A few of us on here like a little French car

Oishi

Member
Messages
825
Being from 'Murica, French and car is an oxymoron to me. But a Ligier JS2 (if one could be found) would be nice.
 

Hurricane52

Member
Messages
1,211
They say never go back, but I keep finding myself checking these out. With our first child on the way, I sold this to buy a 456 back in 2004. There was always a debate about how many RHD examples came to the UK, with numbers between 8 and 18 mooted. I know a chap in Worcestershire who has only just put his silver one up for sale and he has a gorgeous old A110. There was a green one which belonged to Paul Burrell (some bloke who messed about with the Royal family) and as such seemed sadly tainted. Richard Hammond test drove a light blue jobbie. Ewan has a dark blue one. There’s a gorgeous dark grey one for sale up north.

Being realistic, it wouldn’t fit into our lifestyle anymore, but it fits into my lockdown dream garage just fine.69804
 

lifes2short

Member
Messages
5,837
They say never go back, but I keep finding myself checking these out. With our first child on the way, I sold this to buy a 456 back in 2004. There was always a debate about how many RHD examples came to the UK, with numbers between 8 and 18 mooted. I know a chap in Worcestershire who has only just put his silver one up for sale and he has a gorgeous old A110. There was a green one which belonged to Paul Burrell (some bloke who messed about with the Royal family) and as such seemed sadly tainted. Richard Hammond test drove a light blue jobbie. Ewan has a dark blue one. There’s a gorgeous dark grey one for sale up north.

Being realistic, it wouldn’t fit into our lifestyle anymore, but it fits into my lockdown dream garage just fine.View attachment 69804

wouldn't say no to this one

 

Hurricane52

Member
Messages
1,211
wouldn't say no to this one

Indeed. Superb. I used to take my GTA to be serviced by Eurotech in deepest Dorset. Once they had a brand new black 400GT in for some pre-sale checks. I think it was the first “production” car to have carbon ceramic brakes, with a scarily short lifespan. If I remember correctly, the car was sold for £106k.
 

Hurricane52

Member
Messages
1,211
These were nice in their day, and the French connection is?

View attachment 69809

PH

Shamelessly nicked from Chris Lawrence’s obituary in the Grauniad...

There was a brief foray into Formula 1 in the new three-litre formula in 1966 with a Ferrari-engined Cooper and a twin Mini-engined Deep Sanderson, but it was the Monica project, an exotic luxury saloon car built for a French industrialist, Jean Tastevin, that would come to define the second half of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s for Chris.
Chris designed the entire car, which was named after the patron's wife, Monique. The convoluted development process generated 25 prototypes as the Monica's luxury ambitions and weight increased. Chris, creating the car with his team in a large railway arch in Chiswick, made frequent trips to France, squabbling with Tastevin's French engineers as tensions grew about the Monica being "too English".
The finished Monica of 1974 was a graceful, refined and sophisticated 150mph vehicle and a remarkable effort for a man who had very little experience of luxury road cars. Its only true shortcoming was mistiming; in the wake of the oil crisis, the market for thirsty, expensive cars had collapsed; in the end, only 10 true Monica production cars were built in France. Bernie Ecclestone, then a car dealer, bought the last three at less than half-price.
 

Phil H

Member
Messages
4,171
Shamelessly nicked from Chris Lawrence’s obituary in the Grauniad...

There was a brief foray into Formula 1 in the new three-litre formula in 1966 with a Ferrari-engined Cooper and a twin Mini-engined Deep Sanderson, but it was the Monica project, an exotic luxury saloon car built for a French industrialist, Jean Tastevin, that would come to define the second half of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s for Chris.
Chris designed the entire car, which was named after the patron's wife, Monique. The convoluted development process generated 25 prototypes as the Monica's luxury ambitions and weight increased. Chris, creating the car with his team in a large railway arch in Chiswick, made frequent trips to France, squabbling with Tastevin's French engineers as tensions grew about the Monica being "too English".
The finished Monica of 1974 was a graceful, refined and sophisticated 150mph vehicle and a remarkable effort for a man who had very little experience of luxury road cars. Its only true shortcoming was mistiming; in the wake of the oil crisis, the market for thirsty, expensive cars had collapsed; in the end, only 10 true Monica production cars were built in France. Bernie Ecclestone, then a car dealer, bought the last three at less than half-price.
Excellent fellow, well done. Your prize awaits you (for a small consideration of just c£45k):


PH
 

lozcb

Member
Messages
12,580
Ooh Facel Vega my father had one when I was a boy.


A friend of mine bit of a music scene drug type used to have one ( a pink one ) with huge racing slix on the back ,rumoured it was an ex pop stars , we used to Drag it up and down Ford Aerodrome , we eventually rolled it believe it or not heavy as it was , right handfull and handled like a rattle snake