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Peugeot 504, early 1970's
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Being car sick in my great-uncle Jack Tay;lor's A90? Austin Hereford around 1956; reg EGG 92. Constant petrol and oil fumes .... ooh I dont feel well.
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I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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Travel sickness was a big thing for me and my siblings and friends too way back in the seventies. I don?t know anyone who suffers from it now, has modern car design cured it?
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Travelling in my Dad's 1947 Austin 8 in the late 1940s onwards to many parts of the country on day trips or holidays.
We went every year to stay with relatives in Glasgow for a week and, every year without fail, my Dad forgot that the pubs shut on a Sunday and was never able to get a drink on the journey up...:-(
The Austin (HGJ 888) had quite a few features I still clearly remember, including a windscreen that hinged out and upwards (air conditioning!), a rear screen blind operated by a piece of string with an O ring attached at the driver's end to save being dazzled from behind at night (!) and a foot operated headlights dip switch.
My Dad also spent many a time in the winter heating the spark plugs up in the oven and replacing them in usually futile attempts to get the car (affectionately known as Susie) going.
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Lots of early memories:
Dad's car, Mk1 Cortina that he rolled with me on the back seat in a carrycot, car was repaired and I remember it from a couple of years later. Next was a Hillman Minx in dark blue....needed lots of polish, Dad had some money left over from the allowance so he bought the best pushbutton radio he could buy, the radio outlasted the car and moved between several subsequent cars (and I still have it). next was the Austin 1800 Landcrab in 1973, huge car that never let us down, got us home on 3 cylinders on one occasion.
Mum's car, Pale blue mini 850 that had immaculate bodywork but the floor was strangely absent due to rust. When the mini defied repair it was replaced by a Singer Chamois, the petrol pump required a kick in just the right place every now and again...never managed to stop the oil leak though.
StarGazer
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Uncle had a 1950s Austin A60 estate: with wood. Sitting in the back seat with crome door latches and being sick with the smeel of plastic and oil.
Another uncle had a 1930s Alvis with inflatable seat cushions. Being enthralled with the intricate speedo and clock as I sat in the driver's seat (I must have been 4- 5 at the time).
Dad's old car: a Triumph Gloria: on the old A1 going up to Scotland. Lots of show.. little go. His first new car: a 1953 Hillamn Minx in red with sidevalve engine. Stoppped: boiling on holiday when the water pump failed...puffs of steam under the bonnet..
madf
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>>next was the Austin 1800 Landcrab in 1973, huge car that never let us down, got us home on 3 cylinders on one occasion.>>
This was also one of the (many) cars we had over the years, along with the Morris version.
Its capacity to absorb adults, kids and dogs was absolutely remarkable...:-)
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My earliest car memory was Dads old pre war Morris 12 runaround with a valve radio which never worked properly and descibed by the old man as 'that **** box of whistles', I believe the car was a 1936 model , I remember the registration was JR 5680.
I was sitting in the back when the car was stationary and the local coal merchants lorry reversed into it.
I can still remember the glass flying all around and Dad going mad at the lorry driver.
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It must have been about 1966 / 67 or something (unless some smart alec advises me that they weren't released then!) I was visiting the dentist, and I recall seeing my first ever Renault 16. It was such a revelation, with that super fast back design, quite unlike anything else on the road at that time.
The impression remained with me, and I bought one, some 15 years later.
Still remember it as one of the "more unusual" cars I have owned, certainly the most comfortable seats, and that column gear change was superb!
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Coming to the front door, where my dad was cursing as he was late for work because his Hillman Imp wouldn't start (not uncommon, so I've been told, for that car to be unreliable). I must have been 3 or thereabouts, as he replaced it with a new beetle when I was 4 (1974). Also have fond memories of my dad trying to manhandle a double bass (he was in a jazz band) onto the roofrack of the aforementioned beetle. My grandfather (maternal) always found amusement in my father's inappropriate choice of vehicles!
Alex.
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Dr Alex Mears
MG BGT 1971
If you are in a hole stop digging...unless
you are a miner.
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It must have been about 1966 / 67 or something (unless some smart alec advises me that they weren't released then!)
Yes your ok DrS It came out in 65
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Well done mm, another interesting and successful thread.
How very young most of us seem to be. I believe only Tomo is clearly older than I am, although one or two others (hi there Armitage) are of similar vintage.
A doctor's locum took me on his rounds in his green Morris 8 saloon. He left me parked outside a farmer's house (near Bath where we lived) while attending a patient. I couldn't resist trying to release the handbrake, and succeeded. When I felt the car moving of course I reapplied it. The doctor had seen the car move and came running out in a panic. No harm was done but I felt very abashed. This would have been 1942 or 43 when I would have been four or five.
My father had no car during the war but after it was stationed in the far east. There he had two glamorous vehicles in succession: a 1940-42 fastback divided rear window American Ford V8, sidevaalve of course, fast but loose in its road behaviour, always squealing its tyres on corners and making us children car sick; then a truly beautiful matt-grey Humber Snipe desert staff car. This was replaced by a very disppointing Hillman Minx.
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Dad's Ford Zephyr. Maroon colour. Loved the front bench seat.
We travelled all over Europe in this including being stopped one night in the mountains between 2 countries not sure the border, France and Switzerland maybe. This would have been ealry 70's
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Whilst living on the Isle of Lewis in 1967, aged three; the smell of hot plastic seats in an Austin (probably J4) van.
The next memory is from 1969 or 1970 (so aged five or six)whilst living in Singapore; being told off for lifting a badly welded panel in the floor of Dad's Ford Consul to watch the road whizz past underneath. In the same era on the days I went to school by taxi instead of on the Garry (Singapore school bus); taking it in turns with my friends to sit (unrestrained) on the "high seat" (rear arm rest).
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"I went to school by taxi instead of on the Garry (Singapore school bus)"
Never mind Car Memories SjB, this is a Horse and Carriage Memory, and obviously someone in Singapore had a good sense of humour!
A "Gharry" (sic) is/was the name of the type of horse and carriage which used to operate in Malta, and to a lesser extent in Gibraltar, rather like those which still operate in Central Park in NYC. Much loved by Jolly Jack when returning from a well-lubricated (motoring connection) run ashore, especially in Valetta, and practically obligatory for the horse to be, let's say, in less than dressage condition, and for JJ to be overcharged!
Gharries were a fertile source of humour in the Navy, and gave rise to several notable jokes.
Jack
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Indeed, thanks, UJ!
My father told me much the same story some years back, so I conclude that it was known as a Garry/Gharry as a result of being used for service family kids like me, the connection with Malta and Gibraltar then being self evident.
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Last time I was in Malta the horse and carriage rides were still available at the main bus dept.
Mind you I'm still working how the bus drivers made any money judging by the (remarkably) low fares that they charged.
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I remember my dad's old Triumph 1300, KTA ??? E in white. Brown seats, yummy! Dad bought it in a hurry as we had to leave Cyprus in a hurry in 1974 and arrived here in the clothes we stood in, I was two and a half. We had to leave the Alfasud and presumably someone had it away.
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Sitting in the middle of the front bench seat in my father's black Mk1 Ford Consul and changing gear for him using the column shift. He'd work the clutch and I'd change the gears, no words needed! He reckoned it was like having a semi-auto. I'd have been around 5 years old. Never crunched them once.
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Sitting on the workbench in my dad's garage watching him drill out the rivets on a brake shoe clamped in the vice (relining brake shoes - don't get that nowadays!). I remember him breaking off part way through and pointing to a camshaft which was laying on an adjacent bench and expalaining to me what it did. I can still recall his explanation (didn't understand it at the time though). I was about 3 years old.
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Carrying on from the above, I remember my dad's old garage very well. At one end of it there used to be a cast-iron 'pot belly' stove which was fed with coal. A big black flue ran from it up the wall. The blokes in the garage all used to sit around it in winter (there was no other heating and the workshop doors were usally open). They used to drink from giant white enamelled metal mugs which held about 2 pints of tea! Unfortunately the tea went cold very quickly.
There was a bit of grafitti on one of the doors concerning one of the lads, who for some reason was known as 'Chick'. It said 'Chick goes to work on an egg'. I think 'go to work on an egg' was a marketing slogan to sell eggs at the time (early 60's).
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Travelling to Derbyshire in a Series E Morris and all except Dad had to get out and walk up the hills - the car needed a de-coke.
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My Dad replaced his 1924 Bentley 3-litre with an Austin A30 shortly after I was born in 1955. Sadly I don't remember the old Bentley, which was sold because it was unsuitable for a baby to travel in, althought there are lots of photos of it. It still exists and must be worth a packet.
The early motoring memory that sticks in my mind is riding in the front seat of a clapped out 1930's Austin belonging to an elderly lady we knew. I was about 3 and the car would have been over 20 years old. What I remember most was the hole in the front floor big enough to fall through!
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A blue MK1 Ford Cortina (Consul mind you) with the funky indicator "stalks" and the horizontal speedo. My mum in the passanger seat, me on her lap (obviously as a prototype airbag) she wearing her red coat with red buttons with golden cross design, which she said were kisses......awwwwww.
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>>Well done mm, another interesting and successful thread.>>
This isn't, by any stretch, the first thread of this type...:-)
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>>Well done mm, another interesting and successful thread.>> This isn't, by any stretch, the first thread of this type...:-)
You mean it all starts coming round again? 'This is where I came in'? How sad.
This sort of thing is all still very new to me, but I notice that although someone must love them, not all threads are equally successful or indeed equally interesting.
Good-humoured mm type enthusiasm seems to get people going nicely, although of course even he can't win them all.
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>> >>Well done mm, another interesting and successful thread.>> >> >> This isn't, by any stretch, the first thread of this type...:-) >> You mean it all starts coming round again? 'This is where I came in'? How sad. This sort of thing is all still very new to me, but I notice that although someone must love them, not all threads are equally successful or indeed equally interesting. Good-humoured mm type enthusiasm seems to get people going nicely, although of course even he can't win them all.
Thanks for the support Lud! I too have enjoyed the reading the replies to this thread
one point of note a most of the Manufactures/models don't exist any more. The majority who replied to this thread we must be of a certain age!
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