Voitures Anciennes

[Hotrodder]

Dodge are producing some wonderful reincarnations of the 60s "muscle cars" but that truly fugly pickup isn't one of them.
And that "new Mini" is so far from the original it is a ridiculous travesty of the original spirit and purpose.

[RobertArthur]

Hotrodder, a special one for you from Texas. MBL, Maybellene, why can't you be true? Oh Maybellene, why can't you be true? Please, please keep hanging on to dreams of yesterday.

Chuck Berry had no qualms about performing for an extremely respectable audience. Where else but on French television, which was a well respectable state-run broadcaster in those days. Not MIck Jagger at the Kurhaus in Scheveningen a few years earlier....

Time machine, let's get back.....

[RobertArthur]

Just a quick word about that ‘new Mini’. I’ll admit straight away that nothing beats the original. However, some of the details that used to be small have also grown quite a bit: little bird, spread your wings and fly off somewhere. In my opinion, the new Mini still stays a bit closer to its roots than quite a few others. Which, I think, also explains its appeal to a younger generation of drivers. Granted, the Countryman does seem to be aimed a bit more at a well-off young suburbanite, but it’s still got something about it.

It’s a completely different story when we come across the word ‘jeep’ and its most recent interpretations in the flesh, out in the wild. Be that as it may, you still can’t quite shake off that iconic image of a proper jeep. Don't mention the war, I know, back to a landing that was part of Operation Vitality II, carried out by the British Scottish 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division. The landing beach was situated near Baarland, where Scheldebrasserie "De Landing" is now located. The troops crossed the Western Scheldt from Terneuzen and landed on 25 and 26 October 1944 to liberate Zuid-Beveland from occupation. It is still commemorated there every year. No wonder that there, just as in Normandy, you can still find evidence of it. Keep them rolling.

[Hotrodder]

A friend of mine used to have a genuine Willys jeep like the one in your photo. A seriously crude piece of machinery but supremely rugged. With three of us in the back hanging onto a roll bar, he used to pull wheelies from the traffic lights.
Several years later I owned a copycat kit car. Far too lightweight for its own good. Nailbitingly unstable at motorway speeds but great fun in the summer.

Jago Geep.jpg

[RobertArthur]

And a simple manual was always readily available.