Most of you would have heard the news by now, but for those who have not…..
Spyker’s situation went from really bad to terminal last night when their bankruptcy protection/reorganisation status moved into plain old bankruptcy (receivership). Spyker Cars sought protection from its creditors just two weeks ago but the bridge funding it was counting on to survive the reorganisation process has not materialised. The court moved the company into receivership at the request of the administrator leading the reorganisation.
Typically, our mate Victor Muller (right) doesn’t see this as the end of the road.
“None of the ambitions we had when we founded Spyker 15 years ago, has vanished as a result of today’s events. In 2000 we set out to establish a super sports car business from scratch with a global distribution and we achieved that. Over the years we undertook some daring ventures that left their marks on the company which in turn contributed to today’s demise.
However, I would like to make clear that as far as I am concerned “this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning” to quote Winston Churchill. I will relentlessly endeavour to resurrect Spyker as soon as practically possible and, assuming we will be successful, pursue our goal to merge with a high performance electric aircraft manufacturer and develop revolutionary electric Spykers with disruptive sustainable technology.
Gags aside, I am very saddened by this news, if not surprised.
I admire Vic because he has a crack at things. He doesn’t wait for someone else to do it. Yes, he often does things with other people’s money but tell me the name of a business or entrepreneur that doesn’t. This is the way of the business world and investors know it.
Victor – I wish you well, my friend. I will be following your movements and hoping like crazy that you get to build those electric Spykers.
I drove a few interesting cars on the weekend. Both experiences were unplanned. One car I drove with a view to buy and the other was purely for fun.
Peugeot 205 GTI
The first car was a Peugeot 205GTI. I stumbled across this one when I ran into a co-worker at Salamanca Market on Saturday morning. The Pug belongs to his son and Mal let me know that it was now up for sale.
Given that the 205GTI is a bit of a cult car, I had to check it out. Click the image to the right to enlarge.
Mal’s son is a young fella and being a young fella, he’d made a few young fella modifications. There’s a Whiteline strut brace across the top of the engine bay and a big fart-can exhaust. The strut brace made the top edge of the hood sit up a few centimetres. The fart-can was just way too loud.
The 205’s party piece is its handling and yes, this car shone in that department. I only took it for a short drive but it was plenty enough to see why the little Pug hot hatch is so loved.
I’ve got my eye out all the time for an inexpensive fun car and this one definitely fit the bill. I didn’t buy it, though, as there is just a little too much still to be done. I’ve got enough work to do with the Lancia and the X1/9 right now. I don’t need another fixer-upper, even if it’s already running and registered.
If you’re interested, the car is on Gumtree and Hew’s a wonderful young bloke. The interior’s a bit tatty but the mechanicals are all sorted after an engine rebuild done around 4 years ago. The clutch might need a pedal adjustment (at least) but the car goes like a cut cat and feels like it would be big bags of fun.
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Alfa Romeo 145
My second drive for the weekend was an Alfa Romeo 145.
I featured this car a few months ago after it made its debut at Classics By The Beach. The owner is a mate of mine named Norman and he called in to our place on Sunday.
Of course, as soon as I saw he’d parked the Alfa out front I suggested he might like to take me for a ride 🙂 . He went a step further and handed me the key! Woohaa!
The 145 was never officially sold in Australia so Sunday was a very rare opportunity. The 145 came with a variety of petrol engines over its lifetime and interestingly, they were in two very different configurations. The early cars had Alfa’s wonderful boxer engine, the one I’m quite familiar with from my Alfa 33’s. Later cars had Alfa’s Twin Spark inline 4 cylinder engine.
Norman’s 145 has the 1.6 litre 8-valve boxer. It’s got a little less grunt than my old 16V Alfas but the Fiat chassis that underpins the 145 is a lot more solid than the 33. The end result is the most refined Alfa Boxer experience you’ll ever feel.
When you say “refined”, people often think you mean boring. Far from it. The sound is still fantastic and the little 145 loves a good corner. There’s nothing quite like a small car revving to 6,000 and sticking like a limpet.
Outstanding!
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Fiat X1/9
I’d normally be doing a Lancia Fulvia update around now but I spent the last two weekends gardening! Regardless, there isn’t a whole lot left for me to do with it parked out in the front yard. I’m at the stage where I really need to get the Lancia into the garage so I can clean it up and start stripping the paint. I can’t get the Lancia into garage, though, until we get Geoff’s Fiat X1/9 out of the garage.
Our young bloke, Geoff, bought the little Fiat from the same deceased estate that I bought the Fulvia from. It’s got 45,000 genuine kilometres on it and is in great cosmetic condition.
Sadly, it’s not running yet.
The first job we did on it was to change the timing belt. I say “we”, by which I mean Geoff did it and I handed him the occasional tool. It was actually an easier job than I thought it might be. The hardest part was getting the yellow cover back on.
Then the fuel was freshened, the oil, filters and plugs were changed and a new battery was connected. After that, it was time to try and start the car. Thankfully, the engine isn’t seized like the engine in my Fulvia. Sadly, though, it wouldn’t start.
Fuel, Air, Spark.
We have air, of course. And we have fuel. Spark is the problem.
We did a few tests and found there was no spark making its way to the plugs at all. A call to our local generic parts store got us a new coil, but it still wouldn’t start.
A local mate with considerable Fiat experience (G’day Ant!) came over to lend a hand. On closer examination, it seems we installed the new coil incorrectly (there were some extra, confusing wires in place). We corrected, but it still wouldn’t start.
Ant re-gapped the points. Geoff cleaned out the distributor cap. Still, it wouldn’t start.
I made some enquiries about getting a new distributor cap and was surprised to find that you can’t get one for a 1.3 Fiat X1/9 anymore. They were particular to that car and they fail so infrequently that the manufacturer hasn’t made them in a long, long time.
The guy I spoke to did give me some recommendations, however, so we have some new HT leads and a new condenser on the way. We’ll try it again when the new bits arrive.
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The big jobs that remain on the little Fiat are the clutch and brake master cylinders, which are going to be a complete pain in the posterior (for Geoff) to replace.
While the engine’s in the mid position, the master cylinders are located at the front but you have to go under the dashboard to get to them. That means removing the seat and quite likely the steering column as well (we’re still researching that one).
You’d think removing a seat would be a pretty simple affair but not this one. Normally you just undo the bolts at the front and rear of the seat rails. With the earlier Fiat X1/9’s, though, there aren’t any bolts. You have to undo a spring underneath the seat, then you hold the seat adjustment lever and slide it forward until it slides right off the rail. It would’ve been nice and easy but the seat was stuck fast on the rail until a liberal dose of WD-40 finally got it moving.
So that’s where we’re at right now. We’re waiting on parts to try and get the engine started and the cabin is now ready for Geoff to hang upside down and get under the dash to replace the master cylinders.
Hopefully that’s all the little Fiat needs before we clean it up and get it registered. I can’t wait to see Geoff’s face the first time he takes a bend in this little mid-engined Italian.
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Final note……
If Bertone can design the tiny Fiat X1/9 to have a full-size spare – it goes in this hidey-hole behind the front seat – how come modern cars can’t get one so easily?
I mentioned earlier in the week that I had 928 fever, right?
Sooooo …… Monday night was very nearly a big night in our household.
The Shannons 2014 Summer Auction was held in Melbourne and I had a specific interest, having registered to bid at the event. My eyes were on this white Porsche 928S from 1986.
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The car had a super-clean mechanical inspection report. The only faults mentioned were the aircon system not cooling and the sunroof not working. When looking at a 928, those are amongst the least of your worries. A friend in Melbourne (Gavin – who’s written here occasionally and owns a most glorious Alfa Sprint) went and took a look at it for me and the report from him was overwhelmingly positive, too. I went into Monday night feeling nervous about the auction process but confident about the car.
I needn’t have worried about nervousness. The auction went beyond the limit I’d set myself pretty quickly. I budgeted around $11K for the car. That would mean around a $14-15K cost once I got here to Hobart, got it registered and a basic service.
The car sold for $12.5K.
So, I didn’t get my 928 but looking at the silver lining to that cloud, it was a positive exercise in self-restraint and the money I didn’t spend will allow Mrs Swade and I to travel to Sweden next year for the 2015 Saab Festival!
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Hot Or Not?
I saw some early publicity for a few new hot hatches this week and the paintwork had me wondering – are they hot or not?
First, the Renault Sport RS275 Megane Trophy, which gets a dollop of flouro orange on it’s white premise:
And second, the new Peugeot 208 GTi 30th Anniversary, which looks like they’ve dipped a red car in black chocolate:
The Swadeology verdict – Yes to the Pug but No to the Renault.
What say ye?
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V8 Jags
I was roundly mocked when I revealed my desire for an older Jaguar with a V8 conversion but can now revel in justification as Bring-A-Trailer featured three such cars in just a few days this week 🙂
I’ve always been interested in an XJ6 conversion myself, but those Mark II’s sure look pretty sweet. I’d take the third one if I had the choice.
Consider it back on the long term list!
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Porsche 912
The Porsche 912 is one of an increasingly long line of cars that I’ve noticed just before they shot up in price (hint – get your good 928’s now as the price is only going to go up).
Petrolicious released this Porsche 912 video this morning. The close-up videography can be annoying, but the video does give you a very nice taste of the 912. The key, as always, is that it’s so much fun to drive slow cars fast.
Rain. Fine, drizzly, persistent pain-in-the-arse rain. It’s the been the marker of our week-old Tasmanian summer and it did its best to try to ruin Classics By The Beach this morning.
Did it succeed? Hell, no!
It was a slow start but Classics did happen, which was especially nice for me as I missed the November edition and was hanging out to see what this month’s edition might bring.
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English, with Patina
It might seem a strange place to start, but the first car to really catch my eye this month is one that I’m not sure was even a Classics attendee. The father/daughter combination parked the car, went to a nearby coffee shop and then left an hour or so later. I didn’t see them wandering around or talking to anyone, even though there were a significant number of English cars in attendance this month.
So why was an old, red Morris 1100 the first car to catch my eye?
Well, I was about 6 years old when my sister got her driver’s licence and her white Morris 1100 is one of the first cars I remember that didn’t belong to my parents. In fact, here are the first cars I can remember from my earliest years:
Dad’s XY Falcon Wagon
Pa’s HD Holden (brown)
My brother in law Steve’s blue Datsun 180B
Leanne’s Morris 1100
Mum’s TD Cortina (6 cyl)
I’m sure Mum had a car before the Cortina, but I don’t remember what it was. It might well have been an older Cortina as my family did seem to like their Fords (a make that I’ve never owned). Dad replaced the XY Falcon with an XB Falcon and Mum replaced the Cortina with a Ford Laser in the early 1980’s.
Anyway, back to Classics…..
This little red Morris took me right back to my primary school days. I don’t know if it still has its original paint but it looked like it. There was definitely some cracking and fading going on and it lent the car an air of originality. It was so nice to see one still on the road….
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Another car with that patina feel was this late 1950’s MGA, in blue.
It’s a beautiful old bird but a chat with the owner confirmed that the presentation is more to do with regularity that originality.
The car has actually been several different colours over its lifetime with this blue applied by a previous owner some time in the 1980’s. It also started life as a LHD car from the US and was converted to right hand drive when it arrived in Australia. The seats have been reupholstered according to the original pattern and a larger engine was installed some time ago.
The end result – a car that is used as a daily driver and is loved as ferociously a toddler’s teddy bear. It’s perhaps the best kind of classic car – one that is real.
Something to note: many classic car parts are hard to find and expensive, so our MGA owner did extremely well when he found the steering wheel on this car, which is 100% original and was brand new and un-used when he found it at a very good price from a like-minded MG enthusiast. Score!
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English and Renewed
Some regard the Jaguar E Type as being the most beautiful car ever made. I’m not one of them, although I definitely rank it highly. My personal preference is for Italian eye candy.
There’s no debate about the beautiful condition of this E-Type, however. It shone brightly on a damp day that definitely wasn’t made for showing cars. My only regret is that I couldn’t track down the owner to open it up and allow some interior shots as the level of detail I could see through the closed windows looked equally impressive.
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There’s usually an E Type and an MGA at Classics but this month was a little different as there were a lot of Brits in attendance.
One of those was this MG 1300, which will look eerily familiar because it shares the same basic bodywork with the Morris 1100 shown above (and a Wolseley, and a Vanden Plas, and a Riley, and a…..). The MG had a 1275cc engine (think Mini) that’s now been bored out to over 1300cc.
This little bit of BMC platform sharing enjoyed a higher spec interior than the Morris parked across from it, with a nice dollop of wood on the dash and individual gauges as opposed to the long horizontal jobby on the Morris.
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Volvo by Bertone
There’s always a disappointing lack of Swedes at Classics so you can imagine how excited I was when this Bertone Volvo rocked up just as I was about to leave.
The car’s been recently recommissioned after some time in storage and the owner now has it up for sale. Get in touch with me if you’re interested (or call the number on the rear window and speak to Paul).
It’s a V6. The seats look super-comfortable and the back seat actually looks capable of swallowing humans up to toddler age. It has “Volvo Sound” rear speakers and the original “Top Executive” radio/tape player is currently in the boot of the car 🙂
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The Italians
There’s always a good smattering of Italians at Classics. It’s one of the reasons I love going there every month. The Giulia Super was this month’s highlight for me (the Lambo’s a regular whereas I hadn’t see this super before). The 500 Abarth was a welcome addition, too.
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I have to note the presence of the two newer Fezzas, too. It was wonderful to see them there and the crowds gathered accordingly. There was an interesting exchange later on between a frustrated local couple trying to exit a parking spot and one of the Fezza owners, whose car was parked nearby. Completely, absolutely 500% the local driver’s fault. Thankfully it was kept to being just a verbal exchange, although the local wife did break the cardinal rule – don’t touch another man’s car (especially when it’s a Ferrari).
These folks turned up 20 minutes later and entertained the local kiddies with their coloured lights.
Coincidence? I think Mrs Local might have got her knickers in a twist and made a phone call that, as mentioned earlier, was totally unjustified as she was very much in the wrong.
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The Rest
Here’s a sample of the rest of this month’s attendees. You’ll see some semi-serious precipitation in a few of these photos, which reduced both the number of cars and the time I spent taking photos of them 🙂
This EJ Holden panel van was nice in matte black. I love the EJ/EH siblings. Probably my favourite Holdens of all time (it’s a short list).
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The photo of old Morris Minor sh-sh-sh-should give you an idea of the rain at one particular point of the morning…..
The observant among you would have noticed an item on the Morris in need of some attention. Duly received…..
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Mini – no-one takes me further than you!
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How long before the NA Mazda MX-5 is looked at as a Classic? And will it need to be in a particular specification? Or are there simply too many of them still around?
I give it 10 years.
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And how long before the modern Mini is considered a Classic?
Appealing as they are, I give it a lot longer than 10 years.
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I had a good chat with the owner of this Porsche 928 S4. I’d met Stuart at another event earlier this year and I’ve got 928 fever at the moment so it was a timely chat. Nice bloke. Nice car.
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In-dash radio was probably quite a thing back in the mid-20th century.
This lovely looking Valiant’s got “on-dash” radio 🙂
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That’ll do us for this month.
Thanks for reading. Next month’s Classics will be on Sunday 4th January.
If Fulvia Friday is now being furnished by people spotting Fulvias whilst on vacation, does that mean it’s becoming a thing?
My thanks to Ian B, who spotted this Series 2 Fulvia while visiting his native England on holiday from Australia. The car is at a second-hand showroom owned by a guy named Dave Fox, in Stone, Staffordshire. His business seems to specialise in some very, very nice machinery (see below).
First, the Fulvia…..
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As you can see, the car is in a small-ish showroom so the angles are a bit tight for photos. The car spent its early life in South Africa so it wasn’t a rusty basket case, but it did require some bits from this slowly decomposing blue Fulvia, below:
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Ian was also kind enough to get a few shots of some of the other vehicles in and around the building.
This looks very much like my kind of place. I’ll take the Montreal, the Quattro and the Renault, thanks!
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My thanks to Ian for thinking of me and sending these in. If you happen to spot a Fulvia on your travels – be it on holidays or simply parked outside your local butcher shop while you’re getting a dozen sausages – please feel free to let me know.
Most of the people who visit this site would have been awake when this news came out but I was sleeping.
Spyker N.V., together with its wholly owned subsidiary Spyker Automobielen B.V. today filed a voluntary petition for financial restructuring in an effort to address certain short-term operational and liquidity challenges. The District Court of Midden-Nederland in Lelystad, the Netherlands granted Spyker’s voluntary petition for temporary moratorium of payment, the Dutch equivalent of the American Chapter 11 proceedings, and has appointed an administrator who, together with the Board of Management, bears final responsibility for management of the company as long as the moratorium of payment status is in force.
It’s not totally unexpected given Spyker’s recent challenges, but sad nonetheless. I hope Vic can find his way out of this OK but it’s hard when your business is all about selling cars and you’re not doing any of that.
Nulla Tenaci Invia Est Via
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Honda Getting Its Groove Back?
Honda was on fire back in the 90’s and early 00’s with high-revving V-Tec engines that set a lot of people’s pulses racing. They had a super-successful record dating back to the 1980’s in Formula 1 as an engine supplier, too.
Something happened about 10 years ago, though. It’s like we all took a nap and when we woke up, Honda had stopped racing, Hondas had stopped being racy and were only being bought by sensible people in woolly cardigans.
Now, it seems Honda might just be getting its groove back.
The Honda Civic Type R will absolutely return to Australia, though precise launch timing is still being worked out.
After repeatedly saying it was dead keen to import the reborn hot hatch after a five-year absence, Honda Australia director Stephen Collins confirmed to CarAdvice today that it’s now locked-in.
….Once a performance leader with a string of sports cars such as the Civic Type R, Integra, Prelude and NSX, the company once colloquially known as “Japan’s BMW’ has focused elsewhere of late, and has, to many people, lost some of its lustre….
….The Type R’s turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine will produce in excess of 206kW of power, will redline at 7000rpm, and will be paired exclusively with a six-speed manual transmission, bucking a recent industry trend to dual-clutch autos.
This is why I love the French automotive sector. Where would we be without them?
This concept was called the Karin and was shown at the 1980 Paris Motor Show. It had a central driving position with a single seat on either side, said to be one for the wife and one for the girlfriend.
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Is Europe Turning On Diesel?
The rattle you hear coming from Western Europe isn’t the rattle of a diesel Peugeot coming down the street. It might just be the beginnings of death rattle for all diesels in France. From Reuters:
Next year, the government will launch a car identification system that will rank vehicles by the amount of pollution they emit, Valls said in a speech. This will make it possible for local authorities to limit city access for the dirtiest cars.
“In France, we have long favoured the diesel engine. This was a mistake, and we will progressively undo that, intelligently and pragmatically,” Valls said.
The French government plans to raise taxes on diesel fuel and also provide a rather large rebate to any French customers trading in their diesel for an electric car.
I hope Karin isn’t a diesel…..
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East Bound And Down….
My all-time favourite childhood movie car is up for sale: The Bandit.
OK, this isn’t the car from Smoky And The Bandit. This is a car that was used for promotional purposes and then given to Burt Reynolds as a birthday gift.
ROLLS-ROYCE will next year decide whether to bring its much-rumoured SUV to market and already has internal design concepts on the drawing board.
Nooooooooooo!
The world seems to be full of people and companies doing stupid, meaningless things just because they CAN. Just because you CAN drown kittens doesn’t mean you should. I mean that in a purely metaphorical sense, of course (and if you think that’s tasteless, you should hear a few of the ones I discarded. Anyone who drowns kittens ought to be jailed).
Rolls Royce is sorted. What they CAN do if they put the company’s collected mind to work is irrelevant.
Rolls Royce make big-ass limousines that carry super-rich people around, cosseting them with silence, cushioning, aroma and twenty different types of massage. Rolls Royce is the standard. Rolls Royce needs diversification like a fish needs a bicycle.
Twenty cars a day are built at Goodwood….. and every single one is the very best that it can be. Allow me to demonstrate this fact with a specific example: torque wrenches.
Now, as the vast engines and gearboxes are mated with axles on the rolling rig prior to being stuffed into a shell, the mechanics torque up all the bolts… and when they reach the sufficient amount of twist, the wrench glows orange. This signifies that it’s being recorded – that specific bolt was wrenched to that particular torque on that date, at that time, by that person. It’s all noted in the computer via Bluetooth. So if that bolt shakes itself loose in thirty years’ time, they can find out why. Imagine that level of fastidiousness, applied to everything in the car. It’s incredible.
That’s what Rolls Royce does. It’s a statement. It’s not a fictional statement or an aspirational statement. It’s a statement of fact.
The very thought that Rolls Royce needs anything other than what it’s already got is demeaning. It makes every Rolls Royce that they make right now a lie.
Rolls Royce says it’s still considering whether or not to make an SUV. To me, it should be a no-brainer. Companies like Porsche could do it because everyone knows that the 911 doesn’t sell enough on its own for the company to survive. Porsche needs the Cayenne. It needs the Panamera.
If you’re Rolls Royce, the word ‘need’ should not be in your lexicon. An admission of need – such as the need to increase profitability by making a Rolls Royce SUV – makes a mockery of the very reason a brand like Rolls Royce exists in the first place.
We always seem to look up to the Germans for their engineering. Rolls Royce’s German owners have respected the brand up until now – and hopefully sanity will prevail and they’ll continue to respect it in the future. But the lessons learned from model expansion with BMW, Mini, Porsche and other Germans makes me fear for this automotive institution.
Won’t someone think of the rich little children (and their kittens)?
