Your First Car?

[Seafarer1966]

Mine: 1976 Mini 1000. Maroon with paint bubbles and rust patches and an interior overpowering smell of dog that I could never get rid of. How anybody can be nostalgic over these is beyond me. It was like driving a dodgem. It broke down regularly. It filled up with water when it rained and when turning I got a tidal wave of water sloshing across the footwell. It held the road like a blancmange. I jacked it up once and the jack went through the sill. The battery was housed in a sunken compartment in the boot. It fell through the rotted metal housing and dragged along the road one night.

It was useful as a young man when dating however. One friday night I took a girlfriend 'out' as you do as a young chap in a car. The next morning my mam asked me if I'd give her a lift into town to go shopping as it was pouring with rain. She was sat in the passenger seat and the windows began to steam up......to reveal the girlfriends bare feet imprints up the inside of the windscreen. She never said owt to me about it but sat there going purple.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

There's something wrong with you! Minis are all kinds of awesome, yes my first car was a mini too.

 

[Burnerman]

A 1960 850 mini, bought for £10 when I was 18 in 1972......learnt loads from that car. They were actually better built than some of the later models having foam filled sills.
Eventually it graduated to an 1100 engine, full roll cage and Cibie Oscars and I thought I was the bizz.
I think I had it until around 1980 and still sold it on. No prangs either which is probably just as well......rather than a recovery truck, a dust pan and brush may have been more appropriate!
John

 

[Dave54]

Starter button on the floor John?
Mini wasn't the first car I had. I came to cars late on having had bikes.
I like Minis though for all their faults. Last one we had was an 80s BL one in the early 90s.
OK as long as you don't thrash them,(I mean who would? ) and you grease everywhere about 3 times a day, or 4 if it's wet weather.
My first "car" was a Reliant Supervan III, driven on the bike licence.
Next came a Victor FD estate. A bit of a step up in size!

 

[Burnerman]

That's the one! Starter on the floor, sliding windows and single leading shoe brakes......upgraded to 2LS brakes with the 1100 lump. Rear radius arms had bushes which were worn out after 20 minutes, and handbrake cable quadrants that seized
Looking at them now they are nothing but a Dinky toy!
I don't have any children but if I did there's no way I'd let them loose with a similar death trap - maybe things were safer then, or just slower.
Next car was a 1300 Mk2 Escort, bought at 3 years old......it just rusted away when I was looking at it. That was Ziebarted too!
John

 

[Dave54]

Those handbrake cable quadrants!
Had a Mini Clubman Estate. FIL had it new in '76, had it Ziebarted, and had been garaged from new until we had it in '83 IIRC. When we sold it in '86 it was beginning to show the signs of tinworm. Certainly it was getting towards being due for a rear subframe, and there was rust beginning to show on the panels. Nice little car though.
None of those old cars was that safe in a real collision I don't reckon. They were better than the old chassis built cars in that they had collapsible steering wheel columns, crumple zones and seat belts.
Mind you I reckon that there is a big misapprehension that modern cars are "safe" in an accident. "Safer" is perhaps the right term. Primary safety is deployed by engaging the brain before moving off. Unfortunately some drivers are not thus equipped.

 

[Nige F]

Scootacar ! look it up and sitting on top of a Villiers 200 cc engine . Then later 2 Isettas bought for £30, mid 70's Now selling for £thousands Mainly bikes though. Had a minivan once - blew the battery up when a bike silencer loose in the back rolled across the battery terminals

 

[Brigade77]

It is considered by scientists that the actual moment you physically reach 'old' status, is the very day that you buy a car for more money than you paid for your first house !

I must be really old, 'cos I simply cannot recall the last time I paid £5.5k for even a banger for the missus.

Being this old, & therefore obviously senile, I'm allowed this one little eccentricity of mine . . . Whenever I come across an owner trying desperately to claim that their Anglia, Maxi, Allegro or Princess are indeed classics . . . I reminisce with them about how I lost my virginity in the back seat of that exact same model

 

[honda]

Ford Anglia was my first. Loved the inverted rear windscreen.My abiding memory is "going over the top" on the M62 on our first motoring holiday with my then young family in torrential rain and being swamped every time a big six-wheeler overtook us.

 

[Dave54]

Always fancied an Isetta, school friend bought one, but I don't think he ever really used it. Another mate had a
Messerschmitt, and yet another a Trojan.
They all dated from a time when as a country we were getting better off and going from two wheels to cars of some sort.
By the early 1960s, it was all "proper" cars. I think a new Mini at that time was around the same price as a new Triumph Bonny.

 

[Dave54]

It is considered by scientists that the actual moment you physically reach 'old' status, is the very day that you buy a car for more money than you paid for your first house !

Dammit I'm old! Up until about 5 years ago I was still OK though. I'd never paid more than about £3K for a car.

There was a thing on a program about parking last night. The one guy made a comment about an "elderly person" born in Nov. '54.

 

[Brigade77]

The one guy made a comment about an "elderly person" born in Nov. '54.

I was pulled over by 'the filth' at the weekend 'cos I dared to ride my motorcycle in an area they had advertised as 'clamping down on hooligans' in the local rag.

Poor little thing, couldn't for the life of him exercise any authority over me.

 

[Dave54]

I was pulled over by 'the filth' at the weekend 'cos I dared to ride my motorcycle in an area they had advertised as 'clamping down on hooligans' in the local rag.

Poor little thing, couldn't for the life of him exercise any authority over me.

You hooligan you!

 

[bolo 2]

Ford Anglia was my first. Loved the inverted rear windscreen.

Same here Honda. LSN672 if I remember correctly. Just like the dinky one in the photo.

 

[DaveHerns]

Friend has a 105e. 1600GT crossflow on twin DCOEs . Wide steel wheels. He's spent a lot of money on it recently and it really is a nice one.