...Lad or Lass. Was there a car that you really really wanted Dad (or Mum) to have.
I'll start. My Dad's chum emigrated to Aus' I guess in the late Sixties. He had a Maroon 3.4 'S' type Jaguar. As a boy I can clearly remember him accelerating from our house, flat out, nose up, backside down with such a gorgeous sound. Dad had the opportunity to buy it, but in the end declined. Boy was I disappointed.
Your turn?
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Simca 1501 estate ( split tailgate)
My Dad couldn't afford one, but scraped enough cash together for a Simca 1100 five door hatch. Bought from Rostron & Johnson, Eccleshill, Bradford. Replaced a Hillman Hunter estate.
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Ford Capri and subsequently a Vauxhall Royale!
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I was just happy when we got a car.
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>>I was just happy when we got a car<<
Likewise. Without wishing to start a Monty Python sequence, my father finally managed to buy a six-year-old Austin Cambridge just before my 17th birthday.
I've often wondered what it would have been like to grow up in the middle classes.
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No car in my family ( My Dad died when I was 11) until I bought my first car in my 20s
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My old mans mistake was in the very early 80's. He had a Capri 1600 GT which he was thinking of changing. As it happened his boss had some "difficulties" and was looking to off load his Aston (cant remember which model) and offered it to my Dad for 2K. He was all up for it, but Mum being all sensible talked him into a Cortina for the same money :-(
When I was born we had a Rover P6, so my photos coming home from the Hospital look pretty cool, and after the Cortina he went back to Rover with an SD1. He went against advice and bought a 2300 which was probably the most unreliable thing on the planet - by the time he got rid of it I think every mechanical part had been replaced.
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>> He went against advice and bought a 2300 which was probably the most
>> unreliable thing on the planet
Eight or nine years after the Simca an with company on firmer financial footing Dad had choice of Rover 2300, Renault 30 or Ford Granada. Rover fell at first fence while still in showroom. Mum snagged her leg on an ill fitting door cill plate. The Renault was a lovely car to ride in and went like scalded cat but Dad preferred the Granny.
By then he was on automatics so at least one part of his utter lack of mechanical sensitivity/smooth driving was removed.....
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sat 22 Oct 16 at 12:17
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>> I was just happy when we got a car.
>>
My earliest memories are of the Ford van my father had, where "air conditioning" and "face level ventilation" meant opening the windscreen. He moved on to a Bedford CA van, then (gasp!) a CA Workabus with side windows, in which I learnt to drive. Column 3-speed change, no brake servo, almost as wide as the roads I drove on....
The first "car" we owned was an Anglia 105E (driven for a week or so on flushing oil at one point, I only managed to partially seize it once ;-)), followed by a (very) basic 1248cc Hillman Avenger, with virtually no get-up-and-go. Roomy enough but no other virtues.
Those were the days!
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Yes my old boy had a Royale. One of a series of company cars during the late seventies/early eighties. Exactly when escapes me.
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>> Simca 1501 estate ( split tailgate)
My Dad had it's predecessor, 1500GLS in tomato red, as a company car from 1966 to 1969. An improvement on the previous Vauxhall Victors in that I wasn't nearly so prone to car sickness. Suspect reason was that windows were lower, or seat higher, and I could see out properly.
The split tailgate probably worked well for him as it wasn't unknown for sales people to have to deliver product (dyes/chemicals for the textile industry) to customers.
Two other features stand out. The boot floor could be slid out and formed a picnic table. Secondly gear positions were a mirror image of the conventional left/forwards for first. The GLS had a floor change but lower trims a bench seat and column shifter. The odd gear positions were a consequence of centime pinching in design of the floor shift.
His gear shifts were not noticeably worse than in the Vauxhalls or any succeeding manual car..........
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Aaah...
Early 80s, father had a love for Fords.
He has a Cortina 2.0 ghia wagon, in silver, as a company car.
Comes to 'change cars' time, and the chap at the local dealership - from which the company bought a fair few motors, suggested the XR6 Cortina.
Yep, the delightful 3.0l in bright red.
So he gets one for the weekend, to 'try out'.
Come Sunday afternoon, he decides to let mum - who has just learned to drive, on a VW Beetle, have a try of it.
Now, throttle response between a wheezy 1200 VW aircooled and the Ford was slightly different. She turns corner, floors it, and smokes it about 10m down the road, with the back-end waving like billy-o!
Father decides that, as he has three teenagers and he'll have to let them loose in it at some stage, to forego the beast, lest they wrapped it around a tree.
And bought a 'sensible' Chev Commodore 2.8 auto instead.
The rotter!
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My Dad was always a petrol head, which is where I get it from, and am eternally grateful. Sadly he died when I was 21 but know he would have taken great pleasure in me buying and selling a car every 3 or 4 months in my early twenties.
We used to have season tickets for Bradford Park Avenue, and later Huddersfield Town and after lunch on a Saturday he would drag me round car dealers throughout the area. Just one car dealer pre match. Opening bonnets, looking underneath, sitting in both the back & front. It probably took all football season to visit every dealer within a 25 mile radius, then the next season it began all over again. He always looked at stuff he couldn't afford... Audi 100s, Simca 1501, Renault 30s, Jags, I even remember a BMW 2002 semi estate type which caught his eye.
Sadly his eyes were bigger than his wallet !
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>>suggested the XR6 Cortina
Was gonna say Ford didn't produce an XR6 Cortina, but:
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FORD-CORTINA-XR6-CORTINA-XR6-FORD-XR6-/232052422830
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I didn't know there was a Viva V8, until I saw one in action. Also an SA product.
Not right, an exhaust note like that coming from a Viva!
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I tuned a Bedford CF van with a Rov V8 conversion once ... and once was enough!!
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>> I didn't know there was a Viva V8, until I saw one in action. Also
>> an SA product.
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>> Not right, an exhaust note like that coming from a Viva!
>>
Just saw one on the beachfront!
Numberplate - LILCHEV-WP.
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>Was gonna say Ford didn't produce an XR6 Cortina, but:
I had 3 V6 Cortinas.
A MkIII 3000GT, a MkIV 3.0S and a red XR6 Interceptor the same colour as the one in your link. If that is a genuine Interceptor it must be pretty rare, I think they only made 200 or so.
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Course I remember the V6 Cortina ( I tuned enough ovvem) but they weren't XR6's
>>XR6 Interceptor
Never heard of them. Were they produced by BMC?
:o}
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Ford Capri II. We had a Ford dealer over the road. I really wanted one..:-) Mind you a left field choice would have been an Audi 80 - classmates' (twins) parents had just got one. I rather liked the austere cut of its jib.
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>Course I remember the V6 Cortina ( I tuned enough ovvem) but they weren't XR6's
What did you use to reach the clamping bolt at the bottom of the distributor?
>Never heard of them. Were they produced by BMC?
No, the trend was started by BGMC.
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>>What did you use to reach the clamping bolt at the bottom of the distributor?
I had two of these. One for the Ford V6, and one for the Dolomite which of course fitted the Stag Distributor.
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Snap-On-Tool-S6134-15mm-Distributor-Wrench-/361482259839?hash=item542a058d7f
I always liked the Cologne V6 (Taunus) compared to the Essex V6. Same with Vauxhalls - The German-built Opels were better IMO.
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>> Course I remember the V6 Cortina ( I tuned enough ovvem) but they weren't XR6's
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>> >>XR6 Interceptor
>>
>> Never heard of them. Were they produced by BMC?
>>
>> :o}
>>
Local homologation. sell 250, can race!
We had 3.0 Alfa GTVs, BMW 333i*, Sierra XR8s** and a whole lot more besides!
* - aircon OR power steering. Your choice. They couldn't get both under the bonnet!
** Go and look it up. BRUTAL!
Last edited by: Ian (Cape Town) on Sun 23 Oct 16 at 14:16
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Ah, the delectable burble of a V8, hardly heard these days in Engerland alas :(
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR2GD2GxrFU
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>>We had 3.0 Alfa GTVs, BMW 333i*, Sierra XR8s** and a whole lot more besides!
>>
** Go and look it up. BRUTAL!
And sent us a Cortina Bakkie. Pah!!
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You are Stander, and I claim my 5 pounds!
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Anything other than the Ladas my dad had! We didn't have a car during the 1980's but my dad would some times borrow one of the works Leyland Sherpas or my grandads Cortina
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Early '60's
Dad had an Anglia 100e, he announced that he was going to buy a new car, I tried as hard as i could to get him to buy the new "Consul Capri Classic", he declined, but said he might consider the "Consul Classic"
That first "Capri" cemented my favourite bodystyle as a two door coupe.
He ended up with a Vauxhall Victor (FB ?) can't remember the reg, - two letters, four numbers?,
Dark green, bench front seat, column change, first car i ever drove, and as far as i know, never let him down.
Time came to change that one, I tried sooo hard to get him to buy a Ventora (course i did, - i was "borrowing the car" by now !)
No dice, he bought a Victor (FC ?) the "coke bottle" one, later claimed it was the worst car he ever drove / owned.
Nowadays i realise that he probably bought more with his pocket than with his heart, i wonder what he would have bought given free choice ..
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When I was about 6 Dad bought an early Mk 1 Capri. 3.0 GXL which he put a Piper Cam on. I loved being squashed in the back seat between my two older brothers :-)
After that he bought a rare Australian Ford Fairmont estate with an inline 6 cylinder 3.0 IIRC. Godfrey Davis Ford dealership in Neasden were allowed to import them, apparently. Lovely car in metallic purple with tan vinyl seats - this was the early 1970s! It was so tough, that the jacking points were the bumpers!
It was however thirsty and was done for by the 1973 oil crisis. Dad sold it and bought a Belgian lhd Citroen Dyane 4 (with the 425cc engine). Talk about chalk and cheese!
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The last cars remembered a bit 'vaguely' that my dad had:
- Audi of some sort second hand in 78/79... orange colour. And full of rust
- Triumph Dolomite.... no idea of engine but it was too small to tow the caravan he borrowed that year!
- A large black car with a front bench... had it a few months before his death (I was 9). So it had a column shift of some sort. It was a saloon and he did a few bookings like weddings etc. Sold back to the previous owner in May 1980.
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When I was eight, Dad had a Cortina 1.6L estate as a company car.
His boss had a Cortina 2.0GL saloon. With a sunroof.
How I wished we could have a Cortina with a sunroof.
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>> No dice, he bought a Victor (FC ?) the "coke bottle" one, later claimed it
>> was the worst car he ever drove / owned.
>>
GEEK ALERT
If it was the coke bottle one that was the FD, not a bad car from what I remember though the one I drove had very soft suspension.
The FC victor was the 101 model, my dad had the basic one, bench front seat, 3 speed column change which my mother never did get used to, now that was not a good car although it felt very spacious as it replaced an early Hillman Imp
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When Dad got a better job in the 60's he bought a gunmetal grey Jag 3.8 Mk 2 from Cowie's in Sunderland. When the time came to replace it, an E-type coupe arrived on the drive accompanied by a sharp-suited salesman from Appleyard's in Harrogate. With me, aged about 10, perched in the luggage area, we went for a brisk test drive. On the way to Pateley Bridge I got thrown about a good deal and loved every minute. The car looked gorgeous and sounded fabulous, especially from the luggage area. The 3 windscreen wipers were intriguing. I really wanted Dad to have the E-type even though there wasn't a rear seat, but it wasn't to be. The car that eventually arrived was a white Jag 3.8 "S".
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Practising Copper was he? 0-:)
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When you were a... - legacylad
