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Factoid Extra: 190bhp & 130mph isn’t too impressive these days but when the car looks like this & has a sonorous V8 under the bonnet, I think you’d agree this is an honourable exception… Darragh McKenna 🌐 Leo Nulty Steve Cropley

Factoid Extra: The Renault 9 might not have been the most exciting car, but its popularity might surprise you - in 1983, 730k were made, more than any other car except Ford’s Escort (the US-built Alliance version helped with 142k cars)… Darragh McKenna 🌐 Leo Nulty Steve Cropley

Factoid Extra: Here’s your quick reminder not only would the XJ-S version become a production model called the XJR-S after Jaguar Sport was formed in 1988, it became the 1st 6-litre V12 Jag in Sep 1989. (No prizes for noticing the ad’s typo) Darragh McKenna 🌐 Leo Nulty Steve Cropley

Factoid Extra: Busy weeks for BL with two new cars appearing on Autocar covers in 1970 & two cars with V8 engines too, but as everyone knows, they were different V8 engines & everyone knows which one was the most troublesome or infamous… Darragh McKenna 🌐 Leo Nulty Steve Cropley

Factoid Extra: 1970, & British component firm, Automotive Products (AP) marks 50yrs but I’m more interested in these Jaguar & Rover congratulatory ads (BL ‘rectangle’ signs have their own unique ‘brand’ font, that would be dropped later on)… Darragh McKenna 🌐 Leo Nulty Steve Cropley

Factoid Extra: It’s easy to forget the Rangie had some Rostyle wheels when it was launched & into the early ‘80’s, but it wasn’t the only Rubery Owen components as this ‘reflective glory’ supplier ad notes… Darragh McKenna 🌐 Leo Nulty Steve Cropley

Factoid Extra: The Range Rover’s launch campaign doesn’t get the credit it deserves as like all the best ads the premise is so brilliantly simple - car launch ads really don’t get much better than this… Darragh McKenna 🌐 Leo Nulty Steve Cropley

Factoid Extra: Yes, it looked like a motorised wedge of Red Leicester plus redolent of the early ‘70’s, but the Bond Bug does have a kind of coolness about it, but I’d guess that view might change if you happened to drive one… Darragh McKenna 🌐 Leo Nulty Steve Cropley

Factoid Extra: One long-standing Range Rover myth is the Louvre displayed one as a work of art. In reality one appeared at the entrance representing British car design for a Design Council British design exhibition at the museum in Mar 1971. Darragh McKenna 🌐 Leo Nulty Steve Cropley

Factoid Extra: Enthusiast selling to enthusiasts - marketing Alfa Romeo to British car buyers in 1970… Darragh McKenna 🌐 Leo Nulty Steve Cropley

Factoid Extra: The Stag’s launch campaign established its credentials as a car aimed at Europe’s top GT rivals & in so ways it had the makings as a keen competitor to them which makes the ‘big muscled’ V8’s unreliability all the more tragic… Darragh McKenna 🌐 Leo Nulty Steve Cropley

Factoid Extra: Possibly the only time these two ever shared ‘cover space’ on a magazine but the juxtaposition is perfect btwn what’s a good car & what is possibly not, but I’ll let you decide that particularly difficult car conundrum… Darragh McKenna 🌐 Leo Nulty Steve Cropley

Factoid Extra: Luxury in 1968 was having a heated rear window as standard which makes the GT6 Mk2 getting one quite the coup for Triumph too. We’ve come a long way… Darragh McKenna 🌐 Leo Nulty Steve Cropley

Factoid Extra: The B1 Audi 80 making its Earls Court debut in 1973 & a car promoted in the UK as being ‘3 to 4 years ahead of its time’ which wasn’t quite as memorable as the firm’s classic ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’, was it? Darragh McKenna 🌐 Leo Nulty Steve Cropley

Factoid Extra: Quite a late ad for the A30 given the A35 would appear in September that year but what’s really interesting (well, to me) is BMC persisted with calling it an ‘Austin Seven’ up to the end of production… Darragh McKenna 🌐 Leo Nulty Steve Cropley

Friday Commitment: Nine great cars, one brilliant cover & the start of an annual celebration of the best handling cars in the UK. It’s also the final weekly nod to the cream of committed driving & what a way to finish… Darragh McKenna 🌐 Leo Nulty Steve Cropley Alan Taylor-Jones

Factoid Extra: Chrysler United Kingdom put on something of a ‘brave face’ promoting the 180 given their version with a V6 engine had been cancelled months before its launch & after some £31m spent developing & tooling for it… Darragh McKenna 🌐 Leo Nulty Steve Cropley

Factoid Extra: The start of a small car revolution but the end of something rather less important - I’ve decided to conclude my activity on here. I just wanted to acknowledge everyone who has been so supportive over the yrs - Thank you… Darragh McKenna 🌐 Leo Nulty Steve Cropley