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offbeat news
news
Remploy Bosses Rewarded With Mercedes For Firing Disabled Workers
Okay, that's an admittedly sensationalist headline, but completely true even without context. Remploy is a British company in the business of hiring out disabled workers to jobs where they can be effective. It was incorporated after the WW2 to manage all the disabled workers now within Her Majesties court. Until recently things had been going along dandy with 5,000 people in their employ across many plants in Britain. That is until a couple of weeks ago, when the company laid off half of the total workforce. More »
news
Clampers Trapped As Furious Brits Demand Full Release
Residents of an exclusive new apartment complex in Sussex awoke Monday to find a couple of burly guys slapping wheel clamps on their cars. Did they let things slide? Hell no they didn't. The complex had apparently done the worst job ever at getting its residents their parking passes and the fellows were there to put on the boot for those without tags - including the permitless tenants. The residents called friends and family who blocked the exit to the lot and a 5 hour standoff ensued. More »
classic ad watch
It's Built By Ford And It Goes Like (KABOOM)!
In 1981, the year of this ad, the car sold as the "Capri" in the States was a Mercury Fox Mustang clone. Back in the UK, however, the venerable Ford Capri was still available, and it came with a 2.8-liter V6 that gave it a not-too-bad-for-1981 0-60 time of 7.8 seconds. Check out those painfully-80s graphics! More »
retro
Sunbeam Rapier Fastback: Not Barracuda-Inspired, Really!
The Sunbeam Rapier Fastback's designer claimed he wasn't ripping off the look of the early Plymouth Barracuda (and maybe he's telling the truth) but so what if he was? How can you not love a British Barracuda? Too bad Rootes couldn't talk corporate overlord Chrysler out of some Slant Sixes while they were at it, since the Rapier's 1725cc mill didn't really measure up in the grunt or reliability departments. Made from 1967 through 1976 (and marketed in the States as the Alpine GT) the little Rapiercuda had style- and oil- to burn, and their present-day owner's club has one of the slickest car-club websites I've ever seen. More »
hillman
Surf's Up! The Hillman Imp Californian
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. More »
engine swap
British V8 Swaps: We Mean It, Man!
Little British sports cars are kinda lovable, in the same way that a friendly dog who gets sick all the time with random unexplainable symptoms is lovable, but for the most part they sputtered off the assembly line- and past the jeering picket line of striking British Leyland employees- with about 1/3 the horsepower they deserved. But drop a V8 into one- say, a Ford 260 into a '62 AC Ace- and everything changes. The folks at BritishV8.org have compiled dozens of examples of such madness on their site (and not just V8s; you can see Mazda rotary Spitfires, Chevy V6 Midgets, and so on). Some super-sanitary factory-looking jobs with small-blocks and 6-speeds, some howl-at-moon tubbed big-blockers, and plenty in between. More »
toys
Reliant Robin Supervans For 8.99
Yeah, yeah, they're 1/43 scale. But damn, it's a genuine 3-Wheelers.com limited-edition diecast Reliant Robin Supervan! I own only one 1/43 scale toy car at this point (a '75 Pacer X) but I think it may soon have a companion. More »
news
Batmobile #6 Sells For 119K
The sixth of an "unspecified number" of Batmobiles built for the original TV show just went for the equivalent of $233,000 at an auction in London today. The winning bid came from a private museum in that no-questions-asked tax haven, the Cayman Islands. What's interesting about Batmobile #6 is that it's a steel-bodied car, unlike the fiberglass copies of Barris' original commissioned by the show's producers. Doesn't seem like such a bad deal, compared to the price tag of the Pope's ex-Golf. More »
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