Close Shave With a Greyhound

Close Shave with a Greyhound

As some might say I'm obsessed, every so slightly you understand, with classic cars.  One marque that interests me is AC Cars of Thames Ditton in the UK.  Altough the most interesting one are well out of reach for someone with as slender means as myself, the AC Greyhound is a distant possibility.

The Greyhound is a 2+2 version of the AC Acea, such as the blue car shown below:



 



Good ones of these seem to go for £70-100k and good ones are well sort after.  The Greyhound on the other hand is more in the £40+ price bracket.

Well I found a possible one in Ireland, but for verious reasons I didn't take it any further.  I'm sure these cars will rise in value, only 83 hand made in the late 50s early 60s, so well made and rare.

In profile like a Aston DB4?

The Old Girl Update

So how are they behaving?

Well I got PAM going relatively easily, she's been on "trickle" for a while, and then took her out for a "spin" around the village.  Everything went great, felt weird to be back in a midget again after the daily drive Audi TT.  Does seem to run on when warm and then not start hot, so I need to do some work on the heat containment aspects of the car.

Oillie isn't too well and it looks like it could be expensive.  Toying with the idea of doing it myself, but plan to get some quotes to see how much I will save!!

"Safety Fast"! and all that jazz...

The Top End of Classic Car Ownership

Take a look at this video of two blokes, sorry chaps, (Simon Kidson And Rupert Coucher) travellin to see some other cahp in Empany in a Gullwing (a car I'd own on a Desert Island) and a Type 57 Buggati.  PArt one showed the trip to Dover, this one is the exit from the ferry into France.

These gutys do drive them.  I like Coucher's philosophy on what classic cars are all about.  It's a 4 dimensional experience driving an old car.

Here's the link:

http://vimeo.com/34429377

Just updated the video page with some magical 1950s and 1965s footage of the three classic road races of the time: Le Mans; the Targa Florio; and the Mille Miglia. 

All from YouTube and each showing a different aspect of these events.....ENJOY!!!

Great old films on YouTube

I've added a new link to a 40 min film narrated by Raymond Baxter the WWII fighter pilot, showing footage from the 1965 Targa Florio race.  Includes the works Healey 3000 and a MG Midget driven by Paddy Hopkirk.

Amazing to see Paddy do a "J" turn after spinning off a corner! And even more amazing that it came second in class (small GT?!).

What's also amazing to see is how banged up the Ferrari GTOs are in this film.  Considering their value now it's interesting to see how much damage they received when being raced.

Classic Car Update: Another day another sports car to look at

It's been too long since I last updated the state of my two lovelies, so here we go:

PAM is currently amber, I have her on trickle charge awaiting an MOT, which hopefully she will get through so we can get out for the 1st Goodwood Breakfast of the year.

OILLIE is currently dark red.  A serious metal-worm is at her and she will need at least new sills before I can get her back on the road. 

I'm planning to do the repairs myself and found a great blog about a stalwart Bristol owner who has started restoration of his 409 from scratch; and I mean scratch, right from building the garage.  Its inspiring to see how he's gone about it and I plan to follow his example.  His blog can be found here https://sites.google.com/site/hamptonmybristol409/home