[TimD]

Just a daft thought.

This morning I passed on the road a 1978 Chrysler/Talbot Alpine. Pre face-lift, it was a time capsule of just how I remembered them. Cream/beige bumpers, chronic timing rattle, gentle puffs of black smoke pouring from the exhaust....

And it made me realise it must be ten years since I last saw one. If the one I saw today isn't in active preservation, it is likely that it, too, will follow its brethren to the great scrapyard in the sky before long.

Are there any automotive orphans that have actually disappeared completely, do you suppose? Series production cars that were once common but now utterly disappeared from sight?

I know that the 1956 Singer Hunter is represented by only three known survivors. Are there any scarcer ones?

And would you save one if you had the chance? I know that I would love to recapture a little bit of my childhood by preserving a Hillman Avenger and a Sunbeam Rapier H120. Both models are getting thin on the ground.

And then of course there's my strange predilection for Mk4 Ford Zodiacs....

Do you have a soft spot for everyone else's cast-offs?