Favourite older cars of younger days.

1972 (ish) Ford Capri Mk1 1600GT. My first car after being on bikes for a few years. Easy to work on and cheap to fix. And the best 'snick click' 4sp manual gear box it has ever been my pleasure to use. Most fondly remembered of the early cars is a Mk3 Capri 3000. An animal - enough said.

Ahhhh... takes me back.... pass the zimmer...

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Originally posted by Deane F:
1952 Morris Minor. Whose brilliant idea was the brake master cylinder mounting though?

Ah, yes, what bugger to replace, and all that spilt brake fluid taking the paint off the floor, and so the rust began...

My favourite would be the MK1 Lotus Cortina, oh what fun we had....

1300GT Mini-Marcos with a few extra bits and bobs.

Golf GTI destroyer on the twisty bits, roundabouts and mountain passes.

Chav-chav-chav-chav-brrrmmm!

Nime

A 1957 Austin A35 - went to Istanbul and back on one trip and to Prague on another

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1957 Austin A35

What nice indicators you had sir

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1972 (ish) Ford Capri Mk1 1600GT. My first car after being on bikes for a few years. Easy to work on and cheap to fix. And the best 'snick click' 4sp manual gear box it has ever been my pleasure to use.

Don't forget the bonnet that goes on forever!

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Originally posted by Basil:
Don't forget the bonnet that goes on forever!

Ha ha, not quite as long as this one....

This was the first car I owned. It was a '59 model - of course, I bought it in 1979, but it still had the same effect on women - and a floor starting button!

Regards

Stephen

VAF 228 - a beat-up mini clubman which gave my best mate and I hours of fun. We drove for miles around Shropshire and Mid Wales in that chariot. A couple of quid in the tank and we were off.

The fun only ended when Dave lost it on wet leaves and completely dismantled the car on the side of a railway bridge. Only then did we realise the bulk of the car was plastic padding and rust covered by a ropey paint job.

Fun days

Brad

Mid 70's I had a Reliant Scimitat GTE and with the mist's of time clouding over everything I can now say what a wonderful car it was.Light weight fiberglass body 130 bhp when everthing else had 80 if you were lucky. Mind you if the front hose whent[ which was not unknown] what a bl--dy awful job it was to replace and of coarse with the "new" car multy story car parks that were springing up all over the place you generally had an enforced wait, with dozens of cars behind you, untill one of the maintanance engineers could turn up,and open the barrerier as the sensors for the entrance barriers were not sensitive enough and didn't recognise the fact that we were sat there.Ahhhhhhhhhh the joys of the Scimmy.
oldie.

1964 Anglia. AYU 644B. How's that for a memory.

Dark Blue and would run quite happily with virtually all brake cylinders leaking.

It had a rather dodgy oil pump which would cease to work every now and again. Normally for about 200yds but once, on my way to work, the engine siezed after about 3 miles of no oil pump
I ended up buying an old Anglia van for about a tenner, rebuilding the engine that came out of that and transplanting it in the car.

That car taught me a lot about mechanics that has stood me in good stead over the years.

Just like this one[IMG]C:\Documents and Settings\Denis Oxlee\Desktop\saloon0.jpg[/IMG]

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Originally posted by Basil:
Don't forget the bonnet that goes on forever!

Couldn't if I wanted to. Not for nothing were they called the Long Nose Henry.

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Originally posted by Barnie:

quote:

Originally posted by Deane F:
1952 Morris Minor. Whose brilliant idea was the brake master cylinder mounting though?

Ah, yes, what bugger to replace, and all that spilt brake fluid taking the paint off the floor, and so the rust began...

My favourite would be the MK1 Lotus Cortina, oh what fun we had....

IIRC, to work on a Morris Minor three sets of spanners were needed: British Standard Fine, Whitworth and something else. Apparently something to do with the unions - the Coachbuilders used Whitworth, another union used BSF etc.

Lotus Cortina's in good condition are worth thousands over here. Quite rare in these parts.

Deane

First paycheck, first car. 1972 Triumph Stag in yellow. Fantatstic thing, passed everything except a petrol station. Original V8 never missed a beat in 14,000 miles. Roof and boot leaked, petrol tank split and heater never worked, had to warm your elbow on the gearbox. Proposed to my wife whilst sat on the bonnet!

Sold for a profit in that mad time when classic cars were an investment.

Lost shedloads of money on every car I've bought since...

Bruce

My memory having been jogged, I remember a visit to St Helena in the South Atlantic on our way back from the Falklands in 1982. As I recall the cars on the island had been imported there in the 1960s and consisted of A40s, Consuls and other cars of the era.

The car we had a lift in to take us up to Longwood House where Napoleon had lived in exile had no real floor pan, and the road was clearly visible. On the way back down the hill, the driver admitted to not really having any brakes to speak of, so reduced the velocity of the car by bouncing off the sides of the road and catching on the bushes.

It was a weird time-warp experience, and I wonder whether 20 odd years later, any of the cars are still in use.

Brad

I still have one of the original workshop manuals for the moggy, along with 50 odd others, I seem to have collected over the years...

A friend of mine had a Moggy with the V12 Jag engine and running gear

Lotus Cortinas are quite rare here now, they fetch good money too. It was the last Mk1 I owned, had 3 in total, 1 1200cc that I fitted a 1500cc pre crossflow engine in, with twin choke webber, stage 2 head&cam, and 1 1500GT, also with a few tweaks. Moved on to the Mk2 Cortina, to which I fitted a 3litre V6 and Capri rear axle, they used to be known as the "Savage".

God this is bringing back some memories... I was a car freak back then, does it show?

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Originally posted by Yeldarb:
the cars on the island had been imported there in the 1960s and consisted of A40s, Consuls and other cars of the era.

I've owened both of those, passed my test in a Mk1 Consul, 3 speed column change and no syncro on first gear!

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Originally posted by Bruce Woodhouse:
Original V8 never missed a beat in 14,000 miles.

And if the head gaskets blew, you were stuffed, as the alloy heads welded themselves to the studs! That V8 was basically 2 1850 Dolomite engines..

Datsun 240Z & Datsun 260Z.

Great cars, only down side being somewhat prone to rust.

Mike

1st car a 1976 1850 Dolomite. Great car til someone drove into the back of it in their Manta Coupe.
Then a 1976 Chevette HS. 2.3 litre straight 4, 2x 48 Dellortos, 13mpg and very unreliable. Sounded awesome though, especially in a tunnel.
Oh yeah, a crap Spartan kit car. Put me off kit cars forever.
Best car from my youth was an '86 Nova SR. With a decent exhaust and proper setting up on a rolling road the car was a total hoot while I was posted in North Yorkshire.... drystone walls and rapidly driven wide cars don't mix.

Tony

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Originally posted by MichaelC:
Datsun 240Z & Datsun 260Z.

240Z was my fav out of the 2, very fun car to drive, straight six, apart from rust the brake discs used to warp, and braking was quite hairy as I remember. Owened one of them aswel. Rare and worth a mint now.

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quote:
Originally posted by Deane F:
1952 Morris Minor. Whose brilliant idea was the brake master cylinder mounting though?

Ah, yes, what bugger to replace, and all that spilt brake fluid taking the paint off the floor, and so the rust began...

Yes but it was great when you needed to take the gearbox out thru the removable gap in the floor.
I remember two of us lifting the 995cc engine out (minus the cast iron block) by hand cause you could climb in the.engine compartment with it.

80 mph with everything shaking and double declutching due to trashed syncros.

The joys of the morris minor. Built like a brick shit house but prone to having the front wheels drop off on roundabouts!

Geoff

The worst thing about the brake master cylinder on the Morrie was that the bolt head was behind the torsion bar but the nut was clear. Had it been assembled the other way around the bolt could just have been slid out but instead, if you didn't have a set of hydraulic calipers to force the torsion bar aside, the entire supension needed dismantling.

Ah the memory of the Sunday afternoon ritual of the removing from the Morris Minor of the engine and gearbox using a scaffolding pole, some rope and four blokes in the car parks behind the various halls at Loughborough.

Thence the engine to be stripped down and hopefully rebuilt by the end of term so that the owner could get home in the car.