Bullnose Morris

[RDfella]

Armstrong Siddeley's had a serious problem at one stage with violent steering wobble (lose control type). Dunno if they ever fixed that. Cortina Mk1 - a serious collector's car now. Good condition, talking way over £30k. E types - seen some over £200k. Sadly, my favourite car (Jaguar XKSS) is out of my price bracket - almost never come up for sale (they only made around 25 of which 16 remain). Last price I heard was £15m.

[Greybeard]

The SS100 has to be one of the most beautiful cars ever made. The company Swallow Sidecars, (SS) made it. They became Jaguar

[KiwiGF]

Armstrong Siddeley's had a serious problem at one stage with violent steering wobble (lose control type). Dunno if they ever fixed that. Cortina Mk1 - a serious collector's car now. Good condition, talking way over £30k. E types - seen some over £200k. Sadly, my favourite car (Jaguar XKSS) is out of my price bracket - almost never come up for sale (they only made around 25 of which 16 remain). Last price I heard was £15m.

The wife was supposed to be shopping for morris minors or maybe a vw beetle for our joint retirement hobby (as I go on too many bike trips without her .....apparently) when she spotted the Siddeley, which she thought was more her type of car    it was cheaper than those 2 cars at the time, but the low oil pressure issue that enabled me to get the price down resulted in my first car engine rebuild experience (crank regrind). Before that I had only worked on a few bike engines. The oil filter had been incorrectly fitted 

I have not heard of a steering issue on the post war 16/18hp cars but cross ply tyres and crude damping sure limit the cornering speed  but then it is 1500kg and 4.7m long.

The derby bentley was imported when the owner emigrated to nz, after his daughter emigrated here. Its been in his family for years, they are not cheap cars to buy    or maintain.

Here is the wife in a silver ghost, she has expensive tastes 

[KiwiGF]

Nice Mk 1 Cortina, KiwiGF, glad to see it hasn't been Lotus-ised.  Is that Lime Green?

Yes, I have been looking at colour charts, I also like the woody moggie in front of it.

My dad had one of those before his Ford phase, Oxford Grey one of my very earliest memories that car.

I’m not sure of the official colour code but I would describe it as beige! The mk1 cortina was assembled in in nz back in 62 so the specs are probably different to UK. My brothers car is mostly stock, but has been converted from column to floor change, plus “period” mods to the carb and exhaust. I think he paid around $11k nzd for it.

Its a far better car to drive than the siddeley, but the siddeley has a proper chassis, and the cortina is monocoque, generally rust is less of an issue with cars with a chassis.

[Rex]

Cortina Mk1 - a serious collector's car now. Good condition, talking way over £30k.

I have to ponder on who, with such a serious amount of money (£30K) to put down on a classic car, would ever choose some mundane Dagenham dustbin like a Mk1 Cortina? Lotus Cortina...possibly, but some old nail of a 1500 DeLuxe?
A peruse of the classic car market show you can buy some quality for less money, but here's one I found on Ebay. Wonder if it will ever sell?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304575447678?hash=item46ea1c827e:g:UVMAAOSwVW1i3vKB

[Roger (Doomtrainbarx)]

At 17k I think I'll stick with my old 5k XKR Jag

[Rex]

You and me both mate.

[muskrat]

G'day SHM.
Just started watching pt 1. "He needs a bigger grinder"
Cheers

[Black Sheep]

Wife has less expensive tastes - 1952 Land Rover (brought in from NZ). The slowest, noisiest, least comfortable way of getting from A to B. Tremendous fun!

[KiwiGF]

Wife has less expensive tastes - 1952 Land Rover (brought in from NZ). The slowest, noisiest, least comfortable way of getting from A to B. Tremendous fun!

I would swap a series landy for our siddeley in a heart beat, but the wife learnt to drive in one so she knows how uncomfortable they are 🥴 the early ones are also fetching big money nowadays, most were used on farms here, with values like they are now, farmers are pulling wrecks out of the paddocks where they were left to rot and storing them sheds hoping for a bit of a windfall cash-wise 🤔

Our 96 disco 300tdi will be eligible for vintage car rallies in 4 years 😏 (30 year age rule) but it seems like cheating when you follow pre war cars along gravel roads on a cold day.....

[Greybeard]

One of the projects at my Sisters place is an early Fiat with a 4 cylinder big engine. Here is one of the cast iron pistons.
The car is something like the one in this video but a smaller engine. https://youtu.be/As_63QMoCig
At the 3:10 point I believe we can see the driver start the car by trembler coil having previously turned the engine over with the handle.

[RDfella]

Reminds me of a bodge I did in the late 60's.
An elderly self-employed haulier turns up with an equally ancient 5t tipper lorry. Seem to recall it was a Morris Commercial. It had cast iron pistons and one had broken and damaged the bore. Now, this guy was in his 70's and clearly was just scratching a living, so we took head and sump off, masking taped the big end and rebored the offending cylinder oversize in situ. No cast iron pistons avail so we fitted a later alloy one. So now it had 3 x cast iron pistons and one alloy. I figured the engine would run rough as hell, but at least keep him going for another year or two, To my astonishment, the engine was a sweet as a nut. 

[Greybeard]

Another, better, video of The Beast of Turin
https://youtu.be/eToHTf-QUBA

[Greybeard]

To my astonishment, the engine was a sweet as a nut. 

Maybe you improved the balance! 👌