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Weekend Edition: The Classic Motorshow Parking, Part. 2
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At the show, there were a great deal of non-ancient cars parked neatly next to the older classics. This post shows the angular, ’80s stuff and the occasional newer car that had snuck in.
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Weekend Edition: The Classic Motorshow Parking, Part. 1
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The thing with the Classic Motorshow is that you can park outside the venue only if you’ve arrived with a 30+ year old car. Or if you’re a honored guest of the show or work there or whatnot. But they check your papers as you drive in, and it’s better to be old. It doesn’t…
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Weekend Edition: Classic Motorshow 2016
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One of the best things in the Finnish automobile enthusiast’s calendar is the Classic Motorshow, held yearly in early May and containing wondrous weird cars in several halls of the fair centre in Lahti. This year, I armed myself with two cameras: the other one was the usual brown Canon EOS 1100D I use for…
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Weekend Edition: Rebuilding a brand – The 1996-2010 Skoda Octavia 1U
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It’s 25 years ago since Skoda and Volkswagen shook hands and made Skoda a Volkswagen subsidiary. The agreement took place on March 28th, 1991, and on April 16th, Volkswagen took ownership of 30% of Skoda’s shares. In Dec 1994, VW took majority of Skoda’s shares with 60,3% in their pocket, and grew that to 70%…
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Japanese Soft-Roader Weekend Edition: Suzuki X-90
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The previous cars posted in the Weekend Edition series have been wagons or hatchbacks, with the bodyshell a multi-purpose one despite the oftentimes jolly plastic dress-up or choice of colour. The Suzuki X-90 is something else, a small two-door SUV with a saloon-like trunk and a T-top. It’s definitely weird, despite being based on Vitara…
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Japanese Soft-Roader Weekend Edition: Toyota Corolla All-Trac Wagon
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One of the coolest Toyota wagons ever is the late-’80s, early-’90s E90 body All-Trac wagon, which differs greatly from the regular shape FWD wagon. The 4WD wagon took the fenders from the coupe-like Corolla Liftback 5-door, and mated them to a more avantgarde body, which was done up in the same style as the earlier,…
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Japanese Soft-Roader Weekend Edition: Honda Civic Shuttle Beagle
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One of the most iconic small Japanese 4WD wagons is the Honda Civic Shuttle, also known as the Wagovan in some markets. It combined the great basic car that was the EF-body Civic with a taller roof and more interior room, and as a bonus it was a go-anywhere four wheel drive car. The “Beagle”…
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Japanese Soft-Roader Weekend Edition: Mazda BU-X Concept & Demio
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Mazda also produced a fairly similar car to the Starlet Remix, called the Demio. Most everyone who spent their teenage years holed up in their bedroom, getting to grips with Gran Turismo, became familiar with the Demio, as it was one of the starter cars on the path to Pikes Peak Escudos. The Demio was…
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Japanese Soft-Roader Weekend Edition: Toyota Starlet Remix
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Japan is home to some very interesting developments of initially uninteresting cars. The Toyota Starlet is one such example, as it’s a honest, humdrum hatchback with no real styling effort seemingly undertaken at any point, except for the unapologetically jazzy seat trim. But give it seriously heavy-looking body cladding and available four-wheel-drive, and the car…
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Techno Classica Weekend Edition: The 1978-1981 BMW M1
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Never to be outdone, BMW brought a freaking airplane to Techno Classica. They recently turned 100 years old, and the Bavarian propeller logo does stand for actual propellers. But since this isn’t Atomic Toasters, I’m dedicating this post to the BMW M1: the best Lamborghini BMW ever made. Or something.
