Classic emails, letters, tweets, posts & threads
EMAIL OF THE MONTH
Imp gets checked out in tartan party
You featured a picture of my 20,000-mile 1976 Hillman Imp at Edinburgh Castle a year or so ago, so I thought that you might be interested to know that it has now been freshly painted and is currently one of the main exhibits at the V&A Dundee! The Scottish-built special edition Caledonian Imp with its tartan inspired interior is now welcoming guests to the ‘Tartan’ exhibition that celebrates Scotland’s globally renowned fabric design.
I was invited along as a people’s ambassador for Tartan to the opening of the year-long display along with fellow ambassadors Graham McTavish of Outlander and Hobbit fame, supermodel Eunice Olumide MBE and Instagram star and yoga teacher Findlay Wilson. All of them loved the little Imp. It even featured on the BBC One Show recently. The car is now outside the exhibition entrance and free to view by members of the public who visit. Paul Coulter, Scotland
SD1 STATE
I enjoyed James’s USA road trip story in the last issue (PC, June 2023) I’m glad they got the car checked out thoroughly before they left LA as so many cars in the USA are badly maintained due to a lack of proper inspections in many states. I lived in Kansas and saw all sorts of rotten cars with no brakes! Robert Harrison, Sutton Coldfield
Loan rangers
Thank you for your article on our recent handover day. We had around fifty attendees so a great success! Owners, clubs, sponsors and the new drivers gathered together at the start of the day – a gathering to create a tangible collective spirit. Bob Wilkinson, Classic Car Loan Project
Quick posts
What was your very first car?
Do these count? 1981, it was my second birthday! Joseph Mitchell
Here’s my Raleigh 'Trekker'. I was distraught when at the age of five we moved to Canada and my dad refused to put it in the container. However, bizarrely a neighbour was chucking her boy's old garden toys out fairly recently and… well it was obviously fate, as I've never seen another one. It needs a paint job, but I'm a bit big for it now! Neil Hewitt
This is mine (I'm the short one). taken in 1970. Bit of paint and polish – it would have been fine. BTW – anyone able to give me an exact ID of it? I've always guessed something like a mid-Thirties Austin Ten Lichfield. And if anyone has an example in similar condition they'd like to sell… Steve Smith
Mine was by Tri-ang – a sort of A60/Oxford style. Infamously left behind in the loft along with other Tri-ang stuff when my parents moved house. Nick Canty
I think my first ride-on car was based on a Zephyr MkI. Like most of the cars I have had since, it was ancient and falling apart when I got it. Ed Prothero
TWO OLD QUEENS
Jame
