Mazda Luce 3 Litre V6

I bought this car simply because it belonged to an elderly relative who could no longer drive it, but had been unable to sell it. I could not sell it either, so I decided to run it into the ground as a spare vehicle. I paid what was probably an over-the-odds price, but that made everyone happy and that is the main aim.

This was at a time before such machines became popular - what with their being rear wheel drive and all. It was in apparently good condition at the time, so I treated it to a set of alloy wheels..


We made a few trips in it for the novelty - it had aircon and other weird stuff.

Didn't prevent it getting punctures though. This was up at the Bealey..


Gotta say that the mix of wheels gave rise to a rather atmospheric photo of such a car at the time.


The paint started flaking off.

I don't mean something superficial - it came off in enormous flakes that shot over the roof while we were driving it. Obviously something had gone wrong with a previous paint job.

We thought it was a bit of a hoot.


Eventually it became an issue because the undercoat was not able to withstand rust, so it seemed that something would need to be done. All things considered, it was really a fairly upmarket vehicle in it's day, and was fairly well appointed.


Despite it's unknown number of previous owners the car was still in pretty good condition..


I made a command decision.

Because this car was such a "tank" I decided to explore that theme. I bought a number of rattle cans of "Nato Green" paint. I removed the bonnet, front guards and grille panels and treated them to suitable coats of the above.

Nature suddenly intervened.

A series of feral earthquakes reduced our city to ruins in a matter of hours.

We were forced to evacuate our ancient dwelling of the time, and I bolted everything back onto the Mazda just to make sure nothing had been lost.


We moved properties and the Mazda got sold on to an enthusiastic youth who wanted to continue some equally disrespectful approach to motoring, but seemed unable to figure out the intrinsic formalities of a cable release handbrake.

I have never seen it since..