Today, a more sophisticated electric three wheeler than yesterday’s Sinclair C5 - the Toyota i-Road. I drove this in 2014 on a press trip to cover a mobility trial in Grenoble that offered i-Roads for hire. Amazing machine. Driven by hub motors in the front wheels, steering is via the rear wheel. ‘Active Lean’ technology means it leans into corners like a motorcycle. Great to drive. ‘The agility of a motorcycle, the comfort of a car’, said Toyota. ☑️
Today, after Projet 900, another milestone on Renault’s journey towards a new practical vehicle type, in the form of the 1981 Matra P18 prototype, displayed here at #Retromobile Paris in 2014. Peugeot, the new parent of Matra’s original partner in the project, Chrysler Europe, decided not to proceed with production, and the P18 instead went to Renault, where it became the Espace. If only Talbot had been able to sell this instead of the Tagora.
Today, after the long sequence of posts on Dacia, we’re going about as far from Romanian budget motors as it’s possible to get with this beautiful Mercedes W198 300 SL ‘gull-wing” snapped at last year’s Techno Classica. This is a very early car from 1954, the first year of production in the rare (twelve cars) colour 543 strawberry red metallic. I think @richardknott posted a car in the same shade (possibly this actual one) last year.
Today, two super-desirable, achingly beautiful Chapron Citroën DS models for the price of one. The frontal view is of a 1965 Le Dandy two-door hard-top coupé (no doubts about that classification), while the rear view is of a two-door convertible Décapotable model. Both snapped at #TechnoClassica Essen in 2014. I believe the still-rare #DS Décapotable was the most common of the #Chapron DS conversions. More stunning cars from #Citroen to come. #WeirdCarMastodon#davidsdailycar
Today we return to the glamorous world of film and television with this, the three-wheeled yellow Reliant Regal Supervan used by Del-Boy and Rodney in the BBC comedy series ‘Only Fools and Horses’. This example at the #BritishMotorMuseum at Gaydon had a doubly distinguished on-screen career, having been used in filming for both ‘Only Fools’ and Mr Bean (in blue - still partially visible in one of the photos).
The humdrum mainstream motors of #FOTU are now just a vanishing speck in the rear view mirror as we zoom further into the rarefied world of Mercedes super-exotics. This spectacular 1935 540K roadster, with its special streamlined coachwork by Erdmann & Rossi and straight-eight supercharged engine, was owned by King Ghazi of Iraq. It normally resides at the Technik Museum Speyer but I got the pic at the #TechnoClassica show in 2022. #Mercedes#TechnikMuseumSpeyer#WeirdCarMastodon#davidsdailycar
Having featured the 1935 Datsun Type 14 and the electric Ariya, I thought I’d do some of the Nissans that came in between. Last week my brother was in Japan and he WhatsApped me some snaps of cars on display in the foyer of Nissan’s HQ. I think this is a second-generation Prince Skyline from the early/mid sixties. Prince Motor Corporation was absorbed into Nissan in 1966 but the Skyline name was set for a longer life. #PrinceMotorCorporation#Nissan#Skyline#WeirdCarMastodon#davidsdailycar
I know I’m supposed to be back on the Nissans but yesterday’s Datsun 240Z got me thinking about its Toyota near contemporary, the 2000GT. Like the 240Z, the 2000GT combined a straight six engine and a sleek coupé body, and altered perceptions about the capabilities of its maker. One big difference - the 240Z was a huge seller, especially in the US but only 351 2000GTs were built. This one was on sale at #TechnoClassica 2023 for an eye-watering €890,000. #Toyota#WeirdCarMastodon#davidsdailycar
Yesterday, @vandyke4ad mentioned his dad’s ‘Farina’ MG Magnette and its black over ‘dirty pink’ paintwork. I don’t seem to have any snaps of the Magnette itself but here’s its close BMC sister, the Riley 4 / Seventy Two with a blue over cream (pale green?) colour scheme. This, one of the last of the Rileys, was basically a luxuriously trimmed Austin/Morris. Pic: NEC #ClassicMotorShow in 2016. More two-tone Riley loveliness over the next couple of days. #Riley#WeirdCarMastodon#davidsdailycar
Today, another vehicle with two-tone paintwork that’s not quite a Rolls-Royce. This is the Beast, the 1970s creation of British engineer John Dodd. Rolls objected to the use of the RR grille and Spirit of Ecstasy, which Dodd justified on the grounds that the Beast was powered by a V12 27-litre Rolls-Royce Merlin aero engine (minus supercharger). The Beast fascinated me as a boy - I finally saw it for real at this year’s NEC #ClassicCarShow. #TheBeast#RollsRoyce#WeirdCarMastodon#davidsdailycar
After the Peugeot 404 Cabriolet and Coupé, today the saloon/sedan. I couldn't locate a photo of my own - a literal case of '404 not found'. Happily Peugeot obliges with this visual gag, which is what you get if you lose your way on the company's website. Surely this is the best 404 error message page out there. #Peugeot#404NotFound#WeirdCarMastodon#davidsdailycar
After I posted the #Frisky Sprint yesterday, @vwdasher said he thought it should be in a quirky sixties beach movie. As it happens, there are several vehicles that could be classed as sixties beach cars. I’ll take a look at some of them over the next few days, starting today with this #Fiat 600 ‘Jolly’ featuring a Surrey-style fringed canopy, which was converted by Ghia. A similar Jolly conversion was also available for the smaller 500. Pic: #TechnoClassica 2023 #WeirdCarMastodon#davidsdailycar
Today we’re looking at the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, the electric version of the i. The i-MiEV had a similar rear-motor/rear-drive layout to the Smart ForTwo I posted yesterday but with a longer, surprisingly roomy four-door body. It went on sale in 2010, beating even the Nissan Leaf to the market. It was also sold as the Peugeot iOn and Citroën C-Zero. I snapped this Peugeot-badged version in Munich in 2012. These are great fun.
More sporty Fiats today with these two quite similar Fiat 500s that have been given the Abarth treatment. On the left, a 500 “upgraded with the Abarth Classiche 595 Engine Tuning Kit” and on the right, one “with Abarth ‘record’ tuning”. Both cars were on display at Techno Classica in Essen in 2019.
Today, we’re back at Techno Classica Essen 2014, with the pretty little Fiat 850 Coupé, which was based on the Fiat 600. The 850 Coupé was designed by Fiat itself, and was first introduced at the Geneva Motor Show in 1965.
Yesterday, I mentioned that Dacia had made a pick-up version of its old Renault 12 based 1300/1310 series. When the Logan was introduced in the 2000s as the first car in the new range of modern budget Dacias, a pick-up variant featured once more. This model never came to the UK but I snapped this one in the South of France in 2013 while I was on the press launch of the then-new Peugeot 208.
After doing the Volkswagen Passat CC the other day, I thought it would be interesting to feature some older Passats from a fiftieth anniversary display at last year’s Techno Classica in Essen. This first-generation 1973 B1 model is the oldest surviving Passat in existence (chassis no. 2). Note: this is a two-door fastback saloon/sedan, not a hatchback - hatches came later. More Passat-based nostalgia over the next few days.
Over the last few days, I’ve posted several of MG’s super-streamlined record breaking cars used in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. If you were wondering how these creations influenced the design of MG’s road cars, the answer appears to be ‘not at all’. This is the 1954 MG TF Midget, which very much sticks with the traditional British sports car look. Note the MG-typical octagonal instrument surrounds. Pics taken at the British Motor Museum, Gaydon.
The same year Austin launched yesterday’s rather dowdy Maxi, 1969, the company also released the much more go-ahead Zanda concept. The Zanda was designed to be powered by a mid-mounted Maxi engine/gearbox combination. The wedge shape later influenced the Princess and TR7, while the idea of flipping around a transverse FWD powertrain to make a mid-engined car was later seen with the Metro and MGF. Snapped at the British Motor Museum at Gaydon.
After a couple of early MG Midgets from the thirties and fifties, today we’re looking at the last of the line, which was produced between 1961 and 1979. This final Midget wasn’t, perhaps, quite the purebred MG it appeared. It started as a rebadged Austin-Healey Sprite, and later cars like this one, with its US-spec bumpers, got a 1500cc Triumph Spitfire engine to compensate for power-sapping emissions kit. Pic taken at the British Motor Museum, Gaydon.
Today, we’re stepping away from the current sequence on MG with the most dramatic Jaguar ever made, the XJ220 - although there is an interesting MG connection. This is the XJ220 prototype which had 4WD and a Jag V12 engine. The production version instead got rear-wheel drive and a development of the V6 engine used in yesterday’s MG Metro 6R4. Those fancy scissor doors were dropped for production too. Snapped at the British Motor Museum at Gaydon.
Now we’re on the subject, I thought I’d do a few more sporty Fiats. This is the 128 3P Coupé, which I snapped at Automotoretro in Turin in 2016. The ‘3P’ is a reference to the three-door hatchback body. The original 128 coupé was launched in 1971 as a two-door fastback, with the 3P hatch being introduced later on. Based on the Fiat 128 saloon/sedan, but with a shorter wheelbase. Orange.
Today, the most important car most people have never heard of, the 1964 Autobianchi Primula. Fiat often used Autobianchi as a test-bed for new ideas - one of those was the end-on gearbox set-up later used in the Fiat 128. You’ll read a lot of stuff this year about how ‘innovative’ the Volkswagen Golf is as it celebrates its fiftieth anniversary - but the Primula, also available as a hatch, had it all ten years before. Pic details: see alt txt
Most Autobianchis sold in small volumes. The exception was the 1969 A112 hatch, which was seen in significant numbers all over Europe in the 1970s. It stayed in production until 1986. Under the skin, it borrowed much from the larger Fiat 128, and also provided the basis for Fiat’s own pioneering super-mini, the 127. Always really liked these. This one was at Automotoretro in Turin in 2016.