IIRC my Grandad used to go on about the V8 Pilot being a quick, powerful car.. The figures show they are sluggish by todays standards but a V8 Pilot was no slouch compared with some other cars of the same era.
I looked up an alternative: Morris Minor series 2, road tested in 1952: Top speed 62mph, 0-50 (not 60) in 28.6 seconds! Looks like the only plus point was 39mpg fuel economy..
So maybe not so rose tinted Oilrag? Relative to other cars you had been in, I've no doubt it must have felt fast!
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Great cars indeed. My vote, the Pennington Ascot 'Regency'....
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One fo my uncles had a Mk II 3.8 Jaguar which he sold to another of my uncles when he got a Mk X. Both of those were really lovely cars but I preferred the Mk II.
I had an MG Maestro 2.0. Though some people thought it was a really hopeless car I kept it for six and a half years, drove it 70k miles and enjoyed every minute of it. I once drove it at its top illegal speed on an entirely empty stretch of dual carriageway and getting there was like one of those old films where the pilot goes through the sound barrier. Everything vibrated including my fillings. Happy days.
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Wasn't it Top Gear's Chris Goffey who rolled an MG Maestro, and while he was upside down trying to get out, the voice synthesiser said: "Low oil pressure" ...?
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When I was a kid my Dad had an Austin Big 7 I think it was - I can still smell leather and suede headlining - another was the Wolseley 12 - I suppose you forget the man on motorbike and sidecar who used to come out and fix it but our favorite pastime was waiting for one to pass the other way and salute. - for the young among us that's the AA man
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In my hitch-hiking youth got picked up on the A4 outside Reading by a funny-looking but large open tourer. Turned out to be a rare Lagonda V12 with a post-war small-outfit or homemade body, aluminium I believe. The thing looked awkward but went like the wind. The lift was disappointingly short as the driver whacked it up to a silent 80 or 90 straight away, and was only going to the Halfway Garage at Theale, home of many an exotic motor in those days. The driver was stone deaf, wore spectacles and I think had something to do with that garage. Agreeable guy and proper driver too.
In the early sixties, very early, the brother of a girl in a flat I lived in turned up with a late thirties Bentley 4.25 overdrive with a light open tourer body. When I expressed interest he took me for a brisk spin up and down Westbourne Terrace where the flat was. Hit 70 too, just a couple of hundred yards from Paddington Station, and without drama, so the thing must have been in top nick. Those were the days, innit?
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VG Lud ! I used to work for a company based in Wells St in the West End in the late '70s / early '80s. Friday afternoons were always quite good fun as the boss hooked off to his "hice" in Norfolk. We all had 2.0 Cortinas and used to do circuits against the clock ( observer with stopwatch on board who was also charged with looking out for Plod ) which involved going down through Soho through the rat runs to Piccadilly and Hyde park corner up Park Lane to Marble Arch along Wigmore St and back into Wells St. .........Loser had to get them in at The Blue Post ( I think it was called ) before home time ;-)
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Can't help wondering if anyone ever got nicked shoespy... or did that carry an extra penalty over and above anything the authorities might do?
I suppose one's luck with traffic lights, mimsers etc would just be part of the luck of the game, but that sort of thing can double or halve normal journey times in London, especially now with Livingstone monkey cages protected by temporary traffic lights everywhere... mumble... drool... gasp.
It's true though, people thought nothing of hitting 60-plus in Park Lane before cameras, even in traffic, if they figured they could get away with it. Of course it was perfectly safe too unless they were poor drivers.
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No, no one ever got pulled as I recall. One guy did sort of wreck his engine though......can't quite recall who that was...........
;-(
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I remember being at a friend's house when I was around six or seven years old and a rich uncle turned up in a white Bentley S1 convertible, electric hood and all. He took us all for a spin and that was the first time I'd been over 100mph, 125mph IIRC, with the roof down too.
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In the late sixties a friend's father had Mk IX Jaguar. This was both impressively roomy and fast. When I just checked 0- 60 mph was quoted as 11s, not tha fast these days. About 25 years ago I ran a MkIII Rover P5 Coupe for a while. Performance seemed quite adequate to me but a check suggests 0 - 60 in 16s and a top speed just under the ton! Maybe it is best to describe performance as adequate. However both cars had loads of character compared to many many Euro (and Japanese) boxes.
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Was that a 3.5 litre one RaineMan? If so it was the one I drove (briefly though, and kissed a kerb with the n/s tyres in Hyde Park being unused to it, shame and mortification... that wouldn't have happened in an SD1 because it felt so big you gave everything a wide berth). A proper Rover with a proper interior, good road manners and commanding driving position.
The Queen had a 3 litre that she drove about in before the days of heavy security. Kept it for ages too.
Edited by Lud on 04/04/2008 at 20:03
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BMW 530d (E39) the best all round car in the world - bar none. It looked good, went like the clappers, was economical, handled and rode like a proper car should. The only fault was that the light switch should have been 3 mm further to the left (!).
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ha ha ! As an E39 530d owner, I know exactly what you mean - it still catches me out when I let someone else drive my car and they adjust the seat too far back - grrrrr. :)
Wonderful car.
On memories though, my Dad used to drive Escorts, then Cortina's. However on one journey he's mentioned that he was stuck behind a large caravan (in the early 60's sometime - please don't make me ask him again!).
He's also got the car (Escort - I believe) fully loaded tools (think extremely heavy) and his clutch his also on the way out (work won't replace until gone).
So check mirrors on hill/mountain and all clear. Half way through overtake (passed caravan), Roller appears in mirror flashing 'let me past' lights (main beam).
The details get sketchy from here on, but Dad completes manoeuvre, and turns off into B road - leading into mud track shortly afterwards. Roller follows up - complete with illuminations!
Shortly afterwards, the track leads towards a twin 5 (or 6) bar gate arrangement. Escort performs admirably through much overstear - Roller not so good. Never saw it again apparently.
Apologies to Lud if he was in the area at the time!
PS. Dad swears it's a true story.
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No it was the last of the 3 litres. The main changes for the 5B were the V8 and alloy wheels. I drove a 3.5 a couple of times. There were 3 - 4 seconds faster to 60 and about 10 mph quicker (road test figures). The lower engine weight was noticeable reducing understeer. My P5 was an auto with PAS. Would not mind one for weekends these days.
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Alloy wheels? I seem to remember chromed steel trims?
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Sorry - they were Rostyles not alloys.
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Wasn't it Top Gear's Chris Goffey who rolled an MG Maestro and while he was upside down trying to get out the voice synthesiser said: "Low oil pressure" ...?
Roll a Maestro? Not too hard, I suppose. Voice synthesiser? Not the Maestro. Maybe the Allegro? Now you would need rose-tinted specs for that one.
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No the Maestro had a voice synthesiser. Mrs P had a VDP version in the 80s; It wasn't a badly handling car actually.
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VDP? Yeah, well. MG? Nope, don't think so.
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I had an MG Maestro and it did have a naggy woman in the dashboard, red seatbelts and an asthmatic 1600cc engine. Very prone to lift off oversteer as I recall. She never used to tell me that was about to happen but was very good at noticing the door was open and other things one would otherwise never notice unaided.
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I had an MG Maestro and it did have a naggy woman in the dashboard
M MG Maestro was a 2.0i and maybe that made all the difference, Shoespy, though there was a naggy woman in the passenger seat occasionally.
Anyone who can tell me what wig-wags are has to be a credible source of info.
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My girlfriend (now wife) had a friend who owned a Mark 9 Jaguar automatic.. and he let me have a drive. Went and sounded great although it was a wide and heavy brute. (no, girlfriend was not wide and heavy at least not then:-)
Acres of leather etc.. unfortunately 0to 60 was probably 11 secs plus and 16mpg - on long roads (no motorways in Scotland then).
I at that time owned and drove daily 1946 Rover 16 with freewheel and suicide doors: seatbelts? Nope. We went on honeymoon in it and were still removing confetti when we sold it.. 3 years later. lovely smooth 2.2 litre 6 cycliner engine but oil changes every 1,000 miles.. none of your modern 3,000 nonsense! 0-60 in 20 seconds and axle tramp when you hit a pothole with a front wheel but it looked gorgeous in BRG. The view along the bonnet at night with twin Lucas King Of The Road headlamps (peeling chrome tho!)
MD had a BMW635CSI as company car: drove that. Nice sound but an auto so not that fast. Not as scary in the wet as another director's BMW535i (c 1982) - lovely power slides in wet. Traction control? For cissies.
Had a company Mercedes 260E - leather and aircon etc. Great car to drive on motorways: engine would rev to 6,000rpm and it would fly. It was fun in wet as well and on oil spills:-(. Nowadays it would be regarded as overweight and tailhappy... (not very reliable: ignition lock collapsed on me.
Most fun car? Fiat 124 sport . Twin cam engine and 6500rpm and lovely exhaust sound: childish revving up and down box just to hear the exhaust note. Pity the bodywork was soluble in water...
Second most: 1967 S3 Lotus Elan fhc. Totally rebuilt with 135bhp engine before I bought it. Went like stink on B roads. Only 4 speed gearbox so too noisy on motorways and the diff always leaked oil and difficult to work on due to chassis so lived with it. People used to goggle at it driving in town. Following van driver gently ran into back of it cos he was goggling and not driving.. no damage done... Wife never liked it: too noisy and low...0-60 in about 6.5 secs. the twin webbers used to go out of tune every month and it would parp along until it got to 2,500 rpm then a blast of power and zooooom, Childish.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 04/04/2008 at 21:56
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woodbines
Did the Zodiac really have leather seats? I seem to recall that all Ford trims in those days (even the so called 'top' models) were 'leatherette' (ie plastic).
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Capris for me. I had three friends at the time who all ran Capris, either in 1.6 or 2.0 guise.My abiding memory is a blast (for want of a better word) after an early am imbibing session from West Burton, up the length of Bishopdale, down to Kettlewell in Wharfedale where we were all camping.We still talk about that drive 30 years on. The stupidity of youth, but we lived to tell the tale...and never did it again.
On the strength of that memory. I came very close to buying one of the last Capri incarnations, the 2.8.Instead I bought a Sierra XR 4x4 2.8 V6 which I had completely forgotten about until this post came up!
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I had just left school and got my first job as a technical trainee at a Architectural aluminium company.
We were to be shown around the companies anodising plant by an old retired bloke called Mr Potts, who was an expert in the technicalities of the anodising process.
He took 3 of us in his old car which was a large Austin or Morris something.
Getting inside was like climbing into a Gentlemans club and we wafted off down the road silently.
Turns out this car, whatever it was, has a 4 litre Rolls Royce engine in it as standard.
It certainly impressed us young lads, as all we had experienced up to then was knackered old Minis and Hillman Imps.
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Vandenplas Westminster...
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VandenPlas Princess ??? (not the wedgie)
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!!!! The Westminster was very much an Austin ??
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Ahhh the Princess Wedgie. My dad had a 2200 auto P-reg. I wonder how much poke it really had. There should be a club where you can hire out everyday cars of yesteryear and see what they were like.
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My dad had a Princess 1800 - underpowered but a swish drive though.
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Yup, that would have been a Princess. My Dad had the imitation one, the Wolseley 6/110 (3 litre) Two tone Maroon over Sand with beige leather, walnut veneer and 4 spd + ODrive. V-wafty.
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My Dad had a Wolsely 16/60. Walnut dash (clock was missing, my dad cunningly disguised the hole with the lid from a tin of "Marvel" and covered it in foil (my childish delight was rubbing the foil until the embossed words "Marvel" stood out), rotary heater controls - very moern. Leather seats in red, a quintessentially British smell to the car. I remember to this day when the Odometer clicked over to 25k and my dad remarking that that was the diameter of the earth.....illuminated badge on the front. That was a very nice car.
Edited by Pugugly on 04/04/2008 at 23:53
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Two tone Maroon over Sand
I think that was called Rose Taupe and Sandy Beige. My old man had a Wolseley 15/60, the one with the higher tail fins, in grey and white. Can't remember what the manufacturer called those colours. It had a leather interior and a wooden dash that Dad called "the furniture". Synchro was weak and then gone on second gear. There was what seemed like a huge steering wheel with a central boss that would probably have killed you in a crunch and a chromed horn ring around it.
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Yes, that was its name, VDP Princess, not the wedgie but Westminster body shell. Had some sort of old RR-designed military lump in it I think. Refined but thirsty and pokeless. One used to see them in the City.
Edited by Lud on 04/04/2008 at 23:56
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanden_Plas
Interesting potted history here.
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Yes thats the one !
Doesn't look much now though, but at the time, I was well impressed !
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Yes; the Van-den-Plas Princess 4-litre R [The "R" was for Rolls-Royce.]
An asthmatic old Rolls B-Series lump; related to one once used in a Series I Land-Rover. The last time I saw one it was being stripped for banger racing; a bit of a shame, as the papers with it showed that it had once been owned by Winston Churchill.
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Winnie would approve of that. Oh Yes...
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Did the Zodiac really have leather seats? I seem to recall that all Ford trims in those days (even the so called 'top' models) were 'leatherette' (ie plastic).
You're probably right Scouseford - that's the problem though with rose tinted spectacles - everthing's just that little bit better out of the 'rear view window'! The Daimler Dart was definitely red leather though (even the dash as well IIRC).
All this talk of Rover 3-litres & P5s also reminds me of the headmaster of my alam mater - he & his wife used their Mk111 3-litre sparingly: once for church on Sunday (in which they once, graciously, gave me a lift to early communion - still remember those rear leather 'bucket' seats) & occasional trips to examine local architectural gems - Pevsner in hand.
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remember a range of cars I was driven to school in - a neighbour had a REnault garage in the 1970s and I remember extremely comfortable rides in Renault 16s (fascinated by the column gear shifts) and the then fairly new Renault 30 - had very "thick" squishy rear seats and electric windows...
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Triumph 2500 PI saloon from the mid-1970s - if you got a good one they didn't half go.
Overdrive on third and top controlled by a James Bond switch on top of the gearstick - great fun.
Some of the petrol injection systems were trouble, but all they really needed to keep 'em right was a good blast now and again.
Good in other ways, too. Comfortable, roomy, decent heater with plenty of vents, proper dashboard with a rev counter.
Wonder what one would be like to drive today.
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After I went to bed last night I remebered another car that made an impression on a youngster. My late father never got a full licence so we did not have a family car. His manager had a small selection of cars as he ran a small farm as a home/hobby. Two stick in my mind. There was an early Land Rover - impressive over fields but grim on road. His main car was a Humber Super Snipe; the model with twin headlamps. I had a few rides in this - the whys and wherefores long forgotten. The interior seemed vast and was nicely trimmed in wood and leather. Performance seemed good. I saw one at a few years ago at a classic car show. The combination of 50s American styling with a traditional British interior places it nicely between Jaguars/Rovers and the more brash Ford/Vauxhalls of the era.
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Another vote for the 3.0 Capri. Used to get an occasional shot of my boss's 3.0S if he wanted someone to run an errand. Pure fun. Suspect it was as much to do with being 21 and given the keys to a car like that. Also the fact that there was much less traffic and everyone seemed to drive like Gene Hunt. Keeping the tail out was a doddle, if not the most sensible thing to do on a public road. Heh heh !
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My dad had a 2500TC and I used to love driving it.
Interesting kick from the back end when you had wound it up in one gear and declutched to change up. The joys of being a teenager and allowed to drive seriously powerful motors (my dad had company cars when the insurers would let anyone drive).
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Lovely looking cars especially fully blinged up with RoStyle wheels, tinted glass and that lovely steering wheel....a girlfriend's father had one. :-(
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Someone I knew bought one of the very early Range Rovers. I had one or two rides in it as a teenager. For a long time the Range Rover was the car I aspired to. Later Range Rovers, no doubt, are a big improvement over the original but in its day the original, with its uniqueness and purity of design, was something special. Now the image of the Range Rover is just a gas guzzling upmarket Chelsea tractor that's not going to do any serios offrading until it's a tired old chopped-down 15 year-old trials special.
Edited by Sofa Spud on 05/04/2008 at 15:14
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I had a 2.5PI. My overdrive worked on 2/3/4 so 7 forward speeds. The sliding splines in the rear suspension driveshafts used to stick under powered cornering and then unstick.. leading to a lurch as the rear suspension took a different attitude and wheel camber changed.
I rebuilt the engine having removed it with hoist on my own. Seriously heavy and I shudder to think of it now but in those days I was young and lifted very heavy weights for a hobby.
Went like stink when rebuilt. I had no injection problems at all but was scrupulous in changing all fuel filters and never running petrol tank levels low: I suspect sludge pick up and poor maintenance was a cause of many problems... in those days mechanics changed fuel filters using greasy hands and dirty rags instaed of plastic gloves.
I did rebalance all the 6 injection throttle butterflies which took about 3 hours using a Gunston tuner measuring manifold depression. This made a substantial difference to performance: I had beforehand replaced the butterfly valves as many had worn and the entire throttle mechanism as many of the brass rods were slightly bent.
As most garages then could not keep twin SUs in tune, I am not surprised 6 throttles for fuel injection gave problems.!!!!
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'60s two litre Vitesse.
Enough torque and power to break the gearbox, and then the diff.
Swing axles bring a whole new meaning to 'lift-off overtsteer'.
There was, allegedly, one around with a 2.5PI lump in it.
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Heralds had a steering lock to beat a London taxi, but could snap a stub axle if too much was wound on at too higher speed.
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TR6 - same 2.5PI engine, went down to a place outside Coventry on a rather drunken student weekend in the late 70s, this incredibly cool guy had a TR6 and we went out after getting rather lordishly drunk, he drove like the clappers and I swear to this day that we caused a caped village Bobby to topple into a ditch one of the villages near Brandon (where we were staying) - this chap became a not unknown singer whose still around....just remembered this was the weekend that the first test tube baby was born....July 28th 1978 from Wiki - hope there's no Bobbies from Warwickshire reading this !
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Once had a Vitesse C reg(1965 ?) 1600cc 6cylinder engine, overdrive on 3rd and 4th, bought for £40 ran it for about 2 years.One of the smoothest engines I've ever experienced,and reliable too if I remember rightly.Not as fast as the later 2 litres but much smoooother. It felt unburstable.After that I had a P5 3litre coupe (also £40) leather interior and even the armrests on the door panels were height adjustable.A reserve fuel tank(which once got me from Leeds to london) and a proper English engine.No cheapo american V8 in that one. 0-60 in about 3 weeks and not what you could call economical but what a package, it was like driving in an English Gentelmens club's lounge.Happy days.
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Trouble with the TR6 was the overdrive control was a small column stalk, not the super cool switch on top of the gearstick.
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