West Cumbria Vintage Rally 2008

Classic and Modern Cars

Rally  Tractors   Vintage   Modern   Bikes   Commercial  

This 1961 Vauxhall Cresta PA has well survived the threat of rust, to which most of its contemporaries succumbed, with its original bodywork still intact. It has had a re-spray in the past and rebuild of hydramatic automatic gearbox, with fuel and oil pump replacement. This version had a 2.6L straight six engine.

There were many car clubs at the rally and this included the Haven Humbugs who love the Volkswagon Beetle. Who could have predicted in 1938 that Hitler's insect inspired utilitarian people's car would be still seen as an object of desire for so many in the 21st century. Of course the popularity was increased first by the hippie generation that seized on a cheap car that could be custom painted with bright colours. Next came the very successful 1968 Walt Disney film "The Love Bug" and its sequels, which invested the car with a personality and mind of its own. More recently in 1998 the launch of the new Beetle, which was a totally new car that had stylistic references to the first, re-kindled nostalgia for the original.

Probably the largest showing at the rally from a local car club was the Mercedes Owners club with a large collection of the 3rd generation SL models all looking as if they had just driven out of the showroom.

This Ford Popular 100E was built in 1959 which was the first in 4 years of production although actually it was basically a Ford Anglia 100E whose name was transferred to the newer more angled Anglia the 105E. It has a l4 1172 cc side valve engine capable of 36 Bhp and this one sports and additional sun visor. It took a previous owner 4 years to do a complete nut and bolt restoration.

It seemed a shame when the TR7 went out of production so Reliant took some of the ideas and spare parts and built the Reliant Sabre. This one built in 1995 was a guest of the Triumph Sports Six Car Club. Although the headlamps are TR7 the engine is a Rover 1400 K series and the gearbox from a Ford Sierra assembled on a steel chassis with a fibre glass body. Unfortunately this was one of the last produced as Reliant went into receivership the same year.

The most stylish car at the rally, or anywhere, was this Aston Martin DB6 built in 1967. Not obvious from this design is the fact that 'DB' comes from the parent company David Brown famous for the manufacture of tractors, many of which were also at the Vintage rally.

The Bond Minicar Mk D was produced by Sharps Industrials of Preston between 1956 and 1957 and featured the amazingly small 197cc Villiers 9E engine. This was an air cooled single cylinder 2-stroke motorcycle engine. The Mk A had the disadvantage of a kick start which was later replaced with electric ignition and the three speed gear box had no reverse gear.  Perhaps with fuel prices increasing we may see a comeback for low performance micro cars like this.

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