How would you define the `Golden age of Motoring`?
It occurred to me that its right now.
That there is good reliability for those only wanting a car as a `transport appliance` and yet pleasure for the enthusiast in the variety of engines available, petrol and diesel.
Relative freedom of the roads is still possible within some limitations and basic cars are more affordable than at any other time since the horse age.
The pure `Horse age` was within living memory of people we have talked with only relatively recently and yet the `motor spirit` age is well advanced.
It seems to me that there is a tendency towards greater regulation of everything concerning motoring and that the future will have us all in some form of car with a highly regulated power source. If current regulation trends continue I think its going to be quite boring for a `spirit engine` enthusiast.
Don`t know why I like the sound and smell of oil, petrol, diesel and `real` engines, but they are on the way out and in coming decades we all know reciprocating engines will be gone, like horse drawn carriages before them.
Given that there is what seems like an almost exponential curve of progress, from the late horse age ( as contrasted with the preceding centuries) I bet the `motor spirit age` will be looked back on much as a `blip` in our human history where the great unwashed had freedom to roam in remarkable charismatic machines.
But if you had to choose, where would you put the `marker`on the `Golden age of Motoring,
considered on a continuum from the past and into the future as well as can be imagined and why?
regards
Edited by oilrag on 06/01/2008 at 14:06
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If you were rich, the thirties or late 50's/early 60's. Some iconic cars available and relatively empty roads.
If you were poor (relatively), now. It's never been so reliable or cheap in real terms for all the moaning we do.
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If you were rich the thirties or late 50's/early 60's
Nick is spot on, but I would take the golden age (for the well-heeled) back to the twenties and up to the early sixties.
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For me it would have to be around the early to mid '80s. Logic being that cars had by then become very reliable and quick with the widespread adoption of fuel injection, decent brakes and tyres. The roads were beginning to become busier but there were still plenty of places which were quiet enough to be enjoyable. If you got caught speeding it was your own fault in that if you couldn't see a "jam sandwich" before he saw you, well, you deserved the ticket !
This could of course be a form of selective perception as this was also the time of my youth and we all tend to look retrospectively favourably upon that part of our lives.
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Looking at the thread title I was thinking of the 1980s even before I saw Shoespy's post, which I totally agree with. It's not so much the speed cameras (on balance, probably necessary) or speed humps (a stupid, spiteful menace) but the sheer numbers of people in this country, particularly in the South of England and in / near major cities and towns.
I'm not being political about it, but for whatever reasin we are ridiculously over-populated. I would think that there can still be a 'golden age' of motoring in countries like France (which has the same polulatrion as the Uk - 60m - but about three times the area).
Plus of course at any given moment quite a lot of their cars are off the road with electrical problems.... :)
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Agree with shoespy here, i too enjoyed the 80's and early 90's as a working class chap who could fix his own and others cars, the cars had become very powerful and fairly easily serviced/repaired, we also didn't have the obsession with speed that the PC brigade have forced on us. I would have included the 70's but remember some of the hideous vehicles from that very rusty era.
I think as some have said though that for the wealthy the 40's to early 60's were the heyday, with beautiful and individual cars to be enjoyed, of course that view is tainted with the fact that our country hadn't yet gone to the dogs by then.
I still like cars that have wood and leather and classic colours and lines, can't abide the acres of black plastic and the imitation aluminum/carbon fibre centre dashboard.
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I think it was round the 87-91 timeframe (coincidentally?) when I started driving
Well sorted reliable cars like the Mk 3 Cavalier
Motorists not yet being treated as the new smokers to be soaked for cash at every opportunity
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I'm with uk_in_usa: 1986-90 or thereabouts. Before the recession, there was money about, more than 2 million new cars were sold in the UK for the first time, and very few cameras, clamps, etc!
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I would go for the sixties personally. I was in my twenties and first car at 21 being a 4 door Morris Minor series 11 and the roads were clear. But half the fun was actually servicing and repairing them together with other lads who had their first cars.
Being able to strip an engine down and replace big ends or fit the Hepworth oilmaster piston rings was a weekend hobby. Yes there was the constant adjusting of points and replacing the condenser but it was all part of motoring. This was the era when the working class first had affordable access to motoring and it was all part of the learning curve to understanding engineering. Probably watching television has replaced it as a leisure activity.
Many of the lads had pre-war 30s cars and we all mucked in to keep them running
Then in 1964 I bought a new VW Beetle for £624.00 and repairs were virtually ever needed and was perhaps the first totally reliable cars. But I still had my mates cars to play with.
But even for the Beetle car enthusiast groups found things to do with them such as how fast they could remove an engine and replace. I seem to remember twenty something minutes was the record.
And for the power lads were the Ford Zephyr cars breathed on by Cosworth (I think)or similar and with open roads they could make them fly.
As for the roads what a difference. I used to travel down to London from the North Midlands every Sunday evening stopping overnight at Dulwich. Little traffic down the MI and sailed through London almost non-stop.
Yes I would go for this period as the most pleasurable time for motoring certainly in my time. It was a period of getting your hands dirty oily weekend but learning without even realising it. But for lads of that period this was entertaining and a togetherness which seems to have gone.
wemyss
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It depends on what you want. Because performance (in all respects), reliability, and sophistication of cars continually improves, and roads improve, I personally would hate to have to go back in time.
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I personally would hate to have to go back in time.
No neither would I, but isnt that because we are older, more sensible, less able and our tastes have changed.
wemyss
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I would go for the sixties personally. I was in my twenties and first car at 21 being a 4 door Morris Minor series 11 and the roads were clear. But half the fun was actually servicing and repairing them together with other lads who had their first cars.
Wemyss, the sixties were similar for me and I agree with your vote.
Reasons?
No speed cameras
No road humps
No national 70 mph limit
Not one quarter as many mimsers
No 56 mph-limited trucks overtaking each other on dual carriageways
Petrol at 4 shillings odd a gallon
Any car fixable without recourse to main dealers' code reading
Fewer potholes as less of the highways budget wasted on unnecessary signage and traffic lights (and therefore more available for surface repairs and renewals)
(Maybe it's just nostalgia for my misspent youth)
Edited by fordprefect on 06/01/2008 at 19:28
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Yes, fordprefect (did you have one?), I certainly agree with your reasons.
For me the fifties were in some ways better, spoiled only by poverty which prevented motor sport (which itself was not so regimented then). One could get away with things, and even as I became a little more affluent in the sixties the anti-car brigade were getting more aggressive. And it has really been all downhill since. I could have more fun drifting an Austin 8 on wet causeys than I can find with Toad the Supra now!
Dammit!
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I'd have a 90's car on 60's roads. In any case, I've always wanted to start a conversation with: "I'm from the future.." :-)
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If I had access to a time machine I certainly wouldn't go back to any era that I can actually remember but I would go back to the Thirties as a wealthy owner of something large and luxurious, mainly to see what empty roads were like.
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Like others above, I would choose the period 1988 - 1992. It was a time when ordinary cars became reliable, comfortable, and capable of urban crawl and long distance high speed work. I remember the 1992 Astra which was a brand new model. I had a 1.6i GLS and it was very quiet, comfortable, economical and superb at the urban crawl and long distances.
The par example of the period is the 1988 Honda Accord (allegedly the most reliable car ever built). They are still on the road doing sterling work and most like like new that I see.
In terms of roads, I suppose the best period was when the motorway networks was about 80% of what it is now, but with 60% of the traffic - would that be the 1970s or early 80s?
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Style-wise it was probably the 1960's, judging by the retro Jags, Minis, Beetles and Fiat 500s that are now in production.
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4 shots of Red X at National Benzole [higher Octane for Dad's MGs], a drive around with Dad to dry the car, since petrol was on 4/- a gallon [20p!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!], heavenly but...
noisy, cold, almost certainly uncomfortable for anyone over 15 years old, big-end blow-outs, misty windows, death around every corner in a heap of tin, plastic seats, radios with 4 buttons, broken aerials, Red Robbo and the Morris Marina lurking only a few years away...but
empty roads,
No
cameras, policemen [sleeping or otherwise - who recalls the Hammersmith to Severn race annually during an un-announced night], one-way systems [when was the first?], Datsuns, indicator flippers [how cool!]
And I could do all night what I need all night to do now.
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Right here, right now is the best era. All previous eras were rubbish by comparison ~ the reason I know is because I've lived through, and bought cars during, several of them! And in a few years time the present era will be seen as rubbish. You can't stop progress, and I for one wouldn't wish to.
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