This week features a great ad highlighting the Hydropneumatic suspension of the Citroen DS. This car has its ups and downs. Moody? No. French, and logical. When road conditions change, you can change the height of a Citroen car to suit the road. Citroen can do it, and only a Citroen. Deeply rutted road, heavy snowdrift? Uo you go, and pull away with plenty...
This weeks ad features a double page ad featuring the 280SE Cabriolet W111 to the pre war 540K. The choice of the desert scene is rather odd for these type of cars, and the picture feature the American model with the strange front running lights. If you were a prince in the 1930’s, you might have owned a Mercedes-Benz 540K. Today, you can...
This weeks ad tries to link the mainstream 60s models from Mercedes Benz to the racing programmes of the 50s. It is actually not that far fetched as the overhead cam motor in the W108 250SE pictured did have fuel injection and there would have been lessons learned from the racing programme. The ad would have been referring to engineers like Rudolf Uhlenhaut. Ulenhaut...
After my unfortunate DS crash I was able to locate a new old stock bonnet for my DS. The bonnet for the DS is aluminium which makes repairing the current bonnet rather difficult. I have heard that at least in 1955, this was the largest single aluminium panel on a car, but I don’t know if this true or not. I can...
I had ordered a few parts for the 250SE a few months ago but had not yet had a chance to fit them. The first was the winder knob for the front quarterlight on the drivers side. I had found a reproduction one of these on ebay and mine was slightly warped, so the inner disc that hides the screw kept falling out....
This weeks ad focuses on the 1963 mid size Dodge models with the 426 RB motor (note this is not the fearsome 426 hemi engine). As was the focus of the time, the emphasis is on drag strip times. This ad is on the back of another Michelin ad I purchased so it was a bit of free bonus. Once I...
This weeks ad focuses on how innovative a car company Citroen was before it was merged with Peugeot. The two cars shown are very similar to my two Citroens – the Traction on the top and the DS21 below it. They are not quite the same as this is a French made Traction and the DS21 is a Pallas model unlike mine. ...
Today I went to the Citroen Car Club meeting to get the historic rego signed for my Traction Avant. I am not often able to attend these meetings so it was good to catch up with the members. The club had a raffle at the meeting and I even won a prize! I took the DS and it was running really nicely on...
This year the NSW Mercedes-Benz Club concours and the German car show were combined into a single event. Overall this seemed to work reasonably well as they opened up additional paddocks and it meant one of the best turnouts of Benz’s for some years. For some reason the turnout for the other German makes was rather poor, and perhaps they were assuming...
This weeks ad has a great photo of the W111 Coupe. While this car is a 220SE, it looks very similar to the 250SE that I used to have – this car has a red interior and mine had a red wine coloured one, but they look similar. It also wears the zoll plate for European delivery programme. This Mercedes-Benz Invites You...
The 280CE came back for a visit this week complaining of groaning power steering. Turned out that the belt was slipping once the wheel got toward full lock. On further inspection, the belt had become too loose – not because it was stretched, but because the bolt that allows the belt adjustment had lost its threads in the critical area and it...
This weeks ad is a well known Jaguar ad focusing on both the engineering and design elements. Most specifically it addresses the Jaguar IRS, which was very advanced for it’s time. Jaguar used it up until the 90s! It is an early ad because it shows the outside bonnet latches and a different position than normal for the reversing light. The picture...
This weeks ad a great summary summary of all the safety features of the DS and a nice cutaway. These days they try and sell cars with lifestyle shots, but this ad delves deep into some of the technical features. The Citroen… a safe car you should look into. Safety “No Spoke” steering wheel. Rugged hemi head engine, built to maintain high cruising...
The Jaguar Compact Saloons were a highly successful range of cars that lasted from the mid 50s right through to the end of the 60s. They gave Jaguar the production volume to stay relevant and with their world beating sports cars of the same era are still somewhat responsible for the reputation Jaguar has today. Despite these being the cheapest cars in Jaguar’s range,...
This is a great ad for the 300SL roadster. It would probably be seen as Sexist today but it tries to cover the softer personality of the 300SL in roadster form but still the maintenance of the Gullwing’s performance. The Velvet Glove or Male Fist caption and some of the wording in the ad invokes powerful imagery. Unlike most of the...
The British car show has such a selection of cars that its hard to pick favorites, but these represent the standout cars for me on the day. Healey Elliott I found this to be a really striking car and not one I had seen before. Apparently it has the 2.5 liter Riley engine and was capable of 100mph, quite a feat at the...
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