Fond memories of cars gone by...

[Crankarm]

When Britain was producing the Ital, VW had been making Golfs for years!

I stand corrected Uncle Mort . Just goes to show then how truly crap BL was .

 

[Piemaster]

Found some pictures of the Skoda Coupe here. Err.. I actually quite like the looks but then I subscribe to Practical Performance Car so could see it with some sort of modern engine in it. IIRC they were very successful rally cars, though the major competition I think was Lada.

 

[eldudino]

Found some pictures of the Skoda Coupe here. Err.. I actually quite like the looks but then I subscribe to Practical Performance Car so could see it with some sort of modern engine in it. IIRC they were very successful rally cars, though the major competition I think was Lada.

That is a very nice looking car. Would be especially good with a big motor in it. There's a guy in Lincolnshire in the Mablethorpe area who has/had (he did when I worked in the local garage) a Chevelle with a V8 under the bonnet. It'd pull into the forecourt quietly burbling then he'd always give it some berries when driving away to my enjoyment!

 

[Toshiba Boy]

My father in law told me about his first car when he was at uni in the early 60's, a 30+ yr old Austin (IIRC).

He was part of the Uni Cycling Club, and as one of the few members to own a car, he had been volunteered to drive the race marshal on an important road race.

They reached the key climb of the day, and he was asked to speed the marshal past the riders to the top of the climb so he could judge the prime at the summit.

Imagine my father in laws embarrassment, when the ancient, underpowered Austin, could hardly make the steep, long Yorkshire climb, resulting in the bunch re-overtaking them on the slopes, much to the chagrin of "Mr" Marshal.

 

[XmisterIS]

My first car was a Fiat Tempra. It was sh1t. I hated it. The exhaust fell off. 0-60 in three weeks. Speedo went to 130 ... realistic top speed of 80.

I sold it and bought a Nissan Primera 2.0 Turbo ... sweeeet! I drove it until it fell to bits ... I loved that car!

Now I have a Ford Mondeo 2.0 TDCI Zetec. Very reliable car, very fuel efficient, good acceleration (for a car) but boring as hell to drive!

Mostly I ride the motorbike ... Suzuki SV650 ... 0-60 in 4 seconds ... now THAT is fun

 

[gbb]

A mate of mine had a Morris Ital. One of the back wheels fell off once when they were on their way to Bournmouth.

I remember following him down a dual carriageway once when it was at the end of its life and it was crabbing at such an angle you could almost see his eyes.

Remember the Austin 'Landcrab' AKA the 1800 ?.

 

[cisamcgu]

1982 - Mini Clubman 1100 - lovely car until my brother wrote it off
1984 - Austin 1100 (I think) - dreadful car; leaked, cr*ppy electrics, no brakes
1987 - Mini Metro - So reliable, but had to sell it what I moved to Tonga
1991 - Mini moke - The perfect car for a tropical island, if you ignore the complete lack of brakes and the steering being so stiff the passenger had to help pull the wheel if you needed to do a three-point turn; but Gods was it fun (Also owned a Yamaha YB100 - the only motorbike I have ever had)
1997 - Another mini metro
2000 - A sad sequence of humourless cars, all of which ran perfectly, always started, never rusted, but where never really loved like the first few I owned.


Andrew

 

[swee'pea99]

My father in law told me about his first car when he was at uni in the early 60's, a 30+ yr old Austin (IIRC).

He was part of the Uni Cycling Club, and as one of the few members to own a car, he had been volunteered to drive the race marshal on an important road race.

They reached the key climb of the day, and he was asked to speed the marshal past the riders to the top of the climb so he could judge the prime at the summit.

Imagine my father in laws embarrassment, when the ancient, underpowered Austin, could hardly make the steep, long Yorkshire climb, resulting in the bunch re-overtaking them on the slopes, much to the chagrin of "Mr" Marshal.

My Dad & Mum's first car was also some kind of baby Austin. On steep hills, it had to be driven up in reverse, because otherwise the gravity-driven fuel supply would cut out.

 

[colly]

One of the cars I have fond memories of is an Austin Cambridge. Just like this but black:

that I traded in my Mini Cooper for.

Having just decided to get married the mini was traded in for the banger.

Only it wasn't a banger. It had been owned by Bentall's the department store in Kingston and had been polished and looked after by a chauffeur, serviced and maintained by a main dealer and it ran as sweet as a nut.
Complete with leather bench seats and deep pile carpets it was like driving around in an armchair.
When I first moved up to Leeds from London I would drive it back every weekend for about a year, and went all over the country in it.
Not bad for 150 quid.
Sadly a rear leaf spring collapsed one afternoon and even though I managed to replace the spring I knew from the amount of rust the car was near the end.

It was a bit of a plodder especially compared to the Cooper but it had a great feel about it.

Oh, and it smelled nice.

 

[Over The Hill]

...Now I have a Ford Mondeo 2.0 TDCI Zetec.

WTF is a Zetec anyway?

Some Fords seem to go around without this written on the back, others seem to have it on but the all seem the same.

So do you want a Zetec and do you want to tell the world you have one?

 

[Piemaster]

Zetec is a range of Ford engines, for whatever reason it also transformed into a trim level on some cars, even ones that didn't have a zetec engine (Fiestas I think). They have now been superceded by the Duratec engines.

 

[twowheelsgood]

[quote name='swee'pea99']Morris Ital. Everything you ever needed to know about British Leyland in a nutshell.

'How can we get a year or two more out of this heap of crap car that everyone knows is a heap of crap? I know, let's smooth off the edges a bit and give it a new name, then no-one will twig that's it's still the same heap of crap car, just with the edges slightly smoothed off. Any suggestions for a name, gentlemen? 'Morris Ital'. Excellent, yes, suggests a sort of Italian je ne sais quoi, if you get my meaning. That'll fool, them. Good day's work everyone, let's knock off early and go for a pint.'

Morris Ital. Jesus.[/QUOTE]

Yep, the Marina from which the Ital was begat was actually only meant to live for 4-5 years. It was in effect a re-bodied, uprated Morris Minor (which is why Marina/Ital bits are so popular as ungrades for Minors e.g. disc brakes). So the Ital was stop-gap version of a stop-gap car.

The car that eventually became the Maestro and Montego was originally due to launch in 1976/7. Which would have made it pretty sophisticated compared to the then Ford cortina and Vauxhall Victor.

Trouble is British Leyland actually had some genuinely world-class engineering, but no money, millitant unions and ignorant management.

The mini was brilliant and the 1100/1300 really raised the game in small family cars. The Triumph and Rover 2000 created the executive market that the Germans own today (the Rover was BETTER than the contemporary small Mercedes which many now forget). Even into the 70s there was potential brilliance with the Stag, Rover SD1 and Dolomite sprint.

All very sad.

This is worth a read http://www.aronline.co.uk/

 

[GilesM]

Very interesting thread, amused by everyone who had the pleasure of some of BL's 70s finest, personally I think the Ital has to take the biscuit as the most shite.

My first car was a 1969 Mk2 cortina, pure class, under powered and amazing understeer, but it got me and mates to races when I was 18, 19. Then I went up market and got a 1977 Mk4 Cortina 2.0GL estate, shite car but perfect for the bikes and kit, we could get five track bikes in the boot and still have room for five people and kit. I then bought a '76 VW Sirrico, not so good for the bikes, but better when trying to pull.

Many years of company cars, but I also bought a Lotus Elise in 2003, this is just the perfect antidote to the Eurobox, not the most practical and virtually impossible to drive in bad winter conditions, but it always puts a smile on my face every time I start it up.

 

[Crankarm]

Yep, the Marina from which the Ital was begat was actually only meant to live for 4-5 years. It was in effect a re-bodied, uprated Morris Minor (which is why Marina/Ital bits are so popular as ungrades for Minors e.g. disc brakes). So the Ital was stop-gap version of a stop-gap car.

The car that eventually became the Maestro and Montego was originally due to launch in 1976/7. Which would have made it pretty sophisticated compared to the then Ford cortina and Vauxhall Victor.

Trouble is British Leyland actually had some genuinely world-class engineering, but no money, millitant unions and ignorant management.

The mini was brilliant and the 1100/1300 really raised the game in small family cars. The Triumph and Rover 2000 created the executive market that the Germans own today (the Rover was BETTER than the contemporary small Mercedes which many now forget). Even into the 70s there was potential brilliance with the Stag, Rover SD1 and Dolomite sprint.

All very sad.

This is worth a read http://www.aronline.co.uk/

BL were certainly class, a class act more like it. Many of the cars were hopeless poor performers, with terrible handling, durability and VFM. The Morris 1100/1300 were god awful cars. The best thing to happen to them was John Cleese giving one a public thrashing in Fawlty Towers for refusing to start. The Rover SD1 was notoriously unreliable. Filming the Professionals the production company had a whole fleet on standby as the cars regularly broke down. The Dolly Sprint was also unreliable due to the cyclinder heads warping. Nope if any BL cars were really any good then the company would have survived. Where are Mercedes, VW and BMW now? I think this hammers it home the crap that the British car manufacturers produced in the 1970s.

Which Vauxhall Victor and what mark Cortina as these were 1950s and 60s cars ? The Maestro and Montego were 1980s cars. Just shows you BL were always a decade behind. In the 1960s they were still producing 1950s cars. The only ever ground breaking car they had was the Mini and they managed to destroy that. They even ballsed up a huge marketing opportunity with the Italian job. Fiat offered as many cars as the film required in contrast BL were obstructive and dismissive. Sums it up really. BL at the time couldn't have sold ice cold Cokes on a baking summer's afternoon.

Triumph cars weren't too bad although they were no great shakes. Rovers were just heavy under performing barges.

 

[Crankarm]

One of the cars I have fond memories of is an Austin Cambridge. Just like this but black:

that I traded in my Mini Cooper for.

Having just decided to get married the mini was traded in for the banger.

Only it wasn't a banger. It had been owned by Bentall's the department store in Kingston and had been polished and looked after by a chauffeur, serviced and maintained by a main dealer and it ran as sweet as a nut.
Complete with leather bench seats and deep pile carpets it was like driving around in an armchair.
When I first moved up to Leeds from London I would drive it back every weekend for about a year, and went all over the country in it.
Not bad for 150 quid.
Sadly a rear leaf spring collapsed one afternoon and even though I managed to replace the spring I knew from the amount of rust the car was near the end.

It was a bit of a plodder especially compared to the Cooper but it had a great feel about it.

Oh, and it smelled nice.

I bet you're now gutted you traded in your Mini Cooper....
It looks smart.