Modern Vespa

Don't fear the reaper

Walking back from the Y this afternoon a guy was playing fetch with his dog using one of those 'chuckit' launch sticks.

Me: 'Beautiful day for a fetch.'
Him: 'Sure is..'
Him (again): ' Hey if you're interested, I'd love to chuck one for you and you can bring it back to me..'
Me: 'I'll sit this one out, but keep me in mind for next time.'

What did the dog say ?

Nothing. Bill, you're the only formal speakin' dog I know.

Something about playing with balls and exclusivity.

Go on then, throw the ball.

Oh talking of which, this was weird.

For us 'mericans, what hatchback is that? And why the aftermarket bleacher seat?

Didn't realize they still made Saturns

Opel / Vauxhall Astra.

Remember when we got Opels here?

An excellent question.

It's a Vauxhaull Astra. Vauxhaull were the UK version of the German manufacturer Opel who until a few years ago were bought by the Stellantis group from GM.

Astras have an uncanny habit of floating away, hence the wing.

Oh, it's also front wheel drive.

… so a distant cousin of the Saturn. I wasn't far off.

How many HP for the Nurburgring?

I'm going to make a guess between 180 and 220 which will always promote chronic understeer.

Those spoilers were all the rage here for a while. People were tacking them on everything from Chevy Cavaliers to Toyota Camrys. Every time you saw one it was just stupid, until the one time you did a double take on the car that you realized was just for comic relief, and then everything was ok because it invalidated all the other stupid spoilers out there.



For the record, the one on the original Countach was completely useless, but it's ok because they're worth about half a million.

What car is that ? A Justy ?

Ford Festiva. The captive import (Mazda) lump that Ford switched out for the Fiesta. When we complained, they gave us the Aspire, which was even crappier.

One noteworthy version was the Festiva SHOgun. Bit of a riff on the Renault 5 Turbo 2, but still an interesting little machine.

Wow, that's a Ford. I'm shocked. It doesn't look very festive.

Driving down Deadwood's upper main street today, the seated bronze of Calamity Jane raised her bottle of rotgut in an apparent salute of approval at my top-down MX-5.

Then....only a couple minutes later, I rolled up alongside a giant, rolling 'Putzmeister' at the stoplight. I had heard of such a thing before, but never actually encountered one...until today.

Was it being towed by a Canyonero?

I'm more of a Schwing man, myself.

'Can you name the truck with four wheel drive,
smells like a steak and seats thirty-five...'

Ned Kelly (famous bushranger/ outlaw) tried to shoot my scoot this morning

In the UK the Mazda MX5 was the car that recently divorced fat, balding and recently divorced male would buy to kid himself that he still had something to offer to the ladies.

So you needed to be recently divorced twice over?

Goddammit.

I really shouldn't post so early in the morning.

Bollocks I'm leaving it up because it's made me laugh

They'd often be wearing clothes that should be on someone younger and they'd be called Trent or Simon or something.

Ray Bans and over compensations a Go Go.

Good to know I still have one divorce to go. Some days it seems like an MX5 is closer to a reality, based on your logic.

Oh it was just a common character that you'd see at a Pub on a Sunday.

They would project like crazy by saying Hello to everyone to garner attention and using their car as a conversation piece, but they were dying inside because it wasn't a real Sports Car

Fletcher would turn up his Bristol Blenhiem so everyone would flock over to gawp at that.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this but at the Channel Tunnel last year I met a small Scottish man on a GS1250 who asked me to stand on the opposite side of his bike while he mounted it in case it fell away from him.

His wife was taller than him ( which wasn't difficult ) and he had the obligatory top case and panniers but he could barely touch the ground.

It was sort of embarrassing to watch him ride off knowing that he'd not considered just how dangerous a decision he'd made by ignoring the sheer size of the GS compared his lack of strength and height.

I actually felt bad for the guy.

NB. There's nothing wrong with being Scottish.

Whats with all the snide digs at other forum members?

You are way ahead of me on that one.

In the same way that Eastern Europeans will often drive black Audi's, BMW's and Mercedes Benz's when they live in the UK, it's kind of hard to miss.

Made me smile.

That's hilarious.

On the back of a Taxi ?

Nope. Just the back of a Prius.

There's a new shape Prius that we just getting over here that the Internet won't allow me to post.

I have to admit it's a really good looking car.

There, I said it.

When we bought our Corolla Cross last year you couldn't get one. The Prius, that is. The dealer had one in the showroom, and to get it they had to purchase it from another dealer.

It is a nice looking vehicle.



My opinions of nice looking vehicles, however, must be tempered with the knowledge that I thought my VW Bus and Volvo were both beautiful.

And, for the record, I owned a 1980 Ford Fiesta.

There's nothing wrong with a Fiesta. Solid and simple.

They have only just stopped making it which is a grand shame.

I'd have that Prius. In that colour also.

Mine looked a lot like this, only in a maroon-ish respray.



I delivered pizzas in it in Florida until the water pump went. A mechanic told me he could either drop the engine or cut a hole in the fender to do the swap. Then he showed me another car that had just been left to him by the family of a customer who had died while it was in for work. $300 and the Fiesta and I was the proud owner of a 1969 Chrysler Newport.

Deal of the century.

Was it as big as a Whale ?

I know that this isn't a competition but I bought a Ford Escort Azure 1.4 with 134,000 miles in it for £300, ran it for 6 months and sold it for £1600.

You really can't beat an old Ford.

It was. (so come on, and bring your juke box money)

Only Ford I've ever owned, and I don't think you can technically call it a Ford.

At the same pizza place was a driver with a Yugo, and it was essentially the same car. He kept it running with an ample supply of aftermarket FIAT parts.

Yeah I believe that FIAT sold a whole load of designs and tooling to Russia when they were done with the 124.

I think that Abarth used to run the Rally Ladas for many years also.

Ahhh ... that Lada Riva. What a beautiful car.

There goes my credibility. Again.