Quirky cars?

I had one of these. Quality was questionable, you could watch it rusting away in front of you and refinement was awful. But...it was fantastic off road with coil springs all round, low range box and centre diff lock.

6715c8da803af15e2978bc896f0635c6.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I ran this, from new, for the first 15 years / 120,000 miles of getting my license. Left me by the side of the road only once in that time due to me fitting a low-quality ignition distributor (fitted the original back on and it was fine).

Powered by a carburetted 1.5-litre 12-valve SOHC Mitsubishi engine through a 3-speed slushbox. Note the gauge pods on the A-pillar! ?

50395318291_c1316e139f_b.jpg
 
A2Dreamer said:
Fiat X19 I think? Looks heavily breathed on.. Thought for a moment AC3000ME

Very nice
Click to expand...

Yes fiat (Bertone) X1/9
That wasn't the actual car we had, but the body kit and colour was the same. Had a lancia y10 turbo engine, which pretty much doubled the power.

Great fun, handled like a go-kart, if you sneezed mid corner you were in trouble. And lethal in the wet, which is how it met its end, wrapped around a tree. Fortunately my dad walked away with only broken nerves.

One amazing thing was the 10" wide rims at the back, shod with 335 30 13 tyres, which when they wore out they had actually stopped making them, so we had to go to 315. This made it slightly better in the wet, but could not save it in the end.
 
Davidkinton said:
I had one of these. Quality was questionable, you could watch it rusting away in front of you and refinement was awful. But...it was fantastic off road with coil springs all round, low range box and centre diff lock.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Lady niva i think ? Were supposed to be great off road...
 
ca2n said:
I ran this, from new, for the first 15 years / 120,000 miles of getting my license. Left me by the side of the road only once in that time due to me fitting a low-quality ignition distributor (fitted the original back on and it was fine).

Powered by a carburetted 1.5-litre 12-valve SOHC Mitsubishi engine through a 3-speed slushbox. Note the gauge pods on the A-pillar! ?

50395318291_c1316e139f_b.jpg
Click to expand...
Proton Saga
 
ca2n said:
Indeed, it's a facelifted Proton Saga, the Saga Iswara.



In fact, the whole shell was Mitsubishi. This Mitsubishi to be precise, which I snapped just last weekend at my local Lidl:

50395587386_e51d572380_c.jpg


Notice how the doors, wing mirrors, and front and rear arches are identical.
Click to expand...

I just remember I friends dad had one when I was a child, and always said it had a Mitsubishi engine haha


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Very few knew what it was at the time. Certain even fewer knew just how expensive it was. Just wish years later I had taken a picture of it. Living away I only saw it a handful of times.
 
audifan said:
Very few knew what it was at the time. Certain even fewer knew just how expensive it was. Just wish years later I had taken a picture of it. Living away I only saw it a handful of times.
Click to expand...

One went up for auction at the race retro auctions in march ? off the top of my head it went for about £110k.
 
Jeetesh said:
How reliable was the at w**kel engine when you had it?
Click to expand...
Bearing in mind that most of my driving was 20 miles each way across London at the time, not the best for a rotary/w**kel engine, the first engine lasted about 66,000 miles. The rebuild was going strong at a similar mileage.
 
RobertJ said:
Bearing in mind that most of my driving was 20 miles each way across London at the time, not the best for a rotary/w**kel engine, the first engine lasted about 66,000 miles. The rebuild was going strong at a similar mileage.
Click to expand...
Did it drink oil like the Mazda does?
 
My Grandparents had one of these when I was young (it was apparently cheaper than replacing the Land Rover, although the depreciation must have been dire!):

Screenshot_20201002-204047.png

They were a rare sight even then!

They did have one of these in the garage too, which helped make up for it:

Screenshot_20201002-204154.png


Sadly I don't have photos of their actual cars.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top