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John Hall?


Ricky 4000

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12 minutes ago, Ricky 4000 said:

Bernie is totally good looking. Have you seen the cool little beard he's sporting this year?

Alternatively, I do wonder what Jean Tod's Mrs sees in him...

Fair one, me too ... but the analogy stands on grounds that it was a suddenly modern design, that didn't last long in production.

Did any of you drive that thing? The weird steering wheel that was an attempt at emulating an F1 steering wheel? I did, in the late '80s. Awful car....

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Just now, NikNik said:

Did any of you drive that thing? The weird steering wheel that was an attempt at emulating an F1 steering wheel? I did, in the late '80s. Awful car....

Don't think I ever drove one, but I remember the square steering wheel (and hydro-elastic suspension?) ... and the VDP version, with all that burr walnut veneer... was it one of the first hatchback cars though?

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6 minutes ago, NikNik said:

Sorry, on the moby and can't make that out for sure. Is that a frottage session in the KitKatKlub in Berlin??

Possibly! Here's Jean, having a day off with his mrs... she's clearly very fond of him:

michelle-yeoh-jean-todt-tods-04.jpg

Edited by Ricky 4000
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13 minutes ago, Ricky 4000 said:

Possibly! Here's Jean, having a day off with his mrs... she's clearly very fond of him:

michelle-yeoh-jean-todt-tods-04.jpg

Phuq, I thought that was Phillip Green in the other photo that you posted!

I need to go to Specsavers. 

Cool T-shirt, though.  Floyd '77.

Edited by NikNik
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20 minutes ago, Ricky 4000 said:

Don't think I ever drove one, but I remember the square steering wheel (and hydro-elastic suspension?) ... and the VDP version, with all that burr walnut veneer... was it one of the first hatchback cars though?

It looked like a hatch, but the glass was fixed and it had a small boot like a saloon

:facepalm:

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1 hour ago, drTStingray said:

My own view is we should just get on and enjoy the wonderful instruments and ignore the individuals

:) ^ A perfectly reasonable point of view and very well expressed ^

You may therefore wish to avoid the various Gibson threads on BC where for years some of us have been whaling on Mr Henry Juskiewiecz's ar$e like it was a dinner gong. By comparison, Mr Hall's had it easy.

 

Edited by skankdelvar
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50 minutes ago, Ricky 4000 said:

the VDP version

Wasn't the Van Den Plas schtick basically about welding bad copies of Rolls Royce radiator grilles onto Morris Marinas or something?

Asking for a friend.

Edited by skankdelvar
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24 minutes ago, skankdelvar said:

Wasn't the Van Den Plas schtick basically about welding bad copies of Rolls Royce radiator grilles onto Morris Marinas or something?

Asking for a friend.

That and picnic tables on the back of the front seats. Tell your friend he's awesome. 😎

Vanden-Plas%201500%20front.jpg

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9 minutes ago, Ricky 4000 said:

That and picnic tables on the back of the front seats. Tell your friend he's awesome. 😎

Vanden-Plas%201500%20front.jpg

The Allegro was introduced in 1973 (or maybe 74) and stayed in production until replaced by the Maestro in about 1983. They were pretty popular but the square steering wheel (I think it was called quartic) was deeply unpopular and was dropped for a standard one after a couple of years. Believe it or not the Allegro 1750 SS was the epitome of a boy racer's dream in 1974 - I know - I went and looked at one - but they were eclipsed by the Golf GTI a couple of years later.  

Vanden Plas made luxury versions of BMC cars as well as limos and then BL ones - the Allegro was possibly the worst looking of all - it's predecessor - the Vanden Plas 1300 was much nicer!! They had full leather and in some cases an upgraded engine (including one with a Rolls Royce 4 litre). The grille looks abominable on the Allegro - all the other badge engineered saloons like MG disappeared in 1973/4 - presumably BL had a financial stake in VDP and its workshops. There is a parallel here between the hatred for JH and the chairman of BL, Lord Stokes - he scrapped the Mini Cooper, fitted hideous bumpers to the MGB for the US market among lots of other hated decisions - the Graham Taylor (in England manager guise)  of car company chairmen. 

Edited by drTStingray
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37 minutes ago, drTStingray said:

The Allegro was introduced in 1973 (or maybe 74) and stayed in production until replaced by the Maestro in about 1983. They were pretty popular but the square steering wheel (I think it was called quartic) was deeply unpopular and was dropped for a standard one after a couple of years. Believe it or not the Allegro 1750 SS was the epitome of a boy racer's dream in 1974 - I know - I went and looked at one - but they were eclipsed by the Golf GTI a couple of years later.  

Vanden Plas made luxury versions of BMC cars as well as limos and then BL ones - the Allegro was possibly the worst looking of all - it's predecessor - the Vanden Plas 1300 was much nicer!! They had full leather and in some cases an upgraded engine (including one with a Rolls Royce 4 litre). The grille looks abominable on the Allegro - all the other badge engineered saloons like MG disappeared in 1973/4 - presumably BL had a financial stake in VDP and its workshops. There is a parallel here between the hatred for JH and the chairman of BL, Lord Stokes - he scrapped the Mini Cooper, fitted hideous bumpers to the MGB for the US market among lots of other hated decisions - the Graham Taylor (in England manager guise)  of car company chairmen. 

I thought the point with JH was that he’s changed nothing. He’d have put a square steering wheel on a car and tell everyone to go f**k themselves for 30 years

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2 hours ago, Ricky 4000 said:

Possibly! Here's Jean, having a day off with his mrs... she's clearly very fond of him:

michelle-yeoh-jean-todt-tods-04.jpg

To Debbie McGee:

"And what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?"

Mrs Merton 1995

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Just now, Teebs said:

To me, Rics are like '50s Cadillacs: space-aged looking at the time, fins, sharp bits & excessive chrome, wallowing all over the shop. Pretty, but wholly impractical. :)

Wholly worth having a bit of forearm flesh removed to fit the Rickenbacker, IMHO. 😃

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37 minutes ago, Teebs said:

and being Rickenbacker, square wheels :D

Hang on a minute - lest anyone forget Fender invented the wheel along with the inaccessible truss rod and other engineering marvels - however if their instruments required wheels they would be true to vintage as everyone knows solid tyres are best - none if this new dangled pneumatic rubbish 😏

To me the look of the Rickenbacker bass has something of the Art Deco and gothic going on all at once - it's extremely cool in my view. 

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1 hour ago, Billy Apple said:

I thought the point with JH was that he’s changed nothing. He’d have put a square steering wheel on a car and tell everyone to go f**k themselves for 30 years

Actually, the 4001/4003 evolved over the years; RIC did introduce other models, but folks just bought the classics anyway. 

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1 hour ago, Ricky 4000 said:

I don't think Rics have ever looked "ahead of their time", while the Allegro looks (to me), better now than it did back in the day... maybe that's the same as the Fender Performer Series?

Allegro-Equipe.jpg

Weirdly there does seem to be a hint of the Alfa MiTo in that shape. You could never drive one though - you'd never see past the lady footballist on the bonnet. The wipers must comb her hair when it rains and the screen wash must be like a bidet. Not the most practical of accessories.....

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34 minutes ago, Skinnyman said:

Weirdly there does seem to be a hint of the Alfa MiTo in that shape. You could never drive one though - you'd never see past the lady footballist on the bonnet. The wipers must comb her hair when it rains and the screen wash must be like a bidet. Not the most practical of accessories.....

Too late. Soon as I bought the car, the girl used that picture for a "crash for cash" claim against me.

She's saying I rammed into her from behind...

 😕

Edited by Ricky 4000
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55 minutes ago, Ricky 4000 said:

Too late. Soon as I bought the car, the girl used that picture for a "crash for cash" claim against me.

She's saying I rammed into her from behind...

 😕

It actually looks like a young Bonnie Tyler on the bonnet making the whole thing perfectly feasible.

For once I believe you, Ricky....

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