New Rootes Heritage Centre opened 22/4/18

[Pete Lewis]

some of us have some Rootes Cars ( Richard )  or Rootes Background  heres a snippet of the opening  and some nice car photo's 

here's a link to their opening day of the new centre in Banbury  this is from   Mark my Commer friend in NewZealand

http://www.carsceneinternational.com/rootes-archive-grand-opening-22-april-2018/

The opening went really well - we also learnt what our possible capacities are for events at the new site - 100 classic vehicles (and a further 40 moderns) was tight but we are looking forward to organising events that are around the 50 vehicle size.

The support we are now getting from the Commer community is great and we can build on that. We did get 4 X TS3 powered vehicles at the opening including one Commer mounted with a running display TS3 engine on the deck. 

 

There are some more good photos on this blog:

www.carsceneinternational.com/rootes-archive-grand-opening-22-april-2018/

Rootes Archive Grand Opening - 22 April 2018 - Car Scene International www.carsceneinternational.com The official opening of the permanent home of the Rootes Archive at Apollo Office Park,…

 

[Colin Lindsay]

My father's first car was a Rootes Hillman Minx, I still remember the big red circle on the dashboard. It rusted to death daily, I remember bits dropping off as we drove along. Sort of like my first Mini too, when I think of it....

I had a lookover a Holbay Rapier a few years ago, turned it down as I'd no room, but I remember all of the windows dropped on either side leaving it completely pillarless. The seller was asking £1200 or thereabouts. 

Whoever sprayed the red Sunbeam Harrington needs to go back and match the doors...

 

[dave.vitesse]

Rightly or wrongly I believe Rootes cars are quite underrated in the classic car world. A few years back I standing in a queue to get into the NEC talking to someone. We both thought the Sunbeam Alpine was as good if not better than the MGB  and was underrated. The person behind us got quite angry about our comments, so we changed the subject. We weren't running down the MGB, so it was interesting to see how some people become quite brainwashed. The TR7 being rubbish is an example.

It good to see in recent years the Alpine, James Bonds first car, is now accepted as a good sports car. Having said that most of Rootes products are good.

Dave

[Pete Lewis]

there's a  white one used in the Good Karma hosptal  Tv series 

I ordered an  1970 Alpine but the  wife got preggy and had to cancel and get an Avenger instead

had many visits to the Ryton assy  and Stoke  (Humber  rd.)  machining plants over the years ....like many nothing left now .

except memories 

one of our ex ford plant managers had a Holbay Rapier and he frequently gave me a lift from dunstable to the Luton plant to raise holly grief

with plant quality problems , its was full throttle and overtake everything ,, it was  shut eyes and prey sort of ride

the whole motor manufacturing scene was full of  lively characters .

 Pete

[Colin Lindsay]

5 hours ago, dave.vitesse said:

The person behind us got quite angry about our comments, so we changed the subject.

It's funny how some people think they have THE opinion.... I was at a local garage recently, the owner is into all sorts of classics but mostly Fords and has been about since the year dot so knows all the tricks, but when I told him I drove Triumphs his comment was: "Cheap and nasty rubbish..." No worries about hurt feelings there, then... 

It's amazing how many people look at my GT6 at shows, nod sagely and remark "crap handling" without ever having driven one. They must read a lot.

[Bordfunker]

We had a delivery driver turn up at the door a few months back, take a look at our two modern Citroens on the drive, and turn to wife and say ‘French cars, they’re crap aren’t they!’.

Mrs B promptly put him straight! 

Everyone’s got an opinion.......

Back on topic this is just 2 miles down the road from, and I had no idea it had opened.

Karl

[Pete Lewis]

dont mention the strikes that killed our industry,  one killed Rootes , a company that traded all over the world

but it didnt save them,  amazing how negatives pull down the positives in life 

even more prestige cars had serious quality problems do it right first time never seemed to apply. in the 70/80s

Ive had 9  new citroens in the past 20 years apart from a C5 HPi which was a development of HP petrol injection which 

was moved on pretty quick, all have been superb, and trouble free.  

well its raining again ...just a little    Grrr

 

[dougbgt6]

Peugeots have a reputation for dodgy electrics. I've had 3 over the years, all of them nice cars and fun to drive, but the electrics/wiring! OMG! And not just one piddling fault each, major stuff, broken wires in looms, badly placed connectors open the elements, poor quality components which shouldn't have failed within a couple of years.  Good job I'm handy with the soldering iron. Would I by another one? If they re-made the 306, probably. 

Doug

[Pete Lewis]

french wires ....hen we first got involved with the R over the door on the  heavy truck range the wires would all go black and corrode  the wires were all black plastic with a code printed then the wire codes would rub off so you had 100s of wires in a plastic conduit all looking the same with no clues what went where,  this was replaced with coloured rings at each end

great if it failed mid way ...no hope ...much probe  and curse  and easier to just run a duplicate . 

heck knows what they  used as copper 

Pete

 

[dave.vitesse]

New cars I have either owned or driven over the years have been Austin, Ford, Mazda Triumph and VW.. The most unreliable was a 2002 VW Polo. The most reliable was a 1973 Triumph Toledo.

Dave

[dave.vitesse]

3 minutes ago, Pete Lewis said:

french wires ....hen we first got involved with the R over the door on the  heavy truck range the wires would all go black and corrode  the wires were all black plastic with a code printed then the wire codes would rub off so you had 100s of wires in a plastic conduit all looking the same with no clues what went where,  this was replaced with coloured rings at each end

great if it failed mid way ...no hope ...much probe  and curse  and easier to just run a duplicate . 

heck knows what they  used as copper 

Pete

 

Pete, I believe something in the plastic insulation reacted with the copper. Yes Cr*p. I hated the ring coded wiring, as you say difficult to trace. Also with experience you just had to look at the colour and know what it is carrying. The ring coded stuff was a Mill Spec, confuse the enemy ? No just the Tecs and Mecs working with it. 

Dave  

[Colin Lindsay]

On 4/28/2018 at 9:59 AM, dave.vitesse said:

New cars I have either owned or driven over the years have been Austin, Ford, Mazda Triumph and VW.. The most unreliable was a 2002 VW Polo. The most reliable was a 1973 Triumph Toledo.

Dave

Never had a new car! The most reliable have been Fords, my Focus (I had two, a 2000 and a 2002 model) and my current Mundaneo. It's a workhorse and the boot is always full of rubbish for the dump. The one I loved the most was my Discovery TD5. Worst ever have been Renault Clio, bought as a stopgap and it lasted two months with me, and Renault Lagunas which were dreadful cars, again I had two, and I was ripped off by the salesman when I tried to trade one in. I also had a Rover 213s, the Honda engined version from 1987, and I kept it for seven years, running up 177000 miles in it. It was superbly reliable but the body rotted away around the mechanicals. It was the car that enabled me to buy my first Triumph, as it was so reliable and cheap to run that I actually had spare cash.

Worst Classic ever was a Reliant Scimitar - a real money pit - that was on the road for two days during all the years that I owned it. 

[Dick Twitchen]

3 hours ago, Colin Lindsay said:

Worst Classic ever was a Reliant Scimitar - a real money pit - that was on the road for two days during all the years that I owned it. 

That's a pity Colin, my GTE was reliable and (reasonably) cost effective to run.  Only let let me down twice (condenser), pity one was late on a winter's night returning from Heathrow, Mrs T not impressed!  However, she was still happy to travel in it to Classic Le Mans and camp.

[Colin Lindsay]

I could regale you with tales of mine that would take up this entire thread, if not the server! 

SE5A automatic bought for £1600, drove it 80 miles home and it conked out twice. This was due to the gear lever selector being incorrect, so you had to sort of get it in between positions for it to work. Drove it once more later in the week and again it died, refusing to start until the lever was in the correct / incorrect position. A recon gearbox and torque converter was £400, and whilst waiting to get it fitted I went for a whole plethora of stainless parts, replacement bits, recored radiator, new dashboard, exhaust, replacement trims etc. The black leather was a bit green with mould on the inside as it leaked water everywhere too... took it to a local garage who had it for almost a year whilst working on the gearbox; nothing would fit as it should and he was merrily modifying brackets, halfshafts, propshaft etc THEN admitted that he couldn't finish it. I think (found out later) that it had a Borg Warner type 65 and we'd been supplied a type 35. The car wouldn't drive as was, I'd no idea what had been done to it to try to repair it, and then moved house 90 miles away where it sat in the yard for months, and everytime I went out to run it for a bit and keep things freed up it burst a radiator pipe, or an oil line, or broke something else. Eventually a man drove all the way from a house beside the garage where it had been, and paid me £400 for it. I was glad to see the back of it and stuck with Triumphs from then on.

[Pete Lewis]

Well Rootes would have been better

Superminx cv comes to mind,   proper snazy lines   ,  better with a holbay lump,,,    it fits 

Pete

[dave.vitesse]

All the Rootes cars I had were reliable, though like most 1960's cars tin worm was a problem.

As for company vehicles, 105E vans were pigs to start in the winter, front wheel wobble and generally gutless. 105E and the Cortina Mk2 top struts mounts rotted out in two years. Transit V4 blow head gaskets. The later Escorts and Cortina's no major problems. Focus, Sierra and Mondeo no major problems. Cavalier and Astra cooling problems. Marina, Ital and Rover 216 some reliable, some not.  No problems with the Morris 1000 van's and car's or Land Rover Defender's. Austins Gypsy's problems with the rear IRS.

Could go on but it gets boring!

Dave