Car nostalgia

Good point made Richard.

See my profile, and photo of me in caterham 7 at silverstone.

That being said, was wearing track type shoes to feel the pedals. Might be an issue with the normal stuff, not to mention the waistline

What made it worse is the fact my son came on the track day and was 4 seconds faster than me on the circuit (after I had said I would how him how to really drive) . The youth of today eh!

I built my Caterham 7 and lived with it as a second car over 6 years and 16000 miles. Loved it. We toured Scotland and Spain with enough luggage for 2 weeks crammed in. The best fun ever and such a great response everywhere you go in it. 

Richard , you should have tried the SV version, longer and wider body.

I also bought a new Elise S2 and tried it as my daily driver for 2 years. Bad decision, it may have been fabulous to drive on a great day but winters are just sheer hard work and the build quality and depreciation hurt bad. The way to own an Elise is as a second car, and buy a cheapish secondhand one. Get to know a helpful local specialist because you will almost certainly need them. Lotus are going to expire  soon, sadly perhaps but by any objective measure the current Elise just does not stack up against opposition for the price. Buy an MX5 (had one of them too and was a joy to own) or a s/h Boxster. Evora...what for 911 money?

Great thread this. I will try to track down a pic of my first ever car and post it.

Bruce

That was close Steve, at first ight I though it was a marina !

Bruce,

   Hope ou are wrong about Lotus, it would be a very sad day if they went to the wall.

Interesting that you could not cope with an Elise winter, but ok with a caterham one ?

Paul

TonyM,

    What's under the bonnet of the Westfield ?

Paul

Paul. 

 Caterham was a second car for weekends, holidays and sunny days. Elise was a daily driver. Not many people would live with a Caterham all year round as their only car, but I thought I could with the Elise (and my wife's hatchback for practical duties).

I think the Caterham was always fun, even on a pootle to the shops, or in traffic or on a greasy scabby road because it always felt like an event. The Elise was nowhere near as enjoyable apart from those magic drives when the road and the traffic etc just opened out in front. Then it was memorable.

I built my Caterham which added to the fun and pleasure and it only ever had one fault; a broken wiper. Lotus built the Elise so it broke. Often. 

Bruce

Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious

It seems I cannot post pictures of stuff on my ipad, so will wait to join in this thread when I get home in a week or two.

My first car was one of these, but in blue:

Painfully slow, the pedals were offset to the right ( always felt odd), and the chassis members were prone to rust which ultimately caused it to go to that great scrapyard in the sky. Easy to work on though. You could sit on the front wheel while changing the points. 

A Hillman Minx followed - comfortable but leaked

Then a Triumph 1500 - lovely interior but rusted badly

Then my first 'decent' car: a MkV Cortina 1.6L.  I loved that car.

Then Mark II Escort

Sierra 2.0GL

Sierra 1.6LX - wow, my first central locking and electric windows!

A series of Toyotas then followed before I finally achieved a boyhood ambition of getting a Mercedes and have stuck with them since.

Photo of current indulgence below. She sits in the garage most of the time and only comes out when the sun is shining but always puts a smile on my face.

GPO, were gracious enough to get me a driving licence, their own instructors (government sanctioned).

BT, PO, GPO were paranoid about saving fuel, it started with Morris vans. 3/4" holed throttle plate in stead of 1 1/4" , we changed them back , I got a memo asking why my average fuel consumption had gone from 17 mpg ( 3/4" plate) to 28 mpg with, the larger one,yes go figure.

Those Viva Ha van had special carbs with cast in jets and cam shafts without any lobes on.

Addendum I had a Moss Malvern kit car for a while based on Vitesse 1600 chassis.

Wow, that's the cleanest garage I've ever seen

Bruce, no SV back in those days.  I went with a deposit for a Kent engined live axle knock down kit - about £4.5k if I remember - that I was going to build up with help from the local garage.  I had a bit of a thing for The Prisoner in those days and wanted to build my own "Prisoner Special".  Top of the range at the time was the BDA twin cam with de dion rear axle - lovely, very fast, and a usefully longer cockpit too, but way out of my reach.

is that the same Moss as my previous roadster?

Comany used to be based in Sheffield

Richard you are not a number, you are free man

No 5 indeed

Would like to thank Paul for his thread so far and his"Motorbike photos" too:I actually appreciated.Also,"nostalgia" has the same Italian meaning...

Just watch out for those dry stone walls

Fabio,

   I am certainly enjoying the old memories. What's so good is that all he old cars (and bikes) were Pre digital photos, but with the web, we can all find on line pictures of equivilant motors to post, so the images keep flooding back

All I can say is Mrs. Dane must be a very, very, happy woman...

This could easily be a post of our favourite cars but for true nostagia the first two were the best.

First car. 1971 Triumph 1500 front wheel drive in old fashioned creamy white. The previous owner had driven it to and from the MOT centre every year for the last 5 years or so and probably not much else.

It was wonderful because of the way it smelled as much as anything. A mix of leather, wood, fusty carpets and tobacco (not mine) that I can remember to this day. It was awful to drive, went through CV joints every time you went around a roundabout but I loved it.

Second car. 1972 Triumph Stag Mk2, 1970's Mimosa yellow and black (and rust) bought with my first ever pay packet. Utterly idiotic idea....yet mine never broke down in 30,000 miles. It was a lovely thing, passed everything except a petrol station and I proposed to my girlfriend sitting on the bonnet. The heater was blocked so driving it anywhere in winter required a thick coat and hat even with the roof on but I never minded. If I saw a really good one in that colour again I would be sooo tempted.

I've owned some sensible and some fairly daft cars (Alfa 145 Cloverleaf was cool) but these two standout for great memories. I just bought an utterly sensible (and really very good) diesel Volvo V40. I must be getting old.

Bruce

Bruce,

    have always likes the look of the stag, great image. In my day the more sensible people went for the Triumph GT6, and if they could not afford that, then it was the good old spitfire.

At one stage i went for a sets drive in a Triumph TR4A, which i loved but could not get the finance for. alas

I've had -

Fiat 128 when I was 18 for for 3 years.

Lancia HPE when I was 22 for appx 1 year (such a cool car)

Then work supplied vehicles for a few years.

Then enter children.

Mazda Bubble car at age 28-30

Honda Civic wagon at age 31

Audi 80 and Fiat Bravo at age 32 (now a 2 car family)

Porsche 911 (1987 3.2) at age 35 (we still have it)

Fiat Multipla at age 36 (we still have it, almost 10 years old)

Volvo XC60 at age 45

I don't drive so don't have a car, but I remember my Dad these when we were growing up (Austin Mini, Singer Vogue, Hillman Hunter - my Dad had a fondness for British-made junk):