For those interested in old cars.

[Enterprisingwestern]

1 hour ago, alastairq said:

 Surely not referring to the things one saw when one didn't have one's shotgun handy??       

 

, or ones bicycle.

 

Mike.

[MrWolf]

17 minutes ago, steve1 said:

 

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/fat-shaming-makes-things-worse

 

steve

 

Interesting. 

Early in February, I lost my oldest friend, I have known him for 38 years.

He was one of the out crowd because he hated football, just like the rest of us. He was also noticeably overweight even at eleven. This was what he called "potato blight", the fact that his diet was a  good 80% chips and fizzy drinks. We didn't mock his size and it certainly didn't slow him down, he was damn good at rugby and few people picked a fight with him more than once.

We didn't even tell him he ought to get in shape, because it's "body shaming" and even in the 80s you could get into big trouble for that. 

 

Besides, he was as strong as a carthorse and spent hours working on classic cars or salvaging the remains. Have you ever seen one man pick up a cast iron six cylinder Vauxhall engine and put it on a bench? I have.

 

He began getting a bit depressed and lethargic in his mid twenties even though he was enjoying his truck driving job and messing with old cars.

We - his four old school buddies finally said something about his diet, which now encompassed all the 90s fast foods too. 

After much badgering, he went to the doctor. Diabetes, cholesterol, circulatory problems and pretty much the entire set of boxes ticked.

 

He went from 23 stone to about 16 over a number of years but it was too little too late. He lost his job and his car license due to amputated toes, then parts of each foot, then a detached retina.

 

His other weight / health issues resulted in a stroke which left him wheelchair bound. His wife of seven years and mother to his sixteen year old son said she couldn't spend the rest of her days with an invalid and took off to pastures new.

 

When covid hit he was classed as at risk. He was admitted to to hospital in January with heart problems and died of a heart attack on February 1.

 

He was the closest thing I ever had to a brother, one of those people who will drop what he's doing and drive fifty miles to help you out. We did all the teenage stuff, he was my best man, I was his. We chased girls, we t to parties, wrecked a few cars, got into fights, went to model railway exhibitions... He was one of only a handful of people who tried to help when I went missing presumed dead for eight years.

 

If we had known how things would turn out for him, we would have been saying something a lot sooner, rather than just going with the flow and letting him get irrevocably ill.

 

So don't even dare to imply that I am some uneducated ignorant bigot who doesn't understand. I know what it's like to be singled out, believe me. It's no different than the drugs issue, patting people on the head and telling them it's about "choices" when they are destroying themselves is not the answer.

 

Anyone feeling offended, feel free to have a cry and eat some cake, that'll make you feel better.

 

Enough said.

 

Back on topic, I DO like roly poly cars and have always regretted not keeping an Austin Somerset that I rescued from the scrapyard after it had its number sold.

 

Do you like bulbous old cars?

 

Is there an old car you regret selling?

 

Discuss....

[boxbrownie]

8 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

 

 

Discuss....

Have you read my signature comment? 

 

 

The woke generation, f******g the world up one righteous line at a time.

 

OK....it’s been wine time for a while now, mussels almost ready to dunk and then it’s onto the hard stuff......so anything I have said here will not count at all 

[steve1]

Regret getting rid of?

 

My first Saab 900s (Classis shape) Terminal rust sadly.

 

Sab 9-3SE 2 Litre Convertible, especially when it's sunny. Needed work and lack of space.

 

steve

[MrWolf]

I have never owned a SAAB, which seems like I missed out. I liked the way that they were very much a cat that walked by itself. The 900S still had that bizarre but practical bonnet arrangement similar to the old 92/5/6 ? 

One of my friends had a couple of 95s when we were at art college. The first he lost control of at speed whilst driving down a twisty road. He went off on a bend, down about a 40 foot drop and smashed into a tree. 

Despite the nearside front wheel ending up where the front seat should have been, he walked away with cuts and bruises. He also had burns on his chest, because his cigarette dropped down his shirt front.

We didn't take the mickey at all...

Well, maybe a bit.

The second one instead of being a mad shade of orange, was a sort of avocado green. It took a while, but it emerged with the "lead sled" treatment, moon disc hubcaps and a slightly amateur coral pink paint job.

I remember having a 1959 Castrol Achievements booklet as a kid and it showed a two stroke SAAB, sponsored by Eumig projectors airborne on some Swedish rally. I forget the driver's name, but it is obviously not a recent thing that Scandinavians are to be reckoned with off road.

[figworthy]

1 hour ago, MrWolf said:

Is there an old car you regret selling?

 

 

After 15 years of ownership, I sold Murgatroyd (my SWB IIA Landrover) a little over 21 years ago, for a variety of reasons, which were good at the time, and still are today.  But I still miss it.  The good news is that when I checked with the DVLA not long ago, it was still "alive" (not SORNed or scrapped, it's tax exempt, so taxed doesn't seem right).

 

Adrian

[MrWolf]

The one that I really miss was a blue (looked Scots pine green) Triumph Herald 1200. KEX326G.

 

I sold it when I left university because I had just got engaged and it was sitting in my parents garage.

 

With the benefit of hindsight, what I should have done....

[doilum]

Having read recently that a Bond Bug has just sold at auction for almost 30K sterling perhaps I should have hung on to mine. Oh, and the RS 2000 mk1 that I let go for 450 pounds. And............

[boxbrownie]

Mk2 Mini Cooper S........Mk3 Mini Cooper S..........Elan Sprint DHC........and many more 

[Joseph_Pestell]

Came across a lovely photo of French cars a few days ago. I can't get the link to work properly but if one types Morterolles-sur-Semme into Bing, it's the first photo that comes up. Must date from the late 60s.

My interest was aroused when I learned that the hotel in the background is up for sale at a bargain price of about £65k. It is typical of so many in France that lost their business when a) better cars made longer distance journeys possible in a day, and b) many such places were bypassed by motorways, in this case the A20 from Vierzon to Montauban (Paris - Toulouse). Not only was this a hotel with large restaurant, bar, grocery shop and petrol pumps, it had a mechanic on hand with workshop to deal with cars that had not survived the rigours of a long drive. Sadly, the frontage of the building has been spoiled by a coat of dark red render but I could fancy a model based on this as my "Hotel de la Gare" or "Hotel des Voyageurs".

I have not got the picture in front of me but, from memory, a Renault Dauphine, a Peugeot 203, a Citroen DS, and a Renault 4 (or perhaps 3) without the third side window, plus one other. The cars are parked well onto the carriageway of the old N20 so there can not have been much traffic. 

[Northmoor]

Don't think there's anything I regret selling, assuming my income/circumstances were unchanged.  I usually had to scrap them or I was better off selling them on.  But...... what do I regret NOT buying when I had the chance?

• Ferguson TE20 Tractor
• Suzuki RGV250
• Jaguar S-type - I should have bought the very nice one I had a short test drive in, instead of the cheaper hound I ended up with, despite a longer test drive

[Hobby]

There's quite a few I do regret buying, including my first car, a rustheap Mini... 

[PhilJ W]

There's quite a few that I've seen and would love to have acquired. Especially when on holiday, in Malta back in the 70's I saw a completely original Ford E83W Utilicon with the seats that folded down into the floor. In Athens about the same time there were still a few WW2 VW Kubelwagens driving around and a 1930's Auto-Union drophead coupe.

[RANGERS]

Four I regret not holding onto for longer, Astra GTE Mk1, a real class act to drive in its day. Mk2 GTE 16v, not the most powerful car I’ve owned but by far the quickest. Mk4 Golf GTI diesel, when the hottest diesel was still badged as a GTI, 150bhp, tidy (though not faultless) handling, and endless torque. Mk2 Skoda Superb, an incredibly comfortable and reliable car, 120k miles in two years faultlessly.

[PhilJ W]

The best car I ever had was a Nissan Prairie, sadly it was written off after being rear ended by a truck. Very few if any on the road now probably due to lack of replacement windscreens. A few months before it was written off it suffered a cracked windscreen. It took Autoglass a fortnight to source a replacement. 

[MrWolf]

I've not seen one of those for years, you never saw many anyway. Those who had them swore by them. 

Parts availability and raging tinworm saw them off. I remember how rotten the last one I saw was and thought that I really ought to know where the owner got his MOT testing done!

[MrWolf]

Speaking of rust, some more cars I would like to have again were: Vauxhall Velox EIPV, 1953 and 1955, Cresta EIPC 1957, Victor FC101 Super 1966, Ten HIX, 1938, Bedford CAV 1959. Triumph Spitfire III 1968. Ford Consul Classic 1962.

[doilum]

11 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Speaking of rust, some more cars I would like to have again were: Vauxhall Velox EIPV, 1953 and 1955, Cresta EIPC 1957, Victor FC101 Super 1966, Ten HIX, 1938, Bedford CAV 1959. Triumph Spitfire III 1968. Ford Consul Classic 1962.

Put the mk3 spitfire on my list and add a 1976 Mazda ,383 estate. This must have been a great car when new, sadly I destroyed it with a hosepipe. Thinking back, my driving school taught me in the saloon version, it was an easy car to drive that encouraged a safe relaxed style of driving as opposed to my usual fare of quick escorts.

[Erichill16]

One car I regret missing out on was my mum and dad mk1 Golf convertible. When my dad passed away my mum asked if I wanted it but as I’d got a lot going on at the time and the car had been well used I declined. It was silver and a silver wedding anniversary present from my dad to mum. 
He’d done a marvelous job in keeping it a secret from us all. I remember walking up the drive one day and for some reason looked left through the dirty garage window. My dad was coming out of the back door and could see my excitement but said ‘not a word to anyone’ Mum was absolutely shocked and me, just having past my test was eager to get behind the wheel. It wasn’t the GTI version, but that didn’t matter. Wonder if it still exists?
Robert

[MrWolf]

If you can remember the registration number then it shouldn't be too hard to find out.

[steve1]

What I miss most about each of my Saabs, all 5 of them, is having the ignition key down by the handbrake and not on the steering column. To me, it was more convenient, comfortable and, presumably, ergonomic.

 

steve

[MrWolf]

I'd forgotten about that from my mate's 95. I think that it also locked the handbrake in the on position.

[MrWolf]

The anecdote about the ignition switch on @steve1's SAABs reminds me of the clever arrangement for starting up the earlier Bedford CA vans. The ignition switch was in the middle of the light switch (culled from the 1946 car range) turning this only switched on the idiot lights.

The starter button sat on the floor in a heavy metal shroud under the handbrake (another item from the prewar parts bin) You had to have the handbrake fully on to be able to press the starter.

When the handbrake was off, the lever (think Victorian signal box, complete with the trigger latch) closed off the top of the button shroud, preventing it accidentally being pressed.

By 1961, the ignition switch with start and accessory position from the contemporary Victor / Velox / Cresta was used which was a much simpler arrangement, but you were no longer compelled to drive like you were taught and put on the brake before starting the engine.

 

Useless fact Number 2477(F)...

 

[boxbrownie]

9 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

The anecdote about the ignition switch on @steve1's SAABs reminds me of the clever arrangement for starting up the earlier Bedford CA vans. The ignition switch was in the middle of the light switch (culled from the 1946 car range) turning this only switched on the idiot lights.

The starter button sat on the floor in a heavy metal shroud under the handbrake (another item from the prewar parts bin) You had to have the handbrake fully on to be able to press the starter.

When the handbrake was off, the lever (think Victorian signal box, complete with the trigger latch) closed off the top of the button shroud, preventing it accidentally being pressed.

By 1961, the ignition switch with start and accessory position from the contemporary Victor / Velox / Cresta was used which was a much simpler arrangement, but you were no longer compelled to drive like you were taught and put on the brake before starting the engine.

 

Useless fact Number 2477(F)...

 

Early Minis had an ignition switch but also had a starter button in a shroud fitted on the floor by the drivers seat, it was in fact the starter solenoid, an easy fit as the battery was in the boot and the battery cable ran under the floor to the engine bay.

[alastairq]

24 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

Early Minis had an ignition switch but also had a starter button in a shroud fitted on the floor by the drivers seat, it was in fact the starter solenoid, an easy fit as the battery was in the boot and the battery cable ran under the floor to the engine bay.

 I recall this floor mounted starter button used to suffer from wet and mud and road debris on its underside? Consequently the Ps-that-B moved it to the key?

 

Strange how ideas have come full circle, with many modern boxes [smartphones that also happen to take one places, as well as making phone calls?] reverting to the same starting methods?