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Hi. I asked you a while back for the reg plate of your Lancia gamma coupe to see if you had my dads old car. I then searched for ages to find the photographs I had recently seen , which then decided to disappear. Today, I found them. ABU 370Y. He must have owned it for 15 years or so.

I saw a pristine silver coloured TR7 soft top with the top down parked in London's West End in summer. It turned many heads. Many foreign tourists were gazing at it. Some thought it was a brand new Triumph model. They were amazed when I told them it was around 45 years old - some never believed me. The TR7 has not really dated as sporty cars go. Look at the Miata, still available selling well all over the world, but looks older in design. The TR7s looks was ahead of its time. At the time of introduction many hated it as it was different to what they were used to seeing - why EVs look like ICE cars these days having only a small design jump from the norm. The Chinese up until a few years ago were still making the slant-4 engine - they may still be making it. SAAB made the engine under licence, they got full rights to make it their own. The Chinese bought SAAB so had the engine.

The TR7 had a superior slant-4 engine over the outdated TR6s straight six. SAAB used the engine. This engine was the first to have 4 valves per cylinder in a mass produced engine. The 4 valves per cylinder was installed in about 60 of the TR7s, called the TR7 Sprint.

I like the fact that you do it all in a sweater. Quality video - quite helpful.

The youtube video algorithm is wrong! It's great to see you videoing the hard to do tasks. If people like you don't share their experiences so many rare cars would just disappear into the scrap yards. Great video and thanks for sharing.

These cars are so good that we had a new in 1978 which was kept 8n the family until 1991 no rust my uncle ran it without oil Our second lancia beta 2000 saloon was purchased 1981 bottle green beautiful car face lift version we kept unti 1989 itvwas sold on to another family and it wentbto live in Portugal just outside Oporto. Again no rust no mechanical issue every year these cars would take 4 people on a road trip from nw uk to south east spain they where fast comfortable very stable cars great yes fiat where heavily involved oeople where surprised itvwas a saloon not a hatvh back car. We also had a lancia Gamma 2500 no rust issue Now our first 1978 burgundy red car did break down just outside paris during the natoonal holiday it was a pin in the carburettor broke the french mechanic said he couldn't get the part for 6 days but he couod repair using a split . When we got home dad gotvthe parts but the fix was do good we never did replace the split pin. These cars where great they had an almost flat floor front wheel drive no need for transmission tunnel electric windows in the front 1978 car the materials used where top quality better than bmw and mercede. The 2litr engine was sweet. Such a beautiful design everything so so well done.

Love it !!! (DeLorean owner)

I owned a 501 series that I bought in England in 1998, used it there for 12 months, then shipped it home to Australia. I used it there for a few years, selling it only when major bits of chassis started to fall apart. It was fantastic on the British motorways at high speed. Not so good on Australia's rough, slow roads. One advantage that people haven't picked up on, it's actually a very stealthy car. Plastic construction and wedge shape rendered it immune to hand held police radar from the front. something I can vouch for on several occasions. Never got a ticket in it.

Miss seeing these. Revisiting and actually liking videos. Great channel. 👍 The Rancho is my favourite. I remember early 2000s one of these vans was left at a harage i worked. It was too far gone. It was loaded with scrap and driven onto a pick up to be recycled. Barley just managing to get up the ramp. The smell of petrol. Replacing fuel tanks on escorts sooo many. Miss seeing work worn vans running around.

Quick query. Do you still own the Lotus Elite. Its one of my favourite in your collection.

My friend has not kidding 12 TR7s not one good one among them. I'd pick an Elite

Great video, as always!

Princess we had one 2.2 has auto it was very spacious and great comfort soft seats lovely hydrogen suspension. But it was competing against vauxhall viscount Victor and vx4/90 Ford granada and cortina GXL. As well as lancia Beta 2000 mercedes w111/2 its was not cutting the mustard certainly could not compete with ford and vauxhall 6 cylinder cars which had electric windows and other nice luxury as a family we always had rover triumph & BL cars but that was changing ok jaguar daimler where are main family cars but with all our house hold.d being 2 car family's we changing 1974 grandfather change to vx 4/90 and mum was using mercede w111/2 other gramp rover p5 dad series 2 jaguar xj 1975 gran got 18 /22 worsley not princess . It had a bit of wood on dashing was black with bronze brown interior. But it lacked anything special . Other mid size cars where starting to nice things. By 1980 it was so out of date it was embarrassing

iTunes wrong. Principles are transferable. Good work

Epic progress again and great panel fab ( much more satisfying than watching someone weld in a preshaped Ford floorpan ) Epic music too although difficult to place. I thought maybe Jean Michel Jarre and then went Kraftwerky but later went awfully whasisname Vangelis . Can't wait for the B side ( sorry, passenger side )

Had one and I loved it

Oi, TH-cam, more of this!

Bonjour et merci pour l’essai , quelle taille faites vous ? J’aimerai en acheter une mais je fais 193 cm donc c’est pour avoir une idée du confort de conduite quand on est grand. Merci

Nice bit of fabricating. Cheers Marty's projects 👍

I was only a kid when it came out and really liked it so much so I saved my pocket money and Christmas money and bought the scalelextric version in red white and blue, I loved it 😊

Nice work that came out verry well. Quick question if you don't mind would you recommend that vevor shear you have on your bench and have you used it on 18 gauge sheet.

I like the honesty of these videos. Very relaxing to watch. Keep it up!

Pretty sure TH-cam's notification system doesn't actually work despite being a subscriber and having notifications clicked on. Keep up the excellent work. That door hinge post fabrication is 👏👏👏👏

I discovered the serie with this episode so i watched all the playlist and i found it very interesting ! Ilove your steelwork 🔥

Love all your videos, particularly this series. Keep up the great, informative and motivational work

I enjoy watching your videos

Please continue with your lovely work

Wow! Incredible work making that complex panel. Which of course was just stamped out by some huge press in about half a second when the car was originally made.

Good stuff, I'm enjoying you gradually bringing the Rancho back to life. ( you make it look easy) which I'm sure it is ( when you know what you're doing.). Happy new year.

That's come out very well. Glad to see some well presented home fabrication work with realistic tools. Out of curiosity, have you managed to cut 3mm steel with the vevor guillotine? The advert said it could but that seems very optimistic!

The very fact that it is a rare vehicle, and that there are no videos on the subject, make it a fascinating and inspiring subject matter. Many thanks

Belated Merry Xmas. This truly is a delightful labour of love to witness

Great video, well paced & genuinely interesting, I envy your skill. Ignore TH-cam, this is the type of content that should be on here ! Best wishes for 2025 & I look forward to the next video.

Hi Mart, I worked in these for many years as I am sure you know the vehicle is based on a simca 1100 van, I think yours is a 1442 cc, the same floorplan and running gear became the talbot horizon! I liked them, yes they had some issues like the tappets adjusting every 10,000 miles timming chain noise ( the last produced had a mod on the gear to stop that issue) and the lower ball joints having issues .. in the delaership i worked in we never had any engine issues, please keep them comming. I can still remember they had 3.5lts of oil in the sum 😊

Happy (belated) Christmas Martin - thanks for your superb content this year!

Such a cool car! And what a job you are doing! Thank you for taking the time, and shiwing it to the rest of the world! 🙏

Very much disagree with youtube. I am subscribed and have the bell notification. Of course YT doesn't bother telling me you have posted. Great to see you are making progress.

why not use your shrinker stretcher instead of doing relief cuts?

Always look forward to these videos.

Hi Martin, thanks for the Boelube link, it'll be far easier to use than spray when I'm drilling out Subaru spot welds.

Subscribed so I don’t miss the next ones. As the algorithm is wrong! I’d much rather watch this than some ‘professional’ patchwork quilt up another ‘TH-camr’s 3 series BMW….

Another amazing piece of work Martin. Congratulations.

Great work well done 👍

Hi martin hope you are keeping well and merry Christmas to you a brilliant video on the rancho again and just really great fabrication skills on display it’s looking better and better in every video please keep making them I am enjoying seeing the restoration coming on have a wonderful new year Daniel

Good video. I love the jig you've made to locate the hinges while you're fabricating the associated parts. I'm new to your channel and need to go back and watch everything lol. I'm an older fabricator and hotrodder and I'm not familiar with that vehicle, very unique. Question, the bottom of the A pillar is rusted through at least a full layer, is that something you'll be addressing?

lovely work Martin. I see Johnny Smith just got one as well. Maybe YT will now be awash with Rancho content?!

Amazing work and how you solve problems! Congratulations!

Merry Christmas and a happy and productive new year.

Jolly good job. I loved every second of it.