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1 week ago | 
petrolblog.com | Gavin Braithwaite-Smith
With thanks to Flavio, an early UK Fiat Coupé 16v has joined the Petrolblog fleet. It doesn't have a second gear, the ABS light is on, and there's a massive dent in the door – and that's the problems that we know about. Still, it has a wonderful engine and it looks fabulous.
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2 weeks ago | 
petrolblog.com | Gavin Braithwaite-Smith
I’ve always enjoyed crossing the River Severn. Be it over the original Severn Bridge or the Second Severn Crossing, hopping from England to Wales has invariably signalled the start of a holiday or the promise of a good drive on one of Britain’s best roads. Something positive. An event to look forward to. But to borrow a line from Bob Dylan, famously photographed waiting for a ferry to cross the Severn, the times they are a-changin’. Driving in Wales today can be a frustrating experience.
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2 weeks ago | 
petrolblog.com | Gavin Braithwaite-Smith
A long overdue update on the 1968 Volvo 144 automatic, aka ‘Nöddy’, which was ‘resting’ in a garage near Exmouth for around 33 years. This is the first proper look at the car before the proper (attempted) restoration begins.
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2 weeks ago | 
motoringresearch.com | Gavin Braithwaite-Smith
The car you always promised yourself © Ford Marketed as ‘The car you always promised yourself’, few vehicles were as loved, loathed and ridiculed as the Ford Capri. In a production run spanning 18 years, it amassed sales approaching 1.9 million, upset the establishment on the race tracks of Europe, and appeared in more television shows than Ian McShane. Brace yourself for a potent cocktail of automotive nostalgia.
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3 weeks ago | 
petrolblog.com | Gavin Braithwaite-Smith
‘We don’t make mistakes; we have happy accidents.’ Not our words, but the words of Bob Ross, the chap whose prodigious perm graced the world of painting. We’ll never know what Ross would have made of the Polo Harlequin – the American painter died in July 1995, just months before VW’s multi-coloured hatchback debuted at the Frankfurt motor show – but we reckon he would have approved of Wolfsburg’s happiest of accidents.
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3 weeks ago | 
petrolblog.com | Gavin Braithwaite-Smith
In case you missed the news, the Peugeot 406 Coupé V6 bought as a donor car for the other 406 Coupé is now on the road. It passed an exploratory MOT with only minor advisories and has since been treated to light recommissioning. New fluids, filters and belts, etc, plus a new rear hub and a set of period correct number plates. The paintwork needs attention, but I was quite content with enjoying a 406 Coupé with a V6 engine, heated seats and a manual gearbox.
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3 weeks ago | 
petrolblog.com | Gavin Braithwaite-Smith
The latest Petrolblog Revisited rewinds the clock to May 2010, when the blog was still wearing shorts and taking an apple to school. Doesn't time fly when you're spouting waffle and bunk? One of the blog's first posts was about car washing and the ‘hilarious’ things people say when you're armed with a wash mitt and a bucket. There's a reason why this post has resurfaced after 15 years in the wilderness.
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3 weeks ago | 
petrolblog.com | Gavin Braithwaite-Smith
This summer, towns and villages across the country will be hosting small classic car shows in pub car parks, on village greens and on those spare fields the local farmers never use. More often that not, these classic car shows are bolted on to larger events, such as village fairs and fêtes, but some communities go all out and host bespoke car shows.
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3 weeks ago | 
petrolblog.com | Gavin Braithwaite-Smith
It took a week for the wooden crate to hit the ground. Suspended from a rarely photographed tower in the centre of Paris – google ‘Eiffel Tower’ if you’re not familiar with it – the box, marked ‘La Nouvelle Citroën’, descended a few metres every day until it reached terra firma. Then, on 23 September 1982, members of the press gathered as Jacques Lombard, general manager of Citroën, opened the box to reveal a red BX. And you thought unboxing was a product of the YouTube era.
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4 weeks ago | 
petrolblog.com | Gavin Braithwaite-Smith
Ferdinand Piëch reportedly came up with the idea for a W engine while riding the long train runnin’ between Tokyo and Nagoya. Some would say the late CEO of Volkswagen must have been smoking a doobie if he thought the world would embrace the idea of a Volkswagen Passat with a 4.0-litre W8 engine. Still, what a fool believes, etc. The former CEO was no fool. At Porsche, he designed the iconic 917 race car.
