Brand new Old Shape Lada found on forecourt

[verytalldave]

Great car the Hillman Imp.
A world away from all the other tat previously mentioned on this thread.
Coventry Climax engine and handling to almost match the Mini.

 

[MD5]

My ex wifes best girlfriend used to drive a 2 stroke Wartburg Knight. It was the worst car I have ever been driven in. At 50mph it made so much noise and vibrated so badly that to go any faster would have been impossible.
And yet she loved it and decorated the interior with countless fluffy toys.

Wartburg 353 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sub-conscious predecessor to airbags?

 

[grober]

In their day LADAS were beloved of Taxi drivers who plied the less salubrious areas of the cities of Britain. Cheap as chips to run, the powertrain was good for 100k miles easily. Simple cars-- you could maintain them with the crude but quite comprehensive "toolkit" supplied. When Russian fish factory ships moored of the West Coast of Scotland after the season was finished they regularly loaded up with Ladas as deck cargo on their way back home. Local taxi drivers with rusty leggy cars past their best could hardly believe their luck since the UK motor trade would hardly touch them. Mind you this was in the days when putting a Morris Marina 1300 engine into a Wartburg was the ultimate demon tweak in East Germany. How times change--at least they still have a car manufacturing industry.

 

[kwakdonut]

Ah yes, Hillman Imp. They had that funny little heater thing under the boot floor to cook your shopping before you got home, right?

It was called 'the engine'........

 

[corned]

I know - I was being sarcastic, or possibly ironic. Maybe even moronic, I don't know now. Who's being sarky to who? I've lost track!

"Call that an engine?..."

Now, a Coventry Climax of the type commanded by the late great Jim Clark, completely different proposition!

 

[buccal]

In their day LADAS were beloved of Taxi drivers who plied the less salubrious areas of the cities of Britain. Cheap as chips to run, the powertrain was good for 100k miles easily. Simple cars-- you could maintain them with the crude but quite comprehensive "toolkit" supplied. When Russian fish factory ships moored of the West Coast of Scotland after the season was finished they regularly loaded up with Ladas as deck cargo on their way back home. Local taxi drivers with rusty leggy cars past their best could hardly believe their luck since the UK motor trade would hardly touch them. Mind you this was in the days when putting a Morris Marina 1300 engine into a Wartburg was the ultimate demon tweak in East Germany. How times change--at least they still have a car manufacturing industry.

thats spot on. My uncle was a lada main dealer in the west coast of scotland for years and did very well out of the riva, eventually went upmarket to proton!

 

[Ted]

I know - I was being sarcastic, or possibly ironic. Maybe even moronic, I don't know now. Who's being sarky to who? I've lost track!

"Call that an engine?..."

Now, a Coventry Climax of the type commanded by the late great Jim Clark, completely different proposition!

My memory may be failing me, but the engine in the Imp was a modified Godiva Fire Pumps engine.
The Coventry Climax racing engine (IIRC) was basically two of these engines together, and was a masterpiece.
There used to be a pub in Coventry city centre (by the bird cage)called the Coventry Climax with one of these engines in a glass case.

The Imp was still crap though!

 

[crockers]

Didn't the Imp need breezeblocks in the front to keep it down..also an alu head that warped if you revved it too hard before water was up to temp..or was that my alfasud....memory's going

 

[The G.F.P]

Yeah, but which one would you ... err ... de-flower?

its obvious

i would not make it out of 1st gear with her and would go for days in the brabus

 

[grober]

Didn't the Imp need breezeblocks in the front to keep it down..also an alu head that warped if you revved it too hard before water was up to temp..or was that my alfasud....memory's going

The engine was all aluminium AFAIK and way ahead of its time as a mass produced engine. Just at point of production it was discovered the headlights were too low for the vehicle construction and use regulations of the day. Some very dodgy mods were done to the front suspension to comply with the regs leading to the characteristic negative camber front suspension which had terrible effects on the vehicles handling- shades of the first Mercedes A class.

 

[230K]

My memory may be failing me, but the engine in the Imp was a modified Godiva Fire Pumps engine.
The Coventry Climax racing engine (IIRC) was basically two of these engines together, and was a masterpiece.
There used to be a pub in Coventry city centre (by the bird cage)called the Coventry Climax with one of these engines in a glass case.

The Imp was still crap though!

The Coventry Climax

230k

 

[230K]

Do you remember Eddie Torrens in Ballymoney buying all the Ladas in NI and shipping them back home to Russia

Alan

Doesn't seem that long ago, remember it happening but never knew who organised it.


Interesting observation is that i have yet to see a smoky Lada in Ukraine. When we had them blue smoke was common. I wondered did they send us all the crap??

230K

 

[Ted]

The Coventry Climax

230k

Note the magneto ignition so that it could run fully independantly of the tender electrical system.

 

[bpsorrel]

NO!! In fact the export Ladas were a far higher standard than the domestic ones! There were cases of Russians trying to get hold of export Ladas because the quality was so much better! LOL! Having ridden in many old Russian market Lada taxis, I can believe that! I've never seen such badly made cars! But, their big selling point was their robustness and ease of repair, which if you live in a tiny Russian village is a big bonus as there's no AA or RAC so you're on your own with whatever tool and skills you have! But, usually whacking it with a hammer does the job! LOL!!

 

[MD5]

Didn't the Imp need breezeblocks in the front to keep it down..also an alu head that warped if you revved it too hard before water was up to temp..or was that my alfasud....memory's going

A mate of mine had a Sunbeam Stiletto back in the 70s, and his first job of the weekend was usually to change the head gasket!

Seeing 230K's pic of the Coventry Climax in situ (thanks), and bearing in mind its function, I've just had a momentary flash of wonderment about its name!!!?

 

[trapperjohn]

Coventry Climax, did that get named after the Lady Go-Diva incident? Think I used to see the Auxillary Fire Brigade tearing about some "lodges/lakes" round here with a Cov Climax engine strapped to an "inflatable" sucking water in and then blowing it out as jet. Looked great fun. Think all the registrations on the land based tenders/pumps began AXU or was it AXB. Ha, grand days of a youngster with a push bike just riding anywhere.

 

[ckember]

about 12-18months ago there was a brand new mk v cortina unregistered for sale , it was at a ford dealership in bright red with the original tyres. I think it sold for nearly £10k if I remember correctly

 

[230K]

Hi

I forgot to st this updated pic, i went back to the garage to find out the price and didnt realise there was a price tag on the window all along so you could have a brand new Lada for £3200 based on todays exchange rates.

Im tempted

 

[grober]

Go on! go on! go on! You know you want to. In the meantime here's a pic of another Coventry Climax engined car. Wish I had one of these! lotus elite type 14 Lotus Elite - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[del320]

... haud me back...