Coventry BreakFast meeting

from Classic and Competition Car 137 February 2022

by Simon Wright

VSCC New Years Day, Much Marcle

Coventry BreakFest Saturday 22nd January 2022, Millennium Place, Coventry. By Simon & Janet Wright.

1998 Jaguar XJ saloon

© Janet Wright

The organisers of Coventry MotoFest held their first BreakFest meeting of the year in January, in Millennium Place, outside Coventry Transport Museum. The cold, but dry, Saturday morning attracted a really good turnout of modern, modified and classic cars from enthusiasts eager to meet again after all the recent government restrictions. The colourful rows of cars more than half filled Millennium Place, as crowds milled around the display. Being Coventry, many models could claim the city as home, but there was no bias, with Japanese, American and German cars very popular in the ranks. Whilst Coventry is most famously known for Jaguar, it was also the base for many other British cars including Standard Triumph. The bright yellow Triumph Stag was a perfect example of British Leyland's empire of the 1970s. The Stag was a 2 + 2 sports tourer which was sold between 1970 and 1977. Designed by Italian designer Giovanni Micholotti, the four seater convertible was notable for the B pillar roll bar connected to the windscreen frame by a T-bar. The early convertibles had a popular body coloured optional hardtop available, with a heated rear screen and lever operated quarter windows, which was later supplied as standard. The Stag was powered by a new 3 litre V8 Triumph engine, with dual Zenith-Stromberg carburettors instead of fuel injection. It produced 145 bhp with 170 lb ft of torque. This gave it a top speed of 117 mph and a 0-60 mph time of 10.5 seconds. It had MacPherson struts and disc brakes at the front and semi-trailing arms and drum brakes at the rear. It also had power assisted rack and pinion steering. Unfortunately, the model was plagued with reliability problems, usually around over-heating. The high mounted water pump let coolant escape if the engine became hot in traffic. The level was then lower than the pump, which resulted in pump failure. Also the alloy cylinder head and iron block suffered regular head gasket failure. Only around 19,000 were sold in the UK.

The modified car scene in the UK is a large segment of the market, with Japanese cars and other hot hatch backs all popular choices. Mostly owned by younger drivers, the cars stand out with custom paint schemes and often have very large rear wings, which probably create more drag then generate downforce! Many cars in this category can be heard from miles away, not always because of the modified engine, but by the booming beat from the stereo sound system with the boot being a giant speaker system. The Honda Civic in both saloon and hatchback version are popular cars for modifying, with many parts available for both bodywork upgrades and mechanical upgrades.

Another popular model for modifiers, with a local connection, is the Peugeot 205/206 range. Peugeot used to be made at Ryton, Coventry.

© Simon Wright

1992 Peugeot 205 XL

© Janet Wright

2004 Nissan 350Z

© Simon Wright

Popular World wide the Nissan 350Z and it’s successor the 370Z are highly sought after. There was a nice collection of Nissan 350/370Z cars at Coventry. The 350Z first appeared in 2002 and was built until 2009. Powered by a 3.5 litre V6 engine which produced 287 hp when launched, which increased to 306 hp by 2009. The front engine drives the rear wheels through a 6-speed manual gearbox.

It had a top speed of 155 mph and could accelerate from 0-62 mph in 5.9 seconds.

2010 Nissan 370Z

© Janet Wright

1966 Dodge Charger V8

© Janet Wright

There were some interesting classic cars on show. One of the largest was the 1966 2 door Dodge Charger Fastback. Powered by a 6.6 litre engine, it was also available with the Chrysler 7.2 litre 426 Hemi V8 engine, with only 426 built with this engine. The transmission was either a 3Speed column change manual, a console mounted 4-speed manual or a 3-speed automatic. In 1996 production

was over 30,000

2018 Ford Mustang

© Simon Wright Honda Pan-European motorbike

© Simon Wright

Sunbeam Alpine & 1991 Peugeot 309 GTi BMW 3118i

© Janet Wright 1989 Volkswagen Scirocco

© Simon Wright © Simon Wright

1979 Reliant Scimitar

© Janet Wright Pop Bang Paint Continuous car drawings studio

© Simon Wright 1982 Talbot Sunbeam Lotus rally car

Volvo PV444 De Luxe 1957.

This classic Volvo rolled off the production line in Gothenburg, Sweden in December 1957 and cost around £1,630 when new. The model was Volvo’s first unibody car and was produced between 1943 and 1958. The first cars had a 1.4 litre four cylinder ohv engine with a single down-draught carburettor.which produced just under 40 bhp. By 1950, the power output had increased to 50 bhp. In 1956 the American market cars had a twin side-draft 1 ½ inch SU engine capacity was increased in 1957 to 1.6 litre and was offered with either a single downdraft carburettor or twin side-draught carburettors. The gearbox was a 3speed manual with a floor mounted gear stick. The car had a top speed of 73 mph. The two door saloon had a dated body style even when launched, but had a couple of innovative features - a laminated windscreen, and the speedometer was a ‘thermometer’ type display instead of the more usual round speedometer, with a display needle. It was originally thought that they would sell 8,000 cars but the actual figure was almost 200,000 vehicles built.