A white, wood picket fence is an American icon. These fences have been around since the founding of our nation and were originally used as a way to mark property boundaries. Later the picket fence became associated with prosperity and it is still in use across the country. Some people call it a “friendly fence” because it has an open weave and a low enough height to let your neighbor say hello. Dating to pre-Revolutionary days, the first picket fences developed as sturdy, simple, and utilitarian boundaries to keep chickens in or out of gardens. Usually made of local wood, in some areas picket fences were required to mark property borders. The name comes from the individual wood slats, which are called pickets. The typical fence of this type is fairly short and built out of wood that is later whitewashed. The flat pickets have a point at the top and they are evenly spaced along the length of the fence. Nails are used to attach the pickets to rails along the bottom and top. The rails are in turn nailed to vertical posts that are spaced evenly and buried in the ground. If a gate is needed, it is constructed using the same method. A century later, during the Victorian era the style became more decorative to match the architecture. By the late 1800's, mass production techniques made pickets more affordable and people all over the country were able to order them from catalogs. The idea of a house with a picket fence is iconically American. Sturdy, attractive, and ingeniously thrifty with evenly spaced vertical boards that allow daylight to peak through, picket fences originated as an inexpensive way for colonists to mark property boundaries. This kind of fence is believed to be adapted from a type of fencing used in medieval times. Paling, as it was called, featured flat stakes driven into the ground. Over time, Hollywood helped the picket fence become a symbol of peace and security: “In my wildest dreams and juvenile yearnings, I wanted the house with the picket fence from June Allyson movies,” the poet Maya Angelou said. Another reason the style has endured is practicality; the pickets keep animals in and out of yards while creating a sense of open space. Decorative pointed tops also divert rainwater away from the end grain of the wood, extending the fences’ lifespans. There is nothing that symbolizes the American dream better than the single family home with a yard and the iconic white picket fence. Just say the words and they immediately conjure up a cute little house, gingerbread trim and a lovely rose garden out front. Ozzie and Harriet brought the concept to our TV screens back in the day and the tradition is alive and well even to this day. Put a picket fence around your yard and your home is a Norman Rockwell painting come to life. Like baseball and apple pie, it is a part of Americana.

Heading : 18th Century Nizet-Liege Wine glass

Date : c1710-50

Origin : Liege, Belgium

Colour : Clear

Bowl : A round funnel bowl with a band of strawberry moulding above rib moulding

Stem : Plain with shoulder blade knop and small basal knop

Foot : Conical

Pontil : Snapped

Glass Type : Low lead

Size : 13.7cm tall with a 5.7cm bowl and a 5.7cm foot

Condition : Excellent : no chips or cracks, rocks slightly on its foot

Weight : 96 grams

This was one of my ebay 'weak' moments, bought from an antique glass dealer. A rare old glass ( Around 300 years old) with an air tear in the stem which is typical of these glasses, it rocks on it's base hence the relatively low purchase price I paid. These can be rather expensive.

Some time around 1710, Nizet, formerly a wine dealer, established a glasshouse in Liege which rapidly overtook the fine glass business from the Bonhomme glasshouse. His invention was to introduce a thicker (more durable) and more limpid glass than that used by the Bonhommes, who still produced glass in the Façon d'Altare. Nizet was inspired by the English lead glass and his glasses (except those produced when production first began) contain a low level lead oxide.

 

During the second half of the 17th century, the Bonhommes generated most of their revenue from the production of simple, small glasses. The production of luxury Façon de Venise glasses was already on the wane. This may in part be attributed to poor economic conditions due to a series of French invasions of Southern Netherlands, the last wave of which took place in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714). Style and practicality may also have played a role consumers desired practical smaller glasses in which to enjoy their wine and in economical portions. With the coming of Nizet, the production of the most luxurious "verres d'apparat" was ceased altogether in the Low Countries and was left mostly to Bohemia, Germany and later England.

 

These glasses are successors of thinner verres de fougère produced in France, the Southern Netherlands and probably even in England. In the Low Countries they were made to enjoy Burgundy wine. This was imported from Burgundy by the river Meuse. It is believed that the ships returned to France loaded with Nizet glasses from Liège. It seems that they were very popular within the region and goes some way to explain why many reside in French collections.

These are indeed called "verres fraisés". When filled with Burgundy wine, which was probably of a lighter red than now, the bowls do indeed have a resemblance to strawberries!

 

Yep, it's one of those original British Leyland Range Rovers, this one sporting a colour scheme that looks an awful lot like Coronation Chicken (by the way, Coronation Chicken is absolutely delicious and I recommend it to everyone!)

 

Yes, believe it or not, the origin of the mighty Range Rover goes back to the communistic clumsiness of British Leyland, where, in one of their rare moments of genius, they realised the dream that a contemporary 4x4 could be married with the luxuries and styling of a regular saloon car!

 

The original concept of the Range Rover can be traced back to the groundbreaking original Land Rover of the 1940's, where upon its introduction in 1948 as an extended development of the American Willy's Jeep, the Land Rover had taken the world by storm and become the most desired 4x4 in the world. Light, practical, endlessly tunable and easy to maintain, the Land Rover was a hit across the globe, primarily in the colonies of the British Empire, taking people to remote regions that had once been only within the reach of a Horse or a Camel. Initially, a plan was made to create a saloon style version of the Land Rover in 1949 with the help of coachbuilder Tickford, dubbed the 'Land Rover Station-Wagon', but this was not exactly a success and sold only 700 examples before the car was withdrawn from production in 1951. The main features of the Station-Wagon were a wooden-framed body, seven seats, floor carpets, a heater, a one-piece windscreen and other car-like features, its hand-built nature kept prices high.

In 1954 Land Rover took another stab at the Station Wagon concept, only this time it was built in-house rather than outsourced to a different company. This version's primary market was for those who required an off-road vehicle with greater capacity, such as ambulances or even small buses in remote regions such as the Scottish Highlands. But even though this second incarnation of the Station Wagon was available with features such as an interior light, heater, door and floor trims and upgraded seats, the basic Land Rover roots of this car meant it was still tough and capable, but the firm suspension made its road performance somewhat mediocre.

 

In 1958, Land Rover took yet another stab with the Road Rover, a development of combining the Land Rover chassis and running gear with the internal furnishings and body of a regular saloon car. The intended audience of the Road Rover was again in the remote British Colonies of Africa and the Australian Outback, where the firm suspension would be useful on the long, uneven roads. By the 1960's however, developments across the pond in the United States were starting to rock Rover's boat, as the newly coined Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) began to make progress. International Harvester released the Scout, and Ford the Bronco, offering a different blend of off and on-road ability from existing utility 4x4s such as the Land Rover and the Jeep, proving capable of good on-road comfort and speed while retaining more than adequate off-road ability for most private users. The Jeep Wagoneer proved the concept further, being both spacious and practical, but still with the raunchy off-road abilities to conquer the harsh American terrain.

 

Being frontline observers to this, Rover dealers in the United States looked on in horror as the American motor industry cornered the market for the SUV, and through frustration the president of Rover's USA division sent head office a Land Rover Series II 88 fitted with a Buick V8, designed for contemporary American pickup trucks, which offered far greater on-road performance and refinement than any Land Rover then in production.

 

Things came full circle though thanks to a man named Charles Spencer King, a former apprentice at Rolls Royce and one of the most prominent figures in the ownership of Rover and its transition to British Leyland. Taking over the development, he began the development program with the 100-inch Station Wagon project, taking the original concepts of the previous Road Rover and fitting it with coil springs after coming to the conclusion that only long-travel coil springs could provide the required blend of luxury car comfort and Land Rover's established off-road ability. His realisation of this apparently came when he drove a Rover P6 across rough scrubland adjacent to Land Rover's Solihull Factory, but was also helped by the fact that Land Rover purchased the coil springs from a Ford Bronco and began developing from those. Permanent 4WD was also necessary so as to provide both adequate handling and to reliably absorb the power that would be required by the vehicle if it was to be competitive, which came through in the form of a new transmission known as the Land Rover 101 Forward Control. The final piece to the puzzle though was the use of the Buick derived Rover V8, a strong, reliable, lightweight and endlessly tunable engine. In addition to the regular V8, the car was fitted with both a starting handle for emergencies, and carburettors to help continue to supply fuel at extreme angles.

 

The final design, launched in 1970 with bodywork styled largely by the engineering team rather than David Bache's styling division, was marketed as 'A Car For All Reasons'. In its original guise, the Range Rover was more capable off-road than the Land Rover but was much more comfortable, offering a top speed in excess of 100mph, a towing capacity of 3.5 tons, spacious accommodation for five people and groundbreaking features such as a four-speed, dual-range, permanent four-wheel-drive gearbox and hydraulic disc brakes on all wheels. The body was constructed, in keeping with other Rover products, of lightweight aluminium, and in its first incarnation was only available as a two-door utilitarian runabout, rather than the five-door luxury car we know today. This was rectified in 1981 when a 4-door version was made available, but this doesn't mean that the Range Rover wasn't a success before this change.

 

Upon its launch in June 1970, the Range Rover was lauded with critical acclaim, and Rover was praised for succeeding in marrying the practicalities of a modern 4x4 with the luxury capabilities of a standard road car. With a top speed of 95mph and a 0-60 acceleration of less than 15 seconds, performance was stated as being better than many family saloon cars of its era, and off-road performance was good, owing to its long suspension travel and high ground clearance. The bulky but practical design was also praised, with many considering it a piece of artwork, with one example being put on display in the Louvre in Paris! Early celebrity ownership also helped the sales quota, but not in the same way you'd expect today. Instead of Musicians and Movie Stars buying up stashes of Range Rovers like they do nowadays, people of established wealth such as Princess Diana and Government bodies became proud custodians of these mighty machines.

 

Problems however were quick to occur, as let's not forget, this was a British Leyland product. Reliability was a major issue, with strike cars being especially poor as many would leave the factory with vital components missing or not installed properly. To save costs, many pieces of the cars were carried over from other Leyland products, with switches and dials being donated from Austin Allegros, and the door handles coming direct from Morris Marinas. Name any of the faults endemic to British Leyland products of the time, and the Range Rover suffered from the same curse, be they mechanical, electric, cosmetic, or, worst of all, the demon rust!

 

But the Range Rover survived to see the 1980's despite its faults, and after the introduction of an extra set of doors it started to gain a true identity as the luxury motor of choice for the new money. With the additional 5-door layout, new variants such as the long wheelbase Vogue and the SE (Special Equipment) versions took many of the luxury items of the Jaguar XJ series such as leather seats and hazelnut wooden trim and placed them into the Range Rover. In the 1980s as well, special utility versions began to be developed, including a 6x6 Fire Tender for airfields and small airports, Ambulances for military bases and remote regions, and one special variant for his holiness the Pope, affectionately dubbed the Popemobile!

 

However, towards the late 1980's the Range Rover in its original incarnation was starting to look very much its age. The angular design was looking tired, and internally its utilitarian roots were in evidence. The dashboard was not much like that of a regular saloon car, but more a bus or a truck, with a huge steering wheel like that from a tractor, and was not particularly well equipped. Land Rover however intended to narrow the Range Rover's portfolio to the truly luxury market rather than having the low end versions which didn't sell as well due to their expense. In 1989 Land Rover launched the Discovery, which was similar in size to the Range Rover but cheaper and given a more family layout with seats and furnishings being carried over from the Austin Montego. To bring the Range Rover back into the front line of luxury motors for the 1990's, Rover Group (the descendant of British Leyland) put together a plan to design a new car under the chassis codenumber P38A (or just P38 for short). Four years of development and £300 million later, the car was launched to a whirlwind of critical acclaim. With a beautifully equipped interior, a more car-like design of dashboard and with a wider variety of luxury trim levels, including the personalised Autobiography editions, the P38 was the first of the mighty Range Rovers to appeal to the bling-bling generation.

 

This, however, left the original Range Rover out in the cold, and even though it was still a much loved part of the British motoring scene, the time had come for the original, dubbed the Range Rover Classic after launch of the P38. The last of the original Range Rovers slunk silently of the production line at Solihull in 1996, with production now fully based on the new P38, as well as to future developments such as the Freelander of 1997 and ongoing Discovery and Defender. Today original Range Rovers are somewhat easy to come by depending on where you look. In London you'll find a fair few (after all, these were the original Chelsea Tractors), but even in the country you'll bump into these things, especially around my home of Devon where the Range Rover/Land Rover products were perfect for the rugged Moorland terrain. Early British Leyland ones you'd be hard pressed to find, most rusting away in the 1980's, but the Rover Group ones of the 80's and 90's are by no means rare.

 

But even so, 45 years after the first Range Rover left the factory in Solihull, Range Rovers continue to be produced today, now in it's 4th Generation and available in more variations than ever before! Although British Leyland has long since died together with their many woeful products such as the Morris Marina and the Austin Allegro, the Range Rover is very much their legacy, the last of their original products to survive the strikes and bankruptcy, fighting off the fuel crisis and privatisation by the Thatcher Government, and then being split in 2000 by BMW and juggled between owners Ford and TATA Steel, and still being the luxury motorised toy of the modern day rich! :)

The turreted building housed a school until 1968 and is now home to the Marguerite Bourgeoys Museum. The spire behind the turrets is Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours Chapel. The building to the left is Marche Bonsecours.

 

The Sisters of the Notre Dame Congregation decided to convert this old school building adjacent to the historic Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours Chapel into a Museum dedicated to the memory of Marguerite-Bourgeoys, the founder of the order.

 

Marguerite Bourgeoys was born in April 1620 in Troyes, in the Champagne region of France. A childhood spent among craftspeople - her father, a candle-maker, imbued her early on with a sense of practicality and ambition that would define her throughout her entire life.

 

After receiving an invitation from Mr. Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve in 1652, Marguerite Bourgeoys left France for Ville-Marie (Montreal), which, at the time, was a busy hive of missionary activity. Bourgeoys arrived in the fledgling colony in November of 1653.

 

Bourgeoys founded the city's first school in 1658 and, in the following year, she founded the Congregation of Notre-Dame, one of the first non-cloistered Catholic orders for women, whose mission was and still is education.

Photographed in Cyberjaya, Malaysia

 

Assembly : Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

 

Notes : Rear muffler is non-standard. Missing some badges at the back and on the front fenders.

 

The Proton Putra is a very special Proton; it's the only 2-door / coupé from the company, and it will likely hold on to that title for the foreseeable future. In a country where practicality often matters more than style, Proton sure did surprise many when they unveiled the rather good-looking Putra a couple of years after the launch of the Wira, not forgetting the 3-door Satria hatch as well. At the time, the Putra was the sportiest Proton in the fleet, at least until the Satria GTi came along much later in 1998.

 

The Putra is pretty much indistinguishable from a high-specced Wira or Satria from the front, but from the side, it's immediately obvious that it's something else... but it's the rear end of the Putra which really stands out. The sleek lines and flowing curves made a huge statement back in the mid-1990s, it was without a doubt the best looking and most attractive Proton yet. Nonetheless, the Putra is and was for the most part... understated, unassuming and elegant. It didn't scream '' Hey, look at me, I'm a big bad sports car ! '' unlike its cousin, the Satria GTi. And it's not like the Putra didn't have the muscle either, the sole 1.8-litre Mitsubishi 4G93 DOHC 16-valve 4-cylinder had 138 bhp and 164 Nm of torque at its disposal, and it did the 0 to 100 km/h run in 9 seconds... not bad for mid-90s Proton eh ?

 

Proton produced the Putra between 1995 and 2000, which is unjustified when compared to the Wira's long 1993 to 2007 lifespan. However, Proton resurrected the Putra in 2004/05 with a limited edition run, supposedly to clear out the remaining factory stock. Proton sold the Putra as the Proton M21 in Australia, the Proton Coupe in the United Kingdom, as well as the Proton 418 LRS in Germany and several other European countries. Putras exported to Europe and Australia were fitted with twin foglights on the rear license plate bracket.

 

You'd be hard pressed to find a stock, unmodified and well-maintained Putra in Malaysia. Almost every Putra here has been modified to some extent, and the example above is no exception. Fortunately, the owner seems to have swapped out the rear muffler, and perhaps given his/her car a new coat of paint. Several badges are missing as well, but otherwise, she's as good as new !

 

I LIKE : Looks awesome. Dat ass. Cornering lights. Rarity & exclusivity. Pretty good power-to-weight ratio. Later versions were tuned by Lotus, and handled very well. Early units were bulletproof ( very reliable ).

 

I DISLIKE : Exported units were better specified and built. Later units were less reliable. Ricers... ricers everywhere !

Justin Hills always loved the beautiful lines and flow of the XK 120 but felt some minor improvements could be made to the overall appearance of this beautiful car. He now feels that his Jaguar XK 120 is a true representation of what he thinks the original designer would have first sketched, before practicality and cost had to be included into the design. Justin's design is now receiving a written endorsement form Jaguar designer, Ian Cullim himself ! The car is currently on display at Jaguar Design Studio headquarters, as visual inspiration for the Jaguar design team. One-off custom coachwork + V12 engine.

 

Class XV : Special Display

 

Zoute Concours d'Elegance

The Royal Zoute Golf Club

 

Zoute Grand Prix 2019

Knokke - Zoute

België - Belgium

October 2019

The last ever Montego to roll down the factory line at Longbridge in 1995, signed by the production team to mark the historic occasion.

 

For some reason I always had a bit of an affinity towards these cars, largely due to the fact that they seemed to be smiling with those light clusters. But much like the Maestro, it had purpose, it was innovative, and it was a car that refused to die!

 

The Austin Montego first started development life way back in 1977 under project code LC10 (Leyland Cars 10), as an intended replacement for the Morris Marina and the Princess. However, like many of the company's promising projects, such as the Maestro and the Metro, it was shelved for years on account of the fact that British Leyland ran out of money! After a corporate bailout by the British Government, the company chose instead to prolong the development of these cars and instead simply give the existing Marina and Princess a facelift, resulting in the Morris Ital and Austin Ambassador, both cars notable for being unimpressively bland masterpieces.

 

However, this delay did give British Leyland a chance to tie up with Honda, and in 1980 launched the Triumph Acclaim as both the first Japanese/British hybrid car, but also British Leyland's first consistently reliable product! The result was that both the simultaneously developed Austin Maestro and Montego could take some leaves out of Honda's book and therefore improve the reliability. Styling came from David Bache, who had previously had a hand in penning the Rover P4, the Rover SD1 and the Range Rover, and Roy Axe, who would later go on to style the Rover 800 and the Rolls Royce Silver Seraph. The lengthy development time of the car however clearly showed as the first sketches of the car were done back in 1975. Apparently when Roy Axe, who took over as Director of Design in 1982, saw the first prototype with the original design, he was so horrified that he suggested they scrap the whole thing and start over!

 

However, their combined design talent truly shows through with the Montego as in essence these are very handsome cars, with a long smooth body, a pleasing frontal alignment and design, and internally very capable and comfortable. Some novel features included were the colour coordinated bumpers that matched the rest of the car, and the wiper spindles hiding under the bonnet when parked.

 

Although many consider the Maestro just to be a hatchback version of the Montego, there were many features the Montego had that made it an all around better car. These included a new S-Series engine in place of the A-Series engine that dated back to the 1950's, and a more practical and robust dashboard. Variations of the car included the stylish and luxury Vanden Plas, which was styled internally by the world renowned coachbuilder with lavish wood veneer and seating (thankfully not given a chrome nose, that would have been insane!), the sporty MG Montego which featured a higher performance O-Series Turob Engine and a revolutionary synthesised computer voice that announced problems and warnings, and finally the Estate versions which were by far the most popular and received almost unanimous acclaim for their spacious interior.

 

The Montego was launched on April 25th 1984, being available at first as a 4-door saloon to replace the standard Morris Ital, but the Ital in estate form continued on until August, bringing an end to the 11 year old Morris Marina family. In October the Estate version was launched at the British International Motor Show. Initially things were looking up for the Montego, as mentioned the Estate version was lauded for its practicality, the MG Montego became the fastest MG ever built with 115hp to rocket it up to a top speed of 126mph at a rate of 0-60 in 7.1 seconds, and the Vanden Plas was a modest success for the business executive, as well as finding a home in the company car market.

 

Promotion for the car also helped to seal the deal with a fantastically choreographed advert where professional stunt driver Russ Swift, pretty much danced around a crowded car park in a Montego, doing reverse 180's in gaps only a few feet wide, and driving the car on two wheels through a gap only a ruler's length apart! Jeremy Clarkson would attempt to do the same thing 14 years later on one of his DVD's in another Montego, again with the help of Russ Swift, which went well the first time, but not so well the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh time. Eventually the Montego was smashed in half by a large truck in a fiery explosion.

 

Sadly though, the honeymoon like with all good British Leyland cars was short lived, and soon afterwards the various faults and build quality problems became once again apparent. Although many of the features fitted to these cars such as the synthesised voice, the computer engine management and the redesigned dashboard were endearing, the main fault that these cars had were in the electrics, which would frequently go wrong. Some examples I've heard from early Montego owners have included the car failing to start, pressing the indicator switch only to blow the horn, or the synthesised talking lady never, ever, ever shutting up! Because of these problems the cars built up a very quick and poor reputation, added to by the poor construction of the actual car, with the colour coded bumpers being particularly problematic as they'd crack in cold weather.

 

But British Leyland didn't give up on the Montego, and in the background designers continued to tinker with the idea of further additions and changes to the car. Throughout the period following its introduction, British Leyland began to be broken up by the Thatcher Government, with Jaguar being made independent, the various parts manufacturers such as UNIPART being sold off, Leyland Trucks and Buses being sold to Volvo and DAF, and eventually the whole outfit being reduced to just MG and Rover. The Montego has been credited with being the last car to carry the Austin name, the badge being dropped in 1988 with future cars simply being dubbed the Montego. This coincided with a facelift in 1989 and the re-engineering of the car to be fitted with a Perkins Diesel. In 1989 a new seven-seater estate model was created called the Montego Countryman, built to combat the rising trend of People-Carriers such as the Renault Espace, but still being able to perform as well as a regular car. This, much like the original estate, proved immensely popular, especially in France for some reason, which went on to be one of the Montego's major markets.

 

In the early 90's the Montego did start getting back some reputation, winning the CAR Magazine's 'Giant Test' (all technical names I'm sure) when competing against the likes of the Citroen BX and the Audi 80. In fact the Rover Montego Turbo became a favourite with the RAF, and was used to whisk Officers across airfields as a personal transport. The Montego may have failed to outdo the Volkswagen Passat, but as for the British mob such as the Ford Sierra and the Vauxhall Cavalier, it was able competition. In fact when I was young in the 90's a lot of kids I'd see dropped off to school would be in then new Montego's because by this point the reliability issues had been ironed out following Rover Group's return to private ownership under British Aerospace.

 

But by 1992 the car was very much looking its age and was in desperate need of a replacement. In 1993 the Rover 600 was launched which pretty much ended the Montego for mass-production then and there, but special orders for the car continued until 1995. The machines continued to be a favourite among Company Car firms, and a lot of the developments made in the Montego lived on in later Rover cars, primarily the 600 and the 75, which inherited its rear suspension which was often held in high regard. But the curtain did eventually fall for the official Montego production in 1995 as new owners BMW desired nothing more than to be out with the old and in with the new, with facelifts all around including a new Rover 25 to replace the 200, a new Rover 45 to replace the 400, and a new Rover 75 to replace the 800, and the original Range Rover was revamped into the absolutely magnificent Range Rover P38 in 1995. The Maestro too was axed and the Metro followed not long afterwards in 1999, with the classic Mini being killed off in 2000, only to be brought back to life the same year under BMW management after the breakup of Rover that year.

 

But like the Maestro, the Montego simply wouldn't die, but unlike the Maestro, attempts to revive the car under bootlegged brands weren't as prosperous. In India, the company Sipani Automobiles, notable for attempting to recreate British cars such as the Reliant Kitten but instead consistently turning out garbage, attempted to built a few, but folded soon afterwards. In Trinidad & Tobago, a small firm attempted to sell their own copycat versions of the Montego, which were notable for their exceptional poor quality. But most famously was the attempt to recreate the car in China with the Lubao CA 6410, which yoked the nose of a Montego onto the back of a Maestro using a Maestro platform. Today that car is technically still in production as the Jiefang CA 6440 UA Van, but owes more to the Maestro than the Montego.

 

Today the Montego is a very rare car to find. Of the 571,000 cars built, only 296 remain, making it Britain's 8th most scrapped car. Contributing to this, areas of the bodywork that were to be covered by plastic trim (such as the front and rear bumpers) were left unpainted and thus unprotected. In addition, pre-1989 models cannot run on unleaded petrol without the cylinder head being converted or needing fuel additives.

 

However, as mentioned, the Montego estate was a huge hit in France, and chances are you'll find a fair number ambling about the countryside there. Malta too was another popular locale for the Montego, as well as many other British Leyland cars, including Marina's, Allegros and even Princesses!

 

My opinion on the Montego? Like most British Leyland cars it had prospects and purpose, but lacked the desire to build good, honest cars. It was comfortable, it was handsome, it performed as well as a family saloon car should, it was spacious and very well equipped, and like many British Leyland cars, such as the Princess with its Hydragas suspension, it was innovative. If these cars had been built better and had some of the teething problems ironed out with the electrical systems, then British Leyland could have easily gone on to make the family car of the 1980's. But like all pathfinders in the world of technology, they will suffer the full brunt of the problems they are most likely to experience.

 

People rarely remember the originals, only the one's that perfected it...

The Citroën 2CV (French: "deux chevaux" i.e. "deux chevaux-vapeur" (lit. "two steam horses", "two tax horsepower") is an air-cooled front-engine, front-wheel-drive economy car introduced at the 1948 Paris Mondial de l'Automobile and manufactured by Citroën for model years 1948–1990.

 

Conceived by Citroën Vice-President Pierre Boulanger to help motorise the large number of farmers still using horses and carts in 1930s France, the 2CV has a combination of innovative engineering and utilitarian, straightforward metal bodywork — initially corrugated for added strength without added weight. The 2CV featured low cost; simplicity of overall maintenance; an easily serviced air-cooled engine (originally offering 9 hp); low fuel consumption; and an extremely long-travel suspension offering a soft ride and light off-road capability. Often called "an umbrella on wheels", the fixed-profile convertible bodywork featured a full-width, canvas, roll-back sunroof, which accommodated oversized loads and until 1955 reached almost to the car's rear bumper.

 

Manufactured in France between 1948 and 1989 (and in Portugal from 1989 to 1990), over 3.8 million 2CVs were produced, along with over 1.2 million small 2CV-based delivery vans known as Fourgonnettes. Citroën ultimately offered several mechanically identical variants including the Ami (over 1.8 million); the Dyane (over 1.4 million); the Acadiane (over 250,000); and the Mehari (over 140,000). In total, Citroën manufactured almost 7 million 2CV variants.

 

A 1953 technical review in Autocar described "the extraordinary ingenuity of this design, which is undoubtedly the most original since the Model T Ford". In 2011, The Globe and Mail called it a "car like no other". The motoring writer L. J. K. Setright described the 2CV as "the most intelligent application of minimalism ever to succeed as a car", and a car of "remorseless rationality".]

 

HISTORY

DEVELOPMENT

In 1934, family-owned Michelin, being the largest creditor, took over the bankrupt Citroën company. The new management ordered a new market survey, conducted by Jacques Duclos. France at that time had a large rural population which could not yet afford cars; Citroën used the survey results to prepare a design brief for a low-priced, rugged "umbrella on four wheels" that would enable four people to transport 50 kg of farm goods to market at 50 km/h, if necessary across muddy, unpaved roads. In fuel economy, the car would use no more than 3 l/100 km (95 mpg-imp). One design requirement was that the customer be able to drive eggs across a freshly ploughed field without breaking them.

 

In 1936, Pierre-Jules Boulanger, vice-president of Citroën and chief of engineering and design, sent the brief to his design team at the engineering department. The TPV (Toute Petite Voiture — "Very Small Car") was to be developed in secrecy at Michelin facilities at Clermont-Ferrand and at Citroën in Paris, by the design team who had created the Traction Avant.

 

Boulanger was closely involved with all decisions relating to the TPV, and was determined to reduce the weight to targets that his engineers thought impossible. He set up a department to weigh every component and then redesign it, to make it lighter while still doing its job.

 

Boulanger placed engineer André Lefèbvre in charge of the TPV project. Lefèbvre had designed and raced Grand Prix cars; his speciality was chassis design and he was particularly interested in maintaining contact between tyres and the road surface.

 

The first prototypes were bare chassis with rudimentary controls, seating and roof; test drivers wore leather flying suits, of the type used in contemporary open biplanes. By the end of 1937 20 TPV experimental prototypes had been built and tested. The prototypes had only one headlight, all that was required by French law at the time. At the end of 1937 Pierre Michelin was killed in a car crash; Boulanger became president of Citroën.

 

By 1939 the TPV was deemed ready, after 47 technically different and incrementally improved experimental prototypes had been built and tested. These prototypes used aluminium and magnesium parts and had water-cooled flat twin engines with front-wheel drive. The seats were hammocks hung from the roof by wires. The suspension system, designed by Alphonse Forceau, used front leading arms and rear trailing arms, connected to eight torsion bars beneath the rear seat: a bar for the front axle, one for the rear axle, an intermediate bar for each side, and an overload bar for each side. The front axle was connected to its torsion bars by cable. The overload bar came into play when the car had three people on board, two in the front and one in the rear, to support the extra load of a fourth passenger and fifty kilograms of luggage.

 

In mid-1939 a pilot run of 250 cars was produced and on 28 August 1939 the car received approval for the French market. Brochures were printed and preparations made to present the car, renamed the Citroën 2CV, at the forthcoming Paris Motor Show in October 1939.

 

WORLD WAR II

On 3 September 1939, France declared war on Germany following that country's invasion of Poland. An atmosphere of impending disaster led to the cancellation of the 1939 motor show less than a month before it was scheduled to open. The launch of the 2CV was abandoned.

 

During the German occupation of France in World War II Boulanger personally refused to collaborate with German authorities to the point where the Gestapo listed him as an "enemy of the Reich", under constant threat of arrest and deportation to Germany.

 

Michelin (Citroën's main shareholder) and Citroën managers decided to hide the TPV project from the Nazis, fearing some military application as in the case of the future Volkswagen Beetle, manufactured during the war as the military Kübelwagen. Several TPVs were buried at secret locations; one was disguised as a pickup, the others were destroyed, and Boulanger spent the next six years thinking about further improvements. Until 1994, when three TPVs were discovered in a barn, it was believed that only two prototypes had survived. As of 2003 there were five known TPVs.

 

By 1941, after an increase in aluminium prices of forty percent, an internal report at Citroën showed that producing the TPV post-war would not be economically viable, given the projected further increasing cost of aluminium. Boulanger decided to redesign the car to use mostly steel with flat panels, instead of aluminium. The Nazis had attempted to loot Citroën's press tools; this was frustrated after Boulanger got the French Resistance to re-label the rail cars containing them in the Paris marshalling yard. They ended up all over Europe, and Citroën was by no means sure they would all be returned after the war. In early 1944 Boulanger made the decision to abandon the water-cooled two-cylinder engine developed for the car and installed in the 1939 versions. Walter Becchia was now briefed to design an air-cooled unit, still of two cylinders, and still of 375 cc. Becchia was also supposed to design a three-speed gearbox, but managed to design a four-speed for the same space at little extra cost. At this time small French cars like the Renault Juvaquatre and Peugeot 202 usually featured three-speed transmissions, as did Citroën's own mid-size Traction Avant - but the 1936 Italian Fiat 500 "Topolino" "people's car" did have a four-speed gearbox. Becchia persuaded Boulanger that the fourth gear was an overdrive. The increased number of gear ratios also helped to pull the extra weight of changing from light alloys to steel for the body and chassis. Other changes included seats with tubular steel frames with rubber band springing and a restyling of the body by the Italian Flaminio Bertoni. Also, in 1944 the first studies of the Citroën hydro-pneumatic suspension were conducted using the TPV/2CV.

 

The development and production of what was to become the 2CV was also delayed by the incoming 1944 Socialist French government, after the liberation by the Allies from the Germans. The five-year "Plan Pons" to rationalise car production and husband scarce resources, named after economist and former French motor industry executive Paul-Marie Pons, only allowed Citroën the upper middle range of the car market, with the Traction Avant. The French government allocated the economy car market, US Marshall Plan aid, US production equipment and supplies of steel, to newly nationalised Renault to produce their Renault 4CV. The "Plan Pons" came to an end in 1949. Postwar French roads were very different from pre-war ones. Horse-drawn vehicles had re-appeared in large numbers. The few internal combustion-engined vehicles present often ran on town gas stored in gasbags on roofs or wood/charcoal gas from gasifiers on trailers. Only one hundred thousand of the two million pre-war cars were still on the road. The time was known as "Les années grises" or "the grey years" in France.

 

PRODUCTION

Citroën unveiled the car at the Paris Salon on 7 October 1948. The car on display was nearly identical to the 2CV type A that would be sold the next year, but it lacked an electric starter, the addition of which was decided the day before the opening of the Salon, replacing the pull cord starter. The canvas roof could be rolled completely open. The Type A had one stop light, and was only available in grey. The fuel level was checked with a dip stick/measuring rod, and the speedometer was attached to the windscreen pillar. The only other instrument was an ammeter.In 1949 the first delivered 2CV type A was 375 cc, 9 hp, with a 65 km/h top speed, only one tail light and windscreen wiper with speed shaft drive; the wiper speed was dependent on the driving speed. The car was heavily criticised by the motoring press and became the butt of French comedians for a short while. One American motoring journalist quipped, "Does it come with a can opener?" The British Autocar correspondent wrote that the 2CV "is the work of a designer who has kissed the lash of austerity with almost masochistic fervour".

 

Despite critics, Citroën was flooded with customer orders at the show. The car had a great impact on the lives of the low-income segment of the population in France. The 2CV was a commercial success: within months of it going on sale, there was a three-year waiting list, which soon increased to five years. At the time a second-hand 2CV was more expensive than a new one because the buyer did not have to wait. Production was increased from 876 units in 1949 to 6,196 units in 1950.

 

Grudging respect began to emanate from the international press: towards the end of 1951 the opinion appeared in Germany's recently launched Auto, Motor und Sport magazine that, despite its "ugliness and primitiveness" ("Häßlichkeit und Primitivität"), the 2CV was a "highly interesting" ("hochinteressantes") car.

 

In 1950, Pierre-Jules Boulanger was killed in a car crash on the main road from Clermont-Ferrand (the home of Michelin) to Paris.

 

In 1951 the 2CV received an ignition lock and a lockable driver's door. Production reached 100 cars a week. By the end of 1951 production totalled 16,288. Citroën introduced the 2CV Fourgonnette van. The "Weekend" version of the van had collapsible, removable rear seating and rear side windows, enabling a tradesman to use it as a family vehicle on the weekend as well as for business in the week.

 

By 1952, production had reached more than 21,000 with export markets earning foreign currency taking precedence. Boulanger's policy, which continued after his death, was: "Priority is given to those who have to travel by car because of their work, and for whom ordinary cars are too expensive to buy." Cars were sold preferentially to country vets, doctors, midwives, priests and small farmers. In 1954 the speedometer got a light for night driving. In 1955 the 2CV side repeaters were added above and behind the rear doors. It was now also available with 425 cc (AZ), 12.5 hp and a top speed of 80 km/h. In 1957 a heating and ventilation system was installed. The colour of the steering wheel changed from black to grey. The mirrors and the rear window were enlarged. The bonnet was decorated with a longitudinal strip of aluminium (AZL). In September 1957, the model AZLP (P for porte de malle, "boot lid"), appeared with a boot lid panel; previously the soft top had to be opened at the bottom to get to the boot. In 1958 a Belgian Citroën plant produced a higher quality version of the car (AZL3). It had a third side window, not available in the normal version, and improved details.

 

In 1960 the production of the 375 cc engine ended. The corrugated metal bonnet was replaced by a 5-rib glossy cover.

 

The 2 CV 4 × 4 2CV Sahara appeared in December 1960. This had an additional engine-transmission unit in the rear, mounted the other way around and driving the rear wheels. For the second engine there was a separate push-button starter and choke. With a gear stick between the front seats, both transmissions were operated simultaneously. For the two engines, there were separate petrol tanks under the front seats. The filler neck sat in the front doors. Both engines (and hence axles) could be operated independently. The spare wheel was mounted on the bonnet. 693 were produced until 1968 and one more in 1971. Many were used by the Swiss Post as a delivery vehicle. Today they are highly collectable.

 

From the mid-1950s economy car competition had increased — internationally in the form of the 1957 Fiat 500 and 1955 Fiat 600, and 1959 Austin Mini. By 1952, Germany produced a price-competitive car - the Messerschmitt KR175, followed in 1955 by the Isetta - these were microcars, not complete four-door cars like the 2CV. On the French home market, from 1961, the small Simca 1000 using licensed Fiat technology, and the larger Renault 4 hatchback had become available. The R4 was the biggest threat to the 2CV, eventually outselling it.

 

1960s

In 1960 the corrugated Citroën H Van style "ripple bonnet" of convex swages was replaced (except for the Sahara), with one using six larger concave swages and looked similar until the end of production. The 2CV had suicide doors in front from 1948 to 1964, replaced with front hinged doors from 1965 to 1990.

 

In 1961 Citroën launched a new model based on the 2CV chassis, with a 4-door sedan body, and a reverse rake rear window: the Citroën Ami. In 1962 the engine power was increased to 14 hp and top speed to 85 km/h. A sun roof was installed. In 1963 the engine power was increased to 16 hp. An electric wiper motor replaced the drive on the speedo. The ammeter was replaced by a charging indicator light. The speedometer was moved from the window frame into the dash. Instead of a dip stick/measuring rod, a fuel gauge was introduced.

 

Director of publicity Claude Puech came up with humorous and inventive marketing campaigns. Robert Delpire of the Delpire Agency was responsible for the brochures. Ad copy came from Jacques Wolgensinger Director of PR at Citroën. Wolgensinger was responsible for the youth orientated "Raids", 2CV Cross, rallies, the use of "Tin-Tin", and the slogan "More than just a car — a way of life". A range of colours was introduced, starting with Glacier Blue in 1959, then yellow in 1960. In the 1960s 2CV production caught up with demand. In 1966 the 2CV got a third side window. From September 1966 a Belgian-produced variant was sold in Germany with the 602 cc engine and 21 hp Ami6, the 3 CV (AZAM6). This version was only sold until 1968 in some export markets.

 

In 1967 Citroën launched a new model based on the 2CV chassis, with an updated but still utilitarian body, with a hatchback (a hatchback kit was available from Citroën dealers for the 2CV, and aftermarket kits are available) that boosted practicality: the Citroën Dyane. The exterior is more modern and distinguished by the recessed lights in the fenders and bodywork. Between 1967 and 1983 about 1.4 million were built. This was in response to competition by the Renault 4. The Dyane was originally planned as an upmarket version of the 2CV and was supposed to supersede it, but ultimately the 2CV outlived the Dyane by seven years. Citroën also developed the Méhari off-roader.

 

From 1961, the car was offered, at extra cost, with the flat-2 engine size increased to 602 cc, although for many years the smaller 425 cc engine continued to be available in France and export markets where engine size determined car tax levels. This was replaced by an updated 435 cc engine in 1968.

 

1970s

In 1970 the car gained rear light units from the Citroën Ami 6, and also standardised a third side window in the rear pillar on 2CV6 (602 cc) models. From 1970, only two series were produced: the 2CV 4 (AZKB) with 435 cc and the 2CV 6 (Azka) with 602 cc displacement. All 2CVs from this date can run on unleaded fuel. 1970s cars featured rectangular headlights, except the Spécial model. In 1971 the front bench seat was replaced with two individual seats. In 1972 2CVs were fitted with standard three-point seat belts. In 1973 new seat covers, a padded single-spoke steering wheel and ashtrays were introduced.

 

The highest annual production was in 1974. Sales of the 2CV were reinvigorated by the 1974 oil crisis. The 2CV after this time became as much a youth lifestyle statement as a basic functional form of transport. This renewed popularity was encouraged by the Citroën "Raid" intercontinental endurance rallies of the 1970s where customers could participate by buying a new 2CV, fitted with a "P.O." kit (Pays d'Outre-mer — overseas countries), to cope with thousands of miles of very poor or off-road routes.

 

1970: Paris–Kabul: 1,300 young people, 500 2CVs, 16,500 km to Afghanistan and back.

1971: Paris–Persepolis: 500 2CVs 13,500 km to Iran and back.

1973: Raid Afrique, 60 2CVs 8000 km from Abidjan to Tunis, the Atlantic capital of Ivory Coast through the Sahara, (the Ténéré desert section was unmapped and had previously been barred to cars), to the Mediterranean capital of Tunisia.

 

The Paris to Persepolis rally was the most famous. The Citroën "2CV Cross" circuit/off-road races were very popular in Europe.

 

Because of new emission standards, in 1975 power was reduced from 28 hp to 25 hp. The round headlights were replaced by square ones, adjustable in height. A new plastic grille was fitted.

 

In July 1975, a base model called the 2CV Spécial was introduced with the 435 cc engine. Between 1975 and 1990 under the name of AZKB "2CV Spécial" a drastically reduced trim basic version was sold, at first only in yellow. The small, square speedometer (which dates back to the Traction Avant), and the narrow rear bumper was installed. Citroën removed the third side window, the ashtray, and virtually all trim from the car. It also had the earlier round headlights. From the 1978 Paris Motor Show the Spécial regained third side windows, and was available in red and white; beginning in mid-1979 the 602 cc engine was installed. In June 1981 the Spécial E arrived; this model had a standard centrifugal clutch and particularly low urban fuel consumption.

 

1980s

In 1981 a yellow 2CV6 was driven by James Bond (Roger Moore) in the 1981 film For Your Eyes Only. The car in the film was fitted with the flat-4 engine from a Citroën GS which more than doubled the power. In one scene the ultra light 2CV tips over and is quickly righted by hand. Citroën launched a special edition 2CV "007" to coincide with the film; it was fitted with the standard engine and painted yellow with "007" on the front doors and fake bullet hole stickers.

 

In 1982 all 2CV models got inboard front disc brakes.

 

In 1988, production ended in France after 40 years but continued at the Mangualde plant in Portugal. This lasted until 1990, when production of the 2CV ended. The 2CV outlasted the Visa, another of the cars which might have been expected to replace it, and was produced for four years after the start of Citroën AX production.

 

Portuguese-built cars, especially those from when production was winding down, have a reputation in the UK for being much less well made and more prone to corrosion than those made in France. According to Citroën, the Portuguese plant was more up-to-date than the one in Levallois near Paris, and Portuguese 2CV manufacturing was to higher quality standards.

 

As of October 2016, 3,025 remained in service in the UK.

 

SPECIAL EDITION SALOON MODELS

The special edition models began with the 1976 SPOT model and continued in the with the 1980 Charleston, inspired by Art-Deco two colour styles 1920s Citroën model colour schemes. In 1981 the 007 arrived. In 1983 the 2CV Beachcomber arrived in the United Kingdom; it was known as "France 3" in France or "Transat" in other continental European markets — Citroën sponsored the French America's Cup yacht entry of that year. In 1985 the two-coloured Dolly appeared, using the "Spécial" model's basic trim rather than the slightly better-appointed "Club" as was the case with the other special editions. In 1986 there was the Cocorico. This means "cock-a-doodle-doo" and tied in with France's entry in the 1986 World Cup. "Le Coq Gaulois" or Gallic rooster is an unofficial national symbol of France. In 1987 came the Bamboo, followed by the 1988 Perrier in association with the mineral water company.

 

The Charleston, having been presented in October 1980 as a one-season "special edition" was incorporated into the regular range in July 1981 in response to its "extraordinary success". By changing the carburetor to achieve 29 hp a top speed of 115 km/h was achieved. Other changes were a new rear-view mirror and inboard disc brakes at the front wheels. In the 1980s there was a range of four full models:

 

Spécial

Dolly (an improved version of the Spécial)

Club (discontinued in the early 1980s)

Charleston (an improved version of the Club)

 

In Germany and Switzerland a special edition called, "I Fly Bleifrei" — "I Fly Lead Free" was launched in 1986, that could use unleaded, instead of then normal leaded petrol and super unleaded. It was introduced mainly because of stricter emissions standards. In 1987 it was replaced by the "Sausss-duck" special edition.

 

EXPORT MARKETS

The 2CV was originally sold in France and some European markets, and went on to enjoy strong sales in Asia, South America, and Africa. During the post-war years Citroën was very focused on the home market, which had some unusual quirks, like puissance fiscale. The management of Michelin was supportive of Citroën up to a point, and with a suspension designed to use Michelin's new radial tyres the Citroën cars clearly demonstrated their superiority over their competitors' tyres. But they were not prepared to initiate the investment needed for the 2CV (or the Citroën DS for that matter) to truly compete on the global stage. Citroën was always under-capitalised until the 1970s Peugeot takeover. The 2CV sold 8,830,679 vehicles; the Volkswagen Beetle, which was available worldwide, sold 21 million units.

 

CONSTRUCTION

The level of technology in the 1948 2CV was remarkable for the era. While colours and detail specifications were modified in the ensuing 42 years, the biggest mechanical change was the addition of front disc brakes (by then already fitted for several years in the mechanically similar Citroën Dyane 6), in October 1981 (for the 1982 model year). The reliability of the car was enhanced by the minimalist simplification of the designers, being air-cooled (with an oil cooler), it had no coolant, radiator, water pump or thermostat. It had no distributor either, just a contact breaker system. Except for the brakes, there were no hydraulic parts on original models; damping was by tuned mass dampers and friction dampers.

 

The 1948 car featured radial tyres, which had just been commercialised; front-wheel drive; rack and pinion steering mounted inside the front suspension cross-tube, away from a frontal impact; rear fender skirts (the suspension design allowed wheel changes without removing the skirts); bolt-on detachable front and rear wings; detachable doors, bonnet (and boot lid after 1960), by "slide out" P-profile sheet metal hinges; flap-up windows, as roll up windows were considered too heavy and expensive.; and detachable full length fabric sunroof and boot lid, for almost pickup-like load-carrying versatility. Ventilation in addition to the sunroof and front flap windows was provided by an opening flap under the windscreen. The car had load adjustable headlights and a heater (heaters were standardised on British economy cars in the 1960s).

 

BODY

The body was constructed of a dual H-frame platform chassis and aircraft-style tube framework, and a very thin steel shell that was bolted to the chassis. Because the original design brief called for a low speed car, little or no attention was paid to aerodynamics; the body had a drag coefficient of Cd=0.51, high by today's standards but typical for the era.

 

The 2CV used the fixed-profile convertible, where the doors and upper side elements of its bodywork remain fixed, while its fabric soft top can be opened. This reduces weight and lowers the centre of gravity, and allows the carrying of long or irregularly shaped items, but the key reason was that fabric was cheaper than steel which was in short supply and expensive after the war. The fixed-profile concept was quite popular in this period.

 

SUSPENSION

The suspension of the 2CV was very soft; a person could easily rock the car side to side dramatically. The swinging arm, fore-aft linked suspension system with inboard front brakes had a much smaller unsprung mass than existing coil spring or leaf spring designs. The design was modified by Marcel Chinon.

 

The system comprises two suspension cylinders mounted horizontally on each side of the platform chassis. Inside the cylinders are two springs, one for each wheel, mounted at each end of the cylinder. The springs are connected to the front leading swinging arm and rear trailing swinging arm, that act like bellcranks by pull rods (tie rods). These are connected to spring seating cups in the middle of the cylinder, each spring being compressed independently, against the ends of the cylinder. Each cylinder is mounted using an additional set of springs, originally made from steel, called "volute" springs, on later models made from rubber. These allow the front and rear suspension to interconnect. When the front wheel is deflected up over a bump, the front pull rod compresses the front spring inside the cylinder, against the front of the cylinder. This also compresses the front "volute" spring pulling the whole cylinder forwards. That action pulls the rear wheel down on the same side via the rear spring assembly and pull rod. When the rear wheel meets that bump a moment later, it does the same in reverse, keeping the car level front to rear. When both springs are compressed on one side when travelling around a bend, or front and rear wheels hit bumps simultaneously, the equal and opposite forces applied to the front and rear spring assemblies reduce the interconnection. It reduces pitching, which is a particular problem of soft car suspension.

 

The swinging arms are mounted with large bearings to "cross tubes" that run side to side across the chassis; combined with the effects of all-independent soft springing and excellent damping, keeps the road wheels in contact with the road surface and parallel to each other across the axles at high angles of body roll. A larger than conventional steering castor angle, ensures that the front wheels are closer to vertical than the rears, when cornering hard with a lot of body roll. The soft springing, long suspension travel and the use of leading and trailing arms means that as the body rolls during cornering the wheelbase on the inside of the corner increases while the wheelbase on the outside of the corner decreases. As the corning forces put more of the car's weight on the inside pair of wheels the wheelbase extends in proportion, keeping the car's weight balance and centre of grip constant. promoting excellent road holding. The other key factor in the quality of its road holding is the very low and forward centre of gravity, provided by the position of the engine and transmission.

 

The suspension also automatically accommodates differing payloads in the car- with four people and cargo on board the wheelbase increases by around 4 cm as the suspension deflects, and the castor angle of the front wheels increases by as much as 8 degrees thus ensuring that ride quality, handling and road holding are almost unaffected by the additional weight. On early cars friction dampers (like a dry version of a multi-plate clutch design) were fitted at the mountings of the front and rear swinging arms to the cross-tubes. Because the rear brakes were outboard, they had extra tuned mass dampers to damp wheel bounce from the extra unsprung mass. Later models had tuned mass dampers ("batteurs") at the front (because the leading arm had more inertia and "bump/thump" than the trailing arm), with hydraulic telescopic dampers / shock absorbers front and rear. The uprated hydraulic damping obviated the need for the rear inertia dampers. It was designed to be a comfortable ride by matching the frequencies encountered in human bipedal motion.

 

This suspension design ensured the road wheels followed ground contours underneath them closely, while insulating the vehicle from shocks, enabling the 2CV to be driven over a ploughed field without breaking any eggs, as its design brief required. More importantly it could comfortably and safely drive at reasonable speed, along the ill-maintained and war-damaged post-war French Routes Nationales. It was commonly driven "Pied au Plancher" — "foot to the floor" by their peasant owners.

 

FRONT-WHEEL DRIVE AND GEARBOX

Citroën had developed expertise with front-wheel drive due to the pioneering Traction Avant, which was the first mass-produced steel monocoque front-wheel-drive car in the world. The 2CV was originally equipped with a sliding splined joint, and twin Hookes type universal joints on its driveshafts; later models used constant velocity joints and a sliding splined joint.

 

The gearbox was a four-speed manual transmission, an advanced feature on an inexpensive car at the time. The gear stick came horizontally out of the dashboard with the handle curved upwards. It had a strange shift pattern: the first was back on the left, the second and third were inline, and the fourth (or the S) could be engaged only by turning the lever to the right from the third. Reverse was opposite first. The idea was to put the most used gears opposite each other — for parking, first and reverse; for normal driving, second and third. This layout was adopted from the H-van's three-speed gearbox.

 

OTHER

The windscreen wipers were powered by a purely mechanical system: a cable connected to the transmission; to reduce cost, this cable also powered the speedometer. The wipers' speed was therefore dependent on car speed. When the car was waiting at a crossroad, the wipers were not powered; thus, a handle under the speedometer allowed them to be operated by hand. From 1962, the wipers were powered by a single-speed electric motor. The car came with only a speedometer and an ammeter.

 

The 2CV design predates the invention of disc brake, so 1948–1981 cars have drum brakes on all four wheels. In October 1981, front disc brakes were fitted. Disc brake cars use green LHM fluid – a mineral oil – which is not compatible with standard glycol brake fluid.

 

ENGINES

The engine was designed by Walter Becchia and Lucien Gerard, with a nod to the classic BMW boxer motorcycle engine. It was an air-cooled, flat-twin, four-stroke, 375 cc engine with pushrod operated overhead valves and a hemispherical combustion chamber. The earliest model developed 9 PS (6.6 kW) DIN (6.5 kW). A 425 cc engine was introduced in 1955, followed in 1968 by a 602 cc one giving 28 bhp (21 kW) at 7000 rpm. With the 602 cc engine, the tax classification of the car changed so that it became a 3CV, but the name remained unchanged. A 435 cc engine was introduced at the same time to replace the 425 cc; the 435 cc engine car was named 2CV 4 while the 602 cc took the name 2CV 6 (a variant in Argentina took the name 3CV). The 602 cc engine evolved to the M28 33 bhp (25 kW) in 1970; this was the most powerful engine fitted to the 2CV. A new 602 cc giving 29 bhp (22 kW) at a slower 5,750 rpm was introduced in 1979. This engine was less powerful, and more efficient, allowing lower fuel consumption and better top speed, but decreased acceleration. All 2CVs with the M28 engine can run on unleaded petrol.

 

The 2CV used the wasted spark ignition system for simplicity and reliability and had only speed-controlled ignition timing, no vacuum advance taking account of engine load.

 

Unlike other air-cooled cars (such as the Volkswagen Beetle and the Fiat 500) the 2CV's engine had no thermostat valve in its oil system. The engine needed more time for oil to reach normal operating temperature in cold weather. All the oil passed through an oil cooler behind the fan and received the full cooling effect regardless of the ambient temperature. This removes the risk of overheating from a jammed thermostat that can afflict water- and air-cooled engines and the engine can withstand many hours of running under heavy load at high engine speeds even in hot weather. To prevent the engine running cool in cold weather (and to improve the output of the cabin heater) all 2CVs were supplied with a grille blind (canvas on early cars and a clip-on plastic item called a "muff" in the owner's handbook, on later ones) which blocked around half the aperture to reduce the flow of air to the engine.

 

The engine's design concentrated on the reduction of moving parts. The cooling fan and dynamo were built integrally with the one-piece crankshaft, removing the need for drive belts. The use of gaskets, seen as another potential weak point for failure and leaks, was also kept to a minimum. The cylinder heads are mated to the cylinder barrels by lapped joints with extremely fine tolerances, as are the two halves of the crankcase and other surface-to-surface joints.

 

As well as the close tolerances between parts, the engine's lack of gaskets was made possible by a unique crankcase ventilation system. On any 2-cylinder boxer engine such as the 2CV's, the volume of the crankcase reduces by the cubic capacity of the engine when the pistons move together. This, combined with the inevitable small amount of "leakage" of combustion gases past the pistons leads to a positive pressure in the crankcase which must be removed in the interests of engine efficiency and to prevent oil and gas leaks. The 2CV's engine has a combined engine "breather" and oil filler assembly which contains a series of rubber reed valves. These allow positive pressure to escape the crankcase (to the engine air intake to be recirculated) but close when the pressure in the crankcase drops as the pistons move apart. Because gases are expelled but not admitted this creates a slight vacuum in the crankcase so that any weak joint or failed seal causes air to be sucked in rather than allowing oil to leak out.

 

These design features made the 2CV engine highly reliable; test engines were run at full speed for 1000 hours at a time, equivalent to driving 80,000 km at full throttle. They also meant that the engine was "sealed for life" — for example, replacing the big-end bearings required specialised equipment to dismantle and reassemble the built-up crankshaft, and as this was often not available the entire crankshaft had to be replaced. The engine is very under-stressed and long-lived, so this is not a major issue.

 

If the starter motor or battery failed, the 2CV had the option of hand-cranking, the jack handle serving as starting handle through dogs on the front of the crankshaft at the centre of the fan. This feature, once universal on cars and still common in 1948 when the 2CV was introduced, was kept until the end of production in 1990.

 

PERFORMANCE

In relation to the 2CV's performance and acceleration, it was joked that it went "from 0–60 km/h in one day". The original 1948 model that produced 9 hp had a 0–40 time of 42.4 seconds and a top speed of 64 km/h, far below the speeds necessary for North American highways or the German Autobahns of the day. The top speed increased with engine size to 80 km/h in 1955, 84 km/h in 1962, 100 km/h in 1970, and 115 km/h in 1981.

 

The last evolution of the 2CV engine was the Citroën Visa flat-2, a 652 cc featuring electronic ignition. Citroën never sold this engine in the 2CV, but some enthusiasts have converted their 2CVs to 652 engines, or even transplanted Citroën GS or GSA flat-four engines and gearboxes.

 

In the mid-1980s Car magazine editor Steve Cropley ran and reported on a turbocharged 602 cc 2CV that was developed by engineer Richard Wilsher.

 

END OF PRODUCTION

The 2CV was produced for 42 years, the model finally succumbing to customer demands for speed, in which this ancient design had fallen significantly behind modern cars, and safety. Although the front of the chassis was designed to fold up, to form a crumple zone according to a 1984 Citroën brochure, in common with other small cars of its era its crashworhiness was very poor by modern standards. (The drive for improved safety in Europe happened from the 1990s onwards, and accelerated with the 1997 advent of Euro NCAP.) Its advanced underlying engineering was ignored or misunderstood by the public, being clothed in an anachronistic body. It was the butt of many a joke, especially by Jasper Carrott in the UK.

 

Citroën had attempted to replace the ultra-utilitarian 2CV several times (with the Dyane, Visa, and the AX). Its comically antiquated appearance became an advantage to the car, and it became a niche product which sold because it was different from anything else on sale. Because of its down-to-earth economy car style, it became popular with people who wanted to distance themselves from mainstream consumerism — "hippies" — and also with environmentalists.

 

Although not a replacement for the 2CV, the AX supermini, a conventional urban runabout, unremarkable apart from its exceptional lightness, seemed to address the car makers' requirements at the entry level in the early 1990s. Officially, the last 2CV, a Charleston, which was reserved for Mangualde's plant manager, rolled off the Portuguese production line on 27 July 1990, although five additional 2CV Spécials were produced afterwards.[citation needed]

 

In all a total of 3,867,932 2CVs were produced. Including the commercial versions of the 2CV, Dyane, Méhari, FAF, and Ami variants, the 2CV's underpinnings spawned 8,830,679 vehicles.

 

The 2CV was outlived by contemporaries such as the Mini (out of production in 2000), Volkswagen Beetle (2003), Renault 4 (1992), Volkswagen Type 2 (2013) and Hindustan Ambassador (originally a 1950s Morris Oxford), (2014).

 

CONTINUED POPULARITY

The Chrysler CCV or Composite Concept Vehicle developed in the mid-1990s is a concept car designed to illustrate new manufacturing methods suitable for developing countries. The car is a tall, roomy four-door sedan of small dimensions. The designers at Chrysler said they were inspired to create a modernised 2CV.

 

The company Sorevie of Lodève was building 2CVs until 2002. The cars were built from scratch using mostly new parts. But as the 2CV no longer complied with safety regulations, the cars were sold as second-hand cars using chassis and engine numbers from old 2CVs.

 

The long-running 2CV circuit racing series organized by The Classic 2CV Racing Club continues to be popular in the UK.

 

English nicknames include "Flying Dustbin", "Tin Snail", "Dolly", "Tortoise"

 

WIKIPEDIA

A treasured sight of many pilgrimages, both for practicality and superstition’s sake, the Aquam de Petra lies deep within the rocky crags of the North Hills, and is one of the main tributaries of the Great River. This seemingly bizarre phenomenon – a life-giving spring in the midst of a stony wasteland – has caused hundreds through the ages to revere this spot as a source of Life. Some even believe that a cup filled at this spring will give the drinker eternal life.

_______________________________________________

 

Wow, it feels so good to be posting! This is a project I’ve been working on for the last months in between school and stuff, after scrapping some summer WIPs. Not really sure how much I like it…it really good from some angles irl, and not so good from others. It was pretty intense fun to build though! ;)

 

Now to begin work on some CCC entries! :D

 

Soli Deo Gloria!

 

Coachwork by Carrozzeria Pinin Farina

Chassis n° B521004

n° 1 of 7

 

Bonhams

Les Grandes Marques du Monde à Paris

The Grand Palais Éphémère

Place Joffre

Parijs - Paris

Frankrijk - France

February 2023

 

Estimated : € 800.000 - 1.000.000

Sold for € 718.750

 

"The car body is characterised by its streamlined silhouette, tapered toward the tail, the smooth sides, the raised circular front air intake, which generates the central part of the hood, also circular in cross section. Evidently there is the influence of the aeronautics of the era." - Antoine Prunet, Pininfarina.

 

Offered here is the very first of Pinin Farina's PF200 show cars, built for promotional purposes to generate publicity and never intended for series production, although Pinin Farina (as it was then) went on to build a further six examples, some open, some closed. The seven PF200s were slightly different from one another, although all featured the signature circular front air intake reminiscent of the North American F-86 Sabre jet fighter. The concept made its debut in 1952 when this very car, chassis number '1004', was displayed on the Pinin Farina stand at the Turin Motor Show. Italian film star and lover of fine cars, Renato Rascel (real name Renato Ranucci) met Sergio 'Pinin' Farina at the 1952 Turin Show and purchased '1004'. The side air intakes and six exhaust pipes are delightful details, while instead of stowing the soft-top behind the seats, like many open cars of the period, Pinin Farina arranged for the PF200's hood to fold down out of sight within the body, thus preserving its streamlined appearance.

 

The PF200 used the chassis and running gear of the Lancia Aurelia B52, one of the most advanced sporting cars of the era. At this time Pinin Farina had yet to supplant Carrozzeria Vignale as Ferrari's coachbuilder of choice, and much of its best work from this period was on Lancia chassis. One of the most influential designs to emerge from Italy post-WW2, Lancia's classic Aurelia was the first car ever to employ a V6 engine. Designed in wartime by Francesco de Virgilio and launched at the 1950 Turin Motor Show, the Aurelia B10 was powered by a 1,754cc 60-degree V6 of all-aluminium construction that used overhead valves operated via short pushrods instead of Lancia's traditional overhead camshafts.

 

An advanced unitary-construction design, the Aurelia retained Lancia's 'sliding pillar' independent front suspension, first seen on the Lambda, but used a novel semi-trailing-arm layout at the rear, another world first. The transmission too, was unusual, comprising a two-piece prop-shaft and combined gearbox/rear transaxle on which were mounted the inboard brakes, though for once this was not an entirely new departure. The original B10 saloon was joined the following year by the landmark, Pininfarina-styled B20 Coupé, a fastback '2+2' on a shortened wheelbase which, with its combination of sports car performance and saloon car practicality, can be said to have introduced the Gran Turismo concept to the world. Models with longer wheelbases and larger engines in various states of tune followed. To cater for independent coachbuilders, Lancia offered the longer-wheelbase (291cm) B50 chassis, based on B10 mechanicals, and later the B52, which came with the 2.0-litre engine of the B20/B21. In total Lancia built only 98 B52 chassis, the last of which was delivered in 1953.

 

Bought new by famous Italian film star, Renato Ranucci, in 1952 at the Turin Motor Show, '1004' changed ownership in 1958 and a couple of times more between then and 1961. It then seems to have remained in the same family for some 13 years before being bought by the current owner in 1974.

A passionate collector of classic cars, with a passion for flying, the current owner is himself a pilot of light aircraft, and during military service also of jets. He found the Lancia in a very poor condition; the car was in pieces but what caught his eye was the circular front air-intake: it looked more like a jet than a car so you can imagine how his passion for cars and aircraft coalesced in the same object - it was love at first sight.

 

The car was restored in the 1980s by the current owner, who commissioned what were then the best specialists for the job. The painstaking professional restoration took almost 10 years, a period in which the owner and the restorer, Mr. Giancarlo Cappa, became very close friends after doing a lot of research about this Pf200 together. During the restoration and despite the time-consuming research, some details had to be altered as replacements for some of the unique parts were unobtainable. The restoration notes/receipts for 35,000,000 liras are on file, an astronomical amount for a restoration if you know that a monthly salary for a worker at that time was around 300.000/350.000 liras. The car is finished in the lovely colour scheme of dark grey with a tan interior.

 

Once the Lancia came finally 'home', the owner put the car in one of the living rooms of the main house, which had ramp access. It was here that the family spent most evenings, especially at weekends. The car stood in the middle of the room as the centrepiece. The owner's rationale was very clear: the PF200 is a masterpiece and a work of art, which fully justified having it in your main living room. If you are not driving the car, indoors is the best place to enjoy it the most!

 

In the 1990s the engine failed and was removed, and it was then decided to replace it with one of an identical type (no. B21*2700*). Unfortunately, the original block was not retained, the importance of 'matching numbers' not being appreciated at that time. Carefully looked after by its long-term custodian, the car is presented today in mainly preserved condition following its 1980s restoration, which is now showing signs of age, especially in the paint. Residing for almost 50 years with the same owner, the car has its own dedicated space in the garage with magnificent 'Lancia PF200' badging on the wall.

 

On old Italian plates, the car has featured on posters and in magazines, etc and comes with an Italian libretto and a quite exceptional history file. The latter contains important correspondence with Pininfarina dating from 1981, which confirms that the car belonged to Renato Rascel; that it is the example exhibited at the 1952 Turin Motor Show; and that it was the first of a 'series' of seven PF200s of the same type built by hand, each of them different from the others even if only by some small functional or ornamental details, very often requested by the customer. Unfortunately, a fire at the Pininfarina factory destroyed all records of the PF200s and there are no photographs of this car's interior. The fascinating history file also contains lots of other correspondence; various articles; period photographs (1970s onwards); restoration photos (1980s); and the all-important Automobile Club D'Italia document confirming build details and ownership history. With the recent announcement of the re-birth of the Lancia Aurelia model, this unique car will become all-the-more collectible and is a unique opportunity for any major collector.

It struck me yesterday, as I explored the historical sites of once thriving shipyards, the priceless nature of the term ‘living memory’.

A term made all the more poignant as we enter Remembrance Day and collectively recall those no longer with us.

What struck me was just how many questions I’ve wanted to ask since my parents and grandparents left and the gap they leave now they’re no longer around to answer them.

Mum & Dad for example, they were holders of their parents oral traditions, their stories, their experiences and those of their extended friends and family.

Now, leafing through old photo albums or written records I’m suddenly aware of their being nobody left with the answers to the arising questions of who and when or where.

In a way we’re all custodians of living memories, the retainers of records of how things were during our time here.

I’m also wondering now whether my ramblings are in fact a way of reaching through time to generations yet to arrive.

They may well be and equally they may also disappear like all the tape cassettes I made in my youth or the countless notebooks I filled when the business was at full tilt.

Still survive or not, the ramblings serve their own purpose in that they remind me as I’m writing them about what’s happened and how it fits into the wider scheme of things.

Witnessing Mum’s gradual and severe memory loss through vascular dementia seems to have heightened my own interest in the subject of memory.

The close proximity to her experience provided an even greater sense of appreciation for the precious nature of the time any of us have.

And so, yesterday’s visit to the sites of the former shipyards focused in upon the preservation of living memories and a place for these to be held for the wider community.

We met with the heritage architects Donald Insall Associates and they’ve now agreed to design a vital part of the project to return the OAKDALE to the Mersey.

Richard who was with us has award winning experience in the sector and had worked on similar preservation projects before, so we took another great step forward yesterday.

The end result will be a combination of commercial practicality blended with working demonstrations of how things were done on the site over hundreds of years.

Another part of the jigsaw fell into place yesterday in a call from the logistics expert regarding the transportation of the boat from Cumbria back to Merseyside.

As the project manager I’d sought a second opinion and it proved to be the right call as the logistics expert and the shipwright are now firmly on the same page.

Next step is finding a suitable dry-dock for the restoration. The poignant thing being, all this will one day be a distant memory.

Luckily though, there’s plenty of young minds already gathering in the wings, waiting to carry the metaphorical baton ever onwards!

During my career in design at London Underground one of the more fraught subjects for discussion was the pull between architectural design and "purity" versus commercial revenue from advertising and we went to great lengths to ensure that valuable campaigns did not stray into problematic issues such as safety or being visually 'overwhelming' or distracting to passengers. Needless to say the latter was the one theat advertisers most notably wanted, unsurprisingly, to achieve! It was often recalled that this debate had been present in the Underground Group nealry a century before as this article from Advertising Display in August 1927 shows.

 

When Piccadilly Circus station's redevelopment was opened in 1928 the area above the escalators was decorated by a vast fresco by in oil paintings by artist Stephen Bone. The philosopical 'tussle' that Frank Pick and Charles Holden, amongst others, went through was often with regard to applied art rather than art being an inherent part of the architectural design - as in the scultpures carved in-situ on the façade of 55 Broadway in 1929. Quite what was the intention of the Bone frescos, or the outcome of the debate, is a subject for some discussion but by the early 1930s they were replaced by a vast advert for Ovaltine; perhaps a sign that even in London Underground revenue overcame artisitic scruples. I have heard that the Bone frescos failed rapidly due to damp and water ingress and that, if I am honest, would not surprise me.

 

The other 'well-known' advertiisng murals, of which pictures are seen, are of the ones at Bank Station (Central line) around the head of the esclators. These, for Remington typewriters and Ripolin Paint, are discussed int his article and the paintings by Mary Adshead are shown. Perhaps Ripolin provided better paint as these seem to have had great longevity. Quite when they 'went' I do not know; the contract may have expired and required 'removal' as would be the case now but besides that this area at Bank was completely lost in the WW2 bombing during the Blitz with consequent loss of life.

 

The others shown here, and less frequently seen, are the "Golden Glory" friezes over the escalators at the newly reconstructed Bond Street station where they replaced the original lifts. These adverts were for Pears Soap. Oddly the artist is not given here. Of equal interest are the views of no less than four contemporary poster artists and designers all of whom are regarded as 'masters' in their field and who produced posters for the Underground Group at the time; Edward McKnight Kauffer, Austin Cooper, Charles Paine and Gregory Brown. The views of the latter, Gregory Brown, are most vehement of the group and I wonder how the discussions went between him and Frank Pick the next time he was called in to talk about poster commissions!

 

That aside it is interetsing to see the debate that was had at the time in terms of the desirabilty and practicality of such schemes and the fact that a hundred years on, other than the introduction of vinyl and digital screens, the debate is still much the same.

 

For someone like me, who has set himself the task to visit and document photographically as many as possible of those wonderful Romanesque churches and monasteries, a trip to Normandy is both cause for despair and for enchanted amazement. Despair, because the Norman architect, at the time of the Romanesque which coincided with the conquest of Britain by Duke William in 1066 and the tremendous influx of power and riches that ensued, that architect is above all focused on efficiency in the projection of power and majesty. For that architect, the absolute must, the beginning and the end of church building, is the wall. Sculpture doesn’t matter. When it exists at all, it is often relegated to simple modillions under the cornice that supports the roof. The bare wall, perfectly aligned and appareled, reigns as the undisputed king of Norman Romanesque. He who likes to smile and wonder at the ingenuity and inventiveness of Mediæval sculptors, is most of the time sorely disappointed by the utter lack of adornment of those great and tall Norman churches, next to which the barest Cistercian sanctuaries look positively alive and overflowing under the comparatively unbridled abundance of rinceaux, human figures and assorted creatures.

 

No sculpture to speak of, then, is the norm in Normandy. But on the other hand, the masterfulness of the architects and masons turns the job of putting one stone on top of another into a veritable art: it is here, in Normandy, that was first experimented the very innovation that would bring about the end of the Romanesque: the voûte d’ogives, the rib vaulting from which the whole world of Gothic derives. It is in Normandy that it was first imagined and implemented, even as the 11th century hadn’t yet come to a close. We will see where, and how.

 

My photographic tour of Lower Normandy had to begin, of course, by the Abbaye aux Hommes and the Abbaye aux Dames in Caen. Now that we have covered those, I would like to show you a few other Romanesque churches, much less well-known, yet fully worthy of our interest.

 

The first documentary source I consulted when I was preparing this trip was, as usual, the Normandie romane book published by Zodiaque —both volumes, as Romanesque Normandy is so rich that two books were needed to properly cover it. Unfortunately, and owing to some of those unforeseen circumstances that so often intrude upon our lives, I do not have those books with me at the moment. Therefore, I am not able to use the valuable material they hold to compose my captions; still, I will do my best in their absence... with my apologies. I hope the books will be sent back to me by whoever I made the mistake to leave them with, so that I won’t have to buy new copies.

 

•• Contrary to abbey and priory churches, which were often built in quiet and peaceful (not to say lonely) locales, away from the hustle and bustle of villages and towns (even if such cores of human activity often ended up growing from scratch around them!), parochial churches were usually erected in a village or very close by.

 

Dedicated to Saint Peter and listed as a Historic Landmark on the very first list drawn up in 1840 by Minister Prosper Mérimée (which says a lot about its architectural and artistic value, even by 19th century standards), the church of Thaon was built in a lonely vale because the parish, at the time, did not include a village per se, but was rather a collection of scattered hamlets: the church was built more or less in the middle. Tradition has been upheld up to present day: the church is still alone, with only one mill built nearby to benefit from the driving force of the current of River Mue —although, if truth be told, I have to admit that, with the concept of practicality emerging in the 19th century, a new church was consecrated in 1840 smack in the center of what had in the meantime become the most important of those hamlets of old: Thaon. Saint Peter was henceforth known as “the Old Church”.

 

Archæological digs carried out between 1998 and 2011 have shown that the locale was used during the Antiquity as a fanum, probably in connection with a nearby ford that allowed for crossing the river. A small necropolis developed during the 300s and 400s, then a first paleo-Christian edifice was built during the 600s, replaced by a new one in the next century. A first Romanesque church was erected around 1050–80, of which only the bell tower remains today. It is the oldest part of the second Romanesque church, the one we can still admire today, which was built in 1130–50 as an extension of the older church in all directions: the nave was extended by two rows to the West, a wider and much deeper choir was built with a flat apse and aisles were added. It is surrounded by more than 400 tombs from the 7th to the 18th century, which have been excavated and studied by archæologists.

 

During the Romanesque Age, the land was owned by the powerful barons of Creully, who possessed large tracts of land in Lower Normandy; this probably accounts for the architectural quality of the old church, which was placed under the direct patronage of the chapter of canons of the Bayeux Cathedral. This monument has come to us practically intact, except for the aforementioned aisles that were razed around 1720, probably because the terrain had become marshier and threatened the stability of the entire building. Around the same time, the floor level was raised to help fight dampness, of which the inside still exhibits many traces.

 

The idea behind this closeup view of the bell tower is to enable you to appreciate the details of the architecture and modénature (surface decoration) on this oldest part of the church, from around 1025.

The Prophet is a concept ship designed more as a showpiece rather than for practicality. The ship is powered by a rotary anti-gravity engine with the ships-rims functioning as stylized radiators for the ships components, with heat pipes connecting it to the main frame.

 

The ship can carry 2 passengers and 2 pilots with a large viewing angle from the cockpit.

 

The ship also features a set of landing gear and an easy access lower-able ramp directly into the cockpit.

 

The SHIP is 138 studs (1.1m) metres long.

 

Bonhams : The Autumn Sale 2020

Estimated : € 25.000 - 30.000

Sold for € 14.375

 

Autoworld

www.autoworld.be

Brussels - Belgium

September 2020

 

Immensely popular during the 1950s and 1960s, the diminutive 'bubble car' or 'cabin scooter' is currently enjoying a revival of interest - not surprisingly given the congested state of today's urban roads. Nowadays though, the Bubble's attraction has just as much to do with fashion as practicality. One of the more successful designs of the cabin scooter's heyday was the BMW Isetta, a design the German firm manufactured under license from its Italian originator, Iso. (The name means 'little Iso'.) Faced with competition from the FIAT 500 and 600, both of which were seen as 'proper'; motor cars, albeit small, Renzo Rivolta's Iso was not selling well in its native Italy and it would be left to BMW to fully exploit the design's potential.

 

Although at first glance a three-wheeler, the Isetta built for the German market used a pair of closely spaced wheels at the rear and was powered by a BMW single-cylinder four-stroke motorcycle engine of 247cc, replacing the original's noisy two-stroke power unit. Isettas destined for overseas markets had a single rear wheel. The coachwork of early examples featured a single side-hinged door at the front, a roll-top sunroof and fixed side windows, while the steering wheel and dashboard were attached to the door to facilitate entry. The two-seater Isetta's most popular accessory, understandably so given the limited interior space, was a small luggage rack mounted at the rear. Later (1957-onwards) models incorporated sliding side windows for better ventilation. These improved models displaced 297cc, and the 'big' Isetta 300 was reckoned capable of 65mph (105km/h) and 55mpg (5.1 litres/100km). Approximately 162,000 Isettas had been made by the time production ceased in 1962.

 

Delivered new to Belgium, this BMW Isetta 300 still carries the plaque of the supplying dealer, 'J Dumont, Poperinge'. The car is most unusual in never having been restored and remains highly original, retaining matching numbers. Reported as in very good working order and said to drive very well, this charming little microcar is offered with its original Belgian registration document.

Yes, believe it or not, the origin of the mighty Range Rover goes back to the communistic clumsiness of British Leyland, where, in one of their rare moments of genius, they realised the dream that a contemporary 4x4 could be married with the luxuries and styling of a regular saloon car!

 

The original concept of the Range Rover can be traced back to the groundbreaking original Land Rover of the 1940's, where upon its introduction in 1948 as an extended development of the American Willy's Jeep, the Land Rover had taken the world by storm and become the most desired 4x4 in the world. Light, practical, endlessly tunable and easy to maintain, the Land Rover was a hit across the globe, primarily in the colonies of the British Empire, taking people to remote regions that had once been only within the reach of a Horse or a Camel. Initially, a plan was made to create a saloon style version of the Land Rover in 1949 with the help of coachbuilder Tickford, dubbed the 'Land Rover Station-Wagon', but this was not exactly a success and sold only 700 examples before the car was withdrawn from production in 1951. The main features of the Station-Wagon were a wooden-framed body, seven seats, floor carpets, a heater, a one-piece windscreen and other car-like features, its hand-built nature kept prices high.

In 1954 Land Rover took another stab at the Station Wagon concept, only this time it was built in-house rather than outsourced to a different company. This version's primary market was for those who required an off-road vehicle with greater capacity, such as ambulances or even small buses in remote regions such as the Scottish Highlands. But even though this second incarnation of the Station Wagon was available with features such as an interior light, heater, door and floor trims and upgraded seats, the basic Land Rover roots of this car meant it was still tough and capable, but the firm suspension made its road performance somewhat mediocre.

 

In 1958, Land Rover took yet another stab with the Road Rover, a development of combining the Land Rover chassis and running gear with the internal furnishings and body of a regular saloon car. The intended audience of the Road Rover was again in the remote British Colonies of Africa and the Australian Outback, where the firm suspension would be useful on the long, uneven roads. By the 1960's however, developments across the pond in the United States were starting to rock Rover's boat, as the newly coined Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) began to make progress. International Harvester released the Scout, and Ford the Bronco, offering a different blend of off and on-road ability from existing utility 4x4s such as the Land Rover and the Jeep, proving capable of good on-road comfort and speed while retaining more than adequate off-road ability for most private users. The Jeep Wagoneer proved the concept further, being both spacious and practical, but still with the raunchy off-road abilities to conquer the harsh American terrain.

 

Being frontline observers to this, Rover dealers in the United States looked on in horror as the American motor industry cornered the market for the SUV, and through frustration the president of Rover's USA division sent head office a Land Rover Series II 88 fitted with a Buick V8, designed for contemporary American pickup trucks, which offered far greater on-road performance and refinement than any Land Rover then in production.

 

Things came full circle though thanks to a man named Charles Spencer King, a former apprentice at Rolls Royce and one of the most prominent figures in the ownership of Rover and its transition to British Leyland. Taking over the development, he began the development program with the 100-inch Station Wagon project, taking the original concepts of the previous Road Rover and fitting it with coil springs after coming to the conclusion that only long-travel coil springs could provide the required blend of luxury car comfort and Land Rover's established off-road ability. His realisation of this apparently came when he drove a Rover P6 across rough scrubland adjacent to Land Rover's Solihull Factory, but was also helped by the fact that Land Rover purchased the coil springs from a Ford Bronco and began developing from those. Permanent 4WD was also necessary so as to provide both adequate handling and to reliably absorb the power that would be required by the vehicle if it was to be competitive, which came through in the form of a new transmission known as the Land Rover 101 Forward Control. The final piece to the puzzle though was the use of the Buick derived Rover V8, a strong, reliable, lightweight and endlessly tunable engine. In addition to the regular V8, the car was fitted with both a starting handle for emergencies, and carburettors to help continue to supply fuel at extreme angles.

 

The final design, launched in 1970 with bodywork styled largely by the engineering team rather than David Bache's styling division, was marketed as 'A Car For All Reasons'. In its original guise, the Range Rover was more capable off-road than the Land Rover but was much more comfortable, offering a top speed in excess of 100mph, a towing capacity of 3.5 tons, spacious accommodation for five people and groundbreaking features such as a four-speed, dual-range, permanent four-wheel-drive gearbox and hydraulic disc brakes on all wheels. The body was constructed, in keeping with other Rover products, of lightweight aluminium, and in its first incarnation was only available as a two-door utilitarian runabout, rather than the five-door luxury car we know today. This was rectified in 1981 when a 4-door version was made available, but this doesn't mean that the Range Rover wasn't a success before this change.

 

Upon its launch in June 1970, the Range Rover was lauded with critical acclaim, and Rover was praised for succeeding in marrying the practicalities of a modern 4x4 with the luxury capabilities of a standard road car. With a top speed of 95mph and a 0-60 acceleration of less than 15 seconds, performance was stated as being better than many family saloon cars of its era, and off-road performance was good, owing to its long suspension travel and high ground clearance. The bulky but practical design was also praised, with many considering it a piece of artwork, with one example being put on display in the Louvre in Paris! Early celebrity ownership also helped the sales quota, but not in the same way you'd expect today. Instead of Musicians and Movie Stars buying up stashes of Range Rovers like they do nowadays, people of established wealth such as Princess Diana and Government bodies became proud custodians of these mighty machines.

 

Problems however were quick to occur, as let's not forget, this was a British Leyland product. Reliability was a major issue, with strike cars being especially poor as many would leave the factory with vital components missing or not installed properly. To save costs, many pieces of the cars were carried over from other Leyland products, with switches and dials being donated from Austin Allegros, and the door handles coming direct from Morris Marinas. Name any of the faults endemic to British Leyland products of the time, and the Range Rover suffered from the same curse, be they mechanical, electric, cosmetic, or, worst of all, the demon rust!

 

But the Range Rover survived to see the 1980's despite its faults, and after the introduction of an extra set of doors it started to gain a true identity as the luxury motor of choice for the new money. With the additional 5-door layout, new variants such as the long wheelbase Vogue and the SE (Special Equipment) versions took many of the luxury items of the Jaguar XJ series such as leather seats and hazelnut wooden trim and placed them into the Range Rover. In the 1980s as well, special utility versions began to be developed, including a 6x6 Fire Tender for airfields and small airports, Ambulances for military bases and remote regions, and one special variant for his holiness the Pope, affectionately dubbed the Popemobile!

 

However, towards the late 1980's the Range Rover in its original incarnation was starting to look very much its age. The angular design was looking tired, and internally its utilitarian roots were in evidence. The dashboard was not much like that of a regular saloon car, but more a bus or a truck, with a huge steering wheel like that from a tractor, and was not particularly well equipped. Land Rover however intended to narrow the Range Rover's portfolio to the truly luxury market rather than having the low end versions which didn't sell as well due to their expense. In 1989 Land Rover launched the Discovery, which was similar in size to the Range Rover but cheaper and given a more family layout with seats and furnishings being carried over from the Austin Montego. To bring the Range Rover back into the front line of luxury motors for the 1990's, Rover Group (the descendant of British Leyland) put together a plan to design a new car under the chassis codenumber P38A (or just P38 for short). Four years of development and £300 million later, the car was launched to a whirlwind of critical acclaim. With a beautifully equipped interior, a more car-like design of dashboard and with a wider variety of luxury trim levels, including the personalised Autobiography editions, the P38 was the first of the mighty Range Rovers to appeal to the bling-bling generation.

 

This, however, left the original Range Rover out in the cold, and even though it was still a much loved part of the British motoring scene, the time had come for the original, dubbed the Range Rover Classic after launch of the P38. The last of the original Range Rovers slunk silently of the production line at Solihull in 1996, with production now fully based on the new P38, as well as to future developments such as the Freelander of 1997 and ongoing Discovery and Defender. Today original Range Rovers are somewhat easy to come by depending on where you look. In London you'll find a fair few (after all, these were the original Chelsea Tractors), but even in the country you'll bump into these things, especially around my home of Devon where the Range Rover/Land Rover products were perfect for the rugged Moorland terrain. Early British Leyland ones you'd be hard pressed to find, most rusting away in the 1980's, but the Rover Group ones of the 80's and 90's are by no means rare.

 

But even so, 45 years after the first Range Rover left the factory in Solihull, Range Rovers continue to be produced today, now in it's 4th Generation and available in more variations than ever before! Although British Leyland has long since died together with their many woeful products such as the Morris Marina and the Austin Allegro, the Range Rover is very much their legacy, the last of their original products to survive the strikes and bankruptcy, fighting off the fuel crisis and privatisation by the Thatcher Government, and then being split in 2000 by BMW and juggled between owners Ford and TATA Steel, and still being the luxury motorised toy of the modern day rich! :)

One of the most important factors of the success of Stockholm’s bicycle network is that it is conceived and perceived as a system. This means that one can find different categories of bicycle lanes, starting from those that cross the city and connect it to nearby towns, to the neighborhood lanes which take you to the local store, school or the nearby metro station.

 

www.slowtravelstockholm.com/resources-practicalities/biki...

Everyone knows I’m all about sensibility, safety, and practicality. That is why when they posted this month’s LUGNuts challenge having to do with cars with place names, pretty much my only choice was the Chevy Monte Carlo SS. This is your average, every day mid-80’s family sedan with some very minor customizations you probably wouldn’t notice. They’re not even worth mentioning, really.

Wheeled radar dish thing. Who cares about practicality!

Coachwork by Vanden Plas

Chassis n° 14812

 

Les Grandes Marques du Monde au Grand Palais

Bonhams

Parijs - Paris

Frankrijk - France

 

Estimated : € 425.000 - 475.000

Sold

  

"In the scheme of things there are cars, good cars, and super cars. When a machine can be put into the last of these three categories, yet is by no means in the highest-priced class, considerable praise is due to the makers. This model is the latest 4.3-litre Alvis Sports Tourer."

 

One of a dozen cars produced, this fascinating, beautiful and important sports car brings together two companies at their zenith, Vanden Plas and Alvis.

 

On one hand is the 4.3 Litre Alvis, the result of two decades of refinement in their field, the 4.3 was the largest engine they offered, a silky solid six cylinder which was capable of supplying approximately 140bhp to the road, one of its most ground breaking characteristics was transmission between those two aspects, an all synchromesh 4 speed, which was light years ahead of its time and made these cars easier to drive than an E Type! "A Remarkable British Car" and displaying impressive performance figures of 0-50mph in 7.6 seconds and 105mph top speed in standard road trim, the fastest British un-supercharged pre-war sports car.

 

On the other, the famed house of Vanden Plas. Throughout the pre-war era they consistently produced great looking sporting coachwork, predominantly for great British marques, but also the occasional Alfa Romeo, Mercedes or even Austro Daimler. In the 1920s they had blended simplicity with looks for the numerous bodies that they had provided to WO Bentley for his own Cricklewood built cars and when times looked more austere and the 'boy racer' touring cars looked like they might have had their day, Vanden Plas simply modernized that similar look for the 1930s. Their most successful renditions in the mid to late Thirties were these 'cut down' door sports tourers.

 

It is said that their influence for this particular design feature came directly from serial racer and Bentley owner, Malcolm Campbell. In the now low-slung post Vintage chassis' where one sat 'in', rather than 'on' a car, one's elbow could never be comfortable if level with one's shoulder, the solution? Make a notch in the side of the coachwork. Between the ever-stylish Campbell and Vanden Plas' draftsman, this example of practicality was turned into part of the design. A genius move, which was frequently then accented with a side sweep moulding along the body, at once it created one of the design classics of its generation.

 

Those rakish 30s Vanden Plas 'Malcolm Campbell' design cars were somewhat limited in their production, a dozen are known to have been fitted to Derby Bentleys and are among the most coveted of their breed, a single Bugatti Type 57S (sold by Bonhams in 2016) wears the same, but it arguably on the 4.3 Litre Alvis that the coachwork works best. For that reason, the dozen Alvis's so equipped have long been the stand out pinnacle of the marque's production, cherished by the few lucky enough to own one and they rarely appear for sale.

 

Here we proudly present one that can rightfully claim to be the best even among that 'rara avis', with a remarkable history of racing and ownership as well as striking and fresh presentation. As new, 14812 was built new by Alvis with its own definitive specifications being on the short chassis and including a special high compression engine which it retains to this day. Registered for the British roads as 'DHP233' it was used by Alvis as their Demonstrator, it would also be campaigned competitively from its earliest days.

 

At Brooklands on 16th July 1938 the '4.3' made its debut in a rather ignominious fashion, where piloted by G. Hartwell and R.S. Newton in the Light Car Club's 3-Hour Race for Standard Sports Cars, its 'box lost two of gears, not surprisingly the shock of which caused the drivers to put the car into a spin on a couple of occasions and setting it back down the pack. 2 months later after the Summer had passed it was back for an altogether more successful outing, at the Dunlop Jubilee International Car Races, on 24th September. Here, the car was driven by well-known racer, broadcaster and motoring personality Tommy Wisdom in two Outer Circuit handicap races. In Alvis: The Story of the Red Triangle author Ken Day quotes Tommy Wisdom:

"The car I had for test differed from standard models in that the compression ratio of the engine had been increased to 8.5 to 1, which meant that use of 50:50 benzole mixture was necessary. Top-gear ratio was higher than standard and wings, lamps and screen were removed."

 

Aside from these alterations 'DHP 233' remained in remarkably standard form, especially when one considers it was to share the circuit with the likes of the Pacey-Hassan 4½ Litre Bentley single seater special, Duller's monster Duesenberg and a whole host of supercharged European exotica. The drivers too were no slouches either, with the likes of greats such as Jean-Pierre Wimille and Rene Dreyfus also competing in the same events. Although the Alvis was never going to be the quickest car on the circuit the performance figures it achieved were quite exceptional for a largely standard un-supercharged road going sportscar. To quote Tommy Wisdom again: "In the 20 Miles Outer Circuit Handicap race the car averaged better than 110 mph. The standing lap was covered at 92.23 mph, three laps at 111 mph, two at 116 mph and the fastest at 115.29 mph while the maximum on the Railway Straight, according to the revolution counter, was 119 mph." If one considers that the race was won at a speed of 119.86 mph, these figures make for impressive reading.

 

Within the month, 'DHP 233' had completed its service for the Works and was returned to production road trim and showroom condition. It was shipped to agents Hugh Anderson Ltd. Of London and quickly snapped up by its first public owner, Mr. Edgar H. Whale of Watford, Hertfordshire, amazingly its next recorded owner, Mr. J.A. Penman of Penrith, Cumbria, would keep the Alvis until the early 1980s! After two brief sojourns in the UK trade, it emigrated to the U.S. and into one of the greatest collections of sportscars of its day, that of Henry Petronis. If one need further proof of its importance and stature, in this well-honed collection it would share a stable with a Blower Bentley, Supercharged Alfa Romeo, Mercedes S-Type and many more pre-war gems. After this collection was dispersed privately in 2011, the current owner was fortunate enough to become its fourth private owner in 70 years.

 

In the current ownership 'DHP 233' has been treated to a total re-paint and re-trim back to original factory specifications by Red Triangle. Tim Walker Restorations have carried out a total engine rebuild and numerous mechanical works, a detailed in the history files. A firm believer that cars are made to be driven the current owner has used 'DHP 233' on a number of well-known endurance events including: The Flying Scotsman, Cape Horn Rally, The Alpine Trial and 1000 Mile Trial. No expense has been spared to ensure the reliability and usability of the car whilst retaining the originality and historical integrity of this important pre-war sports car. With full-synchromesh gearbox as standard, independent front suspension and a standard pedal layout 'DHP 233' is not only one of the fastest standard pre-war sports cars, but also one of the easiest to drive and this extremely rare and original sports car is ready to be enjoyed by the next owner on numerous international events.

 

Having enjoyed the car for 8 years, the Alvis emerges for public sale for the first time, a great if not the best of all of these legendary cars, it's a wonderful usable all-rounder and deserving of close inspection of the car and its fascinating history file.

Opened in May 2008 by HRH The Princess Royal this Grade II listed building had been carefully renovated and transformed into a public venue for all to enjoy.

 

Designed by Alfred Waterhouse it has been a central part of University life for over a century. The history behind the building is just as interesting as the treasures it contains. Ordinary bricks and terracotta dressings were selected for the Gothic exterior, which led to the coining of the phrase ‘red brick university’ by Bruce Truscot.

 

The interior was finished to a similarly high standard. The entrance hall was elaborately decorated with faience of terracotta, turquoise and buff glazed tiles, while corridors were lined with glazed ivory and brown bricks, divided into bays by arches. Additions such as electric lighting were ahead of their time for buildings of that period.

 

Completed in 1892, costing £53,000 – slightly more than estimated – the building combined architectural drama with practicality.

 

Delays in construction resulted in the cancellation of an opening by the Prince of Wales in June 1892, but it was finally officially opened on 13 December 1892 by the Chancellor of the federal Victoria University, Lord Spencer.

 

Will the rain continue? Get worse? Let up?

 

More important, should I sacrifice fashion for practicality?

HINDU GODDESS KALI

Kālī, also known as Kālikā (Sanskrit: कालिका), is the Hindu goddess associated with empowerment, shakti. She is the fierce aspect of the goddess Durga (Parvati). The name Kali comes from kāla, which means black, time, death, lord of death: Shiva. Since Shiva is called Kāla— the eternal time — the name of Kālī, his consort, also means "Time" or "Death" (as in "time has come"). Hence, Kāli is the Goddess of Time and Change. Although sometimes presented as dark and violent, her earliest incarnation as a figure of annihilation of evil forces still has some influence. Various Shakta Hindu cosmologies, as well as Shākta Tantric beliefs, worship her as the ultimate reality or Brahman. Comparatively recent devotional movements largely conceive Kāli as a benevolent mother goddess. Kālī is represented as the consort of Lord Shiva, on whose body she is often seen standing. Shiva lies in the path of Kali, whose foot on Shiva subdues her anger.

 

ETYMOLOGY

Kālī is the feminine form of kālam ("black, dark coloured"). Kāla primarily means "time" but also means "black" in honor of being the first creation before light itself. Kālī means "the black one" and refers to her being the entity of "time" or "beyond time." Kāli is strongly associated with Shiva, and Shaivas derive the masculine Kāla (an epithet of Shiva) to come from her feminine name. A nineteenth-century Sanskrit dictionary, the Shabdakalpadrum, states: कालः शिवः। तस्य पत्नीति - काली। kālaḥ śivaḥ। tasya patnīti kālī - "Shiva is Kāla, thus, his consort is Kāli" referring to Devi Parvathi being a manifestation of Devi MahaKali.

 

Other names include Kālarātri ("black night"), as described above, and Kālikā ("relating to time"). Coburn notes that the name Kālī can be used as a proper name, or as a description of color.

 

Kāli's association with darkness stands in contrast to her consort, Shiva, who manifested after her in creation, and who symbolises the rest of creation after Time is created. In his supreme awareness of Maya, his body is covered by the white ashes of the cremation ground (Sanskrit: śmaśāna) where he meditates, and with which Kāli is also associated, as śmaśāna-kālī.

 

ORIGINS

Hugh Urban notes that although the word Kālī appears as early as the Atharva Veda, the first use of it as a proper name is in the Kathaka Grhya Sutra (19.7). Kali is the name of one of the seven tongues of Agni, the [Rigvedic] God of Fire, in the Mundaka Upanishad (2:4), but it is unlikely that this refers to the goddess. The first appearance of Kāli in her present form is in the Sauptika Parvan of the Mahabharata (10.8.64). She is called Kālarātri (literally, "black night") and appears to the Pandava soldiers in dreams, until finally she appears amidst the fighting during an attack by Drona's son Ashwatthama. She most famously appears in the sixth century Devi Mahatmyam as one of the shaktis of Mahadevi, and defeats the demon Raktabija ("Bloodseed"). The tenth-century Kalika Purana venerates Kāli as the ultimate reality.

 

According to David Kinsley, Kāli is first mentioned in Hinduism as a distinct goddess around 600 CE, and these texts "usually place her on the periphery of Hindu society or on the battlefield." She is often regarded as the Shakti of Shiva, and is closely associated with him in various Puranas. The Kalika Purana depicts her as the "Adi Shakti" (Fundamental Power) and "Para Prakriti" or beyond nature.

 

WORSHIP & MANTRA

Kali could be considered a general concept, like Durga, and is mostly worshiped in the Kali Kula sect of worship. The closest way of direct worship is Maha Kali or Bhadra Kali (Bhadra in Sanskrit means 'gentle'). Kali is worshiped as one of the 10 Mahavidya forms of Adi Parashakti (Goddess Durga) or Bhagavathy according to the region. The mantra for worship is called Devi Argala Stotram.

Sanskrit: सर्वमङ्गलमाङ्गल्ये शिवे सर्वार्थसाधिके । शरण्ये त्र्यम्बके गौरि नारायणि नमोऽस्तु ते ॥

 

ॐ जयंती मंगल काली भद्रकाली कपालिनी । दुर्गा क्षमा शिवा धात्री स्वाहा स्वधा नमोऽस्तु‍ते ॥

(Sarvamaṅgalamāṅgalyē śivē sarvārthasādhikē . śaraṇyē tryambakē gauri nārāyaṇi namō'stu tē.

Oṃ jayantī mangala kālī bhadrakālī kapālinī . durgā kṣamā śivā dhātrī svāhā svadhā namō'stu‍tē.)

 

TANTRA

Goddesses play an important role in the study and practice of Tantra Yoga, and are affirmed to be as central to discerning the nature of reality as are the male deities. Although Parvati is often said to be the recipient and student of Shiva's wisdom in the form of Tantras, it is Kāli who seems to dominate much of the Tantric iconography, texts, and rituals. In many sources Kāli is praised as the highest reality or greatest of all deities. The Nirvana-tantra says the gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva all arise from her like bubbles in the sea, ceaselessly arising and passing away, leaving their original source unchanged. The Niruttara-tantra and the Picchila-tantra declare all of Kāli's mantras to be the greatest and the Yogini-tantra, Kamakhya-tantra and the Niruttara-tantra all proclaim Kāli vidyas (manifestations of Mahadevi, or "divinity itself"). They declare her to be an essence of her own form (svarupa) of the Mahadevi.

 

In the Mahanirvana-tantra, Kāli is one of the epithets for the primordial sakti, and in one passage Shiva praises her:

 

At the dissolution of things, it is Kāla [Time] Who will devour all, and by reason of this He is called Mahākāla [an epithet of Lord Shiva], and since Thou devourest Mahākāla Himself, it is Thou who art the Supreme Primordial Kālika. Because Thou devourest Kāla, Thou art Kāli, the original form of all things, and because Thou art the Origin of and devourest all things Thou art called the Adya [the Primordial One]. Re-assuming after Dissolution Thine own form, dark and formless, Thou alone remainest as One ineffable and inconceivable. Though having a form, yet art Thou formless; though Thyself without beginning, multiform by the power of Maya, Thou art the Beginning of all, Creatrix, Protectress, and Destructress that Thou art.

 

The figure of Kāli conveys death, destruction, and the consuming aspects of reality. As such, she is also a "forbidden thing", or even death itself. In the Pancatattva ritual, the sadhaka boldly seeks to confront Kali, and thereby assimilates and transforms her into a vehicle of salvation. This is clear in the work of the Karpuradi-stotra, a short praise of Kāli describing the Pancatattva ritual unto her, performed on cremation grounds. (Samahana-sadhana)

 

He, O Mahākāli who in the cremation-ground, naked, and with dishevelled hair, intently meditates upon Thee and recites Thy mantra, and with each recitation makes offering to Thee of a thousand Akanda flowers with seed, becomes without any effort a Lord of the earth. Oh Kāli, whoever on Tuesday at midnight, having uttered Thy mantra, makes offering even but once with devotion to Thee of a hair of his Shakti [his energy/female companion] in the cremation-ground, becomes a great poet, a Lord of the earth, and ever goes mounted upon an elephant.

 

The Karpuradi-stotra clearly indicates that Kāli is more than a terrible, vicious, slayer of demons who serves Durga or Shiva. Here, she is identified as the supreme mistress of the universe, associated with the five elements. In union with Lord Shiva, she creates and destroys worlds. Her appearance also takes a different turn, befitting her role as ruler of the world and object of meditation. In contrast to her terrible aspects, she takes on hints of a more benign dimension. She is described as young and beautiful, has a gentle smile, and makes gestures with her two right hands to dispel any fear and offer boons. The more positive features exposed offer the distillation of divine wrath into a goddess of salvation, who rids the sadhaka of fear. Here, Kali appears as a symbol of triumph over death.

 

BENGALI TRADITION

Kali is also a central figure in late medieval Bengali devotional literature, with such devotees as Ramprasad Sen (1718–75). With the exception of being associated with Parvati as Shiva's consort, Kāli is rarely pictured in Hindu legends and iconography as a motherly figure until Bengali devotions beginning in the early eighteenth century. Even in Bengāli tradition her appearance and habits change little, if at all.

 

The Tantric approach to Kāli is to display courage by confronting her on cremation grounds in the dead of night, despite her terrible appearance. In contrast, the Bengali devotee appropriates Kāli's teachings adopting the attitude of a child, coming to love her unreservedly. In both cases, the goal of the devotee is to become reconciled with death and to learn acceptance of the way that things are. These themes are well addressed in Rāmprasād's work. Rāmprasād comments in many of his other songs that Kāli is indifferent to his wellbeing, causes him to suffer, brings his worldly desires to nothing and his worldly goods to ruin.

 

To be a child of Kāli, Rāmprasād asserts, is to be denied of earthly delights and pleasures. Kāli is said to refrain from giving that which is expected. To the devotee, it is perhaps her very refusal to do so that enables her devotees to reflect on dimensions of themselves and of reality that go beyond the material world.

 

A significant portion of Bengali devotional music features Kāli as its central theme and is known as Shyama Sangeet ("Music of the Night"). Mostly sung by male vocalists, today even women have taken to this form of music. One of the finest singers of Shyāma Sāngeet is Pannalal Bhattacharya.

 

In Bengal, Kāli is venerated in the festival Kali Puja, the new moon day of Ashwin month which coincides with Diwali festival.

 

In a unique form of Kāli worship, Shantipur worships Kāli in the form of a hand painted image of the deity known as Poteshwari (meaning the deity drawn on a piece of cloth).

 

LEGENDS

SLAYER OF RAKTABIJA

In Kāli's most famous legend, Devi Durga (Adi Parashakti) and her assistants, the Matrikas, wound the demon Raktabija, in various ways and with a variety of weapons in an attempt to destroy him. They soon find that they have worsened the situation for with every drop of blood that is dripped from Raktabija he reproduces a clone of himself. The battlefield becomes increasingly filled with his duplicates. Durga, in need of help, summons Kāli to combat the demons. It is said, in some versions, that Goddess Durga actually assumes the form of Goddess Kāli at this time. The Devi Mahatmyam describes:

 

Out of the surface of her (Durga's) forehead, fierce with frown, issued suddenly Kali of terrible countenance, armed with a sword and noose. Bearing the strange khatvanga (skull-topped staff ), decorated with a garland of skulls, clad in a tiger's skin, very appalling owing to her emaciated flesh, with gaping mouth, fearful with her tongue lolling out, having deep reddish eyes, filling the regions of the sky with her roars, falling upon impetuously and slaughtering the great asuras in that army, she devoured those hordes of the foes of the devas.

 

Kali destroys Raktabija by sucking the blood from his body and putting the many Raktabija duplicates in her gaping mouth. Pleased with her victory, Kali then dances on the field of battle, stepping on the corpses of the slain. In the Devi Mahatmya version of this story, Kali is also described as a Matrika and as a Shakti or power of Devi. She is given the epithet Cāṃuṇḍā (Chamunda), i.e. the slayer of the demons Chanda and Munda. Chamunda is very often identified with Kali and is very much like her in appearance and habit.

 

DAKSHINA KALI

In her most famous pose as Daksinakali, popular legends say that Kali, becoming drunk on the blood of her victims on the battlefield, dances with destructive frenzy. She is about to destroy the whole universe when, urged by all the gods, Shiva lies in her way to stop her. In her fury, she fails to see the body of Shiva lying amongst the corpses on the battlefield and steps upon his chest. Realizing Shiva lies beneath her feet, her anger is pacified and she calms her fury. Though not included in any of the puranas, popular legends state that Kali was ashamed at the prospect of keeping her husband beneath her feet and thus stuck her tongue out in shame. The Devi-Bhagavata Purana, which goes into great depths about the goddess Kali, reveals the tongue's actual symbolism.

 

The characteristic icons that depict Kali are the following; unbridled matted hair, open blood shot eyes, open mouth and a drooping tongue; in her hands, she holds a Khadga (bent sword or scimitar) and a human head; she has a girdle of human hands across her waist and an enchanted Shiva lies beneath her feet. Each of these icons represent a deep philosophical epithet. The drooping out-stuck tongue represents her blood-thirst. Lord Shiva beneath her feet represents matter, as Kali is undoubtedly the primeval energy. The depiction of Kali on Shiva shows that without energy, matter lies "dead". This concept has been simplified to a folk-tale depicting a wife placing her foot on her husband and sticking her tongue out in shame. In tantric contexts, the tongue is seen to denote the element (guna) of rajas (energy and action) controlled by sattva.

 

If Kali steps on Shiva with her right foot and holds the sword in her left hand, she is considered to be Dakshina Kali. The Dakshina Kali Temple has important religious associations with the Jagannath Temple and it is believed that Daksinakali is the guardian of the kitchen of the Lord Jagannath Temple. Puranic tradition says that in Puri, Lord Jagannath is regarded as Daksinakalika. Goddess Dakshinakali plays an important role in the 'Niti' of Saptapuri Amavasya.

 

One South Indian tradition tells of a dance contest between Shiva and Kali. After defeating the two demons Sumbha and Nisumbha, Kali takes up residence in the forest of Thiruvalankadu or Thiruvalangadu. She terrorizes the surrounding area with her fierce, disruptive nature. One of Shiva's devotees becomes distracted while performing austerities, and asks Shiva to rid the forest of the destructive goddess. When Shiva arrives, Kali threatens him, claiming the territory as her own. Shiva challenges Kali to a dance contest; both of them dance and Kali matches Shiva in every step that he takes until Shiva takes the "Urdhvatandava" step, by vertically raising his right leg. Kali refuses to perform this step, which would not befit her as a woman, and became pacified.

 

SMASHAN KALI

If the Kali steps out with the left foot and holds the sword in her right hand, she is the terrible form of Mother, the Smashan Kali of the cremation ground. She is worshiped by tantrics, the followers of Tantra, who believe that one's spiritual discipline practiced in a smashan (cremation ground) brings success quickly. Sarda Devi, the consort of Ramakrishna Paramhansa, worshipped Smashan Kali at Dakshineshwar.

 

MATERNAL KALI

Another legend depicts the infant Shiva calming Kali. In this similar story, Kali has defeated her enemies on the battlefield and begun to dance out of control, drunk on the blood of the slain. To calm her down and to protect the stability of the world, Shiva is sent to the battlefield, as an infant, crying aloud. Seeing the child's distress, Kali ceases dancing to care for the helpless infant. She picks him up, kisses his head, and proceeds to breast feed the infant Shiva. This legend is notable because it shows Kali in her benevolent, maternal aspect, with which she is not usually identified.

 

MAHAKALI

Mahakali (Sanskrit: Mahākālī, Devanagari: महाकाली), literally translated as Great Kali, is sometimes considered as a greater form of Kali, identified with the Ultimate reality of Brahman. It can also be used as an honorific of the Goddess Kali, signifying her greatness by the prefix "Mahā-". Mahakali, in Sanskrit, is etymologically the feminized variant of Mahakala or Great Time (which is interpreted also as Death), an epithet of the God Shiva in Hinduism. Mahakali is the presiding Goddess of the first episode of the Devi Mahatmya. Here she is depicted as Devi in her universal form as Shakti. Here Devi serves as the agent who allows the cosmic order to be restored.

 

Kali is depicted in the Mahakali form as having ten heads, ten arms, and ten legs. Each of her ten hands is carrying a various implement which vary in different accounts, but each of these represent the power of one of the Devas or Hindu Gods and are often the identifying weapon or ritual item of a given Deva. The implication is that Mahakali subsumes and is responsible for the powers that these deities possess and this is in line with the interpretation that Mahakali is identical with Brahman. While not displaying ten heads, an "ekamukhi" or one headed image may be displayed with ten arms, signifying the same concept: the powers of the various Gods come only through Her grace.

 

ICONOGRAPHY

Kali is portrayed mostly in two forms: the popular four-armed form and the ten-armed Mahakali form. In both of her forms, she is described as being black in color but is most often depicted as blue in popular Indian art. Her eyes are described as red with intoxication, and in absolute rage, her hair is shown disheveled, small fangs sometimes protrude out of her mouth, and her tongue is lolling. She is often shown naked or just wearing a skirt made of human arms and a garland of human heads. She is also accompanied by serpents and a jackal while standing on a seemingly dead Shiva, usually right foot forward to symbolize the more popular Dakshinamarga or right-handed path, as opposed to the more infamous and transgressive Vamamarga or left-handed path.

 

In the ten-armed form of Mahakali she is depicted as shining like a blue stone. She has ten faces and ten feet and three eyes. She has ornaments decked on all her limbs. There is no association with Shiva.

 

The Kalika Purana describes Kali as possessing a soothing dark complexion, as perfectly beautiful, riding a lion, four-armed, holding a sword and blue lotuses, her hair unrestrained, body firm and youthful.

 

In spite of her seemingly terrible form, Kali Ma is often considered the kindest and most loving of all the Hindu goddesses, as she is regarded by her devotees as the Mother of the whole Universe. And because of her terrible form, she is also often seen as a great protector. When the Bengali saint Ramakrishna once asked a devotee why one would prefer to worship Mother over him, this devotee rhetorically replied, "Maharaj, when they are in trouble your devotees come running to you. But, where do you run when you are in trouble?"

 

According to Ramakrishna, darkness is the Ultimate Mother, or Kali:

 

My Mother is the principle of consciousness. She is Akhanda Satchidananda; indivisible Reality, Awareness, and Bliss. The night sky between the stars is perfectly black. The waters of the ocean depths are the same; The infinite is always mysteriously dark. This inebriating darkness is my beloved Kali.

 

SRI RAMAKRISHNA

This is clear in the works of such contemporary artists as Charles Wish, and Tyeb Mehta, who sometimes take great liberties with the traditional, accepted symbolism, but still demonstrate a true reverence for the Shakta sect.

 

POPULAR FORM

Classic depictions of Kali share several features, as follows:

 

Kali's most common four armed iconographic image shows each hand carrying variously a sword, a trishul (trident), a severed head and a bowl or skull-cup (kapala) catching the blood of the severed head.

 

Two of these hands (usually the left) are holding a sword and a severed head. The Sword signifies Divine Knowledge and the Human Head signifies human Ego which must be slain by Divine Knowledge in order to attain Moksha. The other two hands (usually the right) are in the abhaya (fearlessness) and varada (blessing) mudras, which means her initiated devotees (or anyone worshipping her with a true heart) will be saved as she will guide them here and in the hereafter.

 

She has a garland consisting of human heads, variously enumerated at 108 (an auspicious number in Hinduism and the number of countable beads on a Japa Mala or rosary for repetition of Mantras) or 51, which represents Varnamala or the Garland of letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, Devanagari. Hindus believe Sanskrit is a language of dynamism, and each of these letters represents a form of energy, or a form of Kali. Therefore she is generally seen as the mother of language, and all mantras.

 

She is often depicted naked which symbolizes her being beyond the covering of Maya since she is pure (nirguna) being-consciousness-bliss and far above prakriti. She is shown as very dark as she is brahman in its supreme unmanifest state. She has no permanent qualities - she will continue to exist even when the universe ends. It is therefore believed that the concepts of color, light, good, bad do not apply to her - she is the pure, un-manifested energy, the Adi-shakti.

 

SHIVA IN KALI ICONOGRAPHY

In both these images she is shown standing on the prone, inert or dead body of Shiva. There is a legend for the reason behind her standing on what appears to be Shiva's corpse, which translates as follows:

 

Once Kali had destroyed all the demons in battle, she began a terrific dance out of the sheer joy of victory. All the worlds or lokas began to tremble and sway under the impact of her dance. So, at the request of all the Gods, Shiva himself asked her to desist from this behavior. However, she was too intoxicated to listen. Hence, Shiva lay like a corpse among the slain demons in order to absorb the shock of the dance into himself. When Kali eventually stepped upon Shiva, she realized she was trampling and hurting her husband and bit her tongue in shame.

 

The story described here is a popular folk tale and not described or hinted in any of the puranas. The puranic interpretation is as follows:

 

Once, Parvati asks Shiva to chose the one form among her 10 forms which he likes most. To her surprise, Shiva reveals that he is most comfortable with her Kali form, in which she is bereft of her jewellery, her human-form, her clothes, her emotions and where she is only raw, chaotic energy, where she is as terrible as time itself and even greater than time. As Parvati takes the form of Kali, Shiva lies at her feet and requests her to place her foot on his chest, upon his heart. Once in this form, Shiva requests her to have this place, below her feet in her iconic image which would be worshiped throughout.

 

This idea has been explored in the Devi-Bhagavata Purana and is most popular in the Shyama Sangeet, devotional songs to Kali from the 12th to 15th centuries.

 

The Tantric interpretation of Kali standing on top of her husband is as follows:

 

The Shiv tattava (Divine Consciousness as Shiva) is inactive, while the Shakti tattava (Divine Energy as Kali) is active. Shiva and Kali represent Brahman, the Absolute pure consciousness which is beyond all names, forms and activities. Kali, on the other hand, represents the potential (and manifested) energy responsible for all names, forms and activities. She is his Shakti, or creative power, and is seen as the substance behind the entire content of all consciousness. She can never exist apart from Shiva or act independently of him, just as Shiva remains a mere corpse without Kali i.e., Shakti, all the matter/energy of the universe, is not distinct from Shiva, or Brahman, but is rather the dynamic power of Brahman. Hence, Kali is Para Brahman in the feminine and dynamic aspect while Shiva is the male aspect and static. She stands as the absolute basis for all life, energy and beneath her feet lies, Shiva, a metaphor for mass, which cannot retain its form without energy.

 

While this is an advanced concept in monistic Shaktism, it also agrees with the Nondual Trika philosophy of Kashmir, popularly known as Kashmir Shaivism and associated most famously with Abhinavagupta. There is a colloquial saying that "Shiva without Shakti is Shava" which means that without the power of action (Shakti) that is Mahakali (represented as the short "i" in Devanagari) Shiva (or consciousness itself) is inactive; Shava means corpse in Sanskrit and the play on words is that all Sanskrit consonants are assumed to be followed by a short letter "a" unless otherwise noted. The short letter "i" represents the female power or Shakti that activates Creation. This is often the explanation for why She is standing on Shiva, who is either Her husband and complement in Shaktism or the Supreme Godhead in Shaivism.

 

To properly understand this complex Tantric symbolism it is important to remember that the meaning behind Shiva and Kali does not stray from the non-dualistic parlance of Shankara or the Upanisads. According to both the Mahanirvana and Kularnava Tantras, there are two distinct ways of perceiving the same absolute reality. The first is a transcendental plane which is often described as static, yet infinite. It is here that there is no matter, there is no universe and only consciousness exists. This form of reality is known as Shiva, the absolute Sat-Chit-Ananda - existence, knowledge and bliss. The second is an active plane, an immanent plane, the plane of matter, of Maya, i.e., where the illusion of space-time and the appearance of an actual universe does exist. This form of reality is known as Kali or Shakti, and (in its entirety) is still specified as the same Absolute Sat-Chit-Ananda. It is here in this second plane that the universe (as we commonly know it) is experienced and is described by the Tantric seer as the play of Shakti, or God as Mother Kali.

 

From a Tantric perspective, when one meditates on reality at rest, as absolute pure consciousness (without the activities of creation, preservation or dissolution) one refers to this as Shiva or Brahman. When one meditates on reality as dynamic and creative, as the Absolute content of pure consciousness (with all the activities of creation, preservation or dissolution) one refers to it as Kali or Shakti. However, in either case the yogini or yogi is interested in one and the same reality - the only difference being in name and fluctuating aspects of appearance. It is this which is generally accepted as the meaning of Kali standing on the chest of Shiva.

 

Although there is often controversy surrounding the images of divine copulation, the general consensus is benign and free from any carnal impurities in its substance. In Tantra the human body is a symbol for the microcosm of the universe; therefore sexual process is responsible for the creation of the world. Although theoretically Shiva and Kali (or Shakti) are inseparable, like fire and its power to burn, in the case of creation they are often seen as having separate roles. With Shiva as male and Kali as female it is only by their union that creation may transpire. This reminds us of the prakrti and purusa doctrine of Samkhya wherein prakāśa- vimarśa has no practical value, just as without prakrti, purusa is quite inactive. This (once again) stresses the interdependencies of Shiva and Shakti and the vitality of their union.

 

Gopi Krishna proposed that Kali standing on the dead Shiva or Shava (Sanskrit for dead body) symbolised the helplessness of a person undergoing the changing process (psychologically and physiologically) in the body conducted by the Kundalini Shakti.

 

DEVELOPMENT

In the later traditions, Kali has become inextricably linked with Shiva. The unleashed form of Kali often becomes wild and uncontrollable, and only Shiva is able to tame her just as only Kali can tame Shiva. This is both because she is often a transformed version of one of his consorts and because he is able to match her wildness.

 

The ancient text of Kali Kautuvam describes her competition with Shiva in dance, from which the sacred 108 Karanas appeared. Shiva won the competition by acting the urdva tandava, one of the Karanas, by raising his feet to his head. Other texts describe Shiva appearing as a crying infant and appealing to her maternal instincts. While Shiva is said to be able to tame her, the iconography often presents her dancing on his fallen body, and there are accounts of the two of them dancing together, and driving each other to such wildness that the world comes close to unravelling.

 

Shiva's involvement with Tantra and Kali's dark nature have led to her becoming an important Tantric figure. To the Tantric worshippers, it was essential to face her Curse, the terror of death, as willingly as they accepted Blessings from her beautiful, nurturing, maternal aspect. For them, wisdom meant learning that no coin has only one side: as death cannot exist without life, so life cannot exist without death. Kali's role sometimes grew beyond that of a chaos - which could be confronted - to that of one who could bring wisdom, and she is given great metaphysical significance by some Tantric texts. The Nirvāna-tantra clearly presents her uncontrolled nature as the Ultimate Reality, claiming that the trimurti of Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra arise and disappear from her like bubbles from the sea. Although this is an extreme case, the Yogini-tantra, Kamakhya-tantra and the Niruttara-tantra declare her the svarupa (own-being) of the Mahadevi (the great Goddess, who is in this case seen as the combination of all devis).

 

The final stage of development is the worshipping of Kali as the Great Mother, devoid of her usual violence. This practice is a break from the more traditional depictions. The pioneers of this tradition are the 18th century Shakta poets such as Ramprasad Sen, who show an awareness of Kali's ambivalent nature. Ramakrishna, the 19th century Bengali saint, was also a great devotee of Kali; the western popularity of whom may have contributed to the more modern, equivocal interpretations of this Goddess. Rachel McDermott's work, however, suggests that for the common, modern worshipper, Kali is not seen as fearful, and only those educated in old traditions see her as having a wrathful component. Some credit to the development of Devi must also be given to Samkhya. Commonly referred to as the Devi of delusion, Mahamaya or Durga, acting in the confines of (but not being bound by) the nature of the three gunas, takes three forms: Maha-Kali, Maha-Lakshmi and Maha-Saraswati, being her tamas-ika, rajas-ika and sattva-ika forms. In this sense, Kali is simply part of a larger whole.

 

Like Sir John Woodroffe and Georg Feuerstein, many Tantric scholars (as well as sincere practitioners) agree that, no matter how propitious or appalling you describe them, Shiva and Devi are simply recognizable symbols for everyday, abstract (yet tangible) concepts such as perception, knowledge, space-time, causation and the process of liberating oneself from the confines of such things. Shiva, symbolizing pure, absolute consciousness, and Devi, symbolizing the entire content of that consciousness, are ultimately one and the same - totality incarnate, a micro-macro-cosmic amalgamation of all subjects, all objects and all phenomenal relations between the "two." Like man and woman who both share many common, human traits yet at the same time they are still different and, therefore, may also be seen as complementary.

 

Worshippers prescribe various benign and horrific qualities to Devi simply out of practicality. They do this so they may have a variety of symbols to choose from, symbols which they can identify and relate with from the perspective of their own, ever-changing time, place and personal level of unfolding. Just like modern chemists or physicists use a variety of molecular and atomic models to describe what is unperceivable through rudimentary, sensory input, the scientists of ontology and epistemology must do the same. One of the underlying distinctions of Tantra, in comparison to other religions, is that it allows the devotee the liberty to choose from a vast array of complementary symbols and rhetoric which suit one's evolving needs and tastes. From an aesthetic standpoint, nothing is interdict and nothing is orthodox. In this sense, the projection of some of Devi's more gentle qualities onto Kali is not sacrilege and the development of Kali really lies in the practitioner, not the murthi.

______________________

 

HINDU GODDESS DURGA

Durga, meaning "the inaccessible" or "the invincible", is the most popular incarnation of Devi and one of the main forms of the Goddess Shakti in the Hindu pantheon. Durga is the original manifested form of Mother Parvati or Adi-Parashakti. Durga is Adi-Parashakti herself. The Devi Gita, declares her to be the greatest Goddess. Thus, she is considered the supreme goddess and primary deity in Shaktism, occupying a place similar to Lord Krishna in Vaishnavism. According to Skanda Purana, the goddess Parvati accounted the name "Durga" after she killed the demon Durgamaasura. Goddess Parvati is considered to be the complete incarnation of Adi Parashakti or Goddess Durga, with all other goddesses being her incarnations or manifestations. Adi Parashakti or Mahadevi, the supreme power, is called Durga Shakti as per Devi-Mahatmya. Adi Parashakti or Devi Durga is a Hindu concept of the Ultimate Shakti or Mahashakti, the ultimate power inherent in all Creation. This is especially prevalent in the Shakta denomination within Hinduism, which worships the Goddess Devi in all her manifestations. She is Goddess Lakshmi and Goddess Saraswati in her mild form; Goddess Kali and Goddess Chandi in her wrathful form. Durga is also called Padmanabha-Sahodari and Narayani, the sister of Lord Vishnu. According to Shaivism and Shaktism She is supreme, but to bring back lord Shiva in Sansar, she was reborn in human form (Sati and Parvati) to marry Shiva. Durga gave birth to his first child Kartikeya.

 

ORIGINS & DEVELOPMENT

Ramprasad Chanda writes the following about the development of Durga from primitive goddess to her current form:

 

"...it is possible to distinguish two different strata – one primitive and the other advanced. The primitive form of Durga is the result of syncretism of a mountain-goddess worshiped by the dwellers of the Himalaya and the Vindhyas, a goddess worshiped by the nomadic Abhira shepherd, the vegetation spirit conceived as a female, and a war-goddess. As her votaries advanced in civilization the primitive war-goddess was transformed into the personification of the all-destroying time (Kali), the vegetation spirit into the primordial energy (Adya Sakti) and the saviouress from “samsara” (cycle of rebirths) , and gradually brought into line with the Brahmanic mythology and philosophy."

 

It is not possible to date her The delusion of the supreme soul is otherwise called Shakti (power). From this power, generates all forms of knowledge of the world and it is accepted as vital cause of creation, existence and destruction. According to 'Shree Durga Shaptshati- Rahasyam', the original power is Mahalaxmi that created three pairs of Supreme Powers. They are Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva as male and Saraswati, Laxmi and Parvati as female, and they married respectively. Maha Saraswati is well known as Brahmani, Mahalaxmi as Vaishnavi and Mahakali as Maheswari. Durga Shakti is the original cause of all the present or past worldly occurrences. Durga Shakti is called as Adhyashakti, Paramatma Shakti or Ati Prakrutika Shakti. She is creating and controlling other two powers: Natural and General. Natural Power is called as Atma Shakti, Prakrutika Shakti, Pancha Mahabhuta Shakti etc. This Shakti creates and controls the General Energy. General Energies are called Jada Shakti or Tamashakti. By the blessings of Durga Shakti, the mother of the Universe, man is able to get his emancipation or salvation and indulge in enjoyments in performance of his daily activities. So Vyasadev, the eminent poet of "Devi Bhagwat", has aptly described "Rudrahinam Vishnuhinam na vadanti janastatha Shaktihinam Yathasarbe probodhanti Naradhamam". The powerless persons are despised as mean persons. So, by being devoted to the Supreme, we should be strong and powerful by her grace.

 

STORIES

Shiva Purana gives an account of the origin of Durga. At the beginning of time, Lord Shiva invoked Durga, the primordial energy from his left half to create. Together they created their eternal abode, Shivaloka, also known as Kashi. Thereafter, they created Vishnu and Brahma.

 

As per Shiva Purana and Devi Mahatmyah, Mahishasura, the son of demon Rambha, unleashed reign of terror on earth. When gods intervened, Mahishasura defeated gods and banished them from heaven. Vanquished gods went to Trideva- Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. As they narrated their woeful tale, immense mass of light manifested from Lord Vishnu's mouth, which was joined by similar rays that emerged from the enraged faces of gods. This mass of light transformed into a woman. Then all the Gods gave their devine weapon to that supreme power. Adishakti re-manifested as Durga to slay Mahishasura. Armed with celestial weapons of all deities and decked with divine ornaments, Durga rode into the battle field and challenged demons for battle. Mahishasura's entire army, led by demons like Chikshur, Chamar, Asiloma, Vidalaksha, Durdhara, Durmukha, Mahahanu and many more attacked Durga at once. But Durga slew all of them with unparalleled cruelty. An enraged Mahishasura attacked Durga in guise of a buffalo. But Durga bound it with ropes. The buffalo morphed into a lion and lept on Durga, but she beheaded it with her sword. At this, Mahishasura began to fight in form of a swordsman. Durga pinned him down with a torrent of arrows. Mahishasura now assumed form of a giant elephant and tugged at Durga's lion. Durga lopped off its trunk with her sword and freed her lion. The elephent turned into a buffalo and charged at Durga. Sipping from her wine cup, Durga flung her trident and beheaded Mahishasura, finally killing him.

 

WIKIPEDIA

SEAT Alhambra MK2, introduced in October 2010, is a large, 7-seater MPV known for its practicality and versatility. It's essentially a rebadged Volkswagen Sharan, offering a spacious interior with clever seating arrangements and sliding rear doors for easy access. The Mk2 Alhambra boasts a longer and wider body than its predecessor, providing ample space for passengers and cargo.

 

It was recognized as the Best MPV by various publications like Auto Express, Professional Driver, and Fleet World.

 

The Alhambra MK2 received a facelift in June 2015, including cosmetic updates like a new grille, LED rear lights, and wheel designs, as well as more efficient engines and new features like autonomous braking and blind spot monitoring.

 

In late 2018, SEAT Alhambra Mk2 received an update, primarily involving cosmetic changes, new engine options, and the introduction of new features. Cosmetically, there were new front and rear lights, a redesigned grille, and new alloy wheel designs. New features included optional electric sliding doors and tailgate, a panoramic sunroof, and an optional Tiredness Recognition System.

 

SEAT Alhambra was discontinued in March 2020, spanning 2 generations. Even though, various models remained until the end of the same year while the Volkswagen Sharan continued until 2022.

The Volkswagen Up!, which was introduced in October 2011 in the UK and December 2011 in Europe, is a small, city-friendly hatchback known for its maneuverability and fun driving experience, particularly in urban environments. The VW Up! also boasts good fuel economy and is considered one of the cheapest cars to run. The Up, along with the Škoda Citigo and SEAT Mii, are built on the same platform, often referred to as the "New Small Family" platform. This

allows Volkswagen Group to produce multiple models with similar underpinnings, streamlining production and reducing costs.

 

Over 1.1 million Volkswagen Up! vehicles were produced during its production run. The Up! was manufactured in Bratislava, Slovakia, and also in Taubaté, Brazil. The model was available in both 3-door and 5-door versions, with the 5-door being the more popular choice due to its practicality.

 

The VW Up! received numerous awards, primarily for its performance as a city car. Key accolades include being named "Best City Car" by Auto Express multiple times, including a four-year streak from 2017 to 2020. It also won the "City Car of the Year" title from Auto Express for three consecutive years. Furthermore, the up! GTI model has also been recognized for its performance and fun-to-drive factor.

 

Speaking of the GTI model, it received a facelift in 2016, introducing revised styling both inside and out, along with a new turbocharged 1.0-litre TSI engine. The exterior changes included new front and rear bumpers, a redesigned grille, and LED daytime running lights. Inside, the dashboard received new color options and a revised design, and a new steering wheel was introduced. The updated model also offered comprehensive smartphone integration through a docking feature for sat-nav, audio, and Bluetooth functions.

 

The electric variant of the model, called the e-Up!, was first introduced in September 2013, with retail deliveries beginning in October of the same year. It was part of Volkswagen's push into full-production e-mobility alongside the e-Golf. It became available in other European countries, including the UK at the end of January. The e-Up! received an update in 2019 with an improved battery capacity, range, and energy consumption.

 

Volkswagen discontinued the Up city car. Production ended in the fourth quarter of 2023, with the model being taken off sale in the UK and Europe after 12 years.

Chassis n° LP400 112 0016

 

Les Grandes Marques du Monde au Grand Palais

Bonhams

Estimated : € 600.000 - 800.000

Sold for € 638.250

 

Parijs - Paris

Frankrijk - France

February 2018

 

'But for sheer outlandish eye appeal, and track-car capability that's translatable for the road, there is simply no better car. It's hard, also, to imagine a better one coming along.' – Car magazine on the Lamborghini Countach.

The legendary Miura was always going to be a hard act to follow, so the extent to which its successor eclipsed the greatest of 1960s supercars came as something of a shock to all. The sensation of the 1971 Geneva Salon, the Countach was styled, like its predecessor, by Carrozzeria Bertone's Marcello Gandini. Looking aggressive from every angle, the Countach was nothing less than spectacular, suggesting it had been conceived on another planet. As Motor magazine observed: 'few people gazing at the original Bertone Countach at Geneva in 1971 could have regarded it as anything but a "show" car. There were those fold-up doors for a start and the space-age cockpit with its abysmal rear visibility not to mention the strange engine/transmission configuration.' Happily, Lamborghini disregarded criticism of the car's supposed lack of practicality, and the Countach entered production changed in detail only. As it happened, the production version would not be seen for another two years, with deliveries commencing in 1974.

 

The running gear was largely carried over from the Miura, although it had been recognised that the latter's shortcomings in terms of handling and stability would not be tolerable in the Countach. At the same time, cabin heat and noise had to be reduced, and a more user-friendly gear change devised. The Miura's four-cam V12 was retained for the Countach, though this time installed longitudinally and equipped with side-draught Weber carburettors. To achieve optimum weight distribution, designer Paolo Stanzani placed the five-speed gearbox ahead of the engine between the seats, and the differential - driven by a shaft passing through the sump - at the rear. The result was a delightful gearchange and a better-balanced car than the Miura.

 

When production began in 1974, the Countach sported an improved spaceframe chassis, replacing the prototype's rather untidy semi-monocoque, while the bodywork was made of aluminium. One of the Countach's most striking features was the doors, which opened vertically and were supported by hydraulic struts, pivoting at their most forward point.

 

The production Countach came with the standard 4.0-litre - instead of the prototype's 5.0-litre - engine. Even with the smaller engine producing 'only' 375bhp, the aerodynamically efficient Countach could attain 170mph (274km/h) and, naturally, came with racetrack roadholding to match. Designated 'LP400' by the factory (LP = Longitudinale Posteriore, describing the engine placement), the first Countach is commonly known as the 'periscopio', after its central periscope, faired into the roof, which provided rearward vision.

 

This stunning example of the revolutionary Countach in its original LP400 'periscopio' form is one of approximately 157 built between 1974 and 1977, which explains why examples are only rarely seen for sale. Fitted with body number '8', chassis number '0016' was delivered new to Germany finished in Nero (black) with Senape (mustard) leather interior. Currently red with beige interior, it has been fitted with the later LP400 S wheels.

 

A ground-breaking design that set new standards for aspiring supercar manufacturers, the Lamborghini Countach is one of the most iconic sports cars of the 20th Century, and none more so than in its earliest and purest LP400 'Periscopio' form.

 

Visit to the North American International Auto Show at the Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan on January 25, 2019. Hyundai Kona

 

View my collections on flickr here: Collections

 

Press L for a larger image on black.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W223. Photo: R.K.O. Radio. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

 

American actress Dorothy McGuire (1916-2001) was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress for Gentleman's Agreement (1947) and won the National Board of Review Award for Best Actress for Friendly Persuasion (1956).

 

Dorothy Hackett McGuire was born in Omaha, Nebraska. She was the only child of Thomas Johnson McGuire and Isabelle Flaherty McGuire. Dorothy made her stage debut at the age of 13 at the local community playhouse in Barrie's 'A Kiss for Cinderella'. Her co-star was Henry Fonda, who was also born in Nebraska and was making a return visit to his home town after becoming a success on Broadway. After her father's death, McGuire attended a convent school in Indianapolis, Indiana. She later attended Pine Manor Junior College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, serving as president of that school's drama club. She graduated from Pine Manor when she was 19. She appeared in summer stock at Deertrees, Maine, in 1937 before going to New York. She acted on radio, playing Sue in the serial 'Big Sister' (1937) and took part in an experimental television broadcast, The Mysterious Mummy Case (1938). She was hired by producer Jed Harris to understudy the ingenue in a Broadway play, 'Stop Over' (1938), which ran only 23 performances. Then, she was an understudy to Martha Scott in 'Our Town' in 1938. She eventually took over Scott's role. She toured in 'My Dear Children' opposite John Barrymore, and in 1939, was in a revue with Benny Goodman, 'Swingin' the Dream'. She had a role in the short-lived 'Medicine Show' (1940), and a part in the longer-running revival of 'Kind Lady' (1940). McGuire achieved Broadway fame when cast in the title role of the domestic comedy 'Claudia'. It ran for 722 performances from 1941 to 1943. Brooks Atkinson wrote, "She gives a splendid performance of a part that would be irritating if it were played by a dull actress. She is personally genuine; the charm she radiates across the play is not merely theatrical mannerism. "

 

Dorothy McGuire was brought to Hollywood by producer David O. Selznick who called her "a born actress". On the strength of her stage performance, McGuire starred in her first film Claudia (Edmund Goulding, 1943), a film adaptation of her Broadway success. She portrayed a child bride who almost destroys her marriage through her selfishness. Selznick developed the project, then sold it to 20th Century Fox; under this deal, Selznick would share McGuire's services with Fox. McGuire's co-star in Claudia was Robert Young, and RKO reunited them in The Enchanted Cottage (John Cromwell, 1945), which was a box-office success. At age 28, she played the mother of an impoverished but aspirational, second-generation Irish-American family living in Brooklyn in A Tree Grows In Brooklyn (Elia Kazan, 1946), replacing Gene Tierney, who had gotten pregnant. The film was a big success. So, too, was the psychological horror film The Spiral Staircase (Robert Siodmak, 1946) in which McGuire played the lead role, a mute servant who is terrorized by a serial killer. McGuire and Young made a third film together, Claudia and David (Walter Lang, 1946), a sequel to Claudia, which was less well-received but also quite a success at the box-office. Then followed Till the End of Time (Edward Dmytryk, 1946), a popular hit. She was offered the lead in Anna and the King of Siam (1946), but turned it down to go travelling with her family. McGuire was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for Gentleman's Agreement (Elia Kazan, 1947) with Gregory Peck. The film was a surprise hit. Following this film, she, Peck, and Mel Ferrer helped form the La Jolla Playhouse. She appeared in productions of 'The Importance of Being Earnest',' I Am a Camera', 'The Winslow Boy', and 'Tonight at 8:30'. Then she went to live in Italy for a year.

 

Dorothy McGuire spent some time away from screens before returning in the comedy Mother Didn't Tell Me (Claude Binyon, 1950) and Mister 880 (Edmund Goulding, 1950) with Burt Lancaster. Neither was particularly popular. She made her TV debut in Robert Montgomery Presents, an adaptation of Dark Victory, with McGuire playing the Bette Davis role. Schary had become head of production at MGM, where McGuire appeared in Callaway Went Thataway (Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, 1951), which lost money. She did I Want You (Mark Robson, 1951), then returned to Broadway for 'Legend of Lovers' (1951–1952), but it only had a short run. McGuire made Invitation (Gottfried Reinhardt, 1952), which flopped, and the Film Noir Make Haste to Live (William A. Seiter, 1954) at Republic. She had a huge hit with the comedy Three Coins in the Fountain (Jean Negulesco, 1954) and appeared in episodes of The United States Steel Hour, Lux Video Theatre, The Best of Broadway (an adaptation of The Philadelphia Story, as Tracey Lord), and Climax!. She played Glenn Ford's love interest in Trial (Mark Robson, 1955), which was a hit. McGuire was cast as Quaker Gary Cooper's wife in Friendly Persuasion (William Wyler, 1956). The success of this performance led her to being cast in a series of "mother" roles, continuing with Disney's Old Yeller (Robert Stevenson, 1957) about a boy (Tommy Kirk) and a stray dog in post-Civil War Texas. McGuire returned to Broadway in 'Winesburg, Ohio' (1958), which had a short run, then she played a wife and mother in The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker (Henry Levin, 1959) with Clifton Webb. She was the matriarchs in some melodramas: This Earth Is Mine (Henry King, 1959) with Jean Simmons; A Summer Place (Delmer Daves, 1959) with Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue, which was a big success; and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (Delbert Mann, 1960).

 

Dorothy McGuire returned to Disney with Swiss Family Robinson (John McKimson, Ken Annakin, 1960), one of the most popular films of the year. She made a second film with Daves and Donahue, Susan Slade (Delmer Daves, 1961), playing a mother who passed off her daughter's illegitimate child as her own. She was a mother in Disney's Summer Magic (James Neilson, 1963) with Hayley Mills. McGuire played the Virgin Mary in the biblical epic The Greatest Story Ever Told (George Stevens, 1965). She was off-screen for a number of years before returning as an Irish granny in a British family film, Flight of the Doves (Ralph Nelson, 1971). McGuire appeared in some TV movies, She Waits (1972) and Another Part of the Forest (1972). She provided voice work for Jonathan Livingston Seagull (Hall Bartlett, 1973), and made one final appearance on Broadway in a revival of 'The Night of the Iguana' (1976–1977) alongside Richard Chamberlain. Most of McGuire's later career work was for the small screen: The Runaways (Harry Harris, 1975), Rich Man, Poor Man (David Greene, Boris Sagal, 1976), the pilot for Little Women (David Lowell Rich, 1976), The Incredible Journey of Doctor Meg Laurel (Guy Green, 1979), Ghost Dancing (1983), Amos (Michael Tuchner, 1985), Between the Darkness and the Dawn (1985), American Geisha (1986), and Caroline? (1990). She was also in episodes of Fantasy Island, Hotel, The Love Boat, Glitter, St Elsewhere, and Highway to Heaven. She provided the narration for Summer Heat (Michie Gleason, 1987), and toured in 1987 in 'I Never Sang for My Father'. Her final screen appearance was in the TV film The Last Best Year (John Erman, 1990) with Mary Tyler Moore. Dorothy McGuire was married to Life magazine photographer John Swope for more than 35 years, till his death in 1979. They had a son, photographer Mark Swope (1953), and a daughter, actress Topo Swope (1948). Dorothy's health declined severely after she fell and broke her leg in 2001. McGuire died of cardiac arrest not long after in a Santa Monica hospital, at the age of 85. For her contribution to the motion-picture industry, Dorothy McGuire has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard. Gaty Brumburgh at IMDb: "A genuine model of sincerity, practicality and dignity in most of the roles she inhabited, actress Dorothy McGuire offered Tinseltown more talent than it probably knew what to do with. A quiet, passive beauty, she had a soothing quality to her open-faced looks and voice."

 

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

AWD - All-wheel drive

4x4

(Four Wheel Drive).

4WD - Allrad Variante 2019

Quattro (four-wheel-drive system)

"4motion"

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

A plug-in hybrid variant, a first for any Citroën, is due in late 2019. It will be the only 4x4 model in the range;

 

Citroen C5 Aircross SUV launched in Europe + prototype drive

 

Focus on comfort is just what Citroen needs to stand out

compact five-seat SUV Segment

 

Citroen C5 Aircross – front-wheel mid-size SUV (by European standards), which combines a bright style, practicality, functionality and modern Technology.

 

. Das 4,50 Meter lange Mittelklasse-SUV basiert auf der konzerneigenen Plattform EMP2-Plattform und ist somit technisch eng mit dem Peugeot 5008, Opel Grandland X und dem DS 7 verwandt.

  

2018

Citroën has now repackaged the C5 Aircross to appeal to European customers

 

It is the second model to receive Citroën’s new rally-derived Progressive Hydraulic Cushion suspension system, following the C4 Cactus, which aims to deliver “peerless comfort” while retaining the relaxed characteristics of the company’s long-standing hydropneumatic system.

-

At launch, buyers will have a choice of a Puretech 130 engine with a six-speed manual gearbox and a Puretech 180 unit with an eight-speed automatic 'box. BlueHDi 130 (manual or auto) and

BlueHDI 180 (automatic) diesel models will also be available.

-

Mit dem C5 Aircross bietet Citroën ab Ende 2018 ein eigenständiges SUV.

Edler Kompakt-SUV mit Komfort-Fahrwerk:

Stoßdämpfer mit hydraulischen Anschlägen sollen harte Ein- und Ausfederbewegungen vermeiden, der Schaumstoff im Sitz Vibrationen schlucken. Liest sich banal, ist clever konstruiert und funktioniert verblüffend gut.

 

Mit dem neuen Federungssystem mit hydraulischem Anschlag will Citroën mehr Komfort als die Konkurrenz bieten und sich von den Konzernmarken unterscheiden. Advanced Comfort ersetzt außerdem das hydropneumatische System früherer Citroën-Modelle.

 

Unter der Haube gibt es laut Citroën zunächst zwei Benzinmotoren mit 96 kW/130 PS und 132 kW/180 PS sowie zwei Diesel mit den gleichen Leistungsdaten.

 

Als Option gibt es eine neue Achtstufen-Automatik.

  

C5 Aircros SUV

In China hat Citroën den C5 schon im April 2017 auf der Automesse in Shanghai gezeigt.

 

40.000 wurden schon in China produziert und verkauft.

-

  

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Zur Sicherheitsausstattung des Citroën C5 Aircross zählen unter anderem ein Notbremsassistent, ein Toter-Winkel-Assistent und ein adaptiver Tempomat.

 

Allradantrieb gibt es für den C5 Aircross nicht, dafür aber das regelbare Grip Control-System, das die Traktion an den angetriebenen Vorderrädern optimieren soll, sowie einen Bergabfahrassistenten.

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Die Abmessungen – 4,50 Meter Länge, 1,84 Meter Breite und 1,67 Meter Höhe – entsprechen fast exakt jenen des VW Tiguan.

 

Dem Kompakt-SUV aus Wolfsburg setzt Citroën ein eigenständiges SUV entgegen, das mit variabler Rückbank, komfortablem Fahrwerk und selbstbewusstem Design

Anhänger der Marke genauso überzeugen soll wie Neukunden.

This was my final full-day in Britain. Dan has relatives in Wales and he was staying with them for a few more days, whereas I was to take the train from Cardiff Central back to London Victoria, before returning to Toronto the following day.

 

Cloevelly was the last planned stop enroute from St. Ives, Cornwall to Cardiff, Wales.

 

Partial and edited quote from Wikipedia:

 

Clovelly (/kləˈvɛli/) is a small village in the Torridge district of Devon, England. It has a harbour and is a tourist attraction notable for its steep pedestrianised cobbled main street, donkeys and views over the Bristol Channel. At the 2011 census, the parish population was 443, which was 50 fewer than ten years previously. The ward of Clovelly Bay includes the island of Lundy.

 

There is a road leading to the harbour but the village main street is not accessible by motor vehicle. The lack of vehicular access to the main street has led to deliveries being made by sledge. This is not done as a tourist attraction, but as a matter of practicality. Goods are delivered by being pulled down on a sledge from the upper car park (see next photo).

From Wikipedia:

Roseland Cottage, also known as Henry C. Bowen House or as Bowen Cottage, is a historic house located on Route 169 in Woodstock, Connecticut. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1992. It is described as one of the best-preserved and best-documented Gothic summer houses in the nation, with virtually intact interior decorations.

 

It is now owned by Historic New England, a non-profit organization that preserves the historical value of the house and operates it as a museum.

 

Roseland Cottage was built in 1846 in the Gothic Revival style as the summer home of Henry Chandler Bowen and family. The entire complex, with a boxwood parterre garden, an icehouse, garden house, carriage barn, and the nation's oldest surviving indoor bowling alley, reflects the principles of writer and designer Andrew Jackson Downing. In his widely popular books, Downing stressed practicality along with the picturesque, and offered detailed instructions on room function, sanitation, and landscaping.

 

Beginning in 1870, the largest Fourth of July celebrations in the United States were held at Roseland Cottage. Four United States Presidents visited Bowen's summer home as his guests and speakers for these celebrations: Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Harrison, Rutherford B. Hayes, and William McKinley. Other prominent visitors included Henry Ward Beecher, Julia Ward Howe, Oliver Wendell Holmes and John C. Fremont

SAAB (of Sweden) had always made some oddball cars. This was not always a good way of returning profits to development. By the mid-1980s, it was clear that the luxury market, to which SAAB aspired, had consolidated to the 3-box sedan.

 

The 9000 was part of the Type Four program, a pooled platform which yielded large cars for Alfa Romeo (164), FIAT (Croma), Lancia (Thema), and the SAAB 9000. By the time all the cars had been launched, all but SAAB were now part of the wider FIAT combine. An approach was made in the 1990s for SAAB to also be purchased, but this was rejected.

 

The SAAB 9000, which had originally been launched as a large 5-door in 1984, was updated to include a second body design - a conventional saloon, in late 1988. The car was called the 9000 CD, and the chief market was the US.

 

On endearing feature of SAABs was their practicality and utility, and though the 9000 CD was more useful than most sedans, SAAB buyers actually preferred their cars as 5-doors. The 9000 CD continued until 1998, when the car was replaced by the SAAB 9.5, a second attempt at a GM-derived platform project. GM's ownership of SAAB came to a conclusion with the remnants of SAAB sold first to Dutch boutique manufacturer Spyker, after GM's bankruptcy in 2009. SAAB was declared insolvent in 2012, and the remaining assets purchased by Chinese owned NEVS.

The World Solar Challenge (WSC), or the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge since 2013, tied to the sponsorship of Bridgestone Corporation is the world's most well-known solar-powered car race event. A biennial road race covering 3,022 km (1,878 mi) through the Australian Outback, from Darwin, Northern Territory, to Adelaide, South Australia, created to foster the development of experimental, solar-powered vehicles.

The race attracts teams from around the world, most of which are fielded by universities or corporations, although some are fielded by high schools. The race has a 32-year history spanning fourteen races, with the inaugural event taking place in 1987. Initially held once every three years, the event became biennial from the turn of the century.

Since 2001 the World Solar Challenge was won seven times out of nine efforts by the Nuna team and cars of the Delft University of Technology from the Netherlands, with only the Tokai Challenger, built by the Tokai University of Japan able to take the crown in 2009 and 2011.

Starting in 2007, the WSC has been raced in multiple classes. After the German team of Bochum University of Applied Sciences competed with a four-wheeled, multi-seat car, the BoCruiser (in 2009), in 2013 a radically new "Cruiser Class" was introduced, racing and stimulating the technological development of practically usable, and ideally road-legal, multi-seater solar vehicles. Since its inception, Solar Team Eindhoven's four- and five-seat Stella solar cars from Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands) won the Cruiser Class in all three races so far.

Remarkable technological progress has been achieved since the GM led, highly experimental, single-seat Sunraycer prototype first won the WSC with an average speed of 66.9 km/h (41.6 mph). Once competing cars became steadily more capable to match or exceed legal maximum speeds on the Australian highway, the race rules were consistently made more demanding and challenging — for instance after Honda's Dream car first won the race with an average speed exceeding 55 mph (88.5 km/h) in 1996. In 2005 the Dutch Nuna team were the first to beat an average speed of 100 km/h (62 mph).

The 2017 Cruiser class winner, the five-seat Stella Vie vehicle, was able to carry an average of 3.4 occupants at an average speed of 69 km/h (43 mph). Like its two predecessors, the 2017 Stella Vie vehicle was successfully road registered by the Dutch team, further emphasizing the great progress in real world compliance and practicality that has been achieved.

The World Solar Challenge held its 30th anniversary event on October 8–15, 2017.

The 2019 World Solar Challenge will take place from 13 to 20 October. 53 teams from 24 countries have entered the competition. The same 3 classes, Challenger (30 teams), Cruiser (23 teams) and Adventure will be featured.

 

Coimbra University, Portugal.

 

"One of the most visible and distinctive traditions is the use of the academic costume of the University of Coimbra, a black suit and cape worn on special occasions by the students (and more often by many), which was adopted by other Portuguese universities and is actually used by students of almost all higher education institutions in the city and across the country."

 

Influence on Harry Potter:

 

"Consider the cloak: that heavy, full-length piece of outerwear most often associated with epic fantasy franchises, and specifically, Harry Potter. It’s not something you’d wear to class, not if you value practicality—and yet somehow it remains the most iconic part of the wizarding school uniform.

 

But in the non-magical world, Portuguese university students have been wearing cloaks to class day in, day out, more or less since higher education was invented. They are the indisputable pioneers of the trend—so much so that many would swear, under Veritaserum if needed be, that J.K. Rowling was inspired by the Portuguese when picking out the outfits for her young wizards. Although Rowling has never been explicit about her inspiration for the cloaks, she wrote part of what would become Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone while living in Porto, Portugal, in the 1990s. Tour guides often point out the cloaked university students, whom Rowling must have seen walking to and from class, as the likely inspirations behind the Hogwarts dress code.

 

The look stems from the history of post-secondary education in Portugal, which has some of the oldest universities in the world. When the country's first university—the University of Coimbra—was created in 1290 in Lisbon, teaching was a religious vocation (as was learning), and so the medieval campus was teeming with clergymen. There wasn’t a student uniform, exactly, but the mish-mash of men from different religious orders did result in a student look: a dark, severe ensemble that civilian students began to approximate in the centuries that followed. As late as 1850, the all-male student body at the University of Coimbra was still wearing knee-length cassocks over shorts and knee socks. A long cloak topped off the whole outfit, lending a decidedly clerical look to the decidedly civilian students.

 

Things changed, dramatically, in the latter half of the 19th century. The progressive spirit of the era replaced the old-fashioned shorts with a practical three-piece suit, composed of black frock coat, waistcoat, and tailored pants—and so the standard male university uniform, or traje, was born. The cumbersome old cloak very nearly went out of commission then, but the boys had reportedly grown so attached to its drama that they kept wearing it over the new suits. School authorities allowed the cloak to remain, proudly anachronistic, to sweep the cobblestones of Coimbra another day. When the country’s second and third universities were founded in 1911, in the cities of Lisbon and Porto, students rushed to adopt the same weirdly popular suit-and-cloak combo.

 

Girls didn’t get a standard uniform until 1945, when the Orfeão Universitário do Porto, a student association at the then-young University of Porto, accepted the first female members into its roster. (Before then, women didn't have any particular school attire, although they were sometimes told to wear all black so as not to stand out.) Members of the Orfeão were expected to perform traditional Portuguese singing and dancing in full uniform, and the girls rose to the occasion by suiting up in their very own, alternate version of the traje. They found their inspiration in the stripped-down practicality of military women’s uniforms and settled on a knee-length trapeze skirt and boxy three-button jacket. The cloak, of course, was the final touch, which quickly caught on at other schools.

 

Today, there are over 300,000 university students in Portugal, a respectable number of whom routinely wear the traje to class. It is no longer mandatory, as it once was, but it doesn’t need to be. To wear this historic uniform is to embrace and broadcast one’s identity as a student—although it’s also to be frequently confused with a Harry Potter cosplayer. Foreign visitors to Portugal sometimes make that mistake, but they should know the opposite is likelier to be true: Local students have been wearing cloaks to class since long before Harry Potter was cool."

  

© Angela M. Lobefaro

All Rights Reserved

RIPRODUZIONE RISERVATA

My Popular-Interesting Photos on Flickriver

   

taken in Otranto. Italy

 

The Zen of Python

 

Beautiful is better than ugly.

Explicit is better than implicit.

Simple is better than complex.

Complex is better than complicated.

Flat is better than nested.

Sparse is better than dense.

Readability counts.

Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.

Although practicality beats purity.

Errors should never pass silently.

Unless explicitly silenced.

In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.

There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.

Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch.

Now is better than never.

Although never is often better than *right* now.

If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.

If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.

Namespaces are one honking great idea -- let's do more of those!

   

Coachwork by Graber (n° 350)

Chassis n° 57443

One-off

 

3.257 cc

8 in-line

130 ch @ 5.000 rpm

 

Les Grandes Marques du Monde au Grand Palais

Bonhams

Estimated : € 280.000 - 340.000

Sold for € 293.250

 

Parijs - Paris

Frankrijk - France

February 2018

 

The extremely handsome, one off coachbuilt Bugatti presented here is accredited by Bugatti experts to be a collaboration of its original owner with the Swiss coachbuilder Graber who were one of the leading Swiss coachbuilders of their day.

 

Most of Graber's 50 workers were skilled specialists, and the firm regularly displayed their latest creations on their stand at the Geneva Salon. It could be said that they were less flashy than some of the French coachbuilders, less advanced than certain Italian efforts but they were definitely of higher quality than most and displaying the well-balanced design preferred by their wealthy clientele. The success of Hermann Graber's company may be judged by the fact that it perpetuated comfortably into the 1970s, long after many of its pre-war contemporaries had ceased.

 

According to information supplied by Bugattiste Kees Jansen, 57443 was completed by the Bugatti Works in September 1936 and was sold in chassis form to the Bucar Bugatti agency, who had operations in both Berlin and Zurich. This particular order was for the Grob Agency in the Zurich Canton of Horgen. 57443 is one of a handful of Type 57s that were supplied at this time all with chassis numbers in close proximity of each other, notably, 57444, 57446 and 57447. 57443, 57444 and 57447 were all to be equipped with coachwork by Graber. Jansen's records state that the rolling chassis was driven over 150km to Hermann Graber's coachbuilding works on September 21, 1936.

 

The car's original owner is said to have been an architect and was therefore responsible for the design, while the coachbuilder was for its construction. A number of its features including the hood louver treatment are common with other Graber bodies.

 

The result was a dramatically different automobile to the factory offered Pillarless sedan, which was arguably a victim of practicality over style. The car here is a clever, set-back, close-coupled design retaining the popular scalloped side panels synonymous with Bugattis, and dispensing with running boards to accentuate separate 'teardrop' or pontoon fenders. It is unquestionably a success, and it is perhaps only at second glance that one notices the presence of the secondary door. With the spare tire set at the back of the car, the full design of its side from its quarter-batched hood louvers backward is uncompromised, always a sporting styling touch. Another particular feature which is rather interesting are the long 'eared' wheel hub spinners, which it is said were to make wheel removal easier for a lady owner early in its career.

 

By 1960, the Type 57 was the property of Dieter Marx of Basel, and it was there that it was spotted by well known Dutch Bugatti dealer Bart Loyens, using one of the many connections he had forged as a student in Switzerland. The car had apparently been laid up following an engine failure, allowing Loyens to acquire it for a relatively favorable SWF500. He would bring it to the Netherlands and it would remain in Dutch ownership for the next 48 years.

 

Arriving in Holland 57443 was stored in warehouse space he used of the America-Holland Shipping Line, but it was not long before it passed onto the Dutch Bugatti Agent Albatros, owned by the van Ramhorst brothers. At this point, the 'broken' engine was replaced by another correct contemporary Type 57 unit, being over-stamped with the car's chassis number. (Today its original engine is in America having been fitted to Jim Hull's remarkable recreation of the 'Torpedo Competition' completed and debuted in the last few years.)

 

After brief sojourn out of the country, while in the custody of Dutchman Gies Pluim came to an end when his wife decided that they didn't need more than one Bugatti (already owning #43198) the car then passed to Hans Sauerbrier in November 1962 where it would remain until 2008. In Sauerbrier's custody the Bugatti was well maintained, and received an engine rebuild with new block in the 1980s, with the work being carried out by Fa Keizer of Doetinchem. Perhaps also at this time it was upgraded to have the hydraulic brake system as on the later models. With that addition and while retaining correct rubber engine dampers of its series, it is today to the definitive specification of the Type 57.

 

After more than 4 decades of ownership in this family the Bugatti migrated to the U.K. being sold publicly. Its buyer subsequently refurbished the car mechanically before passing it to the current owner.

 

In its present custody, the decision was made to repaint the car in a style more in keeping with others of its brethren accenting the body moldings in a two tone scheme. At the same time, the interior was sympathetically attended to, repairing the original leather. The details of the cabin are particularly attractive and extend to aspects such as the rarely seen accessory of the original leather cover for the steering column.

 

On close inspection, this is a rewarding Bugatti to look at today, its distinct body styling is particularly appealing and the preservation of its interior has ensured that the soul and charm of the car can still be experienced. Bonhams has a great tradition of offering special Bugattis, the latest, this unique example follows firmly in those footsteps and will no doubt be appreciated for its usability in events such as those of the American Bugatti Club or indeed to be shown.

In September 1977 Mercedes-Benz introduced their first factory-built wagon model as part of the W123 range.

 

The T-Series was available with the same engine range as the saloon, but featured the extra practicality of the wagon body form, frequently supplemented by the fitment of a 3rd row of rearward facing seats.

 

The model shown here the 300 TD Wagon, was fitted with a 3.0 L 5-cylinder Diesel engine, and is based on the car owned by the parent of one of my friends in the 1980s. They had a large family, and the 7-seat wagon was a very sensible proposition for carrying some of the family in one go (eight kids, so there was a second car as well).

 

Power output of the diesel engine was limited, based on numbers alone the car seems woefully under-powered by today's standards. But having driven a similar W123 sedan 300 D, the car moved along well enough.

 

The W123 reange was replaced by the W124 in 1985, and the new model range also included a high-capable wagon model.

I believe this is the Mission Chapel of San Juan Bautista.( I may be wrong. Please correct me if I am.)

 

Two years ago, we visited 3 of the 21 Spanish Missions that were established in Alta California during the expansion and colonization of California back in 1700s... for my daughter's school project.

 

A vast majority of these chapels have seen too many earthquakes, fires, floods and have been restored at least 3 times. Some were relocated while others were rebuilt. In fact, the better the condition of the structure, the more likely the chances are that the original structure has not survived the earthquake or the fire that hit it. The missions( most of them) although do not hold regular services, allow visitors and some are also available for hire for weddings and other occasions. Some are privately run and so are off limit to the general public.

 

While most of religious places are built for opulence and grandeur, these Mission chapels stood out to me for their simplicity and practicality. I suppose the they did not have much choice. Most of these were built with stone and wood and still have that 18th century charm. In almost all of them, even the ones with structure barely holding up, I found the main chapel warm and welcoming.

 

I for one would love to visit the other 18 of the Mission Chapels if possible. :)

Behold, with the solemnity this moment deserves, my latest masterpiece of modern engineering and artistic excess: the legendary Mitsuoka Le Seyed, recreated with the precision and audacity that only LEGO bricks can provide

 

This is not merely a car — it is a manifesto of style, an ode to unrestrained opulence, a heartfelt tribute to the unforgettable Grand Tour EuroCrash.

 

Observe the majestic chandeliers, symbols of refined taste and questionable practicality, and the vibrant green rims, capturing the fearless spirit of a man who refuses to acknowledge the meaning of “subtle.”

 

A creation that boldly defies not only the laws of aerodynamics… but also those of aesthetics — and, quite possibly, good judgment itself.

 

💚✨ Le Seyed would, without a doubt, approve.

Chassis n° LP400 112 0016

 

Les Grandes Marques du Monde au Grand Palais

Bonhams

Estimated : € 600.000 - 800.000

Sold for € 638.250

 

Parijs - Paris

Frankrijk - France

February 2018

 

'But for sheer outlandish eye appeal, and track-car capability that's translatable for the road, there is simply no better car. It's hard, also, to imagine a better one coming along.' – Car magazine on the Lamborghini Countach.

The legendary Miura was always going to be a hard act to follow, so the extent to which its successor eclipsed the greatest of 1960s supercars came as something of a shock to all. The sensation of the 1971 Geneva Salon, the Countach was styled, like its predecessor, by Carrozzeria Bertone's Marcello Gandini. Looking aggressive from every angle, the Countach was nothing less than spectacular, suggesting it had been conceived on another planet. As Motor magazine observed: 'few people gazing at the original Bertone Countach at Geneva in 1971 could have regarded it as anything but a "show" car. There were those fold-up doors for a start and the space-age cockpit with its abysmal rear visibility not to mention the strange engine/transmission configuration.' Happily, Lamborghini disregarded criticism of the car's supposed lack of practicality, and the Countach entered production changed in detail only. As it happened, the production version would not be seen for another two years, with deliveries commencing in 1974.

 

The running gear was largely carried over from the Miura, although it had been recognised that the latter's shortcomings in terms of handling and stability would not be tolerable in the Countach. At the same time, cabin heat and noise had to be reduced, and a more user-friendly gear change devised. The Miura's four-cam V12 was retained for the Countach, though this time installed longitudinally and equipped with side-draught Weber carburettors. To achieve optimum weight distribution, designer Paolo Stanzani placed the five-speed gearbox ahead of the engine between the seats, and the differential - driven by a shaft passing through the sump - at the rear. The result was a delightful gearchange and a better-balanced car than the Miura.

 

When production began in 1974, the Countach sported an improved spaceframe chassis, replacing the prototype's rather untidy semi-monocoque, while the bodywork was made of aluminium. One of the Countach's most striking features was the doors, which opened vertically and were supported by hydraulic struts, pivoting at their most forward point.

 

The production Countach came with the standard 4.0-litre - instead of the prototype's 5.0-litre - engine. Even with the smaller engine producing 'only' 375bhp, the aerodynamically efficient Countach could attain 170mph (274km/h) and, naturally, came with racetrack roadholding to match. Designated 'LP400' by the factory (LP = Longitudinale Posteriore, describing the engine placement), the first Countach is commonly known as the 'periscopio', after its central periscope, faired into the roof, which provided rearward vision.

 

This stunning example of the revolutionary Countach in its original LP400 'periscopio' form is one of approximately 157 built between 1974 and 1977, which explains why examples are only rarely seen for sale. Fitted with body number '8', chassis number '0016' was delivered new to Germany finished in Nero (black) with Senape (mustard) leather interior. Currently red with beige interior, it has been fitted with the later LP400 S wheels.

 

A ground-breaking design that set new standards for aspiring supercar manufacturers, the Lamborghini Countach is one of the most iconic sports cars of the 20th Century, and none more so than in its earliest and purest LP400 'Periscopio' form.

 

Coachwork by Graber (n° 350)

Chassis n° 57443

One-off

 

3.257 cc

8 in-line

130 ch @ 5.000 rpm

 

Les Grandes Marques du Monde au Grand Palais

Bonhams

Estimated : € 280.000 - 340.000

Sold for € 293.250

 

Parijs - Paris

Frankrijk - France

February 2018

 

The extremely handsome, one off coachbuilt Bugatti presented here is accredited by Bugatti experts to be a collaboration of its original owner with the Swiss coachbuilder Graber who were one of the leading Swiss coachbuilders of their day.

 

Most of Graber's 50 workers were skilled specialists, and the firm regularly displayed their latest creations on their stand at the Geneva Salon. It could be said that they were less flashy than some of the French coachbuilders, less advanced than certain Italian efforts but they were definitely of higher quality than most and displaying the well-balanced design preferred by their wealthy clientele. The success of Hermann Graber's company may be judged by the fact that it perpetuated comfortably into the 1970s, long after many of its pre-war contemporaries had ceased.

 

According to information supplied by Bugattiste Kees Jansen, 57443 was completed by the Bugatti Works in September 1936 and was sold in chassis form to the Bucar Bugatti agency, who had operations in both Berlin and Zurich. This particular order was for the Grob Agency in the Zurich Canton of Horgen. 57443 is one of a handful of Type 57s that were supplied at this time all with chassis numbers in close proximity of each other, notably, 57444, 57446 and 57447. 57443, 57444 and 57447 were all to be equipped with coachwork by Graber. Jansen's records state that the rolling chassis was driven over 150km to Hermann Graber's coachbuilding works on September 21, 1936.

 

The car's original owner is said to have been an architect and was therefore responsible for the design, while the coachbuilder was for its construction. A number of its features including the hood louver treatment are common with other Graber bodies.

 

The result was a dramatically different automobile to the factory offered Pillarless sedan, which was arguably a victim of practicality over style. The car here is a clever, set-back, close-coupled design retaining the popular scalloped side panels synonymous with Bugattis, and dispensing with running boards to accentuate separate 'teardrop' or pontoon fenders. It is unquestionably a success, and it is perhaps only at second glance that one notices the presence of the secondary door. With the spare tire set at the back of the car, the full design of its side from its quarter-batched hood louvers backward is uncompromised, always a sporting styling touch. Another particular feature which is rather interesting are the long 'eared' wheel hub spinners, which it is said were to make wheel removal easier for a lady owner early in its career.

 

By 1960, the Type 57 was the property of Dieter Marx of Basel, and it was there that it was spotted by well known Dutch Bugatti dealer Bart Loyens, using one of the many connections he had forged as a student in Switzerland. The car had apparently been laid up following an engine failure, allowing Loyens to acquire it for a relatively favorable SWF500. He would bring it to the Netherlands and it would remain in Dutch ownership for the next 48 years.

 

Arriving in Holland 57443 was stored in warehouse space he used of the America-Holland Shipping Line, but it was not long before it passed onto the Dutch Bugatti Agent Albatros, owned by the van Ramhorst brothers. At this point, the 'broken' engine was replaced by another correct contemporary Type 57 unit, being over-stamped with the car's chassis number. (Today its original engine is in America having been fitted to Jim Hull's remarkable recreation of the 'Torpedo Competition' completed and debuted in the last few years.)

 

After brief sojourn out of the country, while in the custody of Dutchman Gies Pluim came to an end when his wife decided that they didn't need more than one Bugatti (already owning #43198) the car then passed to Hans Sauerbrier in November 1962 where it would remain until 2008. In Sauerbrier's custody the Bugatti was well maintained, and received an engine rebuild with new block in the 1980s, with the work being carried out by Fa Keizer of Doetinchem. Perhaps also at this time it was upgraded to have the hydraulic brake system as on the later models. With that addition and while retaining correct rubber engine dampers of its series, it is today to the definitive specification of the Type 57.

 

After more than 4 decades of ownership in this family the Bugatti migrated to the U.K. being sold publicly. Its buyer subsequently refurbished the car mechanically before passing it to the current owner.

 

In its present custody, the decision was made to repaint the car in a style more in keeping with others of its brethren accenting the body moldings in a two tone scheme. At the same time, the interior was sympathetically attended to, repairing the original leather. The details of the cabin are particularly attractive and extend to aspects such as the rarely seen accessory of the original leather cover for the steering column.

 

On close inspection, this is a rewarding Bugatti to look at today, its distinct body styling is particularly appealing and the preservation of its interior has ensured that the soul and charm of the car can still be experienced. Bonhams has a great tradition of offering special Bugattis, the latest, this unique example follows firmly in those footsteps and will no doubt be appreciated for its usability in events such as those of the American Bugatti Club or indeed to be shown.

For some reason I always had a bit of an affinity towards these cars, largely due to the fact that they seemed to be smiling with those light clusters. But much like the Maestro, it had purpose, it was innovative, and it was a car that refused to die!

 

The Austin Montego first started development life way back in 1977 under project code LC10 (Leyland Cars 10), as an intended replacement for the Morris Marina and the Princess. However, like many of the company's promising projects, such as the Maestro and the Metro, it was shelved for years on account of the fact that British Leyland ran out of money! After a corporate bailout by the British Government, the company chose instead to prolong the development of these cars and instead simply give the existing Marina and Princess a facelift, resulting in the Morris Ital and Austin Ambassador, both cars notable for being unimpressively bland masterpieces.

 

However, this delay did give British Leyland a chance to tie up with Honda, and in 1980 launched the Triumph Acclaim as both the first Japanese/British hybrid car, but also British Leyland's first consistently reliable product! The result was that both the simultaneously developed Austin Maestro and Montego could take some leaves out of Honda's book and therefore improve the reliability. Styling came from David Bache, who had previously had a hand in penning the Rover P4, the Rover SD1 and the Range Rover, and Roy Axe, who would later go on to style the Rover 800 and the Rolls Royce Silver Seraph. The lengthy development time of the car however clearly showed as the first sketches of the car were done back in 1975. Apparently when Roy Axe, who took over as Director of Design in 1982, saw the first prototype with the original design, he was so horrified that he suggested they scrap the whole thing and start over!

 

However, their combined design talent truly shows through with the Montego as in essence these are very handsome cars, with a long smooth body, a pleasing frontal alignment and design, and internally very capable and comfortable. Some novel features included were the colour coordinated bumpers that matched the rest of the car, and the wiper spindles hiding under the bonnet when parked.

 

Although many consider the Maestro just to be a hatchback version of the Montego, there were many features the Montego had that made it an all around better car. These included a new S-Series engine in place of the A-Series engine that dated back to the 1950's, and a more practical and robust dashboard. Variations of the car included the stylish and luxury Vanden Plas, which was styled internally by the world renowned coachbuilder with lavish wood veneer and seating (thankfully not given a chrome nose, that would have been insane!), the sporty MG Montego which featured a higher performance O-Series Turob Engine and a revolutionary synthesised computer voice that announced problems and warnings, and finally the Estate versions which were by far the most popular and received almost unanimous acclaim for their spacious interior.

 

The Montego was launched on April 25th 1984, being available at first as a 4-door saloon to replace the standard Morris Ital, but the Ital in estate form continued on until August, bringing an end to the 11 year old Morris Marina family. In October the Estate version was launched at the British International Motor Show. Initially things were looking up for the Montego, as mentioned the Estate version was lauded for its practicality, the MG Montego became the fastest MG ever built with 115hp to rocket it up to a top speed of 126mph at a rate of 0-60 in 7.1 seconds, and the Vanden Plas was a modest success for the business executive, as well as finding a home in the company car market.

 

Promotion for the car also helped to seal the deal with a fantastically choreographed advert where professional stunt driver Russ Swift, pretty much danced around a crowded car park in a Montego, doing reverse 180's in gaps only a few feet wide, and driving the car on two wheels through a gap only a ruler's length apart! Jeremy Clarkson would attempt to do the same thing 14 years later on one of his DVD's in another Montego, again with the help of Russ Swift, which went well the first time, but not so well the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh time. Eventually the Montego was smashed in half by a large truck in a fiery explosion.

 

Sadly though, the honeymoon like with all good British Leyland cars was short lived, and soon afterwards the various faults and build quality problems became once again apparent. Although many of the features fitted to these cars such as the synthesised voice, the computer engine management and the redesigned dashboard were endearing, the main fault that these cars had were in the electrics, which would frequently go wrong. Some examples I've heard from early Montego owners have included the car failing to start, pressing the indicator switch only to blow the horn, or the synthesised talking lady never, ever, ever shutting up! Because of these problems the cars built up a very quick and poor reputation, added to by the poor construction of the actual car, with the colour coded bumpers being particularly problematic as they'd crack in cold weather.

 

But British Leyland didn't give up on the Montego, and in the background designers continued to tinker with the idea of further additions and changes to the car. Throughout the period following its introduction, British Leyland began to be broken up by the Thatcher Government, with Jaguar being made independent, the various parts manufacturers such as UNIPART being sold off, Leyland Trucks and Buses being sold to Volvo and DAF, and eventually the whole outfit being reduced to just MG and Rover. The Montego has been credited with being the last car to carry the Austin name, the badge being dropped in 1988 with future cars simply being dubbed the Montego. This coincided with a facelift in 1989 and the re-engineering of the car to be fitted with a Perkins Diesel. In 1989 a new seven-seater estate model was created called the Montego Countryman, built to combat the rising trend of People-Carriers such as the Renault Espace, but still being able to perform as well as a regular car. This, much like the original estate, proved immensely popular, especially in France for some reason, which went on to be one of the Montego's major markets.

 

In the early 90's the Montego did start getting back some reputation, winning the CAR Magazine's 'Giant Test' (all technical names I'm sure) when competing against the likes of the Citroen BX and the Audi 80. In fact the Rover Montego Turbo became a favourite with the RAF, and was used to whisk Officers across airfields as a personal transport. The Montego may have failed to outdo the Volkswagen Passat, but as for the British mob such as the Ford Sierra and the Vauxhall Cavalier, it was able competition. In fact when I was young in the 90's a lot of kids I'd see dropped off to school would be in then new Montego's because by this point the reliability issues had been ironed out following Rover Group's return to private ownership under British Aerospace.

 

But by 1992 the car was very much looking its age and was in desperate need of a replacement. In 1993 the Rover 600 was launched which pretty much ended the Montego for mass-production then and there, but special orders for the car continued until 1995. The machines continued to be a favourite among Company Car firms, and a lot of the developments made in the Montego lived on in later Rover cars, primarily the 600 and the 75, which inherited its rear suspension which was often held in high regard. But the curtain did eventually fall for the official Montego production in 1995 as new owners BMW desired nothing more than to be out with the old and in with the new, with facelifts all around including a new Rover 25 to replace the 200, a new Rover 45 to replace the 400, and a new Rover 75 to replace the 800, and the original Range Rover was revamped into the absolutely magnificent Range Rover P38 in 1995. The Maestro too was axed and the Metro followed not long afterwards in 1999, with the classic Mini being killed off in 2000, only to be brought back to life the same year under BMW management after the breakup of Rover that year.

 

But like the Maestro, the Montego simply wouldn't die, but unlike the Maestro, attempts to revive the car under bootlegged brands weren't as prosperous. In India, the company Sipani Automobiles, notable for attempting to recreate British cars such as the Reliant Kitten but instead consistently turning out garbage, attempted to built a few, but folded soon afterwards. In Trinidad & Tobago, a small firm attempted to sell their own copycat versions of the Montego, which were notable for their exceptional poor quality. But most famously was the attempt to recreate the car in China with the Lubao CA 6410, which yoked the nose of a Montego onto the back of a Maestro using a Maestro platform. Today that car is technically still in production as the Jiefang CA 6440 UA Van, but owes more to the Maestro than the Montego.

 

Today the Montego is a very rare car to find. Of the 571,000 cars built, only 296 remain, making it Britain's 8th most scrapped car. Contributing to this, areas of the bodywork that were to be covered by plastic trim (such as the front and rear bumpers) were left unpainted and thus unprotected. In addition, pre-1989 models cannot run on unleaded petrol without the cylinder head being converted or needing fuel additives.

 

However, as mentioned, the Montego estate was a huge hit in France, and chances are you'll find a fair number ambling about the countryside there. Malta too was another popular locale for the Montego, as well as many other British Leyland cars, including Marina's, Allegros and even Princesses!

 

My opinion on the Montego? Like most British Leyland cars it had prospects and purpose, but lacked the desire to build good, honest cars. It was comfortable, it was handsome, it performed as well as a family saloon car should, it was spacious and very well equipped, and like many British Leyland cars, such as the Princess with its Hydragas suspension, it was innovative. If these cars had been built better and had some of the teething problems ironed out with the electrical systems, then British Leyland could have easily gone on to make the family car of the 1980's. But like all pathfinders in the world of technology, they will suffer the full brunt of the problems they are most likely to experience.

 

People rarely remember the originals, only the one's that perfected it...

www.nationaltrust.org.uk/oakhurst-cottage/features/oakhur...

 

A small half-timbered house, built in the 16th century. Oakhurst has been refurbished by the National Trust as a farm labourer's dwelling, with displays relating to 4 centuries of occupation. The house is set in lovely Victorian-style gardens.

Located just off the cricket green in Hambledon village is a small timber-framed 16th century cottage. Oakhurst is just one of several historic properties owned by the National Trust in Hambledon, but it is the only one regularly open to the public.

 

Oakhurst was probably not intended for habitation, but as a barn. Sometime in the 1500s it was converted into a cottage, and was lived in until the mid-20th century. The building was rarely renovated or updated, so provides a wonderful glimpse into the past. See the kitchen with its huge brick hearth topped by a dark oak beam, and the uneven floor laid with large tiles.

 

The cottage has been furnished with traditional country furniture, showing how residents lived here over the centuries, with a focus on the Victorian period. Oakhurst is set in a small cottage garden, combining practicalities like vegetables, fruit, and culinary herbs, with colourful flowers. The gardens have been planted to resemble contemporary paintings of Oakhurst.

 

To one side of the garden is a small barn, beside an outdoor privy. The barn has been furnished with traditional tools that would have been used for gardening and household maintenance. The privy was in use up until 1994, and was regularly visited by the last Hambledon nightsoil man.

 

Due to the cottage's small size and age, it can only be visited via a pre-booked, guided tour. See the National Trust website for tour details.

Ford's forth generation Focus, codenamed C519 launched in 2018, replacing the previous C346 Focus in markets outside North America.

 

One semi-crossover variant, the Focus Active, was due to be built in China for export to the US, but was cancelled due to a trade dispute.

 

The C519 model retained the 5-door hatchback, saloon and estate models of the previous version, with the added Active variant a high-riding version of the hatchback or estate.

 

Most Focus C519 models are powered by 3-cylinder Ecoboost engines of 1.0L or 1.5L capacity, while 1.5L and 2.0L Panther 4-cylinder diesels are available, but with lower customer takeup due to market shift away from Diesels. A 2.3L Ecoboost is available in the performance ST trim.

 

The model shown is the high-specification Titanium Hatchback in one of the louder reddish-orange hues, which currently resides in my driveway (not driving much during COVID) as my company car.

 

I love the colour, and the practicality and functional performance are strong points. The fuel economy, and the lack of luxury feel are negatives.

Strength and power come directly from intention and then action in that order, sure. But to break it down to more than that, it takes a deep harnessing of spiritual intention and activated genuine desire to do something to get anything genuinely done, good or bad. Desire is desire, like a river is a river, it flows no matter what to where it needs to go. Activated desire is like an uncontrollably flowing river that goes where it needs to go and wants to go. Desire is the power behind it all as a spiritual concept, especially when it is activated through purity of action, whatever it may be.

 

The way to harness life energy productively is to use it, no matter how it is used. Like a river uses the ground to move its water. Or a plant grows through being nourished by the river on the riverside. To increase, harness and control life energy this is all that is necessary in every genuine way.

 

Now sure, it begins with thinking and it ends with persistence and achievement. That simple. I am coming from a place of deep honesty, reality and practicality about the situation as it all really is.

 

So, when it is said, "by all means persist." That saying has been fully decoded for you here in this picture: The isolation of life energy in fully practical terms.

 

Taken: Hussaini Village, Hike back to KKH from Borit Lake, Upper Hunza, Near Passu, Northern Areas of Pakistan.

 

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The original Iron Man costume worn on set of the movie by Robert Downey Jr..

 

This picture got me almost thrown out of the Met by a security guard, because there were no pictures allowed (special exhibition).

  

---

The challenge in designing a costume such as Ironman is that it has to serve two masters. First and foremost, in order for the film to work, the audience's disbelief must be suspended. The suit must be a convincing technological artifact: a wearable airplane, a powered suit of armor. Every detail must seem carefully thought out and evoke our experience of functional technology. You must believe this could be built and fly.

 

At the same time, once Tony Stark dons the costume he cannot simply be a man in a metal suit. He must become another character entirely, with his own identity, his own personality. Ironman must look every part the hero. The design must be a simple iconic gesture, human enough to become superhuman. The forms must convey mechanical athleticism, denoting muscularity and potency while seeming to serve aerodynamics and articulation. Shoulder blades become ailerons, serratus muscles become venting louvers. It should feel as if the shape mimics the human body and a sports car in equal parts—not as a means to manipulate perception, but as the inevitable product of some artificial evolution.

 

—Phil Saunders

 

Iron Man is a unique challenge in the superhero world because he is, depending on how you choose to look at it, both a superhero in the traditional sense, and a technological device based on science rather than superpowers. That is more true today than ever before because a lot of today’s technology is catching up to the science-fiction Iron Man is based on; while he was once a far-fetched fantastical idea, today he is a believable possibility. In designing the character, as well as his villains, I chose to look at it from a technological perspective and let a level of practicality dictate the aesthetics. The difficult part is that he still has to be a superheroic icon in the true Marvel fashion, so the challenge was to keep the larger-than-life, elegant silhouette and color scheme, which makes him instantly recognizable and which dates to the 1960s, and makes him as iconic as Spider-Man or Captain America, but update it for the current times. The biggest inspirations for my vision of Iron Man were the modern jet-fighters and sports cars with their active aerodynamics, various flaps, winglets, etc., which add a level of believability and practicality, but allow the design to maintain an elegance, much like those machines—an outer skin hiding a whole array of devices.

 

Iron Man Mark 2 and 3 were a collaboration between the designer Phil Saunders and myself, and our various strengths combined to create what I believe to be a very successful manifestation of that practical superhero idea. The suit in the movie is, for all intents and purposes, as much of a wearable aircraft as a superhero outfit. It maintains all of the key features Iron Man possesses in comics, but adds a huge level of detail and technology which makes him be as believable in motion on the cinema screens as he is.

 

—Adi Granov

 

www.metmuseum.org/special/superheroes/

 

When you think of poor cars and the worst era of British Industry, most will cite the Austin Allegro, a car that truly is a staple of its time, and those times were pretty grim to say the least! It has become a symbol of failure, a monument to catastrophic engineering, a beacon of impracticality and a terrible tribute to an age we Brits would sooner forget.

 

Bit is the Austin Allegro really deserving of such maligned opinions? Should we really hate it as much as we do?

 

The story of the Allegro goes back to the previous model of its range, the Austin 1100, a car that had become symbolic of the British family motor industry, with crisp smooth lines, round peeking headlights and a good blend of space and practicality, it sold by the millions and could have almost been described as a family equivalent of the Mini, novelty that you can use everyday. Trouble was that the 1100 was starting to look very much its age in 1971, and thus British Leyland, the new owners of Austin, took it upon themselves to design a new car that would be sheek and European, something that could win both the British and the International markets.

 

For this they enlisted the help of Chief BL Designer Harris Mann, famous for many great BL products such as the Marina, the Ital, the Princess and the Triumph TR7. Today many people blame him for the poor designs that the company spewed out onto the roads of Britain, but I personally feel sorry for him, especially with cars such as the Allegro. His original design for the car was an angular and very streamlined looking piece of kit, a hatchback and with two fins on the rear to compliment the long smooth waistband, making it look almost reminiscent of an Aston Martin DB5 crossed with a 1969 DBS. However, his promising designs were sadly watered down by British Leyland, tinkered, altered, and, quite frankly, ruined his idea to become what it is, with its bathtub curves, long sloping back and piggy headlights. I will say, it's not the ugliest car in the world, far from it, I've seen much worse like the Pontiac Aztek which looks like a cross between a Bug and a mutant Rhino, but when you compare it to Harris Mann's original sketches, then, and only then, do you understand how far down the Allegro design came.

 

But styling wasn't what BL expected to win the market with, but instead with the car's practicality, starting with the new Hydragas suspension to replace the previous Hydrolastic suspension of the 1100. With this suspension, The Allegro intended to lock horns with the likes of the outgoing Citroën DS and its replacement the CX. Hydragas uses displaced spheres of Nitrogen gas to replace the conventional steel springs of a regular suspension design. The means for pressurising the gas in the displacers is done by pre-pressurising a hydraulic fluid, and then connecting the displacer to its neighbour on the other axle. This is unlike the Citroën system, which uses hydraulic fluid continuously pressurised by an engine-driven pump and regulated by a central pressure vessel. However, the attempt at being an outstanding motor ended at Hydragas because there was nothing else particularly endearing about the Allegro. The interior was cheap, nasty and very cramped, especially in the back where you couldn't even fit a bag of shopping let alone your children! Rather than taking the sensible approach of the competition by fitting the car with a hatchback for more boot space, the car was just fitted with a tiny little trunk that you couldn't fit a bag of shopping into either! The engine, the BMC A-Series, was carried over from the 1100, which was a fine little engine, perky and fairly reliable if maintained properly, as well as the heater being carried over from the Morris Marina, but I'm no judge of heaters so I won't say if that was for good or for ill. Most jarring however was when the car was fitted with a square steering wheel! Probably the most memorable part of the Allegro is the fact that it was given a quartic steering wheel, which BL claimed was for ease of access to the front seat and so that the instruments could be seen, which leaves one asking whether you couldn't see them with a round steering wheel! In the end even Harris Mann disowned the car with disappointment, claiming it was nothing like his original idea, which is pretty bad when even the Chief Designer disowns it!

 

Either way, in spite of Mr. Mann's space-age design being watered down to something unrecognisable and with only Hydragas suspension to make it any different from anything else on the market, the Allegro was launched in 1973 with a promotional trip to Marbella in the south of Spain, and early reviews, despite there being a unanimous dislike to the car's shape and styling, were quite warm, many praising the comfort of the Hydragas suspension. However, reviews of the drive quality, such as the car's heavy steering and cheap, plastic interior, were less favourable.

 

Nevertheless, initial sales of the Allegro were promising and it was in 1973 one of the best selling cars of the year, but things truly went for the plunge soon afterwards, and the car never fully recovered. The flaws of the design became prominent, followed by British Leyland's infamous low quality builds. Roofs, panels and boots leaked, rear wheels flew off, and rumour has it that these cars were banned from the Mersey Tunnel in Liverpool because they couldn't be towed after a breakdown without the chassis bending in the middle! Engines failed to start, wiring was abysmal, rear windows popped out, the paint colours were dreary and dismal, the car would rust before you got it home and many commented that the car had a better drag co-efficiency going backwards!

 

The Allegro did come in a selection of variants, including an estate, a sporty coupé known as the Equipe, and a very strange luxury variant known as the Vanden Plas 1500, a peculiar which was fitted with luxury items carried over from the Jaguar XJ range and had a big chrome nose yoked onto the front to try and make it look reminiscent of a Rolls Royce or a Bentley. Only problem is that Rolls Royce's and Bentley's have their front ends designed around the chrome nose, and thus the result was that it looked something like a pig! Also, another thing about Rollers and Bentleys is that they're much, much bigger than a tiny Allegro, which had absolutely no legroom in the back which made the concept entirely pointless! The car was also sold in Italy as the Innocenti Regent, nothing particularly different apart from different badges.

 

In 1975 the Allegro II was launched to try and redress some of the issues with the original car, including a slightly altered front-end and some minor changes internally, but overall it was very much the same. These changes however weren't enough to save the car's dwindling reputation, and even though the BL advertisers continued to lay on the imaginative promotion, the car was still losing heavily to the likes of the Ford Cortina.

 

The final variant, the Allegro III, had the most changes upon its launch in 1979, including a new version of the A-Series engine and quad round headlights to make it look a bit more modern. Apart from that the car was still very much the same as it was in 1973, and it was truly showing its age. British Leyland, recovering from the bankruptcy of 1977, attempted to rationalise the company by pulling out of the sports car range as well as some of their older products. The MG sportsters were killed off in 1980 and their factory closed whilst production of the Allegro and the Mini were slowed down as they prepared to discontinue to both of them in favour of the Austin Metro. The Morris Marina and Princess were replaced by the mostly identical Morris Ital and the Austin Ambassador, and Triumph was now being used to pioneer a tie up with Japan to create good and reliable cars in the form of the Triumph Acclaim.

 

The hammer eventually fell on the Allegro after 9 years of production in 1982 when the Austin Maestro was launched after 5 years of development. In all, 642,000 Allegros left the factory during its lifetime, but today less than 250 are known to exist, with many rusting away or being part exchanged for a plant pot by the time 1990 hit. The reputation of these cars is still very much maligned by both critics and motoring enthusiasts alike, with it topping many people's worst car in history lists, and becoming Britain's worst car of all time followed closely by the Morris Marina. Top Gear were always quick to bash the Allegro, with two of the ambiguous Vaden Plas 1500's meeting their maker, one being smashed with a suspended Morris Marina in a giant game of Bar Skittles, whilst another was driven in reverse off a ramp and smashed into a pile of scrapyard cars.

 

Me personally? I feel that the Allegro was a car with promise and premise, but the abilities of British Leyland fell far short of their ambitions, not helped by their incompetence and desire to commit corporate suicide. If the car had been built as Harris Mann had designed, been given a hatchback, and had been created with the slightest semblance of sense, then it could have truly been a winner. As it is, the car is now a sorry marker in the world of broken dreams, one that we simply choose to forget and never forgive.

MG ZT-T Estate (2001-05) Engine 1798cc S4

 

Registration Number BX 02 RGV

 

MG SET

 

www.flickr.com/photos/45676495@N05/sets/72157623797586658...

The Rover 75 was unveiled to the public at the 1998 Birmingham Motor Show, with deliveries commencing in February 1999 2001 saw the introduction of the Rover 75 Tourer (developed alongside the saloon but never authorised for production by BMW), swiftly followed by the MG ZT and MG ZT-T, more sporting interpretations of the model, differentiated by modified, sporting chassis settings and colour and trim derivatives

The ZT-T was the MG Estate car version, launched alongside its sibling Rover 75 Tourer. They were was designed to offer Rover customers a greater degree of practicality while retaining the 75's sleek looks and high-class image. The tailgate is fitted with a separate opening rear screen, allowing owners to drop items into the boot, without having to lift up the whole door. Once the door is opened, however, the load space is up to 1,480 mm wide and 2,060 mm long. With the seats up there is a competitive 400 to 680 litres of cargo space, and with the seats folded down (in a 60:40 ratio complete with centre load-through hatch) there is 1,222 litres available, making it more of a 'lifestyle' estate than all-out load lugger.

 

Shot 13:04:2013 at The Pride of Longbridge Rally, Cofton Park, Birmingham REF 90b-511