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Classic cars, rallies and races (Free subscription) | 11/22/2009
The big event last night was the Welcome Party on the lawn of the Whitesands Sarova Lodge Hotel. The crews and officials were welcomed by Surinder Thatthi, event director who introduced the patron of the 2009 Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally 2009 , D.P.Marwaha. Now eighty-five years old and living in Iringa, Tanzania, this remarkable gentleman participated in the very first East African...
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Classic cars, rallies and races (Free subscription) | 10/16/2009
Cars from the post-war swing period right through to be-finned Goliaths from the Golden Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll are taking pride of place at this year’s Classic Motor Show . From austerity period Ford Populars to jet-age influenced late-‘50s American beauties, the Classic Motor Show fondly remembers the days when a cup of tea cost about a tanner and even Rank Studio starlets saw...
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How books got their titles (Free subscription) | 08/03/2009
Crash by JG Ballard, the book that later became the David Cronenberg film, and which explored, as Ballard put it, ‘the latent sexual content of the automobile crash’, had some rather personal origins. It started life as a short story, ‘Crash!’ in 1968, then became an exhibition of real crashed cars curated by Ballard (accompanied by a topless hostess) in 1969. Then, about a...
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Jalopnik (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009
As car enthusiasts and speed freaks, it's hard to imagine a world without the Shelby Cobra , but until 1962, such a world actually did exist. The Cobra, eponymous with brutal performance, was in its day the most rabid street-legal car available. Cramped, noisy, and harsh, it's everything a sports car should be, with no dilution from the primary purpose of speed at all costs- it's a thinly veiled race...
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Razzamatazz (Free subscription) | 02/02/2009
Last February I wrote the following. I have an idea for a six part television comedy drama series. It will be about the life of a 1966 Ford Zephyr Zodiac car from when it is bought second hand and in mint condition in 1972 until it meets its demise in a car crusher some thirty five [...]
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Ranting Stan (Free subscription) | 11/02/2008
If you're as old as me you'll remember these from the classic police drama series, Z Cars. The series ensured the car would have a cult status from the start and, for me, it is well deserved. From that prominent chromed front grille to the tip of the fins at the rear of the car the Zephyr/Zodiac range was stylish, elegant and very, very distinctive. The 6 cylinder Zephyr 6 was distinguished from the...
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Boggartblog (Free subscription) | 09/25/2008
When I was younger and we went for day trips in the family Ford Zephyr I used to get confused as to where we were. We'd end up in Penrith and there wouldn't be a welsh hat in sight. It took a good deal of patient explaining that Penrith was in Cumberland and I was probably thinking of Penryn, in Wales. I still think Penrith sounds too Welsh to be English, even if it is the last outpost of England....
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