The Family Car

[Serial_Apologist]

The correct term was QUARTIC

It looks like a cycle inner tube waiting to be pumped up!

[vinteuil]

The correct term was QUARTIC

... somehow more elegant in maths rather than in steering-wheels :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartic_function

[Nick Armstrong]

The correct term was QUARTIC

Quite right. ("almost rectangular"... <doh> ... )

The trendy little new Fiat Panda has adopted a similar thing:

http://www.aronline.co.uk/blogs/blog...ann-was-right/

[vinteuil]

fiat panda

... also some Landrover freelanders, Renault lagunas, Ferrari 458s, -

and :

http://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6856

[anotherbob]

As an infant petrolhead, I had difficulty with the family car in the 1970s...

I give you...



The Morris Marina

That must have been a source of shame for you, not QUITE an Allegro but close

In 1975 my son was able to help me clean the family Rover with his head held high.

[Nick Armstrong]

In 1975 my son was able to help me clean the family Rover with his head held high.

Lucky lad. Those Rovers were among my dream cars!

[anotherbob]

Lucky lad. Those Rovers were among my dream cars!

Unsurprisingly the lad grew up with a penchant for classy cars, but is now disappointed that his wife will not countenance a Cobra Replica and insists that a Citroen C4 Grande Picasso is more suited to transport her, their two kids and a wolfhound named Maude

[Nick Armstrong]

Unsurprisingly the lad grew up with a penchant for classy cars, but is now disappointed that his wife will not countenance a Cobra Replica and insists that a Citroen C4 Grande Picasso is more suited to transport her, their two kids and a wolfhound named Maude

...whereas I've been able to react the other way including a couple of classic Citroëns (inc a 1973 DS23, another of my dream cars from the 70s and the first car I bought!), a Lancia Integrale and an Audi RS6....

Everything evens out in the end!

[anotherbob]

...whereas I've been able to react the other way including a couple of classic Citroëns (inc a 1973 DS23, another of my dream cars from the 70s and the first car I bought!), a Lancia Integrale and an Audi RS6....

Everything evens out in the end!

Always good to encounter another Integrale owner. This was mine on a trip over the Brecon Beacons about 10 years ago. No matter what BMW say about their "driving machines" this was the best IMHO.
(But maybe we have strayed fom the "Family cars" in the thread title?)

[HighlandDougie]

The trendy little new Fiat Panda

I'm not sure that my very butch Panda 4x4 (new model; old one of the same went to a retired lady teacher who test drove it by taking it round a muddy field) would like being called, "trendy" but, as the Italians, say it has, "una bella figura". What a wonderful thread! I'm too embarrassed to post pictures of Vauxhall Vivas but I do remember that the one with the 2.3 litre engine could leave Austin 1300s et al standing at traffic lights (not, though, when my mother was in the front passenger seat).

[eighthobstruction]

This is the car [and colour] I always wanted (styling wise not necessarily performance).... http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/uploa...mg/3788161.jpg....a friend had silver version for summer 1977

[Beef Oven!]

... somehow more elegant in maths rather than in steering-wheels :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartic_function

This is the car [and colour] I always wanted (styling wise not necessarily performance).... http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/uploa...mg/3788161.jpg....a friend had silver version for summer 1977

Got to be in the top 5 all time greats.

[Anna]

You'll all laugh - I had what I thought was a 'classic car' - it was a Renault 4 (yes, that suitcase on wheels that rolled alarmngly!) It had an amazingly huge art deco bakelite type steering wheel and a push/pull gear change poking out of the dashboard.
I was in my retro mode at the time, dressing in vintage 40s clothes and watching J-L Godard films thinking I was the bee's knees and tres chic, (and very young and foolish, this was in the in the 80s). The floor eventually disintegrated into rust beneath my feet, bur my goodness, I did love that car, it was dark green with a tendency for punctures.

[mangerton]

Here are two of the family busily washing the two family cars while the third supervised from on high with a camera.

[mangerton]

You'll all laugh - I had what I thought was a 'classic car' - it was a Renault 4 (yes, that suitcase on wheels that rolled alarmngly!) It had an amazingly huge art deco bakelite type steering wheel and a push/pull gear change poking out of the dashboard.
I was in my retro mode at the time, dressing in vintage 40s clothes and watching J-L Godard films thinking I was the bee's knees and tres chic, (and very young and foolish, this was in the in the 80s). The floor eventually disintegrated into rust beneath my feet, bur my goodness, I did love that car, it was dark green with a tendency for punctures.

Was it your first car? There's always something special about your first car. Mine was a Singer Chamois an (upmarket ?) Hillman Imp clone. LVS 4E. Great fun, but it went through two cylinder head gaskets in about two years. I swapped it with a colleague for a grey Triumph Herald. I collided with a parked car - I had a penchant for doing that at that time - necessitating a replacement bonnet. Afficionados will remember the Herald bonnet hinged at the front, and included the two front wings. I got a green Vitesse bonnet from a scrap yard for a pound which I helped an engineer at work to fit, and for a time had what I reckon was the only grey/green two tone car on the road. That car died shortly before I got married. Funds were in short supply, and I got an ancient mini van, which, like Anna's car, had a hole in the floor.