For those interested in old cars.

[boxbrownie]

23 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

I've always wanted to go to the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Problem I had was it was always on the same weekend as my model railway clubs annual exhibition. The date of the model railway exhibition has now been moved so I was intending to visit the festival. That was until I saw the ticket prices. The cheapest entry for the Saturday is £82! While I appreciate that putting on such a show costs (a lot of) money I'm not spending that amount of money. 

I was always asked to go to the GFOS but declined every year.....they only wanted me to go to take loads of piccies.....busman’s holiday for me, my mates at work always said when I was retiring that I could then do wedding stuff and make money, they just didn’t get it........sod that.......45 years is enough! 

[PhilJ W]

28 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

You have to hit the hubcaps hard to get them on.....it’s only his hand blurred 

Putting them on? This is Halewood LIVERPOOL.

[boxbrownie]

55 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Putting them on? This is Halewood LIVERPOOL.

If they didn’t put them on in the factory they’d be lost for something to do Friday night.....

[Rugd1022]

2 hours ago, MrWolf said:

 

There's no point in letting poor people in you know. 

They won't be able to spend vast sums once on overpriced items and events once they're inside.

I have been a couple of times and whilst I enjoyed the machinery, it was also an opportunity for a lot of people who like to flaunt their wealth to act all superior.

 

 

There is that of course but it's easy to ignore them as they're so easy to spot in the first place! I went for the first time in 2019 with a mate who'd been several times already, we had a grand old time, just soaking up the noise and the beautiful machinery on show and on the track. It is expensive but you do get your money's worth and the variety of vehicles is rather wonderful on the eye....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 4, 2021 by Rugd1022

[Enterprisingwestern]

4 hours ago, MrWolf said:

 

There's no point in letting poor people in you know. 

They won't be able to spend vast sums once on overpriced items and events once they're inside.

I have been a couple of times and whilst I enjoyed the machinery, it was also an opportunity for a lot of people who like to flaunt their wealth to act all superior.

 

Which are you describing there, the Model Railway exhibition or Goodwood?

 

Mike.

[Northmoor]

4 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I've always wanted to go to the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Problem I had was it was always on the same weekend as my model railway clubs annual exhibition. The date of the model railway exhibition has now been moved so I was intending to visit the festival. That was until I saw the ticket prices. The cheapest entry for the Saturday is £82! While I appreciate that putting on such a show costs (a lot of) money I'm not spending that amount of money. 

I went twice in the late 90s but never on the Sunday which was the most expensive.  I agree it has become unaffordable but (a) it sells out every day and (b) it is now almost part of the "season" (e.g. Henley Regatta) for people to meet their well-to-do friends who know just as little about racing cars as they do, but do share a love of champagne.  Hey, it's their money.

 

To be fair even the general public often didn't seem to know what they were seeing.  I remember taking photos of the Williams display over the four-deep crowd, everyone wants to see the latest Formula One cars.  Meanwhile in a tent 10 yards away I was nearly run over by Emerson Fittipaldi in his JPS Lotus, but hardly anyone paid him any attention.  The proportion of motorsport "fans" who know about anything other than Formula One, or even that it existed before Lewis Hamilton's career started, seems to be pretty small.

[RJS1977]

Although I've never been to GFS, one of the things I've gathered from the TV footage - and from a work colleague who has attended on several occasions - is that the legends of the past are able to stroll about almost unnoticed as 'ordinary people' - which gives the folk who know who they are access to them in a way that wouldn't normally present itself (the above post gives an indication of why this might be the case!). My colleague gave me the impression that most are quite happy to sign autographs etc.

 

I suspect that in comparison to attending many events, £82 for GFS isn't too bad. I was reading recently that seats at Lord's for the Test this summer are £100+, I'd imagine Wimbledon to be something similar, and how much is Silverstone these days? Another example would be the 'Comicon' type events where you have to pay a not inconsiderable sum to get in, then pay again for autographs and photos - whereas as mentioned the 'old school' drivers at GFS appear to be happy to sign things for free.

 

 

[peanuts]

Anybody else learn to drive in one of these ? In for a service at one of my deliverys today 

[MrWolf]

I owned a C reg CityX in the pale green version of that metallic paint. 

Had driving lessons and took my test in a Peugeot 205 GRD. Got out of that on the day I passed my test into a 1947 Austin Eight and learned to drive all over again!

[PatB]

14 hours ago, MrWolf said:

 

There's no point in letting poor people in you know. 

They won't be able to spend vast sums once on overpriced items and events once they're inside.

I have been a couple of times and whilst I enjoyed the machinery, it was also an opportunity for a lot of people who like to flaunt their wealth to act all superior.

Goodwood are pretty good at putting footage of their events on YouTube, which is free. I reckon you get a better view too, so, even if I still lived in the UK, I suspect I'd be giving the FoS a miss.

[PatB]

4 hours ago, peanuts said:

Anybody else learn to drive in one of these ? In for a service at one of my deliverys today 

I had Metros (A and B prefix) inflicted on me in my learner days as they were the BSM's de facto standard. Horrible, horrible things, with all the controls apparently inserted into a block of foam rubber. Gutless unless thrashed and coarse when you did (not that you get to do so much as a learner). Giving it the benefit of the doubt, I put my dislike at least partially down to my inexperience, but no. When I rented one a few years and many thousands of miles later it was still utterly horrible.

 

IMHO the Mk1 and Mk2 Fiesta was a vastly superior driving experience, even in PovPak 950 form. Even if nominally similar on paper, it had far more "feel", with direct, positive controls and a much more willing, revvy little engine. I'd cheerfully have a good 'un as a fun runabout, but I wouldn't touch a Metro with a ten foot pole.

[great central]

5 hours ago, PatB said:

I had Metros (A and B prefix) inflicted on me in my learner days as they were the BSM's de facto standard. Horrible, horrible things, with all the controls apparently inserted into a block of foam rubber. Gutless unless thrashed and coarse when you did (not that you get to do so much as a learner). Giving it the benefit of the doubt, I put my dislike at least partially down to my inexperience, but no. When I rented one a few years and many thousands of miles later it was still utterly horrible.

 

IMHO the Mk1 and Mk2 Fiesta was a vastly superior driving experience, even in PovPak 950 form. Even if nominally similar on paper, it had far more "feel", with direct, positive controls and a much more willing, revvy little engine. I'd cheerfully have a good 'un as a fun runabout, but I wouldn't touch a Metro with a ten foot pole.

 

I had a metro  (W suffix!) base model as my first company car. Boot full of tools and equipment, ladder on the roof. Not the quickest maybe but thoroughly reliable and stable on the road even when I got a bit enthusiastic on late night call outs. Only thing that went wrong was something with the gear selector once, can't now remember exactly what but got it home using 3rd gear all the way. 

Thrashed near on 80k miles out of it in less than 3 years before they gave me a Fiesta popular. What a difference, and not for the better! Hell of a job to keep the thing on the road and pointing in the right direction, it obviously didn't take to having the boot loaded so taking weight off the front wheels.

Try to pull away on anything but bone dry roads and it spun it's wheels uncontrollably, mind you I've seen wider tyres on bikes nowadays.

After a year or so it needed a new exhaust which caused further issues. Company had an account with Kwik fit so had one fitted there. 3 weeks later the new exhaust snapped clean off just behind the front joint, so took it back for replacement. This happened 3 times at roughly 3 week intervals until I was given a fix or else note by the police for a noisy exhaust. Very noisy, as in no silencing at all!

To be honest they weren't going to issue it but I insisted so that the firm would have to do something properly about it. Took it to the Ford dealer who fitted an original spec one that looked more like scaffold tube, it doubled as an engine stabiliser!

Having wider than standard tyres fitted helped a bit with the road holding but still had to be wary of strong cross winds.

Then at about 2 years old (60k) the gearbox started acting funny, if I remember correctly reverse was beside first but you had to lift or push down on the stick to get it engaged. It's that long since I've driven one to remember for sure. The lift or push down stopped working so you didn't actually know whether you were in first or reverse until you let the clutch up, most unnerving in traffic!

Took it to the dealer's who'd never heard of such a thing happening before. The mechanic tried it several times and said it seemed ok, until he wasn't quite concentrating then it did it. He shot backwards almost into a wall!

So they had the car in and stripped the box down to fix it, only to find they couldn't then reassemble it, bear in mind this was around 1986-7 so plenty of proper mechanics available, none of whom could get this box back together. New gearbox fitted and it survived until the car was replaced, getting on for 100k at 2yrs 9months in line with company policy.

The replacement was a D reg Fiesta diesel which was rather better and probably more suited to the amount of use our cars were given. The big heavy engine in the front certainly helped the road holding.

[Enterprisingwestern]

3 minutes ago, great central said:

the gearbox started acting funny, if I remember correctly reverse was beside first but you had to lift or push down on the stick to get it engaged. It's that long since I've driven one to remember for sure. The lift or push down stopped working so you didn't actually know whether you were in first or reverse until you let the clutch up, most unnerving in traffic!

 

We used to have a similar problem in my gas board days with Austin A60 vans, the column shifts weren't exactly bombproof at the best of times and reverse was down, left and forward next to first, and after a very short amount of mis-use by us fitters reverse was all but unobtainable, more than once I had to call the garage to get me out of a parking space, especially when parallel parked!

 

Mike.

[Oldddudders]

It appears that Metro = Marmite! Ours, DKO23Y, was a black MG, oodles of image at the time and we were generally pleased. It was a nice-enough drive, with a little bit of poke - 72 bhp! - and only hump-back bridges caught it out in everyday driving. The bonnet flew open one evening, which was odd as I hadn't opened it in more than a week, and that required body-shop work to renew and repaint. And BL couldn't get the rear windows right - they all rusted and a couple of recalls were needed. 

 

A contemporary magazine ran a comparison test with a hot Fiesta, and they felt that if they "wanted to get out of town fast, frankly we'd go by Metro". The Ford was 1.6 litres, so had more grunt, but less refinement, evidently. 

[russ p]

I still have a metro turbo, and absolutely love it. I've never understood the animosity to them or indeed most BL/ARG products 

Its stored serviceable at the moment  but will definitely be on the road again in the future.  I handles absolutely fantastically  far far better that these modern top heavy monstrosities and is very easy to work on.

Alright they aren't the greatest things to be in in a crash but back in 1980 they were praised for crash worthiness,  times move on. It doesn't have airbags but I get round this by driving with a lilo on my lap and if I think I'm going to crash I pump it up!

[PhilJ W]

4 minutes ago, russ p said:

I still have a metro turbo, and absolutely love it. I've never understood the animosity to them or indeed most BL/ARG products 

Its stored serviceable at the moment  but will definitely be on the road again in the future.  I handles absolutely fantastically  far far better that these modern top heavy monstrosities and is very easy to work on.

Alright they aren't the greatest things to be in in a crash but back in 1980 they were praised for crash worthiness,  times move on. It doesn't have airbags but I get round this by driving with a lilo on my lap and if I think I'm going to crash I pump it up!

I don't think air bags are really necessary. They came about because Americans didn't like using seat belts so someone in America came up with the idea of air bags. The irony is they don't provide full protection unless you are belted in.  Some terrible injuries have been caused by air bags going off unexpectedly.

[great central]

35 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

I don't think air bags are really necessary. They came about because Americans didn't like using seat belts so someone in America came up with the idea of air bags. The irony is they don't provide full protection unless you are belted in.  Some terrible injuries have been caused by air bags going off unexpectedly.

 Simple way to make people drive carefully, no seat belts and a six inch steel spike on the steering wheel boss

[MrWolf]

It certainly looks better than all that grey plastic.

 

 

[MJI]

Small hatches of that era. Metro was OK, a decent enough drive, Fiesta early OK would not buy one, later gear lever was horrific, stuck in your leg in top. Nova 1.2 was quite good.

 

Hatch though I would go a bit older and have a Sunbeam.

[MrWolf]

I have worked on all three over the years. The Nova was about the nicest to drive and most rust resistant. The unfortunate thing is that they became a favourite for chavs to tune / modify / steal / crash / burn out, so there's none left.

 

All of them are reasons why I realised that there was no point in wanting to be a car designer when I grew up though.

 

Might as well design fast food cartons, same uninspiring shapes!

[russ p]

5 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

I have worked on all three over the years. The Nova was about the nicest to drive and most rust resistant. The unfortunate thing is that they became a favourite for chavs to tune / modify / steal / crash / burn out, so there's none left.

 

All of them are reasons why I realised that there was no point in wanting to be a car designer when I grew up though.

 

Might as well design fast food cartons, same uninspiring shapes!

 

A mint nova sport made 65k a few years ago that1 shows how rare they are . To ba fair on the sport most became genuine rallycars 

[boxbrownie]

36 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

It certainly looks better than all that grey plastic.

 

 

Looks like the same reason the British Army wore red tunics........

[MrWolf]

12 minutes ago, russ p said:

 

A mint nova sport made 65k a few years ago that1 shows how rare they are . To ba fair on the sport most became genuine rallycars 

 

Did someone pay that because it was the one that he wanted when he was 17, but had to put up with his gran's old 1.0 Merit with a boot painted Jamaica yellow? 

It did of course have a Halfords exhaust trim and a Max Power sticker...

[MrWolf]

7 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

Looks like the same reason the British Army wore red tunics........

 

It's to remind you what colour everything will be if you drive like a tool I believe.

[PatB]

To be fair to the Metro, I bought a couple of 1.3 autos on behalf of my mother, Minis and Metros being the only small autos available used in any numbers back then, and the 1275 lump dragged it from awful to acceptable, in spite of being hamstrung by the gearbox. I still didn't like the feel at all though.