Just 17

I used to have one of these:

I thought it looked really cool.  I didn't realise just how much it looked like the uncool Renault 12 in real life.  But then again, it was based on the 12.

I found that picture on this fan site which I'm going to have to spend a while trawling through later.  Not sure how they can describe it as red there though - it is most definitely orange.

Anyway, what got me thinking about Renault 17s?

Well, this did - it's an Auto Express story about the Hyundai Pony concept car from 1974.  It was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro a short few years after Gaston Juchet's 17 so I think I know where he got some inspiration from:

Hyundai have got George in again to recreate this for the modern day - the original sadly no longer exists. Whether or not it will be like the electric Pony I blogged about last year we just don't know.

I bet that if they had mass-produced that concept, Matchbox would have done a version and I'd have owned it - like these ones:

Looks like I was definitely in to red, orange and yellow cars - and it didn't matter that buses were in the wrong scale.

And how old was I then?

Just 11.