Antiques road trip - would you lend your car?

RIDDLER

Well-Known Forum User
Don't know if any of you ever watch that Antiques Road Trip on the telly. It's the one where two antiques experts travel round the country - in a different classic car each week - buying items at antiques shops which they then try to sell at a profit at auction in a competition with each other.
I confess I am quite hooked on it - but I always wonder where they get their cars from and think 'would I lend them my Z if asked?'.
The answer to that question is a definite NO! Why? Have you seen the way they treat them? Yanking the handbrake on every time they stop without ever pushing the button in, often crunching the gears, slamming the doors when they get out, sitting on the bonnet while they discuss their buys - the list goes on and on.
For people who appreciate old things they seem to show very little respect for the classic cars they drive!
 
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Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
Did you ever see the programme with Richard Wilson driving a Minor Traveller?

It was called 'Britain's Best Drives'.

He was embarrassing and I'm sure he would have wrecked the gearbox and clutch. He said his own car was an automatic!
 

RIDDLER

Well-Known Forum User
Did you ever see the programme with Richard Wilson driving a Minor Traveller?

It was called 'Britain's Best Drives'.

He was embarrassing and I'm sure he would have wrecked the gearbox and clutch. He said his own car was an automatic!

Yes I did, Rob. Nice idea for a show but his total inability to drive the cars ruined the programme for me. He was crunching his way through the gearbox and blaming the old cars when it fact it was his own ineptitude that was the problem. He had been sailing about in a new BMW automatic for years and had clearly forgotten how to drive a manual. The trouble is, programmes like that give classic cars a bad name and reinforce the stereotypical image some people have of classics being old bangers with dodgy gearboxes. I couldn't stand to watch it. Better was Robbie Coltrane's B Road Britain where he drove his 50s' Jag (an XK120 from memory) from place to place with real panache.
 

Dale

Club Member
The local BBC used a friend of mine's VW camper van for a TV program recently. Unfortunately it lived up to it's stereotype and broke down three times leaving the scene on the back of a recovery truck! They used that footage on the program too.

It ended up on my drive after it's final break down where we managed to temprorarily fix it for its journey home using a spare dizzy cap from the 260z.
 

Jimbo

1978 260z in yellow
Club Member
The local BBC used a friend of mine's VW camper van for a TV program recently. Unfortunately it lived up to it's stereotype and broke down three times leaving the scene on the back of a recovery truck! They used that footage on the program too.

It ended up on my drive after it's final break down where we managed to temprorarily fix it for its journey home using a spare dizzy cap from the 260z.

i thought campers were 4 cylinders?
 

Dale

Club Member
i thought campers were 4 cylinders?

Haha, indeed they are. It took some fault finding, but we discovered that the centre pin and spring that contacts the rotor arm had broken. It was very late and the van had to get back for a wedding the following morning so we managed to transplant the pin from my spare cap over to the van's. It worked for the weekend luckily.
 
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uk66fastback

Club Member
When they were making Saxondale, one of the MOCGB members had her car used as the main character's steed. It was away a good few months but I think they took good care of it. I even got a quote from Coogan for the club mag ...

Unfortunately, the women who owned it wrote it off on an icy road a year or so later.

saxonmach1jj5.5214.jpg
 

Stockdale

Club Member
Must confess, I too watch the 'roadtrip' now and again. Have noticed that they seem never to exceed 20mph and most of the recorded footage almost all is on very minor roads. Sometimes with grass in the middle and cattle peering over hedges! They certainly don't cover the fabulous distances claimed between venues. The cars are probabaly trailered while the hosts are chauffeured. On that basis and and at a fee of £5000 per episode they could use my car.
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
Must confess, I too watch the 'roadtrip' now and again. Have noticed that they seem never to exceed 20mph and most of the recorded footage almost all is on very minor roads. Sometimes with grass in the middle and cattle peering over hedges! They certainly don't cover the fabulous distances claimed between venues. The cars are probabaly trailered while the hosts are chauffeured.........

Yes a typical TV con! They must think we are idiots. Of course they will have extra cars and a van for the things they buy. :smash:
 

RIDDLER

Well-Known Forum User
Good to see classic cars getting some exposure on TV though. Just wish they would treat them with more respect, as I said at the start of this thread. Have just emailed a quick letter to the Radio Times on this topic - let’s see if they publish it.
 
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