Which Car Do You Remember with Affection from your Youth?

[smokeysmoo]

Austin Princess, DCP 209V in Champagne Gold. I really don't know why I remember that car so well over all the cars my Dad had, mentally scarred perhaps

Then I remember going with my Dad when he changed it. He had to collect his new car from Appleyard Contracts, (Huddersfield IIRC), and it was replaced with a X reg MK5 Cortina GL in silver

 

[Profpointy]

The best British car we never had! The muddled thinking of BL was truly staggering, they could have dropped the Chrysler V8 in from the Range Rover etc but instead decided to weld two Dolomite engines together, amazing.

Whilst there is something in that, their problem was they didn't have time or money to sort out the stag engine properly, rather than anything wrong with the dolly engine itself. Hey, the 16 valve dolly spring predated the hot hatches by a decade or more. Also the dolly engine got licenced to Saab and was evolved considerably to become the splendid 2.3 turbo in my 95. A full sorted stag v8 could eventually have been a rather more sophisticated thing than the chrysler / rover v8. But it wasn't, as you say.

 

[Accy cyclist]

Do any of you remember the word Demick? I think that's how it was spelt. It was used to describe a car that was a banger. Why we didn't just call it a banger i don't know. Maybe it was a local word,not used nationally. "Don't buy it,it's a right demick", was often heard when looking over a rusty car that'd seen better days. I still use the word but i haven't heard anyone else use it in decades.

 

[Profpointy]

Or is a dolomite engine one half of a stag one?

Dolly first. I believe one half of the stag V8 is essentially a dolly engine, but the other half is a mirror image. Thus one stag cylinder head is cheap enough but the mirror image one is rarer and dearer as it is only for the stag. At least that's what I heard somewhere along the way.

A mate has a lovely stag, with a stag engine. I understand there are various improvements over the years by enthusiasts and garages so they are now reasonably ok.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I think of all the family cars we had when I was a kid the Renault 4 was my favourite, we had two of these in all. When I see one now (not that you do very often) I'm amazed that a family of five could go camping for a week or two in one of these as they seem so tiny!

 

[Profpointy]

[QUOTE 5107441, member: 45"]It looks great but it's a truly rubbish car. Poor handling, underpowered, dodgy engine, unreliable, rusty.

The GT6 was a better car, or the Dolomite Sprint, or the Vitesse.[/QUOTE]

Did the stag not handle well, at least by the standard of the day? Never driven one, but whilst the vitesse was fun to drive, it was clearly over-powered for the chassis and the stag was a generation or two more modern. I'm really suprised that a 3l v8 would be considered underpowered too.

Reliability - well yes, that is notorious, but most cars of that ere rusted badly - certainly my vitesse had

 

[raleighnut]

Whilst there is something in that, their problem was they didn't have time or money to sort out the stag engine properly, rather than anything wrong with the dolly engine itself. Hey, the 16 valve dolly spring predated the hot hatches by a decade or more. Also the dolly engine got licenced to Saab and was evolved considerably to become the splendid 2.3 turbo in my 95. A full sorted stag v8 could eventually have been a rather more sophisticated thing than the chrysler / rover v8. But it wasn't, as you say.

SAAB shared the development costs, it was designed by Ricardo, The main trouble was the 'non parallel' head bolts and studs (Bolts one side and studs/nuts the other) Oh and the crappy 'jackshaft' driven water waterpump on the 1709 and 1850 engines.

 

[Profpointy]

SAAB shared the development costs, it was designed by Ricardo, The main trouble was the 'non parallel' head bolts and studs (Bolts one side and studs/nuts the other) Oh and the crappy 'jackshaft' driven water waterpump on the 1709 and 1850 engines.

Oo, that's a very eminent name to be associated with it.

 

[Illaveago]

Can you tell what this is ?
It needs a lot of wok doing to it, but it was fast.

 

[Accy cyclist]

I think of all the family cars we had when I was a kid the Renault 4 was my favourite, we had two of these in all. When I see one now (not that you do very often) I'm amazed that a family of five could go camping for a week or two in one of these as they seem so tiny now.

View attachment 390441

There was something unusual about that car. I worked at a local Renault dealer in 1979, as a car valeter,deliverer (Yes i've actually driven a brand new Silver Shadow Rolls Royce, which was the owners )and general dogsbody. If i remember rightly it had either its gear leaver or handbrake leaver on the dashboard.

 

[raleighnut]

There was something unusual about that car. I worked at a local Renault dealer in 1979, as a car valeter,deliverer (Yes i've actually driven a brand new Silver Shadow Rolls Royce, which was the owners )and general dogsbody. If i remember rightly it had either its gear leaver or handbrake leaver on the dashboard.

Gear lever stuck out from the Dash on the 4.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

When I was maybe 14, so very early 1970s, dad had a Hillman Husky and an Imp. We lived on a mothballed RAF airbase at the time and one day the Vintage Motorcycle Club descended on the runway for an event, mostly standing start 1/4 milers probably on every kind of bike from Velocettes to Triumphs..almost all ancient bikes even then. But (I'm taking my time getting to the point) one guy had a drag bike with an Imp engine, fastest bike there by a country mile...it was all pipes and chrome...awesome to a 14 YO. I can still hear the distinctive vroom from it now,

The smell, the noise, it was the best thing ever at the time.

Norimps (Norton with an Imp engine) were quite the thing at one time -

 

[Blue Hills]

My first car was my mum's old

View attachment 390318

Loved it to bits. It could turn on a sixpence. Riddled with rust (you could see the road beneath your feet, and when it rained heavily you'd arrive with soaked shoes). Excellent to drive. Sadly had to scrap it in the end after a wheel fell off.

Always liked those. Had an idea to buy one when I was older but fortunately managed to avoid the bother of actually owning a car, two company cars with all my misdeeds taken care of, last one crashed into a police car.
Great thread. Wondering if anything Italian might turn up.

 

[Blue Hills]

Gear lever stuck out from the Dash on the 4.

Yes I seem to remember that. Was it safe? Can you do that these days? Visions of drivers being impaled/stuck in a gear in the worst possible way.

 

[User10571]

Can you tell what this is ?
It needs a lot of wok doing to it, but it was fast. View attachment 390442

Almost certainly UK built.
SU Carbs.
Lockheed hydraulics for brakes and clutch.
Ignition coil from Joseph Lucas, The Prince of Darkness.
You'll not find many of those bits on a European car, except (possibly) the SUs.
Tho I'm struggling to think of a 4 pot engined car, that had a forward tipping bonnet - Actually, dollies did, didn't they?

My money is on a Dolomite.