Today’s blog comes from last month’s Avenue Drivers Club meeting at Queen Square where I marveled not only at the range of vehicles but the quality of the sunlight that enabled be to capture a few details I might ordinarily miss.

Above a headlight cluster from a 2005 Bentley Arnage T automatic.

When Sunbeam wanted to take on the world of advanced motor engineering they went straight to the top and hired two FIAT employees; Vincenzo Bertarione and Walter Becchia who designed the first Sunbeam twim cam engines in 1923 starting with a 2 litre 122 cui straight six, which won the 1923 French Grand Prix and progressing to a 3 litre / 183 cui straight six as the 1927 example seen above, which after surviving an accident finished second in the 1925 Le Mans 24 hours.

From 1949 to 1951 just 502 Riley RMD drophead coupé were built. Despite it’s regal interior opulence as seen in the 1950 example above, the would be the last convertible to carry the Riley name.

For those into seriously long road trips Chevrolet built a Camper Special on the C/K 20 pickup trucks, this one dates from 1973, the idea is to take the tailgate off and slide a camper pod onto the load platform. Sounds easy but from experience best not done in a garage with a low ceiling.

The waste line on this ’71 Dodge Challenger is in my humble opinion a work of pure art, like taking a smidgen of Devon cream from the pot on the end of your little finger it’s perfect.

Back in the day when I was selling cars a turbo was something to aspire to and twin turbo’s were something strictly for the track, just as I left the trade Toyota introduced the 320 hp sequential twin turbo Supra Mark IV in 1993, a car that would remain in production until 2002. The tail lights seen here are on a 1994 model.

If you at a loose end in the Bristol area tomorrow morning you could do worse than pop down to Queen Square for Coffee Croissant and Cars.

Thanks for joining me on this “Coffee Croissant & Cars #06/14″ edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you join me again tomorrow when I’ll be featuring a gathering that included a blind folded guy driving a monster truck ! Don’t forget to come back now !