Car nostalgia

Yes, I've had heated seats on my previous E-class and the current one, both with leather seats, a period which must cover ten years.  In all that time I've probably used the heated seats in single figures. By the time you can feel the heat coming through your bum has already taken the edge off the cold leather.  Wife likes them though.

Mind you our cousins across the water often get much colder winters than we do in the UK so I suppose it rather depends on that. 

MDS

I quite like heated seats with leather but not too bothered with cloth seats. Our last 4x4, a Range Rover, came equipped with a heated steering wheel, which was lovely, but it also had the best accessory of all...

So there you sit having breakfast with colleagues in a hotel the morning after a meeting. It's freezing out & everyone's moaning about having to go out & defrost their cars before heading off. I sit there with a smug smile and conspicuously withdraw my car keys form my pocket. I then press a button on a small, separate remote and a green light illuminates for a few seconds. Your colleagues shuffle out but you sit there, enjoying your coffee for 15 minutes or so, then casually wander out to the car park. The little button you pressed remotely has, from up to 300 metres away, fired up a diesel preheater that's completely defrosted your car. So you just jump in and drive away.

I loved it!

Heated seats-----Enough already

back to the cars

Paul, I had no idea!  Great idea if it's true and would explain why the heater blew hot air almost the instant you started the car.

1970 Ford Capri 2.0 litre GT V4

MK3  3.0S

Two of the best cars i've ever owned

steve,

   now your talking. real trendy and sporty cars for the "common man" in the era.

i still like the original hockey stick capri

Ford capri. Fab. My Dad had one in metallic green. He adored it. My brother and I took turns to be sick in the back.

Bruce

Saab 900 heater storage vessel

cant beat good old soft suspension, to get travel sick eh!

If i could pick up another Capri for the right money i'd buy one, but there starting to fetch silly money in good nick now.

It's still the wifes favourite car.In total i.ve owned 18 capri's  

My mate has a nice Capri 280 in his driveway waiting for some TLC and a snoop nose Mk2 RS2000 shell in his garage that he's rebuilding...

Ah! The 3-litre Capri. Now that's a car I always coveted back in the 70's along with the Cortina 1600E and the Triumph Dolomite Sprint (preferably one without a blown head gasket).   Though I remember being told by those who could afford the 'big engine' Capri  that you really needed a couple of paving slabs in the boot to damp down the wheel spin on full-bore acceleration.  Was that your experience, Steve, or am is my memory failing me?   

From the 280 in my mates driveway I'd say that's a bit of an embellished truth ... they are a bit tail happy but not horrendously so.

A bit like TVRs have this reputation for being scary to drive - but they aren't.

Phil

Just a few suspension mods and knowing how to drive them helped,but great fun to drive in the wet.

The MK2's were the one's that suffered form rear end slides the the most. 

Yes, Steve. I guess my memory of what was 'fast and fun' from that era is viewed through rose-tinted spectacles.  The cars from that era were much lighter than today giving them a good power to weight ratio but I suspect the 'fun' came from the crude chassis, suspension, brakes and steering.  I have a golden memory of a mate's 1600E with a pancake air-filter, which I thought was fast, and a bit later another mate's Dolomite Sprint which was was considerably quicker.  But the other day I came across the specs for these cars: the 1600E had a nought to 60 of over 12 secs and the Sprint had 150 BHP.  My current E-class (and classic SL) would slaughter both in performance but in such a boringly safe way it wouldn't be as much fun.  I think I will just cherish the memories and be grateful that I came though that era without the need for airbags/ABS etc etc.

Dolly Sprint was one of the most impressive cars of its time, fierce acceleration, the auto box version that my mate had was actually faster than the manual. 0-60 circa 8.4 s

The joy of dropping a 1600 engine in a 1100 escort mk1 with drum brakes then trying to stop at the first corner .

Great Fun

I did fit Classic disc brake struts. 

Thanks.  I now have the theme tune to the Professionals stuck in my head...

My Mum had a succession of Capris, all blue, the most memorable one with throbby V6 motor, black bonnet and Rostyle wheels, which she managed to write off a mile from home on a particularly nasty corner that still catches out the unwary from time to time.

BMW 318is my car now still 2 door coupe and rear wheel drive

The question is Richard, which one ar you?

Bodie or Doyle?

Ah yes ... did that too ...

Sorry steve, but never been a Beemer fan

And then tried to compensate by fitting competition brake shoes that didn't overheat----intruding work unil they got hot, so still couldn't stop

What we could afford.

What we wanted and tried to recreate