My first car

[User]

 

[Dayvo]

That hole in the roof! Is that where the key went?

 

[Aperitif]

That hole in the roof! Is that where the key went?

Nope. It's where the gold standard padlock + chain passes through on it's way round a lamppost...

 

[wafflycat]

My first car was a mini. A bright red Mini CityE, bought brand new.

 

[Globalti]

I like the matt black. Before long all cars are going to be matt.

 

[wafflycat]

I like the matt black. Before long all cars are going to be matt.

Mine was called Thomas

 

[gbb]

Was it a proper clubman MisterP or was that the fibreglass Clubman front end that was popular for a while.
850 or 1000. I assume its not a 1275 , they dont look like 12 inch wheels.

Nice cars anyways. I used to love Minis.

My first one was a 1960 850. MKS 988 was the reg ( i can remember plenty of my old reg nos)...Black..i got it in 1976, so it was at the end of its life then.. Knackered the engine, driving it like a lunatic

 

[longers]

We picked up someone's Mini once and moved it round the back of the sixth form block and put it in the garden over a pond.

Lovely cars, mum had a couple and a few friends had them too.

 

[gbb]

It was an 1100 Clubman. S-reg. Bought it from my dad's mate's daughter for £600. She'd just had a new engine put in it. It was brown, but I sprayed it myself with tins of paint from Halfords. It was a great car. I learned all my mechanic skills on it, including replacing the rear subframe when I went round a corner too fast in the rain, spun it, and whacked the back wheel sideways against the kerb.

About 4 years later I bought another one. It was a T-reg, but the owner had completely rebuilt it with a 1300 race-prepped engine. He was desperate for the money, so he sold it to me for a steal as long as I promised not to tell his dad how much he'd let it go for.

Minis are great cars. Much better than those nasty, fake ones you get these days. I remember going out for the day in a friend's with him driving and 5 other passengers not including myself.

This was a double edged sword with old cars. You could learn how to do your own maintenance..because you had to, the boomin things were'nt too reliable. Wouldnt know where to start nowadays if you were still 17. I got immense pleasure from learning car maintenance on mine. A neccessary evil though.

One of my later cars had a 1300 engine in, albeit a standard version. A female friend of mine had a saloon with a souped up 1300 in it. The freekin thing was sooooo powerful, you couldnt get any traction when pulling away...all it did was wheelspin everywhere

 

[Over The Hill]

I also had a 1500 Spitfire later on. That was so great to work on, as the whole front end hinged forwards and you could sit on a wheel to work on the engine.

Same here - Mine was sky blue when I got it and I resprayed it British Racing Green!
I slid down a hill in the ice and front ended it in a bank and it just bent up the whole front was pushed half way up the windscreen. Carried on to work and bent it all back in my lunch break.

Depressing thing is I could change a gearbox in that (and add overdrive) but I doubt if I can find the sparkplugs on my present car.

The one I pine over is my Dolly Sprint, it had a full length webasto sunroof. Super cool car, would leave anything behind from the lights.

 

[Dave5N]

I've seen that in Weoley Castle.

It's got big Bass Bins now.

 

[rich p]

My first car was a crapy Hillman Minx which I swapped with my brother in law for his soft to Morris Minor. Now that was a car!

 

[User482]

My mum had a mini clubman 1100. Cool car, but a little prone to rust. I remember when she had a puncture - the jack went straight through the jacking point.

 

[Maz]

Why blank out the number plate.

Is it up for sale on ebay? blanking out the number plate stops people doing HP checks on it!

 

[Arch]

oh! My first (and so far only) car was a Mini - a proper one not a Clubman and it was brown with a beige roof, and I painted the roof with stripes so it looked like a mint humbug from the top. I have a photo at home, will have to get it scanned....

It also rusted to bits (in the end it had Flintstone drive - you could stick your feet through the floor) and had a special poor weather safety feature - in snow, ice, cold or wet, it wouldn't start..

But I did love it. I'd like another one day