Classic emails, letters, tweets, posts & threads
EMAIL OF THE MONTH
Fulvia has the X-factor
Ed Hughes’s description of working up a new acquisition (Ask our Experts, PC August 2022) was spot on! My Fulvia, pictured with its new MOT gained last month and its previous one from 1998, is now going through that process of confidence-building so we can enjoy a 350-mile round trip to the Lancia Motor Club’s National Rally.
The Fulvia came to me with the tyres already fitted when my friend, the previous owner, bought her in 1988. They were hardly used Michelin XAS – not only the period-correct fitments for which the Fulvia was designed but actual nearly 40-years old period fitments! It was a wrench to part with them, but it had to be done. I have put on new tyres and the difference is well beyond my expectations.
I now have grip and no longer that jiggly feeling that the wheels have turned into old threepenny pieces. The Fulvia’s firm suspension is quite jiggly anyway on the rough lanes around where I live! PC’s regular warnings of safety issues such as tyres help keep us all safe – thank you and keep up the good work.
CHISELLED LOOK
I had to comment on the awful condition of the bolster chisel being used to rectify the rocker cover in the August edition. Chisels should have the striking end ground to a slight taper and all material spreading from the striking surface should be removed from time to time. Am I being to fussy with health and safety? I think not as I knew someone who lost an eye from using such a mushroomed chisel as you were using.
Love pug
I recently bought my first practical classic that, as it turns out, featured in your October 2016 issue! Just thought you would like to know the Peugeot 405 GL estate is still going strong after Danny Hopkins put it back on the road and sold it on. I intend on keeping it that way. Couldn’t be happier with my first practical classic!
Quick posts
Best cars from childhood?
Mostly big Fords/BMCs but some stick in the mind more than others: P-reg Maxi in sludge green, L-reg Granada MkI in dark blue, a couple of VW T2 camper vans around 1972 vintage, P or R- reg Renault 20 and one of my favourites was a V-reg metallic blue Princess 2200 HLS. Dad also ran small Vauxhalls as his driving school cars (he was a self-employed instructor).
My dad had a Citroën GS, which he bought new in 1978. This is me, aged 12!
A 1930 Morris Cowley with artillery spoke wheels. If we came to a severe hill mother, me and my brother would have to walk up and meet father at the top!
First car I recall my dad having was a Montego. Took us far and wide, often with a caravan behind it, utterly reliable and because Dad looked after it, only minor rust on the tailgate
