Ad of the week: Citroen Technology

This weeks ad focuses on how innovative a car company Citroen was before it was merged with Peugeot. The two cars shown are very similar to my two Citroens – the Traction on the top and the DS21 below it. They are not quite the same as this is a French made Traction and the DS21 is a Pallas model unlike mine. The ad is a great depiction of Citroen’s two greatest designs. Today Citroens are mostly re-badged Peugeots, but there was a time when Citroen Technology was world leading.

This is a US ad, so the car is shown […]

Frontal Damage to the DS

Today I went to the Citroen Car Club meeting to get the historic rego signed for my Traction Avant. I am not often able to attend these meetings so it was good to catch up with the members. The club had a raffle at the meeting and I even won a prize!

I took the DS and it was running really nicely on the way home. It is such a relaxing car to drive.

Unfortunately, disaster struck during parking when I knocked it into gear and sent it flying into a post. After at least 10 years insured with Shannons […]

2016 Sydney German Car Show

This year the NSW Mercedes-Benz Club concours and the German car show were combined into a single event. Overall this seemed to work reasonably well as they opened up additional paddocks and it meant one of the best turnouts of Benz’s for some years. For some reason the turnout for the other German makes was rather poor, and perhaps they were assuming it was a Mercedes event as there were only a handful of BMWs, Porches and the odd Audi/VW.

The star of the show without a doubt was the 1938 230 Cabriolet ‘A’. Not only an incredibly rare car […]

Ad of the week: W111 European Delivery

This weeks ad has a great photo of the W111 Coupe. While this car is a 220SE, it looks very similar to the 250SE that I used to have – this car has a red interior and mine had a red wine coloured one, but they look similar. It also wears the zoll plate for European delivery programme.

This Mercedes-Benz Invites You to Europe as its Guest.

More than 60,000 owners of Mercedes-Benz motorcars in this country can tell you about substantial savings in fuel, routine maintenance, in repairs. They will happily confide that, instead of trading in every […]

280CE W123 power steering

The 280CE came back for a visit this week complaining of groaning power steering. Turned out that the belt was slipping once the wheel got toward full lock. On further inspection, the belt had become too loose – not because it was stretched, but because the bolt that allows the belt adjustment had lost its threads in the critical area and it was slowly adjusting itself outwards.

The lost threads meant that it was also impossible to remove the nut to replace the bolt. Luckily the power steering pump is fairly accessible from below (especially with a hoist), so the […]

Ad of the week: Jag Engineering and Elegance

This weeks ad is a well known Jaguar ad focusing on both the engineering and design elements. Most specifically it addresses the Jaguar IRS, which was very advanced for it’s time. Jaguar used it up until the 90s!

It is an early ad because it shows the outside bonnet latches and a different position than normal for the reversing light. The picture below is supposed be elegant, but the lady in the car looks like she is trying to abduct a child.

The Jaguar Suspension

Considering all the furore and fanfare over the high-speed characteristics of the new Jaguar […]

Ad of the week: Citroen Safety

This weeks ad a great summary summary of all the safety features of the DS and a nice cutaway. These days they try and sell cars with lifestyle shots, but this ad delves deep into some of the technical features.

The Citroen… a safe car you should look into. Safety “No Spoke” steering wheel. Rugged hemi head engine, built to maintain high cruising speeds with low gas consumption. Dual proportional braking system that prorates brake force according to front/rear weight distribution. Front-mounted spare tire provides additional impact protection. Aerodynamic body slices through air smoothly, silently. Adjustable road clearance to drive […]

The Jaguar Compact Saloons

The Jaguar Compact Saloons were a highly successful range of cars that lasted from the mid 50s right through to the end of the 60s. They gave Jaguar the production volume to stay relevant and with their world beating sports cars of the same era are still somewhat responsible for the reputation Jaguar has today. Despite these being the cheapest cars in Jaguar’s range, they have eclipsed their more upmarket and larger siblings in interest, and market value. This makes the full size saloons rather good value, but today the focus is on the compact saloons.

The compact saloons encompass […]