Articles

  • The Best or Nothing: 1998 Mercedes C280 nears the Finnish line

    The Best or Nothing: 1998 Mercedes C280 nears the Finnish line

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    Sometimes it’s a huge relief when a car you bought is exactly as bad as you hoped it would be. Let me explain that a bit further. For some time, we’ve gotten together with a bunch of friends for a weekend in January or February, booked an ice track and some accommodation and proceeded to…

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  • Finnish Line: We grab a cheap PRV V6 engine

    Finnish Line: We grab a cheap PRV V6 engine

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    Perhaps you remember my earlier write-up on the Talbot Tagora and its racing history. In it, I detailed a plan that would make it possible to experience at least some of those heady days of Tagora Superproduction racing: acquiring a project Tagora and a PRV V6 engine from a Volvo 760, and then combining those,…

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  • CraigsList: No Bank Account DefCon for a RevCon Hauler?

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    RevCon is one of many RV companies and while I won’t pretend to know much about Recreational Vehicles, I will say that this very early, very modified Oldsmobile Toronado-based 1973 RevCon on Chicago CraigsList makes an interesting combination.

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  • Craigslist: 1989 Jeep Comanche Dually

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    Remember when small pickup trucks existed? The Jeep Comanche, somewhat based on the Jeep Cherokee, was one such pickup. There was no quad- or mega-cap option, only a regular cab, like pickup truck gods intended. But there was a choice of 4×2 or 4×4 driveline and a six- or a seven-foot bed. Over the years…

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  • eBay finds: A Ford Transit camper with a spring in its step.

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    Unlike North America, we never really went a bundle on the whole dayvan thing. Rather than five captains chairs, ankle-deep carpet and a quadraphonic sound system, we were more likely to fit our panel vans out with several hundred pounds of flimsy MDF cabinetry and a Porta Potti. Our Ford Transit wasn’t hugely different in…

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  • Classified-ad finds: Decidedly non-standard Cortina P100

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    The Ford Cortina P100 pickup is an increasingly forgotten machine. Effectively the front end of a late MkIV (colloquially MkV) Cortina mated with a ladder chassis rear end and a pickup bed, most examples used the famous 2.0-litre ‘Pinto’ engine in single-choke, low compression form, whose low 77bhp tune meant it would run on wood…

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  • Craigslist find: TWO 1982 Cub Commuter microcars!

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    About four-fifths through the previous Century, a category of car that had lain dormant for a while suddenly went through a renaissance. The microcar. There were many reasons that people should be tempted by a tiny, lightweight, basic car – cost savings to the driver, reduced environmental impact and the smug feeling of grabbing that…

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  • What do You Call a Siren That's Fat and Ugly? Quadravan, Apparently

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    I have a problem with negative absolutes. “It’s impossible.” “It’s worthless.” “There’s no way you could…” My immediate response? “Is that a challenge?!“. Nothing makes me happier than rescuing something from the scrap bin to extract a bit more utility from it for free. With all that background, you can imagine what this ’78 Quadravan that’s…

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  • Click For Affirmation That Good Things Still Happen.

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    If you guys think along the same lines as me, and I’m pretty sure you do, this story will blow your mind. It all started when a guy from Ipswich alerted the forumites of the esteemed Autoshite.com as to the existence and imminent sale of a Ford Sierra. Not just any Sierra, but the virtually…

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  • Bargain Corner #2: ’01 Ford Mondeo

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    Depreciation is a savage phenomenon. The way some cars lose value after first leaving the showroom often takes the form of a really violent looking curve when charted. In a lot of cases it really doesn’t take very long at all before a car has lost almost all of the multiple thousands that were spent…

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