Your first car

Were they not known as the ‘Classic’?

Moggy

Consul 315

My first car.

Ford Cortina MkI as pictured the day I bought it summer 1977 and placed in my rented garage at RAF Cottesmore (behind the NAAFI)

Hi Baz
You might recognise this place then LOL,sorry it took so long to find!!
One of my many ‘Rat Bikes’ at Cottesmore,in front of my garage !
BSA Bantam D14 I believe circa 1973

rgds baz

My first motor was a thoroughly knackered looking Bedford Astra van. With Astra GTE engine and running gear underneath. A proper ‘sleeper’, really upset people when they got overtaken by a flying blue dustbin. Then couldn’t catch it…:D

Very true, I expected it to be a trunnion that had failed and was surprised when it wasn’t. I tried blaming my sister’s weight as she was with me but since she was about 18 and built like a racing snake that didn’t work.

The other Herald/Vitesse/Spitfire/GT6 malady was the bushes in the remote gear change. They lasted about 5,000 miles if you were lucky. In desperation, one weekend I replaced them with bits of thick reinforced petrol hose. Lasted better than the genuine parts.

Must be something about Triumphs. I turned left at a set of traffic lights and the nearside front wheel complete with drum fell off of my Triumph Herald Coupe – the stub axle had snapped. After a lift and tow home at great expense, it was only about a mile, I gloomily started thinking about dismantling the front suspension to fix it. I had a complete saloon which I’d bought for spares so I started looking at that. I was pleased and surprised to find that Herald uprights/stub axles aren’t one piece, the axle is tapered both ends, one for the bearing and the other where it fits into the upright and is retained by a large nut.

Helped by the brilliant access of the tip up front I was back on the road in 15 minutes.

Ahhhh…just like good old Triumph front suspension ‘Trunnions’,almost guaranteed to fail after a few years,my dutton kit car had triumph vitesse front suspension and I was very careful to replace the 2 trunnions before fitting to car 😀
Edit…thinking back…it was fairly normal to see triumphs and moggy minors with a collapsed front wheel sitting at the side of the road 😀

Cracking story! Reminds me of my old Mk2 Triumph 2000 that lost a wheel ….
Martin

Must be something about Triumphs. I turned left at a set of traffic lights and the nearside front wheel complete with drum fell off of my Triumph Herald Coupe – the stub axle had snapped. After a lift and tow home at great expense, it was only about a mile, I gloomily started thinking about dismantling the front suspension to fix it. I had a complete saloon which I’d bought for spares so I started looking at that. I was pleased and surprised to find that Herald uprights/stub axles aren’t one piece, the axle is tapered both ends, one for the bearing and the other where it fits into the upright and is retained by a large nut.

Helped by the brilliant access of the tip up front I was back on the road in 15 minutes.

Don’t know why but my image didn’t post so I’ll try again. This isn’t my car but same model and colour.Oh, and mine had a bonnet supports that worked.

That is wonderful.

Nash Rambler

I glad you guys enjoyed my ‘stary’. Must check my spelling a bit better.

Just another episode with the Rambler. Remember I said that the starter button was under the clutch pedal. Well, one day the car was being a bugga to start and eventually, the button got so hot, it burst into flames. A pinic disconnection of the battery and some water thown in against the fire wall dowsed it before any real damage was done.
The button was cooked so I had to fine another. At that time, only the Mini was still using a similar button but it was way too small to either fit, or to handle the starter current required to turn over the 3.3 motor.
I did some hunting around and eventually found an almost identical starter button used on, of all things, a combined harvester. Worked like a dream.

Gee I wish I still had that car. BTW, as ugly as it was, it was still a chick magnet.

Cheers, Doug

Sorry, long stary but I hope you enjoyed it.

Cracking story! Reminds me of my old Mk2 Triumph 2000 that lost a wheel on the motorway coming out of Blackpool, while on my way to a course at RAF Newton, thanks to some numpty overtightening the wheel nuts after a tyre replacement. Managed to recover the errant wheel and replaced all the damaged studs with some spares I had, then carried on. Only to blow a seal in the clutch slave cylinder coming out of Stockport. The rest of the journey to Newton and also the return trip home to Blackpool was made without any clutch hydraulics. I fixed when I got home and cost me a total of 30p and about 10mins work.

Martin

Are you having a laugh…? The ST and especially the RS Focus are very quick motors, not for the faint hearted.

:D:D He clearly is ! great on track days with the ESP turned OFF.:diablo:

That is indeed a real girly car Anna..i know of sewing machines with more grunt than that :diablo::D

Are you having a laugh…? The ST and especially the RS Focus are very quick motors, not for the faint hearted.

Re Nash Rambler

Don’t know why but my image didn’t post so I’ll try again. This isn’t my car but same model and colour.Oh, and mine had a bonnet supports that worked.

If she likes it – fine.

There are far worse cars.

It’s just her posting, as so often, is irrelevant to the thread. But she wants to tell us about her new car, so cut her some slack.

Moggy

Get a real fine car like I have a Focus ST2 and soon to be an RS Focus 😉 have to say hate the fuel bills 😀

That is indeed a real girly car Anna..i know of sewing machines with more grunt than that :diablo::D

Get a real fine car like I have a Focus ST2 and soon to be an RS Focus 😉 have to say hate the fuel bills 😀

My first car bought in 1975 was a brand new Wartburg 353 Knight saloon in white. It had a 950cc (I think) two stroke engine and cost me £850 on the road. You had to remember to put the bottle of two stroke oil in the petrol tank with every full fill up. It was very reliable and spares were very cheap and I ran it for about four years before moving onto a Lada. 🙂

I’m enjoying these exchanges. Modern cars work well, are stuffed with safety features, economic etc, etc, but are they as much fun? Not for me, that’s for sure. There was a driving instructor, not so many years ago, who taught in an old Morris Minor just so that he could show his pupils how the basics worked and it had the added attraction of being repairable with a few bits and pieces from the shed or the kitchen. Happy days.:D

Sorry, long story but I hope you enjoyed it.

Loved it.

I can remember losing the keys of a Ford 100E in Warrington and having a friendly policeman show us how to hot wire it so that we could get back home. Ignoring the steering locks and immobilisers for a moment, could you imagine a policemen today doing that for four lads from Liverpool?

Exhausts repaired with baked bean cans, Gun-Gum and wire.

Tyres changed when the canvas showed through

Taking off the radiator fan to save 0.5 bhp and having to run the heater full on in summer traffic jams.

I’m sure today’s newly qualified drivers don’t have half the adventures we had.

Moggy

A flat-head 3.3…
I love old American engines.