Passed Rude Mercs dealership in Hackney yesterday on way into town. My eye was attracted to the front of a Riley Elf on the forecourt up for over £3k. Well, I thought it was a Riley Elf!
It had the classic chrome Elf radiator and the chrome horizontal slatted "moustache" bits either side of the rad' which I assume are some sort of vent. However, the body of the vehicle was a modern one and I could not identify it for the life of me (I was driving past at 30mph and it was behind locked gates)
It was a hatchback, auto, jet black and there was a word on the right rear of the boot, a short word.
At a guess, I would say it was a Japanese car....but no idea really if I am right.
Any ideas?
|
Ive seen one of these on the web. Think it was here:www.austin-rover.co.uk/index.htm?fakingitf.htm
What you saw was probably a Mitsuoka Ray. There are some other abominations on the site too - great fun!
|
|
Well in these days of "minimotos" is only a matter of time,till someone re invents the riley elf,or was it the wolseley hornet! simple cars..great fun,minis with a coat on..lol
|
I may have mentioned this before, but in addition to the C5 I also have a 1967 Riley Elf sitting in the corner of my garage - colour black - wth red leather upholstery and walnut dash. It may turn out to be a retirement project - provided the mice don't finish it off by that time!
Interesting little beastie though - it's a 'wet' mini (hydrolastic suspension) and I fitted a new rear subframe and suspension pipes to it about 20 years ago. Boy was that fun!
It belonged to my sister, who once pretty much wrote it off on icy roads and it was towed to a scrap yard in Galashiels. She phoned me completely distraught and I drove a couple of hundred miles to Galashiels with a carload of tools to help her out.
We persuaded a friendly local garage to give us a bit of workshop space and set about rebuilding the front end. This involved sourcing another scrap Elf, hauling out the front subframe and fitting it to our car. The garage helped us straighten the bodyshell and eventually we got it back together and running.
So as you'll understand we're kind of attached to the old thing!
Graeme
|
|
|
Well in these days of "minimotos" is only a matter of time,till someone re invents the riley elf,or was it the wolseley hornet! simple cars..great fun,minis with a coat on..lol
>>
I hope so, they were both lovely little cars ........
|
|
|
|
Well....the depth of knowledge displayed by BR's never ceases to amaze. Having looked at the link, you are dead right, it was a Mitsuoka Ray and extra clever you are in light of my mistake in describing it as a Riley Elf look-a-like when I should have said Wolseley 1000!
10 out of 10!
|
Hate to mention this, but don't you think the Copel Antiguo on that page looks very like a current Jag X-Type Estate?
"A startlingly faithful series 1 XJ6-style front end grafted onto the bodywork of the humble mid-1990s Toyota Corolla estate"
Hum . . .
Davros
|
|
To be honest, having looked at the web site, I think that a lot of Japanese car designers have mad dogs running around inside their head......barking and howling!
|
I think the Mitsuoka Ryoga looks better than the modern Jaguar S-type!
I'll be off now then...
|
|
|
|
|
