I guess that photos like the one posted here today are something of a cliche these days – pictures of the fronts (and rears) of cars, especially classic cars, is something that seems to have become a widespread trend. Nevertheless, they can still be interesting pictures, I feel, so please excuse another one appearing. 🙂
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-D & Fujichrome Velvia 100 (expired 2011). Lab developed. Home scanned.
Taken on 25 June 2022
This little car here is the somewhat graniosely named Vanden Plas Princess 1100. It’s a model from the BMC ADO16 range of which there were multiple variants. The Vanden Plas version was at the upmarket end though, with the model sporting leather interior furnishings and a walnut dashboard. It also had a posh-looking radiator grille by way of distinction from its lower spec stablemates.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-D & Fujichrome Velvia 100 (expired 2011). Lab developed. Home scanned.
Taken on 25 June 2022
This big barge of a car was at the Sheffield Steam Rally when I visited. I’m not sure what year this dates from – I would guess late 70s, but I could also be out by some margin thanks to my relative ignorance of such things. It looks nice in a photograph though!
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-D & Fujichrome Velvia 100 (expired 2011). Lab developed. Home scanned.
Taken on 25 June 2022
A couple of photos of a nicely painted Ford Popular which I came across while out and about a few weeks ago. The first shot was taken through the railings which, given the GW690 is both large and a rangefinder, meant it was a little difficult to frame the image. I poked the lens barrel between the bars so I knew they wouldn’t be in the shot, but I was still a little concerned about parallax error. I think it came out ok though.
Fujica GW690 & Kodak Ektachrome 100 EPP (expired 2003). Lab developed.
Taken on 30 April 2022
Who might this be stood beside a Sunbeam with an unusual “protrusion”?
Why it’s none other than “Jamesh” Bond in his Sean Connery guise…
What is protruding?
Why it’sh nothing but his gun
What elshe could it be?
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 4 September 2021
When I was a kid the Bond Bug wasn’t an unusual sight, even if not completely commonplace. Every one (to my knowledge) was painted the same bright orange and this, plus the lift-up canopy door and three-wheel design made them special in the eyes of my friends and I. For a while I thought they were so named due to some sort of connection with James Bond – perhaps he drove one in some spy movie I hadn’t yet seen.
They were actually named due to them being manufactured by Bond Cars Ltd (I’m assuming that James Bond wasn’t moonlighting as a vehicle manufacturer…) and were the last in a range of three-wheel vehicles that began in the 1940s with the Bond Minicar.
Despite their sleek and futuristic design, the car was powered by a 700 or 750cc engine with a top speed of just 75mph. I’ve never ridden in a Bond Bug but did have a trip in a Reliant Robin once – another three-wheel car – and based on that experience (it nearly tipped on its side going around a corner!) can only assume that reaching top speed must have been a somewhat terrifying experience.
Did James Bond once drive
His namesake car the Bond Bug?
Well he should have done
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6D & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 14 August 2021
This will be another very concise post – as have several over the past couple of weeks – this time mostly because we had a visitor and so it’s later than I’d normally start typing this. I’ll write longer posts again at some point, honest – maybe even break the three paragraph mark! 🙂
So, we have today the bonnet of a Ford Consul Capri. I know little about this car, but was attracted to the stars on the grille, which have a charmingly kitsch look about them.
Yesterday’s future
The stars on the car you see
Retro envisioned
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6D & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 14 August 2021
Finding old cars here in the UK isn’t easy, at least outside of car shows and museums. The MOT system means that most vehicles get sent for scrap before they gain too much age; the cost of keeping them road-worthy a barrier to long-term posession. Add to this the large-scale scrappage schemes that were brought into place when the use of leaded petrol was outlawed a few decades ago and the number of older-model vehicles is low. So, when I come across something like this Ford Capri parked on a street-corner, a photograph or two is almost obligatory.
The Capri was introduced as a Eurpopean equivalent of the Mustang apparently and it, along with the mark III Ford Cortina, always give me a sense of their being our versions of the American fastbacks and muscle cars.
Sometimes you can find
Old treasures left to be seen
On our street corners
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 9 May 2021
Steel City Snapper photography 