Cinzano – Driven To Write

Theme: Places – Cortina

The joke’s on me: Cortina isn’t just a 70’s Ford. The 1956 Olympics took place there. The car came in 1962.

Ford make decent affordable cars for people like you and me. Even if we may never buy one, most people could imagine owning a Ford whether they really want to or not. So, how plausible is the Cortina name?

I will immediately admit that until I started writing this, I knew nothing about Cortina other than that it was a town in Italy. Prior to that (sometime about a year ago) it dawned on me it was a place-name. If you knew about Cortina the Italian town, please forgive this show of ignorance.

Think of it as a case study in the problems of borrowed names. As I said in my article on Ascona, a place name needs to be plausible. That means the image of the place and the image of the car must be in some kind of synchronisation. If the brand name itself is neutral then a model name can Continue reading “Theme: Places – Cortina”

Ashtrays: 1972 Fiat 130 Coupe

We can add this vehicle to the DTW collection of ashtray rarities.

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There are not so many of these cars hanging around and good one costs around €17,000 these days. The styling, by Paolo Martin at Pininfarina, is something of a legend. He also handled the interior, sprucing up the design based on the 130 saloon. And in turn Fiat carried these improvements back to the saloon (which already had a very fine interior). Continue reading “Ashtrays: 1972 Fiat 130 Coupe”

DTW Summer Reissue: Matching Designer Luggage

When confronted by a question of taste, I always ask myself, what would Bryan Ferry do?

[First published Oct 10, 2014]

My extensive research has thrown up a nice example of a sub-set of a subset, designer accessories for designer editions of mass produced cars. It’s Gucci fitted luggage for the 1979 Cadillac Seville. Would Bryan Ferry go for this or not? The Big Two and a Half in the US have been more prone to tie-ins and designer editions of their cars than we have here in the social-democratic paradise of Western Europe. Cartier have been associated with Lincoln; Bill Blass added his magical touch to the understated elegance of the 1979 Lincoln Continental Mk V; there was the 1984 Fila-edition Ford Thunderbird; AMC asked Oleg Cassini – yes, that Oleg Cassini – to trim the 1974 Matador, for example. Just recently I have become aware of the Gucci fitted luggage that came with the Gucci-edition Cadillac Seville, truly a part of this very fine tradition. Continue reading “DTW Summer Reissue: Matching Designer Luggage”

1975 Lamborghini Urraco 3.0 Road Test

Legendary motor-writer Archie Vicar considers the merits of Lamborghini’s thirsty, unreliable and evil-handling Urraco.

1974 Lamborghin Urraco: source — 1974 Lamborghini Urraco: source

_{The article, “Second thoughts, same as the first” appeared originally in Scarborough Morning Bugle-Advertiser in June 1975. Photos by Douglas Land-Windermere. Due to the poor quality of the images, stock photos have been used.}

The A64 is my road to Damascus regarding the Urraco and indeed everything made by Lamborghini. The rain poured in sheets from the high heavens and as I stood at the window of the Old Telephone Box pub in Scagglethorpe (excellent beef and Yorkshire pudding) I noticed a lake of water accumulating inside the Urraco which was parked outside, with the A64 beyond. Actually, I say “road to Damascus” but that implies that there was a point when I held other opinions about the tractor-maker’s marque. In truth, my prejudices were confirmed on the A64.

Continue reading “1975 Lamborghini Urraco 3.0 Road Test”

A Photoseries For Sunday: 1973-1979 Daimler Vanden Plas

This set is courtesy of Mick, our Leinster correspondent. Let us glory in its bronzey-goldness.

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The license plate indicates it is an import from the UK, first registered there and brought to the ROI at a later date. One way of looking at these cars is to see them as a poorer-man’s Rolls-Royce. Or as a hyper-Brougham version of an already very Brougham car. I don’t think these cars thrive in Ireland due to the rain but the huge tyres and supple suspension are ideal. I think anyone considering a luxury car for use in Ireland ought to insist on the highest sidewalls possible but generally people shoe their cars as if they lived in Frankfurt.

Micropost: Ford Taunus 2.3 Ghia

This little badge indicates the car originated in Ales, a town west of Avignon.

C. Morel dealer badge on a Ford Cortina 2.3 Ghia — C. Morel dealer badge on a Ford Taunus 2.3 Ghia

C. Morel Ford is still there too. The car has a Danish roadworthiness cert from 1999 so it has been driving about here for a good long time. There’s also little new with the Vignale concept. This car has it all apart from leather upholstery. In this case it has brown nylon cloth. There’s a centre armrest front and back and plenty of real wood trim. Continue reading “Micropost: Ford Taunus 2.3 Ghia”

Theme: Glamour – A Very Irish Coupé

Tainted Love: There wasn’t a lot of glamour to be found in 1970’s Ireland. Not too many coupés either. (Originally published on 23 February 2014)

Image via autobild.de — Nuala and Rory mostly communicate through the medium of silence. Image: autobild.de

The coupé evokes a variety of adjectives in our automotive lexicon, most of which we broadly aspire to; words like glamour, sophistication, affluence. As an ideal it’s suffused with images of impossibly salubrious locations; languid cocktails on the shores of Lake Como, nibbling swan canapés on the Croisette, driving west on Sunset. So from the foregoing it’s fairly safe to assume that Ireland is not a place that readily springs to mind when the subject of the coupé is raised over the hors d’oeuvres. Continue reading “Theme: Glamour – A Very Irish Coupé”

Theme: Romance – The Four Seasons

Let’s accept there is not a lot of romance left in motoring today. That means we have to look back to when it was still romantic.

Photo by Andre Martin from Quatre Saisons, 1979. Copyright.

That’s around 1979 when Quatre Saisons was published. The book comprises a photo essay with the Citroen CX as the subject. Andre Martin’s images are themed around the four seasons, hence the title. The car speeds through snowy passes, through lavender fields and pauses in autumnal woodland: each shot evokes the mysterious potential of a motor car trip and also sings a hymn to the timeless modernism of the CX. Continue reading “Theme: Romance – The Four Seasons”

A Bit More Volvo 780 ES: It’s 30 This Year

Murilee Martin used to post Down At The Junkyard at Jalopnik. Here’s a discovery from 2010, a 1989 Volvo 780 ES. Alas, there’s no commentary, which is puzzling.

The 780 ES was presented the 1985 Geneva motorshow, and went on sale in 1986. That means this is its 30th anniversary year. Skol!

There is a nice collection of photos here plus a little bit of history. What I didn’t know is that the 780 ES was not only sold with the 6-cylinder PRV engine. One could also have a 2.0 L turbo I4, a 2.0 L turbo dohc I4 ,2.3 L turbo I4 and 2.4 L I6 turbodiesel. They only made about 6000 of the things so some of those must have been made in very small numbers indeed. Continue reading “A Bit More Volvo 780 ES: It’s 30 This Year”

Theme : Hybrids – Monteverdi’s Swiss-Italian-American Confection

Here I am talking about blends of nationality.

Bristol and Jensen had American engine power as did France’s Facel. The Citroen SM had Italian power. A small Swiss firm, Monteverdi, chose Italian styling and American engines for its small batches of supercars.
In 1967, Peter Monteverdi produced a supercar, the 375 S, shown at that year’s Frankfurt Motor Show. Frua created the styling and a now-defunct carrosserie called Stahlbau Muttenz provided a steel tubular space frame. The name came from the power output of the 7.2 litre Chrysler engine, 375 h.p. Just eleven examples were made so it’s a bit of a rare beast. Continue reading “Theme : Hybrids – Monteverdi’s Swiss-Italian-American Confection”

The Lump

In the middle of a piece of automotive copy the Lump is often found: the engine performance figures. I really don’t care for it much and it’s time it retired.

1978 Dastun 200SX. Image from www.productioncars.com — 1978 Dastun 200SX. Image from http://www.productioncars.com

Typically the worst case is when a model is revised to be even more “ultimate”. As your eyes wander across the lines you stumble across it like a hiker in a mire: “The unit develops 178 bhp, up 23 bhp from before, at 6500 rpm, 450 lower than the outgoing model, and produces 194 lb fb of torque, 23 lb ft extra”. I find this incredibly unpalatable.

It’s a line requiring a good edit and some interpretation to Continue reading “The Lump”

Theme : Facelifts – Bristol Cars and Facelifts as a Way of Life

For the very rich there are two modes of consumption.

One is to buy the latest thing and replace it as soon as something better comes along. The other mode is to buy something that lasts forever like a castle or a Bristol. The Filton-based firm was a small one and prided itself on the quality of its vehicles. And they are cars that last, being capable of almost indefinite service life, much like a castle, as it happens.

Continue reading “Theme : Facelifts – Bristol Cars and Facelifts as a Way of Life”

1961 Fiat 2300 S Coupe : A Short Film

While reading about the Humber Super Snipe and its competitors I stumbled across this.

It’s a very nicely filmed piece about a Fiat 2300S and its owner, Pierantonio Micciarelli. I have to say that the man’s elegant dress sense made me yearn to be Italian. They do know how to choose their threads. But beyond that, this (for me) forgotten coupé is superbly presented and discussed with considerable fluency by the lucky fellow who is its custodian. This is another of those cars that evokes dusk drives around the Cap Ferrat.

Theme : Speed – Introduction

June’s Theme : The Editor Posts Some Thoughts on Speed

We get used to thinking that we, meaning whoever amongst us are young and fit enough to command the technology, are probably the best informed and highest achieving people in history. The knowledge and achievements of our forebears, though impressive perhaps in the context of their age, pales in absolute comparison with our own. Such is the arrogance of The Present and, though it might not have always been this way, it seems set to remain.

Continue reading “Theme : Speed – Introduction”

Something Rotten in […] Denmark: The Baby Bentley

The quality of the interior has held up better than the quality of the concept of the Rover 827.

Given the depredations of the Danish climate and the fact this car was assembled in the UK, today’s discovery, a Rover 827 coupe, has held up rather well. Goodness, the leather interior is even developing a patina which I used think was only possible on cars made before I was born. Continue reading “Something Rotten in […] Denmark: The Baby Bentley”