Friday 4 July 2008

Classic car miscelleny - London and Warsaw

Above: Austin A35, on Weymouth St, London W1. Built in 1957, with a one litre engine, this is pretty much the '50s equivalent of my Nissan. I hope the Micra will soldier on into the 2040s! If so, it should by then have half a million miles on the clock.

Above: A 1921 Ford Model T Touring on Marylebone High Street, London W1. First one I've seen in my life! 15 million built, so few left. It's 87 years old! Interestingly, there's 35 years between the production of the Model T and the two Austins shown, and 35 years between the Austins and my 1993 Nissan Micra.

Above: A 1957 Austin Princess Mk III (as featured in Tessa and Adam's wedding last week) at the Park Łazienkowski. Immaculate inside and out; note yellow Polish 'zabytkowe' (heritage) plates. Who'd have thought, as this vehicle rolled off the same Longbridge, Birmingham production line as the A35 (top) more than half a century ago, that it'd end up doing weddings in Warsaw!

(Above) A 2-door Volvo 122 Amazon, parked around the corner from the Polish parliament. A lovely design, quite timeless. This car was in production for 14 years, from 1956 to 1970. This model would be from the mid '60s, judging from the grille design and wheel trim.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Curiously enough, the longest produced car in the world without any interruption is the British Morris Oxford III. Original Morris Oxford III has produced beetwen 1956 and 1959. After all, Morris sold the licence to Hindustan Motors of India and the car is still in production under the name Hindustan Ambassador! British phenomenon? =)

Michael Dembinski said...

(Warning: This comment may contain traces of anorak) Although the Ambassador is still in production after 52 years, it will be another 13 years of continuous production for it to beat the record set by the VW Beetle (65 years from 1938 to 2003).