Last October I went to an extraordinary exhibition of old cars and I was very attracted from this wonderful Jaguar

If you want to see better pls go to www.photobucket.com and widen. This exhibition was in Padova.

XK140? I'm a bit fond of Jags and daimlers from the '50's

xk120 : no chrome line over bonnet, horny as hell!!!!!!
xk140 : chrome line over bonnet
xk150 : fat, better drive-able, cheaper

if they didn't leak that much and suited my needs a bit more, I'ld have an XK120 in stead of my Morgan

Beautiful!

I believe Asbojohn had one and part of the reason he parted with it was because the Jag community were less enjoyable than the Morgan crowd!

Present Company excepted I hope?
But I know what you mean. There is no contest between these two below when it comes to having fun

The Jag above is a fantastic car though compared to the later ranges.

Frank, modern Jag owners excluded!

I'll let John speak for himself; however, I believe there was a faint whiff of snobbery from certain sectors of the classic Jag owners circles.

This was my old p&j


1959 XK150 which I owned for 5 years. As 1560 said did like to leak a lot and in the rain a coat and umbrella were recommended. Great car and went like stink considering it was 50 years old.

The Jag lot and I'll limit to the XK crew weren't as friendly as the Morgan bunch, that may have been an age thing as I certainly wasn't your typical XK owner. One of the XK clubs was always running event the downside was I'd have needed to be the dictator of a large African nation to have afforded any of them.

Must admit though that I wasn't called flamboyant by any of my fellow Jaguar owners so I may have to send the Mog back

The posted picture of the XK doesn't look right as is seems to have features of both an XK120 and an XK140, side lights, bumpers, chrome all mix a match. I'm sure someone will provide a conclusive answer to the question. I'll see if I can find any of my old XK books.

Thanks for the overview Asbo. It is a stunning looking car in Black all the same!

... not friendly?? Well, maybe, but I still like my ´70 XJ. And it´s "lellow"

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/9QV...feat=directlink

Sorry, I don´t know how to include photos directly from Picasa.

Andy

Andy,

Thats looks nice, do you still have it.

Yessir!




Still to dumb to post a photo...

That 120 is beautiful.

I'd love a 120 roadster on steels and spats fitted one of the prettiest cars ever.

The last one I tried to drive was near on impossible....had my knees around my ears.

Whilst not a usual fan of replica cars, I was involved in a Replica XK120 project in the early 1990's which really evolved out of a friends desire to restore his own XK120 for racing. I shan't bore you with the full story but needless to say the project is still in existence in a low key way, called the BS120, it is based around XJ mechanicals and the cars are virtually indistinguishable from an original except for the fact they go and handle better, in fact the GRP body panels were sold to a lot of original XK owners to complete otherwise costly original bodywork restorations. The company is Broomstick Cars who also specialise in E Types and American Muscle Cars. Check 'em out on www.broomstickcars.co.uk
On the wider issue of replicas, what car would you choose to replicate ? The usual criteria is to recreate something that you could not ordinarily afford. My choice would be the early Chevrolet Corvettes with the scalloped sides. Being fibreglass bodies in their original form helps and values for originals are going up and up. Far prettier than a Cobra in my view.

Hi Andy
A beautiful car - from a Jag & 'Lellow' Fan



How to show your Picassa Pics. within a post.
Go onto your Picassa Photo - right click and scroll down to click on 'properties'.

Cover and copy the whole Http//...etc. listed there.

Within your TM post, click on the 'Enter an Image' icon above (4th from left)
Paste the Http//...etc into the box - and there she is.

Not a bad choice!
For myself it would have to be the Lamborghini Muira. But probably on stilts as I'm not sure my stuffed knee and bad back would allow easy entry/egress

Cheers,

Graham made a good call with the Lamborghini Muira; although, I'd also be swayed by a Ferrari 250 SWB California or a Mercedes 300SL Gullwing.

Simon,
I think the Gullwing would be my choice as well but I've always had a soft spot for the Briggs Cunningham cars; This is a thread for the C6R with the Offenhauser engine I know in some ways the car was a tad 'rough and ready' but it's always seemed to me to represent a heck of a lot of what 1950s sports car were all about:


blogs.motortrend.com/.../photo_01.html



G

I can go with the 250, but I'd prefer the 260 race car - somewhere I must still have a very short road test of a racer converted for road use, done by Motorsport magazine (the test that is! a long time ago).

Cheers,

I wonder if I could broaden this out a little?

This is a quote from Chris Lawrence's book Morgan Maverick
he says, talking about the Plus 4 SuperSports,

" Nowadays, many people try and pass off these Plus Fours ( ie cars which had the LawrenceTune engine but were otherwise normal Plus Fours) as 'Supersports' models because of the huge discrepancy in their second hand values"

Leaving aside the 'passing off' issue, what do people think about creating a 'replica' SuperSports.

On a personal level I have no problem with it so long as the creator- and any subsequent owner- is clear as to what the car is ( or isn't) but I'd be interested to know what others think?

regards,
G

I wouldn't mind "modding" a 4/4sports in to a TOK-look-a-like
but my wallet isn't yet up to that task...

No discredit to all Morgans, this little Riley would be my choice to drive as a replica or a 1928 Brooklands Riley Racer to cherish.

Lovely choice Frank.

I finally saved up and bought the Mike Hawthorn book Golden Boy and there were some great photos of the Riley Imp which he got from his father ('Crasher' Hawthorn).
My dad was a massive fan of Freddie Dixon, so the Riley photos bring back great memories

regards,
G

In my opinion, you've hit the nail squarely on the head with the comment shown above.

I have no issue at all with people recreating cars, my concern is when they attempt to pass them off as an original.

This past summer I got chatting with a chap in a 356 Speedster in a petrol station. I commented on his car and he went on to tell me all about it, neglecting to mention that it was Chesil replica. He went so far as to allude to the £100k price tag. I found it quite sad and wondered why he felt the need to pretend it was something that it wasn't. While 95% of the population wouldn't know, surely the most important person is yourself. It was a lovely car, appreciate it for what it is and not what it isn't.

I have always wanted to recreate a 1973 911 RS...



To my mind, it is one of the most iconic Porsches of all time.

I'd built one, track it, enjoy the hell out of it BUT never pretend it was anything other than it was: a homage to a truly brilliant car.

I fully agree with the comments about not faking it for faking sake. As can be seen by most peoples choice of recreation, if you are going to choose an iconic model from a previous era do it justice and use modern advances to make it better than it was and in fairness, I think the early days of kit cars when you stuffed a Cortina engine in poorly produced Cobra body / chassis have long gone. Maybe that's in part due to the more stringent SVA Tests that have to passed nowadays and if you think it about even the big manufacturers are effectively producing "replica" cars with the advent of the re-invention of the Mini, the VW Beetle, The Mustang , etc. That Riley is very, very nice looks like mini Jaguar SS.

HI G.
My interest in the Brooklands Riley came from an old business colleague, Harry Rea of Donaghadee in NI who sadly passed away last year at a young age. Harry, a collector of vintage cars, was the proud owner of the car in the pics below once driven by the famouse SCH (Sammy) Davis, past editor of Autocar. Harry's proudest moment was managing to track down Sammy before he died and spending an afternoon reminising about racing and particularly the nearby Ards TT races.

Next, I was chatting to a Lady Antique dealer who's son dealt in Car Racing painting. Through our conversation, she sent me two copies of a wonderful book by Irishman Brenden Lynch called Green Dust which covers Ireland's Unique Motor Racing History 1900-1939. The book features many famous mames from those heady days including Freddy Dixon who won the last two Ards TT's in 1935 & 36.


Sammy Davis driving the Car Harry Bought.


A photo copy of a poor pencil drawing I did and gave to Harry.

I forgot to mention earlier another Business collegue and good friend of Harry who has also sadly past away. In his youth he was a Riley works racing driver but then went on to run the Leeds based family Clothing Industry Supplies business, One Robert(Sideways)Staples.

Thanks Frank. great post which I and I am sure everyone else enjoyed reading By the way, if that is a 'poor' pencil drawing, I'd love to see the good stuff!

As an MG fan, I've always been fascinated by the career of Hugh 'Hammy' Hamilton who was of course another Ulsterman (born Omagh 1905, died in a freak accident during the 1934 Swiss GP at Bern's Bremgarten circuit.)

Sammy Davis wrote a famous piece about Hamilton's(J4 Midget) tussle with Tazio Nuvolari (K3 Magnette) during the 1933 Tourist Trophy race at Ards.

I've heard of Lynch's book but never seen a copy. Another source is W McMaster A History of Motorsport in Ireland 1903-1969.

Once again, thanks for sharing

Best wishes

G

The Lynch book devotes 3 pages to Hugh(The Wild Man of Ards)Hamilton. He, like most of these brave racing men of his time, sounds a fascinating character.

Frank,
For a short but quite evocative piece about Hamilton,
see:
http://www.carkeys.co.uk/features/people/15466.asp

regards,
G

Ps Some of the accounts of his death say that the real version was that his rain poncho blew up over his head, causing him to crash

Frank

I was interested to read your post as I live on the TT Circuit between Dundonald and Newtownards. The last race unfortunately was in 1936 but you can find little sources of information around the circuit. The Old Mill at Dundonald has a small information area and the Start and Finish line in Dundonald is marked. In fact i will take my Morgan around the circuit regularly, pathetic lap times though, traffic lights and pedestrians get in the way.

A Bently roars by

The TT here is remembered, sadly, because of the dramatic final race, I believe by then crowds of 250,000 flocked around the circuit. On a wet day, a Riley driven by a local man Jack Chambers lost control in the wet. He crashed into the crowd near the Strangford Arms Hotel, some 1 mile from my home, killing 8 and injuring many others. I believe it then moved to Donnington Park a safer but less popular venue.
I have always been dissapointed that Morgan were not competing on this particular stage, maybe 3 wheelers not welcome. Also the first 4/4 was tantalisingly close to coming out of Malvern

Love the roads you've got there. I try to get to the Northwest 200 most years

Cheers
G

What a great thread this has developed into, thanks guys!

My own personal favourite for a replica is the Squire, certainly the prettiest of the 1930 PVT's - though not a commercial success.

There was a kit-car version of it some years ago, based if I remember on Alfa-bits, but I guess this was fated to go the same way as the original...

Brian,
A very appropriate choice for a Morgan site. What do you make of the story that in fact Adrian Squire's design was the 'visual inspiration' for HFS Morgan's 4-4 design?

regards,
G

I hadn't heard that one before Gerwyn. Don't you think he was more out of the John Cooper school of design, i.e. put the mechanical bits on the floor and draw a line round them for the body?

That Squire is just superb from every angle, VP really excelled themselves - the perfect interpretation of a British sports car, though this is my favourite view.

B

Couldn't agree more. It is a terrific car.

I got the story from Jonathan Wood's book Morgan- Performance Plus Tradition but he cites the original source as being Haps, Mishaps and Fun which was the autobiography of Reginald Slay, who had been a Director of the Squire Car Company.

Slay wrote:
" Adrian Squire had recruited Aston Martin's former sales manager, JJ Boyd-Harvey to sell his car. Boyd drove the works Vanden Plas demonstrator all over the country. I always remember the occasion when he came back and said he'd been to see his old friend HFS Morgan. He( Boyd) said, " What do you think Morgan did? He liked the car very much and he sat down and drew it!"

Leaving aside the truth or otherwise of this, there is an excellent side -on, black and white picture of the Squire in Wood's book. It really was a stunning design with an advanced mechanical spec: supercharged DOHC 1496cc 4-cylinder Anzani engine, pre-selector gearbox and hydraulic brakes

My apologies to the Mods for such a long post but (IMHO at least) it's the kind of story that makes classic cars so interesting

regards,
G

PS A further potential irony, his full name was Adrian Morgan Squire!

Brian, That is one beautiful car -