Cars (all fuels and electric)

Mercedes have never built a car as iconic worldwide as the E type whether you like it or not.

I’m not really a fan of Mercedes (I think they are overweight and unimaginative go the most part) but the gull wing 300SL comes to mind here. I know a guy near me who has made a good living restoring them to completely nutty standards of originality, and only them, one after another for about 40 years. His father started the business. The 280SL is also a nice if overweight car, and drives well too. And the prewar classics are widely appreciated if not very numerous.

I’d love to have an E-type but my German wife for some inexplicable reason thinks they are ugly. I won’t comment on that too much but I also think they are overvalued for a car made in high volume.

Peter, the chassis, bodywork and chrome of Jags is very good quality. The engine and driveline are generally OK except for a few details (the engines last forever) and much better than less expensive English cars. The electrics and anything rubber are not good quality, they are as poor as any car built in the UK or anywhere else.

Speaking of poor quality, of all the English cars I’d like a perfectly restored 1960s Lotus Elan, mostly because of the spectacular way they drive and also the really pretty industrial design. My plan when I’m too old to fly or ride motorcycles (assuming I make it that far) is to drive and show a ‘significant’ classic car at events. Hopefully that won’t be for a while.

Its strange then how the UK possibly has been reponsible for producing more of what are now called classic cars than any other country in the world. There are well supported British classic car clubs all around the world except perhaps Russia. Not bad for crap cars.

The Gull wing Mercedes is a nice car. Build quality is just okay not special. But a lot depends on what your personal opinion of quality is.
The Gull wing never sold as well as the E type.
The great thing about British classics is that they are still eminently restorable.
I used to judge at classic.car competitions and the Brit car clubs were probably the most fanatical when it came to originality.

Not bad for crap cars.

Again… poor build quality is not related to “iconic”.

But getting back to the earlier topic, I don’t see classic cars as a solution to the current threat. Their MPG is usually poor. Subsystems like aircon tend to work poorly; actually most old cars won’t even have aircon. So classics tend to be taken out of the garage on sunny Sundays. They may appreciate in value faster though; here in the UK, cars over 40 years old pay zero road tax.

But getting back to the earlier topic, I don’t see classic cars as a solution to the current threat.

Classic cars are just for fun, but I’ve now taken up @Graham’s suggestion and started looking around for a low mileage identical replacement for my 2017 Japanese car that has 102K miles. Mine will go many more but for perhaps $7K net investment I could buy another with only 30K miles. That’s four years of driving difference in my service. I’ve already found one but it’s 2000 miles or a four day fly-and-drive away. It’d be nice to find one closer.

BTW, the 30K mile car is priced only a couple of thousand less than I paid for mine brand new in 2017. But the resale on mine is similarly inflated.

Classics may have their weak points after decades of use but not all defects were by design. Rather the less than competent owners have fiddled too much about electrics mainly – Lucas – so no surprise they can be unreliable. But then, would I ever want to operate one of the computer wizz things they sell for cars today ?? Never ever, you will be totally lost at the road side and the RAC / ADAC will just have the trailer truck ordered, no repair at site definitely. We got the E-Type more than 30 years ago, yes, full restoration, mechanics all by myself, just sheet metal job by a great expert. Yes, was not cheap then as lots of repairs were tried by lots of previous owners. We didn´t care about costs much, no need for economics in those cases. Well, you lot got aircrafts so economics not a factor at all as well – when you put down your rose tinted glasses . In case we´d have to sell the Jag today we would likely get all money back and some profit – but do we care ? Some on here talk about money all the time , sorry for them, not an argument for us, even in retirement now since a few years. Allright, only one single aircraft then, the Yak, in retirement, the two of us, a toolmaker and a teacher owners. Last year we had the 1980 Ford Capri finished by a company for possibly the last car to use the next 20 years when we will be 90 then. It is registered as a “historic car” with € 180.- road tax, minimal insurance on these. Yes, restoration would have got us a modern car but thanks, but no, thanks, Helga had exclusively Capris for half a century so we stick to them as very cheap to operate, useful and durable for half a million kilometers. Fuel is leadfree certainly at about 9 liters per 100km spirited driving. As to fuel, the 3.8 Jag does 11-14 l per 100 km at elevated speeds, less on motorways, more in mountainous stuff. And spares are very low price when available – look into that with more modern cars, 10 years can be a challenge for finding spares sometimes. Better have a Vauxhall Viva, do the electrics and be happy ever after. The similar Opel Kadetts were great cars, even thrashed all the time with 45 hp only, 100 percent power from them most of the time – and don´t say cars were used at only a fraction of available power as opposed to aviation crap engines having a hard time all the time. Fact is , they see maybe 75 % power for 95 percent of operation at 2500 rpm – just a bit higher than idle speed on cars, which have to stand x-thousand starts and a very wide range of operations and yet do many thousand hours without any overhauls. Certainly we do not use the classics in winter time, in our town of 15000 people it is only a 3 minutes walk to the next car sharing place to get one of 15 different cars to choose , from Yaris hybrid to vans . Vic

gallois wrote:

A refurbished alternator for Grahams’s Spitfire now costs around £400 if you return the old one.

I’m sorry?

I’ve just checked Rimmer Bros, the largest UK supplier for Triumph parts, and a brand new alternator for my car (a 1972 Mk IV) is GBP 92.40 including VAT.

vic wrote:

Ford Capri

I have heard a rumour that with a bit of jiggery pokery one can fit a Merlin into the engine bay of a Capri.

Sorry Graham I got 2 quotes confused the £400 was the price with delivery for a renovated alternator for the MK 1 Triumph Stag which we ordered lasy week.Also from Rimmer Brothers.
We would have got £80 for the old one but the postage was about the same.
Normally we would get these parts from a dealer here. The price was roughly the same but they were out of stock.
Are you sure that is a brand new alternator price for the Spitfire? It seems very good value for a new alternator.

Don´t know much about Stags but I´d think you could just look into Ebay for a choice of alternators there. We had a new alternator for the last Capri , should be no problem to find one at € 100.- to 200 .- max. We swapped the small Lucas dynamo for a bigger type DC many years ago , positive earth still and still running the DC regulator in the Jag – for classic looks only. Easy to set any voltage you like – with a little bending of springs inside after replacing burnt copper contacts for tungsten types. So yes, no electronics and no miracle for servicing the car then. Certainly when you keep to strictly original you will pay extra. But then, I don´t see the point, this is just when you care for sale in an uncertain future and you hope for maximum money. Not our motivation, it is only for having fun with these objects while we are still able. A Merlin in a Capri – not really ? The weight of the Merlin about the same as the car at about 1050 kg only. Now look at a modern car – no way. And we would not want the hassle with the Merlin – look for “Merlin fingers” , not the best design with wear of cam followers, the DB 600 engines and the Allison V 12 had roller followers, so a lot better – would be nice for the GA flat engines as well . . . Well then, we got the radial in the Yak, roller followers too at least. Vic

Merlin fingers:

DB 605 and Allison roller followers: