I was just poking about on the British Pathe website, where you can download loads of archive video and photographic material for free. It's low quality, but perfectly adequate. (if you choose to pay you can have it in a higher quality).
If you have any interest in a 17 minute film about the Austin Cambridge made in 1954 - it's charming - then go to
www.britishpathe.com/advanced_search.php
and put 2721.02 in the film id box. It's called "I am a car".
Obviously it takes a while to download - very much broadband users only, and it is a bit of a fiddle to get it, what with adding it to baskets for zero pounds and putting in your address etc, but once done, it's well worth it.
Hope the film or indeed the site is of interest to someone anyway. I enjoyed it a lot! Apologies if this has been posted before - I didn't find it on a forum search.
|
Used to do a lot of courting in the back of a Cambridge owned by a pal whilst being driven back home after a night out in Blackpool or similar venue...:-)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
|
This car was talked about in an earlier thread www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=29...8
utterly charming car although not liked by everyone. Still see the occasional one on the road even now.. fantastic!
|
|
Yes - sorry, I meant I hadn't seen any reference to the British Pathe website on an earlier thread, not the Cambridge. Just been watching a great film about "good and bad lorry drivers in Oxfordshire" from the sixties, and one about "How our motorways are made".
|
|
|
|
and if memory serves, Stuartli, it probably had front benchseat so you couldn't lean thru' but had to climb over - I lived in Blackpool in 50s and my girlfriend's Dad had the MG Magnette (?) version of Cambridge .. there were also Riley and Wolsley versions, I recall.
Been domiciled 220 miles to south for over 40 years, but can still taste (and miss) that Fylde ozone!
|
>>but had to climb over>>
I did point out the girlfriend and I were being driven home at the time - but there was no climbing over...:-)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
|
|
|
and if memory serves, Stuartli, it probably had front benchseat so you couldn't lean thru' but had to climb over
It didn't have a front bench seat. I used to have one -11 AWX was the reg. - with blue leather upholstery. It was pale blue with a thick white stripe delineated with chrome strips along its whole length.
|
Our neighbour had an Austin Westminster - same but with the 3 litre six cyl. a la Healey3000, or MGC, like wot my dad 'ad.
Nice motors.
Would never start on a cold morning.
Dad used to keep a little parafin burner going underneath his sump in the winter - probably illegal now!
|
|
|
|
|
Wolsley 16/60 (1600cc 60hp ?) wooden dash and a ticking clock. My dad had black one with red leather seats. Happy memories.
|
|
|
|
|
Excellent! Everybody should download this.
Check out the 50s Mum carefully installing her offspring in the child-seat - NOT!
All in all a very good effort from Mr. Cholmondeley-Warner.
|
|
Priceless....such optimism ! Remember to tickle your CarbUrettor in the morning chaps !
|
I particularly liked it when it showed how suitable the car was for the ladies - I thought we were going to see the lady actually driving, but no, there was a demonstration of the handbag going onto the underdash shelf as she got into the passenger seat...
Many thanks for pointing this out - I'm just about to look at a couple of Woolf Barnato winning at Le Mans.
|
|
including the lady who liked to "rough it", especially on bumpy ground with an open glove box which would slice off her kneecaps soon as look at them !
|
and what do we see of the Austin Cambridge in modern TV? Well, on the Peugeot 407 advert where all the other cars are toys, the Peugeot-driver's neighbour appears to be pushing an apple-green A60 Cambridge estate into an enormous Matchbox....
pat
|
Until 3rd December 1999 I was the proud owner of KTP 761F - a navy blue Morris Oxford Farina 1660cc ??
This was the A 60 in the Morris guise. Morris argued that it was the better car of course!
This was like the Austin Cambridge but IIRC the rear lights and the bumbers were different.
Mine had the bench seat at the front. It was rather like driving a chesterfeild!
H
|
|
But why did you sell Hugo? Surely worth keeping as a 2nd car for sunny days?
|
To be honest the maintenance - just didn't have time for it. I was embarking on a major renovation project and from a time point of view it had to go :(
I sold it at Bristol Airport to an Irishman who had seeen it on the net. We e mailed each other for months and he decided to buy it.
There was also a californian interested in it as well. This chap had a Minor and a Travellor in various conditions and wanted to go for it. The exhchange rate put paid to that though and shipping was out of the question.
The chap from Eire just drove it across the ferry and re registered it in Eire.
H
|
"Travellor"
Is the "travellor" some sort of Mancunian Morris 100o estate ?
|
|
My Dad had two Cambridges when I was a kid in the 60s. Both were the pale blue with white strip down side.
--
\"Nothing less than 8 cylinders will do\"
|
I saw one in Crawley last week with an old boy in it and yes it was the pale 'Cambridge' blue with the white stripe.There were loads about in my young days almost always in this colour scheme.
I don't recall however if the Morris 'Oxford' colour was the dark blue with white stripe?.
|
Slight change of direction. Just been to have the (disappearing) locks cut and, in the business car park next to the barber's shop was an immaculate Rover P5 MkII Coupe.
The barber commented, because the Rover has four doors, that he always thought that coupes were two-door models; he added that he had recently noticed that the Rover's grille had been slightly damaged and had enquired of the owner if it would be very expensive to replace.
To his surprise the answer was just £29 - the owner said that spare parts were still readily available.
Certainly the Rover is a very impressive looking beast even after all these years.
Looked up the model for more info:
www.motorbase.com/vehicle/by-id/985/
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
|
|
|
|
How gloriously nostalgic - thank you so much Dipstick.
My first car was a 1955 A50, just like the one in the film though a slightly later model with wind-up windows. Bought for £65 in 1969, suitably in Cambridge, and sold a year or so later also for £65, with great regret but my father had been kind enough to give me his newish MG 1100 as a 21st birthday present.
One's first car is always special but this one was extra special. It always started first time and never let me down: with that flying-A mascot in front you felt good to be British. A50s had split-bench front seats (incredibly comfortable) with a tiny gap in the middle so you could move the seats individually but use it as a bench if preferred (for whatever reason...). I loved the column change, which was easier to use than many floor changes I've had since.
Interesting, isn't it,in view of the debate about spare wheels, that in those days there was no problem with a rear-wheel-drive car and a full-size spare. The Austin had a good big boot, and the Farina A55 and A60 an even bigger boot, still with a proper spare. Why is that quite beyond the wit of Chris Bangle with the BMW 1-series?
|
Interesting, isn't it,in view of the debate about spare wheels, that in those days there was no problem with a rear-wheel-drive car and a full-size spare. The Austin had a good big boot, and the Farina A55 and A60 an even bigger boot, still with a proper spare. Why is that quite beyond the wit of Chris Bangle with the BMW 1-series?
Bigger wheels?
|
|
Indeed, I don't think that a modern BMW alloy (or any other brand) bears little realtionship with a 1950s steel disc fitted with a bicycle tyre. Open the bonnet and of any BMW (especially the four cylinder versions) and see how far back the engine is placed and that the battery has migrated to the back to capture the best possible chance of obtaining the 50/50 weight share. Doubt whether the Austin engineers worried about this level of engineering. I have yet to look in the boot of a 1 but apparantly the space for the wheel is still there albeit used for additional storage. Don't blame Bangle, I doubt whther he had much say in the ditching of the spare wheel as a concept.Taken to its logical conclusion a spare wheel is merely an old fashioned waste of space and weight.
|
I take your point, Pugugly, but there must be some occasions when even a run-flat tyre can be torn to shreds. I'd still like a spare tyre to be at least an option. I think that when Dynamic Dave did the poll on this subject a big majority were in favour of the full-size spare, so I don't think I'm a lone voice.
And provided that you change tyres before they become illegal, it's nice to keep an old tyre as spare only and get one 'free'.
|
One Austin that always attracted a great deal of attention was the A90 - styling that was well ahead of its time.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
|
|
enjoying this trip down Memory Lane...was the A90 also known as the Atlanta or Atlantic?
|
enjoying this trip down Memory Lane...was the A90 also known as the Atlanta or Atlantic?
It was the A90 Atlantic. I remember travelling in one as a kid - belonged to a friend of my Dad - he was doing 70 in it, and I thought that was fantastic.
|
|
|
|
|
I don't disagree, there is always BMW assist....!
|
|
|
|
|
