Which Car Do You Remember with Affection from your Youth?

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Fnaar

Smutmaster General
Location
Thumberland
I always liked those Corsairs. They seemed to disappear from the roads pretty fast though. Was it a very short run or did they just all rust away in double quick time?
Ours was a lovely looking car (and I have a model of one on my work desk to this day) but I think we had it for about 6 years ... each and every holiday, we got towed home by the AA :laugh:
 

screenman

Squire
Dad's first car was a Morris Oxford estate, bought off his mate, who was a butcher: He once took me and 11 other kids out for the day in it!!!!

View attachment 390493

Second was a Ford Corsair: lovely looking but always breaking down

View attachment 390494

Corsair 2000e was the very first car I bought and then sold for a profit in about 1975, paid £50 and sold for £250 with a bit of bodywork done on it, I blame that car for turning me into a car dealer.
 
U

User10571

Guest
Are you talking about the wheelbase ? They were different either side due to the torsion bar suspension. The 4L was the same.
I'm pretty sure that the 16 and the 4L weren't the only models to feature the odd-leg wheelbase.
 
SAAB shared the development costs, it was designed by Ricardo, The main trouble was the 'non parallel' head bolts and studs (Bolts one side and studs/nuts the other) Oh and the crappy 'jackshaft' driven water waterpump on the 1709 and 1850 engines.
I discovered that the hard way many years ago. I was trying to take the head off but had one stud seized. I thought that I could spin the head round on the stud but when it had turned about halfway it started to dig in. I think I ended up sawing through the stud and BIL's dad drilled the stud and used the tang of a file tapped in to extract it.
 

Dirk

If 6 Was 9
Location
Watchet
[QUOTE 5107798, member: 76"]My first car was one of these....

View attachment 390505

Although it actually looked more like this one....

View attachment 390506 [/QUOTE]
I had a Marina 1.3 Coupe, an Ital 1700 and an Ital 1700 Estate; none gave any trouble.
In fact I had lots of BL cars - Mini van, Austin 1800, Montego Estates x 2, Metros x 2, Maestros x2, Ambassador and Marinas/Itals x 3. They all gave good service.
Sometimes I think it's just fashionable to knock them; mostly by folk who have never owned or driven any of them.
 
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I had a Marina 1.3 Coupe, an Ital 1700 and an Ital 1700 Estate; none gave any trouble.
In fact I had lots of BL cars - Mini van, Austin 1800, Montego Estates x 2, Maestros x2, Ambassador and Marinas x 3. They all gave good service.
Sometimes I think it's just fashionable to knock them; mostly by folk who have never owned or driven any of them.
Marinas?

I owned two of the blasted heaps.
 

Nigeyy

Legendary Member
I never had a Marina but my friend and brother had one. Both were very satisfied and had very little trouble with them. It does make you wonder if the somewhat uninspiring styling (Ital included!)made them easier and more fashionable to criticize. Certainly many of the shoddy tin foil Fords seemed to escape similar and in some cases more deserving criticism!


I had a Marina 1.3 Coupe, an Ital 1700 and an Ital 1700 Estate; none gave any trouble.
In fact I had lots of BL cars - Mini van, Austin 1800, Montego Estates x 2, Maestros x2, Ambassador and Marinas x 3. They all gave good service.
Sometimes I think it's just fashionable to knock them; mostly by folk who have never owned or driven any of them.
 

palinurus

Velo, boulot, dodo
Location
Watford
My dad had one of these, he didn't have a car license when I was young. He had an earlier, rounded, style regal (the MKIII-VI shape) first and then got one a bit like this (a 3/30 21E?) but not the estate version.

Although I walked to school word got around.
 

Levo-Lon

Guru
First car Mk3 1.6 auto cortina..yeah i know..
Second car a Hillman Avenger..yes really

I also had a fiat Strada..fasf but it seemed to have a hard time holding itself together.

A Sunbeam front mounted Imp engine..that was a great little car that i got for £50 off a mate.
I had it painted in the lotus sunbeam finish..i did all the prep and a mate done the paint for £100
Sold it for £750

One of my favourite cars was the miafiori and pug 309 gti
 

screenman

Squire
I had a Marina 1.3 Coupe, an Ital 1700 and an Ital 1700 Estate; none gave any trouble.
In fact I had lots of BL cars - Mini van, Austin 1800, Montego Estates x 2, Maestros x2, Ambassador and Marinas x 3. They all gave good service.
Sometimes I think it's just fashionable to knock them; mostly by folk who have never owned or driven any of them.

I owned hundreds of the things, they were ok until the Japanese cars arrived, then you realized how poor they were.
 

MikeG

Guru
Location
Suffolk
......A Sunbeam front mounted Imp engine..that was a great little car........

Ooooh, I had one of those. Great little car. Mind you, I also liked my Marina Estate, so don't rely on my car taste. I'll stick with the Landcruiser as my high-point, vehicle wise.
 

Ian H

Ancient randonneur
My father's second car was a Renault 750 (4CV in France). It was red to start with, then turned mustard (I cannot remember whether sprayed or brushed). We kids had to slide from side-to-side in the back to thump the door pillars in order to help the semaphore indicators to rise to the task.
[stock pic]
Renault-750-3.jpg
 
U

User10571

Guest
I had a couple of Series 1, 3 litre Ford Granadas.
One in yellow, one in white
I managed to figure out a way of removing the inlet manifold & carburettor intact, without removing the distributor - so as not to disturb the ignition timing.
Believe me when I tell you that this was tricky - to the point of my having chinagraphed a couple of lines across the the bulkhead / firewall, delinating how it could be done again, for future reference....
 
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