First Cars-car tales and pictures

[NewcastleFalcon]

Well apologies straight away for going off-category already but my crop of first cars doesn't include a single French Car.

It does include 2 with Hydrolastic suspension though! Join in with your own pics, could turn out to be an interesting trip down memory lane. Of course if you look at the crop I have put up, they do date me pretty accurately.

Here's the pic


We have, An Austin J4 Van, a A55 Pick Up, and a Hillman Super Minx all pre legal age farm track driving and acquired by a friend of mine who lived even further out in the sticks than me.

Then we have the Austin 1800 the family car at the time, and surprisingly as I found out from here it was the European Car of the Year in 1965 , and my first car was an Austin Mini 1000 with hydrolastic suspension (although the pic is of a Mini Cooper of similar vintage which was several notches more desirable than my 1000)

The driving school car I learned in was not a Nissan but a Datsun Cherry



regards Neil

PS If you put 1994 into the European car of the Year box you will discover the vehicle which scored 26 points more than the Citroen Xantia, with the Xantia having to settle for second place

[CitroJim]

My first was a Mini. Old English White, Delux and 1964 vintage. I passed my test 9first time) in it.

Second was an Austin 1300 then my first R4, then a Poxhall Viva (worst car ever) then another R4 and R5, then lots of Metros and then French from there on in. And then there were the motorbikes.

This was one of mine:



I have many tales to tell about them all but time precludes right now. If interested I'll tell all. sadly no pictures.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Why has memory of this Marianne Faithful film just flicked across my mind ...

Carrying on the artistic theme this was my second-car



regards Neil

[BW]

I started with motorbikes, first a Kerry Capitano



Later I had a Suzuki 500 like Jims above



and still have my 400/4



now almost restored.

[citronut]

she certainly has a nice pair of struts

[CitroJim]

she certainly has a nice pair of struts

And handlebars

BW, I had a T500 and a GT500 before moving onto a GT550 triple. I planned to get a GT750 'Kettle' but family intervened... The GT550 was the last bike I ever had. It was a close run thing in 2004 when I was able to once again peruse automotive pastimes whether or not to have another bike or a car to play with. In the end the car won out and I got the car I lusted after when they were current: a Pug 205GTi.

And here she is:



That car and an MG Metro Turbo I had brand-new back in 1986 remain two of my favourite cars... Wish I still had them both.

Luckily I still have two more of my favourite cars... You know what they are

The MG Metro was my last brand-new car before I bought the C1 quite recently.

[daviemck2006]

My first car was a Simca 1301, inherited from an uncle. What a rust bucket it was, but hey ho it was free! I got it through an MOT with a boot floor consisting mainly of a sheet of hardboard held down with duck tape, and ball joints so bad that you turned the steering wheel about 40* before the wheels moved. When it died my dads pal who had one took it off me for spares. Second car, also inherited was an austin allegro 1.1 with optional holes in the floor and hydragas suspension that was so low on one side that you thought it was going to tip over. The cure, burst a pipe on the other side and that was it lowered! Again it was not long before it died then I used my dads vauxhall astra mk1 as he was either at sea or had the boats dormobile when at home. He eventually bought another astra and left me with his "old" one, which was only 2 years old at the time, I loved that cac so much, it was a 1.3GL, that I traded it for a 1.6SRI when I could afford it. That really made me one of the boys with an SRI until vauxhall spoilt it and introduced the GTE. Never had one of them, but if I could afford an old car and could find an unmolested mk1 1.8GTE in white.............

[NewcastleFalcon]

Davie

Is this the type of thing you started out with......looks pretty good to me



regards Neil

[daviemck2006]

Yes Neil, thats exactly the car. Mine was dark brown, there was the 1301 and 1501 and I think a super version of them both. Mine was 1301 which made it a 1300. I did like it, and it was streets ahead, in my opinion, than the escorts and vivas of its day, and probably the allegro that replaced it!!!!! It was rear wheel drive and with bald back tyres could do donuts in the wet. When these old cars lost traction at very low speeds it really learned us car control with little danger really. Not like nowadays when even basic cars do well over 100mph and grip far more, so when they start sliding and crash its ats far higher speeds. make all youngsters that pass their tests drive about in marinas and allegros

[NewcastleFalcon]

My first mini was the start of learning how to fix cars myself, subframes, clutches, hydrolastic pipes etc etc. It also was a top quality learning driving experience. When the snow packed the country roads up around us i would take the mini up to a couple of "5 road ends" cross roads and slide it and skate it around the corners like a diy skid pan.
The only danger if any was to myself, and possibly embedding the car in a snow drift and having to extracate it with a bit of shovelling.

regards Neil

[BW]

I remember changing the handlebars on the GT 500 within a week of getting it. Not only did they make it very uncomfortable because of wind pressure, but they were rubber mounted to help ease vibration meaning that they moved back and forth a lot when accelerating or braking.
My first car was a mk 1 Escort, followed by a Morris 1100 and then a Datsun 120. Next came a GS, life changing as I've had a Citroen of some sort ever since (BXs 2cv and Xantia). I do tend to keep them a long time, 22 years so far for my 2cv and 13 for my Xantia.
Family may have saved you as the GT 750 'Kettle' was a particularly evil handling machine if I remember correctly.

[NewcastleFalcon]

BW, your pics links from your post dont work for me and my machinery. Is this what your Kerry Capitano looked like?



I like your succession of cars, the mark 1 escort was a popular choice from my era too, and if "Wheeler Dealers" (the TV Show) is to be believed, a vehicle which is commanding quite a price now for good examples.

A couple of posters so far have also admitted to having and Austin/Morris 1100/1300 presumably in their youth! I remember a friend of mine getting one from his grandad, the rotting subframe mounts were compulsory. Even the dreaded Vauxhall Viva was cool compared to the old 1100/1300 at the time



regards Neil

[Northern_Mike]

My first car was this beauty..



A 120L Estelle, 1982 model. Sadly this is the only picture I've got of it. I acquired it in 1988 for the princely sum of £90 with 33,000 miles on the clock. It was so cheap as the insurance company had written it off - the missing back bumper, bent rear chassis outrigger and rear crossmember, the broken headlight and the ruined gearshift told the tale. The original owner from new, an older gentleman, had a sloping drive way , in fact, his house is the bungalow here :



Now, if I tell you that he parked nose-in, and left the handbrake off.... it's easy to see why the car might have rolled down his drive, across the road, down the grass banking and ended at about 60 degrees to vertical resting on it's rear OS corner in the river. The front wing was damaged when it fell into the river when it was pulled out.

I fixed it for about a tenner and a bit of filler and paint!

Like others, I found driving underpowered, low-grip, ill handling cars at slow speed a great help in learning how to control a car!

Was the GT750 kettle that horrid 2-smoke tourer type thing? I have ridden one, years and years ago. It was pretty horrible compared to the RGV250 smoker I had at the time. I rode a Suzuki with a square-4 smoker, a sporty thing around the same time, but I can't remember what it was. It was pretty good fun though!

[BW]

BW, your pics links from your post dont work for me and my machinery. Is this what your Kerry Capitano looked like?

Sorry about the links, they work for me. Yes that's it, except mine was green and red. I also had an FS1E and an RD200 before the GT500.
I loved the Suzuki triples at the time (and the Kawasakis) but the 750 was a bit too heavy I think.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Well I might as well lob in my own "first bike", of course mine was never this shiny and clean



It was one of the best deals I have made. Paid £180 for it, sold it for £180 and got my test passed when bike test passing wasn't the convoluted expensive process which it is now.

My friend who supplied the van, the pick-up and the Hillman Minx also had an Ariel 350 for riding around the farm tracks. I can still recall vividly him "bump starting" the big and heavy Ariel 350 as he hurtled down a steep farm track, when it fired up it was like a bomb had gone off!

regards Neil