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[Rods2]

How much longer will polluting internal combustion engined vehicles be allowed on the roads is another good question?

Last Friday as I was walking down to Sandhurst station to catch a train, there was this loud clattering sound behind me and a steam lorry with trailer drove past.

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Amen... speaking of how the electronics side of our cars will slowly fade and die... did people say the same of blacksmithing, old-school engineering, etc in the 1960s - when the very last of steam lorries, traction engines and steam rollers were eventually all-but removed from the roads? Surely the demand for a company that can make you a custom made crank, or even an entire wheel or cylinder for such a machine would have ceased? And yet here we are, in the 21st century, and we can still build an entire chuffing (no pun intended) steam train 

http://www.a1steam.com/

Above is perhaps most famous for its part in the Top Gear episode where a Vincent, Jag and Loco raced each other. How have we still got the ability and resources in this land to manufacture a working, full-size Locomotive? I think it's wonderful. 

[Kevin Wood]

Amen... speaking of how the electronics side of our cars will slowly fade and die... did people say the same of blacksmithing, old-school engineering, etc in the 1960s....

The difference is, you can reproduce a part a blacksmith has made simply by copying its' shape. Try that with an engine ECU.

Granted, you can replace it with a Megasquirt or something to keep the engine working, but what of the more modern cars that use CAN to interconnect everything? Not that they'll be missed when they're gone, IMHO.

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Fair point. My reasoning was that, for instance, the technology to manufacture an microprocessor in the Victorian age wasn't there. All the metals and elements existed on the periodic table, but simply even the highest technology in the Empire wouldnt have been able to do it. Fast forward 100 years and we're at a point where you can solder your own printed circuit board in your bedroom - Raspberry Pie computers are another good example. Among a few daft hobbies I restore old GPO phones, but upon the eventual removal of analogue phone lines (as with TV and eventually radio  ) there's already little black box on the market for converting the pulse dial to tone, meaning they'll work forever 

If there's a demand for it, people will make it. And as technology moves forward the impossible to source specialist OEM-only wire of yesterday will become the easily build up wire in kit form of tomorrow.

Just on the crank sensor side of things... correct me if I'm wrong, but generally it's not the sensor that fails, but the wire that breaks down through constant exposure to excessive heat? -  Routing it against the inner wing eliminates this problem, ergo: do this and they should last 'forever' (well, a damn sight longer, anyway). But upon a failed crank sensor, surely it's not an impossibility to replace the wire itself, using the original GM plug and sensor at each end?

As classic parts become hard and eventually impossible to source any classic car owner ends up making clever and lateral choices/modifications. It's been happening for donkeys years and shall no doubt continue. Hopefully! 

[Marks DTM Calib]

My frontera must be nearly a classic aswell lol

you poor, deluded fool.

Yeah, I think Clarkson may have devalued it a bit last night.

Then again, the "single axle" mod for better off-road performance might catch on.

I actually think he appeared to be somewhat disappointed to not be able to break it and it still was ok off road despite wearing road tyres with very little tread.......and of course he was wrong, the 2.2 was never fitted in a Vectra......

[Marks DTM Calib]

How much longer will polluting internal combustion engined vehicles be allowed on the roads is another good question?

Last Friday as I was walking down to Sandhurst station to catch a train, there was this loud clattering sound behind me and a steam lorry with trailer drove past.

Where as I was following a 2003 Range Rover V8 today and every time he lifted off the back end of the vehicle disappeared in a cloud of oil smoke!

[Phil L]

Amen... speaking of how the electronics side of our cars will slowly fade and die... did people say the same of blacksmithing, old-school engineering, etc in the 1960s - when the very last of steam lorries, traction engines and steam rollers were eventually all-but removed from the roads? Surely the demand for a company that can make you a custom made crank, or even an entire wheel or cylinder for such a machine would have ceased? And yet here we are, in the 21st century, and we can still build an entire chuffing (no pun intended) steam train 

http://www.a1steam.com/

Above is perhaps most famous for its part in the Top Gear episode where a Vincent, Jag and Loco raced each other. How have we still got the ability and resources in this land to manufacture a working, full-size Locomotive? I think it's wonderful. 

I'm with you...

[Keith ABS]

  15 years for semi classic status...... my 2000 Zaf is a semi classic!!!!

keith B

[jimbo125]

The problem with the miggy is that it is like Ronseal "It does what it says on the tin" and very well just has the wrong badge. Maybe badge fads are for idiots that's why you find them behind the wheel of a BMW!

[Phil L]

The problem with the miggy is that it is like Ronseal "It does what it says on the tin" and very well just has the wrong badge. Maybe badge fads are for idiots that's why you find them behind the wheel of a BMW!

Yep 

[jimbo125]

I will stick with me 2.5V6 manual, all the perks of a BMW - leather trim PAS, ABS, Traction Control etc but much cheaper and just as good

[Vamps]

I will stick with me 2.5V6 manual, all the perks of a BMW - leather trim PAS, ABS, Traction Control etc but much cheaper and just as good

..............

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Seconded 'Thirded' 

[jimbo125]

17 years old and 138k and still going, the wife wishes it would die but it just keeps trucking

[wolseleywedge]

Yeah, sadly the big Vauxhalls, from the PB Crestas to the Viscounts, Royales, Senators etc don't have the kind of cult following the big Fords do.

That said, speaking as a long time BL/Rover fan, it is only over the last decade that cars like the SD1 or the Princess have gone from total and utter ridicule to star car status.  But the big Rover 800 - a car I love and have owned various models of - languishes in the ''it's crap'' category still.  How long till that changes, if ever?  Will it take some kind of outbreak of nostalgia for the 90s??

There is at least one big Vauxhall that tops a lot of people's wish lists - yes, even beyond a bronze Granada Mk 1 - and that is the Vauxhall Cresta PA.  On styling grounds alone it is just epic, in my eyes at least.  And nowadays worth a small fortune