Corgi's 2020 vision

A Happy New Year and Happy New Decade to all my readers. As has become customary, I'm starting 2020 with a review of Corgi's recently-announced bus models for this year, which were revealed on Monday. There are at least some OOC buses among the 118 announcements so that is an improvement over 2019's tally of zero, but they are once again an uninspiring crop so I won't be buying any of them, and needless to say there are still no new castings.

Who killed Ford Timelord?

It all started with a simple question: what happened to Ford Timelord? I knew nothing at all about that car or its owner but I do love a good mystery and was soon captivated by its incredible story. For those who don't know, Ford Timelord was the name of the 1968 Ford Galaxie police car (WGU 18G) owned by Jimmy Cauty, one half of the anarchic musical or artistic duo variously known as the KLF, the JAMs and the Timelords alongside Bill Drummond. The car rose to fame through their hit single 'Doctorin' the Tardis' and featured heavily in the pair's work for three eventful years but then disappeared without trace.

An icon and a very cool car but what became of it?

Rumours abound as to its fate: some say it was banger raced, some that it was destroyed by the KLF in the name of art, and others that it still exists in a storage compound somewhere waiting for the day that Drummond and Cauty resurrect it, but nobody knew for sure. As with everything KLF-related, the car's history is enigmatic and misinformation is plentiful, but after a year of many members hunting high and low and reaching out to people involved with the band, the Autoshite forum community have finally reached a definitive answer so read on to find out more about the exciting life and death of this iconic car.

Unsung heroes: Jaguar X-type

More than a Mondeo?

It's been more than a year since my last unsung hero, but the series makes its long-overdue return with the most modern choice so far. With Jaguar experiencing a renaissance at the hands of its current Indian owners, the cars built under Ford's ownership are often derided or forgotten, especially the subject of today's piece that is commonly regarded as a low point in the marque's history. Ford-era Jaguars get a bad press, none more so than the X-type thanks to its controversial platform-sharing with the Mondeo that dooms it to be forever classed as not a real Jaguar in the eyes of many. Is that really fair though, or is it so overshadowed by the Mondeo comparisons that it deserves a second chance?

Just a Mondeo pretending to be a Jag, or something more?
(Image: Amazon.com)

Put it in H!

One of my all-time favourite scenes in The Simpsons occurs in the 1992 episode Mr. Plow, when Homer looks for a new car at the 'Place of Automobiles' run by an eastern European chap called Crazy Vaclav. The latter tries to sell him a strange little three-wheeler lettered in Cyrillic and made in a country that no longer exists, telling him in a stereotypical Slavic accent it will do 300 hectares on a single tank of kerosene.

What exactly is this machine supposed to be though? Many of the cars in the series are based to some degree on real vehicles, and having become very well acquainted with the AC or Invacar Model 70 invalid carriage it occurred to me just how much Crazy Vaclav's 'put it in H' car looks like a Model 70. This uniquely British model is a very off-the-wall choice for an American show, but the likeness is too great to be a coincidence so here's my take on its backstory.

A strange little car from a country that no longer exists

Happy birthday R8

2019 has been a good year for milestones in the British Leyland enthusiast community. Most famously of course the Mini is celebrating 60 years, I've already paid tribute to 50 years of the Maxi, and the Land Rover Discovery appeared 30 years ago. Also celebrating its 30th birthday is a lesser-appreciated but very significant car in the company's history, the R8 Rover 200-series, which made its debut on 11th October 1989. It became one of the UK's best-selling cars of the 1990s and even won a Car of the Year award, thus proving once and for all that the Rover Group was indeed capable of building good cars. For that, its coming of age as a classic is well-deserved.

30 years young, five of the oldest survivors gathered

Motoring Misfits: Cheetah Cars

Listing the world's worst cars has always been a fun and often controversial topic, but I'm growing tired of the same old subjects being repeated ad infinitum and instead I nominate some of my own choices that are so bad their very existence is almost unknown. I'm not going to fall into the usual clichés like the Edsel, Austin Allegro and Alfa Romeo Arna that appear on everyone else's lists, as those cars all had some merit and can be defended by enthusiastic supporters.

To find something truly awful, one has to look beyond the mass-producers to the weird and wonderful world of cottage industry kit car manufacturers. Many of these are extremely obscure, but thanks to a book I have recently purchased, the fascinating Filby Files Vol. 2 - Classic Kit Cars by Chris Rees and Peter Filby, a whole new world of bizarre and rubbish contraptions has been revealed to me and some of them make the Allegro look like a model of perfection.

The G van solution

Yesterday I was disappointed to find out that Oxford Diecast's supposedly OO scale Citroen H van was in fact HO and far too small to fit in my collection, and suggested OO modellers should avoid buying this model. I'm pleased to now report that I've found a potential solution for those who have already bought one and may be regretting it that possibly allows its use on an OO layout after all, as long as you're not hung up on historical accuracy.

H for HO

What scale is Oxford Diecast's Citroen H van supposed to be?

Here's a brief word of warning to my model-making friends - don't always believe the scale a model is claimed to be! You're probably all familiar with Oxford Diecast's large and ever-growing range of mostly excellent 1/76 OO scale models, but I've discovered to my cost that one recent addition is not actually anywhere near this scale at all...

Invacar involvement part 2: the return of TP

It's now been over a year since I had the privilege of driving TWC, the famous HubNut Invacar. You might think that would have been my last encounter with such a rare car but you'd be wrong and I'm proud to have been involved in an awful lot that has happened on the Invacar front in the last 12 months. When I first wrote about them way back in 2015 and expressed a vague hope that one day I might happen to see one, I never would have believed how things would turn out: I have seen no fewer than three other Invacars at close quarters over the last couple of months and spent so much time around them that they're almost becoming unremarkable. Here's the story behind the first of them...

No, it's not TWC but another Model 70!

An Unexceptional weekend

It's already been a month since the unique spectacle of Hagerty's Festival of the Unexceptional so it's about time I did a proper report on the event to supplement my top ten choices from the concours and classic parking. After three years at Whittlebury and two at Stowe, the FOTU moved to another nearby National Trust property this time: Claydon House, between Buckingham and Winslow. Tickets for the classic parking area quickly sold out and a high-quality selection of cars were entered for consideration in the Concours de l'Ordinaire, so once again it promised to be an amazing event and certainly delivered on that promise. Without further ado, here's my round up of the weekend's activities...

What other show would give prizes to cars like these?