's what bicycles are for!

While I love the MK1, I still think the AE86 edges it for me - looks wise. The shape of the rear passenger windows and rear windscreen, and how the proportions all come together is part of the appeal. I’m too thick to put it into meaningful words.

Some more of my photos

Loving that slammed Audi

Not had a AE86, but did have the MR2 and the memories from it. Also toyota owned lotus at the time and the mr2 has come from Lotus designs and suspension work.

As for meaningful words - how about it looks right and is pleasing to the eye.

Love the Toyota, it immediately made me think of the speeded up clips of Jackie Chan and Jaws from the Bond films in Cannonball Run 2, but I looked it up and that was a Mitsibishi Starion, not seen one of them for a while either.

Did see a nice 1962 Merc 220S today.

Isn’t it odd that some old cars look good a bit beaten up , a few dents scrapes and a hole in a rag top dont really detract , but some don’t look right unless just shy of concours .
It’s the same for me with cars and countries .
Huge yanks look great , but better on main st than High St .
And a Fiat 500 looks great in an Italian piazza , as much as a 2cv on a French B road

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Is that a fiat 500 ;)

I noticed today the Bristol showroom in Kensington was all closed up, and seems they went into liquidation earlier in the year. Can't say I'm surprised, I've never seen anyone in the place, I'm amazed they kept going as long as they did.

Its lockdown, its Monday, I'm bored, so lets play 'nice arse, shame about the face', which could be written on the Bristol cars tombstone. That is based on the ones I've seen.

The earlier cars were better looking, and always better looking from the back. Two arses but only one winner here.

The front is good for a Bristol, but not a nice as the rear.

A later version with little fins on the rear.

Again not as nice at the front, this was the only 4 door one they made.

Whoever was in charge of the exterior styling of the cars over the years, seems to have been ordered to concentrate on the good looking bits to make them look shitter, and slowly design all the beauty out of it until eventually you're left with a total dogs dinner.

In the 70's the cars started looking like the front and the rear ends were designed by two different people. They still looked alright from the rear....

But they stumbled upon this gopping front end look, thought they'd nailed it, and decided to keep it for decades. The front and rear proportions just look all kinds of wrong.

They kept fucking with the arse end, again looking slightly worse but still passable.

The front still looks wrong, this car looks like a Hillman Avengers fat older brother.

And today I saw the culmination of this automotive evolution of a minger. It took many decades but they finally achieved a car that looks shit from both the front and rear, and undoubtedly the most hideous one they ever made. The most modern Bristol I've ever seen in the wild, from 2001, yes honestly, behold....

Now that's a dream car

I used to ride past the Bristol showroom everyday. They always seemed to have one of those dreary things you posted last in there - never anything in the least bit desirable.

There really isn't much to recommend it... I can see a smattering of Aston V8 in the grill, and Capri in the front quarters, but there's quite a bit of Volvo in there too..

I always assumed that there was some section of old school nobility somewhere that kept them afloat maintaining the car their grandfather bought, and that they'd somehow look alright outside a country pile in the home counties.

It's been a couple of years since I went past - shame they've gone.

They could have at least hired a designer. I think your Aston and Capri comparisons flatter it, maybe the front looks like a bad XJ6 rip off, but that's as good as I can manage for a compliment.

The rear end looks like a droopy old Vauxhall Senator with a whiff of Saab, like you say, hardly setting the pulses racing. I've no idea how much one of those was new, sure it was an eye watering amount, which for all that fuglyness is just too much.

Sad they are confined to just another footnote in UK automotive history, but it seems at least partly self inflicted.

There's a really nice one that belongs to someone in Forest Hill, every now and again it's outside Saino, I look at it and think "bet that's expensive".

If you think that, it must be insane money to spend on a car...

I've not looked tbh, but I know what it takes to make a 20 year old sports car perfect, so I would imagine that a 40 year old sports (ish) car would be exponentially more.

Wasn't the Bristol owner incredibly choosy about whom he sold the cars to? If he didn't like your face, you weren't getting one. Michael Winner infamously fell foul, finding the showroom door sign was flipped to 'closed' as he approached.

Bristol owners include Richard Branson and Noel Gallagher.....

Some interesting stuff about the showroom

https://www.goodwood.com/grr/road/news/2015/4/grr-unearths-bristol-treasure-beneath-kensington-high-street/

Your work is superb. Really like how you look at things. I gotta say though, despite the cleanliness and attention to detail, I've realised I've really gone off the whole stanced scene.
I know the bagged stuff has come a long long way and performs well, but it seems like it's all cars by numbers.
Bag it, slam it, polish it and do 30mph max.

Anyway, amazing Photography.

There was a guy fixing Bristols on Randell's road, no? Looked very low-key, no sign or anything, but there was always a few parked in the front of the yard.

The Wiki details the link via Fraser Nash to pre-WWII BMWs.

The Cotswold Motor Musem has a '38 BMW327 to see the influence on the Bristol 400.