Articles

  • The Carchive: Enid Blyton style Ford Fiesta promo from 2003

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    And now for something completely different. At about this time every week we put 2018 on hold for a little while and take a peek into the past. Yeah, there’s been some bad stuff, but as we saw last week with the Citroen GS, there’s been plenty of good stuff. Today, though, it’s time for…

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  • Motorboat Monday: Scrapyard sadness? That ship has sailed

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    Anybody else having trouble keeping up? When I was 14, my parents would dismiss the music of the day as a repetitive series of bleeps and yowls. Frankly, their description of The Prodigy was pretty accurate, but I would defend Braintree’s incendiary pop/rave/rock crossovers to the hilt. Hey, guess what? I’m now not far off…

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  • The Carchive: The 1978 Citroen GS

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    Consider the entire spectrum of automotive offerings there are out there today, from the least alluring, economy-minded thriftmobile to the worlds most extravagant, fastest beacons of conspicuous consumption. When all’s said and done, there’s really not a huge amount to choose between them. All the city cars, superminis, coupes, sedans, SUVs and supercars are each…

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  • Did the Lotus Elise kill the sports car?

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    No, of course it didn’t. What a stupid question. The sports car is not only alive and well, but in rude health. Look at that, I’ve answered my own question. Thank you and goodnight. I think there’s more to say, though. When the Lotus Elise arrived out of the blue like an aluminium and fibreglass…

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  • The Toyota Land Cruiser Commercial is the poshest car you can buy today

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    In one hand, I hold a Faberge egg. Beautifully made, artistically conceived and definitely aimed towards the extremely well heeled. In the other, I hold a Savelli Champagne Diamond cellphone, inlaid with 395 white and cognac diamonds and running Android. One of these items is a guaranteed future heirloom, an instant blue-chip collectable that might…

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  • The Carchive: The 1976 Toyota Celica Coupe

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    With the weekend firmly in sight, and Last Call about to provide us with that final breath of relief that we’ve all been waiting for, lets just sneak a moment to look at something comfortingly familiar in this fast-paced, ever changing world we live in. Last week we saw how Vauxhall marketed its Carlton, Viceroy…

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  • The Carchive: Posh Vauxhalls from 1982 — Carlton, Viceroy, Royale

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    It’s Friday night, and the moment that literally some of you have been waiting for. It’s time to discard all that’s new and exciting in favour of the unloved, rusting and forgotten. Welcome back to The Carchive. A fortnight ago we dissected the Citroen C3 Pluriel, and witnessed some truly whimsical marketing for what was…

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  • The Carchive: The Citroen Pluriel C3

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    Well, there goes another week, in which we nibbled away at the future a little bit more, and distanced ourselves slightly further from the familiar and the comforting. Yeah, I’m talking about the past. I’ve got bookcases full of the stuff, and surrounding myself with it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Like binge-watching…

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  • The cars that you're amazed were ever built

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    I was preparing for this week’s Carchive post and, unlike the chaotic bookcase landslide that led me to contemplate which stylish production car had the most disappointing interior, The Carchive remained neat and tidy and I found my target Citroen Pluriel brochure with very little fuss and bother. But before I filleted, scrutinised and chronicled…

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  • The Carchive: The 1991 Fiat Tempra

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    It’s Monday, and as we gather momentum for the charge towards a weekend that seems a distant speck on the horizon, let’s pause for breath with a whimsical look at the past. In 1991 my parents had a meeting with their mortgage advisor in Frinton-on-sea. I was ten years old and in dire need of…

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