Speaking to my colleague who had a Rancho in the eighties and still claims its one of the best vehicles he has owned. Fibreglass upper half apparently and built in the Matra factory in Paris.

But he was astonished when he towed out a delivery vehicle which got stuck even though the Rancho only had two wheel drive.

Matra Bagheera 3 seats in a row and seem to remember the Talbot Rancho was a dressed up Simca 1100 although with a larger engine which was basically what a Chrysler / Talbot Alpine was.

Edited by Lrac on 26/04/2020 at 22:08

There's a white Toyota Tercel 4WD round the corner from me. Was this Toyota's reposte to Subaru?

1981 was the year I turned 17 and passed my driving test in June. First car was an Austin Maxi 1750. It was the first and worst car I have ever owned. I did not buy it it was given to me. It did force me how to fix most things including changing engines and gearboxes. Had no end of issues with it. I became an expert at fixing most things, kept it for about a year until the tin worm ate the bits of the body that I have not previously bodged with epoxy resin. At the time I was a telecom apprentice so had access to limitless supplies of this resin used to seal underground cables. This stuff was really strong, you could hit with a hammer and it stuck well to metal or rust. With a dollop of underseal over it would fool most MoT testers. Not sure of its strength structurally !

The Maxi's redeeming feature was the seats folded down to make a double bed, very useful for a young man if you get my meaning.

Mid 90's and a young IT chap at work wanted a Jeep but could not afford one. As a joke another IT chap suggested he look at the Asia Roksta (think that is how its spelt) and being a sensible chap he bought one. Shortly after this he got a new job which mean't a commute of about 80 miles a day, the Roksta was not an ideal car, no idea if he changed it.

For 25 or more years I had never thought about this until a couple of weeks when I spotted an immaculate example (honestly) about a mile from where we live whilst out on my daily exercise.

How many of these still exist I wonder?

Not ideal for an 80 mile commute with absolutely no aerodynamics to speak of, a very short wheelbase and leaf springs all round. But the Rocsta wasn't without its merits, it used Mazda mechanical bits (including the 1.8 and 2.2 n/a petrol and diesel engines), so very tough and no reliability issues at all. I think they were quite rust prone though, which isn't ideal in the UK climate!.

Nothing showing on Autotrader but there is one on Ebay!,

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Asia-rocsta/164154278903?hash=i...p

Edited by badbusdriver on 28/04/2020 at 15:25

There is a chap in the village who collect vintage motor cars. He has many, the best example is a dark blue E type 4.2 FHC with wire wheels. Quite something. He surprised us one day when came out in a 1962 Vauxhall Cresta. Pale blue, bench seats, column gear change and the speedometer was the red line that went horizontaly across the figure markings. Lovely car and at the time it was a big car, but now it seems quite small. I remember the model well as my first boss boss had one when I was an apprentice. Occasionally he would collect one of us and take us to another site. He always rode around in his car. Happy days.

Cheers Concrete

Just happened upon this short but great video clip. I felt i could justify linking it on this thread, after all, when was the last time you saw an Audi 200 Quattro?! (-;

www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3z10v7rc_k

I've seen a few Ford Escorts (one in my area that some idiot modded - it wasn't even an XR3i or RS Turbo to start with!)

A lot of people in my area just outside London were into modding Escorts to look like XR3i s and RS turbos, some still exist around Orpington, one Mk 5 Cortina still exists with the 2.8 Granada unit in, and does it sound sweet, really well looked after, but not often driven now as fuel price was too high/ Virus lockdown not helped either

still in immaculate condition even though its not garaged, its kept on grass