There’s 2000bhp on-track in this period shot
Dawlish Warren, Devon July 8, 1984
British Rail’s Class 20 diesels were generally used for freight, so the rare opportunity to ‘bash’ them was relished by rail enthusiasts, as this shot of numbers 20 184 and 20 169 working the ‘Devonshire Dart’ tour demonstrates.
Dawlish Warren’s lineside car park looks just as summery as the weather, with a surprising number of yellow cars. What’s also apparent is the dominance of Ford; Blue Ovals practically outnumber all the other marques here. While the closest row starts with a white Peugeot 504 estate and the first of our yellow cars, a Datsun 100A two-door saloon, it then goes all-Ford. There’s a Cortina MkIII XL estate, Escort MkI (probably a late one, given the Daytona Yellow shade), Cortina MkIV GL, Granada MkII and a MkIV estate.
There’s only a break for a pre-1973 facelift Mercedes-Benz W114/115 saloon, before we’re back into Blue Oval territory again with a bright green Cortina MkV and a red Fiesta MkI. Just across from that, there’s the new kid on the Ford block, a Sierra. In fact, given that there’s a white Cortina MkII estate just beyond it, it’s a pity we can’t find a Cortina MkI anywhere, otherwise we’d have the whole gamut of mid-sized family Fords from the early Sixties through to the early Nineties.
While the Sierra may be the youngest car here, it’s passing probably the oldest, a Mini MkI sporting black numberplates. We wonder if it still survives?
MOTORS NEW FOR 1984
Austin Montego Ferrari Test
