Which Car Do You Remember with Affection from your Youth?

[gbb]

The only ever owned two Fords, a Mk1 1600DL, brought from a scrapyard for £30 circa 1976...bodily and mechanically it was brilliant but apparently the eletrics were 'dodgy' according to the scrapper. I brought it, loved driving it, loved the styling....no problems whatsoever until....i tried to use the headlights and the engine died almost instantly, which I got around by driving everywhere on sidelights...which could be err...interesting on dark country lanes.

The only other Ford I owned was a 2007 Focus....and HATED every day I owned it. Wished I'd taken it for a longer test drive in the first place.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Colt Celeste, it looks huge in that picture whilst in real life they were quite small. I would buy one now if I could find a nice one.

Ah yes, now I’ve seen some other pics I remember! Like a mini-Mustang! Nice. :-)

 

[Colin_P]

Also my first car!
View attachment 390545 View attachment 390546

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

My Wife had a 'B' reg one (Panda) with the 1.0 FIRE engine in it. Fantastic car in every way except one when I went to jack it up and the jack went through the floor. They did rust.

The Shovit (Chevette) was a truely terrible car but I remember it with fondness. I cut my teeth on it with the spanners though, I learned a lot from that car. Memorable jobs on it were its appetite for waterpumps, the rather strange rubber mounting for the Stromberg carb which would split and make it run lean.


[QUOTE 5108226, member: 45"]Metros were rubbish.

Apart from the 6r4, but that wasn't really a Metro.[/QUOTE]

Back in the mid 80's soon after we passed our tests most of us had a 1.3 something or other, me a Chevette, others MK2/3 Escorts, Fiestas, Marinas, Fiat Stradas etc and one had a 1.3 Metro.

The 1.3 Metro was untouchable by any of us, it outran and outhandled all the other crap we had. The only car that came close was another mates Mums Astra but I think that was a 1.4 and he could only borrow it now and then.

 

[Fab Foodie]

https://www.lancasterinsurance.co.uk/news/2017/may/24/the-original-ford-capri/

 

[Fab Foodie]

No Sunbeam Alpines or Rapiers? No MK1 Toyota Celicas?

 

[jefmcg]

The local paedofile called Sid had one of these, I remember seeing him drive by with about three children licking ice creams on the bench seat. He was fairly harmless as we all knew what he was up to and frustrated his efforts.

How did this horror story get 3 likes? If children are willing getting into his car, then he was doing harm, despite your illusion of frustration. And we are are decades past finding the "antics" of paedophiles amusing - or at least I thought we were.

(Kudos to @GM for apparently being the only one in 17 pages to appropriately respond to this)

 

[Blue Hills]

@Nigeyy

The Imp.

Early 80s a young woman at a typesetters we used had an Imp. She loved it (and I always kinda admired them from afar as quirky) but had taken to locking the cover to its rear engine as she reckoned that they were so admired by a furtive minority that there was a serious risk of having engine bits nicked from it.

Loved your badger story - they can be seriously dangerous can't they? You are clearly destined for heaven for this if nothing else.

 

[Blue Hills]

The Shovit (Chevette) was a truely terrible car but I remember it with fondness. I cut my teeth on it with the spanners though, I learned a lot from that car. Memorable jobs on it were its appetite for waterpumps, the rather strange rubber mounting for the Stromberg carb which would split and make it run lean.

A good friend of mine had a Chevette. He called it a Chevvy, in a vain attempt perhaps to impress his very materialistic Russian (when it was communist) wife. A car dealer he came across described it as a "van with windows". And a singularly blunt gf of mine told my pal that his car was very noisy. Which he took in good humour.

 

[Rezillo]

What's the "caroline" sign in the rear window? The radio station of old? Homage to an ex occupant of the rear seat?

The rear seats did fold down flat nicely but the sticker is from Radio Caroline - just behind it is a blue Radio Orwell sticker, which had one or two ex-Caroline DJs when it started up.

 

[Dirk]

I used to go to Silverstone every month throughout the season in the mid 1960s with a pal of mine whose dad was the medical officer for the SUNBAC car meetings. When we got to Silverstone his mum and dad would go off and officiate whilst me and my pal had free rein to roam anywhere around the track. We usually ended up at the marshals hut on the inside of Copse. We could stand on the grass about 10 foot from the tarmac and watch the cars race past! I well remember meeting Denny Hulme, John Woolfe, John Gott, Gerry Marshall and Roger Clarke in the paddock - happy days for a 12 year old.

My mates dad was a keen petrol head and we used to go in one of his 3 sports cars.
We either went in one of these, an HRG 1500, which was used most times.

One of these. It was a bit of a tight fit, with 2 adults and 2 kids in the Healey!

Or one of these.

 

[Illaveago]

Lancia Delta HF Integrale were nice looking cars. Sorry I haven't got a picture.

 

[Colin_P]

[QUOTE 5108436, member: 45"]Nah, they were rubbish. The K-series engine was a nice idea and performed, before the problems started. As for the rest of the car, it was only for grannies. A lot of our neighbours got them cheap for working at the Austin. They weren't popular.[/QUOTE]

You are talking about the newer Metros whereas I'm talking about the old ones. In fact they are all old now and I cannot remember when I last saw one.

Anyway, the old ones used the venerable, but fettled, A series engine and combined gearbox setup from the Mini. The 1275cc versioned old Metros were properly quick compared every other 1.3 of the time, or the ones we owned. Coupled with their hydolastic suspension, they were very capable cars.

 

[Levo-Lon]

Ah yes, now I’ve seen some other pics I remember! Like a mini-Mustang! Nice. :-)

They were really cool looking cars

 

[Reynard]

No Sunbeam Alpines or Rapiers? No MK1 Toyota Celicas?

Dad had Alpine & Celica both. A forest green Sunbeam Alpine MkV (KLH 689 D) and a metallic royal blue Toyota Celica liftback - a Mk2 tho (XBX 868 T).

We also had, variously, a grey Hillman Super Minx estate (729 GYK), a burgundy Citroen Dyane 6 (VJJ 997 M) which was a left-hooker as mum bought it in Belgium, a silver Datsun 180B auto (LLM 575 P) plus a borrowed Opel Ascona which I rather remember liking.

We've also had since, a succession of Skodas.

 

[Levo-Lon]

How did this horror story get 3 likes? If children are willing getting into his car, then he was doing harm, despite your illusion of frustration. And we are are decades past finding the "antics" of paedophiles amusing - or at least I thought we were.

(Kudos to @GM for apparently being the only one in 17 pages to appropriately respond to this)

But GM is one of the likes..ahh well i guess people just see the cars and others see a chance to .....whatever