Which Car Do You Remember with Affection from your Youth?

[Blue Hills]

On iplayer.

Ford's Dagenham dream.

'Documentary which tells the story of a dream of happy families on wheels that the Ford Motor Company brought from Detroit to Dagenham, then sold to Britain.'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00j0gnm

Excellent programme. Recommended.

 

[Dirk]

Beaded seat covers, they saved you having to shave your legs.

And made you 'submarine' under the dash in the event of a head on.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Morris Thousand traveller with its wood panelling

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

As a first car, one of these. (In the same cacky reddy primer colour as below but a saloon)

Also my first car!

I came to motoring pretty late. My first car was a secondhand Fiat Panda, one of the original ones with "deckchair" seats which were surprisingly comfortable.
View attachment 390392

My girlfriend (& wife since 1998) had one, we bought it brand new, off the local dealers showroom floor (on an 'E' plate)

I bought a Renault 16 TL in 1985 for £200 and ran it for a couple of years. Bench front seat, column change and torsion bar suspension. Lovely comfy ride. Very underrated and practical car. Mine was the same colour as this.
View attachment 390421

As stated later in the thread, yes, differing wheelbase on either side

The TR7 biggest failing was the lack of a V8 in from the launch. Far too heavy for the original engine.

The TR8 went down a storm in America though (as a convertible)
Car & Driver magazine loved it, as they did the Sd1

And, as a rally car, it was almost as good as the Sprint

 

[Threevok]

Of all the cars my Dad had, I think the one I loved the most was the Vauxhall Victor - with the bench seats front and back.

The entire family could sit up front, plus it had the looks of a 60's American muscle car

The worse would be a toss up between the Marina estate and the Austin Princess, complete with vinyl roof

 

[NorthernDave]

When I bought the Escort (see upthread), the vinyl roof looked absolutely shot - it was intact but faded almost to white.
I called in at a coach trimmers to see what I could do to save it. He told me he could either sell me a can of some fancy pants vinyl roof restorer for a small fortune, or I could buy a tin of Kiwi boot polish as it was basically the same stuff. It worked a treat - a couple of hours the next Saturday afternoon and it was like new!

 

[Blue Hills]

The original Panda was a great design. Seem to recall that it was designed to be mostly made of straight panels for economy. And of course the amount of metal was minimised. It had very good clearance underneath - I've been up some very tough off road tracks in a Panda. Tracks that would be impassable by many more modern cars because of their low skirts. You wouldn't want to go a very long way up a big road in one, particularly the 750cc one, but I still think it is a great car.

Oh, and congratulations Richard for getting an Italian one in.

apologies, it was @slowmotion

 

[cosmicbike]

I remember the vans the most. They were the real holiday vehicles, and my Mum & Dad started with one of these, which took us to many places in the UK and France

And then bought a brand new T3, bit like this one but a different high top, which took us to most of Europe as it was back in the 80's.

 

[Blue Hills]

The worse would be a toss up between the Marina estate and the Austin Princess, complete with vinyl roof

The Princess "wedge" was a great looking car externally though wasn't it? Though I do understand that it was rather unreliable.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

This was my first car, Mark 1 Ford Consul. Cost me £20 in 1967, loved the bench seat. View attachment 390303

I remember, with affection (& desire - even now!!) the 1980 craze for rodding them, & putting in a 302ci/351ci (Mustang, or other donor) V8, and keeping them looking fairly standard
With a narrowed (replaced/uprated) rear axle, & the wheels within the standard body shell
eg;
http://www.serckservicesmotorsport.co.uk/barrie-richards-1955-mk1-ford-zodiac-6000.html

 

[Threevok]

The Princess "wedge" was a great looking car externally though wasn't it? Though I do understand that it was rather unreliable.

All I remember about them (apart from a similar monkey vs vinyl roof incident as mentioned by another poster) was the brake servos (as large as they were) were woefully inadequate for such a big heavy monster.

We didn't get a lot in the garage where I worked though. However, we had more Marinas than we could cope with - usually exhaust, offside wheel bearings or drive-shaft problems.

Hardly saw a Ford at all, except the odd Capri that needed attention to rusting front shock mounts.

 

[NorthernDave]

The Princess "wedge" was a great looking car externally though wasn't it? Though I do understand that it was rather unreliable.

Like many BL cars with 'hydraulastic'(?) suspension, you soon got used to taking it into the garage to be pumped back up...

 

[Dirk]

Marinas?

I owned two of the blasted heaps.

New ones or old bangers?

 

[Levo-Lon]

The Renault 6 had torsion bar rear suspension, so I'm guessing it too had odd legs, as well as the dash mounted gear lever. We had one, with a mighty 850cc engine, which transported Mum, Dad and us three kids all over the place. Dad molished a small step that sat next to the accelerator pedal, so he could rest his foot at a steady 50mph.

We had 2 well Dad did..we went miles in them.
Fantastically comfortable , i really liked the 6 and a forward opening bonnet

 

[Levo-Lon]

[QUOTE 5108181, member: 76"]My friend Mike had a Metro as his first car, must have been 1989, he got it from a garage in Exeter. He came back to Bath after a weekend home proud as punch with his new car. It was a nice dark blue colour outside. Inside the front half paintwork was a nice yellow and the back half paintwork was red [/QUOTE]


Ahh first mention of the Metro..15 pages bloody things
The wife had one when we met to replace her Volvo belt drive 340 i for the life of me cant decide which was more then i got her a Montego..and she still married me