The Motor Show

[NewcastleFalcon]

Far too many memories to list today but one I'll always remember was the year we were next to the Daf stand. A popular TV series at the time featured a Dutch detective called Vandervalk and the signature tune was played continually on a loop the entire 2 weeks of the show, annoying or what!

Here's 4 minutes and 18 seconds from the 1973 Motor Show, with the Vandervalk signature tune in the background just to take you back! There's even a shot of the DAF stand!



This article on Piston Heads "The British Motor Show 1967-Time for Tea" links to the Pathe 1967 film, and delivers a nice gentle dig at the script!

regards Neil

[dnsey]

I din't remember the year, but the last Motor Show I visited had PSA promoting their research into what became the HDI engine, and various auto-electrical concerns showcasing the future of lighting - LEDs and HID headlights!
Was it the same show where Jeremy Clarkson was showing off the Xantia Activa?

[isisalar]

I couldn't resist having a look at that, thanks newcastlefalcon, I just hope I can shake off the tune now I've heard it again. I'd almost forgotten the girls, draped over the bonnets on opening day looking lovely, they were a permanent feature on a BMW motorfair stand I was on in the 80's, wearing their M style jump suits and very little else.
When I moved from Lancia to one of their dealerships which specialized in used sports cars a few years later most of those cars featured passed through my hands at one time or another, loved the bit about the beastly foreign cars making up 30% of the market.
I was often given MGB's to drive back then and once or twice had the V8 to play with. More than once I had people driving cars that could easily outrun a normal B flash me out of the way on the motorway only to suffer severe embarrassment as they saw me disappear into the distance.
The memories are flooding back but I must get to work.

[CitroJim]

I just hope I can shake off the tune now I've heard it again..

I can't shake it off and it's still rattling round in my head

[isisalar]

Imagine hearing it for 2 weeks solid!

[CitroJim]

Imagine hearing it for 2 weeks solid!

You were very brave Paul. I admire your resilience...

[NewcastleFalcon]

Part of the Foreign Invasion at the 1973 motor show was this. Very probably the first ever posting of a Moskovitch on the French Car Forum!
Having to pay extra for the radio would have put me off, but I do like the tatty info on the windscreen! The quality is not that good (the picture I mean).



regards Neil

[CitroJim]

Very probably the first ever posting of a Moskovitch on the French Car Forum!

Very possibly Now they took the statement "Truly awful..." to an entirely new dimension...

[isisalar]

Now you have got the cogs turning, those east European cars really were awful, and who can ever forget the so aptly named Wartburg, well I nearly had.
A good friend of mine started an apprenticeship at a local dealer with a Moskovitch franchise, the tales he told were truly terrifying. As with most cars in those days they had to come back for a first service at around 1000 miles, part of that service was to re weld the front suspension back on!

[CitroJim]

part of that service was to re weld the front suspension back on!

[myglaren]

Now you have got the cogs turning, those east European cars really were awful, and who can ever forget the so aptly named Wartburg, well I nearly had.
A good friend of mine started an apprenticeship at a local dealer with a Moskovitch franchise, the tales he told were truly terrifying. As with most cars in those days they had to come back for a first service at around 1000 miles, part of that service was to re weld the front suspension back on!

They did all seem to be rather crude even compared to some of BL's horrors.
I think perhaps Tatra may be the exception here.

When VAG took over the Skoda works I was working for QA qualifications and was acquainted with a fellow from TRW doing the same.
He was sent to the Skoda factory to help improve quality assurance there.
One of the first things he saw was a couple of workers pushing a Felicia out into a field which was full of them - literally hundreds.
When he asked about them he was told they were all scrap - straight from production line to scrapyard

The ones that didn't make it to the field weren't much better.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Now you have got the cogs turning, those east European cars really were awful, and who can ever forget the so aptly named Wartburg, well I nearly had.

Oh dear... I have just looked up Wartburg to post up an awful picture of the hideous tat from the 70's and what came up...this rather gorgeous looking 2-tone from an earlier period!



Not the quite image of a Wartburg I remember!

regards Neil

[CitroJim]

That Wart is lovely

I well remember the 70s one though... Complete with very smoky exhaust...

Word was the engine was basically a rip-off of the Saab two-stroke...

Truth was that it was one of the better Iron Curtain cars. Doesn’t say much for the rest though...

The best and the outright leader by an order of magnitude was always the Skoda, despite the jokes..

[NewcastleFalcon]

Another of the "Foreign" cars felt worthy of a few seconds in the British Pathe 1973 Motor Show film was this:-



Yes the DAF! A few classics in the stable? Maybe not but some surprises.

Michelotti for one was involved in this



and this



but also this



Some of the little DAF's were surprising workhorses on the evidence of this



regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Some new ideas presented at the 1960 Commercial Motor Show including nice sleeping facilities for the athletic lorry driver



regards Neil