Fond memories of cars gone by...

[GilesM]

The only ever ground breaking car they had was the Mini and they managed to destroy that.

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

I would say the Maxi was pretty good and a wee bit ground breaking, it was a large (for the time) front drive hatch back, with quite a good 1750 engine and a five speed box, mind you, it was well passed it's sell by date by the time it stopped production.

I also have to take issue with your Rover comment, the SD1 in V8 vitesse clothing was very quick, I agree, not always too reliable, but if I had room in the garage I would consider one as a renovation project.

 

[Cranky]

Ford Cortina estate, circa 1980.

As it got older, winter starting involved taking out the plugs, heating them over the gas hob and replacing. I heard that this was quite common practice with this particular marque.

 

[Over The Hill]

I had two Dolly Sprints, wrapped the first round a telegraph pole but second one survived my driving.
BL took what was really a bit of a grannys car (it was dated and the inside was full of wood cappings etc) and sticking a great 16 valve unit in it plus overdrive (young people look it up on wiki). But when they then had a sports car (TR7 etc) they went and put the engine out of the Marina in it!
Amongst the BL range they has some really good cars and some really good engine setups but rarely did the two appear in the same car.

I really loved my Ford Granada



well actually it was a ford Consul - same as a Granada but a low spec version. I got it and put Granada badges on it and painted the bit on the back black to make it look like a Granada. Mate of mine had a police spec mk2 granada - that shifted!

I had a Maxi, Spitfire mk 4, two dolly sprints, a mini 850, SD1 2600, TR7 from the BL stable. The SD1 seemed best for pulling but bits dropped off it at an alarming rate (including the anti roll bar which left the front wheel almost dropping off).

 

[Hilldodger]

My first car, aged 13 in 1975, was a 1934 Austin 7. A chap around the village had it in a barn and said he'd swap it for a grandfather clock! He knew my parents had several and wanted one, so I nipped home, did a deal with the folks for 15 shillings, and took it back on a wheelbarrow.

I then rounded up my mates who pushed me up the High Street, down Bell Lane - past the Police House - and home.

I did loads of work on it but never got to drive it more than around the garden (which was very large)

I then bought a vintage tractor because you could get a tractor licence at 16

 

[Crankarm]

I would say the Maxi was pretty good and a wee bit ground breaking, it was a large (for the time) front drive hatch back, with quite a good 1750 engine and a five speed box, mind you, it was well passed it's sell by date by the time it stopped production.

Indeed they were very ground breaking as the engines were known to literally drop out of them . My Grandad had a white one from new. It smelt of plastic looked like plastic and fell to pieces like cheap plastic.

I also have to take issue with your Rover comment, the SD1 in V8 vitesse clothing was very quick, I agree, not always too reliable, but if I had room in the garage I would consider one as a renovation project.

An uncle, on the other side of my family now, had a blue Rover SD1 V8 Vitesse from new. He bought it in Belgium (RHD) and picked it up at the docks at Dunkirk or wherever when it was a lot cheaper to buy cars over there than in the UK and drive them back here. The interior was cramped and cheap looking to me although I never told him so for such a big top of the range car. The instruments were a case in point. The clock never worked from day 1. The seats weren't much better which jammed after about 1 year as they were electric. The engine made a nice noise but it didn't go that quickly. Driving it was painful as the seat positioning in relation to the pedals and to steering wheel was awful. The electrics were awful as well. It had little rust protection despite being kept in a well ventillated dry garage. It wanted for nothing but still cost a fortune to keep going. In the end after about 12 years of ownership and 41,000 miles my uncle let it go to some bloke who came all the way down to south London from Glasgow for £800 I think.

Prior to the Rover he had had a Triumph 2.5 PI Mk 2 with overdrive in burgundy red which I loved especially the dash and it dashed as well. And prior to this when I was quite small he had had a 2.5 PI Mark1 which he swore was a much better and faster car. A work colleague of my uncle who I later came to know quite well claimed he had hit 125mph in it going down Shooter's Hill one evening. Mind you this was dismissed as a bit of a tall story by all those who knew work colleague Peter as he wouldn't take the company van above 50mph on the motorway when he was driving. Getting to Scotland with him driving took days. Anyway apparently the Triumph 2.5 PI Mk 1 was the best saloon of the time. I was told it had the TR5 engine in it which was initially used in the TR6 until that was detuned like the 2.5 PI Mk2 saloon for the American market. Apparently the Lucas fuel injection systems used to have a habit of catching fire as the pumps became very hot! Good old British engineering.

 

[Crankarm]

My first car, aged 13 in 1975, was a 1934 Austin 7. A chap around the village had it in a barn and said he'd swap it for a grandfather clock! He knew my parents had several and wanted one, so I nipped home, did a deal with the folks for 15 shillings, and took it back on a wheelbarrow.

Wasn't decimalisation in 1971 or '72?

 

[swee'pea99]

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

My mate John's dad had a black one of these - immaculate, loved, nurtured, polished from new for years and years. The day after he passed his test, John managed to get it on its roof on Hammersmith Broadway. To this day I don't know how he managed it.

 

[Vikeonabike]

My First car was a BRG Triumph Dolomite 1300, Lovely wooden dash, comfy seats. Really wanted a 1500 or sprint but at 19 couldn't afford the insurance. Had a beetle and two type 2 vans after that. Loved those.
My favourite was my 3 Door Toyota RAV 4, like a Nova on steroids!

 

[Hilldodger]

Wasn't decimalisation in 1971 or '72?

73 wasn't it? But it took a long time to get used to the new foreign money.

And anyway, I still use trems like "50 Bob".

And I do ride a penny farthing.

 

[Piemaster]

TR7. I had one for a while and another example of poor management spoiling a potentially decent car. Engine bay was ALWAYS big enough for the rover V8 - don't believe it was accidental either. Engineers sneaking something past the management/accountants.

Far too heavy for a sporting car, there is an RSJ hiding behind the front bumper, and no soft top until near the end of its life - again poor management as they were looking to sell to american market so built it to conform to yank rules that were not introduced. Compete with American home grown V8s with a marina engine - bizarre

I also had a Stag with a Rover V8 - again why was a V8 developed for the Stag (and the only car it was used in) when there was a Rover engine available?

Incidentally my TR7 had the 16V sprint engine in it. Much better than the 8V.

Think this all comes to that the engineers/designers actually did a decent job but were let down by lack of money for development, poor build quality and poor management - too many similar models competing with each other and to he wrong markets.

 

[Piemaster]

Just remembered in didn't change even at the end of Rover - there was that supercar thing (can't remember the name) they did with a big V8 in it. Again done on a shoestring but no real market for it.

TR7 build quality - story was that if the doors didn't shut properly the solution was a length of 4x2 jammed in a suitable place and jumped on!

 

[Hilldodger]

We used to have a friend of the family by the name of Dick Twist. His job throughout to 60's and 70's was boss of special developments at Rover/BL.

Basically his team would bodge engines or whatever into production cars and test them to see what happened. None of them ever got into production but he didn't really care, if he wanted to put a V8 into a Maxi his team could do it.

Then one day new management called in to see what this shed at the edge of the site was doing and within weeks his tream was closed down.

 

[gbb]

Just remembered a funny incident from some years ago...
One guy at work had an old, but roadworthy Wolesey summitorother...the Austin 1100/Morris 1300 shape but better. The hydrolastic suspension had dropped on one side...'can you guys tell me whats wrong (to the team of engineers at work)
'Yeah, it wants pumping up...there's a schraeder type valve on it'...i'll get the airline and pump it up'

I said 'you're not serious are you...thats oil that goes in there, not air'

'Nah...its air' said one of the engineers.

Being the younger member of the team i thought, well get on with it then...this is going to be fun

The more they tried to pump it up, the more it dropped...

So one of the other guys said 'get a forklift under it, lift it, then you'll get more pressure in it'

I'm loving it at this point

Forklift in place, lift...and the sills just crumbled

Slowly...all the engineers started to sulk away

The poor guy drove his car out with the wheel rubbing chronically on the arch, sills crushed, parked in in the carpark, 10 times worse than when he brought it in....and scrapped it a few weeks later.

Lesson learned that day...just cos you've got engineers on the job, doesnt mean they know what they're doing

 

[Black Sheep]

TR7. I had one for a while and another example of poor management spoiling a potentially decent car. Engine bay was ALWAYS big enough for the rover V8 - don't believe it was accidental either. Engineers sneaking something past the management/accountants.

Far too heavy for a sporting car, there is an RSJ hiding behind the front bumper, and no soft top until near the end of its life - again poor management as they were looking to sell to american market so built it to conform to yank rules that were not introduced. Compete with American home grown V8s with a marina engine - bizarre

I also had a Stag with a Rover V8 - again why was a V8 developed for the Stag (and the only car it was used in) when there was a Rover engine available?

Incidentally my TR7 had the 16V sprint engine in it. Much better than the 8V.

Think this all comes to that the engineers/designers actually did a decent job but were let down by lack of money for development, poor build quality and poor management - too many similar models competing with each other and to he wrong markets.

there was a V8 put in the TR8, hence the name for what was essentially the same vehicle.

the reason it didn't have a soft top is because they thought at any time there would be roll over regulations that would stop the sale of the car and didn't want to risk it, hence the Stag's huge roll over T bar.

The Triumph and Rover V8 fiasco was due to the management of not sharing things between its brands, rover didn't want a lowly triumph using its engines etc.

 

[mickle]

Odd that Rover should be so precious about the V8 when they had bought it as an unwanted lump from a back room of the Buick factory.