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I've owned a few cars, nothing spectacular, but as with most Brit
males, they were enjoyed and cosseted etc...
I'll try and put some of my photos with these ramblings, in
time, - but for now its other people's pics.....
| 1-Mar-64 | 1-Oct-67 | VW Beetle (first car) - registration 977 TKL - red -
Purchase Price ?465. this is me and mine!!
Bought from Colnbrook Motors near Heathrow,
Paul Tucker
was with me for the test drive - the demonstrator "ran out of petrol" on the M4
and thumbed a lift back to the garage - meanwhile we just sat there until
another Beetle came up behind us - a guy in overalls (one of Colnbrook Motors'
mechanics) jumped out to ask if we needed help - we explained and he
said......." running out of petrol..... that's the only thing that'll stop a
Beetle!!" - and off he went... I was sold!! I enjoyed waving to other Beetle
drivers, and can remember going to Paul Tucker's house early on (he had an
Austin A30) and we were discussing cars with his dad (Ern - who had a yellow
Ford Anglia - the one with the backward slanting rear window) and he asked where
the battery was? I knew the engine was in the boot, but had never seen a
battery, so I told him it didn't have one. We eventually found it under the rear
seat!!
Brilliant car - drove it from 40,000 to 100,000 miles, sold it to Andy
Roland. | | 1-Oct-67 | 24-Dec-68 | Lotus Elan - convertible - yellow
mine had black bumpers and no
roll-over cage - thanks to http://www.lotuselan.net/uploads/troberds_side.jpg
Bought from Mike Spence (he used to be a Formula One driver, but sadly died
at Indianapolis (I think)) Racing in Maidenhead.
Bassy was
with me on first inspection - and he had a relative working there - very
unreliable car - remember driving along a quiet country road and feeling the
right rear wheel run over something large. Thought "I didn't see anything ahead,
and if I missed seeing it - why didn't the front right bump too?" - it was my
alternator - had come unglued, fell out, and I ran over the blooming thing!!
Christmas Eve I heard on the Radio that cops were going to be tough on
drink/driving this year - and because I was so "obvious", I decided to drink no
alcohol that day - went to a couple of parties, and driving home was
congratulating myself on my sobriety, snow was falling - about midnight, coming
along the M4 near Heathrow turnoff, middle lane, 50mph, Mini ahead I was
catching it at about 3 mph - and stupidly decided to overtake it using the
outside lane - which had freshly fallen snow, both right-side tyres skidded as
they went into the snow - I waltzed around two or three 360's, whilst overtaking
the mini, careened across all three lanes and smashed into a lamp-post. Just
scratches, undid seat belt, heard hissing sound, thought it was going to blow
up, stood straight up on my seat - don't know where the hood had gone, and
stepped out of the passenger door - which also wasn't there... my poor car....
fibre-glass in collision with a lamp-post leaves smaller bits of fibre-glass -
everywhere. I last saw that car (written-off) in a big plastic bag at Mike
Spence's garage. |
| 15-Jan-69 | 1-Oct-69 | Lotus Elan BRM - convertible - yellow with green go-faster
stripes GPR 665E this is mine, in
Switzerland, with Aileen on way to Italy!!
Also bought from Mike Spence, also very unreliable. I got so fed up with it
breaking down - most often in my garage overnight!! I'd arrive home, next
morning the clutch didn't work - the clutch-fluid pipe was plastic and came into
contact with something hot, burnt a hole and - no cluch!! The Mike Spence people
were Joe Cool though - they just started it up (in my garage) and without a
clutch, selected reverse gear, drove out, and 15 miles to their garage - all
without a left pedal!!
On one holiday I had proof of 140mph average speed over about 20+ miles of
French Autoroute - IBM punched card at Toll-Booth at start gave time and
distance - then the End Booth provided its time and distance - hood off - Aileen
(we'd been on holiday to Italy - where it had broken down again - clutch
problems fixed by a Ford dealer) slept through most of it - 140mph average!!
Crazy!!
In the end, I traded it in for a Fiat 500 - which felt like a roller skate in
comparison!! | | 1-Oct-69 | 1-Mar-70 | Fiat 500 - dark blue - ?500
this isn't mine, but it was exactly the same - thanks to
http://www.fiat500club.org.uk/gallery/marie/aaf, for the pic..
Max speed was 55mph, my head touched the roof - that's why I nearly always
had the sun-roof open. At 1900 Programming we got 9 old pence per mile when
traveling on company business - this car cost about 3 pence per mile to run -
and I was thinking of getting a second one (pair of roller skates) to make twice
the killing (silly!) Lots of fun with the boys at 1900, 7 or 8 of us trying to
get into it to go to Paradiso et Inferno - Geoff Whittam getting in - putting
his file of papers on the roof, we drive off, get to restaurant Jeff realises
he's lost his file - I flop closed the Sun-Roof - there's his file - all intact.
Also Polatch
in his Triumph Herald pushing me out into oncoming traffic, I standing on the
brakes, also revving in reverse gear - but still getting pushed into the traffic
- silly times!!
Great little car - totally reliable - left it behind when I went to South
Africa. | | 1-May-70 | 1-Jul-70 | GM Ranger - white - South Africa - rental,

Crashed it (total write off) on way back from Durban to Jo'burg - ran
straight in the back of a car that had stopped in the middle of the road because
he had run over a rabbit. I came over a hill, on the downslope, overtook another
car, just as I'm pulling to the left to get back in my lane - this clown stops
ahead!! | | 1-Jul-70 | 1-Jul-72 | Chrysler Valiant Rebel - White - company car, South Africa
mine was all white - thanks to http://www.dyna.co.za/cars/68-Valiant-f.jpg
Very good car - from brand new - 3.6 litre engine, automatic, drove
everywhere - very reliable. |
| 1-Jul-72 | 31-Jan-73 | Ford Escort - ex-Chiswell car,
leaked oil, end of South Africa | | 5-Feb-73 | 1-Jan-74 | MGB GT - dark blue
No its not me - but mine was dark
blue - thaks to http://www.garage24.net/MGMain.htm
Bought this on our return from South Africa, rear-axle broke within a couple
of weeks - rubbish! |
| 15-Mar-73 | 1-Mar-75 | VW Beetle - Blue - alas this too was unreliable and had to
go quite quickly |
| 1-Feb-74 | 1-Mar-74 | Renault 4 - white
thanks to
http://www.renault4.plus.com/gallery/peoplespics/PPi/PP82.htm for the pic -
here's something not a lotta people know - the left side of the car was a
different length to the right side, and the easiest way of identifying it was to
measure the gap between the front of the rear wheel-arch to the back-edge of the
rear door - it'd be something like1.5 inches on 1 side, and 2.5 inches on the
other - a really enjoyable car except it had no floor (rusted away) and the
clutch pedal broke off one day in the middle of a busy cross-roads!! This was my
introduction to very adaptable cars.... hence the next one..... |
| 1-Mar-74 | 1-Apr-81 | Citroen Dyane - red
also not mine - thanks to http://www.eurolab.at/~groebner/dyane/pics/dyane2E.htm
Registration TYX 465M - new - excellent car - so adaptable, 5 doors, roof
comes off, seats come out easily etc.. - super car!! | | 1-Apr-77 | 3-Apr-78 | Chrysler Alpine - Beige
thanks to http://perso.wanadoo.es/chrysler150/england.html
This was a Bell & Howell company car, OK'ish - bit underpowered (1300cc) -
and Wal and I wrote it off in a spectacular crash up the M1 one rainy morning -
on our way to Dublin to give a course. I was driving, in the outside lane, saw
lots of brake lights up ahead, slowed down, there was an accident ahead, Wal put
on the hazzard warning lights, and I checked my rear-view mirror to see if the
guys behind were paying attention, and thought I was communicating to Wal -
something useful about the crazy idiot I had seen, all 4 wheels locked up and
screaming into the back of us at about 70 mph. I tried to get into the middle
lane (away from him) but he caught us, smashed us across the middle lane - into
the front wheel of a big petrol tanker that was just about stationary, we
pirouetted around the front of him and went spinning across the hard-shoulder
and up the grass banking. The 5th door flew open and all our course material
flew across the motorway. We came to rest and had to climb out of the windows,
because the doors wouldn't open. Wal informed me - that I had imparted nothing
of any value to him... my only utterance being ..."OOooooohhh... I don't like
this..." | | 3-Apr-78 | 1-Apr-81 | VW Scirocco - gold
- sorry - don't know where I got this pic from..
- very good car - even with 3 adults and 2 small children - all the way from
Northern Germany to Tuscany - very cramped!! | | 3-Apr-78 | 1-Oct-89 | VW Beetle - White - 1303 - kept this for years - very good
car - had it resprayed red in remembrance of 977 TKL - sold it for ?10 |
| 1-Apr-81 | 17-Dec-89 | BMW 320 - Charcoal Grey
thanks to http://www.auto.ee/autotest/autod/bmw_320i.html
bought this new in Brussels - cost there was about ?4,500, taxes at Dover
were ?1,500 (rip off!!) - but to buy one new in England at that time would have
cost ?9,000 - saved ?3,000!! Very good - exciting car. | | 1-Oct-89 | 1-May-91 | Citroen BX - Grey
thanks to http://bxhomepage.tripod.com/frame_bxpages.html
- goodish car - liked the ride and functionality (5 doors) - but underpowered
(1300cc) | | 20-Apr-91 | 1-Mar-95 | Renault 25 - Dark Brown
thanks to http://www.hut.fi/~minoru/renault/gen_gallery/niall-baccara/pages/baccara2.htm
RLK 776L - excellent luxurious car - 2.9 litre, automatic, 5 doors, great
radio/hi-fi trips to Meribel, Spain/Monte Carlo, Italy/Austria |
| | That's it... living in Hong Kong and Singapore - don't
need a car - and positively avoid owning one - because of costs... we'll see
what happens in Philippines..... | | | |
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