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Triumph Vignale Italia 2000? L.

 

I thought I would have you fooled longer than that. Was it the twin small lights under the headlight that gave it away?

 

Poor Ruffino and Vignale. They were given a horrible deal by Standard Triumph who seemed to bend over backwards to be difficult and uncooperative. The whole deal fell through after they had made just a few of these beautiful cars ( around 325 plus a few later from spare parts).

 

ST was all run at that time by that ghastly man Donald Stokes, with whom I had the misfortune to have some dealings, when he was failing to run British Leyland in the late 1960's. I was the consultant engineer at a meeting with him and other senior BLMC managers and a group of the major UK BLMC dealers The discussion was over the appalling construction standards and reliability of the product. DS came over as an overbearing, arrogant but stupid man, who just could not see that if they did not take massive steps to improve the product, the whole company was destined for the dustbin of history. I was just amazed it took as long as it did to die.

 

Wilson

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Not really the twin small lights --- Your hint concerning mixed nationality. First idea: Sunbeam Venezia (???), second idea: Triumph.

 

As before: No reasonable pics available for me, so please continue who likes. L.

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Just to keep things ticking along, here is one of my friend Ian, working on this car outside my house in France.

 

Wilson

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Wilson

 

Is it an Autosud Formula Junior, from the late 50's?

 

Ernst

 

Ernst,

 

Yes correct. It usually becomes known by its owners as "The Awful Sod". Clever idea of using a transaxle at the rear to improve the weight distribution but the choice of a Fiat 600 Multipla as the supplier of the gearbox was somewhat less clever. My friend Ian persisted with this car for some years before selling it to a New Zealand owner, who runs it in their interesting version of FJ, where larger engines are allowed (the gearbox was fragile enough with the 1100cc engine, I cannot imaging how bad it is with a 1600). There were originally 3 of these FJ's made of which I believe two remain in existence.

 

Here is the picture from which the crop was taken and a better one showing the whole car. The car was being worked on at my house in Provence before the 2008 Monaco Historic GP. It did not have a happy time, with an inlet manifold stud shearing during practice and then a clutch failure on the warm up lap of the race. It is a very pretty little car.

 

Wilson

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Well done! I thought it might have taken longer with this one...

 

I think that this is a timeless shape from the 70's and still looks fresh, despite being almost 40 years old. This one was photographed in Santa Barbara, California earlier this year.

 

Over to you...

 

Ernst

 

8226775882_e6fef576de_c.jpg

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indeed. good looking machine!

 

if someone into these (as i really am) sees this....i'm sure it won't be too tough! :)

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Edited by iedei
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  • 2 weeks later...
Audi Quattro Sport

 

Wilson

 

well that was easy weren't it? :)

 

don't have the full photo here at work...will post it later sometime!

 

back to you!

 

Who is next?

 

If I read it correctly, Wilson is "it".

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I am in the middle of packing to go off to South Africa in the next day or so, so may I pass the baton to whosoever wishes to take it up. I will see if I can take some nice photos of cars in the RSA to tease you with at a later point.

 

Wilson

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OK, here's one for amusement. I know when it was reputedly built and I know a name. Anyway, here it is:

 

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Edit: Once you know what this is, you'll see immediately why I am so much amused by it.

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