Here's another one for the list https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsKJMn0Mi6E&t=73s

I had a 1953 500C in around 1968. SXL93 was LHD and painted mid green and the paint surface used to go chalky over time. You could polish it up so it went glossy and several shades darker. One of the ugliest cars ever built but engagingly cute. You can see echoes of parts of it in the modern 500C.

If you look at the engine compartment on the video you will see a rather unique arrangement. It's a water cooled OHV engine, not air cooled like the later rear engined 500D. There is a belt at the front from the crankshaft that turns a shaft that runs fore and aft through the rocker box and drives a fan at the rear of the engine. Behind the fan is the radiator and behind that is the fuel tank, so you had to open the bonnet to fill up. If you looked inside the car, under the dash, you could see half the fuel tank, Now just imagine a frontal accident, the engine pushed back into the radiator and then back into the fuel tank. Kerboom! Funnily enough the risk never occurred to me whilst I owned it.Obviously a serious lack of imagination.

Another odd thing was that the universal joint on the prop shaft was a thick compressed disc of cotton wadding pad impregnated with some sort of early plastic/mastic. The spiders on the prop and gearbox shafts bolted through the disc alternately from opposite sides and relied on the flexing of the cotton to absorb the rear axle movement. I know all this because mine ripped apart whilst on a Sunday drive in the Chilterns, stranding us in the middle of nowhere with no power to the back wheels.

Don't think it was a lack of imagination Andy. When we were younger we never worried about anything (well I didn't). Nowadays I can see the down side of most things and worry accordingly.They say "with age comes wisdom", I think I prefer "ignorance is bliss".

The Topolino was great, a previous owner had been unable to source an exhaust for it so they'd fitted a bit of bendy exhaust halfway back and bent it to the offside with a gash silencer under the passenger seat, poking out under the offside door. It sounded like racing Ford GT40 but could only manage a top speed of about 60mph. The opening canvas roof was great as the doorframes remained in situ to stop buffeting from the wind. It had a hand throttle on the dash, a sort of early cruise control, and the heater was a flap on the top of the back of the rad, which when opened let warm air down ducts into the car. Of course if the engine leaked any oil it was thrown onto the radiator and then the hot oil fumes came drifting into the cabin. Good old days.

Quote: steamdrivenandy wrote in post #95

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Here's another one for the list https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsKJMn0Mi6E&t=73s

I had a 1953 500C in around 1968. SXL93 was LHD and painted mid green and the paint surface used to go chalky over time. You could polish it up so it went glossy and several shades darker. One of the ugliest cars ever built but engagingly cute. You can see echoes of parts of it in the modern 500C.

If you look at the engine compartment on the video you will see a rather unique arrangement. It's a water cooled OHV engine, not air cooled like the later rear engined 500D. There is a belt at the front from the crankshaft that turns a shaft that runs fore and aft through the rocker box and drives a fan at the rear of the engine. Behind the fan is the radiator and behind that is the fuel tank, so you had to open the bonnet to fill up. If you looked inside the car, under the dash, you could see half the fuel tank, Now just imagine a frontal accident, the engine pushed back into the radiator and then back into the fuel tank. Kerboom! Funnily enough the risk never occurred to me whilst I owned it.Obviously a serious lack of imagination.

Another odd thing was that the universal joint on the prop shaft was a thick compressed disc of cotton wadding pad impregnated with some sort of early plastic/mastic. The spiders on the prop and gearbox shafts bolted through the disc alternately from opposite sides and relied on the flexing of the cotton to absorb the rear axle movement. I know all this because mine ripped apart whilst on a Sunday drive in the Chilterns, stranding us in the middle of nowhere with no power to the back wheels.

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A chocolate 2CV! Joy, could I just nibble a little bit, maybe just a windscreen wiper or door handle? I'm not talking about an entire body panel, please

Maybe Betty's should make a chocolate Jowett Javelin.

https://www.bettys.co.uk/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jowett_Javelin

Citroen have taken a lot of flak by rebranding the DS and almost washing their hands nostalgically of the original DS,never a mention of the original in their initial and latter promos, then the cessation of production of hydropneumatic suspension, which was the reason that most diehards loved the brand. Interesting that what was the most iconic car the DS was not featured in that nostalgic piece, or the SM, my personal favourite. Good to see that they are re embracing their heritage.When they stopped producing their hydropneumatic suspended cars I moved on to Skoda.

I ran a BX as a company car for a couple of years. Loved sitting at the lights and dropping the suspension, then raising it up and watching the faces in the car behind in the mirror.