The trip to Clives House

[moggy1968]

850 T5…

remember seeing the estates of those hurtling round Brands in the BTCC, very impressive!!
I remember seeing a review by Clarkson, he was saying they normally know pretty much what a car will be like before they test it, but those were one of the ones that truly took them by surprise.

I have a real soft spot for the older volvos, the 120s and especially the P1800

 

[moggy1968]

Maybe stick a camper on the back of one of these!!
http://www.mod-sales.com/direct/vehicle/,26,/87296/Oshkosh_M1070_.htm

 

[StarCruiser]

…and they won, if I’m not mistaken.

 

[StarCruiser]

The Rozzers liked them.

 

[chapel gate]

Very cool nonetheless. I used to own and really be into my Volvos for similar reasons to why I now drive a Toyota. I've always found it surprising and a real shame that they never produced a proper 4x4 (not SUV) for the civilian market given the breadth of their output and domestic demographic. Just imagine a boxy Swedish 70 or 80 series equivalent made for mining and hunting.

I came so close to owning a project BV202 about 4 years ago..

 

[Paddler Ed]

Very cool nonetheless. I used to own and really be into my Volvos for similar reasons to why I now drive a Toyota. I've always found it surprising and a real shame that they never produced a proper 4x4 (not SUV) for the civilian market given the breadth of their output and domestic demographic. Just imagine a boxy Swedish 70 or 80 series equivalent made for mining and hunting.

I came from a family that were Volvo people through and through (well, they didn't have a choice as Dad worked for them!) so I had Volvos up until I came to Australia in 2010... since 2011, I've had a Toyota nearly all the time (there was a 13 month ownership of a BMW 320d Touring).

A proper Volvo 4x4 would be good, but it was never going to happen when Ford owned them, and the Swedes were too conservative to look at that as an option before then.

The T5 wasn't that far a stretch for what Volvo had done in the past - they'd turbo'd a 240 in the 1980's quite sucessfully and used that in ETCC to beat a fair few fast options as well.

 

[StarCruiser]

My first 4 cars were volvos. Good cars.

 

[Jacob100]

I came so close to owning a project BV202 about 4 years ago..

What they call jumping on the Band Vagn over there.

A proper Volvo 4x4 would be good, but it was never going to happen when Ford owned them, and the Swedes were too conservative to look at that as an option before then.

Yes, they held out longer than any other manufacturer and when they finally did launch an SUV it was just a sensibly beefed up V70. They were always so good at commercials and light utility vehicles. That thinking trickled down into the estates but never turned into something more spacious and rugged for the masses. It was a bit like they had their homegrown Unimog but no G-Wagen.

My first 4 cars were volvos. Good cars.

I had two faultless base model estates - a 95 850 (£600) and a 97 V70 (£500). Loved both.

Used to keep an Instagram account of old bricks when I was roaming around London every day.

https://www.instagram.com/londonvolvos/

 

[StarCruiser]

My first car was a 1974 145, then an ex demo 1987 340, then a 360, then a 740.

 

[uHu]

@Jacob100 - Dat there a Volvo? https://www.instagram.com/p/9WMk9KTBJl/

 

[Jacob100]

@Jacob100 - Dat there a Volvo? https://www.instagram.com/p/9WMk9KTBJl/

P1800 ES I think. The Saint’s car.

 

[moggy1968]

P1800 ES I think. The Saint’s car.

It is, although the saints was the saloon version.

 

[Jacob100]

It is, although the saints was the saloon version.

You’re right. So it was. I think that famous American P1800 saloon is still officially the highest-mileage private car ever with 3+ million miles on it. The shooting brake is so much nicer though.

 

[clivehorridge]

No good for a base for a camper, but the Sugga was / is a hell of a “car”

Seeing this one in Bucharest inspired me, it belongs to a friend of my gym physio instructor... it’s huge... as cars go...

 

[Chas]

Ooh! I'd love one of them.

 

[moggy1968]

Meanwhile back on the thread!!
A few more pics I've been working on today

 

[StarCruiser]

Looking good Andy. You say ‘working on’ are they enhanced as the colours look so vivid?

 

[moggy1968]

Looking good Andy. You say ‘working on’ are they enhanced as the colours look so vivid?

The colours were very vivid which sometimes gets lost in the straight photo so they have had a bit of work on photoshop to bring the colours back and bring out the sky detail which, again, is often lost on the originals because of the wide range of exposure needed to bring out sky and shadow detail. The haze also tends to fade out background detail that was visible to the eye when you were there so a bit of work can bring that out as well. The colours were helped by using a polarising filter and a neutral density grey grad helps bring out the sky detail, then it just needs tweeking a bit post pic taking.

Hopefully they are now a good representation of the actual scene.

 

[Ben Stratford]

Looks like a lovely place and good to see a 60 in its natural habitat

 

[moggy1968]

this was a weird thing, not long after going into Romania, we suddenly saw these houses over the rooftops of the more normal houses in a place called Huedin.

we went to take a closer look, they seemed to have a chinese style, there were dozens of them, many unfinished, although parts of some appeared to be lived in

but some are finished and lived in

When I took this pic a guy came out to talk to me, an internet search shows lots of people attributing these houses to Gypsies but this guy explained that these were, as I suspected, built by the Chinese several years ago, who then just buggered off when the economic collapse came, just leaving them as they were. SOme locals then moved into them. Some of them are absolutely huge, it's very bizarre.