Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,553
Club RR Member Number: 33
|
|
Jul 22, 2018 18:27:27 GMT
|
Myself and v8devon were ruminating on this very subject at Classics & Coffee in Redditch this morning.
A point amply demonstrated by the sight of, amidst the M-Power BMWs, Lamborghinis, modified Minis, Skylines, the two of us poring over a scruffy but solid '94 Mondeo V6 with a dinged wheelarch and a cracked back bumper. 😁
|
|
|
|
|
Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,553
Club RR Member Number: 33
|
A classic mini.Brian Damaged
@damaged
Club Retro Rides Member 33
|
Sept 17, 2017 13:43:39 GMT
|
I thought a j on a suffix style plate was 69? Maybe its just had the plate transferred. Love the twin tanks J-plate runs from 1/8/70 to 31/7/71......
|
|
|
|
Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,553
Club RR Member Number: 33
|
|
Sept 16, 2017 11:42:30 GMT
|
That looks lovely. I've had three BXs in the past (all diesel, though) and they are subliminally comfortable with fantastic handling.
|
|
|
|
Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,553
Club RR Member Number: 33
|
|
|
Two out of the three Citroen BX's I have owned were high-mile (190k and 220k), when I was younger I had a Volvo 360GLT which had 212k on it when it threw a rod through the block at about 90mph on the M1. Current 1800 Mondeo daily not even run in at 93k!
|
|
|
|
Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,553
Club RR Member Number: 33
|
|
Aug 14, 2017 15:57:48 GMT
|
I bought this in 1987. Picked it up on the night of The Hurricane That Wasn't. One owner from new, with a year's MOT, about 75k on it and a wad of bills two inches thick. It was a 1600E so had mechanical fuel injection, and had been specced with a few extras like a pukka Kamei luggage rack under the dash. The old chap was 80-odd and having to give up driving because of failing eyesight. I gave him £200. Yes, really. I'd love to say that I treated it with kid gloves, but it was just another banger back then. It survived being ragged up the strip at what became Shakey, lived on after having a wiring fire at 85mph on the M6 near Manchester, and even lived to tell the tale after one drunken night in the winter of 1987/88 when it got thrown over a hump-backed bridge in the snow, sideways six-up on the way back from a riotous night out in Birmingham. I don't think I've ever owned a car that would get the a**e-end out so readily as that thing did (and that's from someone who's owned three Volvo 360GLTs). Immense fun. I had it about a year before punting it off for £400 to a local lad, it was still around in Brum well into the nineties, last I saw of it in about 1993 it was de-bumpered, on the deck in primer with Beetle GT Rostyles on it.
|
|
|
|
Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,553
Club RR Member Number: 33
|
|
|
It was par for the course. Late Sixties and Seventies stuff was damn near worthless back then, mileages over 100k were almost unheard of as most stuff was knackered by the time it had notched up 70k.....if it had survived the tinworm. Us older peeps who were young then had phrases like 'Once afford a Ford, never afford another' and 'Forty fousand Ford' ie after 40k it was a probable goner. BLMC were no better, neither was Vauaxhall and don't get me started on French and Italian cars of the period Too true. Pops' pride and joy in 1970/71 was an immaculate-looking '65 Corsair in Monza Red with a black vinyl roof...in 1971 we were on holiday in Devon when a bloke in a PA Cresta pulled out of a side turning and walloped the drivers' side front corner (you never forget your first accident...I was six years old but remember it like it was yesterday). When we got home Dad took it to the local Ford dealer to get an estimate for the repair, while they'd got it up on ramps he went underneath it......both inner sills had been repaired with chicken wire, cardboard and filler. When he'd bought it it wasn't even five years old. I remember that once he'd had a new front wing/bumper/front apron and grille on it, it was hastily punted off in favour of a Mk3 Zodiac of similar vintage. Much more like it, apart from its' propensity to break rear springs (which was a common problem on Mk3's apparently).
|
|
|
|
Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,553
Club RR Member Number: 33
|
|
|
I once bought a rusty 1100l Mk1 Escort from a guy in Burger King car park for £50 with MOT/Tax. (Same colour as below) I put it through the car wash there and drove it 1 mile to put fuel in it. After I had put £5 the guy at the pumps next to me asked 'Nice car mate, wanna sell it for £200 cash' I told him "£210 mate and a lift home' and he near snapped my hand off! I spent the £200 on an Audi 80 Sport which was a damn nice car back then for an 18yr old. I remember doing similar, I bought a 1300 Marina Coupe out of the local auction (NFC51M......funny how you remember things) for £50, ran it round the block to discover the engine smoked like Chernobyl and sounded like someone dropping a bag of crankshafts down a stairwell. It was really tidy, as I drove into the car park a bloke came running over, offered me £60, we settled on £65....I got out of there before he had chance to test drive it. The One That Got Away was the metallic blue/primer RHD '67 Chevy Impala I found on a council estate one afternoon in 1985. Sidepipes, jacked rear, Appliance five-spokes all round, 327 in it. MOTd but scruffy but the interior was immaculate metallic blue vinyl, the kid wanted £425 but the 10mpg put me off. Ive still got marks on my shins from the times I've kicked myself for not buying it, because I'm 53 in a couple of months' time and I know a 60s Yank is now out of reach for me.
|
|
|
|
Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,553
Club RR Member Number: 33
|
|
|
That brings back some memories. I passed my driving test that summer, and celebrated by buying a 1967 Triumph 2000 Mk1 with a year's MOT and just 55k from new for £110. That wasn't a standout bargain at that time particularly, although it sounds absurdly cheap now. Average wages (if you were lucky enough to actually have a job, Thatcherism was in full bloom back then) were about £65 a week.......I've still got my first wage slip from my first full-time job and 40 hours in the Parts Department of my local Ford dealer in October 1983 earned me a whopping £61. A gallon of four-star (unleaded petrol was just a twinkle in the eye of the industry back then) would set you back about £1.40 (about 30p a litre), 20 Bensons would set you back just over a quid and a pint of lager would relieve you of about 70p. So it was all relative, if you bear in mind that the average wage now is about eight times that much (2017 average: £26,500pa), petrol and a pint are cheaper in real terms, only ciggies have kept pace. An average three-bed semi around here would have cost you £18k back then, as opposed to £200k now. It was par for the course. Late Sixties and Seventies stuff was damn near worthless back then, mileages over 100k were almost unheard of as most stuff was knackered by the time it had notched up 70k.....if it had survived the tinworm. 'They don't make them like they used to' is absolute balderdash, my mum ran a procession of late 60s Fords in the early-mid 70s and most of them were as rotten as a pear by the time they were five or six years old. Fords were probably worst of all in that respect, along with the majority of early Japanese tin. Seventies British Leyland products were a bit better rust-wise (although their 1960s output was shocking). If you knew what you were buying, you could sound out a reasonable Marina or Mini for next to no dollar. I remember buying and selling a few cars back in the early 80s, we were lucky in that we had a local car auction where you could pick up a real bargain if you were savvy. I paid £45 in 1986 for a tidy '71 Mini Clubman from my local auction which I ran daily for six months before banging it back through there with a bit of rattle can TLC (and the bulb removed from the flickering oil pressure warning light....LOL) for £110. Or the £40 V-plated Princess 2000HL with 65k on it that failed its MOT a couple of months later on a driveshaft gaiter. That was it. Things haven't really changed that much. It's just the number of zero's.
|
|
|
|
Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,553
Club RR Member Number: 33
|
|
|
A686 from Melmerby up to the café at Hartside Top. There's a reason why it's crawling with bikes on any weekend.......
|
|
|
|
Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,553
Club RR Member Number: 33
|
|
Sept 26, 2016 19:09:11 GMT
|
White Scirocco lives at the top of my road in Bromsgrove. Don't think the owner's had it long. Likewise the 'Japlife' crew, half a dozen examples of 90s J-Tin live at the same house round the corner, all wearing the same window graphic.
Nice turnout!
|
|
|
|
Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,553
Club RR Member Number: 33
|
Old F*rts ThreadBrian Damaged
@damaged
Club Retro Rides Member 33
|
Sept 25, 2016 18:17:50 GMT
|
52 next month.
Dad was an enthusiastic (usually) tinkerer when I was a nipper, and had a network of petrolhead mates. Most of which seemed to gravitate towards our driveway of a Sunday morning, chain-smoking, drinking tea and indulging in 1970s petrolhead banter. Certainly that's what made me take an interest in cars.
Nice to know things don't change!
|
|
|
|
Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,553
Club RR Member Number: 33
|
|
Sept 16, 2016 20:53:48 GMT
|
Great to see one that hasn't been seemingly smothered in glue and driven through Motorworld at 60mph!
Like what you've done there, m'lad.
|
|
|
|
Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,553
Club RR Member Number: 33
|
|
Sept 10, 2016 11:02:21 GMT
|
Driver's door window is a cheap fix, the wiring harness that passes through the door gets brittle/crispy with age. Common problem on 90s PSA stuff.
|
|
|
|
Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,553
Club RR Member Number: 33
|
|
Aug 28, 2016 16:05:22 GMT
|
All the organisers will be at the show . I'm sure they have worked very hard to organise it and its nit really there fault is it ? I think they deserve to be enjoying it , not keeping track on here whilst the actual show is going on . Plus the net access at Shelsley (assuming they had time to answer, which I very much doubt) is sketchy at best. Just a simple check of the event website or even one of the threads on here would have told you all you needed to know. £10 advance, £15 on the gate.
|
|
|
|
|
Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,553
Club RR Member Number: 33
|
|
|
That^^^ is exactly the same s the one I had in the 70s. Being a Mk1 it had a proper gearknob instead of the Mk2's T-handle which meant you could change it (I had a wooden Jaguar one on mine, pilfered from a local scrapyard). Also Mk1s had a non-welded handlebar clamp so you could pull the bars back, sit on the seat back and pop awesome wheelies as you chased down the Specky kids doing their Cycling Proficiency Test. Or if you hit something too hard, your inertia would push them forward as you flew gracelessly through the air upside down, landing on the bonnet of your neighbour's Vauxhall Victor 101. None of which never happened to me. Ever.
|
|
|
|
Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,553
Club RR Member Number: 33
|
|
Jan 12, 2016 17:56:02 GMT
|
Mine. '95 XRDT Ph1 (Bosch pump). Bought off here almost two years ago for £350, have taken it from 140k to 158k since then and apart from a radiator/cam belt/water pump (all precautionary) all it's needed is service items. Does 175m a week commuting, and anything up to another 100-odd on a weekend either filled with either rally marshals or football supporters (depending what I'm doing). And dogs. Does 50mpg no matter how hard you drive it (and I don't hang about). Was going to replace it this year but I just can't find anything as good, so it's staying. Brilliant, brilliant car.
|
|
|
|
Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,553
Club RR Member Number: 33
|
|
|
GM Dealer Sport ran a fleet of LWB CF vans in the 1970s in that livery as race/rally service barges. I think they were built/operated by Blydenstein, and later ones featured 2.6 litre stroker conversions of the existing 2279cc Vauxhall slant fours.
|
|
|
|
Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,553
Club RR Member Number: 33
|
|
Nov 15, 2015 15:33:37 GMT
|
Awesomesauce!!! My pops had a couple of Autosleeper PBs, if you can find a diff from a Humber Hawk or an overdrive box from a Hunter you may well find that you can eke a few more MPH out of it.
SO rare now, and when I was a lad they were literally everywhere.
|
|
|
|
Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,553
Club RR Member Number: 33
|
|
|
Gti steering wheel will make the steering very heavy (trust me, I've made the same istake), especially with big tyres on. That XUD is a hefty old lump of pig iron!!
|
|
|
|
|