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Thread: No Mirage just Jowett.

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    Senior Member itschad's Avatar
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    No Mirage just Jowett.

    Me, I love cars, not just any cars but cars with character by the shed load. My father had a Rover 90, Austin A40 Farina amongst others. When I was a kid down the Old Kent Road in South London I longed for a Vauxhall Wyvern and Vauxhall Velox that neighbours had. By the time I was old enough to drive these were so outdated so an Austin 1300 it was.
    Now, a neighbour had a Jowett Javelin back then which I had a boner for along with an Armstrong Siddeley.
    Today I took my grandchildren to the Bradford Industrial Museum where they have numerous cars and vans produced by Jowett. That was a company that went tits up in 1954 but my God their cars were beautiful. They were made in a place called Idle (famous for having the Idle Mens Working Club, a contradiction in terms) where I lived just after my happy divorce. Here are a few. Yes, across the pond you had Mustang's Camaro and Charger's but we had our little bit of England to enjoy.Name:  IMG_20190829_113448.jpg
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    Adam - UK (08-30-2019),dspace9 (08-29-2019),foama (08-30-2019),Loren (08-30-2019),Marklovski (08-30-2019)

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    Senior Member dspace9's Avatar
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    Cool post, such unusual cars to see. The one looks a little like the so-called ugly duck cars from France.

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        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 42.2 mpg (US) ... 17.9 km/L ... 5.6 L/100 km ... 50.7 mpg (Imp)


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    Senior Member Dirk Diggler's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by itschad View Post
    Me, I love cars, not just any cars but cars with character by the shed load. My father had a Rover 90, Austin A40 Farina amongst others. When I was a kid down the Old Kent Road in South London I longed for a Vauxhall Wyvern and Vauxhall Velox that neighbours had. By the time I was old enough to drive these were so outdated so an Austin 1300 it was.
    Now, a neighbour had a Jowett Javelin back then which I had a boner for along with an Armstrong Siddeley.
    Today I took my grandchildren to the Bradford Industrial Museum where they have numerous cars and vans produced by Jowett. That was a company that went tits up in 1954 but my God their cars were beautiful. They were made in a place called Idle (famous for having the Idle Mens Working Club, a contradiction in terms) where I lived just after my happy divorce. Here are a few. Yes, across the pond you had Mustang's Camaro and Charger's but we had our little bit of England to enjoy.Name:  IMG_20190829_113448.jpg
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    Awww come now Mr. Chad, England had some really cool sports cars in 50s and 60s. What was that car James Bond raced in Goldfinger? Aston Martin?

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    itschad (08-30-2019)

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    Senior Member Dirk Diggler's Avatar
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    Gorgeous pictures too by the way. Very Downton Abbey give or take 30 years.

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    Senior Member AtomicPunk's Avatar
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    Definitely something to be said for the older cars that weren't designed on a wind tunnel. Very classy, full of character.

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    Senior Member itschad's Avatar
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    Thanks for that chaps. Yes we did have some gorgeous looking cars way back, sadly now all disappeared in the clouds of time. About 35 years ago I wanted to buy a Morris Minor Traveller, she who must be obeyed went loopy so car never purchased. She done the same thing 6 years ago when I wanted a Rover 75, she said it's either me or the car. I really enjoyed that Rover.
    Here's another two. The blue one is a barn find just recently and they will be restoring it fully in the near future.Name:  IMG_20190829_113413.jpg
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    Last edited by itschad; 08-30-2019 at 10:53 AM.

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    Senior Member itschad's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dirk Diggler View Post
    Gorgeous pictures too by the way. Very Downton Abbey give or take 30 years.
    Jesus, I don't watch that c??p. Re-runs of Inspector Morse, much more satisfying.

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    Brings back a lot of memories! Yes the Jowett Javelin looked really nice, another good one was the Triumph Mayflower,
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_Mayflower
    and also the Standard Vanguard
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Vanguard


    I practically grew up in a garage that repaired all makes, mostly British.
    Daily life was broken piston rings and scored cylinders, differentials needing new bearings and oil seals, advance mechanism in distributors disintegrating, broken kingpins, valves with broken off bits, very uneven brakes that could easily make a car swerve off the road if applied, the need of having to adjust valves at least once yearly, and so on. They weren't nearly half as durable then.

    The smokers (cars) of the time usually lasted about 60ooo to 70ooo miles before engines needed serious rebuilding or at least new piston rings for the time being. The cylinders cut were straight into the cast iron motor block, no linings. The pump attendants would automatically and unasked add a few shots of REDEX to the fuel because of the vast amounts of carbon gum build-up due the high oil consumption. That was normal. Compression ratios were comparably low because the bearings wouldn't cope with higher forces associated with moderate compression ratios.
    Some of those cars were really nice, the Mini 850 for example, but it should not be forgoten that around 1960 for each hour of driving you needed about 20 mins of maintenance if the car was good... What a far cry compared to the cars of today, and particularly compared to the Mirage!

    The early Austin factory had their own tiny dam for producing hydroelectricity, and even their own tiny steel mill and foundry, and a little railway line for bringing in iron ore and coal. They made practically everthing on and in the car themselves, except maybe for the paint. The infrastructure was so poor in Great Britain of the time they had no other choice. Considering that, it was quite remarkable they actually turned out and sold competitive products in those days. Later in the 60's product quality was more like in the 30's or 40's, so demand rapidly deminished.

    In the end, BMW gambled by investing very heavily for attempting to get the remnants of the British auto industry up to par. Every penny they owned and did not own was put into British auto plants. Although British products swiftly and grossly improved, they didn't get sold enough because folks just could not believe any substantial improvement had taken place. Their money-giver BMW was almost bankrupted in the process, and had to pull the rip cord during virtually the very last possible financial quarter to avoid becoming bankrupt themselves. Very tragic.
    Last edited by foama; 08-30-2019 at 04:46 PM.

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    Senior Member Dirk Diggler's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by itschad View Post
    Jesus, I don't watch that c??p. Re-runs of Inspector Morse, much more satisfying.
    Broadchurch is a fantastic cop show too.

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    Senior Member dspace9's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by foama View Post
    improvement had taken place. Their money-giver BMW was almost bankrupted in the process, and had to pull the rip cord during virtually the very last possible financial quarter to avoid becoming bankrupt themselves. Very tragic.
    That's some story about the Austin car company. Before my time, but my mom had an Austin in Canada decades ago now. My Dad says British cars were unreliable. I guess they were mass market enough then, to be sold in Canada and other countries. And the odds of them doing the whole thing after the war yes is remarkable.

    Also interesting what you say about the scale of the factory they had, with mini train track setup, steel mill etc. That is how people describe the old Dearborn Ford plant. They had basically every sub industry under one giant roof or acreage. Comes in as rubber and iron, comes out a car.


        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 42.2 mpg (US) ... 17.9 km/L ... 5.6 L/100 km ... 50.7 mpg (Imp)


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