Period first motors

[Penners]

My daughter's father-in-law has kindly loaned me his slide scanner, so that I can scan my modest collection of transparencies, taken in the 1960s with my very first camera.

Among the gems that have had me in a lather of nostalgia (including photos of Mrs P taken on honeymoon!) are several of my first car. It was my pride and joy, particularly after I had added the matched spot- and foglights! I used to spend most weekends tinkering with it and polishing it. Kindly note the open vent under the windscreen, demonstrating that this model had a heater (which was in fact an optional extra)! Such luxury!

I expect you can identify the car - can't you?!




Have you got any photos of your first car?

 

[88v8]

I think it's a Standard 8.
Made 1956?
Heater.... softie.

My first car was a '35 Standard 10hp, for which I paid £7 in 1968. I'm sure I have a pic somewhere.

I drove it for two years, and then in a fit of over-ambition, dismantled it with the intention of rebuilding it with a 12hp engine, higher-ratio back axle, Jaguar rod-operated brakes, and scratch-building a body. Talk about eyes bigger than tummy...barmy.... I sold the remains a few years later to a chap who wanted to turn it into a hill-climb car.
By that time I had a very tatty four-light Mulliner-bodied Lanchester, which I ran as transport for eight years.

Ivor

 

[Feltwell]

Have you got any photos of your first car?

You're not really going to be that interested in a picture of a 1988 Peugeot 405 are you? :wink:

Actually, technically it was a 1966 Triumph Herald that I had a part-share in as a student. We got classic car insurance and they gave it an agreed value that was about 6 times what we paid for it. We prayed that it would get nicked but no-one was desperate enough, despite that fact that we lived in one of Birmingham's less salubrious areas.

 

[LadyArowana]

No, only second car :wink:

 

[Moo]

Does a pale blue bubble car count (only three wheels)?

 

[Flyfisher]

I've never been particularly interested in cars and my vehicular history is rather boring, starting with a Fiat 127 (I think that's the right number).

I hankered after an Aston Martin for many years but the closer I got the more the price seemed ridiculous so I did the boringly sensible thing and paid off the mortgage instead - real rock 'n' roll playboy me :lol:

 

[Penners]

I think it's a Standard 8.

Spot on 88v8! Actually it was a 1958, but otherwise, full marks!

 

[LadyArowana]

I hankered after an Aston Martin for many years but the closer I got the more the price seemed ridiculous so I did the boringly sensible thing and paid off the mortgage instead - real rock 'n' roll playboy me :lol:

Don't forget the deadline for this tax year ISA investments is looming, another not very exciting thing to do with money.

 

[Penners]

Does a pale blue bubble car count (only three wheels)?

Really, Moo? I had a Heinkel bubble car for a few months before I got the Standard. I bought it from a chap who couldn't get it to go, worked on it (unsuccessfully!) for a few months and then sold it again.

To work on the underneath I used to lay a rug on the ground and roll it on to its side!

 

[Penners]

I hankered after an Aston Martin for many years but the closer I got the more the price seemed ridiculous so I did the boringly sensible thing and paid off the mortgage instead

Well, you're a big disappointment, FF! I had you pegged as someone who would have gone ahead and bought the Aston, then driven it into a swimming pool. :wink:

 

[DJH]

Don't forget the deadline for this tax year ISA investments is looming, another not very exciting thing to do with money.

Hmm. Won't let me play Lady A as I'm classed as non resident for tax although I submit tax returns in the UK annually and hold UK bank accounts...grrr

First car was a Morris series E which I bought from a garage for £6 and they rang me when I got home to say thaat they didn't mean to sell the roof rack with it and gave me a quid back for it. Sold it later for £15...a profit on a car. :shock:

Doug

 

[plasticpigeon]

If that's not a joke Lady A then I'm very envious. My smartest car is the 10 year old mondeo estate I've just bought. Oh well.

My first car was a Reliant Robin which I bought as I only had a motorcycle license. I used to work at Cosworth engines, and there were always some fancy things around, but I never got to drive any because I didn't have a car license

 

[Flyfisher]

I hankered after an Aston Martin for many years but the closer I got the more the price seemed ridiculous so I did the boringly sensible thing and paid off the mortgage instead

Well, you're a big disappointment, FF! I had you pegged as someone who would have gone ahead and bought the Aston, then driven it into a swimming pool. :wink:

I've got an old television I could throw out of a bedroom window if that would ease your disappointment . . .

But now you mention Astons and swimming pools it reminds me of a neighbour near our previous house in Hertfordshire who had a DB-something or other. His son went to the same school as FF junior and he would often drive them to the next village to catch the school bus. One very wet autumn morning he drove through a section of regularly flooded road - nothing serious, only up to the kerb so about 4-5 inches - and the engine promptly cut out. It later transpired that after recovery to the local Aston Martin dealer the car had to be thoroughly checked out to ensure no water had been sucked into the engine through a low air intake and the eventual bill for all that attention was almost £2500 - just for driving through a big puddle! :shock:


As for Milady's 'second' car . . . I'm now rather intrigued about the main one. :wink:

 

[Keith Bowman]

Yesterday the man who takes (and sells, of course) aerial pics of houses called (and sold us a pic,of course) but to get to the point, he told us that, at the age of 14 (back in the 1950s), he bought a 1924 3 litre Bentley. His father made him take it back a week later and he ended up with a 1926 Austin 7 Chummy - which he still has (and still regrets the big green lorry!). Sounds to me as though he trumps anything any of us are likely to have started with. Mine was an MG PA if anyone is still listening.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

My first car was a 1971 Red VW Beetle--it had a heater and my Father-in -law put a radio in it for me---It had 20 thousand on the clock and when I sold it in 1986 I had clocked up 140 thousand miles--I loved that car!

Trust you to have a stylish car in your yoof Penners!!!!!

 

[LadyArowana]

As for Milady's 'second' car . . . I'm now rather intrigued about the main one. :wink:

It's the one on the right, took the picture before we traded the Ferrari for the Lambo. Sadly there's some idiot who always parks their grubby Toyota in the wrong space and we can't take a picture of the 2 together. :twisted:

 

[Flyfisher]

Surely you could tip the parking valet a bit more to find two adjacent places? :wink:

 

[LadyArowana]

Surely you could tip the parking valet a bit more to find two adjacent places? :wink:

The white car takes 2 spaces all to itself, and any third or subsequent cars are supposed to be parked on the Basement 2 level :wink:

 

[philpjuk100]

Scootercar! bought from the gamesmaster at school when it would not start to take him home,paid him a few weeks paper round money (17/6d a week) pushed it home and bought a new spark plug,used it for a year or so doing some quite long trips (the old lady in the pic is my 95 year old welsh grandmother.It had four reverse gears.sold it for £45 and bought a berkeley!.

 

[Penners]

Trust you to have a stylish car in your yoof Penners!!!!!

The Standard 8 was a million miles from stylish, Joss! It was a bog standard, [sic] ordinary jalopy. However, to the best of my (very limited) knowledge, it was the first car to have fold-down backrests on the rear seat, so that you could carry big things in the boot. In my case, this also meant that you could gain entry into the car via the boot (which had a busted lock) when you'd locked your keys inside.