Fond memories of cars gone by...

[meenaghman]

first car was a cortina mk111 with all the road holding capabilities of a boat.
Then I hit an Alfa phase. Had 2 suds.. drove everywhere. (only lived 10 miles from work but still managed 31000 miles in 9 months in one of them). lovely in hot weather with window down and sound of the flat four.. for those 3 days of the year it was excellent. However wipers would suddenly give up @90mph..lights were worse than useless .. if the contacts hadn't rusted and they actually came on.. but they did have a shelf under the steering wheel to catch the water that came down the windscreen and straight thru onto the dash. And who could forget the Italian wake up call...the water drip down your neck from the sunroof as you round a bend early on a cold winters morning. .. ah memories of head under bonnet days and cursing and swearing but that feeling of such relief at actually getting to point B from point A.

 

[Chromatic]

Yeah, great looking car the Stag. In the 15 minutes between it being made and rusting to pieces.

I'd have had one, but couldn't afford it. Especially after spending so much money on the Spitfire (I was 20 at the time).

I don't think they were that bad with rust, certainly no worse than other cars of that era and better than many. The body work on mine was in quite good nick when I came to sell it The main problem with them was the alleged fragility of the engine, but that was no problem if they were cared for properly. If I remember correctly it was the timing chains and the water pump location that caused most problems, if attention was paid to that then the engine was quite robust.

I got mine when I was about 20/21. I remember shopping around for insurance and taking a quote from I think the Co-Op for around £600, IIRC. This was about 30 years ago which was quite a lot then! I was working and still living at home though, so didn't have any financial commitments. I sold it when I got married, and regretted it ever since. I wish I'd have kept it.

 

[Crankarm]

I had a couple of Minis as well. Proper Minis, not that new fake think.

The first was an 1100 clubman, which I sprayed matt black.

The second was a 1275 GT with a race engine, roll cage, alloys etc. Great to drive and went like a rocket.

So you didn't have a proper Mini such as a genuine 998cc Cooper then?

 

[Crankarm]

My first and worst car was an Austin Allegro (All Agro).

Remember once the bonnet flying open at 75mph on the outside lane of the M3 during peak traffic - the driver in the car behind had to stop off at the next service station to change his pants

One of the two worst cars ever made.

I remember that. Trying to keep your bare legs off the scorching vinyl in a Morris Marina.

The other worst car.

 

[Speck]

Some of my cars were:

1955 Ford Pop red & Black
1966 Ford Mk1 Cortina GT British racing Green with matt black bonnet
1970 Ford Mk11 Cortina 1600E Aqua Jade
1976 Ford Mk111 Cortina 2000E Blue metallic
1975 Saab 99 2L EMS
A couple of VW Golfs
Over the last 20 years company Sierras and Mondeos

I'm getting to like these Fords!

 

[gbb]

Crankarms right about the Marina and Allegro...i've had both
But to be fair....the Allegro never let me down in the year i had it. 1750HL...really quite fast. It had had a bang on the front wing which appeared to have shifted the chassis....i had to keep steering to one side to keep it in a straight line If you let go of the steering wheel, it'd put you in a dyke.

My Marina was 'ok'....bar the common steering problem with them. The king pins used to sieze up on them, resulting in you needing arms like Popeye to steer the bloomin thing. Strip, clean, grease...and away you go again....till the next time.

 

[gbb]

Bloody hell...reading the cars owned on here makes me realise...we're all (well most of us are all ) crocks

 

[Speck]

Some of my cars were:

1955 Ford Pop red & Black
1966 Ford Mk1 Cortina GT British racing Green with matt black bonnet
1970 Ford Mk11 Cortina 1600E Aqua Jade
1976 Ford Mk111 Cortina 2000E Blue metallic
1975 Saab 99 2L EMS
A couple of VW Golfs
Over the last 20 years company Sierras and Mondeos

I'm getting to like these Fords!

Can't believe it "I forgot my Ford Escort MK1 RS2000 in Olympic Blue" probably the most enyoyable one to drive. Drove down to the Monaco Grand Prix in 1976 (with a tent)

 

[Arch]

Bloody hell...reading the cars owned on here makes me realise...we're all (well most of us are all ) crocks

I think we're a self selecting bunch. Anyone too young won't have had an interesting old car to talk about, they'll have had a Eurobox.

 

[Black Sheep]

I think we're a self selecting bunch. Anyone too young won't have had an interesting old car to talk about, they'll have had a Eurobox.

herhumph!

i've got a '79 / '80 fiesta 1.3 Ghia, some where along the way its acquired a similar spec engine to the sport with twin choke webber.

needs a bit of welding here and there but otherwise its brilliant. not got the time or money to fix it tho

 

[Piemaster]

I had a Stag for a while too. Rover V8 conversion though. Top down it sounded amazing. Actually the only time it didn't have the top down was when it was parked or raining.
IIRC when I had it (about 15 years ago) it was reckoned there were still around 20000 of the 25000 built still on the road. Big percentage if you think about how many Ford Anglias are still around after over a million of them were built.

 

[gbb]

I had a Stag for a while too. Rover V8 conversion though. Top down it sounded amazing. Actually the only time it didn't have the top down was when it was parked or raining.
IIRC when I had it (about 15 years ago) it was reckoned there were still around 20000 of the 25000 built still on the road. Big percentage if you think about how many Ford Anglias are still around after over a million of them were built.

There's even fewer Ford Corsairs about...rarer than rocking horse sh1t. Ive only seen two in the last 10 years. One of them is off the road, slowly rotting, year by year down on someones drive in Weymouth.

But your point is true...

 

[TheDoctor]

I have fond memories of my Skoda 120L.
.
.
Erm, no, I don't. It was an awful thing. Noisy, thirsty, unreliable and with very tail-happy handling. It says something that a 998 cc Metro was a real step up.

 

[luplowe]

The fastest car i had was a vauxhall carlton 3000 gsi ,manual gbox,digital display which was pretty cool to look at. wasn't the fastest car around but where cosworths were blowing up every 5 Minuit's the big v6 lump could do 130 all day long. but not a patch on the lotus carlton wow!! 4 door saloon that did 170mph

 

[Arch]

:
Originally Posted by Black Sheep

herhumph!

i've got a '79 / '80 fiesta 1.3 Ghia, some where along the way its acquired a similar spec engine to the sport with twin choke webber.

needs a bit of welding here and there but otherwise its brilliant. not got the time or money to fix it tho [

No, no, that's fine. My mini was '79. I meant the Euroboxes of the last 15-20 years.