Fast and cheap classic?

I'm lucky that my old car was on a V5C before I sold it. He will have sored it on a V5C so it will still be arround for a while yet.

The 4's aerodynamics weren't at all bad for its time, actually. The underside was flat with few openings which helped a lot. I've seen the Cd quoted as 0.4.

But does the needle eventually emerge from under the dash' and scratch your knee?

I'm surprised the gearing allowed it. Most small engined cars of this period would be near valve bounce at their normal maximum.

How about a Lotus/Caterham 7 copy?

It'd look like the real thing but afaik, most use Ford lumps and running gear so will be cheap/reliable and easy to maintain.

As it is a tubular space frame it'll be light too, meaning it will shift.

Something like this:

sponix

I once had an early (suicide door) Fiat 600 which did a genuine 95mph.

Mind you, I was towing it home behind a DB4 at the time. The guy in it didn't talk to me for a week.

Geoff MacK

Can't believe noone has mentioned the Renault 5 GT Turbo ?? Surely thats a classic now, and on a good day would give any of the above a run for their money !!

A friend has just bought one and is loving it, some diary stuff on

In article , Dave Plowman (News) writes

The poor thing thrived on valve bounce! How it survived my driving I shall never know, certainly the highest revving pushrod engine I've ever driven. It did sound a bit funny, mind...

In article , Geoff Mackenzie writes

Splutter! ;-)

Did you just forget he was there?

I've done 130mph in a Fiat 600.

Mind you, it was an Abarth (a heavily tweaked Abarth), the engine cover was propped open on struts to aid cooling and I had to wear ear defenders to drive it.

'Fraid not. To use the universal excuse, "it seemed like a good idea at the time". M'lud.

Geoff MacK

At 130 I'd have thought you would have left the noise behind - but of course you had to get there first...

Ron Robinson

Given the theory that that the towed car should be the brakes of the outfit I reckon this shows a touching faith in the stopping abilities of the Fiat. But it would certainly have minimised any tendancy it might have had to swap ends.

Ron Robinson

snipped-for-privacy@post.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Are there any good ones left, or have they all been chavved to hell and back?

(Assuming you're talking about the "normal" second-shape 5, not the mad mid-engined first-shape one? If you can find a good one of them for a couple of grand, I'll have it!)

Never thought of that! Actually, there was quite an amusing follow up to this story. The reason we had to tow the Fiat home was that it had been mildly shunted up the rear, which had dislodged the oily bits so that you could only select 1st and 3rd gears (or was it 2nd and 4th? Can't remember.). So - it needed to be stretched. At the time I shared an old farmhouse overlooking a village green with a number of other petolheads, so we worked out how to do it. We attached the engine and gearbox to a suitable anchor - a Jowett Javelin which had been sitting in the drive long enough to have taken root, and roped the front end to the Aston. Dropped the clutch, off we went. First attempt the rope broke and I disappeared across the green at rate of knots. Changed to a wire hawser, and after two or three further tries - bingo! All gears present and correct.

Never bothered to repair the panels, just used it as a hack until the engine blew. Rather than scrap it we dug a hole in the back garden, buried it and built a rockery over the bits that showed. Should give archeologists a real headache in years to come if they find it.

Geoff MacK

Absolutely priceless, Geoff. Really made my day...

Ron Robinson