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www.vintageandclassic.ie this is also listed on our links list
$15,725.00 | USA, NM, Albuquerque
This is a beautiful 1970 Ford Mustang Convertible, white with a black top. This car is all original! The only aftermarket add-ons include Magnum 500 wheels, a new steering wheel, and a flawless…
€1.00 | Ireland, Dublin
Drive away car, Great for the weekend & for the summer. Near perfect very clean for a car over 30 years old. Only a few small spots of rust. Interior very clean. Car is 100% original…
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Come and visit the biggest miniature train system in the world! Situated in the old Storehouse City, the miniature train system became one of the most visited tourist attractions in Germany. More than 4 million visitors already got into this incredible world of dreams and illusion.
The Miniatur Wunderland stretches over a size of 4000 square meters (43,000 square feet) from Scandinavia to the USA, from the coast to the high mountains. And it is still growing! Inside the Wunderland day and night are experienced within a few hours and for the most different kind of regions of our planet.
Gambling in Las Vegas, hiking in the alps or rowing on Norwegian fjords. Everything is possible in the Wunderland. Use your stay in Hamburg and visit the Miniatur Wunderland with its 200.000 mini inhabitants, be astonished by more than 800 trains with their 13.000 waggons running on 12.000 meters of rails, 5500 moving cars and ships, as well as the ocean of lights, created by more than 250.000 individual lights.
Here you will find current information about the Miniatur Wunderland.
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Castledermot Vintage Day 2010 takes place on Sunday, 26th September from 12 noon.
Some of the attractions on the day include:
For the children:
Entrance is only €5 and under 16s go free. All proceeds to charity. Please support.
Contact castledermotvintageclub@gmail.com for more information.
CHOSEN CHARITIES:
Chosen charities to benefit from this year’s Castledermot Vintage Day are:
STALLS:
All stalls must be pre-booked. To book a stall, please email castledermotvintageclub@gmail.com with your details and we will contact you.
FARMERS MARKET: This year, we will have a farmers market and craft area at the Vintage Day. To book your stall, email castledermotvintageclub@gmail.com
VINTAGE EXHIBITORS
All vintage exhibitors are most welcome and do not need to pre-book.
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Two models coming from the same manufacturer have notched up sales of sixty million, just hold it and think about the sheer volume of car’s, Volkswagen’s Beetle and Golf between them have achieved these figures. If one was to add the Passat and Polo how many more vehicles?
Neither the Beetle or the Golf have actually strayed from the original design, of course, they have been continually improved, but stand back and one can see something of the humble beginnings.
The Golf, was not high on my agenda of cars to write about, though in all fairness it should have been, but as usual Casey’s caravan park came into the picture, we were sitting, Eileen and myself enjoying a Sunday morning coffee and reading one of the paper’s, when Eileen said “hey Ted, look at that” pointing down the road, a convertible silver Golf had just pulled up, not any old Golf, but a gleaming classic, I fell out the chair in search of the camera, Eileen handed it to me and I was off to look. Luckily the owner was a well known Tipperary Car repairer so I had no difficulty with pictures, in fact he was very obliging, where would you like the car to get the best picture.
Apart from the fact that convertible versions are considerably dearer this one also had a history, not particularly glamorous but nevertheless it had been owned by the Smurfitts, which is about the nearest you will get to Irish Royalty, in fact Smurfitts had ordered two special identical Golf Convertibles, whilst this one is obviously pampered there is no knowledge of the other one.
The convertible was made between 1980 and 1993, naturally the original was a Mk 1and though a Mk2 Golf saloon appeared Kharman never ever made a Mk2 convertible they carried on making the Mk1, one has to remember that whilst the engine, mechanicals and interior was 100% Volkswagen, Kharman built the car from the stamping to final assembly.
History wise the man behind the Golf was Kurt Lotz he masterminded the need for a replacement to the by now ailing Beetle, it was imperative VW found something that appealed to the public not having had a great deal of success with the 411 and finances were suffering.
The prototype was produced in 1969 code name EA276, design was by our old friends at Ital design studio’s in particular Mr Guigiaro who is well known for designing some well known British cars.
The name was selected to represent wind “The Gulf Stream” hence Golf also a sport, the design was quite simple, a hatchback, which had to be
firmly sprung and damped, using Macpherson strut front suspension which seemed to be all the vogue at that time, give it independent twist beam rear suspension, meant that the car would have a reasonably firm ride, the engine was transverse and coupled to front wheel drive,
I can only find one complaint about the mechanical side, it seems braking in the Right Hand Drive model is not as good as the LHD due to the master cylinder sitting on the wrong side.
So here we have a 3 or 5 door hatchback with a multitude of engines starting at 1.1 litre and going bigger and bigger, on a small car 1.6 was destined to make the Golf a hot hatch, some say it was the first but Renault had beaten VW to that title, though it is of little consequence, 1.5 and 1.6 diesels appeared, making it extremely frugal, you also got a 4 or 5 speed gearbox or 3 speed auto.
Some of the original colours were Atlas White, Ceylon Beige, Black, Diamond or Marino Yellow, Phoenix or Senegal Red, Miami Blue and Cliff or Lofoten Green
The Golf was produced at Wolfsburg in April 1974, with either a 1093cc engine or a 1471cc unit, a 4 or 5 speed gearbox was available.
October of that year a 3 speed auto could be had.
September 75 a Gti of 1588cc was shown at the Frankfurt show, the Golf hot hatch was born.
March 76, the 500,000 Golf came off the assembly line
September 76 Diesel engines could be had
October 76 the one millionth rolled out of wolfs burg
June 78 and VW had produced two million Golfs
Only once has the Golf won the coveted European Car of the year, every year it came in as the runner up.
According to those who know Volkswagen have deleted, most of the Mk1 parts, badges, body panels, interior parts from their catalogue, which means if you need anything for your Mk1 you have got to punt around, having said that there is a problem the number of Mk1’s surviving is minimal, naturally rust is the main protagonist, untreated seams, lack of
under sealing, and sparingly applied paint have not helped the Golf, though I suspect any exported or made in the US and found their way to California may well have withstood the ravages of time.
However there is a very active Mk1 owner’s club who are willing to help
locate obscure and obsolete parts, there is also a firm called Crazy Quiffs who are located at Unit 7 North, Ayres Yard, Station road, Wallingford Oxfordshire, phone number 0044 1491 202054 or Email crazyquiff@golfmk1.co.uk.
Wallingford is frequently on the TV in Midsummer Murders, typical Oxfordshire market town, the river Thames runs through it, making it very picturesque, if you had part s to pick up, it would be an ideal holiday trip, by ignoring the somewhat boring M4, take the A40 from Carmarthen up through Brecon, a real must see place, with the Beacons as a backdrop.
Then to Crickhowell and abergavenny, places you will want to come back to, then on to Ross on Wye, more picture postcard stuff, you pass other tourist places like Bourton on the Water and Broadway and then the City of spires Oxford, then down to Wallingford, makes me want a Mk1 Golf just thinking about it.
Well price wise, be careful a cheap car will be indicative of a problem car, some of the rust spots are difficult to repair, even a moderately priced one could be courting disaster, spend time looking and finally choosing time well spent.
Happy motoring regards Ted tedlay@gmail.com
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Garden of Ireland Vintage Car Club are proud to present the 2nd annual Garden of Ireland Run.
Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th September.
Beginning at the Powerscourt Arms Country House in the picturesque village of Enniskerry the route will take in county Wicklow’s spectacular scenery to include overnight & dinner dance at Ireland’s oldest hotel, the Woodenbridge Hotel in Avoca. Sunday will see a shorter route finishing at the Glenview Hotel, Glen of the Downs, Delgany.
Please pre-register to be included in our booklet. Dinner Dance is optional.
So why not dust off your vintage car and come join us for an enjoyable vintage weekend.
registration fee applies D Connolly 086 1650353
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Emerald Classic Motorcycles is based on the Hebron Industrial Estate in Kilkenny, with ample room for parking, this allows plenty of time for the customer to browse through our selection of motorcycles.
At Emerald Classic’s they buy and sell Classic and Vintage motorcycles with the sole aim of keeping them available to the enthuasist and on the road.
At Emerald Classic Motorcycles they want their clients to feel comfortable either choosing a motorcycle or enquiring about our service or transport facilities.
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Brian Lacey
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Open a bottle of good Italian wine and you can guarantee the contents, it could be a lucky dip or a disaster.
We of course recognise the great Italian manufacturers Fiat, which incorporates Alfa and Lancia and controls Ferrari and Maserati, at one time these great marques did not have a master, however unlike the British they didn’t end up with three or four marques that were virtually identical, I guess who is left wins.
Now, on our way to Clonea we passed this bungalow which had a red convertible Lancia Beta parked outside, I thought I must take a picture of that as one doesn’t see many, if any around Kilkenny and Clonmel the weeks went past and either we were in a hurry or no camera, the other week knowing we would soon be packing up the caravan for the winter I made a determined effort, a supreme effort, more so as there was a couple cutting hedges in the garden.
With my usual manner I politely asked if I could take a picture of the Lancia, with one eye on the quickest means of escape, luckily the natives of Ballinroad were friendly, I quickly learnt the car belonged to the son who lived down the road and that he would accept 3000 euro, which sort of said probably a lot less, inspection could well reduce this even more.
Again the choice of car looked totally uncomplicated, albeit this was the first model eminating from Lancia since being taken over by Fiat, Lancia had been really in the doldrums for a couple of years as their chief designer had passed on.
Before we go on many of us have not known the beauty of Italian engineering, cars made for driving, for sheer pleasure, cars that lust for speed, unfortunately in the early seventies, yes you know what is coming, the dreaded rust, but it was not just Italian cars, it was virtually all cars, of
course there were exceptions, there always are, nobody bothered to work out exactly why this happened, theories like too much salt on the roads during winter, lack of under sealing and so it went on, one factor completely ignored was the exploitation of the situation by the British motoring press to increase the sale of the homemade cars, horror stories abounded, one typically gruesome and completely untrue situation was that the front of the car departed from the passenger department.
The situation was bad enough that Lancia actually started re-purchasing
some of the cars, and also gave extended warranties on other’s, at least there was an element of caring, again why is not known but Italian Lancia’s had yet another trick, not dodgy but perhaps quirky might describe some of the electrics, trying to sort them out took time however invariably the problem eminated from earthing.
Before we progress if you fancy an early Lancia or any other car take a magnet with you, I’ll explain, it is easy to bodge bodywork with fillers, however filler as far as I am aware contains no metal therefore your magnet will not stick to it, and if the magnet won’t stick, walk away.
It sounds very much like doom and gloom, though the car is a brilliant concept it could also cost a lot more than the asking price, get a good one, cherish it as without doubt it is going to be a true classic because of it’s parentage and scarcity
Again, the Italians didn’t do things in halves, with the Beta what you got depended whether it was left hand drive or right hand to make it more interesting not all the same models received the same equipment.
The dashboard has been described as a calamity, not that it is missing any essential gauges but more of where Lancia decided to put them, on reflection one wonder’s what the driver’s manual might show.
One article stated categorically that there were three versions all with Fiat 124 engines, and these were fitted transversely in the Lancia, needless to say it was subject to further development, in fact all the first series cars could do the magic “Ton” , and 0-60 in about 10 seconds.
There is comment regarding the low geared steering, and some wonder why the Beta was not made as a five door hatchback, after the saloon there came coupes, followed by the Spyder which had a removeable
Targa top and folding rear end, there also appeared an HPE version 2000cc with more equipment, so now we hade five different body styles and three or four engines.
Yet another body style emerged called the Trevi, which was a Beta with a boot and one of Lancia’s futuristic dashboards, I guess calling a car prone to rust after a fountain in Rome was not the wisest of choices, however
our Beta was still alive and kicking a supercharged version was introduced, this was a 125 mph job, and before the demise of the Beta Lancia had great rally success with the car.
It is not often we find a car that really isn’t meant for the ordinary classic owner, from what I have gathered you most certainly need to be an accomplished mechanic, in other words it is not for the faint hearted it could break your heart or your bank.
We will do it as good as possible, corrosion check points underbody structures ahead of the rear wheels, steelwork around suspension top mounts, front cross member structures within the boot and all the other usual places such as jacking points rear body panel, windscreen, bonnet, bootlid and door bottoms.
Driveshaft gaiters dodgy, changing spark plugs challenging, even with minimal mileage you must change the element every 12 months, cam belts don’t wait three years or 30,000 miles do it yearly and if you must have one join the Lancia owner’s club, or try Corgi or Dinky models for safety.
If you have one of these I would be delighted to know how it is.
Ted Lay tedlay@gmail.com
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THIS WEEKEND AT THE ROSDILLIG VINTAGE RALLY NEAR BORRIS CO. CARLOW , THERE IS A SPECIAL DISPLAY OF CARS MANUFACTURED BY THE ROOTES GROUP,
Rootes was best known for manufacturing solid, dependable, well engineered middle-market vehicles. Famous Rootes models include the Hillman Minx, Hillman Hunter, Humber Super Snipe and the Sunbeam Alpine.
William Rootes built the Rootes Group using specific brands for each market niche.
SO IF YOU HAVE ONE AND YOU CAN ATTEND PLEASE DO SO . FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS DISPLAY PLEASE CONTACT PADDY FARRELL ON 087 256253
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