{"id":250,"date":"2015-03-12T13:37:41","date_gmt":"2015-03-12T17:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beachautobrokers.com\/blog\/?p=250"},"modified":"2015-03-12T13:37:41","modified_gmt":"2015-03-12T17:37:41","slug":"in-honor-of-st-patricks-day-irelands-vehicles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beachautobrokers.com\/blog\/in-honor-of-st-patricks-day-irelands-vehicles\/","title":{"rendered":"In Honor of St Patrick\u2019s Day, Ireland\u2019s Vehicles\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Considering their love of beer, it’s probably lucky the Irish haven’t played a big role in the evolution of the car.\u00a0 They do, however, have a few that are well-known, and we thought we\u2019d share a few of those in honor of St Patrick\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Alfa Romeo Guilietta QV –\u00a0<\/strong>It\u2019s about as Irish as a\u00a0pub with no beer, but Italian sportscar maker Alfa Romeo has long used the four-leafed clover as a symbol of extra sportiness on its\u00a0Quadrofoglio Verde<\/em>\u00a0branded family cars. \u00a0Alfa Romeo is said to have adopted the cloverleaf symbol after racing driver Ugo Sivocci – who went by the nickname “eternally second” – had a four-leaf clover painted on his bright red racer in 1923. Then he started winning. \u00a0The latest cloverleaf model is the\u00a0Guilietta QV hot hatch, which features a 1.7-litre turbo charged four-cylinder that produces 173kW and can rocket to 100km\/h in less than seven seconds \u2013 slightly slower than Seamus\u2019 ability to down a pint of Guinness.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Delorean DMC-12 –\u00a0<\/strong>It\u2019s most famous for its starring role in Steven Spielberg\u2019s Back To The Future trilogy, but before the Delorean DMC-12 (to give it its full name) became one of Hollywood\u2019s most recognisable cars its biggest claim to fame is that it is one of the only three cars ever to be built in Ireland. That, and the dramatic rise and fall of the company behind it. The car was the brainchild of former General Motors\u00a0executive John Delorean, who after a number of stalled attempts to generate\u00a0the funds\u00a0to kickstart his own car company eventually used a 100 million pound grant from the Northern Ireland Development Fund to build the Delorean factory in Belfast. After a series of long delays, production commenced in late 1981 and about 9000\u00a0cars were built before the company went bankrupt after Delorean\u00a0was arrested for drug trafficking.\u00a0He was later acquitted, but his dream car was washed up.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Shamrock –\u00a0<\/strong>Like the Delorean, Ireland\u2019s own Shamrock was a bit of a shambles. The company was established by an American duo, James F Conway and William K Curtis, in county Kerry in the late 1950s with the aim to produce a large luxury car to export to the United States.\u00a0 The car was styled\u00a0similar\u00a0to the popular\u00a0large American models of the time, but was powered by a wheezy 1.5-litre four-cylinder from the Austin A55 which didn\u2019t endow it with the kind of performance US customers demanded. Only 10 cars were built before the company went belly up. All the unused parts were reportedly dumped in a nearby lake when the factory officially closed.<\/p>\n


\n4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"\"<\/a><\/strong>TMC-Costin –\u00a0<\/strong>Anyone would think that a qualified aerodynamicist and race car designer would come up with something prettier than this. But no, the TMC-Costin is the last car ever to be built in Ireland. It was designed by Frank Costin, who founded the British kit car company Marcos and worked with Lotus\u2019 and Maserati\u2019s racing teams before setting up his own company in Wexford. While the TMC-Costin was quite successful in club-level motor racing in Great Britain, only 39 were made before the company, like Delorean and Shamrock before it,\u00a0went bankrupt in 1987.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>And in the spirit of the holiday\u2026 Beer-powered cars –\u00a0<\/strong>Considering the Irish don\u2019t mind a tipple \u2013 or 10 \u2013 there\u2019s bound to be plenty of bi-product from the production of its beer. And that waste product could be used to create ethanol to fuel its fleet of cars.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Beach Auto Brokers has been in business since 1985, Driven by excellence and proudly serving the Hampton Roads community for over 25 years. The Beach Auto Brokers full inventory of vehicles is available for you to look at, test drive, and ask questions about.\u00a0 And our knowledgeable staff is ready to help you.\u00a0 And while you\u2019re here, we\u2019ll take a look at your current vehicle and tell you what its worth \u2013 on the retail market and the trade-in value.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Considering their love of beer, it’s probably lucky the Irish haven’t played a big role in the evolution of the car.\u00a0 They do, however, have a few that are well-known, and we thought we\u2019d share a few of those in honor of St Patrick\u2019s Day. 1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Alfa Romeo Guilietta QV –\u00a0It\u2019s about as Irish as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n