Nice pics, you can see the difference but it's quite subtle. They were pretty stylish cars, can't remember the last time I saw one in the UK. You must have been sick about losing your one, especially given the circumstances. I had a number of R16s over the years, they were a bit prone to rot...

I wondered what classics might have been discussed with those peeps when you first mentioned them. Renault 17 is a rare beast these days - the last time I saw one was when driving through France in 2010 (it could have been a 15, never sure if seeing them fleetingly). Can't remember where I was...

I know the Dutch like their cycles but this sounds like an epic undertaking. Good you completed it despite the problems.

T & Q

Making a curry later.

Really sorry to hear about @Shippers, at times I've not been keeping up to date with what's going on and I hadn't realised this. Yes the Santana was very nice but really it was very much a LHD series 3 with slightly different badges and rear lights. Series parts fitted it and I bought some...

Happy days. The first car I drove was a Capri, white 1.3 base model if I recall (that's not counting when I was about 10 my dad let me move his Riley from the drive to the garage. I stalled it).

Yes I can see the Marina suspension needing modifying if the kit is based on those parts as well, there were some poor compromises in the design. Hope your base wasn't one with lever shock absorbers ;) Second hand cars classic or not tend to be more expensive in Spain and Portugal as well...

Ah I see, they would have needed work - they probably couldn't be bothered. Still a bit of a surprise though, someone else might have wanted to do something with them and being on French plates, a fair bit of cost will have already been incurred in the import process. As you say, maybe they...

I agree, don't let it get any worse. I got bitten on the leg by something in Spain once, didn't see what it was but I guess it must have either been a spider or a snake even though the doctors insisted it couldn't be anything like that because they weren't poisonous. It swelled up, I couldn't...

Great shame, at least something was saved. I'm surprised if most cars were low mileage, good condition etc that the sons didn't want to 'bother with some paperwork'. I'm assuming this is in France - if they were still on UK plates then there would have been a lot of difficulty and expense but...

Interesting story - what sort of things got scrapped and were they any good or in reality just a load of rust? Whatever happened its a pity parts could not have been saved if there is someone else genuinely keeping/running classics for which spares must be becoming difficult.

Bit of a surprise that, PTs goalie was shìt hot in the previous match (Slovenia). I suppose the French strikers were shìt hotter.

I used a van to avoid that scenario! It didn't seem worth the risk of struggling to get it in a car, or failing to. It's bigger than it looks.

No didn't manage to get to that. Picked it up on the Norfolk coast.

Got a truck cab for it...

Maybe if such a thing existed a Corten steel chassis would be better than a galv one - overkill perhaps? It's also the stuff steel shipping containers are made of.

I didn't want to worry a new member on day one but it is a real concern. I would be a bit worried. The look of mine would probably deter parts theft but maybe not nicking the whole Landy.... mind you last year someone cut through my wire fence and nicked about six car batteries which were...

I can imagine, it looks very straight and as @Stanleysteamer says incredibly clean. Mine is a '78 and has a more ratty look, a.k.a. scruffy...

Looks fantastic. Not surprising you're over the moon with it.