Early Risers.

[Happy Hippo]

Ford had the opportunity to create the perfect people carrier and load shifter in the Kaa.

 

Instead they ended up with the runty little Ka, which is the sort of name given to footballer's offspring.

 

More importantly, did anyone else notice Debs making enquiries about a Q1?

 

If we all keep quiet, I think she may get away with it!

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

First car technically speaking was a Morris 12 but I couldn't get insurance on it so gave it back to the uncle who had given it to me - I never drove it on the road but it went round his field very nicely.

 

First one that I actually owned and got insured was a Ford Popular 100E, PJB 35 - 35 mpg petrol consumption, 35mpp (miles per pint) oil consumption although I got nearly 100mpp using BR Hymek sump oil.  Resprayed using the vacuum cleaner (nice eggshell finish) bought for £20 and sold for £25 to a local Postman whose own 100E was rotting away but which had a good engine.  He did an engine transplant and drove it to & from work for at least 5 years after he bought it.

 

2nd - Triumph Herald convertible, sold to welder (just as well really as it was an MOT failure with chassis rot.

3rd - Triumph Vitesse, great car and a good runner until it too started to succumb to rust - the (same) welder duly upgraded himself to a Vitesse.

4th - Triumph 2000 estate - a few age related mechanical things over the years but otherwise a great car, a total of & (seven) excellently spaced gears as it had overdrive on 2nd, 3rd, and 4th gears.

5th - Citroen GS Pallas, great fun but a lousy cold starter and prone to rust

6th - Citroen GS Pallas, ditto

7th - Citroen BX - ex company car but low mileage, very nice motor

8th - Citroen ZX

9th - Peugeot 306. a slightly 'warmed up' version which went like a rocket but ate front tyres an amazing rate, first car I bought new; handy stuff redundancy money.

10th - Peugeot 407 saloon

11th - Peugeot 407 SW, now 8 years old but still with me (and it's a diesel s'there).

 

For company type vehicles I never had one personally allocated as we always swopped round the allocated On Call cars so over the years - Bedford HA (Viva) van, which I only drove for my BR Driving Test, Mini, Mk I Escort, Mk II Escort, Transit minibus (occasionally), Vauxhall CF minibus (occasionally),  Hillman Avenger,  'Land Crab' (Austin 1800), and a Peugeot 405.   Without a doubt the Avenger was by far the worst car of that lot although the Vauxhall CF was the worst vehicle but a lot of that was probably down to its regular driver who was a right pr*tt.  The Land Crab was a right peculiar drive I found but good roadholding although its mechanical reliability was poor and had probably declined after becoming a pool car.

 

I could of course go into the left field and add the things I drove to work for a few years - mainly Class 47s and some Class 50s (plus an HST driving home on one occasion), Class 47 very definitely preferred to a Class 50 as it had to be driven rather than letting the electronics do some of the work.

 

Have a good day one & all.

[grandadbob]

 I've managed to keep a clean driving licence for nigh on 50 years, not even a parking ticket. In fact its in next January, I can't remember the exact date but about the 17th or 18th.

 

Er me too but nearly 52 years since starting driving in December 1965. That doesn't mean that I haven't transgressed along the way though.   

[jamie92208]

Ba and ck home from ferrying chairs, layouts, portable stages etc around even found time to go to the post office and collect three exquisite buildings that have arrived from the land of cuckoo clocks.

 

First family car in 1966 a Green farina style Austin Cambridge 2198 YG.

 

First car of my own in 74 a Morris 1100 Reg 804 JUB. Cost £50 scrapped 8 months later for £8 when sills and floor pan had rusted through.

 

Then no car for many years and push bike to work, then two Honda step through's after marriage. Beth had the Allegro, then the Mini then the Maxi as the family expanded. These were followed by a Rover 216 and I had an old T reg Fiesta called Rattletrap. Then a Rover 800 followed by a Rover 820 that finally got written off on a French motorway but got put back on the road by a mechanic in Batley. Then a Citroen ZX, followed by a Peugeot 104 then a Citroen Xantia (County car loan) after which came my first Volvo V70 after I retired which I had for 5 years. Sine 2007 I've had my diesel V70 which now has 160,000 on the clock and will hopefully last me for three more trips to France. Great Tow car and will carry any part of Green Ayre.

 

Jamie

[Gwiwer]

Morning all. Well a bit after noon actually.

 

Not a good night’s sleep for no discernable reason. Slow start to a damp day. Spotlessness is required as SWMBO returns for breakfast tomorrow so after coffee I shall set to with implements of dirt destruction.

 

Anticipating the mail distribution operative might have to knock the door later. And have ordered an ND filter for the camera hoping to improve my motion-blur shots.

 

Best Moanday wishes to all

[Barry O]

Right, if anyone else phones me about cricket or a big model railway show this weekend a very large multi warheaded thermo nuclear teddy bear will be launched...strop time....

 

Baz

[Tony_S]

Hello all.

Damp out this morning.

No plans for today.

Aditi enjoyed the ballet last night. The theatre was full, lots of children in the audience.

I did enjoy my wander round the Southend model railway exhibition yesterday. I bought a small bottle of oil as I can't find the one I keep on the desk for lubricating locos I have dismantled for decoder fitting.

[roundhouse]

Right, if anyone else phones me about cricket or a big model railway show this weekend a very large multi warheaded thermo nuclear teddy bear will be launched...strop time....

Baz

What’s your telephone number??

 

 

My first car was a Humber Sceptre with a lovely walnut dash board plus a lot of Isopon behind the wheel arches.

 

Was a bit of a comedown when I got my second cart a 1ltr Ford Fiesta.

 

An excellent day at Royston show on Saturday.it was almost as if the layout was new as loads of interest and a fair few potential invites. I hope that we did not annoy the layout opposite with the sound as despite all locos having their volumes lowered from maximum being in a small classroom they did sound louder than in larger halls. We did make sure that the bells were used sparingly. Always a difficult call but most of the interest was from families enjoying the sound.

 

Car did cut out once on the way to the show as my other half put her foot down accelerating away from a round about as she changed to fifth. I drove all the way back and it was fine as long as I didn’t push it too much.

 

Out office manager has just jumped. We have a mouse problem in the office and they seem to like her despite she is scared of them. It just ran across her foot again. Last week one did the same before running onto the trap so it’s definitely a different mouse today.

[grandadbob]

I was expecting a bumper box of wine and other goodies for C#######s to be delivered tomorrow but it actually turned up this morning about 20 minutes after we got back from shopping.  About half hour after the delivery I got an email notifying me that it was coming today.  

 

Any offers on how long it is before something gets sampled?

[Tony_S]

Considering the preponderance of German cars round here now, it is interesting to recall the days when you would get funny looks if you didn't have a Ford. We had a Cortina and an Escort. After 2 local Ford dealers irritated me we avoided Ford for over a quarter of a century. We had Vauxhall Astras and Renault Clio and Scenic. Somewhere in that lot was the horrible Volvo 340. I think the nicest thing one couod say is that it was robust. It was also free as it was a gift from MiL. I don't think she really liked it either as she thought Aditi's Dad was buying her a Mercedes. Our very first car was a very rusty Chevette that MiL gave Aditi.

We have now have a Freelander (second one) and a Ford Fiesta. Very happy with both of them.

When I worked at the sixth form college some of the students were shocked that I had traded my Astra GTE16V for a Renault Scenic. They asked "Why, how could you ?" etc. I replied that it had really cute folding tables in the rear.

Tony

Edited November 20, 2017 by Tony_S

[The Lurker]

Greetings all.

 

It's been a fairly busy weekend - Saturday, after taking Younger Lurker to swimming lessons, seemed to be helping the others in the house with schoolwork; Elder Lurker with a past paper GCSE maths; Younger Lurker with his English homework; Mrs Lurker with wording a report she has to compile on the boy for whom she provides 1:1 support at school. Added to that we also worked on reviewing and correcting the paperwork from the Education Authority converting Younger Lurker's "statement of educational needs" to an "Education, Health and Care Plan", and cooking dinner (oven baked version of paella)

 

On Sunday we went and watched Paddington 2 and then had lunch (tapas), followed by coming home to deal with the leaves in the back garden and then hovering up the mess left in the utility room caused by transporting the bin to the front of the house....

 

 

Now back at work for a rest!

 

Cars; my car history is probably fairly dull.

 

First car - I was given the old family Datsun Sunny 1.5GLE (it was an era when the cars had both Datsun and Nissan on the back) when my Dad got a company car.My first wife managed to reverse this car into a coach, which was parked at right angles to ger This eventually suffered so many faults that I scrapped it. . But not before I had purchased:

Second Car - Rover 216 Vanden Plas - this had been my Dad's company car and I bought it from his employer. This was eventually written off after my first wife drove over the bollards before a roundabout. 6 months after this had been written off I was surprised to receive a parking ticket for it. I assume the insurers had seen fir to get it back on the road after all.

Third car - Fiesta 1.5gl. I never liked this car. The first wife was originally getting this as part of the divorce settlement along with the finance agreement. She changed her mind and I got it back. It had been hot-wired ("by a mate") because it had problems with the ignition. Fortunately someone nicked it just as I was given a company car, which as:

 

Astra 1.5. I only qualified for something this size because someone more senior had left and there were 12 months on the lease. I had this a couple of years before they remembered that I had it; it was replaced by:

 

Citroen xsara 1.9 turbo diesel. I had this about 6 months before I moved jobs.

 

The temporary company car (while they updated the car scheme) was a Honda Accord 2.0 which I had for 6 months or so.

I then had a BMW 318SE saloon.

During this time, the current Mrs Lurker learned to drive and we bought a Toyota Yaris. I think it was a 1.3

The 318 was replaced with a 318SE Touring - we had a family by then and wanted to fit in push chairs, travel cot etc

When I changed jobs, I no longer had a company car, but bought myself a 318 Touring on one of those "buy half a car over 3 years" type deals.

I've done the same ever since; another 318SE Touring, and then two 320SE saloons in a row.

 

 

I like to think that the BMWs have had working indicator lights (an unusual feature I gather).

[roundhouse]

Considering the preponderance of German cars round here now, it is interesting to recall the days when you would get funny looks if you didn't have a Ford. We had a Cortina and an Escort. After 2 local Ford dealers irritated me we avoided Ford for over a quarter of a century. We had Vauxhall Astras and Renault Clio and Scenic. Somewhere in that lot was the horrible Volvo 340. I think the nicest thing one couod say is that it was robust. It was also free as it was a gift from MiL. I don't think she really liked it either as she thought Aditi's Dad was buying her a Mercedes. Our very first car was a very rusty Chevette that MiL gave Aditi.

We have now have a Freelander (second one) and a Ford Fiesta. Very happy with both of them.

When I worked at the sixth form college some of the students were shocked that I had traded my Astra GTE16V for a Renault Scenic. They asked "Why, how could you ?" etc. I replied that it had really cute folding tables in the rear.

Tony

I have generally liked Ford cars but the dealers poor. I remover taking my Probe int our local dealer to get the cam belt changed as at the time Ali couldn’t afford to get it done with the service. The bloke in the service centre said it was a chain so had the argument with him till he called one of his mechanics in who confirmed that it was a belt. The service bloke then said he could not give me a price for it despite it was a standard bit of work. I went elsewhere and haven’t been back to the dealer since.

 

Had an issue with our Chrysler dealer first service after the warranty expired. They failed the cars MOT on steering and with low mileage I didn’t believe them so I took it elsewhere were it passed the MOT with no extra work required.

[Sidecar Racer]

Any offers on how long it is before something gets sampled?

 

 12.32 .   

[Gwiwer]

Thermo-nuclear teddy bear. Ooerrrrrr Missus. Don’t tell President Buffoon across the Pond - you never know what might happen.

[TheQ]

Hmmm company cars,

Mostly I had one of a pool of cars..

landrover series 3, hardtop or soft top or fire engine or snow plough.

 

Officer IC MT tried to do me for speeding while I had the blue lights on on the fire engine, WO "got that down to a good talking to" which went along the lines   " the OIC MT says you are to be you are repremanded for speeding in the the land rover fire engine"...." ignore that he's a prat"... (Oh the OIC drove a Moskovich as his private car).

 

 Having snowplough on my licence meant I wasn't out there with a shovel like the others!!

 

Hillman Hunter which I put side ways but managed to recover without hitting anything, very light back end Hillman Hunters.

The CO's Ford Cortina which he later crashed into a tree and died...

MIlitary green minis.

Leyland Sherpa Mini bus, interesting driving very slowy down a runway with an 80mph cross wind, in the Hebridies..

A green goddess round and round a car park at night (we hadn't been issued with anti freeze...).

 

Then on to Civi Life, at first Ford Sierra estates, then to save money they changed them for Diesel non turbo ford Escorts, saved them money on fuel, made me a lot on overtime, they were so slow....

 

 We had a shortage  of pool cars for a while, so we occasionally got a variety of Hire cars.

 

On one trip I got a Vaxhall Omega to of the range fitted mobile phone etc, I drove up to RAF Leuchars with loads of Gear, for a demonstarion and hand over of equipment. My boss flew up later and got one of those Leyland Honda 1300 things, he spent the rest of the week trying to get the Omega off of me...

 

On another trip I had to go to RAF Sealand (near Chester), but after work the first night, I had to take the Hire car to a place on the Wirral, go to a certain house and swap it for a managers car. I was told when I got there to ask no questions, just do the handover....

 

When I got the Managers car they said it was low on fuel and told me where the nearest petrol station was, I spluttered to a halt as it ran out of fuel as I got in to the petrol station a few hundred yards away... the car had been drained of fuel.......

 

The car was huge, again Leyland Honda, and took £60 of fuel this was back in the  early 1990s!!! I later found out the manager had lost his licence for drink driving, His office was based in Edinburgh,  but often went to Portsmouth for work!!!

 

Later different company issued with Berlingo Vans, you were only supposed to use them between  home and various work sites, normally within 30 miles of your home... one of the technicians had a road accident .... in France!!!!  IIRC His home was near Manchester

Edited November 20, 2017 by TheQ

[BoD]

My first mode of transport was an old roller skate and a Beano Annual.

I later progressed to a proper bogie with small pram wheels at the front and big 'uns at the back.

Some here will understand this.

[Ian Abel]

Morning.

 

Working today, but given this week includes the ubiquitous US THANKSGIVING DAY holiday, and many companies, including mine have the Friday after as a company holiday, I'm blessed with just three days of work this week - yay!!

 

-3 this morning and partly sunny or partly cloudy depending on weather (PUN!!) you're a glass half-full or glass half-empty warrior...expecting a startling +8 for the high.

 

Hope your week starts well, carry on - now, where did I put that phone number for Baz    

[Tony_S]

...

I later progressed to a proper bogie with small pram wheels at the front and big 'uns at the back.

Some here will understand this.

The scars on my left hand fingers have almost faded now,

[Tony_S]

 

 

-3 this morning and partly sunny or partly cloudy depending on weather (PUN!!) you're a glass half-full or glass half-empty warrior..

 

 

I have to be careful with the glass half empty or full thing. I don't know whether it is due to Matthew's dyspraxic logic but he gets irritated by its use! He says they are the same thing or you could finish it and have another drink ...

[shortliner]

happy Hippo said "Ford had the opportunity to create the perfect people carrier and load shifter in the Kaa.

 

Instead they ended up with the runty little Ka, which is the sort of name given to footballer's offspring."

 

 

 

Runty Ka? - you should try the Ka Sport! - I let mine go when The Chancellor increased the road tax every year, and I decided there was a pretty good chance I'd loose my licence for excessive speed, You tended to glance at the speedo and find it was moving rather faster than you though it was travelling - great road holding and inclined to pi$$ off boy racers and BMW drivers.

Edited November 20, 2017 by shortliner

[45156]

Afternoon All

 

Skipped a few posts but will revisit.

 

My cars

 

Mini Cooper S (860WYC)

Talbot Sunbem (FGH29T)

 

Co cars

Sierra (C67WLM)

GOlf GTI (D337HYT)

 

FIestas x5 G791LEC, H962XEC, N325MRG, PE51OBA, PJ05VXV)

Current 12 plated Peigeot 207.

 

Back later

Regards to All

Stewart

[eastwestdivide]

...My first car was a Humber Sceptre with a lovely walnut dash board plus a lot of Isopon behind the wheel arches....

Crikey, you didn't sell it to my dad did you? Metallicy green, vinyl roof, overdrive, came out with hardly a scratch when my mum dented someone's Datsun with it.

[Gwiwer]

Mk2 Escort

Vauxhall Chevette (known as Shove-it and returned after a week)

Austin Allegro (blue)

Austin Maxi

Austin Allegro (mustard, and quickly gained the name Mouse-turd though in reality it was a lemon)

Austin Mini Metro

Ford Falcon (an Aussie model and known as the Foul-can or Chook-tin, derived from “fowl can”)

Kia Rio hatch (Aussie spec)

 

That’s what I have owned. Among many other cars I have driven, some of them belonging to friends or family and others hired, my favourites as a driver have been Ford Fiesta (don’t ask me which year or model), Kia Cee’d and Dacia Duster.

 

My favourite vehicle of all? That I have actually driven? A London Routemaster bus of the RMC (short Grern Line coach) sub-species.

[Gwiwer]

Er me too but nearly 52 years since starting driving in December 1965. That doesn't mean that I haven't transgressed along the way though.   

Indeed. 42 years here without so much as a parking ticket. No blameworthy incident but the Maxi had some panel damage at the end of someone’s boot overnight (and which was beaten out on the driveway because claiming would have made it a write-off) and I was the driver of the number 7 bus which was totalled when a drunk driver embedded her car beneath it twisting the frame and rupturing the tank. No-one hurt, luckily, as I was stopped and setting down schoolchildren at the time. Her insurance was void (drink-driving), she lost both her car and publican’s licences (due to excessive product-testing at lunchtime) and was ordered to pay for a replacement bus. We got a totally knackered ex-London Transport one.

 

We seem to have a collection of good drivers here. Or at least good at not getting caught Hands up anyone totally innocent .....

[Sidecar Racer]

My transport through the last 50 years .

 

 Cars .

 

 1963 850cc Mini, crashed . 976 KMJ .

 

 Austin A35 van .

 

 The Mini again after being rebuilt ,

 

 Another A35 van cos the Mini got crashed .

 

 The Mini after more repairs , now in a Mk 2 lookalike style

with 1071 S engine and all relevant brakes and body trim . .

 

 Morris Marina 1300 , wife said Mini had to go .  

 

Toyota Corolla 1200 , after wife left with the Marina . 

 

 1500 Hillman Avenger Estate , tow car while bike racing , crashed .

 

 Leyland Marina estate , another tow car . Died of tin worm .

 

 Ford Sierra 2.0 litre GLS , more towing , actually managed to PX this one

at 140,000 miles . Bought at 60,000.

 

 Nissan Primera 2.0 litre original style not the ugly facelift French one .

Scrapped with engine problems at 170,000 miles . Also bought at 60.000 .

 

 Smart car .

 

 Seat Ibiza 1400 , current transport .

 

 

Motor bikes .

 

 150 cc Francis Barnett .

 

 175 Honda .

 

 250 Honda K3

 

 Another 250 K3

 

 Yamaha RD250 , not the water cooled type .

 

Suzuki 500 GT two stroke .

 

 Yamaha 400 US Custom

 

 Suzuki RF 600 .

 

 Yamaha 600 Fazer .

 

 

 Apart from the first bike the others were combined with car use .