I've had, or had access to a lot of cars. More than 40 for sure. Some were mine, some were my wife's and some were company issued. Some of them were pretty good too, including the one I have now.
But the one i have probably the fondest memories of was the the least likely candidate for that award in some ways. The car I "miss" the most is our long lost Mk 1 Fiat Panda. Now I guess what I really miss is being at the age and stage in life I was when we had it. It was the first "new" car I'd ever bought and it felt great to do that and for the first time to be able to afford to.
At this time of year I seem to remember it more, perhaps because it manfully carried a 9' Christmas tree on its roof from a snowy Scottish forest to our first flat in Edinburgh. Maybe because it ferried us and our skiing gear to Switzerland for oh so on the cheap skiing holidays and back on a number of occasions. Is it that it was so ridiculously simple to drive, park, chuck the seats out and use as a van, load bikes in the back, go on "adventures" in... I don't know really, but I do know I loved that wee car.
Like I said, maybe I'm more remembering being the young guy I was when I had it but I've never really felt as fond of a car since.
What is/was your favourite?
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A Mk 3 Fiesta. Creeping rust and a growing family meant it had to go. Reliable economical transport over 65,000 miles, the most I have put on one car, including a couple of continental jaunts.
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1750 Maxi, bought as a practical replacement for the Cortina GT to accommodate a growing family.
Turned out to be a very comfortable, economical and fast (one high speed autobahn run) alternative. Was also a surprisingly competent competition car for trials, autotests and economy runs.
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Ford Escort Bonus 90 that looked exactly like this one, right down to the side strips, which were a dealer-fit accessory and the only extra-cost item on mine.
www.bluedragoncars.co.uk/used_car_ford_escort_hatchback_332.htm
Same reason as Humph, really - I was young, single and had a decent income for the first time, and it made all sorts of things possible. Collected it - now I think of it - 25 years ago today. Kept it for four of those; should have hung on longer.
Edit: Just read the advert properly and stone me! The dealer fancies it as an appreciating classic. Don't think I'd get what he wants for my S60 now and that - rose-tints aside - is ten times the car the Escort is, clean for its years or not.
Last edited by: WillDeBeest on Sat 29 Nov 14 at 12:42
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When I think more about that Panda, it really was basic by today's standards.
Skinny wee tyres ( good in snow though ) tiny little engine but very willing and revvy, no ABS, no airbags, no PAS no AC, no central locking ( in fact I'm sure it had 3 keys, one for the doors, one for the ignition and one for the petrol cap) No radio either, although I did put one in. One wiper which flapped back and forth like a puppy's tail and only very occasionally knocked some water off. Headlights were pre-halogen I think and not very bright. The front seats were little more than deck chairs and the rear bench was in effect a hammock like arrangement. It had a heater, but it was a bit weedy and you needed to wrap up warm in winter. Didn't ever seem to use much petrol and never needed the oil topping up between services.
Maybe a blessing but there really isn't anything like that now that I can think of.
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Mk 1 Capri face lift model. Probably a dog if I drove it now, but I loved it back then.
Honda CB175, definitely a dog by today's standards but I was smitten back in the day.
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I had a MK1 Panda 750cc. No brake servo either!
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Mine was the ( sniffs haughtily ) sporty one, 900 and something cc engine. Brutal power y'know.
;-)
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Ahem. *I* had the Panda 1000Fire. 45 whole horsepower, capable of 80mph on a long enough hill. You are right about the keys - tiny little one for the doors, medium size for starting the engine an a great big one for the petrol cap.
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Goodness knows why, but in the spirit of diversification and all that, I'm now trying desperately to remember what was the last car I had which had a manual choke. I've a feeling the Panda had an automatic one but I might be wrong. Yes that's right Alastair, the engine was called a "Fire". 998 cc I think it was so your 1000 sounds right.
Mine was painted black with a thin triple striped red coach line at waist level along the sides both of which features made it marginally faster than the standard ones of course.
;-)
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Nope, belay that last post, it was a 903 Fire 34 bhp I think, so you did indeed have the track day special.
;-)
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Sat 29 Nov 14 at 19:18
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Mk 1. Escort 1300GT in WHITE :0)
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>> Mk 1. Escort 1300GT in WHITE :0)
Built by ethnics in Dagenham, They probably peed on your seats.
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>> >> Mk 1. Escort 1300GT in WHITE :0)
>>
>> Built by ethnics in Dagenham, They probably peed on your seats.
>>
No accounting for the behaviour of your relatives Jeff.
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All mine emigrated to Rochester and Peterborough. Probably one of them flying the flags and the van.
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>> Nope, belay that last post, it was a 903 Fire 34 bhp I think, so
>> you did indeed have the track day special.
The 903 was OHV, the FIRE (Fully Integrated Robotised Engineering - why do I remember that?) was OHC.
750cc was enough to give me an overall win in it on an autotest, beat a Westfield too that day. It was on long, wet grass with frequent showers.
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>> 750cc was enough to give me an overall win in it on an autotest, beat
>> a Westfield too that day. It was on long, wet grass with frequent showers.
Yeah, when it gets a bit slippy FWD wins the day.
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Then it must've been a 998 I had then. Definitely a "Fire" anyway. Y reg so I want to say '82 or '83. Wasn't fast at all but somehow it always felt like it wanted to be. Very Italian.
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It was 999cc, I remember from when I was getting it insured. My first car. Car cost £3000, TPFT insurance was £250. Those were the days. F195ANT, I think. Scrapped many moons ago.
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It's all here, ugly little beggars when you look again aren't they ?
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_Panda
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Ok so now I'm really confused. It says in the Wiki article that the "Fire" engines weren't around until the mid '80s but my car was an '82. I was convinced it was a "Fire" but it looks like it can't have been.
900 and something anyway so presumably a 903 after all. We had another one dating from 1989 later. Now that was posh, a "Sergio Tachini" special edition which basically meant it had metallic grey paint and lime green seats. That'd have been a 1000 cc I think.
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My recollection of the "FIRE" engine is linked to launch of the first generation Uno but according to Wiki it didn't appear in Uno until 85 - a couple of years after it was introduced.
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I'm still not sure that's right. Its going to bother me now.
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Didn't 'FIRE' stand for "Fully Intergrated Robotized Engine" ?
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>> Robotized
Yes - built by robots. Most people link the FIAT FIRE engine to one with non-interference valves. But that has nothing to do with where FIRE came from.
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Built by Roberts. 'Bob, have you got my torque wrench?' Classic Not The Nine O'clock News.
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My first brand new car, a VW Polo RWX 566R. Cannot remember the year of purchase, but sub 1000cc engine and a fetching baby blue colour. I remember an epic Boxing Day drive with a pal from my home in a Bradford to catch the last ferry across to Skye that day. We camped in deep snow in our Blacks Mountain tent outside the Sligachan Hotel.
Lots of other rose tinted memories in the early days of hot hatches, even an RS2000 I road rallied for a few years, but the tiny Polo has the rosiest.
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Think the smallest engine in that Polo ( née Audi 50) was 1043cc. I had a Mk 2 breadvan with that engine.
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My Polo was the 3 door hatch....895cc. My Dad bought a new Passat estateRWX 567R, one of the first of the Mk 2s. He bought the first Passat estate in the UK PKY 888M.
We lived next door to a VW salesman, with whom I played squash several nights a week, so hardly surprising!
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IIRC the mk1 Panda with the hammock seats and the asymmetric slotted painted grille only had the 903cc OHV engine that had certainly been fitted in the 128 and 127 and was probably the same design as the rear-engined 850 and 600D.
The mk2 Panda had a rear seat with a curiously long cushion, in order to accommodate the front end of the 'omega' rear axle tube. It also had a conventional black plastic grille, and the FIRE engine, which came as either 750 or 999cc. I had one, with a 4sp box. My sister had the 'super', with a 5sp box. It was a better car than one might think, but top-end was hindered a bit by the boxy aerodynamics and flat-glass windscreen.
Conversely, the mk1 Uno had really rather good aerodynamics, and I once hired a one-step-up from basic Uno 45S for a day. This had the same 999cc 45bhp FIRE engine and 5sp box, but really was extraordinarily good. It would EASILY cruise at 90 mph and was amazingly quiet and smooth and stable.
That day was just for the heck of it, and we went M6 south to Telford, then down to Newport Pagnell, then up the A1 to Scotch Corner, A66 across to Penrith, called at the edge of Lake Windermere in the moonlight, then back down the M6 and M62.
The total distance was either 580 or 680 miles, I forget, but anyway, that 45bhp Uno had averaged 64mph whilst having done 48 mpg.
(on petrol, in about 1987)
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>> The total distance was either 580 or 680 miles, I forget, but anyway, that 45bhp Uno had
>> averaged 64mph whilst having done 48 mpg.
>> (on petrol, in about 1987)
And the car had little crash protection. No catalytic convertor. No ABS. No electric windows. etc....
That engine might struggle to move the new Panda :-) Well it would move it but you know what I mean.
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I think you're right Enderman, our first Panda must have been the the 903 and our second one would have been the 998. Both good wee cars. The first was bought new and the second one was bought used very very cheaply as a stopgap car when my wife's Astra was stolen. The stopgap lasted 4 years until rust killed it.
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>>beat a Westfield
Ignoring that are we Humph?
;>)
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Sorry? Pardon? Say again? Must have mis-read that...
;-)
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Rose tinted memories - Alastairw
