Perfect Retro MTB hauling car?

E34 M5 touring

A mate had the 540 touring of that vintage, so just below that. We went to Wales in it a couple of times from the Cambridge area, I think we had to fill up twice per journey, the heating was jammed on in my footwell (in summer), the fuel consumption gauge regularly sat below 10mpg.

It was a labour of love that car, I could hear it from a mile before it got to the house too as it had a straight stainless pipe.

The good thing is that that information is completely irrelevant to it’s historic vehicle status as long as it’s like for like

I know that but 100note insurance  seems less great if its on its second chassis and third set of everything else.

I know that but 100note insurance  seems less great if its on its second chassis and third set of everything else

Not that bad compared to the cost of 3 modern cars really.

I can’t work out if you are being snippy at me or not.

I’m just genuinely curious how much he has done to it! I vaguely remember a picture where it might have had the front half of a rangerover on it.

I can’t work out if you are being snippy at me or not.

I’m just genuinely curious how much he has done to it!

Not at all. Just grinds my gears when people try and tell me my land rovers shit cause it ain’t original parts. It’s a hell of a lot more original than a 40 year old Hyundai’s going to be.

Building cars you can keep repairing is a dying art.

On Tenby beach a few years ago, there was an old 6 wheel Range Rover ice cream van that looked pretty cool (funnily enough). You’d have got quite a few bikes in that. Don’t think I’d want to drive it far though.

Dad then bought a sporty ZX…an Estate one would have been an perfect bike hauler.

I had one and they were until they tried to kill you. The passive rear wheel steering (basically, the back axle was mounted in the middle on a big block of rubber that flexed when going round corners) meant that if the rear wheel caught a deep puddle at speed the axle would turn.

Indeed, we were late to get the Mull Ferry and so were racing towards Oban when it caught a pothole and got veerrrrrry squirrelly for a while.

Zafira VXR.  Loads of room, sleep in it after you’ve unloaded the bikes. 240bhp, 145mph.  Ugly as sin, but practical 😄

Zafira VXR.

My mates dad had one of those when we were teens.

It was the opposite of cool if you were below 30.

I’m nearly 40 now. I might find it cool in a retro kind of way but no matter which way you cut it it’s still a people carrier

Thinking this would look rather fetching with a rear carrier and my Inbred 853 S/S. A 1600 Twin Cam in the front wouldn’t hurt, either… 😍🥰😘

no matter which way you cut it it’s still a people carrier

True – a people carrier with Front Wheel Drive, 237bhp and 0-62 in 7.2 secs, topping out at 144 mph. Good for ensuring that the MiL only ever travels in it once… 😜

Ugly as sin, but practical

Not even trying.

Ideal bike carrier. 4 folk, plus bikes, plus kit – all inside.

Sporty ZX

Sporty ZX

Sporty….

…nope, not buying it. My dad had one, it was **** shit. Took the length of the A78 from the slip at Loans to Monkton roundabout to do 0-60. Just another one of a succession of dull cars. Was replaced by a Xsara (not the Picasso). Which was then replaced by an actual useful car, a Subaru Forester.

Aside from that (for people who could actually afford one) TR and Josh are the few ones that I agree with. Fiestas and Metros on their last legs are retro mtb haulers.

 a people carrier with Front Wheel Drive, 237bhp and 0-62 in 7.2 secs, topping out at 144 mph

Yeah still not cool.

Another mates dad had an M5 estate. Cooler than a penguins testicles by undisputed voting.

Rnps rnp is/was considerably cooler than a zafira vxr.

Id quite happily have a Nissan Stagea 260RS for these duties.

We had one of those big Peugeot 504 estates for years

Our family had one for years, followed by another one for a shorter period. Dad must have had a thing for French cars, as one of these came along as a second car (ooh, get us) to join the second 504, but was fairly crappy to be in tbh.

“Zafira VXR.  Loads of room, sleep in it after you’ve unloaded the bikes. 240bhp, 145mph.  Ugly as sin, but practical 😄”

A friend sold his Eighties Audi Quattro after being unable to keep up with a VXR Zafira.
Obviously the turbo monster cars from BITD are no match for vaguely modern stuff.
I think he missed the point of Retro/classic ownership a tad.

Edit:-

I just looked up the power output of an early car and see why it struggled, 162 bhp, slow by today’s standards but double the power of most everyday cars then.

Would make a cool bike carrier, but 40k seems to be the price.

Hauled my bikes around in the mid-90s in one of these. Rear seat and passenger seat out and the bike goes in upright with the front wheel out leaving plenty of room for tent and kit. Convertible. Hilarious to drive. Absolutely flat out at 80 but would do that all day long.

Something like this for me

Going back to page 1 but is it weird that I know exactly where this picture was taken? The crack in the wall gave it away.

Given my car history I’m surprised I don’t know the owner.

The Zafira GSI is cool (well Daddy cool), but the VXR is grim.

I get the love for estates/shooting brakes but it’s way easier to get a bike in a hatchback or coupe in my opinion.
People carriers are awful but I’d still rather an old espace  or similar than a van.

joshvegas said “I’m just genuinely curious how much he has done to it! I vaguely remember a picture where it might have had the front half of a rangerover on it.”

Well spotted. But the one you are remembering is my old 200 tdi Discovery that has now been rebuilt as a defenderesque farm ute.

It is a fair point about originality of my 110. I bought it back in 2011 as a project and it was already on its 2nd engine and transmission and had a lot of metal on the chassis already replaced. I did a full strip down and rebuilt it onto a brand new replacement chassis and used a more modern land rover power train. So I guess all the bodywork is still 41 years old, the engine and transmission is “only” 30 years old and the chassis is now 12 years old. But with purchase of the project and the new chassis and all the bits I put into over the past 12 years it it still stands me less than 6K and is probably worth at least twice that now.

Lotus Carlton estate. Yes please.

And we have a winner, despite my earlier comments about hatchbacks being better.

used to regularly follow a Lotus Carlton on my way to work in the nineties.

And to complete my change of mind

The crack in the wall gave it away.

Lines up nicely with the dodgy shut lines on the boot.

I genuinely didn’t know there was a Lotus Carlton Estate.

@welshfarmer – that would make a great uplift vehicle on private property.

Can’t believe nobody has come up with the right answer yet.

but here it is.  A 1988 (therefore retro-sync’d with an early Kona hardtail)  Landcruiser FJ62.

So so much in common… heavy, crap brakes, built-in rust, oily back end, but reliable AF.

And just environmentally sound as a medium sized dog🐕🐕🐶

They’re very expensive now … especially when you have to have your front teeth knocked out to be allowed to join the owners club.

A friend sold his Eighties Audi Quattro after being unable to keep up with a VXR Zafira.

Obviously the turbo monster cars from BITD are no match for vaguely modern stuff.

I think he missed the point of Retro/classic ownership a tad.

Yeah, I ‘almost’ got done by a bloody Fiesta when I had my 450bhp 4.2l V8 Audi RS5. I know which one I’d prefer to be driving though

It is a fair point about originality of my 110. I bought it back in 2011 as a project and it was already on its 2nd engine and transmission and had a lot of metal on the chassis already replaced. I did a full strip down and rebuilt it onto a brand new replacement chassis and used a more modern land rover power train. So I guess all the bodywork is still 41 years old, the engine and transmission is “only” 30 years old and the chassis is now 12 years old. But with purchase of the project and the new chassis and all the bits I put into over the past 12 years it it still stands me less than 6K and is probably worth at least twice that now.

Normal wear and tear then. My uncle owns a landrover “garage” near llyandegla (standard welsh attempt .. Sprinkle a y and a couple of l’s).

I like the weird ones.i reckon a 101 would be the most practical landy for bike carrying.

“Garage” looks alot like a field with a lot of dead landrovers in it…

no matter which way you cut it it’s still a people carrier

Even worse, it’s a Zafira.

Even worse, it’s a Zafira.

To be fair to vauxhall they had done their market research.

It was built to appease the now with 2.4,children,no time  and access to easy credit grown max power generation

I mean they won rally’s (I know the van didn’t….) so they must be ok off road!

@reeksy

I genuinely didn’t know there was a Lotus Carlton Estate.

There isn’t really.

https://www.hagerty.co.uk/articles/for-sale-one-of-a-kind-lotus-carlton-estate/

I had a Vauxhall Omega estate in the mid 90s, – that would work – huge space, and not a bad place to be.

But had two of these – much more fun (mentioned up thread I think) one 26er comfortably w FW off, 2 at a push. Fuel consumption was a bit high (not 540 territory mind) and great at getting out of muddy fields too

(this isn’t mine, just a random googlepic)

I looked at a bunch of those Impreza wagons about 5 years ago when I really wanted a blue blob-eye WRX.

Every one I went to see, no matter how nice it looked online, was an utter rotbox on close inspection. I still test drove a few of them and they were great but I couldn’t buy one knowing that the body was dying from the inside out.

I gave up on the idea but I still day dream about them now.

“Absolutely flat out at 80 but would do that all day long”

No it bleedin’ wouldn’t!

aslight motorway incline would see the top whack shrink very rapidly to 60 ish, even in a dyane , with an extra 3hp…

An Ami Super though…

Ami Super – Amiclub de France

I have a weird love for Zafira VXR/GSIs and I generally hate Vauxhalls, moreso the types that normally drive VXRs. Theres a garage near me with a great looking GSI in and its really, really tempting as a bit of a retro bike hauler (which I don’t need)/daily (which I don’t need)/ car to fiddle with (which I already have).

Oh I’d have a gsi in a heartbeat .

Or a Vectra sri (before they started putting sri badges on anything….. My old man had a diesel Vectra Sri FFS. … )

The the 2.5 V6 sri was basically the touring car and was the shizzle.

@sharkattack – no insight I’m afraid, I just Google image searched for something appropriate. I once got a lift in one that had a fiesta rst engine in it, was bloody quick at the time. Rose tinted specs though, it was probably bloody awful!! 🤣😜

The the 2.5 V6 sri was basically the touring car and was the shizzle.

A mate had a Vauxhall Signa – remember those? It was a 4 seat extended Vectra, mahoosive boot, v comfy, it had a 2.8lt V8…it was monstrous in that way that over powered front wheel drive cars all are. But once up to speed was pretty rapid.