Total Lemons

[colcol]

Being a car nut i received car things for Christmas, one of them is a book by Tony Davis, 'TOTAL LEMONS', One Hundred And Eleven Heroic Failures Of Motoring, on page 47 we have the Alfasud, the car that gave rust a bad name, page 70 the Arna, a body of a series 2 Nissan Pulsar with Alfasud / 33 running gear, page 224 the Alfa 33 the car that hastened Alfa Romeo's withdrawal from Australia and on page 265 the Alfa Montreal that continued the Alfa tradition of poor ergonomics, vision, ventilation, rust proofing, before you get too upset, and i take these brickbats with a grain of salt, the book is hilarious, with reports on cars that i have never heard of before, [how about an Aussie microcar called an EDITH!], the writer Tony Davis writes in the Melbourne AGE's Drive motoring liftout, well worth reading if you want a good laugh, Colin.

[Silver Bodgie]

You'll also find Tony's column in other Fairfax papers; SMH for example. Peter

[colcol]

I have 2 of his other books Lemon! 60 heroic failures of motoring and Extra Lemon! more heroic failures of motoring, very funny books, that are not meant to be taken too seriously, has features on cars i have never heard of before, writes a column in the AGE drive section, Freqeuntly Unasked Questions, Colin.

[McAnnik]

The "EDITH"!!!! OMG!.... I remember that machine as a kid at The Melbourne Motor Show at the Exhibition Building around 1956 or thereabouts.It resembled an Aussie version of the famous Cyclops Supercar made famous in  the USA"Road and Track" Magazine for years by Cartoonist Stan Mott. The construction was simply flat aluminium panels pop riveted to a welded tubular frame and it really did look like a Cyclops. There was a roadster version also,(WOW!)

As an attempt to put the then Melbourne Microcar world on wheels it failed miserably, not surprisingly a Goggo Dart was a better proposition.To those persons not cogniscent with the EDITH 'Car', it was powered by a BSA Bantam 125cc or optional Villiers engine with 3 speeder and it was started by kick start lever protruding from outside the device (don't stall at the lights please!). The drive was by chain to a single rear wheel, (shades of Morgan 3 wheeler here!). The designer/builder named the car after his wife.It is listed in Georgano if you really need to know more. I owned a Goggo Dart for a (little) while back then, couldn't see the point of it actually, I could get just as wet on my Ariel Red Hunter and go a lot quicker too.A fun car for some but not me,no grunt etc. wouldn't pull a sailor off your sister!!!(Nor would an EDITH probably!!!)....Happy New Year................Ian

[colcol]

The EDITH was made in Huntingdale, Victoria by engineering firm Gray and Harper in 1952, it was styled by famous British stylist NODDY with detail work by BIGEARS, it looked like something out of a childs book, in the days when people would be driving around in 40 year old cars and there was a shortage of new cars, but even with the shortage of cars, this fizzled out with only 3 or 4 made, Microcar clollector FredDiwell tried it and said "The very worst car i've ever been in", google it and see, Colin.