Wild weather -October /November 2018

We have a RAV 4 now Helen, a 'pretend 4X4 :slightly_smiling_face: but a nice comfortable car, and roomy with the back seats down, we keep thinking of changing, but why? ultimately, is the question :thinking:
I looked for a Volvo 4 series estate, here, for a second motor, couldn’t find one :thinking:

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An interesting comment about Saab -
their seats were designed by osteopaths and at the time considered to be the most comfortable around
They certainly were a dashed sight more comfortable than modern day Volvos!
And on snow they (Saab) were unbeatable.
One year in Scotland bad snow resulted in a 30 ml stretch of the M74 being closed.
The police were stopping all vehicles from getting onto the motorway - making two exceptions, my 9-5 and a Landie driver. No problems.

Even back in the days of the 96 we acquitted ourselves on a particularly snow hit Monte Carlo Rally, apart from inverting the car on the top of Turini, but that’s another story and not snow elated!

The 9-5 was a dashed sight more comfortable on the regular 2k round trip to Scotland than its successor, Skoda Superb

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I can’t agree re the Saab seats, too soft! not for me G’:wink: mine was a 900 i.
Re on the on snow, I did mean the Volvo estate was ‘desperate’, not the Saab, not had a ‘modern day’ Volvo, too much ‘leccy’ stuff :unamused:
We had a 2CV in Scotland, bizarrely, it was good in snow, the narrow, big dia’ wheels cut through, and FW drive, fairly good ground/snow clearance too :slightly_smiling_face:

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In the depths of snowy Perthshire when my grandparents’ volvo of the moment sulked uselessly at the bottom of the hill, my aunts’ 2cv and Dyane nipped up no problem at all.
I also remember ( vaguely as I was quite little and also knocked out) my grandmother in her nice Triumph sports car, driving at high speed into a snow drift somewhere near Fettercairn…

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Well, that’s piqued my curiosity… Vero… do you know which Triumph your Gran had ??..
We had a Herald, briefly, then a 1964 Triumph TR4A which took us everywhere… loved that car :hugs:

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Not sure, it had a pretty wooden dashboard and a black hood like a pram hood and something written in gothicky type metal script on the dashboard, but I can’t remember what it said. It had an actual back seat not a board and the seats were leather. It was white. Vitesse rings a bell.

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I had experience of two SAABs during my life, my father had a 99EMS that I used a fair bit when I was younger then I foolishly bought a 900S later on. Neither feature very high up on memorable cars for positive reasons, the EMS was good to drive but horrible to ride in the back of and horrendously uneconomical. The 900 was just horrendous. Neither was good on snow, the EMS lacked grip on dry roads, the 900 on wet roads and they both suffered terribly when it was icy or snow. Luckily I have had much better experiences of other cars that I have owned. My current, elderly Golf is another class when it comes to driving in general, driving in wintery conditions in particular and comfort.

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Vitesse is nice but TR4A is better IMO… :relaxed:

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You could be right on the Vitesse - its in the right period.
And snow drifts in the Fettercairn area were a frequent hazard - the Cairn is still one of the first roads to be closed in the snow!

I’m back in the Mearns just now for my last aunt’s 94th - and have just been watching tv, a specialist ntique show which includes cars.

2CV, 1986, they featured one which they reckoned would sell for around £3k

I fancied doing the 2CV race series and looked at one for sale a year ago at a garage near us in 17.
He wanted 6kE, and it wasn’t great bodily so I walked.

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One of my friends has a TR250. It is unique because they were all made for the Californian market and therefore LHD but he bought it in New Zealand where a previous owner had had it converted to RHD.
https://classicmotorsports.com/articles/triumph-tr250-vs-triumph-tr6/

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I remember my first “boss” having a triumph herald…I was on a YTS scheme…my best time there was creating and painting the window display for fuel at Easter…other than that I hated it…She later got a Capri…x :slight_smile:

Hi David… our TR4A was also built for the Americans…and re-imported into UK for us… we kept it LHD as that worked a treat here in France…:relaxed:

Only thing, the Americans were too stingy and thus our car did not have the Independent Rear Suspension which many of our Paris pals have in their “French” TR’s… :zipper_mouth_face:

OH tried to teach me to drive in his Herald… disastrous… our blossoming “romance” nearly ended before it had begun…:roll_eyes: Fortunately another friend took over my driving instruction… and OH and I became an “item” :hugs:

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I think the ‘traction’, to weight ratio with the 2CV, was incredible V’ :+1: :wink:
When I was sailing with ‘Manchester Liners’, we used to take ‘Ship Loads’ of TRs to America :slightly_smiling_face:

My parents had a tired 13/60 convertible when I was a teenager and that was a lot of fun to own. I would have loved to have a Vitesse but the 13/60 was more than fast enough for a Herald.
These days I still have an open car, they really become a bit of an addiction. My oldest car is a faux cabriolet; it has a canvas roof and Panhard irons but although it looks as though the roof should fold it does not, a shame.

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Must say Dave, apart from the seats being too soft, I did like the 900i, to drive, very positive. :slightly_smiling_face:

Wish I could afford a Morgan (for obvious reasons), had 3 in the family, one new, the best, one my Bro found in bits, hanging on a garage wall, really lovely when He put it back together :+1:.
I was very surprised, when our next door neighbour, arrived with His Chum one day in a beautiful one, Plus 4 :hugs:

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Mine was horrible. Far to heavy, despite being relatively powerful it was slow and thirsty and the handling was awful. It was bought new as a second car and eventually traded it in for a Turbo Diesel Rover 200 which, although smaller, was so much nicer all round.

I always loved the thought and the look of a Morgan…hand built held a certain fascination…Donnington Park just up the road from where I used to live held all sorts of events…I went to view a house years back in close proximity to donnington park…it wasn’t the noise that put Me off…there were restrictions on the park even then…the house although beautifully presented and restored was “cold” and had a really bad feel about it…I was glad to get out…when my mom and dad were moving from Leicester to the outskirts we went to view a potential property…it too had such a bad feel about it that we never went back for a second viewing…my mom and me…I was maybe 12 at the time felt like we were being followed round the house…the stairs especially…neither of us said anything to each other until we were back in the car but needless to say we didn’t buy and my parents bought a few miles away…I often drove past that house in later years though and wondered if new owners ever felt the same presence or if it was just us…??? I don’t know if it was the bad feelings between their family that affected the atmosphere or if it was something centuries before that held the malignant atmosphere…Even the garden had “cold spots”…and it took months and months to sell so maybe not just us…??? Anyway.,after a brief meandering…cars…classic or otherwise! x slight_smile:

Misty, grey start to the day… fingers crossed I might not need my galoshes today…:roll_eyes: but, who knows… :zipper_mouth_face: