Last year my wife and I did a trip to Europe that covered several countries. In the previous entry, we explored classic cars at the curb in Paris, France and this time, we move to Ireland. The main purpose of the trip was to attend my brother-in-law’s wedding, which was being held at a rural location that both helped and hindered spotting opportunities. We started our Irish journey in Dublin and while there was not a huge quantity of cars to spot, there was good quality.
While we were there, Dublin did not seem to have a big classic car scene but this 1990-1994 Toyota Estima was an unexpected find. I believe this one is likely to have been imported from Japan, as these were sold as the Previa in Europe, like they were in North America. It was in lovely condition and parked on a central street in what seemed a pub/bar district.
This one was even a 4WD variant.
I managed to see this iconic AEC Routemaster several times giving tours to lucky tourists in the central district. Sadly, we did not have time to partake in it ourselves.
Is this Mitsubishi 1996-2006 L-200 pickup truck a classic? Maybe or maybe not, but I am including it as we did not get anything like this at the time in Canada, making it worthy of capture to me. It is a good looking rig with two tone paint, hood mounted intake blister and a front bull bar.
A surprising number of cities offer tours in these amphibious World War II DUKW vehicles, affectionately called a “Duck”. We managed to participate in a similar tour in Nova Scotia last summer but not here. Visible in the background were two modern double decker buses as well as the same AEC Routemaster again.
While in no way a classic, here is a bonus Mercedes funeral car with a crazy high roof which was eye catching.
I suspect this three door Land Cruiser has the back window blanked out to be classified as a van to dodge some taxes.
At first I thought this was a Chinese car, called the Ora, as it rather looks like a MINI with a botched nose job. But it is an all electric version of the MINI. Perhaps the bland color is not helping it. (update – these were built within a joint venture between BMW and China’s Great Wall Motor)
Heading out to the country and the wedding, I spotted several 2002-2010 Nissan Micra K12s. The styling is rather unusual and they have a reputation for robustness. This, combined with the fact that these were well loved by older folks, means there are a decent number of survivors. This one is slightly spoiled by some cheap aftermarket hubcaps.
These 2005-2012 Honda Civics with a full width light front end seem to be a rare find today. I always thought these looked very distinctive and futuristic compared to the Civics we got in North America. No hub caps on this one.
I am sure if any locals saw me photographing this Civic, they were likely very confused but it was an exotic find for me.
A Hackney carriage! This semi retired LTI TX2 cab was in use at the wedding venue giving rides around the venue to folks with mobility challenges.
My brother-in-law rented this lovely MG B roadster as his wedding car. Classy choice!
The interior was in fantastic shape with a biscuit color to match the green exterior quite well.
On the wedding venue property, but appearing not to be in service anymore, was this Daimler DS420 limousine. These were built between 1968 and 1992 and this appeared to be a later example with those bulky bumpers. The white wall tires are a nice touch.
The interior still looked to be in great condition. The dashboard is old school with separate gauges and an impressive row of switches. The front seat is not particularly roomy with the rear being the focus.
While not in active use, it was nice to see. A good friend of mine has a DS420 which I got a brief ride in before its current long term slumber. Given the short time we had, I considered the car spottings a success in Ireland. The wedding was a spectacular affair that went off without a hitch. My wife and I bid our adult children “slán” as they headed home, and we travelled back to the continent for a new European country.
Thanks for the presentation which includes vehicles and photos of Ireland. Do you recall that on the Duck Tour in Halifax that there is an Episcopal Church made of wood that has a compartment (pew) only for the reigning English monarch? And it has not been used in fifty years or more! Lots of fun when the Duck goes into the water – and from an ignominious spot off a street.
I do recall that fact on the tour. Wild that they reserve seating for people that likely don’t know it exists and will never come.
The Duck tour was quite enjoyable as the view from the harbor is very unique. Halifax is quite hilly with tight streets and the driver navigated it all quite impressively.
(quote)…here is a bonus Mercedes funeral car with a crazy high roof…(/quote)
Do corpses get to ride sitting upright there? There used to be a joke going around about a certain ethnicity which goes, ” (so and so) don’t need gravestones. You simply bury them up to their necks”
That hearse got me curious – looks like it has a high roof because the casket rests at window level, not at floor level like in the funeral cars I’m familiar with. (photo below of a similar model for sale, showing how it carries the casket)
Personally, I find this kind of odd. I prefer the traditional North American hearse with solid sides, rather than showing the casket for the all the world to see. I suppose it’s just a different cultural preference – never seen anything like this.
It may be for dignitary or celebrity funerals, the type where the procession is essentially a parade with spectators lining the route.
Now that you point it out, it does seem quite odd that the funeral customs of a country that far north would want to display caskets where evryone can view them. Such importance in visually parading a casket is typically a southern European thing and even more fancifull in parts of east Asia. But then again, Ireland is still a predominately Catholic country. So, that might have something to do with it.
In any event, I can’t make sense of someone displaying a casket at a level where everyone can view it, if the casket put on display is intended to remain closed
Amazing long lifespan for that Daimler 420 limo. And those DUCKs have become immortal. I know they’re used in other locations for this purpose.
Thanks David. Sorry to see that 420 starting to melt away.
We did a Duck ride in Ottawa a few years back, and saw this current version, the Yokohama Sky Duck, last February during our last Japan trip.
Nice, I really liked Ireland too despite the lack of CC material. Looks like you had good non-Irish weather.
Interesting that they are still using an original military DUKW for the tours, I think most of these have been replaced by more modern and safer recreations as in Halifax.
Speaking of Halifax, just got back from Cabot Trail trip in the Mustang, 5100km!
We had warm weather and it rained not a single drop!
Congrats on the Cabot Trail trip. That would be a fun one in a Mustang, much better than the rental spec SUV we did it in.
This is at least the second month where “Irish weather” has disappeared everywhere in continental western Europe, Britain and Ireland
If I ever go to Europe, I’m sure I’ll be one of those oddballs who photographs what locals consider everyday cars, like that Civic. In fact, I never knew that some European Civics had that full-width light bar. Looks neat, but those things tend to age poorly.
That Daimler is terrific. Looks to be a 1987 model – these are so odd to my eyes because they look like 1960s cars, but certain details like the steering wheel or gearshift are from later Jaguar products.
I’m glad you had a good visit – my niece spent a week in Ireland last year, driving around the country, though sadly didn’t send me any car pictures!
Now isn’t Dublin nothing but pub/bar districts? Being a MacDermot I can say that 🙂
Until outfits like Spyker picked them up as a retro motif, the DS 420 must have been about the last car in production with a row of toggle switches and other than the Mercedes-Benz 600, there can’t have been many “true” limousines that came with a tachometer.
Electric Mini is chinese, made by Great Wall Motor. GWM built the ORA Funny cat, a near Mini…
Thanks. It looks like a joint venture between BMW and Great Wall Motor.
Must confess to a long and quiet detestation of Daimler DS420’s, which really should have been called the Daimler Pompous Ass, both for its looks and buyers thereof. Quite why it was thought that the fatty-but-friendly styling of the Jag 420G should be over-topped by a revival of the cringey “Empress Line” styling of the ’40’s and ’50’s from Hooper is anybody’s guess, but the result is comically bad. (Why on earth Empress Line is also anybody’s guess, but if they were sucking up to royalty, I’m afraid ‘Erself had ceased to be Empress of anywhere anymore, India having been “granted” inevitable independence when an utterly broke Britain couldn’t afford it. And anyway, what’s the look got to with empressness? Queen Victoria’s famously huge bum trailing a bustle behind? But I am digressing). Tempted to ask why on earth BL would want part of such a market (tiny, unprofitable), but I forget that some people take aristocracy terribly seriously. Or did. It’s not a halo car to impress me: much more inclined to provoke stifled laughter.
Quite maliciously, I do enjoy this photo of one rotting away, as all these “handmade” “craftsman-built” “time-honoured” piles did, and did so quicker than your average serf’s Cortina too.
There, that feels better.
Haha, yeah, that’s a good summing up of the DS420 although the line was profitable, the development costs and tooling for the platform of the Jaguar Mark X/420 G already amortized after a decade-odd of admittedly disappointing sales. Profitability in the 1970s & 1980s was maintained because no other manufacturer opted (at that price point) to enter the niche (weddings, funerals, lord mayors, diplomatic circuit, royalty, hearses etc) and the archaic styling was a deliberate choice for the target market, the same motifs contemplated for use when a new model (XJ40-based) was proposed.
https://www.myds420.info/newlimo.html
As the attached illustration suggests (old DS420, left; new DS400 right), the new version would have been a blend of the old (from the A-pillar back) with the XJ40’s lower front profile, a mash-up about as pleasing as the update of the 600 Mercedes-Benz toyed with in the 1970s (it looked something like a ZiL). The DS420’s “traditional shape” did have advantages; a bride with big hair wearing a huge gown likely to prefer getting in and out of a DS420 rather than a low-slung Cadillac 75. The DS420’s styling was more generic than Hooper’s “Empress Line” that owed a debt to the old “Empress Line” cruise ships. Although Hooper’s designer (as far as we know) probably never much thought about frocks, in profile, there are similarities between the “Empress Line” and the ankle-length empire line dresses (some of which used a cut seamstresses dubbed “empress line” although that was about internal construction, the end result visually similar).
I’d quite forgotten about the cruise ship thing, and must confess to never liking a single Hooper I’ve seen in that vein, which is possibly why even the more generic DS420 has always bugged me. (My mind always slips to the hilarious Docker Daimlers, and thinking of all that, no wonder old Prince Phil moved on to Rolls).
The poor old XJ40 never did look finished, square and round and generally confuzzled, so if it grew a massive head, oh dear. (It did come good later in its life, re-dressed like the original XJ, of course).
I had a quick squiz at the current Rolls Phantom LWB, which I believe is really a reworked 7 series BMW beneath, and I must admit that the shape is not bad at all. I think I was thinking that such limo-ization can be done well, though I’m sure the old Daims were never as expensive (comparatively) as these crassly-detailed things are.
(Apologies to David Saunders, I really have gone off-topic! I did enjoy your post.)
No problem. Discussion is exactly what the comment section is for!
Watch the movie “In the land of Saints and Sinners” and see lots of classic British cars in the Irish landscape.
I’ve no idea why hearses have to be quite so goldfish bowl – I imagine it’s so the pall bearers can fit under the hatch in top hats in the pissing rain.
There seems to be something about pompous cars having to look as crass as possible – I wouldn’t be seen dead in a hearse like that.
Ditto the Daimler DS420 – when cars were essentially a carriage on a truck chassis, maybe. But now it’s something to do with a lower-class upstart being elected Lord Mayor of Metro Goldwyn & wanting to look posh, or something. The Phantasm is a bit better, but one would still feel self-conscious getting out of anything so outre.
Then again, there are always those trashy stretch limos, where one has to crawl like a coal miner to reach the partition.
Has there ever been a nobmobile that isn’t uncool? The Toyota Century, perhaps. Even Erich Honecker made a CX look a bit ridiculous, but I suppose Commies gonna commie.
The Mercedes-Benz 600 (M-100, 1963-1981) and comrade President Xi’s Hongqi CA7600J (L9, 2009-) both seem cool. At the scale of state limousines, simplicity of line probably produces the most pleasing look, witness the 1961-1969 Lincoln. Although the 600 had a few baroque touches, it was a mostly austere design.
The 600’s detailing is a tad bombastic (it IS German) but yes. I think the crazy pneumatic system probably was cool when it was working. But I’d raise you an Adenauer 300 for pomposity. Like the W140 600, I consider later Mercedes more ‘executive’ than ‘parasitic elite’ class.
The Lincolns are a good call, but then there’s the later ones – and Cadillacs which tended towards the tasteless boudoir class. A stretched Hummer probably makes more ergonomic sense, but is still the inverse of cool.
I think the earlier Hong Qis, (more M-B lip-offs) were fine – the headlights on their current flagship (H9?) are a bit crass and make it look goosed.
I’ve yet to see an Aurus Senat in the metal – Bertone was alleged to be responsible for that so perhaps it’s less overstated than most, like an elongated taxi. The Chaikas weren’t too bad due to Soviet conservatism, but the Zil failed by being the size of an aircraft carrier and making a Mk IV Zodiac look restrained. Those Lincolns are a bit too big for our roads and scale, but get away with it now due to their classic status. American cars were supposed to be a bit ridiculously-sized, after all!
A nice bunch of classics .
-Nate