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This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition, where we check out interesting street-parked cars located in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot. Digging into my vast backlog of DOTSBE cars for more interesting Brits. Howzabout a Minx? More »
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While the Beetle, Ambassador, Mini, and 2CV each enjoyed more than four decades of production in pretty much their original form, we mustn't overlook the other long-term survivors of the automotive world. More »
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Not long ago, one of the 24 Hours Of LeMons perpetrators gave me a big box of Autocar magazines from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Talk about your great British print car ads! More »
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Some of you observant types might notice that British Leyland and the Rootes Group were totally separate corporations, but we like to fill up tables think their ads go together quite well! More »
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What do you call a collection of rusty Singers, Hillmans, Simcas, and Sunbeams, assembled as part of an "outdoor museum" in Waukesha, and all for sale cheap? Wisconsin Death Trip? More »
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Fine, go ahead and break out the Lucas Electrics jokes. But there's no denying that a factory-racer '69 Ford Escort looks amazing on a race track, and Vintage Racer has some great shots for us.
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Ever heard of the Commer Cob? British truck builder Commer based it on the Hillman Husky, and this solid example is still alive in Chile. Punta Arenas-based Pulloa got some shots for our enjoyment.
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77% of readers thought the low-mileage Chryslerati falls on the Crack Pipe side of the NPOCP Scale. That might be a bit harsh, but the K Car underpinnings of the Chrysler TC By Maserati may have seemed too common. That's why today's car is something that we're pretty sure nobody has ever seen driving in the street in North America: a genuine Paykan. Yes, this fine customized Iranian-built Hillman Hunter- equipped with genuine "Boog Benzy"- will be shipped right to your door! Don't worry about any customs or registration hassles with this Axis Of Evil machine, because the seller assures us "I can have this vehicle registered for road use in all 50 states (don't worry about DMV or DOT). I will explain to you the process in detail." So, what do you think of this deal? Thanks to HotRodElectric for the tip! [eBay Motors] More »
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We talked about the Hillman Hunter-based Iran Khodro Paykan recently, and a couple of you mentioned the pickup version of the Paykan. Well, Franzouse has done some digging, and it turns out that Iran Khodro still sells the Paykanamino, though they prefer to call it the Bardo. Before heading over to the IKI site, check out this page for some Paykan/Bardo history. [Iran Khodro Industries] More »
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Just as the Hidustan Motors Ambassador kept the design of the '56 Morris Oxford alive for decades, the Iran Khodro Paykan enabled the design of another fine British car, the '67 Hillman Hunter, to remain in production until 2005 (though the Hillman engines were replaced with Peugeot units starting in the mid-80s). Here's a little Paykan history lesson, courtesy of one of the car's many Iranian aficionados. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=379283&view=rss&microfeed=true After seeing the showroom-condition MGC-GT a couple weeks back, we were inspired to dig up this Pathe newsreel of the 1967 London Motor Show. The theme of this show appeared to be drunk driving, judging from the narrator's jokes on the subject. Lots of great vehicles here, with the real standout being the Lamborghini Marzal, the car that became the Espada. More »
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Friday's Choose Your Eternity poll was won by the '71 Datsun 510 wagon, which beat the Gremlin (though not by an ass-whooping margin). Today we're going to go seriously low-buck, with a pair of projects available for a mere five Benjamins... or maybe even less, depending on the ruthlessness of your dealmaking chops... More »
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Well, now we're all curious about The Forgotten Mopar, the Plymouth Cricket (aka Hillman Avenger), so we're digging a little deeper into its story. Turns out it's a long and complicated one, with plenty of weird twists and turns. For example, how about an Avenger with VW emblems slapped on and sold in Brazil as the Volkswagen Dodge 1500? We heart the Cricket now! [Rootes-Chrysler.co.uk] More »
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After watching the '71 Plymouth Cricket ad yesterday, we got to wondering: how was it that the Cricket (which was a rebadged Hillman Avenger built by the Chrysler-owned Rootes Group) disappeared from America's roads without a trace? Has anyone here ever seen one? After all, Chrysler did sell a fair number of them here before the captive-import Colt took over their subcompact duties. Was the car that bad? Take a look at Allpar's Cricket page for their version of the story: [Allpar.com] More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=282873&view=rss&microfeed=true Chrysler did pretty well selling rebadged Mitsubishi cars in the 70s. However, their effort to sell another captive import, the Plymouth Cricket, was another story altogether. Two words will suffice to explain its failure: Hillman Avenger. Still, this ad is lots of fun, as we get to see the Hillman drive inside a circle made from every single car Chrysler offered in 1971, including some great Sub Lime and Plum Crazy machines. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=282123&view=rss&microfeed=true As the narrator of this Pathe newsreel tells it, the 1967 models were to be The Big Drive for the British auto manufacturing industry, because "exports must increase if the country is to pay its way." We see such hot-selling British success stories as the Singer Chamois Sport and the Hillman Hunter (which features booth babes dressed in fox-hunting gear), plus a nice assortment of non-British stuff. How about a '67 Ferrari 365P, with that bizarre 3-seater setup? Or a Saab Sonnet? Too bad about the country not paying its way, of course, but some nice cars nonetheless. – Murilee Martin More »
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Perhaps inspired by Ford's sales of a few thousand California Special Mustangs here in the US of A, Hillman decided that slapping the name of Richard Nixon's home state on a fastback '67 Imp would somehow convince legions of British car buyers to part with 650 for the thing. Sadly, the Imp Californian lacked the hotter Sport engine used in the Super Imp, and sales were disappointing. I'm still trying to find more details on the '71 Manson Family Edition Imp. – Murilee Martin More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=244876&view=rss&microfeed=true Back in 1962, when it seemed the sun would never set on the British auto industry, the new '63 models were proudly displayed at the Earl's Court London Motor Show. All the usual suspects are here in this newsreel, from the Hillman Super Minx to the Lotus Elan, with plenty of science-fair-style cutaway vehicles showing their innards and car-show babes galore. – Murilee Martin More »
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The history of the Hillman Avenger is long, sordid and involves Chrysler, Peugeot and Volkswagen. And while some of the rally/saloon variants were pretty rad, the Avenger variant that simply cannot be fronted upon is the Uruguay-built Dodge 1500 pickup. Sadly, not much thought was given to the structural integrity of this South American truckcar and the vehicles apparently had a propensity toward chassis failure. Still, unlike its American cousin, the Rampage, the 1500 was at least driven by the correct wheels. We'd like to find one, beef it up, and add Plymouth Cricket bodywork and a 4G63 turbo, thus making it a Phantom Scamp GT. Would there be a more playatastic way to roll through Montevideo? We highly doubt it. – Davey G. Johnson More »
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While Bumbeck's feverishly searching for sub-$1000 post-apocalyptic project cars on Craigslist LA, I do the same on the San Francisco CL listings. This listing has been around for a while; I suspect the slightly-steep prices are subject to negotiation by now. So far I haven't called the guy, in spite of the fact that the cars are located within thrown-rod distance of me, because I keep telling myself — with decreasing conviction — that I can't take on some impossible-to-find-parts-for car project. But, in the name of all we hold holy, imagine having a '56 Ford Mainline with a 460 plucked out of a junked Continental! You could knock the ladies dead by saying "Wait here, dollface, I'll pick you up in my Mainline." Or a '47 DeSoto with suicide doors? Or, also in the name of all we hold holy, a '54 Hillman Minx? – Murilee Martin More »
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Yes, people, we have here the car whose development shuffled Rootes into the arms of Chrysler, and eventually off to Peugeot to die. It's the Hillman Imp, a rear-engined British-designed, Scottish-built rear-engined econobox that never displaced more than a rear-mounted liter, had a reputation for fragility and having the engine in the rear, but found some success on the saloon-car racing circuit. We want one. Anyone got a spare Hayabusa mill laying about? We'll install it in the rear. More »
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