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Coming up to retire so have some folding money extra for a treat. Looking for something for fun motoring, speed not important. Would love an Austin Champ but prices now crazy. Looking for recommendations, friend picked up a cheap Merc SL with 5 Litre engine. Hoot. MPG not important, easy spares, and easy spanner work are. MK1 VW Golf? Old Merc SEL? Rover 800? even some nice Volvo 9 series factory stretch Limos out there for not a lot. Am I crazy? Looking for interesting ideas, which are fun and practicable. (old MX5mmmmm)
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Don't know your budget, but Elise?
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Something older and simpler ?
Pre or just post war family car....Hillman, Morris, Austin, Ford.
Picnic basket, wine , a couple of travel rugs and a big umbrella. The Classic Car shows will welcome you....and what better way to spend a sunny Sunday ?
That's what we do with the Jowett.
Budget and preference will get you what you fancy.
Good luck.
Ted
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Well there's plenty of cheap spares, and they are fairly easy to work on which is just as well;-)
Defender 90...cheap insurance too...go anywhere and lots of fun in the mud.
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www.douglasvalley.co.uk/ have an original austin champ 1954 with the original roll royce engine for sale,needs a full restoration but might be your bag?
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In the same general theme as the Austin Champ - A Land Rover would be a simpler and easier option. A Defender or maybe an older leaf-sprung type.
I believe ths Champ has a welded steel chassiless condtruction, unlike Land Rovers, with their steel chassis and bulkhead and the rest of the body in aluminium.
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The Champ also had a strange 4 wheel drive set-up. The drive from the gearbox was to the rear diff, with a long shaft leading froward from there to the front diff. The reverse gear was installed in the rear diff, which meant that you had 5 reverse gears!
Also gleaned from the net......Although Champs had engines of the Rolls-Royce B40 design, most of those engines were actually built by Austin under licence.
A few Series 1 Land Rovers were also fitted with Rolls-Royce B40 engines for the army, as a trial.
Edited by Sofa Spud on 20/11/2009 at 00:07
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For me it had to be a convertible. Last year I nearly went for an MX-5 but ended up with a BMW Z3, Y-registration and immaculate for £8,000. Handling not as immediate as an MX-5 but the noise made by the straight-six more than makes up for it.
I'll flog it next summer to pay for younger daughter's wedding.
But I can also see the point of the sort of fun that Ted gets from his Javelin. A bit of me hankers after an Austin A50 which was my first ever car (14 years old, never let me down and zero depreciation - bought and sold for £65). Driving that, with its flying-A mascot, made you feel good to be British.
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I think a full restoration of a Champ would be quite an undertaking. They are very complicated having four wheel independent suspension, with wishbones I shouldn't wonder.
I drove a Champ once, briefly, but on a very very rough Welsh farm road. The serene ride was absolutely astonishing after cart-sprung Jeeps and Land Rovers. A Champ in as-new condition would be the ideal off-roader actually. Of course you might have to build in some limited slip in the differentials, but then again you might not.
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This site, oldcolonelcars.co.uk/ specialises in old BMW's in good condition. They just took a deposit on a 840CI with only 56,000 on the clock
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