Pictures of old or rare vehicles

[Mick Annick]

If you ever want to sell it, call me…

 

[droopsnoot]

Any relation to Mike Costin (Cosworth) I wonder?

Frank is (well, was) Mike's older brother.

 

[cheb]

And one half of Marcos, the other being Jem Marsh.

 

[eddie49]

That's my Piper P2 on the front cover:


The previous owner did part-time PR for the company. The car had "special" wide Minilite wheels ( to improve the aquaplaning ), metalflake paint, a large-bore exhaust pipe ( to snag on the ground ), a large twin-choke Weber ( to greet the 1973 oil crisis with 14 mpg ), and Escort van pistons in the 1600cc Crossflow ( to crack the skirts ).
It is a bit dusty today:

 

[RWD3M]

Frank is (well, was) Mike's older brother.

Aah right. Cheers @droopsnoot!

 

[RWD3M]

I don't know how far back I dare go, but one of my cars featured in Popular Classics back in 1994.

I didn't get a picture on the front cover but did manage a 6 page spread inside!



This is the last page of the article:



Rover SD1's are getting quite rare now too!

 

[RWD3M]

And one half of Marcos, the other being Jem Marsh.

I knew about Jem Marsh, Marcos used to be based not too far away in Westbury, but I wasn't aware of the Costin link. Every day eh?!

 

[eddie49]

I knew about Jem Marsh, Marcos used to be based not too far away in Westbury, but I wasn't aware of the Costin link. Every day eh?!

In 1973 I took a test drive in the rare Costin Amigo ( as well as a Lotus 47 ). I bought the Piper instead.

 

[RWD3M]

In 1973 I took a test drive in the rare Costin Amigo ( as well as a Lotus 47 ). I bought the Piper instead.

Obviously, I Googled that!

Rare indeed, but pricey! You could have bought an E Type for that sort of money!

Looked good though.

 

[jordhandson]

Nice. looks like my old 1960's Willys Jeep ? Do you have the four cylinder, or were lucky to get the V-6 engine in it ?

Hello Arc no this has the straight 6 engine.

 

[Dieselman 63]

A pic of my Ransomes MG5, old and rare (especially in NZ) plus my 2004 Subaru Forester - that’s just old

 

[Gritineye]

This is something i knew of and must have been great back in the day, i think this dates back to the early 80's, Commer walk through converted to a motor home powered by a Perkins diesel.
View attachment 238613 View attachment 238614

This is us in 1975, (before the EU) off on the hippy trail in our Commer walkthrough, bought for £2 after it was abandoned at Sussex Uni by students who travelled to Bulgaria and managed to get back with it running on 3 cylinders. Fixed it up, painted it with a roller as I drove it in for MOT saw the examiner mouthing WTF is this heap of ***** doing here! But it passed with only one loose exhaust bracket fault.

Wandered down to Greece by the backroads, then got stopped from going further by the Turkish invasion of Cyprus so spent a few months lazing around there, soaking up the culture, pretending to be Americans one day and Australians another but never British as they thought we had kidnapped Makarios! The Greek army made dads army look like the SAS! Lots of stories to tell there.

Had to get out when things got a bit dodgy and it looked like they would commandeer our van, wandered around Europe, crossed 12 borders in all. On our way though Spain to over winter in Morocco we had a near death experience when the road collapsed under a truck full of cement which overturned in front of us down a bank, as we passed the crater the truck was on it's side in a huge cloud of cement dust. In the mirrorI saw the windscreen pop out and the driver step out like from a telephone box, and hot black oil was pouring out the engine over his seat, lucky man!

It was impossible to get insurance for more that a 3 month trip those days and that had expired ages before, no bail bond either. We just shoved every bit of official looking document we had at the borders officials and any policemen that wanted to pretend they could read English, they all leafed through them and nodded wisely a lot! So we thought we'd call it quits an go home before we got into real trouble.

Lived in the old van for 18 months or so whilst working in UK (no rent), till we bought the place we still live in now for £7k.

Whole trip cost under £600, what an adventure and when we got back the same blokes who said we were mad for going were still sitting on the same bar stools they were on before we left moaning how bored and broke they were!

 

[Olderisbetter]

This is us in 1975, (before the EU) off on the hippy trail in our Commer walkthrough, bought for £2 after it was abandoned at Sussex Uni by students who travelled to Bulgaria and managed to get back with it running on 3 cylinders. Fixed it up, painted it with a roller s I drove it in for MOT saw the examiner mouthing WTF is this heap of ***** doing here! But it passed with only one loose exhaust bracket fault.

Wandered down to Greece by the backroads, then got stopped from going further by the Turkish invasion of Cyprus so spent a few months lazing around there, soaking up the culture, pretending to be Americans one day and Australians another but never British as they thought we had kidnapped Makarios! The Greek army made dads army look like the SAS! Lots of stories to tell there.

Had to get out when things got a bit dodgy and it looked like they would commandeer our van, wandered around Europe, crossed 12 borders in all. On our way though Spain to over winter in Morocco we had a near death experience when the road collapsed under a truck full of cement which overturned in front of us down a bank, as we passed the crater the truck was on it's side in a huge cloud of cement dust. In the mirrorI saw the windscreen pop out and the driver step out like from a telephone box, and hot black oil was pouring out the engine over his seat, lucky man!

It was impossible to get insurance for more that a 3 month trip those days and that had expired ages before, no bail bond either. We just shoved every bit of official looking document we had at the borders officials and any policemen that wanted to pretend they could read English, they all leafed through them and nodded wisely a lot! So we thought we'd call it quits an go home before we got into real trouble.

Lived in the old van for 18 months or so whilst working in UK (no rent), till we bought the place we still live in now for £7k.

Whole trip cost under £600, what an adventure and when we got back the same blokes who said we were mad for going were still sitting on the same bar stools they were on before we left moaning how bored and broke they were!

View attachment 312664

Amazing picture and history

 

[Matchless]

We drove to Greece in September 1975, still have the car, will try to find a picture, this picture is from 196?.

 

[eddie49]

still have the car

Do you still have the Werra 35mm camera?

 

[slim_boy_fat]

The car had "special" wide Minilite wheels ( to improve the aquaplaning ), metalflake paint, a large-bore exhaust pipe ( to snag on the ground ), a large twin-choke Weber ( to greet the 1973 oil crisis with 14 mpg ), and Escort van pistons in the 1600cc Crossflow ( to crack the skirts ).

 

[Matchless]

Do you still have the Werra 35mm camera?

nope, that picture was taken 51 years ago! one of these was at the Goodwood revival, Victory parade two weeks ago, the other was 50 years ago on my Tiger Cub Chopper!

 

[Arc Tourist]

Photo from 51 years ago also, Honda 305 chopper. Springer made in High School metal shop.

 

[badabec]

I raced my Piper GTT (my avatar). I could boil the brake fluid in less than one lap of Oulton. I cut a big rectangular hole each side at the front to let air get to the brakes. Solved.

 

[Seadog]

Tiger Cub Chopper!