My mother had the last laugh
Some time in the distant past my father bought an awful Rover 2200 'as an investment'. Although it was known to be a fast, powerful car, it drove like a boat, consumed petrol faster than you could buy it and was mustard yellow. He let my mother drive it a lot.

So mum was at the traffic lights in the yellow monster, waiting for the lights to change. A young man pulled up alongside in his sporty open-top number and looked across to see this middle-aged woman driving an enormous car with a huge engine which at the time (late '70s I guess) was reputed to have one of the fastest accelerations of British cars.

The youth makes some sarcastic comment about the car and starts to rev his engine, obviously intending to show that he can get away faster. My mum, playing up to him, revs too (in the process contributing significantly to global warming). The lights change and the young bloke goes shooting off, crashing into the back of the car in front of him, which hadn't reacted as fast.

Mum laughed before pootling off to the next petrol station to fill up for the 3rd time since leaving home.
(Smale is stuffed, Thu 10 Feb 2011, 8:25, 5 replies)

I think it must have been a Rover 3500, the 2200 was so slow it could barely get out of its own way...
(Snabblim Dropfritt, Thu 10 Feb 2011, 9:01, closed)

Could be, I was very young at the time
I have a number like 2000 in my mind though, but I thought the story happened in the late '70s, which would match more with the 2200 dates I think.
(Smale is stuffed, Thu 10 Feb 2011, 9:24, closed)

My mum tells similar tales, minus the crashing, of the days when my dad had a white XJS*. She'd just let whichever loon wanted to race get on with it on their own, and wave them off regally as they vanished over the horizon.

* 5.somethingL V12, although that's croissant and balcony territory, and a similar petrol problem to the OP's Rover...
(Twangy Rubber, Thu 10 Feb 2011, 9:11, closed)

LPG conversion...
... you know you want to.
(gordonjcp, Thu 10 Feb 2011, 9:33, closed)

It was
a 5.3.

My Dad had a Daimler double-six in the early 80's, which had the same engine.

Around town you'd get about 8mpg. Today, it'd cost you about £120 to fill up, and unless you were carefull you'd get 150 miles out of that.

(edit) It was also monkeyshit yellow, like OP's car. The official name was 'turmeric', but we called it Tumoric, as it looked like pus.
( Not Pineapple anymore, Thu 10 Feb 2011, 11:18, closed)